Page:From Constantinople to the home of Omar Khayyam.djvu/51

 The skill of the architect, sculptor, and painter have all been united in its execution. In form it is the model of a Greek temple, considerably elongated in shape, being about ten and a half feet in length, five and a half in width, and seven feet in height.^ Each element and part, whether basement, fagade, architrave, frieze, or cornice, or the low-gabled pediment of the wonderfully ornate roof — to speak still in architectural terms — is a paragon of design and a triumph of artistic execution. The groups of figures chiseled in high relief on the sides, ends, and tympanums of the cenotaph (for it is now empty of the remains once gloriously interred within) are models of carving.^ Then, to give final perfection, the painter's brush has added a delicate touch of color to the sculptures, thus imparting warmth to the chill marble, even though the tones of the pigments are now fading from exposure to the light.

On the side of the sarcophagus facing the south, as it now stands in the hall of the museum, is portrayed a spirited scene of battle, Issus or Arbela, in which the Greeks are represented as triumphing over the Persians. On the reverse side, or northern face, is an animated scene of the chase. In this latter the Greeks and Persians, now friends, join in a lion-hunt and in the pursuit of a stag — the Greeks hastening to the aid of a brother Persian hard pressed by a lion, which is graphically pictured as tearing the chest of the Iranian's horse. In both the battle-scene and the hunting-scene the mounted figure on

1 For a full account of the sarcopha- 18 cm. x 1 m. 67 cm. x 2 m. 12 cm.

gus and its discovery, and of the theo- Essentially the same figures (though

ries regarding its identification, see differing in the height) are given in

Hamdy Bey and Th. Reinach, Une feet and inches by Coufopoulos, A

Necropole royale a Sidon, Paris, 1892; Guide to Constantinople, p. 106, 3ed.,

and consult the excellent summary London, 1906, as follows : 10 ft. 8 in. x

in the guidebook of the Ottoman Mu- 5 ft. 7 in. x 8 ft. 2 in. seum by Andr6 Joubin, Monuments ^ Even such a detail as the difference

funeraires, 2 ed., Constantinople, 1898. between the frontlock of the Persian

The measurements in meters, as given horses and of the Greek horses is

by Hamdy Bey and Reinach (p. 64) noticeable, and by Joubiu (p. 60), are : 3 m.

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