DOI Artikel:
Waldstein, Charles: The newly discovered head of Iris from the frieze of the Parthenon
DOI Seite / Zitierlink: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.8678#0177
THE NEWLY DISCOVERED HEAD OF IRIS FROM
THE FRIEZE OF THE PARTHENON.
[Plate XII.]
In the successful excavations that have been carried on during the
last few years on the Akropolis at Athens, now brought to a close, the
closing days were peculiarly fortunate for the excavators. I must refer
the readers to the AeXriov for an account of these excavations; but I
wish to publish one discovery which may perhaps be considered the
crowning event in this series of fortunate finds, though it merely con-
sists of a fragment of marble not more than a foot in size. It will be
shown in the following remarks—it is to be hoped, conclusively—
that the fragment is a most interesting portion of the Frieze of the
Parthenon.
"As is well known, the Frieze of the Parthenon formed a continu-
ous band of sculpture in low relief which ran round the outer wall of
the cella, with its two smaller halls in front and back, the pronaos and
the tamieion. Like every peripteric temple, the rectangular temple
proper, with its halls closed in by walls on all sides, was surrounded by
a colonnade which supported the roof and projected over the walls of
the actual temple. The distance from the walls to the columns (ex-
clusive of these) varies from 2.96 to 3.57 m. (9.7 to 11.7 ft.). This
space was paved with white marble and afforded shady walks to the
visitors to the Akropolis. The plain wall is bounded above by a
slightly projecting band (raivia) under which arc small blocks, called
by Vitruvius regulae, which in the Doric order to which the temple
belongs would lead us to expect above them the triglyphon, a frieze
subdivided by metopes [fxeTOTral, metopae) and triglyphs (rp[y\.v<}>ot).
Instead of this triglyphon, however, we here have a continuous frieze
(^co(j}opo?, Sidfafia) which ran round the four sides of this outer wall
like a belt, or rather like a band uniting its two ends on the forehead
of a victor. It was 11.9 m. (:-,9 ft.) above the pavement of the colon-
nade, and above it a painted ornamentation after the manner of a cor-
162
THE FRIEZE OF THE PARTHENON.
[Plate XII.]
In the successful excavations that have been carried on during the
last few years on the Akropolis at Athens, now brought to a close, the
closing days were peculiarly fortunate for the excavators. I must refer
the readers to the AeXriov for an account of these excavations; but I
wish to publish one discovery which may perhaps be considered the
crowning event in this series of fortunate finds, though it merely con-
sists of a fragment of marble not more than a foot in size. It will be
shown in the following remarks—it is to be hoped, conclusively—
that the fragment is a most interesting portion of the Frieze of the
Parthenon.
"As is well known, the Frieze of the Parthenon formed a continu-
ous band of sculpture in low relief which ran round the outer wall of
the cella, with its two smaller halls in front and back, the pronaos and
the tamieion. Like every peripteric temple, the rectangular temple
proper, with its halls closed in by walls on all sides, was surrounded by
a colonnade which supported the roof and projected over the walls of
the actual temple. The distance from the walls to the columns (ex-
clusive of these) varies from 2.96 to 3.57 m. (9.7 to 11.7 ft.). This
space was paved with white marble and afforded shady walks to the
visitors to the Akropolis. The plain wall is bounded above by a
slightly projecting band (raivia) under which arc small blocks, called
by Vitruvius regulae, which in the Doric order to which the temple
belongs would lead us to expect above them the triglyphon, a frieze
subdivided by metopes [fxeTOTral, metopae) and triglyphs (rp[y\.v<}>ot).
Instead of this triglyphon, however, we here have a continuous frieze
(^co(j}opo?, Sidfafia) which ran round the four sides of this outer wall
like a belt, or rather like a band uniting its two ends on the forehead
of a victor. It was 11.9 m. (:-,9 ft.) above the pavement of the colon-
nade, and above it a painted ornamentation after the manner of a cor-
162