When the ashes of Theseus, long after his death, were conveyed in
state to Athens, festivals were instituted in his honour; and a
magnificent temple was erected to his memory nearly five centuries
before our era. The sculptures of the temple represented the exploits
of Theseus, and of Hercules, with whom Theseus was always on terms of
great friendship, and to whom he gave the highest honours his country
could afford. The subject of the frieze (which the visitor will find
against the eastern wall of the saloon, numbered from 136 to 149), has
been variously explained, but is shrewdly conjectured to be the Battle
of the Giants, in which Hercules played a prominent part, and in which
the giants are said to have hurled rocks at their adversaries, like
pebbles. This battle was fought in the presence of divinities, who are
represented seated upon slabs (137-8-133-4.) This frieze was on the
most conspicuous part of the temple. The frieze that flanked the
building was sculptured with the exploits of Theseus; and here the
visitor will once more see the battle of the Centaurs and the Lapithae
illustrated (150-154). The Centaurs hurling huge stones, and wielding
the stems of trees; and the invulnerable Coeneus, half crushed by his
savage enemies, are again represented. The casts of three metopes
(155-157) are from the north side of the temple of Theseus. Upon the
first the hero is represented destroying the King of Thebes, Creon;
upon the second he is throwing Cercyon, King of Eleusis; and upon the
third he is overcoming the Crommyonian sow. "About this time,"
Plutarch tells us, "Crommyon was infested with a wild sow named Phoeä,
a fierce and formidable creature. This savage he attacked and killed,
going out of his way to engage her, and thus displaying an act of
voluntary valour: for he believed it equally became a brave man to
stand upon his defence against abandoned ruffians, and to seek out and
begin the combat with strong and savage animals. But some say that
Phoeä was an abandoned female robber, who dwelt in Crommyon; that she
had the name of 'sow' from her life and manners, and was afterwards
slain by Theseus."
A series of bas-reliefs from an Ionic temple, dedicated to the
Wingless Victory of Athens, are the next objects that command the
general visitor's attention. They are numbered from 158 to 161
successively. Upon these are represented battles between the Greeks
and Persians; and maidens leading a sacrificial bull. The fragments
marked successively from 165 to 175 are remarkable for the Greek
inscriptions on them, which cannot interest the general visitor. Let
the visitor, therefore, next pause before the fragment of a frieze in
green stone, marked 177, which is from the tomb of Agamemnon at
Mycenae. The sculptured scroll-work is of very remote antiquity. The
next fragment is a bas-relief, on which a bearded man is represented,
pressing a child towards him, and directing its attention to a votive
foot which he holds in his hand. Passing from this, the visitor may
next direct his attention to the fragment of a colossal statue
numbered 178. It belongs to one of the pediments of the Parthenon.
Hereabouts are various sepulchral urns and columns of no particular
interest to the casual observer;--the circular altar from Delos,
ornamented in relief with sacrificial bulls and other subjects. 179
may, however, be noticed, together with the column marked 183, which
bears the name of Socrates, son of Socrates, a native of Ancyra, of
Galatia. The object marked 186 is a Greek sun-dial found at Athens, of
a time not long before the reign of the Emperor Severus. Passing other
altars and fragments of columns, the visitor should pause on his way,
to notice a bas-relief upon which Latona and Diana are sculptured,
forming part of a procession (190). The bas-relief numbered 193 is
from the theatre of Bacchus: it is a Bacchanalian group, in which
Bacchus is holding forth a vessel to be filled by an attending
Bacchante. The next object to be noticed is marked 194, and is a
fragment of a head of the goddess Pasht, surmounted with a crown of
serpents. A spirited scene occurs upon bas-relief 197, where a
charioteer, heralded by a flying Victory, is represented driving four
horses at full speed. A series of urns and votive altars are grouped
hereabouts, which the casual visitor may pass, pausing before the
small statue of Ganymede (207); a fragment of a boy supporting a bird
on his arm (221); a small figure of Telesphorus, headless, and draped;
more sepulchral urns and stêles; capitals of Corinthian and Ionic
columns; various inscriptions, including a decree of a society of
musicians (235); an amphora (238); a female head; a large and small
head of a bearded Hercules (243-242); heads and fragments of heads;
the base of a statue supposed to have been that of the Minerva of the
western pediment of the Parthenon; urns and columns, and stales and
inscriptions; a bas-relief showing Health, the daughter of
AEsculapius, feeding a serpent; two more bas-reliefs; an inventory of
the articles of gold and silver belonging to the Parthenon (282);
stêles, inscriptions, and columns; fragments of colossal statues, a
small statue (headless) of a Muse, 316; fragments of figures from the
metopes of the Parthenon; a sculptured oblong vessel, found near the
plain of Troy, for containing holy water (324); a mutilated colossal
head supposed to represent Nemesis, found in the temple of Nemesis, at
Rhamnus (325); a mutilated female statue found also at Rhamnus, in the
temple of Themis; fragments of colossal statues, stêles, inscriptions,
and altars. And hereabouts the visitor should pause once more to
examine a consecutive series of sculptures. These are marked from 352
to 360. They are casts from the monument of Lysicrates, erected to
celebrate a musical contest about three centuries and a half before
our era. This monument is commonly known as the