FLOOR.] 
SECOND ELGIN BOOM. 
65 
alternating with trigiyphs, each metope containing a sculp- 
tured group in iiigh relief. 
Attached to the Western wall of the room are fifteen of the me- 
topes, and a cast from another, which is now in the Museum of the 
Louvre, at Paris. They are all from the South side of the Parthenon, 
and represent combats between Greeks and Centaurs. Casts from 
three other metopes, still remaining at Athens, and representing 
various subjects, are inserted in the adjoining walls. 
Around the room are placed in a continuous line the slabs removed 
by Lord Elgin from the frieze of the cella, with casts of a few other 
slabs still existing on the temple, forming altogether more than one- 
half of the entire series. They are arranged, as far as possible, in 
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 placeik the slabs 
here 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 jjeplus, 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 tw^o 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 
