DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.973#0042
34 CATALOGUE OP SCULPTURE.
Akad. Phil. hist. CI., 1874, ii. p. 23). By an ingenious
but inconclusive series of arguments he endeavoured
to show that the west pediment contains a personified
representation of the whole coast of Attica, from the
borders of Megaris to Cape Sunium.
Another elaborate system of interpretation has lately
been offered by Furtwaengler (Meisterwerke, p. 223), who
suggests that'while the supporters of Athene are Cecrops
and his family, Erechtheus and his daughters are on the
side of Poseidon. The two ancient heroic cults of Athens
are thus connected with the deities to which they
were attached. Difficulties, however, arise in the inter-
pretations of the individual figures. Only one, namely
Ceerops, can be identified with any certainty, and his
presence is required by the form of the myth. One
figure (S) is regarded as masculine against the evidence,
and the figure of Erechtheus, upon whose presence the
whole scheme depends, is assumed to have stood in a
place where the existence of a lost figure is doubtful.
The destruction of the middle of the western pediment
was the work of the Venetian General Morosini. After
taking the Acropolis he tried to lower the horses of the
car of Athene, but the tackle he used broke, and this
matchless group fell to the ground. Those portions of
the group which were not burnt into lime, were gradually
buried, and were not excavated and gathered up, until
the year 1835, when the capital of the Greek kingdom
had been established at Athens. Casts of them are
now exhibited in the Elgin Eoom. Between the time of
Morosini and the middle of the last century, when
Dalton drew the western pediment, the work of destruc-
tion had been carried much further. In the right wing
of the composition the figures N, 0, Q, S, T, and in the
left wing only four figures, A, B, C, and D (?) are shown in
position on the pediment in Dalton's Plate (pi. iii.) In the
Akad. Phil. hist. CI., 1874, ii. p. 23). By an ingenious
but inconclusive series of arguments he endeavoured
to show that the west pediment contains a personified
representation of the whole coast of Attica, from the
borders of Megaris to Cape Sunium.
Another elaborate system of interpretation has lately
been offered by Furtwaengler (Meisterwerke, p. 223), who
suggests that'while the supporters of Athene are Cecrops
and his family, Erechtheus and his daughters are on the
side of Poseidon. The two ancient heroic cults of Athens
are thus connected with the deities to which they
were attached. Difficulties, however, arise in the inter-
pretations of the individual figures. Only one, namely
Ceerops, can be identified with any certainty, and his
presence is required by the form of the myth. One
figure (S) is regarded as masculine against the evidence,
and the figure of Erechtheus, upon whose presence the
whole scheme depends, is assumed to have stood in a
place where the existence of a lost figure is doubtful.
The destruction of the middle of the western pediment
was the work of the Venetian General Morosini. After
taking the Acropolis he tried to lower the horses of the
car of Athene, but the tackle he used broke, and this
matchless group fell to the ground. Those portions of
the group which were not burnt into lime, were gradually
buried, and were not excavated and gathered up, until
the year 1835, when the capital of the Greek kingdom
had been established at Athens. Casts of them are
now exhibited in the Elgin Eoom. Between the time of
Morosini and the middle of the last century, when
Dalton drew the western pediment, the work of destruc-
tion had been carried much further. In the right wing
of the composition the figures N, 0, Q, S, T, and in the
left wing only four figures, A, B, C, and D (?) are shown in
position on the pediment in Dalton's Plate (pi. iii.) In the