Doric temple, found at Ilium Novum, 1872, and presented by the discoverer, Dr. Schliemann; subject, the sun god (Helios) in his chariot; also the following marbles discovered by Mr. Pullan in the Temple of Athene Polias at Priene (1.) the dedication of the Temple of Athene by Alexander the Great, inscribed on a stone from one of the antae; (2, 3.) a colossal arm and hand, probably from the statue of Athene in the Temple; (4) a colossal foot; (5.) a colossal female head, closely resembling that from the Mausoleum, No. 7 supra; (6.) a male Iconic head, perhaps of a king of the Macedonian period; (7.) a draped female torso; (8.) an Ionic capital; (9.) a capital from one of the antae; (10.) fragments of the cornice.

These marbles, together with an interesting collection of inscriptions, fragments of frieze, and architectural fragments from the same site, were presented to the Museum by the Dilettanti Society in 1870.

ELGIN ROOM.

This room contains the sculptures from the Parthenon, a portion of the frieze of the temple of the Wingless Victory at Athens, some architectural remains from the Erechtheum, a statue of Dionysos from the Choragic monument of Thrasyllos, together with a number of fragments and casts, all from Athens. The sculptures from the Parthenon, and nearly all the marbles in this room, were obtained by the Earl of Elgin, when Ambassador at Constantinople, in the years 1801-3, by virtue of a firman from the Sublime Porte. The Elgin Collection, which includes some additional marbles acquired after 1803, was purchased from Lord Elgin by the Government in 1816, for £35,000.

The sculptures from the Parthenon consist of the remains of the pedimental compositions, the metopes and the frieze.

The Parthenon, or temple of the virgin goddess, Athene, was constructed by Iktinos about B.C. 440, under the administration of Pericles. It stood on the Acropolis at Athens, on the site formerly occupied by the more ancient temple of Athene, called Hecatompedon, which was burnt on

the sacking of Athens by the Persians, B.C. 480. The Parthenon, like the earlier temple, was of the Doric order of architecture, and was of the form termed peripteral octostyle. The sculptural decorations were all executed under the superintendence of Phidias.

The cella within the colonnade contained the colossal statue of Athene, executed in gold and ivory, one of the most celebrated works of Phidias. Externally, the cella was ornamented by a frieze in very low relief. The two pedi

ments were filled with figures sculptured in the round, and above the architrave the spaces between the triglyphs were decorated with groups sculptured in high relief. All these sculptured decorations were executed, like the architecture, in Pentelic marble. The relative position of these sculptures is shown in the model of the Parthenon representing the temple as it appeared A.D. 1687, immediately after the bombardment of Athens by the Venetian General, Morosini, when the explosion of a powder magazine shattered the middle part of the edifice. This model, executed by Mr. R. C. Lucas, sculptor, stands in the South-West angle of the room.

The group on the West side of this room belonged to the Eastern pediment of the temple, and represented, when perfect, the birth of Athene from the head of Zeus. The central figures, by which the action of the scene was expressed, have perished Their place is here indicated by the opening in the middle of the group, which must be understood as representing a space of between thirty and forty feet. Of the figures which remain, the following are the designations most generally received, though subject to much difference of opinion:

At the South end of the pediment, the upper part of the figure of Helios, or the Sun, rising from the sea, as at the approach of day; heads of two horses from the chariot of Helios; a male figure, reclining on a rock, covered with a lion's skin, popularly called Theseus, though there is no good ground for such an attribution; two goddesses, probably Demeter and Persephone, sitting on low seats; a female figure in rapid motion, supposed to be Iris, sent to announce on earth the intelligence of the birth of the goddess.

At the North end of the pediment, torso of Victory; group of one recumbent and two seated females, called the three Fates; head of a horse from the chariot either of Night, or of the Moon, descending beneath the horizon.

On the opposite side of the room are the remains of the Western pediment, in which was represented the contest of Athene with Poseidon for the soil of Attica. Though this group is now in a

more fragmentary state than the other, it was more perfect in A.D. 1674, when drawings, still extant, were made of all the sculptures of the temple by Carrey, a French artist, and we are thus enabled to supply many of the missing portions with greater certainty. Those statues which still remain at Athens are here represented by casts. Beginning at the North end the figures are as follow:

Recumbent statue, generally called the river-god Ilissos, but more probably the Kephissos; cast of a group, commonly known as Herakles and Hebe; male torso, supposed to represent Kekrops, the first king of Attica; upper part of a female head; fragment of the breast of Athene; upper part of the torso of Poseidon; draped female torso, supposed to be Amphitrite; lower part of a seated female figure, perhaps Leto; cast of the torso of a crouching male figure, by some considered as the river-god Kephissos, but more probably the Ilissos; part of a recumbent female figure, perhaps the nymph Kallirrhoe.

On a table in the South-East angle of the room are casts from some fragments of horses discovered in excavations on the Acropolis, and now preserved there. These fragments, doubtless, belong to the chariot group on the western pediment, which Morosini broke in trying to lower it, and which, as will be seen by reference to the model, stood immediately behind the figure of Athene, balancing the chariot of Poseidon in the opposite half of the pediment.

Attached to the Western wall of the room are fifteen of the metopes, and a cast from another, which is now in the Museum of the Louvre, at Paris. They are all from the South side of the Parthenon, and represent combats between Greeks and Centaurs. Casts from three other metopes, still remaining at Athens, and representing various subjects, are inserted in the adjoining walls.

Around the room are placed in a continuous line the slabs removed by Lord Elgin from the frieze of the cella, with casts of a few other slabs still existing on the temple, forming altogether more than onehalf of the entire series. They are arranged, as far as possible, in their original order, but it is necessary to bear in mind that, owing to the absence of a considerable portion, several slabs, not formerly connected, are here brought into juxtaposition, and that the effect of the whole frieze is in one sense reversed, by being made an internal, instead of an external, decoration. The subject of the bas-reliefs is the Panathenaic procession, which took place at the festival celebrated every four years at Athens in honour of Athene.

At the East end of the temple were originally placed the slabs (numbered, in red figures,) 17-24. On two of them (Nos. 18, 19) are deities, seated; and a priest receiving from a boy the peplos, or sacred veil of Athene. On each side approach trains of females, bearing religious offerings, and under the guidance of officers or magistrates.

On the North side of the building were Nos. 25-46, representing a long cavalcade of chariots and horsemen, and including amongst the latter the most beautifully executed examples of low relief which the ancients have left us.

No. 47, representing two youthful horsemen, is the only slab from the West end of the temple. It is succeeded by fourteen cast, (Nos. 48-61), taken from the remainder of the frieze at this end.

The remaining bas-reliefs (Nos. 62–90), which are from the South side, and in a very fragmentary condition, exhibit a procession moving in the opposite direction to that hitherto described, the two lines of figures having been so arranged as to meet at the East end. These bas-reliefs represent horsemen, chariots, and victims led to sacrifice.

The room also contains casts of a few isolated slabs from the frieze, which are still at Athens.

Towards the South end of the room is the capital of one of the columns of the temple..

Besides the remains of the Parthenon, the following miscellaneous sculptures and casts are exhibited in this room :

On the East wall, above the frieze of the Parthenon, are some sculptures from the Temple of Wingless Victory at Athens. This building, which appears to have been nearly contemporary with the Parthenon, was probably designed to commemorate some victories of the Athenians, both over the Persians and over rival Greek states. It was of Ionic architecture, and stood near the Propylæa of the Acropolis.

The series consists, firstly, of four marble slabs, and a cast from a fifth slab, belonging to the upper frieze of the building, representing in high relief Athenian warriors combating with enemies, some in Asiatic, others in Greek costume; and secondly, of casts from four slabs belonging to the lower frieze, representing five figures of Victory, two of them leading a bull to sacrifice. These reliefs are executed in the finest style..

On the same wall are some casts obtained by Lord Elgin from sculptures still decorating the Temple of Theseus at Athens, a building erected about twenty years earlier than the Parthenon, to commemorate the removal by Cimon. of the bones of Theseus from Skyros to Athens.

These casts (numbered 136-149) are from the external frieze of the temple, and represent, in high relief, a battle fought in the presence of six seated divinities.

Nos. 150-154, towards the South end, represent a contest between Centaurs and Greeks.

Adjoining these are casts of three of the metopes (Nos. 155-157), exhibiting warlike achievements of Theseus.

On the same side of the room, resting on the floor, is a coffer from the ceiling of the same temple.

Under the frieze of the Parthenon, on the same wall, are casts of the reliefs which decorated the frieze of the Choragic Monument of

Lysikrates, erected B.C. 334. They represent Dionysos transforming the Tyrrhenian pirates into dolphins.

Towards the North end of the room are some remains taken from the Erechtheum, a temple erected on the Acropolis of Athens, towards the close of the fifth century B.C., and dedicated jointly to Athene Polias, and Pandrosos, daughter of Kekrops. It is the purest and most characteristic monument of the Ionic order of architecture remaining in ancient Greece. Its form is oblong, with a hexastyle portico at the East end, and two unusual additions at its North-West and South-West angles; the one a tetrastyle portico, the other a porch supported by six Canephora, a structure which has been imitated as a decoration in St. Pancras Church, London.

The remains of the temple which are in the British Museum consist of one of the Canephora, and, by its side, the column which originally stood at the Northern angle of the Eastern portico; a considerable portion of the frieze from the wall immediately behind the same column; a large piece of the architrave, and a smaller fragment of the cornice, from other parts of the building, an ornamental coffer from the ceiling of the interior, and several minor fragments, mouldings, &c.

Opposite the Canephora is a colossal draped statue of Dionysos seated, which formerly surmounted the Choragic Monument of Thrasyllos, at Athens, erected B.C. 320.

Near these are placed some miscellaneous fragments of architecture from various buildings in Athens and Attica, including the capital of a Doric column, and a fragment of the architrave from the Propylaea, a building which stood at the entrance to the Athenian Acropolis.

Towards the North end of the room are a life-size statue of a youth, probably Eros, and a draped torso of Asklepios, found at Epidauros. Towards the South end of the room are casts of two marble chairs, from the theatre of Dionysos, at Athens. One of these chairs, which was placed in the centre of the front row in the theatre, was the seat assigned to the priest of Dionysos Eleuthereus, as appears from the inscription on it. It is richly decorated : the sides of the two arms is a group in low relief, representing a winged youth, probably the Genius of the Games, setting two cocks to fight. Inside the back of the chair are two Satyrs, and on the front two Arimaspi fighting with Gryphons. The other chair was the official seat of one of the ten Athenian Strategi (Generals) in the theatre.

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