170 TRAVEL, ADVENTURE, AND SPORT. 



amply compensated for by the glorious fragments of 

 the sculptures in Parian marble adorning its pedi- 

 ments, which have lately been discovered lying round 

 about. Pausanias, who visited Greece in the second 

 century A.D., has left us a very complete, and, as far 

 as one can see, faithful picture of Olympia at that 

 time. He tells us that these sculptures were intrust- 

 ed to two pupils of Phidias : those of the eastern 

 pediment to Pai6nios, to whom also is attributed the 

 very beautiful figure of Victory, found at this end of 

 the temple in 1876; those of the western pediment, 

 to Alkamenes. The figures of Paionios, a Thracian 

 artist, are very noble in conception and vigorous in 

 treatment; but the work of Alkamenes, which the 

 labours of 1877 brought to light, has more finish and 

 grace. One could hardly imagine anything more 

 perfectly adapted to the height (about 60 feet) at 

 which they were to be seen, than is the style in which 

 these figures are executed. The moulding of the 

 limbs is of first-rate workmanship, the general lines 

 of the figures are exquisitely graceful the whole 

 effect is one of simple majesty, unimpaired by the 

 necessity of considering minute detail. The subject 

 of the western pediment is a very favourite one with 

 Greek sculptors the battle of the Centaurs and the 

 Lapithas at the marriage-feast of Peirithous. The 

 most noticeable, because the most perfect figures that 

 remain, are (1) a reclining figure of a woman, leaning 

 on her left elbow and gazing in that direction with 



