FLOOR.] 
ELGIN ROOM. 
89 
Lysikrates, erected b.c. 334. They represent Dionysos transforming 
the Tyrrhenian pirates into dolphins. 
Towards 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 century B.C., and de- 
dicated jointly to Athene Polias, and Pandrosos, daughter of 
Kekrops. It is the purest and most characteristic monument 
of the Ionic 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 Canephorse, a structure which has been imitated 
as a decoration in St. Pancras Church, London. 
The remains of the temple which are in the British Museum consist 
of one of the Canephorae, and, by its side, the column which originally 
stood at the Northern angle of the Eastern portico ; a considerable 
portion of the frieze from the wall immediately behind the same 
column ; 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, mould- 
ings, &c. 
Opposite the Canephora is a colossal draped statue of Dionysos 
seated, which formerly surmounted the Choragic Monument of 
Thrasyllos, at Athens, erected B.C. 320. 
Near these are placed some miscellaneous fragments of architecture 
from various buildings in Athens and Attica, including the capital of a 
Doric column, and a fragment of the architrave from the Propylaea, 
a building which stood at the entrance to the Athenian Acropolis. 
Towards the North end of the room are a life-size statue 
of a youth, probably Eros, and a draped torso of Asklepios, 
found at Epidauros. Towards the South end of the room 
are casts of two marble chairs, from the theatre of Diony- 
sos, at Athens. One of these chairs, which was placed 
in the centre of the front row in the theatre, was the seat 
assigned to the priest of Dionysos Eleuthereus, as appears 
from the inscription on it. It is richly decorated : on 
the sides of the two arms is a group in low relief, repre- 
senting a winged youth, probably the Genius of the Games, 
setting two cocks to fight. Inside the back of the chair are 
two Satyrs, and on the front two Arimaspi fighting with 
Gryphons. The other chair was the official seat of one of 
the ten Athenian Strategl (Generals) in the theatre. 
