Page:Greek Buildings Represented by Fragments in the British Museum (1908).djvu/159

 THE PARTHENON AND ITS SCULPTURES. 143 Tresses of hair fell on her shoulders and back. The " Maidens " of the Erechtheum are practically copied from this figure ; there is the same axial pose and fall of the drapery, and the same bare arms, long dresses, and sandalled feet. The chief difference is in a new fashion of girding the peplos. It has been argued whether the pillar beneath the Victory- carrying hand of the goddess can be original. Miss Harrison says : " The pillar must be thought away. It is inconceivable that Phidias should have introduced this clumsy, obtrusive support . . . quite un- thinkable." Drs Murray and Waldstein agree. May I suggest that this, even on ?esthetic grounds, may be too hasty a decision? This column is not neces- sarily a makeshift post, such as is seen in some later statues, but it may be thought of as part of the ideal com- position. If Athena indeed had stood there, bearing a Victory 6 feet high on her extended hand, would she not have been glad to rest her arm on a con- venient support? I declare that when I think it away, as I am told, I get quite tired with feeling the strain. We may suppose, too, that the pillar was the proper pedestal of the Victory, and that " when we were not looking " Athena replaced it there. The evidence for the column is surely quite conclusive. It appears copied on the statuette, on a relief now at Berlin, and on some coins of Athens. Finally, the arm itself is not in a position of balance, and were it not for the pillar the Victory would be held much higher. The shield, which must have been full 10 feet in diameter, was adorned with reliefs of the battle with the Amazons, the design of which is best known from a small late copy in the British Museum. The spear probably rested against the left shoulder, as shown on a relief at the British Museum (Fig. 144), and on a medallion in the Hermitage. Murray, following a gem, M Fig. 146. — Athena : from Bronze Cista.