Perry, Walter Copland: Greek and Roman sculpture: a popular introduction to the history of Greek and Roman sculpture (London, 1882)

324

THE TEMPLE OF NIKE ATTEROS.

The same may be said of his conjecture respecting the artist
who executed the temple-image described by Harpocration.1 In
a well-known passage of Pausanias we read, ' Near the statue of
Athene (in the Altis at Olympia) there is a statue of Nike, which was
dedicated by the Mantineans for some war not indicated in the in-
scription. Calami's is said to have made it without zuings, in imitation
of the statue called Nike Apteros at Athens.'2 Now if, as Benndorf
assumes, Calamis stood in somewhat of the same relation to Cimon
as Pheidias to Pericles, it is not improbable that this distinguished
artist would be employed to execute the image for the new Temple
of Athena Nike, and that he subsequently made a copy of the
Athenian work for the victorious Mantineans.3

The Frieze of the Temple oe Nike Apteros.

The Temple of Athena Nike was ornamented by a sculptured
frieze which ran round the whole building above the epistyle. The
reliefs on the N. and W. were taken away by Lord Elgin, and are now
in the British Museum. Each of the four sides has a distinct compo-
sition, the most intelligible, or rather the least unintelligible, in cha-
racter being that on the principal or E. facade (fig. 137). The figures
are too much mutilated to allow of our forming any clear idea of the sub-
ject of even this relief, but the presence of a Winged boy between tzvo
female figures at the left extremity, and of Pa/las with shield and
agis between two male figures in the centre, warrant the conjecture
that we have before us an assembly of the gods. Sixteen of the per-
sonages in this composition seem to be females in long robes, all of
them without heads, and, with the exception of Pallas, without attri-
butes.

1 Vide supra, p. 321, note 4.

* P.iusan. v. 26. 6 : irapa Be ttjv 'ABvyap
ireTToiiiTai NIktj 1 TavTr\v WlavTivels avtGtfrav,
rov TToKtfxov Be ov Bi\Kovffiv tv t<£ tirtypap.-
MOTi. KdAapus Be oiiK exovaav fTfpa Troniaai
Aeyerai airop.tfj.ovp.eyos rb 'A6i)VTi(n rfjs 'Airre-
pov Ka\ovp.ey-rjs £6avov.

3 Vide Benndorf (op. cit. p, 44), who refers
to a similar case in which Canachus made an
Apollo in bronze for the temple at Branchidie,
and a replica, of exactly the same dimensions,
in cedar wood, for the Temple of the Ismenian
Apollo at Delphi.