DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.15096#0041
24
Nereides accompanies them, and seems to belong to the group.
No deities would give greater weight to his pretensions, or be more
appropriately placed here.
The two following personages have no characteristic marks to
define their significations. They may be Mars and Vesta, or the
Cephisus and the Callirhoe.
The metopes of the western frize, with the exception of the
seventh and eighth, which have been restored in order to complete
the representation of this frontispiece, are sufficiently preserved
to explain their original intention; they represent combatants,
alternately equestrian, and on foot, and probably related to the
warlike exploits of the Athenians in the heroic ages, since no re-
corded action can be distinguished; and the inferiority of these
subjects affords a further proof, if indeed any other were necessary,
that the west was the back of the temple.
The ninth and fourteenth represent combats of the Greeks with
Amazons, over whom they triumph. Of the equestrian subjects,
the first, third, and sixth are remarkable for their spirit and beauty.
On this architrave the golden shields were suspended over each
column only : nor are there any traces here of inscriptions, as in
the eastern architrave.
The aerol or pediments, in which the Greeks delighted to display
those great mythological and historical representations so interest-
ing to their religious and patriotic feelings, formed an essential part
of the whole design of the temple. The sculptures of the pedi-
ments bore at least an equal degree of importance with the archi-
tecture, which was indeed the frame and vehicle of these surprizing
works, and in some degree subservient to them; since we find
generally, and particularly in this instance of the Parthenon, that
the sculptor had the leading influence in the superintendence and
design.
It was not from the extent and bulk of the whole edifice, as
among the moderns, that the architecture of the Greeks derived
/
Nereides accompanies them, and seems to belong to the group.
No deities would give greater weight to his pretensions, or be more
appropriately placed here.
The two following personages have no characteristic marks to
define their significations. They may be Mars and Vesta, or the
Cephisus and the Callirhoe.
The metopes of the western frize, with the exception of the
seventh and eighth, which have been restored in order to complete
the representation of this frontispiece, are sufficiently preserved
to explain their original intention; they represent combatants,
alternately equestrian, and on foot, and probably related to the
warlike exploits of the Athenians in the heroic ages, since no re-
corded action can be distinguished; and the inferiority of these
subjects affords a further proof, if indeed any other were necessary,
that the west was the back of the temple.
The ninth and fourteenth represent combats of the Greeks with
Amazons, over whom they triumph. Of the equestrian subjects,
the first, third, and sixth are remarkable for their spirit and beauty.
On this architrave the golden shields were suspended over each
column only : nor are there any traces here of inscriptions, as in
the eastern architrave.
The aerol or pediments, in which the Greeks delighted to display
those great mythological and historical representations so interest-
ing to their religious and patriotic feelings, formed an essential part
of the whole design of the temple. The sculptures of the pedi-
ments bore at least an equal degree of importance with the archi-
tecture, which was indeed the frame and vehicle of these surprizing
works, and in some degree subservient to them; since we find
generally, and particularly in this instance of the Parthenon, that
the sculptor had the leading influence in the superintendence and
design.
It was not from the extent and bulk of the whole edifice, as
among the moderns, that the architecture of the Greeks derived
/