Page:Greek Buildings Represented by Fragments in the British Museum (1908).djvu/125

 THE PARTHENON AND ITS SCULPTURES. 109 Fig. 105.- zon : -Greek and Ama- from a Vase. may suppose that the central series had a background of a different colour to distinguish it from the rest. The subject of the end groups would not have been a mere struggle between Lapiths and Centaurs, but the result of the intervention of the goddess for those who appealed to her image. The subject is — in general terms — sacrilege or violation of hospitality, and what followed. The best version of the subject which occurs on a vase is figured by Miss Harrison ; * here the struggle at the domestic altar by the door to the inner palace is again the chief episode ; while in Ovid the tearing down of the altar also comes in. The panel in question on the Parthenon must represent the bride and her mother appealing to an image of Athena, and thus was the story brought into relation with the goddess. Similar subjects often occur on vases, it may be called the Palladium formula. The notes of the compositions of the central group given by Carrey are enough to show that they must have been of great beauty. On 19 was a stately woman's figure which looks like one of the " maidens " of the Erechtheum, and a figure in 20 looks as if it might have been the original of the beautiful Lansdowne grave slab.t The Eastern Metopes have not, so far as I know, been re-examined since Michaelis published his unsatisfactory repre- sentations. Leake I and Cockerell had assigned meanings to some of the panels which are concerned with the deeds of the gods, and especially of Athena ; Petersen and Robert have Fig. 106. — Mercury and Argos : from a Vase. t " Burlington Club Catalogue," No. 50. J Leake's description is full and valuable if it is independent of the Elgin drawing mentioned below.
 * " Athens," fig. 37.