DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.748#0142
INVESTIGA TIONS A T ASSOS, 1881. 11 7
columniation, and has consequently been placed there. As
no other block known to have belonged to this front has been
found, this last scene has been reversed to fill out the epistyle.
During the excavations a number of plain metopes were met
with, and as only five sculptured metopes are known, — three
being in Paris, and two having been found by the present
Expedition, — it is probable that those upon the sides of the
temple were not ornamented with carvings.
The one complete metope relief (Plate 21) represents a man
pursuing a woman, — a time-honored subject, difficult to indi-
vidualize, which may, perhaps, from the analogy of the other
sculptures, be referred to the myth of Heracles. The female
figure is crowded helplessly into the side of the field ; her
arm must have touched the edge of the triglyph, which pro-
jected, from constructive reasons already considered, about
0.015 metre over the metope.
It is possible that the decoration was thrown thus out of
centre, by a diminution on one side of the width of the slab,
after the carving. The stones, sculptured in the workshops,
probably did not always fit exactly into the interstices left
between the triglyphs. In the planning of a frieze of many
blocks, the allowance for the joints is usually under-calculated,
especially in so coarse a material.
The fragmentary metope (Plate 22) shows two warriors in
combat, — the one of which the body has been preserved
drawing a short sword from a sheath held in his left hand.
His loins are girded with a cloth, — this being the only indica-
tion of drapery upon any of the reliefs, with the exception of
that of the female figures upon the relief in Paris, the struggle
of the hero and sea-monster.
The primitive clumsiness of these metopes, when compared
with the representations of the lion (Plate 18) and the sphinxes
(Plate 16), instructively illustrates the very different degrees of
columniation, and has consequently been placed there. As
no other block known to have belonged to this front has been
found, this last scene has been reversed to fill out the epistyle.
During the excavations a number of plain metopes were met
with, and as only five sculptured metopes are known, — three
being in Paris, and two having been found by the present
Expedition, — it is probable that those upon the sides of the
temple were not ornamented with carvings.
The one complete metope relief (Plate 21) represents a man
pursuing a woman, — a time-honored subject, difficult to indi-
vidualize, which may, perhaps, from the analogy of the other
sculptures, be referred to the myth of Heracles. The female
figure is crowded helplessly into the side of the field ; her
arm must have touched the edge of the triglyph, which pro-
jected, from constructive reasons already considered, about
0.015 metre over the metope.
It is possible that the decoration was thrown thus out of
centre, by a diminution on one side of the width of the slab,
after the carving. The stones, sculptured in the workshops,
probably did not always fit exactly into the interstices left
between the triglyphs. In the planning of a frieze of many
blocks, the allowance for the joints is usually under-calculated,
especially in so coarse a material.
The fragmentary metope (Plate 22) shows two warriors in
combat, — the one of which the body has been preserved
drawing a short sword from a sheath held in his left hand.
His loins are girded with a cloth, — this being the only indica-
tion of drapery upon any of the reliefs, with the exception of
that of the female figures upon the relief in Paris, the struggle
of the hero and sea-monster.
The primitive clumsiness of these metopes, when compared
with the representations of the lion (Plate 18) and the sphinxes
(Plate 16), instructively illustrates the very different degrees of