Page:Greek Buildings Represented by Fragments in the British Museum (1908).djvu/143

 THE PARTHENON AND ITS SCULPTURES. 127 tion" which has been used so suggestively by many foreign experts. For this purpose we want the fullest possible apparatus of casts, copies, and photographs of works which are at all germane, ready to hand. The excellent British Museum Guide to the Marbles, which is frequently brought up to date is quite perfect for a work of so small a compass ; but the Parthenon room itself, which at present is a little empty, might be made the best possible centre for Phidian research. Even the observations which have been made are not fully scheduled, and theories of interpretation blow here and there, under the impulse of taste and eloquence, often unrestrained by facts discovered a century or more ago by Visconti, Leake, and others. I. The Helios and Selene of the east pediment seem to have inspired a vase painting, on which, however, the entire chariots, figures, and horses are shown,* and not merely segments of them. The idea this painting gives of the action of the groups, and the acces- sories such as reins, is most life-giving. On the back of the statue of Selene is part of a scarf which evidently passed over her shoulders and helped to sup- port her extended arms ; a point of technical design which will again be referred to. II. Dionysos ("Theseus") is the only figure which still retains its head. There is a roughly cut indentation across the back of it above the neck, which Dr Murray thought indicated plaited hair ; but to me it rather suggests that a metal wreath had been adjusted there. The modelling of the forearm shows that the hand was turned inwards toward the shoulder and probably held the shaft of a spear or thyrsus. A pin-hole above the ankle suggests that the feet were shod with bronze. The figure reclines on the skin of a panther or lion.f Fig. 126. — Seat of Cnidus Demeter. t Do the flaps at the side of the jaw (Fig. 103) indicate a Hen's skin ? If so, this should be a panther.
 * Figured in Revue ArMoL, 1903, p. 373, and Sauer's " Theseum."