DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.800#0426
OSOUPS OF THE WESTERN PEDIMENT. 403
preserved Athena's trust with regard to Erechtheus, became her original
priestess, and, along with Erechtheus, shared her temple.1 We have
thus accounted for all the figures except the recumbent one in the
northern angle. It is evidently a river god, and has been called Ilissus
by Visconti, De Quincy, Miiller, Millingen, and Welcker. But we agree
with Mr. Lloyd in calling it the Cephisus, as we have placed the Ilissus
on the other side of the pediment. Our reasons are, first: that to a
spectator looking at this western front the Ilissus would really be on
his right hand and the Cephisus on his left, as their images would also
appear in the pediment: secondly, the Cephisus, being near Eleusis,
would naturally be represented in the vicinity of Demeter and Core.
Professor Boss saw on the western pediment several marble frag-
ments of the stem of the olive-tree which Athena was reputed to have
created.2 Welcker had denied that any such fragments were to be
found,3 and Beule observes that it would be difficult to find a place for
the tree.4 In a fragment in the British Museum, alluded to in p. 388,
the stump of a tree is also seen between the remains of two feet in a
striding attitude; but this stump, as Welcker observes,6 must have
impinged upon the leg, and obviously only served as a support. We
think, however, that it cannot be doubted that the feet in question
belonged to the statue near the horses, which we have ascribed to
Cecrops. They are too small to have belonged to Poseidon, but would
have suited a statue eight or nine feet high, which would have been
about the height of one in that part of the pediment; and their position
agrees well enough with the attitude of the figure as represented in
Carrey's drawing. We shall only further remark about the pediments
that the ground of them appears to have been painted blue.
Such was the exterior of the temple. With regard to the interior,
we have already remarked that it was divided into two unequal portions,
1 Those two figures are the only ones There are casts of the figures in the
still remaining on the pediment, but they British Museum,
have now lost their heads. Might not this 2 Aufsiitze, B. ii. S. 282.
support the inference that they were not 3 Alte Denkmalcr, p. Ill, 119.
the original heads, but put on by Hadrian ? * L'Acropole, t. ii. p. 83.
He was quite barbarian enough to do it. 5 Class. Mus. vol. ii. p. 390.
2 d 2
preserved Athena's trust with regard to Erechtheus, became her original
priestess, and, along with Erechtheus, shared her temple.1 We have
thus accounted for all the figures except the recumbent one in the
northern angle. It is evidently a river god, and has been called Ilissus
by Visconti, De Quincy, Miiller, Millingen, and Welcker. But we agree
with Mr. Lloyd in calling it the Cephisus, as we have placed the Ilissus
on the other side of the pediment. Our reasons are, first: that to a
spectator looking at this western front the Ilissus would really be on
his right hand and the Cephisus on his left, as their images would also
appear in the pediment: secondly, the Cephisus, being near Eleusis,
would naturally be represented in the vicinity of Demeter and Core.
Professor Boss saw on the western pediment several marble frag-
ments of the stem of the olive-tree which Athena was reputed to have
created.2 Welcker had denied that any such fragments were to be
found,3 and Beule observes that it would be difficult to find a place for
the tree.4 In a fragment in the British Museum, alluded to in p. 388,
the stump of a tree is also seen between the remains of two feet in a
striding attitude; but this stump, as Welcker observes,6 must have
impinged upon the leg, and obviously only served as a support. We
think, however, that it cannot be doubted that the feet in question
belonged to the statue near the horses, which we have ascribed to
Cecrops. They are too small to have belonged to Poseidon, but would
have suited a statue eight or nine feet high, which would have been
about the height of one in that part of the pediment; and their position
agrees well enough with the attitude of the figure as represented in
Carrey's drawing. We shall only further remark about the pediments
that the ground of them appears to have been painted blue.
Such was the exterior of the temple. With regard to the interior,
we have already remarked that it was divided into two unequal portions,
1 Those two figures are the only ones There are casts of the figures in the
still remaining on the pediment, but they British Museum,
have now lost their heads. Might not this 2 Aufsiitze, B. ii. S. 282.
support the inference that they were not 3 Alte Denkmalcr, p. Ill, 119.
the original heads, but put on by Hadrian ? * L'Acropole, t. ii. p. 83.
He was quite barbarian enough to do it. 5 Class. Mus. vol. ii. p. 390.
2 d 2