ELEVATION, ANGLE OF. 



ELGIN MARBLES. 



830 



repetition of those attacks, Dr. Hendy termed the malady the glandular 

 disease of Barbadoes, in which island it is endemical. In England it is 

 often called the Barbadoes leg. Except when these paroxysms occur, 

 the functions and constitution of the patient are not mainly injured, 

 and they often live many years, incommoded only by carrying about 

 " such a troublesome load of leg." 



In this country the disease is only seen in its inveterate stage, after 

 repeated attacks of the fever and effusion have completely altered the 

 organisation of the integuments of the limb, and rendered it altogether 

 incurable. In this state the swelling is hard and firm, does not pit on 

 pressure, and is entirely free from pain. The skin is thickened and 

 much hardened ; ita blood-vessels are enlarged, particularly the external 

 veins, and the lymphatics distended ; and the cellular substance is 

 flaccid and sometimes thickened, and its cells much loaded with a 

 gelatinous fluid. The muscles, tendons, ligaments, and bones, are 

 generally in a sound state. 



In this advanced stage the disease is altogether irremediable. Little 

 success indeed seems to have attended the practice employed in the 

 earlier stages, which has chiefly been directed to alleviate the febrile 

 paroxysms by laxatives and diaphoretics, and subsequently to strengthen 

 the system by cinchona. Local bleeding has not been employed ; but 

 after the fever and inflammation have subsided, the practice of binding 

 the limb in a strong bandage is strongly recommended as the best 

 means of exciting absorption, and of reducing the swelling. (Dr. 

 Bateman's ' Practical Synopsis of Cutaneous Diseases.') 



ELEVATION', ANGLE OF. [ALTITUDE.] 



ELEVATION IN ARCHITECTURE. [DESIGN, ARCHITECTURAL.] 



ELEUSrNIA, the great mystic festival of Demeter [DEMETER] 

 celebrated at Athens and Eleusis in the month Bb'edromion (Sep- 

 tember) : the most important and solemn religious festival of Greece. 

 The lesser mysteries were celebrated in the month of Elaphebolion 

 (March) at Agra;, on the Ilissus, and were a sort of preparation for the 

 Elcusinia. 



The great festival began on the 1 5th Boedromion, and lasted nine 

 days both at Athens and Eleusis. The first day was called the assem- 

 bling (kfupptt) ; on it all who had been initiated in Elaphebolion were 

 assembled at Athens and invited to complete their sacred duty. The 

 second day was named S\ci5 uttrrcu, " to the sea ye initiated ! " from 

 the words of the proclamation, by which they were admonished to 

 purify themselves. This purification took place in the petrol, two 

 streamlets of salt water running into the gulf of Salamis, and which 

 separated the territory of Eleusis from the rest of Attica. The third 

 day was called tit AXT) fiAa-rcu, from some ceremonies imitative of the 

 marriage of Persephone, which took place on that day. On the fourth 

 day there was a procession, in which a vessel filled with poppy heads 

 and pomegranates, emblems of fertility, was placed on a waggon drawn 

 by oxen, and followed by women bearing other mystic emblems. The 

 fifth was called the " day of the torches," \a^aJ<i)v rtp(pa, on account 

 of a lampadephoria, or torch-procession, in which the initiated, clad in 

 purple robes and crowned with myrtle, marched two and two round 

 the temple, followed by the worshippers bearing torches, symbolising, 

 an is supposed, the wanderings of Demeter in search of Persephone. 

 The initiation took place on the sixth and seventh days of the feast. 

 The sixth day, which was called lacchos, was the chief day of the 

 Eleusinia. On this day the statue of lacchos was carried hi procession 

 from the Cerameicus to Eleusis, attended by vast crowds of shouting 

 followers. It was during the night succeeding this day that the wor- 

 shippers were initiated into the inner mysteries. On the following 

 day, which was named the return of the fully-initiated (voaTovatv it 

 irfarnu), the statue of lacchos was carried back again, and the initiated 

 returned in procession to Athens, exhibiting the most tumultuous 

 revelry. The eighth day was called Epidauria, in honour of jEscu- 

 lapius, who did not arrive from Epidaurus to be initiated until after 

 the return of the Epoptao, and it was observed as a sort of supple- 

 mental day of initiation. The ninth day was called irXripoxori. The 

 ceremony of this day consisted in the symbolical overturning of two 

 vessels filled with wine and water, the ceremony being accompanied 

 with certain mystic rites. 



The persons initiated at the lesser mysteries were called pvarai, 

 from pva " to close up," because they were bound to strict silence ; those 

 who had passed through the Eleusinian ceremonies were called ^roVrai 

 or e<t>opoi, " contemplators," because they had been admitted to see the 

 sacred objects ; they were also hailed as happy and fortunate 



Of the nature of the initiation nothing is certainly known. It is 



probable that some notions were imparted of a future state of existence. 



But even this, though stated by early writers, is by no means clear ; 



and there seems to be little ground for supposing with Warburton 



I .eg. of Moses, b. ii. iv.) that the ultimate secret was the unity 



!i-ad. It may however, from the general tenor of the various 



references, be inferred that the secrets were of an elevating rather than 



character, and that their tendency was to raise the con- 



ufptinn <>f the nature of human life, its purpose, audits duties. Every 



Athenian was obliged to pass through these ceremonies once in the 



course of his life. Bastards, slaves, and prostitutes, as well as strangers, 



and in later times Chri.iti.iiw and Epicureans, were excluded from the 



Kl>-u-<ima. To reveal any of the mysteries, or to apply to private 



purpose*) any of the hallowed solemnities, was considered a capital 



crime. The priests at Eleusis belonged to the house of the Eumolpidse. 

 The chief priest was called the Hierophant, the second in rank the 

 Torch-bearer (SaSoCxos), the third the Sacred Herald (lepoicf)pv), and 

 the fourth the Altar-priest (6 eVl fiafijf). 



ELGIN MARBLES, the designation given to a collection of ancient 

 sculpture, chiefly from the Acropolis of Athens, whence it was obtained 

 by the Earl of Elgin (who had been the English ambassador to Turkey) 

 between the years 1801 and 1812. This collection was purchased in 

 pursuance of an act of the legislature, dated July 1st, 1816, for the 

 sum of 35,000?., and is now deposited in the British Museum, in what 

 are designated the First and Second Elgin Rooms. 



The Parthenon, or Temple of Pallas Athene at Athens, whence the 

 more important of these sculptures were obtained, was built during the 

 administration of Pericles, about the year B.C. 448. It was constructed 

 entirely of white marble from Mount Pentelicus ; Callicrates and 

 Ictinus were its architects ; and its sculptures were produced partly 

 by the hand and partly under the direction of Phidias. 



The sculptures of the Parthenon in the Elgin collection are of three 

 descriptions : Metopes ; a portion of the Frieze of the cella ; and 

 Statues and their parts from the tympana or pediments. 



The Metopes are fifteen in number, from the frieze of the peristyle 

 on the southern side of the building, and bear reference to the 

 contest between the Centaurs and the Lapithse. [CENTAURS.*] There 

 is a sixteenth Metope, placed as No. 9 ; but it is a cast from one 

 now in the Museum of the Louvre at Paris, the original of which, 

 formerly belonging to the same series, was purchased (for 25,000 francs) 

 for that collection in 1818, at the sale of the Count de Choiseul 

 Gouffier, who before the French Revolution had been his king's 

 ambassador in Turkey. The Metopes are executed in high relief, and 

 are the finest examples of that style in existence. The admirable art 

 displayed in their design and execution, and their exquisite adaptation 

 to the position they originally occupied, have been pointed out in the 

 article ALTO-RILIEVO, col. 252, et seq., where an engraving is given of 

 one of them (No. 2). We add here an engraving of No. 12, which is 

 especially admirable for the accurate expression of the dying Greek. 



[Metope, No. 12.] 



The most interesting of the Metopes are Nos. 3, 11, 12, and 13. The 

 three last mentioned are the finest in point of execution. 



In an uninterrupted series of very low relief, placed round the cella, 

 immediately below the ceiling of the porticoes of the Parthenon, was 

 the Frieze, representing the solemn quinquennial procession, called the 

 Panathensea. The procession was represented as advancing in two 

 parallel columns from west to east, one along the northern, the other 

 along the southern side of the temple, and facing inwards after turning 

 the two angles of the eastern front, and meeting towards its centre. 

 Such was the frieze in its original position, when it formed an uninter- 

 rupted series of sculptured slabs, 524 feet in extent and 3 feet 4 inches 

 high : the base of the slabs was 40 feet from the floor of the platform. 

 Of its remains the Elgin collection possesses an extent, in slabs and 

 fragments of marble, beginning at No. 17, of rather more than 249 feet, 

 with a continuation of plaster casts of more than 76 feet. The greater 

 part of the last are from portions of the sculpture which were not 

 brought away, including a single slab, No. 23, which likewise belonged 

 to the Count de Choiseul, now in the Museum of the Louvre ; all 

 forming a total of representation from the frieze of very near 326 feet. 

 The bas-reliefs which at present compose the frieze in the Elgin Room, 

 as far as they extend, are placed in the same order in which they were 



* The two representations of Centaurs and Lapitlio) fighting, given under 

 CXXTAVHI, should have been described as Metopes from the Thrseum, not the 

 Parthenon. 



