DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.18216#0135
WEST PEDIMENT OF PARTHENON.
121
whose left thigh receives the main weight of his body,
which leans a little to the right, resting on his left hand.
With him is grouped a female figure, who has thrown
herself in baste on both knees, with one arm round the
neck of her companion. Her action expresses surprise at
the event occurring in the centre of the pediment, to-
wards which she has looked back. She wears a long chiton,
and over it a diploidion which falls below the girdle,
and which has slipped from the left shoulder, leaving the
left breast and side exposed. Her left arm, now entirely-
wanting, was broken off a little below the shoulder at the
date of Carrey's drawing. The male figure has a mantle
cast over his lower limbs. His right arm, which was
broken off below the elbow in the time of Stuart, is now
reduced to a stump. The right leg and knee and part
of the right thigh have also been lost since the time of
Stuart. It appears from the statements of travellers (cf.
Michaelis, p. 194) that these figures lost their heads in the
years 1802 and 1803. The careful drawing of the group
made by Pars, and preserved in the British Museum
(Stuart, ii., chap. L, pi. 9; Michaelis, pi. 8, fig. 2), shows that
the heads of both figures were turned towards the central
group, the head of the female figure being, moreover,
slightly inclined over the left shoulder. In this drawing
the right arm of the male figure is bent at a right angle,
the upper part being nearly horizontal. On the ground
between the pair is a convex mass, which has been recog-
nised to be part of the coil of a large serpent. The re-
mainder of this serpent may be seen at the back of the
group, passing under the left hand of the male figure. In
front of this hand the body of the serpent terminates in
a joint with a rectangular sinking, into which a fragment
from the Elgin Collection has been fitted. (Mus. Marbles,
vi., pi. 8, fig. 2.)
This group has received various names. Spun and
121
whose left thigh receives the main weight of his body,
which leans a little to the right, resting on his left hand.
With him is grouped a female figure, who has thrown
herself in baste on both knees, with one arm round the
neck of her companion. Her action expresses surprise at
the event occurring in the centre of the pediment, to-
wards which she has looked back. She wears a long chiton,
and over it a diploidion which falls below the girdle,
and which has slipped from the left shoulder, leaving the
left breast and side exposed. Her left arm, now entirely-
wanting, was broken off a little below the shoulder at the
date of Carrey's drawing. The male figure has a mantle
cast over his lower limbs. His right arm, which was
broken off below the elbow in the time of Stuart, is now
reduced to a stump. The right leg and knee and part
of the right thigh have also been lost since the time of
Stuart. It appears from the statements of travellers (cf.
Michaelis, p. 194) that these figures lost their heads in the
years 1802 and 1803. The careful drawing of the group
made by Pars, and preserved in the British Museum
(Stuart, ii., chap. L, pi. 9; Michaelis, pi. 8, fig. 2), shows that
the heads of both figures were turned towards the central
group, the head of the female figure being, moreover,
slightly inclined over the left shoulder. In this drawing
the right arm of the male figure is bent at a right angle,
the upper part being nearly horizontal. On the ground
between the pair is a convex mass, which has been recog-
nised to be part of the coil of a large serpent. The re-
mainder of this serpent may be seen at the back of the
group, passing under the left hand of the male figure. In
front of this hand the body of the serpent terminates in
a joint with a rectangular sinking, into which a fragment
from the Elgin Collection has been fitted. (Mus. Marbles,
vi., pi. 8, fig. 2.)
This group has received various names. Spun and