76 
GREEK ANTIQUITIES. 
[GROUND 
their original order, but it is necessary to bear in mind that, owing to 
the absence of a considerable portion, several slabs, not formerly con- 
nected, are here brought into juxtaposition, and that the effect of the 
whole frieze is in one sense reversed, by being made an internal, instead 
of an external, decoration. The subject of the bas-reliefs is the Pana~ 
thenaic procession, which took place at the festival celebrated every 
four years at Athens in honour of Minerva. 
At the East end of the temple were originally placed the slabs 
(numbered, in red figures,) 17-24. On two of them (Nos. 18, 19) 
are deities, and deified heroes, seated ; and a priest receiving from a 
boy the peplus, or sacred veil of Minerva. On each side approach 
trains of females, bearing religious offerings, and under the guidance 
of officers or magistrates. 
On the North side of the building were Nos. 25-46, representing a 
long cavalcade of chariots and horsemen, and including amongst the 
latter the most beautifully executed examples of bas-relief which the 
ancients have left us. 
No. 47, representing two youthful horsemen, is the only slab from 
the West end of the temple. It is succeeded by fourteen casts 
(Nos. 48-61), taken from the remainder of the frieze at this end. 
The remaining bas-reliefs (Nos. 62-90), which are from the South 
side, and in a very fragmentary condition, exhibit a procession moving in 
the opposite direction to that hitherto described, the two lines of figures 
having been so arranged as to meet at the East end. These bas-reliefs 
represent horsemen, chariots, and victims led to sacrifice. 
At the ends of the room are casts of a few isolated slabs from the 
frieze, which are still at Athens. 
Towards the South part of the room is the capital of one of the 
columns of the temple. 
Besides the remains of the Parthenon, the following miscel- 
laneous sculptures and casts are exhibited in this room : — 
On the East wall, over the Panathenaic frieze, some casts 
obtained by Lord Elgin from sculptures still decorating the 
Temple of Theseus at Athens, a building erected about twenty 
years earlier than the Parthenon, to commemorate the removal 
by Cimon of the bones of Theseus from Scyros to Athens. 
The casts towards the North end of the room (numbered 136-149) 
are from the external frieze of the temple, and represent, in high 
relief, a battle fought in the presence of six seated divinities. 
Nos. 150-154, towards the South, end, represent a contest between 
Centaurs and Greeks. 
Adjoining these are casts of three of the metopes (Nos. 155-157), 
exhibiting warlike achievements of Theseus. 
On the East side of the room, resting on the floor, is a coffer from 
the ceiling of the same temple. 
