DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.801#0072
68
on the fronton of the Temple of Hercules at Thebes;
by the hand of Praxiteles—the Calydonian Boar
Hunt, described with so much detail in the 8th
book of Pausanias on the Temple of Minerva Alea
at Tegœa—-those in honour of Bacchus and Apollo
on the two frontons of the Temple of Apollo at
]>elphi, by the hands of Praxias, the pupil of
Calarnis, and Androsthenes, the pupil of Eucadmus,
both of them Athenian artists ;—but, above all, the
magnificent Temple of Jupiter at Olympia.—All
these instances present a strong body of evidence;
that a building, of the character of the Temple of
Minerva at Athens, would not have been left by
Pericles with a bare pediment : and, if Phidias did
place any sculptures upon them, it can hardly
be doubted that they were amongst the most distin-
guished works of that artist, and of his pupils.
. No subjects of ancient fable are more frequently
alluded to in the poets and historians of Greece and
Rome, than the contest between Minerva and Nep-
tune ; the birth of the former ; and the battle of the
Centaurs and Lapithœ. One instance of this nature,
bearing an immediate allusion to the present subject,
may be adduced from the 6th book of Ovid's Meta-
morphoses. The poet is relating the contest between
Minerva and Arachne for the honours of the loom.
The Goddess is appropriately described as tracing
upon her tapestry her former contest with Neptune
on the fronton of the Temple of Hercules at Thebes;
by the hand of Praxiteles—the Calydonian Boar
Hunt, described with so much detail in the 8th
book of Pausanias on the Temple of Minerva Alea
at Tegœa—-those in honour of Bacchus and Apollo
on the two frontons of the Temple of Apollo at
]>elphi, by the hands of Praxias, the pupil of
Calarnis, and Androsthenes, the pupil of Eucadmus,
both of them Athenian artists ;—but, above all, the
magnificent Temple of Jupiter at Olympia.—All
these instances present a strong body of evidence;
that a building, of the character of the Temple of
Minerva at Athens, would not have been left by
Pericles with a bare pediment : and, if Phidias did
place any sculptures upon them, it can hardly
be doubted that they were amongst the most distin-
guished works of that artist, and of his pupils.
. No subjects of ancient fable are more frequently
alluded to in the poets and historians of Greece and
Rome, than the contest between Minerva and Nep-
tune ; the birth of the former ; and the battle of the
Centaurs and Lapithœ. One instance of this nature,
bearing an immediate allusion to the present subject,
may be adduced from the 6th book of Ovid's Meta-
morphoses. The poet is relating the contest between
Minerva and Arachne for the honours of the loom.
The Goddess is appropriately described as tracing
upon her tapestry her former contest with Neptune