The local colour of the rocky surface of the Acropolis intensifies the long blue shadows. The effect of the golden-brown weathering of the surface of the marble on the west front of the Parthenon is faithfully given.
exhibits was no doubt due to the genius of Pheidias, assisted by the architectural skill of Ictinus and Callicrates, while the mechanical precision and careful finish in the execution prove the competency of the sculptors and masons who were employed under their supervision. It is surprising how much attention was paid to nice optical considerations, which must have been very difficult to calculate, though they enhance greatly the general effect. For example, there is scarcely a straight line in the whole edifice, quadrangular as it is. There is a slight convex curve on the line of the steps and of the substructure, and the same is the case with the architrave. There is a gentle swelling of the columns towards their centre, and the axes of the columns incline slightly inwards.
Nowhere, perhaps, is the fineness of the workmanship more apparent than in the joining of the drums composing each column, generally twelve in number, and rising to a height of thirty-four feet. They fit so closely and exactly that they almost look as if they had grown together. In this respect there is a marked difference between the columns which have never been disturbed and those which have been restored by the collection of fallen drums. The smoothing of the flat surfaces of the drum was mainly done in the quarry, the part near the centre being left rough and slightly hollow. There was a hole in the centre for a wooden plug, into which a cylindrical peg was inserted for the purpose of securing an exact correspondence in the position of the drums. The fluting—each column has twenty flutes—was done after the drums were in position, with the exception of a beginning that was previously made on the stones intended for the top and bottom of the column.
Of the outer colonnade, comprising eight columns at each end, and fifteen others at each side, with an inner row of columns at each end, the greater number are still in position, though in some cases in a fragmentary form; the chief gaps are about the middle of the sides. There is hardly any trace of the sculptures on the pediments. Part of those which stood at the east end, representing the birth of Athena, are to be found in the British Museum. Those of the west gable, representing the contest between Athena and Poseidon, have entirely disappeared. Great part of the outer Doric frieze still remains, including forty-one of the original ninety-two metopes, on which were depicted various mythical battle scenes. The best remaining, both as regards workmanship and condition, are those on the south side, representing the struggles of the Lapiths and Centaurs. The inner frieze, running round the top of the temple walls, and surmounting the inner columns, represented the great Pan-Athenaic festival, including figures, in low relief, of knights and chariots, magistrates and maidens, priests and victims, and terminating in an assembly of the gods at the east end. The most of this frieze and fifteen of the metopes are preserved in the British Museum. They had been carried off by Lord Elgin at the beginning of the nineteenth century, with the consent of the