DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.5253#0299
266 ARCHAIC SCULPTURE.
while that of Sterope seems treated with somewhat greater freedom. When
the drapery sweeps around the form, however, as in the kneeling maiden, the
sculptor seems unable to make it look like any thing more than coils of leather,
and evidently leaves much to be expressed by color. Altogether, in the com-
position as well as execution of this group, there seems an experimenting
and a striving, which has not yet overcome serious difficulties. The backs of
the figures are left in the rough, the whole giving very strongly the impression
of high relief. They would show to much better advantage were they carved
out fully in the round, and thus made to cast deeper, stronger shadows to en-
liven the recess of the pediment, eighty centimeters deep.
In the opposite, or west pediment (Fig. 127), the scene is as excited as the
one just described is quiet. The fragments preserved are in such good condi-
tion, that there can be no doubt that Griittner's restoration in small casts is
correct.467 Here is represented one of the most popular of Greek myths, and
one which gave the sculptor a chance to display far greater action. It is the
battle between Lapithas and centaurs. According to story, both Lapithes and
Kentauros, the ancestors of these contending peoples, were sons of Apollo;
but the warlike spirit and courage of the semi-human centaurs soon degen-
erated into brutality, and insubordination to law, finding vent in a quarrel about
their inheritance. This difficulty being settled, the centaurs stirred up another
family-broil at the wedding of their cousin Peirithoos with Dcidameia, daugh-
ter of the Lapith Atrax. The centaurs, on smelling the wine at the feast,
refused the milk set before them, and, seizing the wine, became by it so ex-
cited that they laid violent hands upon the bride, her maidens, and the youths,
to carry them off. A fearful struggle ensued, in which the Lapithas, repre-
sentatives of law and order, with the aid of the divine Theseus, conquered
their enemy. This contest, thus significant to the Greeks of the victory of
order and right, was very frequently represented in art. Of the sculptures in
the west pediment at Olympia, Pausanias tells us less than of the figures in the
east pediment; but, happily, enough is preserved of the fragments to leave no
doubt as to the grouping.46S of it Pausanias says, " In the middle of the pedi-
ment stands Peirithoos, on one side Eurytion, who holds the wife of Peirithoos ;
on the other, Theseus, who, with a club, keeps off a centaur. One centaur has
stolen a maiden and a beautiful boy." Pausanias closes his statement with the
conjecture that Alcamenes chose this scene because he had learned from the
Homeric songs that Peirithoos was a son of Zeus, and because he knew that
Theseus was descended in the fourth generation from Pelops. But Pausanias
must have been misinformed in many details, as they do not tally with the
marbles; while some figures he has omitted altogether.
In the centre there towers a manly youth, having but little drapery over his
form: he stands quietly erect, with right hand outstretched, and beardless face
turned in the direction to which he points, while the left arm is dropped. A
while that of Sterope seems treated with somewhat greater freedom. When
the drapery sweeps around the form, however, as in the kneeling maiden, the
sculptor seems unable to make it look like any thing more than coils of leather,
and evidently leaves much to be expressed by color. Altogether, in the com-
position as well as execution of this group, there seems an experimenting
and a striving, which has not yet overcome serious difficulties. The backs of
the figures are left in the rough, the whole giving very strongly the impression
of high relief. They would show to much better advantage were they carved
out fully in the round, and thus made to cast deeper, stronger shadows to en-
liven the recess of the pediment, eighty centimeters deep.
In the opposite, or west pediment (Fig. 127), the scene is as excited as the
one just described is quiet. The fragments preserved are in such good condi-
tion, that there can be no doubt that Griittner's restoration in small casts is
correct.467 Here is represented one of the most popular of Greek myths, and
one which gave the sculptor a chance to display far greater action. It is the
battle between Lapithas and centaurs. According to story, both Lapithes and
Kentauros, the ancestors of these contending peoples, were sons of Apollo;
but the warlike spirit and courage of the semi-human centaurs soon degen-
erated into brutality, and insubordination to law, finding vent in a quarrel about
their inheritance. This difficulty being settled, the centaurs stirred up another
family-broil at the wedding of their cousin Peirithoos with Dcidameia, daugh-
ter of the Lapith Atrax. The centaurs, on smelling the wine at the feast,
refused the milk set before them, and, seizing the wine, became by it so ex-
cited that they laid violent hands upon the bride, her maidens, and the youths,
to carry them off. A fearful struggle ensued, in which the Lapithas, repre-
sentatives of law and order, with the aid of the divine Theseus, conquered
their enemy. This contest, thus significant to the Greeks of the victory of
order and right, was very frequently represented in art. Of the sculptures in
the west pediment at Olympia, Pausanias tells us less than of the figures in the
east pediment; but, happily, enough is preserved of the fragments to leave no
doubt as to the grouping.46S of it Pausanias says, " In the middle of the pedi-
ment stands Peirithoos, on one side Eurytion, who holds the wife of Peirithoos ;
on the other, Theseus, who, with a club, keeps off a centaur. One centaur has
stolen a maiden and a beautiful boy." Pausanias closes his statement with the
conjecture that Alcamenes chose this scene because he had learned from the
Homeric songs that Peirithoos was a son of Zeus, and because he knew that
Theseus was descended in the fourth generation from Pelops. But Pausanias
must have been misinformed in many details, as they do not tally with the
marbles; while some figures he has omitted altogether.
In the centre there towers a manly youth, having but little drapery over his
form: he stands quietly erect, with right hand outstretched, and beardless face
turned in the direction to which he points, while the left arm is dropped. A