SCULPTURE AND ARCH1TECTUKE OF ATHENS, 555 



each member is so perfect in the details of its execution, that lord 

 ELin was at great pains (o obtain a Doric and an ionic capital 

 from its ruias. On the right hand of the Propylaea, was a temple 

 dedicated to victory without wings ; an epithet to which many ex- 

 planation have been given. This temple was built from the sale of 

 the spoils won in the glorious struggles for freedom at Marathon, 

 Salamis, and Plataea. On its frize wore sculptured many incidents 

 of these memorable battles ; in a syle that has bien thought by no 

 means inferior to the metopes of the Parthenon. The only frag, 

 ments of it that had ^srapt-d the ravages cf barbarians, were built 

 into the wall of a <*un. powder magazine near it, and the finest block 

 was insertpd upside downwards. It required the whole of lord 

 Elg'n's influence at the Porte, very great sacrifices, and much per- 

 severance to remove them ; but he at length succeeded. They re- 

 present the Athenians in close combat with the Persians, and the 

 sculptor has marked the different dresses and armour of the vari- 

 ous forces serving under the great king. The long garments and 

 zones of the Persians, had induced former (ravellt rs, from the 

 hasty and imperfect view they had of them, to suppose the subject 

 was the battle between Theseus and the Amazons, who invaded 

 Attica, under the command of Antiope ; but the Persian tiares, 

 the Phrygian bonnets, and many other particulars, prove them to 

 be mistaken. The spirit with which the groups of combatants are 

 portra)ed, is wonderful : one remarks, in particular, the contest 

 of four warriors to rescue the dead body of one of their comrades, 

 which is expressed with uncommon animation. These bas-reliefs, 

 and some of the most valuable sculpture, especially the representa- 

 tion of a marriage, taken from the parapet of the modern fortifica- 

 tion, were embarked in the Mentor, a vessel belonging to lord 

 Elgin, which was unfortunately wrecked off the island of Cerigo : 

 but Mr. Hamilton, who was at the time on board, and most provi- 

 dentially saved, immediately directed his whole energies to disco* 

 ver some means of rescuing so valuable a cargo ; and, in the course 

 of several months directed to that endeavour, he succeeded in pro. 

 curing some very expert divers from the islands of Syme and Calym- 

 no, near Rhodes ; who were able, with immense labour and per- 

 severance, to extricate a few of the cases from the hold of the ship, 

 while she lay in twelve fathoms water. It was impossible to recover 

 the remainder, before the storms of two winters had effectually 

 destroyed the timbers of the vessel. 



