Page:Greek Buildings Represented by Fragments in the British Museum (1908).djvu/123

 THE PARTHENON AND ITS SCULPTURES. 107 Fig. 102. — S. Metope ; Centaur Battle. view set out above. In the last panel of the north side the majestic figure, seated on the rock, clothed in a beautiful fleecy chiton,and with arm upraised as if it held a spear, must be Athena. (Fig. 11 1.) The other hand may have held her helmet, for she is here unarmed, "in peaceful posses- sion, tranquilly watching over the beloved city." Compare the Athena of the frieze of the Theseum, where she is also watching a battle from her rock. The girl who quickly advances from the left is clearly a messenger. It is a magnificent sculpture, and 'tis pity it cannot be better seen. The rider i of the west front is certainly no Amazon ; the bony and muscular forms and strong hand and foot show that it is a man. Both shoulders were covered, and the dress is the ordinary short men's tunic and a mantle flying from the shoulder. (Fig. 99.) We know from Athena's shield and from the copy of the Amazon of Phidias how the sculptor of the Parthenon marbles represents Amazons. (Fig. 100.) A still further con- firmation as to Persians being represented on these metopes is offered by the sculptures of the Temple of Nike, where several of the groups figuring combats of Greeks and Persians obviously follow the western metopes and furnish the closest parallel with them that can be found. (Fig. loi.) Fig. 103. — S. Metope : Centaur Battle.