DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.15098#0031
23
PLATE I.
[ Length of this portion of slab, 7 f. 6. Old No. 1/. New No. 18. ]
If we consider the whole Frieze as one long picture, we must
look for the most interesting portion, the scene of the main
action, the great feature which gives character and consistency to
the whole composition, the aim and object to which every part is
tending, and to which every eye is directed, to the groups which
are sculptured over the great eastern portico, the grand entrance
to the temple. Here we see, assembled and seated upon twelve
chairs, Deities or personages distinguished from all others by the
greater dimensions of their figures ; a mode of indicating beings of
a superior order very usually practised in the sculptured composi-
tions of the ancients. These figures are arranged in pairs, six on
one side, and six on the other, of a group of standing figures, who,
from their position exactly in the centre of this end of the
building, and also in the centre of these assembled Divinities, we
cannot but suppose must be engaged in the principal action of the
whole piece. Leaving the consideration of the central group for
the present, we will endeavour to ascertain who are the illustrious
personages in whose more immediate presence the chief action in
the picture appears to be performed; and here we have great
difficulties to encounter, arising from a want of sufficient informa-
tion respecting the details of Athenian mythology, and from the
present imperfect state of the sculptures. Were we well ac-
quainted with all the peculiarities of the worship of the Athenians,
or even those connected with the ceremonials of the Panathenaic
festival, it would be no difficult matter to conjecture, with a
reasonable expectation of correctness, what Divinities or heroic
personages would be assembled upon this memorable occasion ; or
PLATE I.
[ Length of this portion of slab, 7 f. 6. Old No. 1/. New No. 18. ]
If we consider the whole Frieze as one long picture, we must
look for the most interesting portion, the scene of the main
action, the great feature which gives character and consistency to
the whole composition, the aim and object to which every part is
tending, and to which every eye is directed, to the groups which
are sculptured over the great eastern portico, the grand entrance
to the temple. Here we see, assembled and seated upon twelve
chairs, Deities or personages distinguished from all others by the
greater dimensions of their figures ; a mode of indicating beings of
a superior order very usually practised in the sculptured composi-
tions of the ancients. These figures are arranged in pairs, six on
one side, and six on the other, of a group of standing figures, who,
from their position exactly in the centre of this end of the
building, and also in the centre of these assembled Divinities, we
cannot but suppose must be engaged in the principal action of the
whole piece. Leaving the consideration of the central group for
the present, we will endeavour to ascertain who are the illustrious
personages in whose more immediate presence the chief action in
the picture appears to be performed; and here we have great
difficulties to encounter, arising from a want of sufficient informa-
tion respecting the details of Athenian mythology, and from the
present imperfect state of the sculptures. Were we well ac-
quainted with all the peculiarities of the worship of the Athenians,
or even those connected with the ceremonials of the Panathenaic
festival, it would be no difficult matter to conjecture, with a
reasonable expectation of correctness, what Divinities or heroic
personages would be assembled upon this memorable occasion ; or