DOI article:
Essay VII: The central slab of the Parthenon frieze and the Copenhagen plaque
DOI Page / Citation link:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.11444#0273
VIr.] THE CENTRAL SLAB OF THE PARTHENON FRIEZE. 241
priest is not receiving the cloak from the boy, but that he is
really handing it to him. This he makes evident in drawing
attention to the way in which the priest holds the garment
which he has just folded, which would not be folded in this
irregular manner if the boy had been carrying it, while the
priest would not seize it in this fashion if he were taking it from
the boy ; and, above all, the way in which the boy holds the
peplos. This, Flasch maintains, would be an awkward method
of holding up and offering a limp substance, while it is the
evident and most natural way for receiving the garment.
I can thoroughly sympathise with the reluctance which many
must feel to give up, first, an interpretation long fixed by custom,
secondly, one so full of beautiful associations, and thirdly, to re-
sign such a meaning for one seemingly so trivial. It does seem a
great step downwards from the dedication of the sacred peplos of
Athene, the culminating act of the Panathenaic procession, to the
scene of a priest divesting himself of his outer garment. Yet we
must not forget that what to our minds appears trivial was not
so to the minds of the Greeks, simpler and less sophisticated—
especially in matters connected with dress or nudity. Further-
more we must bear in mind that every act connected with the
worship, the rites and ceremonies of the gods, was possessed of
a solemnity and importance which raised it far above the
corresponding prosaic action of daily life. We need but re-
member the solemnity attached to every movement and action
of the priest in the ritual of the Church of Rome. Finally we
must bear in mind that Pheidias was true to nature even in his
representation of the gods, and that such an artist would have
represented most clearly, true to the custom in life, the act of
receiving the peplos from the boy, if such had been the action of
the priest, and not have represented him in the act of handing it
to the boy, though he would have found means of indicating the
solemnity of this act in distinguishing it from the unceremonious,
less solemn, and less individual scene of sacerdotal preparation.
In a few words : he would have shown unmistakably, first, that
something is offered to the priest, secondly, that what is offered
is the peplos of the goddess, forming the culminating point of
the great ceremony. It remains for the archaeologist to study-
carefully what the artist has really expressed and to base upon
w. iG
priest is not receiving the cloak from the boy, but that he is
really handing it to him. This he makes evident in drawing
attention to the way in which the priest holds the garment
which he has just folded, which would not be folded in this
irregular manner if the boy had been carrying it, while the
priest would not seize it in this fashion if he were taking it from
the boy ; and, above all, the way in which the boy holds the
peplos. This, Flasch maintains, would be an awkward method
of holding up and offering a limp substance, while it is the
evident and most natural way for receiving the garment.
I can thoroughly sympathise with the reluctance which many
must feel to give up, first, an interpretation long fixed by custom,
secondly, one so full of beautiful associations, and thirdly, to re-
sign such a meaning for one seemingly so trivial. It does seem a
great step downwards from the dedication of the sacred peplos of
Athene, the culminating act of the Panathenaic procession, to the
scene of a priest divesting himself of his outer garment. Yet we
must not forget that what to our minds appears trivial was not
so to the minds of the Greeks, simpler and less sophisticated—
especially in matters connected with dress or nudity. Further-
more we must bear in mind that every act connected with the
worship, the rites and ceremonies of the gods, was possessed of
a solemnity and importance which raised it far above the
corresponding prosaic action of daily life. We need but re-
member the solemnity attached to every movement and action
of the priest in the ritual of the Church of Rome. Finally we
must bear in mind that Pheidias was true to nature even in his
representation of the gods, and that such an artist would have
represented most clearly, true to the custom in life, the act of
receiving the peplos from the boy, if such had been the action of
the priest, and not have represented him in the act of handing it
to the boy, though he would have found means of indicating the
solemnity of this act in distinguishing it from the unceremonious,
less solemn, and less individual scene of sacerdotal preparation.
In a few words : he would have shown unmistakably, first, that
something is offered to the priest, secondly, that what is offered
is the peplos of the goddess, forming the culminating point of
the great ceremony. It remains for the archaeologist to study-
carefully what the artist has really expressed and to base upon
w. iG