DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.800#0420
anoups of the western pediment. 397
elegance and simplicity of which cannot be denied." ' But later critics
have discovered some fatal objections to it. First, contrary to the
authority of Pausanias, it assumes the actual birth of Athena. Secondly,
the Mcerse and other genethliac deities attending the birth of mortals
are not appropriate to that of a goddess.2 A third and still more fatal
objection, founded upon considerations of art, and indeed of technical
art, has been advanced by M. Beule.3 The principal divinities in the
middle of the pediments, as we see by the drawing of the western one,
were larger than the figures at the sides; and we cannot, therefore,
assign to Zeus a less stature than 11 or 12 feet, like the figure of
Poseidon in the western pediment.4 It is admitted that Zeus may have
been seated ; but persons in that position lose only a third of their height,
and something must be allowed for the throne and footstool. The space
above his head, therefore, would not have admitted a figure above three
feet long, which would have had a most absurd appearance among the
surrounding deities of colossal size. The conception, moreover, is
contrary to the myth; for Athena had no childhood, but sprang in
complete perfection from her father's head. Add the technical difficulty
of making a statue hover in the air over the head of another. Such a
thing would have been possible only in a bas-relief or a painting.
The names given by Brondsted to the subordinate figures are as
fanciful as his idea of the main group. Different appellations have
been assigned to them by other critics and antiquaries, but for the most
part they are probably no better founded. The noble recumbent figure
next to the horses of the Sun, which has been called Theseus, Pan, and
Bacchus, was designated by Visconti the elder Heracles, by Brond-
sted, Cephalus, and by "Welcker, Cecrops. The three female figures
that follow were thought by Visconti to be Proserpine, Demeter, and
Iris, while Brondsted took them to be the Horae, and Welcker, Thallo,
Auxo, and Oreithyia. At the opposite angle the three females whom
1 Topography, &c, vol. i. p. 538. * The extreme height of the pediments
2 See Welcker, in the Classical Museum, at their apex is lift. Gin. See Stuart's
vol. ii. p. 376 sqq. Athens, vol. ii. ch. 1, plate 3.
L'Acropole, t. ii. p. 63 sq.
elegance and simplicity of which cannot be denied." ' But later critics
have discovered some fatal objections to it. First, contrary to the
authority of Pausanias, it assumes the actual birth of Athena. Secondly,
the Mcerse and other genethliac deities attending the birth of mortals
are not appropriate to that of a goddess.2 A third and still more fatal
objection, founded upon considerations of art, and indeed of technical
art, has been advanced by M. Beule.3 The principal divinities in the
middle of the pediments, as we see by the drawing of the western one,
were larger than the figures at the sides; and we cannot, therefore,
assign to Zeus a less stature than 11 or 12 feet, like the figure of
Poseidon in the western pediment.4 It is admitted that Zeus may have
been seated ; but persons in that position lose only a third of their height,
and something must be allowed for the throne and footstool. The space
above his head, therefore, would not have admitted a figure above three
feet long, which would have had a most absurd appearance among the
surrounding deities of colossal size. The conception, moreover, is
contrary to the myth; for Athena had no childhood, but sprang in
complete perfection from her father's head. Add the technical difficulty
of making a statue hover in the air over the head of another. Such a
thing would have been possible only in a bas-relief or a painting.
The names given by Brondsted to the subordinate figures are as
fanciful as his idea of the main group. Different appellations have
been assigned to them by other critics and antiquaries, but for the most
part they are probably no better founded. The noble recumbent figure
next to the horses of the Sun, which has been called Theseus, Pan, and
Bacchus, was designated by Visconti the elder Heracles, by Brond-
sted, Cephalus, and by "Welcker, Cecrops. The three female figures
that follow were thought by Visconti to be Proserpine, Demeter, and
Iris, while Brondsted took them to be the Horae, and Welcker, Thallo,
Auxo, and Oreithyia. At the opposite angle the three females whom
1 Topography, &c, vol. i. p. 538. * The extreme height of the pediments
2 See Welcker, in the Classical Museum, at their apex is lift. Gin. See Stuart's
vol. ii. p. 376 sqq. Athens, vol. ii. ch. 1, plate 3.
L'Acropole, t. ii. p. 63 sq.