DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.15099#0061
43
come the other, has thrown him to the ground, and is pressing
him down by placing his left foot upon his body to prevent him
from recovering himself, while he raises his right hand to inflict
the last deadly blow. The victorious warrior has lost the left leg,
the right knee, and both arms, and the head and body have suf-
fered much damage ; there is no appearance of a weapon ; he
wears the chlamys, the fluttering of which shews the energy and
activity of his movements. The fallen combatant seems also to
have been clothed in the chlamys only, folded round his arm as
a defence instead of a shield, which does not appear to have
been borne by either of the parties composing this group, though
all the other persons upon the slab who are actually engaged seem
to have been provided with this article of defence. The prostrate
figures may be supposed to have lost theirs, or to have been
stripped of them with the rest of their arms. Behind is the trunk
of a tree, to which is affixed a large round shield. This object
has attracted much attention, and has given occasion to various
conjectures, which unfortunately have not carried conviction, or
been deemed at all satisfactory. Because Demetrius and Ptolemy,
in their memorable sea-fight off Cyprus, in the year A. C. 306,
displayed each a shield as a signal to engage, it has been con-
jectured that such was a common practice in Greece, and that
the object we here see upon the frieze is no other than the
Grecian signal to commence the combat. Dr. Ross seems to have
supposed that such an object suspended to a mast was usual in
naval warfare, that it was therefore probably adopted by the
artist to indicate a naval engagement, where the actual intro-
duction of ships appeared to him inconvenient and unsightly,
and that this side of the frieze was consequently intended to repre-
sent the sea-fight at the Eurymedon. In the frieze of the temple
of Apollo Epicurius near Phigalia, in the midst of the battle be-
tween the Centaurs and Lapithae, is seen a tree, to which is sus-
pended the skin of a lion ; and, as the action was sudden and
come the other, has thrown him to the ground, and is pressing
him down by placing his left foot upon his body to prevent him
from recovering himself, while he raises his right hand to inflict
the last deadly blow. The victorious warrior has lost the left leg,
the right knee, and both arms, and the head and body have suf-
fered much damage ; there is no appearance of a weapon ; he
wears the chlamys, the fluttering of which shews the energy and
activity of his movements. The fallen combatant seems also to
have been clothed in the chlamys only, folded round his arm as
a defence instead of a shield, which does not appear to have
been borne by either of the parties composing this group, though
all the other persons upon the slab who are actually engaged seem
to have been provided with this article of defence. The prostrate
figures may be supposed to have lost theirs, or to have been
stripped of them with the rest of their arms. Behind is the trunk
of a tree, to which is affixed a large round shield. This object
has attracted much attention, and has given occasion to various
conjectures, which unfortunately have not carried conviction, or
been deemed at all satisfactory. Because Demetrius and Ptolemy,
in their memorable sea-fight off Cyprus, in the year A. C. 306,
displayed each a shield as a signal to engage, it has been con-
jectured that such was a common practice in Greece, and that
the object we here see upon the frieze is no other than the
Grecian signal to commence the combat. Dr. Ross seems to have
supposed that such an object suspended to a mast was usual in
naval warfare, that it was therefore probably adopted by the
artist to indicate a naval engagement, where the actual intro-
duction of ships appeared to him inconvenient and unsightly,
and that this side of the frieze was consequently intended to repre-
sent the sea-fight at the Eurymedon. In the frieze of the temple
of Apollo Epicurius near Phigalia, in the midst of the battle be-
tween the Centaurs and Lapithae, is seen a tree, to which is sus-
pended the skin of a lion ; and, as the action was sudden and