FIG. 9.

WEST FRONT OF THE TEMPLE OF ATHENA AT EGINA (RESTORED).

of time pressed upon this venerable structure, that the first impression conveyed to the mind on seeing

it, would be, to some, a doubt as to its antiquity.

Of this, however, there is ample proof.

It was erected by Cimon, the son of Miltiades, as near as can be judged about ten years after the battle of Salamis, or B.C. 471.

The ceiling of the portico of this temple displays a timber-like disposition of its parts. It is constructed with great beams of marble, and the fact that the upper sides of these beams are level with the bed of the cornice, while the ends correspond with the triglyphs in the frieze, gives great support to the theory of the wooden origin of this order, as explained on page 14.

The tympanum of the Eastern pediment was originally filled with sculpture in relief, but this is all now gone; there only remains the sockets in the marble which contained the metal cramps by which the figures were held to the wall.

The ten metopes of the eastern end or front are carved with figures representing the labours of Herakles (Hercules), and the four metopes on each side nearest the eastern end represent the exploits and achievements of Theseus. The remaining metopes and the western pediment were left plain. The building was latterly, and is perhaps still used by the Greeks as a church dedicated to St. George. The magnificent temple of Pallas Athena, the pride and glory of the city of Athens, was also of this order, and was built during the best period of

Greek architecture, to replace a previous temple of rather smaller dimensions, which was probably destroyed by Xerxes when he took possession of the Acropolis. It was called the Parthenon in honour of the virgin goddess to whom it was dedicated, and whose chrys-elephantine statue, carved by Pheidias himself, was enshrined in it. The building, which was of the purest white marble, was

FIG. II. WEST FRONT OF PARTHENON (RESTORED).

erected by Ictinus and Callicrates, under the superintendence of Pericles and Pheidias, B.C. 469 to 429. It was a peripteral octostyle temple, with 17 columns on the sides, each 6 feet 2 inches in diameter at the base, and 34 feet high. The total height to the top of the pediment was 65 feet, and the size of the area enclosed was 233 feet by 102.

The tympanum of the eastern pediment was filled with a carving representing the birth of

FIG. 12.

GS.

TWO METOPES FROM THE SOUTH SIDE OF THE PARTHENON.

Athena from the brain of Zeus.

That on the

western pediment represented the mythological

FIG. 13.

GROUP FROM THE WESTERN FRIEZE OF THE PARTHENON,

legend of the judgment of Zeus on the dispute and

D

contest between Athena and Poseidon for the patronage and naming of the city of Erechtheus. Zeus had decided that the city should be named after the deity who should confer the best gift on mankind. Upon this Poseidon struck the ground with his trident and produced the horse, and

Athena the olive-tree.

The victory was adjudged

to Athena, and the city named after her, as her gift was the symbol of peace and prosperity, the other of war and wretchedness.

On the metopes was carved the battle of the Centaurs with the Lapitha (fig. 12.)* The * Many of the sculptured metopes from the Parthenon, together