DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.14134#0011
In the years 1801-3 the sculptures of the Parthenon
here described were removed to England by the Earl of
Elgin, then British Ambassador at Constantinople, who
obtained a firman from the Porte for that object. The
Elgin collection, which includes some additional marbles
acquired after 1803, was purchased from Lord Elgin by the
British Government in 1816 for £35,000. The sculptures
and architecture of the Parthenon have been described and
illustrated by various writers. An excellent digest of
those memoirs up to the year 1871 is to be found in the
work of Michaelis, Der Parthenon (Leipzig, 1871), to which
constant reference is made in this Guide.
EASTERN PEDIMENT OF THE PARTHENON.
We know from Pausanias (I, 24, 5) that the subject of
the composition in the eastern pediment had relation to
the Birth of Athene from the brain of Zeus, but, as all
the central part of this composition was already destroyed
when Carrey made his drawing of the pediment, we have
no means of ascertaining how the subject was treated;
whether the moment immediately after the Birth was
represented, as has been generally supposed, or as has
been also suggested, the moment immediately before the
Birth. Of the figures which still remain, none have been
so satisfactorily identified as those in the angles of the
pediment.
[A.] Helios.-—There can be no doubt that this figure
in the left angle of the pediment is the Sun God, Helios,
rising from the Ocean, and that the corresponding figure
(N) in the opposite angle is Selene in her car. These
two figures may be interpreted as marking the boundaries
of Olympos, the abode of the gods, and the scene in which
the Genesis took place; or they may be regarded as
symbols of the three Kosmic elements, air, earth and sea.
It has also been suggested that they indicate the hour in
b 2
here described were removed to England by the Earl of
Elgin, then British Ambassador at Constantinople, who
obtained a firman from the Porte for that object. The
Elgin collection, which includes some additional marbles
acquired after 1803, was purchased from Lord Elgin by the
British Government in 1816 for £35,000. The sculptures
and architecture of the Parthenon have been described and
illustrated by various writers. An excellent digest of
those memoirs up to the year 1871 is to be found in the
work of Michaelis, Der Parthenon (Leipzig, 1871), to which
constant reference is made in this Guide.
EASTERN PEDIMENT OF THE PARTHENON.
We know from Pausanias (I, 24, 5) that the subject of
the composition in the eastern pediment had relation to
the Birth of Athene from the brain of Zeus, but, as all
the central part of this composition was already destroyed
when Carrey made his drawing of the pediment, we have
no means of ascertaining how the subject was treated;
whether the moment immediately after the Birth was
represented, as has been generally supposed, or as has
been also suggested, the moment immediately before the
Birth. Of the figures which still remain, none have been
so satisfactorily identified as those in the angles of the
pediment.
[A.] Helios.-—There can be no doubt that this figure
in the left angle of the pediment is the Sun God, Helios,
rising from the Ocean, and that the corresponding figure
(N) in the opposite angle is Selene in her car. These
two figures may be interpreted as marking the boundaries
of Olympos, the abode of the gods, and the scene in which
the Genesis took place; or they may be regarded as
symbols of the three Kosmic elements, air, earth and sea.
It has also been suggested that they indicate the hour in
b 2