DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.5253#0368
334 THE AGE OF PHEIDIAS AND OF POLYCLE1TOS.
glyph in the rudimentary form of its rcgulazMi About 122 meters of this frieze
now line the Elgin room; one beautiful slab is in the. Louvre; fragments of
others are in Vienna, Carlsruhe, and Athens; and much of the remainder is
still attached to the ruins.f)53a In studying this frieze, Carrey's drawings are
invaluable assistants, supplementing many details now lost.
In this sculptured band, which surrounded the temple-walls, a procession
passes before our eyes, such as wound through the streets of Athens at the
great festival in honor of Athena, founded, it was believed, in mythic ages, by
Erichthonios, Athena's adopted son, and renewed by Theseus, the great hero
of Attica. This Panathenaic festival fell in high summer, and consisted, origi-
nally,in an annual sacrifice, athletic competitive games, and the bringing of the
pcplos, a piece of richly embroidered apparel, for the goddess.654 Peisistratos
enhanced the attractions of the festival by adding a competition of rhapsodists,
who delivered, in a free manner, Homeric poems; and the public-spirited Peri-
cles increased the number of these musical and poetical contests. Not Athens
alone brought hecatombs for offering, but also her colonial cities, each of which
sent a spotless cow and two sheep for offering. The first four days were
passed in games and rivalries, in music and song. The prize awarded was an
olive-wreath, and a vase containing sacred oil from Athena's olives. On the
recurrence of each Olympiad, every fifth year, the procession was made richer
than at the annual festivals. On the last day, the traditional anniversary of
Athena's birth, a new and beautiful pcplos, embroidered by high-born Attic
maidens and matrons with heroic scenes, — especially the combat of the god-
dess herself with the giants, — was carried in solemn procession to the Acrop-
olis, there to be clothed upon her ancient idol. Choice sacrifices were then
brought to the goddess, a bounteous repast spread before the people, and cap-
tives were set free. All Attica took part, old and young, mother and maiden,
free-born and alien. Even the freed slaves shared in the rejoicings, decorating
the market-place with oak-leaves. In the procession, as we learn from litera-
ture, native-born Athenian ladies carried vessels and vases for offering, attended
by their less fortunate alien sisters with umbrellas and chairs. Only maidens
of highest rank and of blameless character and person, prepared by several
days of abstinence and seclusion, were allowed to bear in baskets, to the altar,
sashes to wreathe the victim, and set it apart as holy, sacrificial knives, and
corn to strew upon the offering. In the procession were to be seen envoys in
charge of the beasts for sacrifice ; gray-haired sires, chosen for their beauty,
bearers of branches from Athena's sacred olive-tree; heavy-armed men of
Athens ; and youths on horseback or in chariots, — the whole being under the
direction of marshals. And all this fleeting mortal beauty, which was to be
seen in Athens over twenty-three hundred years ago, has been made immor-
tal by the sculptor in the ideal splendor of his art.
In the east frieze, on the front of the temple, there reigned in the com-
glyph in the rudimentary form of its rcgulazMi About 122 meters of this frieze
now line the Elgin room; one beautiful slab is in the. Louvre; fragments of
others are in Vienna, Carlsruhe, and Athens; and much of the remainder is
still attached to the ruins.f)53a In studying this frieze, Carrey's drawings are
invaluable assistants, supplementing many details now lost.
In this sculptured band, which surrounded the temple-walls, a procession
passes before our eyes, such as wound through the streets of Athens at the
great festival in honor of Athena, founded, it was believed, in mythic ages, by
Erichthonios, Athena's adopted son, and renewed by Theseus, the great hero
of Attica. This Panathenaic festival fell in high summer, and consisted, origi-
nally,in an annual sacrifice, athletic competitive games, and the bringing of the
pcplos, a piece of richly embroidered apparel, for the goddess.654 Peisistratos
enhanced the attractions of the festival by adding a competition of rhapsodists,
who delivered, in a free manner, Homeric poems; and the public-spirited Peri-
cles increased the number of these musical and poetical contests. Not Athens
alone brought hecatombs for offering, but also her colonial cities, each of which
sent a spotless cow and two sheep for offering. The first four days were
passed in games and rivalries, in music and song. The prize awarded was an
olive-wreath, and a vase containing sacred oil from Athena's olives. On the
recurrence of each Olympiad, every fifth year, the procession was made richer
than at the annual festivals. On the last day, the traditional anniversary of
Athena's birth, a new and beautiful pcplos, embroidered by high-born Attic
maidens and matrons with heroic scenes, — especially the combat of the god-
dess herself with the giants, — was carried in solemn procession to the Acrop-
olis, there to be clothed upon her ancient idol. Choice sacrifices were then
brought to the goddess, a bounteous repast spread before the people, and cap-
tives were set free. All Attica took part, old and young, mother and maiden,
free-born and alien. Even the freed slaves shared in the rejoicings, decorating
the market-place with oak-leaves. In the procession, as we learn from litera-
ture, native-born Athenian ladies carried vessels and vases for offering, attended
by their less fortunate alien sisters with umbrellas and chairs. Only maidens
of highest rank and of blameless character and person, prepared by several
days of abstinence and seclusion, were allowed to bear in baskets, to the altar,
sashes to wreathe the victim, and set it apart as holy, sacrificial knives, and
corn to strew upon the offering. In the procession were to be seen envoys in
charge of the beasts for sacrifice ; gray-haired sires, chosen for their beauty,
bearers of branches from Athena's sacred olive-tree; heavy-armed men of
Athens ; and youths on horseback or in chariots, — the whole being under the
direction of marshals. And all this fleeting mortal beauty, which was to be
seen in Athens over twenty-three hundred years ago, has been made immor-
tal by the sculptor in the ideal splendor of his art.
In the east frieze, on the front of the temple, there reigned in the com-