Fig. 20.—Plan of the Propylaea and Temple of Wingless Victory.
The subject of the east side appears to be a council of Gods. The long sides each contained a battle between Greeks and a series of warriors, mounted and on foot, wearing Asiatic costumes and probably intended to represent Persians. The west side is generally taken to represent a battle of Greeks with Greeks. Several attempts have been made to show that historical battles are represented on the frieze. Overbeck suggests that the three sides on which there are combatants belong to one battle, and he conjectures the battle of Platæa (479 b.c.), when Greeks defeated the Persians and their Greek adherents. Other writers, perhaps with more probability, deny that any definite battle is intended, and hold that we see merely a generalised representation of Athenians, victorious alike over Greeks and Barbarians.
It has been shown by Bohn (Die Propyläen, p. 31) and Doerpfeld on technical architectural grounds that the Temple of Victory was not contemplated in the first plans for the Propylaea, but that the form of the Propylaea was modified during the course of construction on account of it. The earliest date thus obtained for the beginning of the present building is about 432 b.c. There is nothing to show what time the temple took to build. In point of style there is a great resemblance between the sculptures of the frieze, and those of the frieze of the Erechtheion, of which a part was being worked, as we know from the inscription, in 409 b.c. The frieze of Nikè Apteros may perhaps be placed between 430 and 420 b.c.
Spon, Voyage (ed. 1679), II., p. 105; Wheler, Journey into Greece, p. 358; Stuart, II., ch. V., pls. 12, 13 (from drawings by Pars, now in the British Museum); Ross, Schaubert and Hansen, Die Akropolis von Athen; Abth. I. Der Tempel der Nike Apteros, 1839; Mus. Marbles, IX., pls. 7-10; Overbeck, Gr. Plast., 3rd ed., I., p. 363; Bohn, Die Propyläen der Akropolis zu Athen, 1882; Murray, II., p. 179; Kekulé (and Bohn) Die Reliefs an der Balustrade der Athena Nike; Wolters, Nos. 747-760. For Doerpfeld's views, see Harrison, Mythology and Monuments of Anc. Athens, p. 356. For further references see Wolters, p. 284. A photographic view of the temple is given by Baumeister, fig. 1234; and of Nos. 421 to 424 in Stereoscopic, No. 121.
The West Frieze.
421. The return of a slab of the north side, now at Athens, formed the left end of the frieze, and contains two figures advancing to the right to join the fray (Ross, pl. 11. h.). This is followed by slab No. 421, containing a battle of Greeks. In the first group on the left two warriors are engaged in vehement combat. The warrior on the left supports with his right knee the shoulder of a wounded comrade who has fallen at his feet and leans on his right arm. In the next group are two antagonists fighting over the body of a dead combatant, then a warrior who has overthrown his adversary and treads him down with his left foot. He raises his right hand to inflict the mortal wound, and may perhaps have grasped the victim's right wrist with his left hand. In the background is a trophy which appears to consist of a trunk of a tree, to which a helmet, shield, and cuirass have been attached. On the right of the slab is a warrior pursuing a foe flying to the right.—Elgin Coll.
Pentelic marble; height, 1 feet 5½ inches; length, 6 feet 8½ inches. Synopsis, No. 160 (259); Ross, pl. 11, i.; Mus. Marbles, IX., pl. 9; Baumeister, fig. 1240; Brunn, Denkmaeler, No. 118.
422. The first figure on the left of the slab appears to be hastening to the assistance of the flying warrior on the right of the slab just described. Next is a complicated group of five warriors fighting for the body of a wounded man. The latter has sunk helplessly on the ground. He is half raised and clasped under the arms by a friend who attempts to draw him away; a foe tries to seize an ankle, and covers himself meanwhile with his outstretched shield. More in the background two adversaries are engaged in hot combat. The warrior on the left probably had a sword, and that on the right a spear. A friend of the fallen man hastens up from the left. The right thigh of this figure, which is now wanting, is preserved in a drawing by Pars.