DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.5253#0401
FRIEZE OF THE TEMPLE OF THESEUS.
367
can offer no other resistance than his mantle; this group strongly resembling
one of the Parthenon metopes. A Lapith, who seems to have relinquished
the struggle as hopeless, hastens from this group to assist a comrade engaged
with a centaur who rolls on his equine back in a startling and unpleasant
manner; while still another centaur, swinging a tree-trunk, comes gallop-
ing up to assist in the fray. The following group is most interesting, on
account of its frequency and typical rendering in Greek art. Two centaurs
Fig 162. A Part of the West Frieze of the Temple of Theseus. Athens.
rear high above a hero whom they are burying alive. One-half of his body
is already below ground ; and the huge rock they raise above him will soon fall
and cover him completely, in spite of his raised shield. This hero is the invul-
nerable Caineus, whom, because the centaurs could not wound, they buried alive
deep in the earth, where he continued to live forever. This same grouping
appears in the frieze at Phigaleia, and in the recently discovered Lykian tomb
at Gjolbaschi. In the remainder (Fig. 162), a Lapith with trailing garment
seems rushing by a centaur to help one of his mates who has fallen on his
knees, and is in close but doubtful combat with one of the brutes. Again,
a tall, helmeted warrior attacks a centaur from behind rearing over a fallen and
beautiful youth.
The subject of the east frieze, over the entrance, is a combat in the pres-
Fig. 163. Part of the Cast Frieze of the Temple of Theseus. Athens.
ence of six seated gods, three on each side. A part of this frieze, including
the group of the gods on one side, and one-half of the combat between them,
is represented in Fig. 163 ; and the remaining gods of the opposite side, on a
larger scale, arc seen in Fig. 164. The subject of this contest is a matter
of controversy; some thinking that it represents the destruction by Theseus of
the sons of Pallas, here using rocks for weapons, and who, when Theseus came
to Attica, sought to wrest from him his rightful kingdom.6S2 Brunn, however,
367
can offer no other resistance than his mantle; this group strongly resembling
one of the Parthenon metopes. A Lapith, who seems to have relinquished
the struggle as hopeless, hastens from this group to assist a comrade engaged
with a centaur who rolls on his equine back in a startling and unpleasant
manner; while still another centaur, swinging a tree-trunk, comes gallop-
ing up to assist in the fray. The following group is most interesting, on
account of its frequency and typical rendering in Greek art. Two centaurs
Fig 162. A Part of the West Frieze of the Temple of Theseus. Athens.
rear high above a hero whom they are burying alive. One-half of his body
is already below ground ; and the huge rock they raise above him will soon fall
and cover him completely, in spite of his raised shield. This hero is the invul-
nerable Caineus, whom, because the centaurs could not wound, they buried alive
deep in the earth, where he continued to live forever. This same grouping
appears in the frieze at Phigaleia, and in the recently discovered Lykian tomb
at Gjolbaschi. In the remainder (Fig. 162), a Lapith with trailing garment
seems rushing by a centaur to help one of his mates who has fallen on his
knees, and is in close but doubtful combat with one of the brutes. Again,
a tall, helmeted warrior attacks a centaur from behind rearing over a fallen and
beautiful youth.
The subject of the east frieze, over the entrance, is a combat in the pres-
Fig. 163. Part of the Cast Frieze of the Temple of Theseus. Athens.
ence of six seated gods, three on each side. A part of this frieze, including
the group of the gods on one side, and one-half of the combat between them,
is represented in Fig. 163 ; and the remaining gods of the opposite side, on a
larger scale, arc seen in Fig. 164. The subject of this contest is a matter
of controversy; some thinking that it represents the destruction by Theseus of
the sons of Pallas, here using rocks for weapons, and who, when Theseus came
to Attica, sought to wrest from him his rightful kingdom.6S2 Brunn, however,