Page:Greek Buildings Represented by Fragments in the British Museum (1908).djvu/111

Rh conversation with him is a noble goddess (6). On her forehead there seems to be some trace of a diadem (Fig. 77). Dr Murray says it is of willow, an earlier writer says olive ; and close to her elbow stands Iris (5) the messenger. This is clearly Hera. The third figure is a goddess, who leans forward against her raised right hand in an attitude that became typical for mourners. She has a veil falling on her shoulders exactly like a Demeter at Berlin, and held in her left hand a long torch formed of reeds bound together. This is certainly Demeter. On either hand of her is another god. The one between her and Hermes (2) sits backward leaning listlessly against Hermes. He is the only one who sits upon a cushion and is probably Dionysos. In his raised left hand he may have held a thyrsus. On the other side,

towards Hera, is Ares (4). By his foot appears the end of the shaft of his spear which would have been completed above in painting. The attitude in which he sits with his hands clasped around his knee is repeated in a well-known statue of Ares in Rome. (Fig. 73.)

Passing across the central panel and coming to the corresponding group of seven gods on the right, the first pair (8 and 9) are on the same long slab as the central subject, and the Zeus and Hera of the left hand group, the slab being 14 feet 6 inches long. The first figure (8) is a slender girl who can be no other than Athena. (Fig. 75.) In her right hand she held