DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.15098#0111
87
From Dionysius of Halicarnassns we receive information of
another custom which prevailed at these festivals ; for he says, that,
after the conclusion of the horse races, the persons, whom
the poets call irapa^drai, but the Athenians cnzofiarai, leapt down
from the chariots and ran a race in the Stadium.4 A Panathenaic
vase in the collection of the Prince of Canino illustrates this pas-
sage, by presenting to us a foot race by four persons in armour;
who, it will be readily acknowledged, must represent the Apobatse
mentioned by Dionysius. The scholiast on Aristophanes seems to
give the name of Parabates to the driver, as he says that Theseus
ordered an armed warrior to ascend the chariot with such a person ;
but as all other authorities apply the word to the warrior, and not
to the driver, we must suppose the scholiast to have been mistaken
in the name. This slab has been very well executed, and the
motive intelligibly and forcibly expressed ; the figure of the magis-
trate is noble, his attitude commanding, the action dignified,
authoritative, and expressive. In Carrey's time the whole group
was nearly perfect; but at that of Stuart's visit it was nearly in
the state in which we now see it; whatever appears in his plate
more than in ours, was probably conjectural.
The succeeding chariot, according to Carrey's drawings, for the
marble no longer exists, contained a charioteer and an armed
warrior, such as we have described, and at the side of the horses
stands an officer giving them directions; there is much spirit in
this group, but less vehement action than in the preceding.
4 Vol. iii. p. 1499, ed. Reiske.
From Dionysius of Halicarnassns we receive information of
another custom which prevailed at these festivals ; for he says, that,
after the conclusion of the horse races, the persons, whom
the poets call irapa^drai, but the Athenians cnzofiarai, leapt down
from the chariots and ran a race in the Stadium.4 A Panathenaic
vase in the collection of the Prince of Canino illustrates this pas-
sage, by presenting to us a foot race by four persons in armour;
who, it will be readily acknowledged, must represent the Apobatse
mentioned by Dionysius. The scholiast on Aristophanes seems to
give the name of Parabates to the driver, as he says that Theseus
ordered an armed warrior to ascend the chariot with such a person ;
but as all other authorities apply the word to the warrior, and not
to the driver, we must suppose the scholiast to have been mistaken
in the name. This slab has been very well executed, and the
motive intelligibly and forcibly expressed ; the figure of the magis-
trate is noble, his attitude commanding, the action dignified,
authoritative, and expressive. In Carrey's time the whole group
was nearly perfect; but at that of Stuart's visit it was nearly in
the state in which we now see it; whatever appears in his plate
more than in ours, was probably conjectural.
The succeeding chariot, according to Carrey's drawings, for the
marble no longer exists, contained a charioteer and an armed
warrior, such as we have described, and at the side of the horses
stands an officer giving them directions; there is much spirit in
this group, but less vehement action than in the preceding.
4 Vol. iii. p. 1499, ed. Reiske.