The inner or Ionic frieze, sometimes erroneously called the frieze, was one of the most beautiful of the groups of sculptures on the original Parthenon. It was almost unknown to distinctly Doric temples and owes its place on the Parthenon to some one or more Ionic temples from which the idea was without doubt copied.
In the Ionic frieze is found most of the atmosphere of ancient Assyria that is associated with the Parthenon. This frieze was low in relief, forty inches in height; and of necessity the figures of the men and women and animals which went to make up the frieze were small, typical of the Assyrian bas-relief.
The Ionic frieze was located along the outer walls of the Parthenon, extending forty inches down from the top of the wall, and rested on a blue fret running all around the building, a distance of five hundred and twenty-four feet. It was a marvelous piece of sculptural art. Although there were approximately six hundred figures in the frieze, men, women, and animals, no two of them were alike—no two men, no two women, and no two animals; yet all were graceful, dignified, and beautiful.
The Ionic frieze of the Parthenon depicted the Panathenaic Procession which occurred every four years in Athens. It was an established part of the Panathenaic Festival and coincident also with the athletic contests held in honor of Athena. On this occasion the Greeks assembled in the downtown streets of Athens; men and women of high and low degree with their slaves, various kinds of animals, chariots with their horsemen, men at arms, wild horses led by Barbarians, dignitaries of state, and maidens. These formed a procession which wound its way up through the streets of Athens leading to the Acropolis, on to that sacred hill, and into the Parthenon, where they invested the figure of Athena with a peplos, or robe, which had been woven by the women of Athens during the previous four-year period. It was at once a gala and a solemn occasion for the Greeks.
Unfortunately, for lack of funds the Ionic frieze has been left off the Parthenon at Nashville, which lacks that much of being completed. It is available, however, as the greater part of it is in the British Museum, some in the Louvre, and the remainder, twenty-four feet in all, is still on the ruin at Athens. There is no doubt that the Ionic frieze will eventually find its place on the temple at Nashville.
The Doric, or outer frieze, is located on the outside of the Parthenon above the architrave that rests on the great Doric columns of the peristyle. It extends along both sides of the building and underneath the pedimental sculptures at each end. It consists of a repeating conventional design called a triglyph which divides the frieze into ninety-two panels, each panel containing a group of sculptures. The panels with their sculptures are known as the metopes and are approximately four feet square.
There were no repetitions in the sculptures of the Doric frieze. They told legendary and mythological stories that were dear to the heart of the Greeks. That part of the frieze on the eastern end of the building pictured scenes from the struggle between the gods and the giants. The war between the Greeks and the Amazons was shown by the figures of the frieze on the western end. On the north side of the building the figures depicted incidents of the Trojan War, while those along the south side told the story of the Lapiths, a tribe of the Greeks, and the Centaurs. The story is that of a princess of this tribe who was to be married. She sent invitations to the Centaurs, mythological creatures part man and part horse, to come to the wedding feast. They came, drank wine, became drunken, and insulted the bride, which brought on a war in which the Centaurs were defeated.
The figures of the Doric frieze are archaic and stiff by comparison with those of the pedimental sculptures or of the Ionic frieze and are therefore thought not to be the work of Phidias and his associates but rather a transfer from one of the earlier temples to the Parthenon. They play their part well in the harmonious whole and reflect the ability and genius of Phidias, who adapted them.
The West Pediment Showing Section of Doric Frieze Underneath the Acroteria Above