Page:Greek Buildings Represented by Fragments in the British Museum (1908).djvu/183

Rh the volute, from whence it might be supposed that the centres of the volutes of the Erechtheum might have formed a rose." Now, turning to Puchstein we find figured (No. 18) a capital with an exactly similar volute. This is also described with the capitals of the Erechtheum, although Puchstein considered it to be later chiefly on account of the "unbeautiful" line of the cushion. It is a half capital and was found in the Erechtheum in 1862. I should have supposed that these portions of half capitals (see the restoration of the Museum fragment, Fig. 169) belonged to original attached columns of the west front, but they seem too small in scale. It is possible that these caps, however, belonged to attached columns in the interior. The wall between the western and central chambers had two doors best shown by Penrose and described by Inwood. Between these Furtwangler says it was probably divided into bays by pillars.

There is a further reason for thinking that these caps came from the Erechtheum itself This is that its caps are so much like those of the Nereid monument that there cannot be a doubt that the capitals of one were copied from the other. Now the Nereid monument is assigned to the fifth century, or the early part of the fourth, and no one will put it later than 370-360 Yet the capitals of this building have the same " ugly line " for the cushions. The rose in the eye seems to be an early feature, cf. another figure given by Puchstein, and another small Ionic capital in the Museum figured by Inwood.

One of the great treasures of our Museum is the "Maiden" from the south prostasis. As it served as an architectural member it has been a little passed over, I think, as an example of pure sculpture. But after the Parthenon works it is one of the most perfect and best authenticated statues which have come down to us. It is of the school of Phidias, wrought while his influence was paramount.

A few years ago it was thought that such "caryatides" were an innovation at the Erechtheum, but similar figures fully a century earlier and about the same size have been found at Delphi. The casts of those at the Louvre show that these archaic figures were remarkably like those of the Erechtheum in gesture. An archaic relief found in the Acropolis also shows a figure which it is thought represents a caryatid (see Petersen).