WESTERN PEDIMENT OF THE PARTHENON.
304. The subject of the western pediment of the Parthenon according to Pausanias (i., 24, 5) was the strife of Poseidon with Athenè for the soil of Attica. This contest, according to tradition, took place on the Acropolis itself. Athenè, on this occasion, showed her power by making the soil produce the olive-tree; Poseidon, striking the ground with his trident, produced a salt spring, or, according to another and later version, a horse. The victory in the contest was adjudged to Athenè. The spot where this double miracle took place was marked in subsequent times by the joint temple of Erechtheus and Athenè Polias; within the precincts of which were the sacred olive-tree produced by Athenè, and the salt spring of Poseidon.
In the time of Carrey, the composition in this pediment was nearly perfect, and to understand the torsos which remain, reference should be made to Carrey's drawing (Plate v., fig. 2), or to the large model of the Parthenon. A few of the early writers on the Parthenon (Spon, Woods, Leake, Weber) mistook the western pediment for that which contained the representation of the birth of Athenè. If we omit the archaeologists who were under this misapprehension, we find that, while there is much difference of opinion as to the identification of the single figures in the western pediment as drawn by Carrey, it is generally admitted that the space bounded by the reclining figures in the angles represents the Acropolis between the two rivers of Athens, and that the figures to the left of Athenè are Attic deities or heroes, who would sympathise actively with her in the contest which is the subject of the pediment, while those to the right of Poseidon are the subordinate marine deities who would naturally be present as the supporters of the Ruler of the sea. The most interesting dissentient theory is that of Brunn (Ber. d. k. bayer. Akad. Phil. hist. Cl., 1874, ii., p. 23). By an ingenious but inconclusive series of arguments he has 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.
The great destruction of the western pediment since it was seen by Carrey may have been partly due to the explosion during the siege, but was chiefly the work of the Venetian General Morosini. After taking the Acropolis he tried to lower the horses of the car of Athenè, but the tackle he used broke, and this matchless group fell to the ground. If the fragments had been then collected and put together, much of this beautiful design might have been saved, but they remained on the spot where they fell till after the establishment of the Greek kingdom at Athens (1833), when such of them as were extant were gathered up and placed in a magazine on the Acropolis. They were subsequently moulded, and casts of them are now exhibited in the Elgin Room. Between the time of Morosini and the middle of the last century, when Dalton drew the western pediment, the work of destruction had been carried much further. In the right wing of the composition the figures N, O, Q, S, T, and in the left wing only four figures, A, B, C, and F(?) are shown in position on the pediment in Dalton's Plate. In the intervening middle space, two torsos are lying on the floor of the pediment. One of these is probably the Poseidon; the other may be the figure marked H. On the ground below the pediment lies the body of a draped figure, perhaps Athenè, and a fragment which may belong to the Poseidon.
All that remained in position in the western pediment when Lord Elgin's agents came to Athens were the figures B and C in the north angle, and in the south angle the lower part of the reclining female figure W. The figures are still in position, and the west end of the Parthenon was therefore not touched by Lord Elgin. The River-god A and the torsos H, L, M, O were found under the north-west angle of the pediment, after taking down a Turkish house built against the columns. The lower part of a female figure Q may also have been found on this spot.
After the Acropolis passed into the possession of the Greek government, the ground round the Parthenon was partly cleared of its ruins, and this led to the discovery, in 1835, of the crouching male figure V and of many fragments, among which are remains of the horses lowered by Morosini. The sculptures removed by Lord Elgin are exhibited in combination with casts of the remains now at Athens. The description that follows begins from the left or northern angle of the pediment.
304 A. Ilissos or Kephissos.—This figure, reclining in the angle of the pediment, is universally admitted to be a River-god, (cf. the description by Pausanias (v., 10, 7) of the pediment of the temple of Zeus at Olympia). The figure is popularly known as the Ilissos, but it may represent the Athenian Kephissos. According to Brunn's topographical scheme, it is a less familiar Kephissos, near Eleusis. This figure appears not to have suffered much since Carrey drew it. It was still in the pediment in Stuart's time, but had been thrown down at the date of Lord Elgin's mission. The body, half reclined, rests on the left arm, over which is the end of an himation, which falls behind the back in undulating lines, and is drawn up to the right knee. As the head and most of the right arm are wanting, their action must be a matter of conjecture; the general motion of the figure seems to indicate the moment of sudden transition from repose to action, and would be consistent with the supposition that the head was turned towards the central group, watching the momentous issue of the contest, and that the River-god was in the act of rising. In that case his right hand may have been drawing forward the end of his himation over his right knee. This figure has been long and deservedly celebrated for the perfection of its anatomy. In the front of the body, the flexibility of the abdominal muscles is finely contrasted with the strong framework of the ribs. The supple elastic character of the skin is here rendered with the same mastery as in the horse's head of the eastern pediment. At the back some of the surface has retained its original polish. In the undulating lines of the drapery, the sculptor has succeeded in suggesting the idea of flowing water without having recourse to direct or conventional imitation. The ground on which the figure reclines is a rock. The left hand rested on the bed of the pediment. A drawing by Pars taken during his visit to Athens in 1765-66 (engraved Stuart, ii., chap. I., pl. 9), shows part of the right forearm not shown in Carrey's drawing, and the outline of the four fingers of the left hand overlapping the edge of the pediment. A small attribute, probably of marble, was attached to the floor of the pediment in front of the figure.
Mus. Marbles, VI., pls. 13, 14; Mansell, 700; Baumeister, Denkmaeler, p. 1181, fig. 1371; Michaelis, pl. 8, fig. 1; Overbeck, Gr. Plast., 3rd ed., I., p. 310, fig. 64; Murray, II., pl. 8; Mitchell, Selections, pl. 4; Waldstein, Essays, pl. 3; Stereoscopic, No. 110; Sauer, Athenische Mittheilungen, XVI., p. 79.
304 A*. Between A and the two next figures (B, C) a space is shown in Dalton's drawing sufficient for a crouching figure, though no vestige of such a figure is indicated by Carrey. Traces also remain on the floor of the pediment (Sauer, Athenische Mittheilungen, xvi., p. 78). This gap may have been filled by a crouching Water Nymph, associated with the River-god. Brunn suggests a tributary of the Eleusinian Kephissos.
304 B, C. Cecrops and Pandrosos (cast).—This group still remains in the pediment at Athens, though much injured by exposure to the weather. It consists of a male figure, whose left thigh receives the main weight of his body, which leans a little to the right, resting on his left hand. With him is grouped a female figure, who has thrown herself in haste on both knees, with one arm round the neck of her companion. Her action expresses surprise at the event occurring in the centre of the pediment, towards which she has looked back. She wears a long chiton, and over it a diploïdion which falls below the girdle, and which has slipped from the left shoulder, leaving the left breast and side exposed. Her left arm, now entirely wanting, was broken off a little below the shoulder at the date of Carrey's drawing. The male figure has a mantle cast over his lower limbs. His right arm, which was broken off below the elbow in the time of Stuart, is now reduced to a stump. The right leg and knee and part of the right thigh have also been lost since the time of Stuart. It appears from the statements of travellers (cf. Michaelis, p. 194) that these figures lost their heads in the years 1802 and 1803. The careful drawing of the group made by Pars, and preserved in the British Museum (Stuart, ii., chap. I., pl. 9; Michaelis, pl. 8, fig. 2), shows that the heads of both figures were turned towards the central group, the head of the female figure being, moreover, slightly inclined over the left shoulder. In this drawing the right arm of the male figure is bent at a right angle, the upper part being nearly horizontal. On the ground between the pair is a convex mass, which has been recognised to be part of the coil of a large serpent. The remainder of this serpent may be seen at the back of the group, passing under the left hand of the male figure. In front of this hand the body of the serpent terminates in a joint with a rectangular sinking, into which a fragment from the Elgin Collection has been fitted. (Mus. Marbles, vi., pl. 8, fig. 2.)
This group has received various names. Spon and Wheler took it to represent Hadrian and Sabina, and their opinion was repeated by Payne Knight. The group has also been called Heracles and Hebè; Hephaestos and Aphroditè. The association of the serpent with the male figure has led Michaelis (p. 193) to recognise in him Asclepios, in which case the female figure would naturally be Hygieia, who is constantly associated with the father of the healing art, and who was worshipped, conjointly with Asclepios, in a shrine at the southern foot of the Athenian Acropolis. The bearded head, too, of the male figure, as drawn by Pars, would well accord with the type of Asclepios. On the other hand, the serpent in connection with that deity is usually coiled round his staff, not winding along the ground, as on the pediment. The whole composition of this serpent in relation to the kneeling male figure rather suggests the type of the earth-born Cecrops, as has been maintained by a considerable number of archæologists. If we adopt this attribution, then the female figure so intimately associated with the bearded figure in this group would be one of the daughters of Cecrops, perhaps Pandrosos. For the topographical interpretations of Boetticher (Marathon and Salamis) and of Brunn (Kithaeron and Parnes) there is no evidence.
Michaelis, pl. 8, fig. 2; Murray, II., pl. 9; Stereoscopic, No. 111. A remarkably accurate copy of this group was recently discovered at Eleusis, and is now in the National Museum at Athens. In the copy the coils of the serpent are omitted (Ἐφημερίς, 1890, pl. 12).
304 D, E, F. If B and C are Cecrops and one of his daughters, the two female figures (D, F), who in Carrey's drawing follow next, might be his other two daughters. The boy (E) between them would be, in that case, not the infant Iakchos between Demeter (D) and Korè (F), as several writers have supposed, but the young Erysichthon, son of Cecrops. According to Brunn's scheme these three figures personify Lycabettos, between Pentelicon and Hymettos.
Of the three figures D, E, F, only one fragment, now at Athens, has been identified, representing the left knee of a seated figure, with the right hand of a boy resting on it, and thus corresponding with Carrey's drawing of the seated figure on whose knee the boy Erysichthon rests his right hand. A cast of this fragment is exhibited in a Wall-Case (No. 339, 8). A fragment, now at Athens with the drapery on the right side of a figure seated on a rock, has been conjecturally assigned by Michaelis (pl. 8, fig. 5) to figure D or U. A cast is exhibited, No. 339, 7.
In Dalton's drawing a draped female torso, broken off at the knees, is placed next to C, which Michaelis (p. 191), conjectures to be the remains of F. Dalton has represented this figure with the chiton slipped down from the right shoulder so as to show the right breast and side. But the drawing by Pars shows next to C a part of a figure which accords more with D as drawn by Carrey. This fragment consists of a right arm bent at a right angle and advanced, and a line of drapery falling down the right side below the armpit. There is no reason to doubt that the figure to which the arm belonged was in position on the pediment when Pars drew it, and, if so, Dalton's drawing must be wholly inaccurate in respect to this figure. (See Michaelis, pl. 8, fig. 2.)
304 G. Next in order in Carrey's drawing is the seated female figure (G), who acts as charioteer to Athenè, and who has been generally recognised as Nikè. The only fragment which can be attributed with any probability to this figure is the head, obtained from Venice by Count de Laborde (No. 339, 1). A cast is exhibited in the Elgin Room.
304 H. Hermes (?).—In the background, between the figure G and the horses, Carrey gives a male figure (H), who looks back at the charioteer, while he moves forward in the same direction as the horses. The figure drawn by Carrey has been generally recognised in the torso in the Museum which has lost the head and lower limbs since Carrey's time, and is probably the same torso which Dalton represents lying on the bed of the pediment. This figure has been called Erechtheus, Erichthonios, Ares, Cecrops, Theseus, Pan, or Hermes. He is evidently aiding the charioteer in the management of the horses; an office very appropriate to Hermes, whose general character as a guide is expressed by such epithets as πομπαῖος, and who on other monuments is represented conducting a chariot.
The drapery which hangs at the back of the torso evidently represents a chlamys, which must have been fastened in front just above the left clavicle, where a hole is pierced to receive a metallic fastening. There is another hole between the collar-bones. The right arm was probably advanced nearly in a horizontal direction; the left arm may have had the elbow a little drawn back; and a portion of the chlamys evidently passed round this arm, and was probably twisted round it, a fashion of drapery characteristic of Hermes. Among the fragments of the Parthenon at Athens is a small piece of the left shoulder of this figure, a cast of which has been adjusted to the marble in the Museum. The remains of the left thigh show that the left leg was advanced as in Carrey's drawing. The fragments described below, Nos. 339, 9, and 339, 10, may belong to this figure. A fragment of plinth, with two feet, sometimes assigned to it, is described below, No. 329.
Mus. Marbles, VI., pl. 15; Michaelis, pl. 8, fig. 3.
304 L, M. Athenè and Poseidon.—The Athenè of which L is the remnant is drawn by Carrey moving rapidly to the left; her right arm, broken off above the elbow, is advanced horizontally in the same direction. Her left arm is broken off below the shoulder; she wears a long chiton, over which is a diploïdion, reaching to the hips, and falling in a fold over the girdle. The ægis, folded like a narrow band, passes obliquely across the bosom between the breasts, and has extended from the right shoulder round the left side, and probably across the back. It is scalloped on its lower edge, and at the points holes are pierced for the attachment of serpents of metal. In the centre of the ægis is another hole, in which a circular object six inches in diameter, doubtless a Gorgoneion, has been fixed. Carrey's drawing shows the base of the neck, which was broken off before the time of Lord Elgin. It has been recognised among the fragments on the Acropolis, and a cast of it is now adjusted to the marble. It is evident from this that the head of the goddess was turned towards her antagonist.
Mus. Marbles, VI., pl. 16; Michaelis, pl. 8, fig. 13.
304 M. The torso of Poseidon is made up of three parts. The fragment with the shoulders and upper part of the chest was removed by Lord Elgin; the fragment containing the remainder of the breast and the abdomen nearly to the navel has been since discovered, and the original is at Athens. Since this torso was engraved in the work of Michaelis (pl. 8, fig. 16), a small piece has been added to the lower part of the abdomen. It appears from Carrey's drawing that Poseidon was starting back in a direction contrary to that of Athenè, with the weight of his body thrown on the left knee, which is bent. Carrey's drawing shows the same portion of the right upper arm, which is preserved. It is raised with the shoulder and may have been extended in a nearly horizontal direction. The head in Carrey's drawing is slightly inclined over the right shoulder. At the back the upper part of the shoulders is roughly cut away; the chiselling does not appear to be ancient, but may have been done after the figure had fallen from the pediment. The upper part of this torso is remarkable for the grandeur of the lines.
Mus. Marbles, VI., pl. 17; Lower part, Michaelis, pl. 8, fig. 16; Laborde, Le Parthénon. The two parts are combined, Overbeck, Gr. Plast., 3rd ed., I., p. 312, fig. 65; Stereoscopic, No. 101.
Though we know from Pausanias that the strife between Athenè and Poseidon for the soil of Attica was the subject of the western pediment, the exact action represented by the central group cannot be determined. Most writers suppose that the combatants have produced their respective tokens, and that the strife is just decided. Among the fragments found on the Acropolis were three which are certainly parts of an olive-tree (Michaelis, pl. 8, fig. 15). The scale of these fragments, casts of which are exhibited (see below, Nos. [339, 15-17]), would be suitable for a tree placed in the centre of the pediment between the two contending deities. If these fragments belong to the Parthenon (of which there is no positive proof), it seems natural to suppose that Athenè is represented as having produced her olive, which stood in the centre of the pediment, and was fixed in a rectangular socket, well adapted to support it (Sauer, Athenische Mittheilungen, xvi., pl. 3, p. 72). In this case the two gods are seen starting asunder, but looking inwards, after the decisive moment. The salt spring produced by the trident of Poseidon may also have had a place in the composition, though no trace of it is to be found either among the fragments or in Carrey's drawing.
The chief divergent theory is that of Stephani, who published a vase-painting representing the contest (Compte Rendu, 1872, pl. 1, p. 5; Journ. of Hellenic Studies, iii., p. 245). In that design Poseidon and Athenè form an antagonistic group, which in composition presents some resemblance with the central group in the pediment. The olive-tree is placed between them, and Poseidon controls, with his left hand, the upspringing horse. Stephani argues from the vase-painting that Pheidias made Poseidon produce the horse—a variant tradition, of which there are traces in late literature—that Poseidon was represented striking the ground with his trident and Athenè striking it with her lance to produce the tokens, which are shown, by anticipation, in the pediment itself. It is more likely that on the vase the tokens have been produced and Poseidon attacks, while Athenè defends the olive. But neither in the protagonists nor in the rest of the design on the vase is there that close correspondence in type and action which would justify the conclusion that the vase-painter copied directly any portion of the pedimental composition. On the other hand, considerable portions of the bodies of three horses in addition to those represented by casts in the British Museum (No. 341) have been discovered in the excavations on the Acropolis (Sauer, Athenische Mittheilungen, xvi., pl. 3, p. 73), and there can be little doubt that the figure known as Amphitritè (O) acted as the charioteer of Poseidon, and drove a pair of horses which corresponded closely to the team of Athenè, and completed the symmetry of the composition. Inasmuch therefore as each deity has a similar pair of horses, it is impossible to regard those of Poseidon as his distinctive token in the combat.
If we assume that this second pair of horses was attached to the chariot of Poseidon, room may be found for a representation of the salt spring either between the left leg of the Sea-god and the forelegs of his chariot horses, or beneath the horses.
For the vase picture already referred to, see also de Witte, in the Monuments Grecs de l'Association pour l'encouragement des études Grecques, No. 4, 1875; Brunn, Sitzungsber. d. k. bayer. Akad. Phil.-hist. Cl., 1876, p. 477; and Petersen, Arch. Zeit., 1875, p. 115. For more recent discussions on the subject of the dispute between Athenè and Poseidon, see Robert in Hermes, XVI., p. 60, and in Athenische Mittheilungen, VII., p. 48; Petersen in Hermes, XVII., p. 124; E. A. Gardner, in Journ. of Hellen. Studies, III., p. 244; Wolters, p. 259.
304 N. This figure, which may have been a Nereid, has been entirely lost since the time of Dalton, unless we identify it with the supposed Victory of the east pediment. (See No. [303 J].)
304 O. Amphitritè.—In Carrey's drawing this torso appears as a seated figure, the right foot on a higher level than the left, the left arm drawn back as if holding the reins; between the feet appears the head either of a dolphin or a marine monster. The head, left hand, and apparently the right arm of Amphitritè are wanting. According to Dalton's imperfect drawing, the figure had in his time lost the left forearm and left leg. The torso at present wants the head, right arm from the shoulder, left arm from below the shoulder, and all the lower limbs except the upper part of the left thigh. The body is clad in a long chiton without sleeves; an upper fold falls over the bosom as low as the waist, passing under a broad girdle such as would be suitable for charioteers. A small mantle passes obliquely across the back, one end passing over the left shoulder and under the left arm; the other had passed over the right shoulder. The places where metallic ornaments were attached on this figure are marked by five holes pierced in the marble, one of which is on the base of the neck, one on the right shoulder at the fastening of the chiton, and three on the left shoulder. On the inside of the left thigh are folds of fine drapery; the surface of the outside still shows that the chiton had been open at the side, schistos, as in Carrey's drawing. It should be noted that this figure was not seated, as Carrey has drawn it, but must have been standing with the body thrown back and the arms extended in front, like the charioteer (No. 33) in the north frieze.
Mus. Marbles, VI., pl. 18; Michaelis. pl. 8, figs. 18, 18a.
304 P, Q. Leucothea, with boy (?).—Lower limbs of a seated female figure, which in Carrey's drawing appears on the right of the Amphitritè, and which then had its head. The head of the female figure looks out of the pediment; the feet are placed very close together. In Dalton's drawing this figure is still in position, but headless. In its present state, nothing remains of this figure but the lap and legs to the ankles. On the right of the figure, the body of a youth (P) appears in Carrey's drawing. The beginning of the right thigh, with the lower part of the buttock, is still preserved; of the left thigh, the outline as far as the knee is preserved on the marble. Three fingers of his right hand may still be traced on the right knee of the female figure (Q), where they rest on an end of drapery, probably his himation, which reappears, wound round his left thigh. These remains show that the body of this boy faced the right side of the female figure, pressing against her. If we assume that she is a marine goddess, the name Leucothea seems the best attribution, and the youth at her side would then be Palaemon. A mantle is thrown over the thighs, falling down between the knees over the chiton. The folds are deeply undercut, as if to express the gentle agitation of the drapery by the movement of a light breeze. In Brunn's topographical scheme, P Q are the coast of Attica from Munychia to the Piraeus.
Mus. Marbles, VI., pl. 19; Michaelis, pl. 8, fig. 19.
304 R. A figure of a child appears in Carrey's drawing on the right of the figure Q. It is doubtful whether it should be associated most nearly with Q or with the figure next on the right (S). On the former supposition, the figure called above Leucothea has been interpreted as Leto with Apollo and Artemis; as Leda with the Dioscuri; or as Fostering Earth, Γῆ Κουροτρόφος, with children. On the latter supposition R has generally been called Eros associated with Aphroditè (S).
304 S, T. Next in Carrey's drawing comes a draped female figure (T), seated, in whose lap is a naked figure (S), supposed by Carrey to be female. This is generally supposed to be Thalassa, the Sea; the almost entire nudity of the figure in her lap (S) makes it probable that Aphroditè is here represented; her position in the lap of Thalassa would be a way of expressing her sea-born origin. According to Brunn, T is a personification of Cape Colias, and the figure of Aphroditè indicates a shrine of that Goddess which stood on the cape. If, as seems probable, the naked female figure is Aphroditè, the boy (R) is probably Eros. Both the female figures were still in the pediment when Dalton drew it. The marble fragment (T), representing the right thigh of a draped female figure seated on a rock, is probably the only extant remnant of Thalassa. A mantle has been brought round the lower limbs of this figure, so that one edge of it falls on the rock on which she is seated. This disposition of the drapery is indicated in Carrey's drawing. (Michaelis, pl. 8, fig. 20.)
304 U. Next in Carrey's drawing comes a female figure (U), seated and draped. This had fallen out of the pediment when Dalton drew it, and no fragment of it can now be identified. It had lost the head and arms in Carrey's time. The figure presents no distinctive characteristic by which she may be identified. She is probably a marine deity. Brunn interprets her as a personification of Cape Zoster.
304 V, W. Ilissos or Kephissos and Callirrhoè (?).—(Casts) The draped female figure (W) reclining in the extreme angle of the pediment appears in Carrey's drawing leaning on her right elbow, and with her head turned towards the male figure (V) who kneels on both knees, inclining his body towards his companion, and leaning on his left arm. The manner in which these figures are here associated suggests an intimate relation between the two; the female figure has all the characteristics of a local Nymph, and the flow of her drapery would well accord with an aquatic type. It seems probable, therefore, that the celebrated Athenian fountain Callirrhoè may be personified by this figure, and in that case the male figure next to her (V), though not in the reclining attitude usually characteristic of River-gods, may be the Ilissos, out of whose bed the fountain Callirrhoè rises. Brunn holds that V is a personification of the Attic coast, Paralia. This, however, appears, from a recently-discovered inscription, to be represented as female (Athenische Mittheilungen, xiii., p. 221); W according to the same archæologist is a personification of the Myrtoan Sea. Dalton's drawing shows no indication of either of these figures, though the lower half of the Callirrhoè is to this day in position on the pediment. The torso of the male figure had been broken, and was found in two places in the excavations on the Acropolis in 1833. The head, arms, and left leg have disappeared since Carrey's time. The right leg is doubled up under the figure; the left knee must have been somewhat higher. This figure is nude with the exception of a chlamys which falls down the back and passes in front over the right ankle. For a fragment which may belong to the left hand, see No. [339, 20]. This agrees with the statement of Sauer (Athenische Mittheilungen, 1891, p. 81), that the figure leant with open hand on the ground.
The female figure (W) is reclining on her right side; the right knee has been more bent than the left. The upper part of the body seems, from the direction of the folds of the drapery, to have been slightly raised, and to have rested on the right elbow, as represented in Carrey's drawing. The dress is a long chiton, over which falls a diploïdion nearly to the waist. All that remains of the figure are the right side from below the arm to a little below the right hip, and parts of both legs wanting the knees. According to Carrey the left arm of this figure was raised so that the hand projected beyond the cornice. Between the figures V and W a hole is pierced in the bed of the pediment, in which some bronze object was inserted.
Figure V., Laborde, Le Parthénon; Michaelis, pl. 8, fig. 21; Figure W., Michaelis, pl. 8, fig. 22.