SCULPTURE AND ARCHITECTURE OF ATHENS. 553 



mer excavations, obtained leave, after much difficulty, to pu" 

 down this house also, and continue his researches. But no frag, 

 ments were here discovered ; and the Turk, who had been induced, 

 though most reluctantly, to give up his house to be demolished, 

 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 been reduced to powder, and so 

 used. Then, and then only, did lord Elgin employ means to res- 

 cue what still remained from a similar fate. Among these objects 

 is a horse's head, which far surpasses any thing of the kind, both 

 in the truth and spirit of the execution. The nostrils are dis- 

 tended, the ears erect ; the veins swollen, one might almost say 

 throbbing : his mouth is open, and he seems to neigh with the con. 

 scious pride of belonging to the ruler of the waves. Besides this 

 inimitable head, lord Elgin has procured, from the same pediment, 

 two colossal groups, each consisting of two female figures. They 

 are formed of single massive blocks of Pentelic marble : their atti. 

 tudes are most graceful ; and the lightness and elegance of the dra- 

 pery exquisite. From the same pediment has also been procured 

 a male statue in a reclining posture, supposed to represent Nep- 

 tune. And, above all, the figure denominated the Theseus, which 

 is universally admitted to be superior to any piece of statuary ever 

 brought into England. Each of these statues is worked with such 

 care, and the finishing even carried so far, that every part, and 

 the very plinth itself in which they rest, are equally polished on 

 every side. 



From the Opisthodomos of the Parthenon, lord Elgin also 

 procured some valuable inscriptions, written in the manner called 

 Kionedon or Columnar, next in antiquity to the Boustrophedon. 

 The greatest care is taken to preserve an equal^number of letters in 

 each line ; even monos) llables are separated occasionally into two 

 parts, if the line has had its complement, and the next line then 

 begins with the end of the broken word. The letters range per. 

 pendicularly, as well as horizontally, so as to render it almost im. 

 possible to make any interpolation or erasure of the original text. 

 The subject of these monuments are public decrees of the people ; 

 accounts of the riches contained in the treasury, and delivered by 

 tlie administrators to their successors in office ; enumerations of 



