The subject of the West frieze of the Theseion admits of no doubt.
Here we have represented the Battle of the Centaurs and Lapiths at the marriage feast of Peirithoos. It has been pointed out that this frieze appears to consist of metope-like groups, with a few figures added to give continuity between the different groups, such as is appropriate to a frieze. Thus, compare No. 403, _1_ with the Parthenon Metope, No.
307. In the parts of the frieze, not represented by casts, compare the group engraved Overbeck, _Gr. Plast._ 3rd ed. i., p. 348, No. 2, with Michaelis, pl. 3, xxiv.; Overbeck, No. 6, with Parthenon metope, No.
311; Overbeck No. 8 with Michaelis, pl. 3, xi.
[Illustration: Fig. 16.--The disposition of the West Frieze of the Theseion. (From Baumeister).]
[Sidenote: =403.= 1.]
Combat of Centaur and Lapith. The Lapith is defeated and has fallen to the ground. He supports his body with the right arm, of which the hand alone remains. The left hand, which is wrapped in the chlamys, is raised imploringly to the Centaur, to whom also the head is turned. The victorious Centaur rears up above the Lapith, and is about to hurl a great stone, or perhaps a hydria, with both hands.
Height of this and the following slabs, 2 feet 9-1/2 inches; length, 2 feet 10 inches. _Mus. Marbles_, IX., pl. 18.
Between Nos. 1 and 2 is a group, of which the Museum does not possess a cast, representing two Lapiths and a fallen Centaur.
[Sidenote: 2.]
On the left is a group of a Lapith and a Centaur. The combatants have for the moment drawn a little apart. The Lapith has recoiled for a blow; the attention of the Centaur seems more directed to the group on his left. The symmetry of the grouping, which is apparent in the frieze as a whole, requires us to regard these two figures as connected, though they may appear somewhat separated.
The Centaur brandishes a branch of a tree, to which his hands are still attached, though the arms are lost. The Lapith had both arms raised, and perhaps held a battle-axe. His dress is a chlamys.
We next have a group of two Centaurs, rearing up, and heaving together a rock wherewith to crush the invulnerable Lapith, Kaineus, who is half buried in the ground between them, and who endeavours to defend himself with his shield uplifted on his left arm. His head is turned towards the Centaur on the right. His right arm, now wanting, may have rested on the ground. But it is possible, to judge from indications on the ground of the relief, that it was bent at the elbow, and pierced with a sword the abdomen of the Centaur. The Lapith wears a helmet.
On the right of this group is a Lapith hastening to give succour to Kaineus. His right arm, which was bent back at the elbow, had been raised to strike. His left arm has been muffled in a chlamys. He also wore a petasos, part of which is seen behind the shoulders. On the right of this figure is a group of a Lapith attacking a Centaur. The Lapith wears a crested helmet; on his left arm is a shield, within which his chlamys hangs from his arm. He also wears sandals. He places his left foot on a rock.
The Centaur opposed to him is rearing, with his back turned to the spectator; his right arm, drawn back, has held some weapon, probably the branch of a tree; on his left arm and shoulder is the skin of a lion or panther which hangs down his back.
Length, 10 feet 9 inches. _Mus. Marbles_, IX., pls. 18, 19.
The next group on the frieze, which is not represented by a cast, contains a Centaur struggling with a Lapith who has fallen on his knees.
[Sidenote: 3.]
On the left is a Lapith, armed with shield and helmet, and wearing a chiton and sandals. He seems about to attack a Centaur, who rears to the right over the body of a Lapith, who has sunk down in a sitting position.
Length, 2 feet 9 inches. _Mus. Marbles_, IX., pl. 20.
Most of the figure of the seated Lapith, and the whole of the succeeding group of a Lapith and Centaur are not represented by casts in the Museum.
CASTS OF THE EAST FRIEZE OF THE THESEION.
On the east frieze is represented a battle in the presence of six seated deities arranged in two groups. In one part of the frieze the combatants are hurling vast rocks. Colonel Leake (_Topography of Athens_, 2nd ed. p. 504), supposed that Heracles and some of the gods are engaged in a battle with giants, while other deities, among them some who usually take a leading part in the fray, merely sit and watch. This, however, is a scheme of Gigantomachia to which no parallel can be adduced.
[Illustration: Fig. 17.--The disposition of the East Frieze. (From Baumeister).]
Brunn (_Sitzungsber. der k. bayer. Akad. Phil.-hist. Cl._, 1874, ii., p. 51), supposes the battle here represented to be that fought by the Athenians under Theseus against Eurystheus in defence of the Heracleidae. The scene on the left would thus represent the first rout of the troops of Eurystheus; then would come the storming of the Skironian pass by Theseus, where we might expect masses of rocks to be hurled on the assailants. The kneeling figure on the left of the central group (404, _4_), who is being bound would, according to Brunn, be Eurystheus, who was taken prisoner and put to death. The figure on the extreme right (404, _8_), who is stooping forward, Brunn supposes to be one of the victors erecting the boundary stone, which, according to the Attic legend, was set up by Theseus to mark the limits of the Peloponnese on the side of Attica.
The theory is highly ingenious; but it demands a forced interpretation of the rocks to suppose them to be lining the two sides of a pass; and it overlooks the close parallelism with the east frieze of the Parthenon, where the two groups of gods must be supposed to form a single background to the scene. Also, the Skironian pass was a road between rocks and the sea. Moreover, the vast size of the rocks indicates a giant race, rather than a group of warriors who are reduced to using stones in an extremity.
If the subject has any connection with Theseus, the theory of K. O. Muller seems the best that has been proposed. According to Muller (_Kunstarch. Werke_, iv. p. 1) it represents the Athenians under Theseus attacking the Pallantidae, or sons of Pallas, who was a son of Pandion, king of Attica. These in Attic legend (Plut.
_Theseus_, 13) formed a league against Theseus. Muller supposes them to have been a race akin to the giants. Compare Soph. _aegeus, fr._ 19, ed. Dindorf, [Greek: ho skleros houtos kai gigantas ektrephon Pallas]. See also Muller (p. 8) on the close connection between Pallas, son of Pandion, and the Attic Pallene, with Pallas the giant and the Thracian Pallene, the field of the great war of the gods and giants.
[Sidenote: =404.= 1.]
On the left of the slab, two armed warriors carrying large shields on the left arm, and wearing, one a chlamys and one a chiton over the left shoulder only (_heteromaschalos_), advance to the right.
Before them is a conquered adversary, who has been forced down on his knees by the victor, who appears to tread down his buttock, while his hands are engaged binding the hands of the prisoner. The victor wears a chlamys, but the prisoner is nude. The head of the prisoner was probably turned towards the victor. On the extreme right of the slab there remains the right foot of a figure. The original is extant (cf. Stuart, vol. iii. ch. i. pl. 15), and is a nude armed figure, moving to the right. The head is lost.
Height of this and the following slabs, 2 feet 9-1/2 inches; length, 4 feet 6 inches. _Mus. Marbles_, IX., pl. 12.
[Sidenote: 2.]
On the next slab is a group of three deities seated on rocks, of whom the figure on the right is male and the other two female.
The two female deities wear long chitons, in the one case with a diplodion, and in the other case with sleeves. The figure on the left has the right hand, which is still preserved, by her side. It evidently held a spear. In Stuart's engraving this figure wears a helmet, but the drawing published by Le Roy (_Les Ruines des plus beaux Monuments de la Grece_, 1758), though in most respects worthless, seems to show conclusively that the heads are conjecturally restored in Stuart, vol. iii. ch. i. pls. 15, 16, while in pls. 17 to 20 no restoration is attempted. The remains of the figure make it probable that the goddess here represented is Athene.
The central figure turns towards Athene, to whom her right arm was probably extended. Passing over the back of her head is a large mantle, which is also wrapped about the legs, and falls over the left arm. The male figure in the group probably looked to the right at the pair of combatants which follows next in order. He has a mantle twisted round his lower limbs and passing behind his back. His left hand rested on a sceptre held vertically, which has now been broken away. All these three figures wear sandals.
The second Goddess may well be Hera, and in that case her male companion would probably be Zeus.
Length, 4 feet 6 inches. _Mus. Marbles_, IX., pl. 13.
[Sidenote: 3.]
Combat of two warriors. The nude warrior on the left, armed with shield and helmet, presses forward to the attack; he probably held a sword in the right hand. His adversary, whose back is turned towards us, appears to be in retreat, but to be stopping to deliver a thrust, probably with a spear held in the right hand.
His left arm must have held out a shield, of the rim of which a fragment remains, attached to the left thigh. His dress is a chiton _heteromaschalos_. On the right of the slab is seen the right foot of a warrior, belonging to the succeeding group, of which the British Museum possesses no cast. The warrior stretches out his shield to protect a wounded figure lying on the ground.
Length, 2 feet 10 inches. _Mus. Marbles_, IX., pl. 14. For the missing group, see Stuart, III., ch. I., pl. 17; Overbeck, _Gr.
Plast._, 3rd. ed., I., p. 348.
[Sidenote: 4.]
Part of the legs of the wounded warrior just referred to remains on the ground, on the left. Next on the right are two warriors moving to the right. Both these figures are nude, but very seriously mutilated. It is doubtful whether the figure on the left was armed with a shield, like his companion. His right foot is advanced and he is hurrying forward.
Length, 2 feet 8 inches. _Mus. Marbles_, IX., pl. 14.
[Sidenote: 5.]
A battle scene, in which the combatants, four in number, are hurling rocks; a fifth, overcome in the fray, lies prostrate on the ground. In this combat one warrior appears to be fighting against three. On the left an heroic figure, which may well be Theseus, is seen advancing. In the confusion his mantle has fallen off, and only hangs over the left arm. With outstretched left hand he repels a huge stone hurled against him by his adversary; the right hand appears to have been stretched out behind the body, and may have held a sword. There appear to be no means of warding off the stone which the adversary throws with his left hand.
Confronting the hero, supposed to be Theseus, is first the warrior just mentioned, who hurls a stone with each hand. Behind him is a second figure, who appears to be looking in the same direction.
His right hand was probably holding a stone behind his head, while the left hand is stretched back to pick up another stone from the ground. The third warrior hurls a great stone with his right hand, while with his left hand he propels the large stone seen behind the shoulders of the central figure. The fallen figure lies on rocky ground in the middle of the group of combatants, his head is much below the level of his body; his right arm, now wanting, has been resting on a lower level, his left arm is folded helplessly across his body.
Length, 5 feet 10 inches. _Mus. Marbles_, IX., pl. 16.
[Sidenote: 6.]
Group of two warriors advancing rapidly to the right, each with a shield on the left arm. One is nude, the other wears a chiton _heteromaschalos_. Next on the right is a group of one female and two male deities seated on rocks, and observing the combat.
The Goddess occupies the centre of the group, her head slightly inclined forward, and looking to the left. She wears a long chiton, sandals, and a mantle wrapped about her lower limbs. Both male figures have similar mantles. It may be conjectured that the three figures in order from the left are Poseidon, Demeter, and Dionysos; but it is impossible to attribute names to them with any confidence.
Length, 6 feet 6 inches. _Mus. Marbles_, IX., pl. 15.
[Sidenote: 7.]