Papers of the American School of Classical Studies at Athens (6.1890-1897 (1897))

THE FRIEZE OF THE CHORAGIC MONUMENT OF
LYSICRATES AT ATHENS.1

[Plates XXII, XXIII.]

The small circular Corinthian edifice, called among the common
people the Lantern of Diogenes,2 and erected, as we know from
the inscription3 on the architrave, to commemorate a choragic
victory won by Lysicrates, son of Lysithides, with a boy-chorus
of the tribe Acamantis, in the archonship of Evrenetus (b. c. 335/4),
has long been one of the most familiar of the lesser remains ot
ancient Athens. The monument was originally crowned by the
tripod which was the prize of the successful chorus, and it doubtless
was one of many buildings of similar character along the famous
" Street of Tripods."4 It is the aim of this paper to show, that the
earliest publications of the sculptured reliefs on this monument
have given a faulty representation of them, owing to the trans-
position of two sets of figures; that this mistake has been repeated
in most subsequent publications down to our day; that inferences
deduced therefrom have in so far been vitiated; and that new
instructive facts concerning Greek composition in sculpture can
be derived from a corrected rendering of the original.

Although we are not now concerned either with the subsequent
fortunes of the monument and the story of its preservation, or
with its architectural features and the various attempts which

1 It is a pleasure to acknowledge my obligations to the Director of the School, Dr.
Waldstein, who has kindly assisted me in the preparation of this paper by personal
suggestions.

2 This does not exclude the tolerably well-attested fact, that the name " Lantern
of Diogenes " formerly belonged to another similar building near by, which had dis-
appeared by 1676. ' G. L &. til. * Of. P4,us., i, 20, 1.