The west frieze is about 25 feet long; casts of 16 feet 4 inches are in the British Museum. The east frieze is about 37 feet long, and casts of 32 feet are in the Museum.
From the Middle Ages till recent times this building has been called the Temple of Theseus, and was supposed to have been dedicated to Theseus by the Athenians in the time of Kimon. That statesman had transferred the bones of Theseus to Athens from the island of Skyros in 469 b.c. The chief arguments for this attribution are:—(1) That labours of Theseus are represented on the metopes, and perhaps on the friezes; (2) that the building is not far from the place where, according to Leake and others, it might be expected from the description of Pausanias (i. 17, 2); (3) that the temple was dedicated as a Christian church to St. George, who corresponds in many ways to Theseus.
Ross, however (Das Theseion), tried to prove that this was not the Theseion. He argued that no connection could be traced between the external sculptures and the function of the building. He also argued that the real Theseion cannot have been a complete temple, and that it cannot have stood in the position of the temple now in question. He proposed to call the building a temple of Ares. It has since been suggested that Ares and Theseus may have been joint occupants of the temple, as Athenè and Erechtheus held the Erechtheion in common (Murray, i. p. 236). Curtius (Sieben Carten, text, p. 53) suggested that the temple may have been that of Heracles in Melitè. In this view he has been followed by Wachsmuth (Stadt Athen, i. p. 364). Other patron deities have also been proposed, as Apollo Patroös, or Heracles and Theseus together, or Hephaestos. Doerpfeld, followed by Miss Harrison (Mythology and Monuments of Anc. Athens, p. 112), is strongly in favour of the last-mentioned attribution, identifying the building with the temple of Hephaestos mentioned by Pausanias (i., 14, 6).
It is clear, from a comparison of other temples, that no conclusive argument can be drawn from the subjects of the sculptures, especially of the metopes, which may have little connection with the special purpose of the temple. At the same time we know that the Theseion was decorated with paintings relating to the story of Theseus, and, so far as any weight can be attached to the subjects of the sculptures, they favour the attribution of the building to Theseus. It has been suggested that the temple may have belonged to Heracles and Theseus in common—not on the ground that we hear of such a temple, but because the ten metopes on the east front relate to Heracles. But this fact is inconclusive. The Athenians would be content to point out the parallelism of Heracles and Theseus, even if Theseus was made to occupy a subordinate position. The newly-discovered Ἀθηναίων Πολιτεία of Aristotle furnishes some new evidence. The disarming of the Athenians by Peisistratos is said to have been effected in the following manner. He caused the citizens to put down their arms in the Theseion, presumably in the temenos of Theseus, that he might address them, and then drew them off to the Propylaea on the pretext that they would be better able to hear him. Meanwhile his agents shut up the arms in "the adjacent buildings of the Theseion" (ἐξοπλισίαν ἐν τῷ Θησείῳ [sic MS.] ποιησάμενος ... ἐκέλευσεν αὐτοὺς προσαναβῆναι πρὸς τὸ Πρόπυλον τῆς ἀκροπόλεως ... ἀνελόντες οἱ ἐπὶ τούτων τεταγμένοι τὰ ὅπλα αὐτῶν καὶ συγκληίσαντες εἰς τὰ πλησίον οἰκήματα τοῦ Θησείου κ.τ.λ. Aristot. Ἀθ. Πολ. ed. Kenyon, 15). From this it may be inferred that the Theseion was at no great distance from the Propylaea, though sufficiently removed for the success of the stratagem. Polyaenus (Strat. i., 21) tells the story, but states that the disarming took place in the Anakeion, and that the arms were shut up in the sanctuary of Aglauros. These are known sites below the north and north-west sides of the Acropolis. The account of Aristotle thus shows that there was a temenos and shrine of Theseus in existence long before the time of Kimon.
The date of the temple is necessarily uncertain. It cannot be older than the Persian invasion (480 b.c.), but most writers are of opinion that each part is rather older than the corresponding part of the Parthenon, both in the architecture (Julius, Annali dell' Inst. 1878, p. 205) and in the sculpture. There are many parallels between the metopes of the Parthenon and the sculptures, both metopes and friezes, of the Theseion. There is also a close analogy between the east friezes of the Parthenon and the Theseion in point of composition; moreover certain figures occur in both works (Murray, i. p. 244). But there is no trace in the Theseion of the low relief of the Parthenon frieze. The whole of the Theseion sculptures are metope-like in the treatment of the high relief. Overbeck states the order in point of time as follows:—Metopes of Theseion; metopes of Parthenon; west frieze of Theseion; east frieze of Theseion; frieze of Parthenon (Gr. Plast. 3rd ed. I., p. 349). Doerpfeld, however, followed by Miss Harrison, holds the temple to be later than the Parthenon.
It has been held by Brunn, Julius (Annali dell' Inst. 1878, p. 202), and Murray (i. p. 251), that the differences between the sculptures of the two temples are due to the fact that the sculptures of the Theseion were produced by the school of Myron.
Stuart, Antiqs. of Athens, vol. III., chap. i.; Mus. Marbles, IX., pls. 12-21; Müller, Denkmaeler, pl. 21; Kunstarch. Werke, IV., p. 1; Ross, Das Theseion (1st ed. 1838; 2nd ed., 1852); Ulrichs, Annali dell' Inst., 1841, p. 74; Leake, Topography of Athens (2nd ed.), p. 498; Gurlitt, Das Alter der Bildwerke des sog. Theseion; Brunn, Sitzungsber. der k. bayer. Akad. Phil.-hist. Cl. 1874, II., p. 51; Wachsmuth, Die Stadt Athen, I., p. 357; Julius, in Annali dell' Inst., 1877, p. 92; 1878, p. 193; and Mon. dell' Inst., X., pls. 43, 44, 58, 59; Overbeck, Gr. Plast., 3rd ed., I., p. 343; Murray, I., p. 235; Wolters, No. 526; Baumeister, s. v. Theseion; Elgin Room Guide, II., B., 1-16. The British Museum possesses an excellent series of drawings of the Theseion by Lord Elgin's artists.
Casts of the Metopes of the Theseion.
The ten metopes on the eastern front contain nine labours of Heracles, one labour being represented in two groups. The eight metopes at the east ends of the South and North sides represent the following exploits of Theseus:—On the South side—(1) The victory over the Minotaur. (2) The capture of the bull of Marathon. (3) The punishment of Sinis Pityocamptes. (4) The punishment of Procrustes (?). On the North side are—(1) The victory of Theseus over the robber Periphetes, also called Corynetes. (2) His contest with the Arcadian wrestler, Kerkyon. (3) The punishment of Skiron. (4) The capture of the sow of Crommyon.
Of these eighteen metopes the Museum possesses casts of only three, Nos. 1, 2, and 4 on the North side.