DOI article:
No. IV: the eastern pediment of the temple of Zeus in Olympia and the western pediment of the Parthenon
DOI Page / Citation link:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.11444#0459
No. IV.
THE EASTERN PEDIMENT OF THE TEMPLE OF ZEUS
AT OLYMPIA AND THE WESTERN PEDIMENT OF
THE PARTHENON.
[Reprinted from the Journal of Hellenic Studies, Vol. v. (1884), pp. 195-204.]
An initial cause of opposition to the acceptance of the interpretation
of the Eastern pediment of the Temple of Zeus at Olympia here offered
will no doubt lie in the fact that this proposed interpretation will, in
some of the details, run counter to the direct statements of Pausanias.
But though it is a dangerous proceeding in archaeology to discredit the
direct statement of an ancient authority, there is one authority more
conclusive than the statement of any ancient eye-witness, that is, the
direct evidence of the remains themselves. When in addition to this we
have reason to know that this particular writer was apt to be misled in
the recognition of subjects of the very nature of those in question, and
that his sources of information were often of the most illiterate and
untrustworthy kind, we are then more than ever justified in turning,
nay, called upon to turn, to the unbiassed study of the monuments
themselves and their relation to all works of that class, with a view to
the solution of the problem.
Every reader of Pausanias will soon notice that there was a certain
bias in the mind of the traveller, a certain tendenz pervading the whole
of his writings, modifying the character of his book, and sometimes the
correctness of his statements. It might be called a religious, or rather
mythographical, bias which arose in him in great part out of the spirit of
his age (an age marked by the death-struggle of Greek paganism against
rising Christianity), and which drove him to look for illustrations of
myths and mythical personalities in every monument. He will never
THE EASTERN PEDIMENT OF THE TEMPLE OF ZEUS
AT OLYMPIA AND THE WESTERN PEDIMENT OF
THE PARTHENON.
[Reprinted from the Journal of Hellenic Studies, Vol. v. (1884), pp. 195-204.]
An initial cause of opposition to the acceptance of the interpretation
of the Eastern pediment of the Temple of Zeus at Olympia here offered
will no doubt lie in the fact that this proposed interpretation will, in
some of the details, run counter to the direct statements of Pausanias.
But though it is a dangerous proceeding in archaeology to discredit the
direct statement of an ancient authority, there is one authority more
conclusive than the statement of any ancient eye-witness, that is, the
direct evidence of the remains themselves. When in addition to this we
have reason to know that this particular writer was apt to be misled in
the recognition of subjects of the very nature of those in question, and
that his sources of information were often of the most illiterate and
untrustworthy kind, we are then more than ever justified in turning,
nay, called upon to turn, to the unbiassed study of the monuments
themselves and their relation to all works of that class, with a view to
the solution of the problem.
Every reader of Pausanias will soon notice that there was a certain
bias in the mind of the traveller, a certain tendenz pervading the whole
of his writings, modifying the character of his book, and sometimes the
correctness of his statements. It might be called a religious, or rather
mythographical, bias which arose in him in great part out of the spirit of
his age (an age marked by the death-struggle of Greek paganism against
rising Christianity), and which drove him to look for illustrations of
myths and mythical personalities in every monument. He will never