DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.18216#0231
THE THESEION.
217
figures or ornaments. Of the pedimental groups, which
appear to have once existed at each end of the temple,
nothing now remains except the marks of the attachment
of sculptures. Within the colonnade the two ends of the
cella are adorned with a frieze of Parian marble, which
is still in position. At the west, the length of the frieze
is only equal to the width of the cella; at the east, the
frieze is continued as far as the epistyle, or beams sur-
mounting the colonnade.
The west frieze is about 25 feet long; casts of 16 feet
4 inches are in the British Museum. The east frieze is
about 37 feet long, and casts of 32 feet aro in the Museum.
From the Middle Ages till recent times this building
has been called the Temple of Theseus, and was supposed
to have been dedicated to Theseus by the Athenians in the
time of Kimon. That statesman had transferred the
bones of Theseus to Athens from the island of Skyros in
469 B.C. The chief arguments for this attribution are :—■
(1) That labours of Theseus are represented on the
metopes, and perhaps on the friezes ; (2) that the building
is not far from the place where, according to Leake and
others, it might be expected from the description of Pausa-
nias (i. 17, 2); (3) that the temple was dedicated as a
Christian church to St. George, who corresponds in many
ways to Theseus.
Eoss, however (Das Theseion), tried to prove that this
was not the Theseion. He argued that no connection
could be traced between the external sculptures and the
function of the building. He also argued that the real
Theseion cannot have been a complete temple, and that
it cannot have stood in the position of the temple now in
question. He proposed to call the building a temple of
Ares. It has since been suggested that Ares and Theseus
may have been joint occupants of the temple, as Athene
and Ercchtheus held the Erechtheion in common (Mur-
217
figures or ornaments. Of the pedimental groups, which
appear to have once existed at each end of the temple,
nothing now remains except the marks of the attachment
of sculptures. Within the colonnade the two ends of the
cella are adorned with a frieze of Parian marble, which
is still in position. At the west, the length of the frieze
is only equal to the width of the cella; at the east, the
frieze is continued as far as the epistyle, or beams sur-
mounting the colonnade.
The west frieze is about 25 feet long; casts of 16 feet
4 inches are in the British Museum. The east frieze is
about 37 feet long, and casts of 32 feet aro in the Museum.
From the Middle Ages till recent times this building
has been called the Temple of Theseus, and was supposed
to have been dedicated to Theseus by the Athenians in the
time of Kimon. That statesman had transferred the
bones of Theseus to Athens from the island of Skyros in
469 B.C. The chief arguments for this attribution are :—■
(1) That labours of Theseus are represented on the
metopes, and perhaps on the friezes ; (2) that the building
is not far from the place where, according to Leake and
others, it might be expected from the description of Pausa-
nias (i. 17, 2); (3) that the temple was dedicated as a
Christian church to St. George, who corresponds in many
ways to Theseus.
Eoss, however (Das Theseion), tried to prove that this
was not the Theseion. He argued that no connection
could be traced between the external sculptures and the
function of the building. He also argued that the real
Theseion cannot have been a complete temple, and that
it cannot have stood in the position of the temple now in
question. He proposed to call the building a temple of
Ares. It has since been suggested that Ares and Theseus
may have been joint occupants of the temple, as Athene
and Ercchtheus held the Erechtheion in common (Mur-