Page:Greek Buildings Represented by Fragments in the British Museum (1908).djvu/156

 I40 THE PARTHENON AND ITS SCULPTURES. were at least two winged figures. The large fragment is the ex- panded part of the wing which was nearest the shoulder attach- ment, and the completed form must have been somewhat as in B. The portion which clasps over the collar bone has a parallel in the Victory of Olympia, and the wings of Greek figures generally spring from the collar bones. The form of the wing demands considerable extension backwards, and if the figure to which it was attached was in the pediment it could only have been placed in profile ; but it is possible that it belonged to an acroterion. Several writers, among hom are Miss Harrison and Dr Cecil Smith, have suggested that there were Victories in the centres of the fields of both pediments between Zeus and Athena, and Athena and Poseidon. In the latter case, at least, judging from Carrey's drawing, there would surely have hardly been room for this. Is it not probable that the desired Victories were on the acroteria of the pediments as at Olympia, Epidaurus, and other places? Bohn so restored the summits of the fronts, setting scroll-work, of which some remnants have been found, by the sides of the figure. Fig. 143. This scroll-work, however, which is usually con- Acroteria : sidered to come from the Parthenon, and cer- from Vase. tainly came from the Acropolis,* seems to be more in the style of the fourth than of the fifth century, as it contains acanthus foliage, which Furtwangler thought was first adopted at the Erechtheum. There is no doubt at all as to there having been acroteria of some sort on the pediments, as the bases for the lower ones still exist. Now on the Kertsch vase, which has been so often referred to, one corner of the composition is occupied by a tiny sketch of a temple, which it is generally agreed probably stands for the Parthenon, from which the figure design was derived. (Fig. 143.) On this Victories are shown over all the angles of the pediments. The Parthenon was the temple of the victorious Athena, who had shown her power and favour in the struggle with the Persians. The Victory type, we know, was designed by Phidias to be borne from the acroteria of the Erechtheum?
 * Invvood thought they were parts of a Corinthian capital : were they not