DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.18216#0162
148
CATALOGUE OF SOULP1UEE.
Before examining how far the frieze represents the
Panathenaic procession in detail, it may be well to state
what facts respecting the festival have been handed down
to us by ancient authors. Its origin was ascribed in
antiquity to pre-histoiic times. Its mythic founder was
Erichthonios, the son of Hephaestus and foster-son of
Athene herself; and the festival is said to have been
renewed by The.^eus when he united all the Attic demes
into one city. The goddess in whose honour it was cele-
brated was Athene Polias, the tute^ry deity of the
Athenian Acropolis, where she was supposed to dwell in
drawn by the melody. But at length the appearance of the youthful
cavalry and of its leader proved that a noble sight was better than any
music. There were fifty ephebi, in two troops of five-and-twenty, acting
as body-guard of the leader of the embassy. Their boots were laced with
purple thongs, and tied above the ankle. Their cloaks were white with
dark blue borders, and were fastened on their breasts with golden brooches.
The horses were all Thessalian, and breathed the freedom of their native
plains. They tried to spue out their bits and covered them with foam, as if
rebellious, yet submitted to the will of the riders. It seemed as if there
had been a rivalry among the masters in adorning their horses with
frontlets and phalerae, silver or gilded. But, as a flash of lightning
makes all else seem dark, so, when the captain, Theagenes (the hero of
the novel), appeared, all eyes were turned to him. He also was mounted,
and wore armour, and brandished an ashen spear, tipped with bronze.
He had not put on his helmet, but rode bareheaded. He wore a purple
cloak, embroidered in gold with a fight of Centaurs and Lapiths ; on his
brooch was an amber figure of Athene, wearing the Gorgon's head on her
breastplate. A gentle breeze gave him further grace, spreading his hair
about his neck, and parting the locks on his forehead, and blowing the
ends of his cloak about the back and flanks of his horse. And the horse
itself seemed conscious of the exceeding beauty of its master, as it arched
its neck, and pricked up its ears, and frowned its brows, and advanced
proudly, giving ready obedience to the rein, balancing on alternate
shoulders, lightly striking the tips of its hoofs on the ground, and attuning
its pace to a gentle motion." Interesting passages of Xenophon describe
horses that prance as they ought in processions, and also lay down the
duty of the leaders of a procession of horsemen (Xen. Hipp. 11 and
Hipparch. 3).
CATALOGUE OF SOULP1UEE.
Before examining how far the frieze represents the
Panathenaic procession in detail, it may be well to state
what facts respecting the festival have been handed down
to us by ancient authors. Its origin was ascribed in
antiquity to pre-histoiic times. Its mythic founder was
Erichthonios, the son of Hephaestus and foster-son of
Athene herself; and the festival is said to have been
renewed by The.^eus when he united all the Attic demes
into one city. The goddess in whose honour it was cele-
brated was Athene Polias, the tute^ry deity of the
Athenian Acropolis, where she was supposed to dwell in
drawn by the melody. But at length the appearance of the youthful
cavalry and of its leader proved that a noble sight was better than any
music. There were fifty ephebi, in two troops of five-and-twenty, acting
as body-guard of the leader of the embassy. Their boots were laced with
purple thongs, and tied above the ankle. Their cloaks were white with
dark blue borders, and were fastened on their breasts with golden brooches.
The horses were all Thessalian, and breathed the freedom of their native
plains. They tried to spue out their bits and covered them with foam, as if
rebellious, yet submitted to the will of the riders. It seemed as if there
had been a rivalry among the masters in adorning their horses with
frontlets and phalerae, silver or gilded. But, as a flash of lightning
makes all else seem dark, so, when the captain, Theagenes (the hero of
the novel), appeared, all eyes were turned to him. He also was mounted,
and wore armour, and brandished an ashen spear, tipped with bronze.
He had not put on his helmet, but rode bareheaded. He wore a purple
cloak, embroidered in gold with a fight of Centaurs and Lapiths ; on his
brooch was an amber figure of Athene, wearing the Gorgon's head on her
breastplate. A gentle breeze gave him further grace, spreading his hair
about his neck, and parting the locks on his forehead, and blowing the
ends of his cloak about the back and flanks of his horse. And the horse
itself seemed conscious of the exceeding beauty of its master, as it arched
its neck, and pricked up its ears, and frowned its brows, and advanced
proudly, giving ready obedience to the rein, balancing on alternate
shoulders, lightly striking the tips of its hoofs on the ground, and attuning
its pace to a gentle motion." Interesting passages of Xenophon describe
horses that prance as they ought in processions, and also lay down the
duty of the leaders of a procession of horsemen (Xen. Hipp. 11 and
Hipparch. 3).