THE PARTHENON.
[GREEK AND ROMAN ART AT THE BRITISH MUSEUM.]
By E. F. BRIDELL-FOX.
PART I.
THE ELGIN MARBLES.
"Goddess of wisdom! here thy temple was,
And is, despite of war and wasting fire,
And years that bade thy worship to expire."
The Elgin Marbles are the remains of the sculptures which once adorned the Temple of Minerva at Athens, known as the Parthenon, of world-wide fame. Brought from Athens to England at the beginning of the present century, they are now placed where they can be seen of all sightseers, and studied by all lovers of art, in a long, well-lighted room at the British Museum, popularly known as the Elgin Room.
As we take our stand in this room, and gaze round us at these grand fragments—for, alas! fragments only are they now—our mind strives to restore the mutilated forms of these marble "men and women of more than mortal mould," that seem to repose or move before us in their grand statuesque dignity. And, broken and damaged as they indeed have become by time and exposure, many without heads, or hands, or feet, yet we cannot gaze upon them and consider them attentively without feeling more and more impressed by their heroic proportions and stately attitudes. We may well feel that we are justified in this impression, when we learn that these sculptured fragments are the remains of what is universally considered to have been, when perfect, the finest work of the best masters at the time of the highest development of Greek art.