21 2 Memorandum on the Subject of 



traits of many of the leading characters at Athens, during 

 the Peloponneslan war, particularly of Pericles, Phidias, 

 Socrates, Alcibiades, &c. The whole frize, which origi- 

 nally was six hundred feet in length, is, like the temple it- 

 self, of Pentelic marble, from the quarries in the neigh- 

 bourhood of Athens. 



The tympanum over each of the porticoes of the Parthe- 

 non was adorned with statues. That over the grand en- 

 trance of the temple from the west contained the mytholo- 

 gical history of Minerva's birth from the brain of Jove. In 

 the centre of the groupe was seated Jupiter, in all the ma- 

 jesty of the sovereign of the gods. On his left were the 

 principal divinities of Olympus ; among whom Vulcan came 

 prominently forward, with the axe in his hand which had 

 cleft a passage for the goddess. On the right was Victory, 

 in loose floating robes, holding the horses of the chariot 

 which introduced the new divinity to Olympus. One of 

 the bombs fired by Morosini, the Venetian, from the oppo- 

 site hill of the Museum, injured many of the figures in this 

 tympanum ; and the attempt of general Koenigsmark, in 

 1687, to take down the figure of Minerva, ruined the v^'hole. 

 By purchasing the house of one of the Turkish janizaries, 

 built immediately imder and against the columns of the 

 portico, and by demolishing it in order to excavate, lord El- 

 gin has had the satisfaction of recovering the greatest part 

 of the statue of Victory, in a drapery which discovers the fine 

 form of the figure with exquisite delicacy and taste. Lord 

 Elgin also found there the torsi of Jupiter and Vulcan, the 

 breast of the Minerva, together with other fragments. 



On the opposite tympanum had been represented the con- 

 test between Minerva and Neptune for the honour of giving 

 a name to the city. One or two of the figures remained on 

 this tympanum, and others were on the top of the wall, 

 thrown back by the explosion which destroyed the temple, 

 but the far greater part had fallen ; and a house being built 

 immediately below the space they had occupied, lord Elgin, 

 encouraged by the success of his former excavations, ob- 

 tained leave, after much difficulty, to pull down this house 

 also, and continue his researches. But no fragments were 

 here discovered : and the Turk, who bad been induced, 

 though most reluctantly, to give up his house to be demo- 

 lished, then exultingly pointed out the places in the modern 

 fortification, and in his own buildings, where the cement 

 employed had been formed from the very statues which lord 

 Elgin had been in hopes of finding. And it was afterwards 

 ascertained; on incontrovertible evidence, that these statues 



had 



