Page:Greek Buildings Represented by Fragments in the British Museum (1908).djvu/126

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no THE PARTHENON AND ITS SCULPTURES. Fig. 107. Metopes, No. 12 sought to identify all the subjects, and the latter proposes a series in which the gods occur in the following order : Hermes, Dionysos, Ares, Hera, Zeus, Athena, Heracles, Apollo, Artemis, and Poseidon ; while the four chariots belong to as many of the gods. He bases this reading largely on the order of the gods on the frieze within, so it is in great part an assumption. The only new, or old, fact I can bring forward is that Cockerell's scheme is taken over from the restoration of the east front made by Lord Elgin's artist on a large drawing at the Museum made about 1801. Although there must be a good deal of conjecture in these re- stored panels, they were based on careful observation, probably made from a scaffold, and give data when the panels were in a much better state than when the drawings published by Michaelis were made. No. i has two struggling figures, one of whom cowers beneath the victor. Designs of this type are so frequent that no interpreta- tion can be certain. (Fig. 105.) Hermes and Argos are sometimes so represented, as on a vase at Oxford. (See Fig. 106.) No. 2 does appear to represent Dionysos, at least there is a panther on it. No. 6, as figured by Laborde and Michaelis, is in the attitude of the man restraining a bull on the frieze, but prostrate in front ; according to the Elgin drawing there was another figure.* No. 7 looks as if it might be Athena and Pegasus. Athena driving winged horses appears on the Cnidos Treasury at Delphi. No. 9 seems to have had a Hercules, and may well be Hercules and Apollo struggling for the tripod. As restored on the Elgin drawings Fig. 1 08. • E. Metopes, No. 14.

  • If from these indications and divergencies we might assume that a bull

attacking a man was being held back, no subject would probably suit so well as one on a vase published in the Hellenic Journal for 1889, where ' Athena is rescuing Theseus from a bull.