These occupy the central space towards the southern end of the saloon.
The group on the eastern pediment originally represented the birth of
Minerva. The visitor will probably be first attracted to the great
recumbent figure marked 93, generally believed to have represented
Theseus, the Athenian hero, whose biography opens the series of
Plutarch's Lives. The figure is now much mutilated; the nose has been
chipped, and the feet are wanting, but still the form reclining on a
rock is majestic. Mr. Westmacott, in a lecture, gave his reasons for
believing that this statue was meant for Cephalus, of whom Aurora was
enamoured, and not Theseus. "This work [the pediment] it must be
observed, related to the most remarkable event in Athenian mythology,
and was confined only to that event. All the gods of Olympus were
present at the birth of Minerva. Now Theseus was not only not in
existence, but was patronised and protected by Minerva; it would seem,
therefore, extraordinary that he should be admitted as a witness of
her birth. If it is really Theseus, he could only have been introduced
by Phidias in compliment to the Athenians; but whether this could on
so very sacred an occasion have been allowed, may very reasonably be
doubted. Hercules, even the older, or Idaean Hercules, was, upon the
same principle, equally inadmissible, the Athenians acknowledging or
worshipping no Hercules prior to the son of Alcmene, who was
contemporaneous with Theseus, and consequently posterior also to
Minerva. Now the mythology of Cephalus is not only in unison with
Pausanias, but the admission of that person would in no degree affect
the harmony of the Attic types, or principles of Athenian worship.
Cephalus was as celebrated for heroic virtues as for his beauty."
The fragment numbered 91 is part of a figure of Hyperion rising out of
the sea. It marked that angle of the pediment to the left of the
spectator, and the arms are stretched forward urging his coursers.
Near him are, alas, only the heads of two of his horses (92). The next
group that presents itself for notice is that of two sitting figures
(94), the one to the left leaning on the right shoulder of the other.
This is a wreck of a group that represented Ceres and her daughter
Proserpine on the pediment. Next in succession is a figure full of
action (95): this is Iris, the messenger of the gods, but the
particular property of Juno, on her way to carry to remote parts the
interesting intelligence of the birth of Minerva. A torso of Victory
is placed next in order of succession (96). The figure is now
wingless, but holes can be seen which once attached them to the
statue. Three Fates, beautifully draped (97), and a head of one of the
horses (98) of the chariot of Night which occupied the angle of the
pediment on the spectator's right, complete the recovered fragments of
the eastern pediment.