DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.14134#0055
46
The corresponding metopes on the East side of the
Parthenon remain on the building, but have all suffered
great injury. They appear to have represented scenes
from the Gigantomachia. (Michaelis, pi. 5, i.-xiv.)
PARTHENON FRIEZE.
The subject of the frieze of the Parthenon, according to
the best modern authorities, is the celebration of the
Panathenaic festival. Before describing how this celebra-
tion is represented in the frieze, it may be well to state
what facts respecting the festival have been handed down
to us by ancient authors. Its origin was ascribed in
antiquity to pre-historic times. Its mythic founder was
Erichthonios, the foster-son of the goddess Athene herself,
and the festival is said to have been afterwards renewed
by Theseus when he united all the Attic denies into one
city. The goddess in whose honour it was celebrated
was Athene Polias, the tutelary deity of the Athenian
Akropolis, where she was supposed to dwell in the " Old
Temple," and where her worship was associated with that
of Erechtheus, who dwelt under the same roof. The time
of its annual celebration was the last decade of the
month Hekatombaion, when, according to legend, the
birth of the goddess took place.
A solemn sacrifice, equestrian and gymnastic contests,
and the Pyrrhic dance, were all included in the ceremonial,
but its principal feature was the offering of a new veil,
pejylos, to the goddess on her birthday. This original
yearly festival was after a time celebrated in every fifth
year, with more splendour and solemnity, and the institu-
tion of this quinquennial Greater Panathenaia or Penteteris
is attributed to Peisistratos. Erom his time (b.c. 560-527)
dates the distinction between the Greater and the Lesser
Panathenaia. The sons of Peisistratos added a musical
contest of Ehapsodes, and these were amplified by Perikles,
The corresponding metopes on the East side of the
Parthenon remain on the building, but have all suffered
great injury. They appear to have represented scenes
from the Gigantomachia. (Michaelis, pi. 5, i.-xiv.)
PARTHENON FRIEZE.
The subject of the frieze of the Parthenon, according to
the best modern authorities, is the celebration of the
Panathenaic festival. Before describing how this celebra-
tion is represented in the frieze, it may be well to state
what facts respecting the festival have been handed down
to us by ancient authors. Its origin was ascribed in
antiquity to pre-historic times. Its mythic founder was
Erichthonios, the foster-son of the goddess Athene herself,
and the festival is said to have been afterwards renewed
by Theseus when he united all the Attic denies into one
city. The goddess in whose honour it was celebrated
was Athene Polias, the tutelary deity of the Athenian
Akropolis, where she was supposed to dwell in the " Old
Temple," and where her worship was associated with that
of Erechtheus, who dwelt under the same roof. The time
of its annual celebration was the last decade of the
month Hekatombaion, when, according to legend, the
birth of the goddess took place.
A solemn sacrifice, equestrian and gymnastic contests,
and the Pyrrhic dance, were all included in the ceremonial,
but its principal feature was the offering of a new veil,
pejylos, to the goddess on her birthday. This original
yearly festival was after a time celebrated in every fifth
year, with more splendour and solemnity, and the institu-
tion of this quinquennial Greater Panathenaia or Penteteris
is attributed to Peisistratos. Erom his time (b.c. 560-527)
dates the distinction between the Greater and the Lesser
Panathenaia. The sons of Peisistratos added a musical
contest of Ehapsodes, and these were amplified by Perikles,