From the Vestibule, containing antiques of various ages, we enter (left) Room I, where the chronological order begins.
Room I. Archaic sculptures in poros (6th cent.). Straight before us, No. 3. Bull attacked by two lions; above this, and by the right wall: 1, 2. Tympana with statues of Hercules (with traces of painting). By the window-wall: 9, 10. Deities enthroned, from a tympanum of the pre-Peisistrateian Hekatompedon (p. [518]).
Room II. Remains of the tympanum groups in poros from the Hekatompedon just mentioned: 36. Hercules with the Triton; 35. Figure with three bodies (‘Typhon’); 40. Remains of two large serpents in poros stone, showing abundant traces of painting (comp. water-colour on the wall).
Room III. Figures (idols), tablets, and architectural fragments in terracotta, some with admirably preserved painting. Specially noteworthy, at the entrance, No. 67. A warrior (6–5th cent.).
Room IV. Fragments of marble sculptures; architectural ornaments in terracotta, poros, and marble, some of them painted. On the right, the tympanum figures from Peisistratos’s colonnade round the old Hekatompedon (p. [518]): Athena fighting with the Giants.
Room V. Archaic marbles (6th cent.), incl. (on the right of the entrance) 624. Calf-Bearer (youth bringing a calf to the altar).
Room VI. Archaic *Draped Female Figures, erected in the Acropolis in the 2nd half of the 6th cent. as votive offerings, but buried in the rubbish after its destruction (480), also with interesting traces of painting. No. 681 is by Antenor, author of the tyrannicide group (comp. p. [506]); No. 686 is the most recent.
Room VII. Later archaic marbles, notably (in the centre, under glass) No. 689. Beautiful head of a youth; also two graceful reliefs, 695. Athena, and 702. Hermes and three women—Above, along the walls, Metopes from the Parthenon (p. [517]), few of them original; the finest, a Centaur carrying off one of the Lapithæ.
Room VIII. Sculptures from the Parthenon: Statues from the tympana and reliefs from the frieze, those in the British Museum being represented by casts. In the centre of the room a reconstruction of the tympanum groups, according to Furtwängler. By the wall on the right are remains of the E. tympanum (p. [517]), two torsos only being originals. No. 880 (in the centre). Hephæstus; on the right, 881. Selene. Above are remains of the W. tympanum; in the centre, 885. Poseidon.
Most interesting of all is the better-preserved **Parthenon Frieze, of which nearly 28 yds. are almost entirely original (partly replaced by casts). To the right of the entrance, 856. Three deities, Aphrodite (?), Apollo, and Poseidon; below these, 857. Three youths with cows for sacrifice. Then, on the right, 877. Four women with silver or gold basins; 875. Three men with musical instruments. We note also several slabs from the procession of horsemen and chariots. To the right of the entrance, 860. Youth with sacrificial sheep.