DOI Artikel:
Essay V: The eastern pediment of the Parthenon, and Thalassa and Gaia
DOI Seite / Zitierlink:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.11444#0174
V.] THE EASTERN PEDIMENT OF THE PARTHENON. 147
concession to the pressure of composition not incidental to
the meaning of the scene depicted, to a delicate but no less
essential contribution to the organic growth of the whole action
as it culminates in the centre of the composition. For the more
accidental pressure of formal composition was the triangular
space of the pediment. This he had to fill, the height growing
with every advance towards the centre, and thus the greater
height of the space occupied by the second figure had to be
filled up with a figure of the same class as the first of the two
female figures. What would thus be a mere outer condition of
space he turned into an instrument of plastically expressing
inner meaning, in manifesting by the more erect and advancing
attitude the growing interest and participation in the scene that
takes place in the centre on the part of one of the side figures
which are not immediate actors or immediate spectators of the
central drama. If the difference in height is to be a serious
ground for assuming that they are not coordinate, then this
might still more strongly be urged in the case of the two seated
figures at the other end of the pediment, where again the
difference of space has led the artist to seat the one figure
perfectly erect while the other is bending over the figure
reclining in her lap.
Another group of interpreters, those who consider the nude
male figure to be Kekrops, and the whole group of three figures
to be the family of the royal founder of Athens, hold that
these two female figures are two of the three daughters of
Kekrops, Thallo and Auxo1. Brondsted believes them to be
the Hours. Finally, Brunn sees in them two Horae (they were
worshipped in Athens as two, not three) who had charge of the
portals of heaven, on Olympos2. As Brunn's interpretation of
the nude male figure is the one which conveys the greatest pro-
bability to my mind, so his interpretation of these two figures,
in keeping with his central idea which we shall consider more
1 Millingen, Welcker (1845), Overbeck, Lloyd (Karpo and Thallo), hold this
view.
2 II. V. 749 :
avrifiarai oe irv\ai jxtiKov Ovpavov, as ex0" ^pot,
Tjjs lirLTiTpairrai fieyas Ovpavos, 0v\v/j.tt6s re,
dvaKXivai ttvkivov v^tpos, 7)0' eirideivai.
concession to the pressure of composition not incidental to
the meaning of the scene depicted, to a delicate but no less
essential contribution to the organic growth of the whole action
as it culminates in the centre of the composition. For the more
accidental pressure of formal composition was the triangular
space of the pediment. This he had to fill, the height growing
with every advance towards the centre, and thus the greater
height of the space occupied by the second figure had to be
filled up with a figure of the same class as the first of the two
female figures. What would thus be a mere outer condition of
space he turned into an instrument of plastically expressing
inner meaning, in manifesting by the more erect and advancing
attitude the growing interest and participation in the scene that
takes place in the centre on the part of one of the side figures
which are not immediate actors or immediate spectators of the
central drama. If the difference in height is to be a serious
ground for assuming that they are not coordinate, then this
might still more strongly be urged in the case of the two seated
figures at the other end of the pediment, where again the
difference of space has led the artist to seat the one figure
perfectly erect while the other is bending over the figure
reclining in her lap.
Another group of interpreters, those who consider the nude
male figure to be Kekrops, and the whole group of three figures
to be the family of the royal founder of Athens, hold that
these two female figures are two of the three daughters of
Kekrops, Thallo and Auxo1. Brondsted believes them to be
the Hours. Finally, Brunn sees in them two Horae (they were
worshipped in Athens as two, not three) who had charge of the
portals of heaven, on Olympos2. As Brunn's interpretation of
the nude male figure is the one which conveys the greatest pro-
bability to my mind, so his interpretation of these two figures,
in keeping with his central idea which we shall consider more
1 Millingen, Welcker (1845), Overbeck, Lloyd (Karpo and Thallo), hold this
view.
2 II. V. 749 :
avrifiarai oe irv\ai jxtiKov Ovpavov, as ex0" ^pot,
Tjjs lirLTiTpairrai fieyas Ovpavos, 0v\v/j.tt6s re,
dvaKXivai ttvkivov v^tpos, 7)0' eirideivai.