Jones, Henry Stuart [Editor]; Palazzo dei Conservatori <Rom> [Editor]: A catalogue of the ancient sculptures preserved in the municipal collections of Rome: the sculptures of the Palazzo dei Conservatori (Text) (Oxford, 1926)

162 SALA DEGLI ORTI MECENAZIANI 13
and the faces much rubbed. Apollo, with a thrown over his 1.
shoulder and partly covering his arm, forms the centre of the composition.
He stands to the front with the weight on the 1. leg and the r. slightly
bent; head turned to r., and 1. hand resting on lyre supported on a low
base. In front of the base the Apolline griffin faces to r. with head turned
back towards the god. The ten female figures are arranged in two groups
of five on each side of Apollo as follows, beginning on extreme 1.:
(%) (Polyhymnia.) Muse closely wrapped in mantle, leaning, in the
well-known scheme, on a low pedestal and with her head supported on
her r. hand, looks upwards with an inspired look. After a famous type
created possibly by Philiskos (see Watzinger,
(1903), p. g, fig. 1) and often employed on sarcophagi for the group of
a poet or philosopher and a Muse, e.g. A?. AA 2313: cf. also
Archelaus' cAAAwz^r, z'A 2191.
(<$) (Urania.) Muse with globe in her 1. hand, and short staff in her
r. (see the same Muse on the Sarcophagus, A?. AA. 2305), draped
in a tunic which leaves the 1. shoulder bare, as often in this type (see
O. Bie, AU? AAawTz, p. 80, 4/3). The head, which is turned towards the
centre, is broken on the r. side.
(<r) (Erato.) Muse in long-sleeved tunic with wide belt, a costume
worn also by A, and g, and evidently taken from actual theatrical dress
(0. Bie, art. AAzzjwz in Roscher, pp. 3289 ff.). She holds the lyre in her 1.,
and the plectrum in her r. hand (O. Bie, p. 63, 1 /3), and looks back, as
she plays, towards the Muse with the globe.
(A) (Terpsichore.) Muse without attributes—unless one was held
in the lowered (lost) r. hand—thrusting her arm through that of (?), and
at the same time turning back to look at the Muse with the lyre.
(?) (Euterpe.) Muse facing towards Apollo, with arm bent from the
elbow and holding in her r. hand an object now much defaced but which
is probably a flute. The object, equally defaced, once held in the
lowered 1. hand, which has left traces of a long stem, is probably the
other flute (for the Muse with double flute see O. Bie, p. 66, 117).
On the other side of Apollo :
(_/) (Thalia.) Muse of Comedy, draped in the same theatrical
costume as r, A, <?, g, but with the arms bare. She stands to front with
head turned towards the god, and holds up with her r. hand a large
mask—broken from below the eyebrows along with the hand of the Muse.
The mask is of archaistic type with three rows of tight curls. With her
1. hand the Muse holds her mantle together. For the type see O. Bie,
p. 79 3
(g) (Melpomene.) Muse of Tragedy, wearing round her neck what
appears to be the skin of some animal, perhaps a goat skin. With her
1. she shoulders the club (taken over from Heracles, see O. Bie, AAv-s^T?,
p. 77, 3 A, art. in Roscher, p. 3292), and with her r. she holds by
the hair a large tragic mask wearing, as often, the features of Heracles
(O. Bie, p. 78, 317). Head turned towards Apollo in the centre.
(/%) (Athena.) Wearing aegis with head of Medusa and Corinthian
helmet with long crest. The goddess, with feet crossed and 1. hand on
hip in a Praxitelean scheme (cf. the similar pose of the Athena on
a sarcophagus at Vienna (Reinach, AWz'g/y, ii, p. 141. 2); for the crossed
legs see also the Athena on a crater from Ruvo (A*. AA F. 280 ;