(Plutarch, Pericles, 3). It is, however, more probable that the helmet merely denotes military rank.

1572. Head of Athenè. It is thought that this head (most of the helmet is modern) may be a copy of a work of Pheidias.

550. Head of Asclepios (?). Colossal ideal bearded head. A heavy metal wreath was formerly attached by numerous rivets, which still remain. The type of the head would serve for Zeus, as well as for Asclepios. It was, however, discovered in a shrine of Asclepios, in the island of Melos, in 1828. A votive offering to Asclepios and Hygieia (no. 809),

which was found with it, is shown in the room of Greek and Roman Life.

407-420.

FRAGMENTS FROM THE

ERECHTHEION.

The Erechtheion, or Temple of Erechtheus, is an Ionic temple of a peculiar form, which stands near the north side of the Acropolis of Athens. It embodies in a structure of the end of the fifth century the shrines about which the Athenian religion had centred from time immemorial, and to this fact the anomalous character of the plan must be ascribed. Its form is oblong, with a portico of six columns at the east end, and two unusual additions at its north-west and south-west angles; the one a portico

of six columns, the other a porch supported by six figures of maidens known as Caryatids. The structure has been imitated, with modifications and additions, in St. Pancras Church, London. The building must have been finished about the close of the fifth century B.C.

An extant inscription, exhibited with the architectural fragments, contains the detailed report of a commission appointed to survey the half-finished building, 409 B.C., when building operations were in a state of suspense. The preamble, written across the breadth of the stone, states that the three Commissioners of the temple on the Acropolis, in which is the ancient statue,' together with their architect Philocles, and their secretary Etearchos, in accordance with the decree of the Assembly, which was passed in the Archonship of Diocles [409 B.C.] have drawn up an account of

the condition in which they found the works, either complete or half finished.

·

The detailed specification follows in the two narrow columns, which are incomplete at the bottom. It opens Of the temple we found these parts unfinished,' and this is followed by a long list of portions of the structure approximately in position, but not attached, or not fully carved, fluted or finally polished as the case might be. At 1. 93 a list begins of 'pieces of stone, fully worked which are lying on the ground.' A fragment (now at Athens) is believed to have followed at the foot, and to have contained the beginning of the list of 'pieces of stone, half finished, which are lying on the ground.' This is continued through the second column.

Work must have been resumed forthwith after the presentation of this report, since another inscription is extant, assigned to the year 408, and giving the amounts paid to the sculptors of the frieze and other craftsmen.

The principal fragments in the Museum are :—

407. So-called Caryatid, or Canephoros, one of the six female figures which served as columns in the southern portico of the Erechtheion. A large view of the Caryatid portico is exhibited.

In the survey of the building these figures are called Corae, 'maidens.' By architectural writers such figures are called Caryatids, on account of a statement of Vitruvius (i,, chap. 1) that women of Carya (more correctly Caryae), a town of Arcadia, were represented as architectural supports-a punishment which, so at least we are told, they incurred for betraying the Greeks to the Persians.

This statue is admirably designed, both in composition and drapery, to fulfil its office as a part of an architectural design. While the massiveness of the draped figure suggests the idea that the support for the superimposed architecture is not structurally inadequate, the lightness and grace of the pose suggests that the maiden bears her burden with ease.

408. Ionic column from the north end of the eastern portico of the Erechtheion. This being a column from an angle of the building, the volutes occur on two adjacent sides so as to present themselves both to the east and north view.

409. Capital of one of the pilasters (antae) and part of necking or wall-band from the east wall of the Erechtheion, with a palmette pattern, in relief, of great delicacy and beauty.

413-415. Three pieces of architrave and corona of cornice of the Erechtheion, here combined into one, as in the original order. The space of two feet between the corona and the architrave was occupied by the sculptured frieze. This consisted of marble figures in relief attached by metal cramps on a ground of black Eleusinian marble. A few fragments are extant at Athens, and an inscription records the payments made to the various sculptors.

[We leave the Elgin Room by the door at the North end, and enter the Phigaleian Room.]

THE PHIGALEIAN ROOM.*

SUBJECTS:-TEMPLE OF APOLLO AT PHIGALEIA; TEMPLE OF WINGLESS VICTORY: SEPULCHRAL RELIEFS.

THE TEMPLE OF APOLLO AT PHIGALEIA.

The temple of Apollo Epicurios, at Bassae, near Phigaleia, in Arcadia, stands in a slight depression on the side of Mount Cotylion, above the valley of the River Neda. It was discovered towards the end of the eighteenth century, but on account of its remote position it was seldom visited before 1811. In that year the party of explorers, who had previously discovered the pedimental sculptures of Aegina, began excavations which were completed in the following

year.

Fig. 33.-Plan of the Temple of Apollo at Phigaleia.

The sculptures found were purchased for the British Museum by the Government in 1814.

The temple was visited by Pausanias, who specially commends the beauty of its material, and its fine proportions. He adds that the temple was dedicated to Apollo Epicurios (the Helper), because the god had stayed a plague at Phigaleia in the time of the Peloponnesian war. The architect was Ictinos, the builder of the Parthenon (Paus. viii., 41, 5). The date of the temple is therefore about 430 B.C., although it is unknown how far the plague in Arcadia was connected with the more celebrated pestilence which raged in that year at Athens.

The building consisted of a central chamber (cella) surrounded by a colonnade, having six Doric columns at the ends, and fifteen along the sides. The outside appears to have been devoid of sculpture, having neither pediment groups nor metopes.

*For a full description of this room, see the Catalogue of Sculpture, Vol. I., Part III. (sold separately at 1s.).

At each end of the cella were two Doric columns, between piers, and these were surmounted by metopes. (See below.)

The cella contained ten Ionic columns and one Corinthian column, now lost, which supported the frieze. (See below.)

The Phigaleian frieze was therefore originally intended for an internal decoration, unlike the friezes of the Parthenon and other temples, which are necessarily reversed when they are placed in a gallery. The temple image stood in the cella, but appears to have been placed in a peculiar manner, so as to have looked to the east, towards a side door, the orientation of the temple being nearly north and south. It has been suggested that this arrangement may show that an ancient shrine was embodied in the later temple.

THE FRIEZE.

The frieze, which is arranged on three sides of the Phigaleian Room, is complete, and has been arranged in accordance with such data as remain, and so as to make the four sides of their correct length. To a considerable extent, however, the arrangement is conjectural.

The style of the relief is peculiar. Many of the types employed occur in Attic work, but the style of the work, with its somewhat florid high relief, is un-Attic, and perhaps shows the hands of local sculptors. The reliefs of Phigaleia are interesting as the earliest extant Greek sculptures in which there is a decided attempt to express the pathos and emotion connected with scenes of combat.

The subjects represented are:—

(1) The battle between the Centaurs and the Lapiths—a subject that we have already seen on the metopes of the Parthenon. Compare the frieze of the Theseion in the Gallery of Casts.

(2) The battle of the Greeks and Amazons.

Each subject occupied two sides (nearly) of the frieze, but the latter is the longer of the two, and must have had one slab running over into the Lapith and Centaur sides.

520-528. West Side.

Scenes of combat between Centaurs and Lapiths. In 522 the Lapith woman has a child on her arm. In 523, 524, Apollo and Artemis (who drives a chariot drawn by stags) come to the rescue of two suppliant women at a sanctuary. One of the two stretches out her arms with a gesture of entreaty. The other embraces a statue of Artemis, represented as a stiff, archaic, doll-like image. In 525, the woman again carries a boy.

529-531. North Side. Slabs 529, 530, have scenes of combat between Centaurs and Lapiths, while 531 belongs to the Amazon series. In 530 two Centaurs together lift a great stone to crush the invulnerable Lapith, Caineus, a subject also represented on the west frieze of the Theseion.

532-539. East Side. Combat of Greeks and Amazons. In 535, an unarmed Amazon has taken refuge at an altar, from which a Greek tries to drag her away. In 539, a Greek, killed in battle, and perhaps stripped, is borne off the field, while another, who has been badly wounded in the right leg, leaves the field supported by a companion.

540-542. South Side. In 541, the middle of the central slab is occupied with a hot combat between Heracles (identified by his club and his lion-skin) and an Amazon.

Immediately above the south side of the frieze are :

THE METOPES.

510-519. Fragments of the Phigaleian metopes. The combination of the fragments, as here arranged, is mainly conjectural, and there is therefore no certainty as to the subjects represented. In 510, a figure seems to be playing on a lyre. In 517, is a scene of rape.

ARCHITECTURAL FRAGMENTS.

505. Two fragments of the very graceful cornice, with a palmette pattern, which surmounted the pediments. 506, 508, are fragments of the Doric and Ionic capitals, of the exterior and interior colonnades respectively.

FRAGMENTS OF THE TEMPLE STATUE OF APOLLO.

A few small fragments of a colossal male statue were discovered during the excavations. Two of these, namely, (543) part of a foot and (544) part of a right hand, are shown. From the way in which these fragments were attached with joints and dowels, it may be supposed that the statue was acrolithic, i.e. that the extremities only were of marble, while the rest of the figure was made of wood or other inferior material.

TEMPLE OF WINGLESS VICTORY.

Above the Phigaleian frieze, on the west side of the room, are some slabs of the frieze of the temple of Nikè Apteros (Victory without wings), or more correctly Athena Nikè. This building was a diminutive Ionic temple, with four columns at each end, which stood on a projecting terrace on the right hand as you ascend the Propylaea, to enter the Acropolis of Athens.

The building, which survived till the close of the seventeenth century, was then destroyed by the Turks, and the materials were used to form a bastion. In 1835 the bastion was taken down and the temple was reconstructed. A sufficient amount of the lower part had remained undisturbed to make the operation possible.