Now let us examine the symmetry as manifested in the corrected arrangement. After the figures which we have found to have a thoroughly symmetrical disposition, we have on the left side a group consisting of a bearded satyr (face damaged), with panther-skin (VI a), about to strike with his thyrsus a pirate kneeling at the left (VI b), with his hands bound behind his back. The face of this figure is also somewhat injured. The corresponding group on the right (VI¹ instead of the erroneous V¹), represents a youthful satyr with panther-skin thrown over his arm (VI¹ a), about to strike with the club which he holds in his uplifted right hand, a pirate (VI¹ b), who has been thrown on his back, and raises his left arm, partly in supplication and partly to ward off the blow. As in the groups V:V¹, so in VI:VI¹, persons, action, and arrangement, are closely symmetrical, while a graceful variety and harmony is effected by so modifying each of these elements as to repeat scarcely a detail in the several corresponding figures.
After these five fighters, we observe on the left a powerful bearded satyr (face much injured), with flowing panther-skin, facing the right, and wrenching away a branch from a tree (VII). The corresponding figure on the right side (VII¹) is a nude, bearded satyr, who is breaking down a branch of a tree. At first the correspondence does not seem to be maintained, for this satyr faces the right, whereas after the analogy of figures VII and IV we might expect him to face the left. But a closer examination shows that this lack of symmetry is apparent only when figures VII:VII¹ are considered individually, and apart from the scenes to which they belong. For while IV and VII, the outside figures of the main scene on the left, appropriately face each other, the figures IV¹ and VII¹, which occupy the same position with regard to the chief scene on the right, are placed so as to face in opposite directions. By this subtle device, for which the relation between the figures III¹ and IV¹ furnishes an evident motive, the sculptor has contrived to indicate distinctly the limits of these scenes, while the symmetry existing between them is heightened and emphasized by the avoidance of rigid uniformity.
The trees serve also to mark the end of the preceding scenes, and to contrast the land, upon which they stand, with the sea, of which we behold a portion on either side, while a pair of corresponding, semi-human dolphins (VIII : VIII¹) are just leaping into the element which is to form their home. These dolphins are not quite accurately drawn in Stuart and Revett, for what appears as an under jaw is, as Dodwell [105] rightly pointed out, a fin, and their mouths are closed; the teeth, which are seen in Stuart's drawing and all subsequent reproductions of it, do not exist on the monument. The correct form of the head may be seen in the British Museum publication.
Footnote 105:[ (return) ] I, p. 290.
After these dolphins, we have on each side another piece of land succeeded again by a stretch of sea. On these pieces of land are seen on each side two groups of two figures each, while a third incipient dolphin (0¹), which does not stand in group-relation with any of the other figures, leaps into the sea between them. In these groups there is a general correspondence, but it does not extend to particular positions or to accessories.
At the left we observe first a bearded satyr with torch and flowing panther-skin (IX a), pursuing a pirate, who flees to the left (IX b). The space between the satyr and his victim is in part occupied by a hole, which was probably cut for a beam at the time when the monument was built into the convent. In the corresponding places on the right side, we have a bearded satyr with panther-skin (IX¹ a), about to strike with the forked club which he holds in his uplifted right hand, a seated and bound pirate (IX¹ b), whose hair the satyr has clutched with his left hand. The heads of both figures are considerably damaged, and the lower part of the right leg of the pirate is quite effaced. To return to the left side, the tree at the left of the fleeing pirate (IX b), does not correspond with any thing on the right side. It serves to indicate the shore of the sea, while on the other side this is effected by the high rocks upon which the pirate (X¹ b) is seated.
The next group on the left is represented as at the very edge of the water, and consists of a nude bearded satyr (X b), who is dragging an overthrown pirate (X a) by the foot, with the evident intention of hurling him into the sea. The legs and the right arm of this pirate have been destroyed by another hole, similar to that which is found between figures IX and IX a. On the right side, a bearded satyr, with flowing panther-skin (x¹ a) rushes to the right, thrusting a torch into the face of a pirate who is seated on a rock (x¹ b), with his hands bound behind his back. In his shoulder are fastened the fangs of a serpent, which is in keeping here as sacred to Dionysos. Perhaps, as Stuart has suggested, [106] he may be a metamorphosis of the cord with which the pirate's hands are bound; but the sculptor has not made this clear. The figures of this group, which were in tolerable preservation at the time when Lord Elgin's cast was made, have since been nearly effaced, particularly the face, legs and torch of the satyr, and the face and legs of the pirate, also the rocks upon which he is seated, and the serpent. Between these figures and the following dolphin, there is a third hole, similar to those mentioned already, and measuring 15x16 centimetres.
Footnote 106:[ (return) ] I, p. 34. Stuart cites Nonnus, Dionys. XLV. 137. Cf. also Ancient Marbles in the British Mus. IX. p. 115.
The less rigid correspondence of these groups (x, ix : ix¹, x¹), has caused some difficulty. In the text of the British Museum Marbles [107], all that falls between the pair of dolphins (VII : VIII¹), is regarded as belonging to a separate composition, grouped about the single dolphin (0¹). But such an interpolated composition, besides having no purpose in itself, would vitiate the unity of the entire relief. For, although the circular form is less favorable to a strongly marked symmetry than is the plane, at least in compositions of small extent, still the individual figures and groups must bear some relation to a common centre, and there can be no division of interest, or mere stringing together of disconnected figures or groups of figures. Such a stringing together is assumed by Mr. Murray, when, in his History of Greek Sculpture, [108] he speaks of seven figures after the pair of dolphins, which, "though without direct responsion among themselves, still indicate the continued punishment of the pirates." In the pirate seated on the rocks (x b), however, Mr. Murray [109] finds what he calls a "sort of echo" of Dionysos, inasmuch as he is seated in a commanding position, and is attacked by the god's serpent. There is, to be sure, a certain external resemblance in the attitudes of the two figures, but direct connection cannot be assumed without separating x¹ a from x¹ b, with which, however, it obviously forms a group, and entirely disregarding the relations which the groups x, ix: ix¹, x¹ bear to one another and to the dolphin 0¹. And this Mr. Murray does, when he takes seven figures, among which x¹ b is evidently to be considered as central instead of what is plainly four groups of two figures each, plus one dolphin.