Mitchell, Lucy M.: A history of ancient sculpture (New York, 1883)

EAST FRIEZE OF THE PARTHENON. 337

put on his broad-brimmed hat, and speedily disappear. Leaning on Hermes'
shoulder is a youth of noble form and bearing, raised on a cushion higher than
the others, and with head turned to watch the coming procession. His left
arm is raised as if supported on a long sceptre, once represented in bronze;
while rich, full drapery falls over his lap. Facing him is a goddess, enthroned
in like manner. The position of these figures, as Flasch has shown, aids in
their identification. They cannot be husband and wife, or lovers ; for, if such,
they would sit side by side. Seated as they are, opposite one another, with
intertwining limbs, their relationship is clearly that of brother and sister, —
doubtless the twin gods, Apollo and Artemis. Here Artemis, the restless
huntress, carries her attribute, the torch, and is bent forward, with right hand
holding her drapery, which threatens to slip off, while she looks through her
brother's upraised arms at the procession. Her long, maidenly locks fall over
her shoulders ; and her virgin form is so little developed, as to have led some
to imagine it to be that of a god. Only a shattered outline is left of all the
heads of this group, but how clearly in every line of drapery and form do we
read ease and grace coupled with exuberant strength!659a

In the corresponding group of six great gods on the opposite, the left, side
of the central sacrificial scene, we see Athena (/), the beloved goddess of
Athens, and daughter of Zeus, seated in a place of honor, equal to that given
her father. Her implements of war are laid aside, and she appears radiant
in her maidenly beauty. Her hair flows freely clown the back ; and a long
chiton, girded at the waist, falls over her faultless form. The lap is too high
for folds of drapery alone, and on it we may discern the fringing serpents of
her eegis partly covered by her hand.

The contrast is striking between Athena and her neighbor (g), who, lean-
ing on his staff, looks back towards her. These massive shoulders and this
short neck can belong to no other than the lame blacksmith god Hephaistos,
who, in the Homeric description, on leaving his forge to enter the assemblage
°f the Olympic deities, " wiped with a sponge his face, both hands, stout neck,
and hairy chest," and caused "an inextinguishable laughter" to break "from
all the blessed gods, as they beheld him laboring o'er the palace-floor," even
though their assemblage had just been filled with bitter rancorings.659b We
almost imagine, on comparing the stately form of Zeus with this of He-
phaistos, that we can see in the latter the brawny muscles swollen from labor,
and the fingers crooked from long holding the hammer and tongs. Athena
here grouped with the artist-god, her unsuccessful lover, corresponds to Hera
with Zeus on the opposite side. It will be noticed, that monotony is avoided
by alternating the position of the male and female figures, and by the different
ages of the two goddesses, as well as the variety in the pose of hands and feet.

Next to Athena and Hephaistos, but separated from them by a narrow
space, is a group of four deities, and the boy-god Eros, still attached to the