Page:Greek Buildings Represented by Fragments in the British Museum (1908).djvu/131

 THE PARTHENON AND ITS SCULPTURES. II5 They are at once severe and sweet, great yet graceful ; they are large in absolute scale and in design, but simple in conception, and most masterful and energetic in handiwork. We all know that the figures are wonderful, but it is only necessary to see them from some unaccustomed point of view to feel it again as a fresh surprise. To examine them from steps is a revelation, the muscular back and shoulders of the Theseus, the soft rounded arms of the Demeter and the Wife of Cecrops — strong, yet almost flowing, in extraordinarily beautiful curves — the bare shoulder of one of the Fates, the startled horses of the Sun, the perfect pose of the Ilissus, the variety of texture and fold in the draperies of the goddesses, the dainty buttoning of the sleeve, the big folds of skirts and mantles, the great, restful forms, and the resistless energy of the cutting are all wonderful and lovely. Most wonderful of all is the great spirit which fills out and transcends the forms. They are not mere statues, they Fig. 115. — W. Pediment in 1749 : from Dalton's Sketch. are creatures proper to temples born in marble. The Fates are as majestic as mountains. " Those three serene, beautiful figures — Fates they must be — have the quietude of fate. They fill the background of my mind constantly and wonderfully with their passionless power. They make me feel that fate is neither cruel nor kind, only the inexor- able law fulfilling itself." The general meaning of the compositions in the pediments are known from a few lines of Pausanias, where he says that the Birth of Athena occupied the eastern front, and that the Dispute of Athena and Poseidon for supremacy in the land of Attica, filled the western. Valuable data in regard to the now lost figures are contained in some careful drawings made about 1674, and usually called Caney's drawings. Other details have been made known by a minute examination of the remnants and marks on the pediments themselves, and some further light may