66 
DEPARIMENT OF ANTIQUITIES. 
[ground 
years earlier than the Parthenon, to commemorate the removal 
by Cimon of the bones of Theseus from Sc3^ros 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. 
At the North end of the Room are some remains taken from 
the Erechtheum, a temple erected on the Acropolis of Athens, 
towards the close of the fifth centnry before Christ, and de- 
dicated jointly to Minerva Polias, and Pandrosus, daughter of 
Cecrops. It is the purest and most characteristic monument 
of the lo^c order of architecture remaining in ancient Greece. 
Its form is oblong, with a hexastyle portico at the East end, 
and two unusual additions at its North-west and South-west 
angles ; the one a tetrastyle portico, the other a porch sup- 
ported by six Caryatides, a structure which has been imitated 
as a decoration to St. Pancras Church, London. 
The remains of the temple which are in the British Museum consist 
of one of the Caryatides, and, by its side, the column which originally- 
stood at the Northern angle of the Eastern portico ; behind these is 
now placed a considerable portion of the frieze from the wall imme- 
diately behind the same column ; and near this, a large piece of the 
architrave, and a smaller fragment of the cornice, from other parts of 
the building, an ornamental coffer from the ceiling of the interior,, 
and several minor fragments, mouldings, &c. 
Towards the North end of the room are the capital of a Doric 
column, and a fragment of the architrave, from the Propyl^a, a build- 
ing which stood at the entrance to the Athenian Acropolis. 
Facing the Eastern door is a colossal draped statue of Eacchus, 
seated, which formerly surmounted the choragic monument of Thrasyllus, 
at Athens, erected b.c. 320. 
Attached to the Eastern wall are some casts of the bas-reliefs which 
decorated the frieze of the choragic monument of Lysicrates, erected 
B.C. 334. They represent Bacchus punishing the Tyrrhenian pirates. 
Near these are placed some miscellaneous fragments of architecture 
from various buildings in Athens and Attica, 
The door on the East side leads into the 
