British Museum <London> [Editor]: Elgin and Phigaleian Marbles (Band 2) (London, 1833)

THE

BRITISH MUSEUM.

ELGIN MARBLES.

Chapter I.

STATUES FROM THE EASTERN PEDtMENT.

Hyperion. No. 91.

A part of the neck, the shoulders and the arms of the
figure of Hyperion rising from the sea: his arms are
stretched forward to guide the reins of his coursers,
but the hands are gone. The waves are indicated on
the plinth.

This figure, which represents the approach of day,
occupied the angle of the eastern pediment on the left
of the spectator, as the car of Night did that upon the
right. "Helios," says Mr. Cockerell, " is placed at
the commencement of the scene, and Hesperus at
its termination; personifying the east and west, they
may signify the extremities of the universe; and are
as poetically applied to the momentous subject of the
group in this pediment, as they are admirably adapted
to the position they occupy in the angles of the tym-
■rpanum *." "Visconti compared this fragment of Hy-
perion, which possesses great breadth and excellence
of execution, for the grandeur of its style, to the torso
of Hercules by Apolloniust- The smooth surface of
* Engr. from the ancient marbles in the British Museum, Part vi.
p. 35.
, + Visconti'a Memoirs, p. 35.
VOL. II. B