The Judgment of Animals in Classical Greece: Animal Sculpture and ...

Erechtheion, and also fragments of its sculpture, lead was indeed used as adhesive for
fixing dowels in the holes cut in both the blocks and sculpture employed in this part of
the building. 571 Given this evidence, zwidi/wn can be understood as the sculptures placed
on the bottom and against the back sides of the frieze of the building. It is probably
because of this evidence that, unlike his previous consistent translation of both zw&idia
and zw~ia as “figures,” Caskey translates these zwidi/wn as “sculptures,” which implies
identification with objects rather than with images or subjects. 572 Although fitting and in
accordance with the general sense detected in the meaning of zwidi/wn, this translation
verifies the artistic context for the use of the term, but does not take into account an
aspect of zwidi/wn that clearly stands out: their fastening. The word pro&sqesin, which
indicates this technical aspect, also carries the meaning of “addition.” 573 As such it
qualifies zw&idia as sculptures added, in the sense of being attached to a surface,
therefore indicating their place in relation to the surrounding structure. Such evidence
may mean that apart from or along with implying small size, zw&idia were also
understood as appliqué sculptures. This evidence brings to mind the bronze works
riveted on the krater from Vix and those from Trebenishte, thus suggesting that the
material of manufacture was not central to the meaning of zw|&dion in the fifth century.
571 The bottom blocks of the frieze should be equated with the top surface of the architrave, which
functioned as the floor on which the sculpture of the frieze was placed. Fowler, “The Sculptures,” in Paton,
ed., The Erechtheum 243, n. 4, maintains that remnants of lead have been found in both the holes in the
surface of the architrave and in the extant sculpture: “there are also in the top of the architrave numerous
small round holes, and similar holes, some of which contain remains of iron pins or plugs and of lead, are
found in a few fragments of sculpture.” Boulter, “The Frieze of the Erechtheion” 20, states that a pour
channel—generally round and rather narrow—was required to allow the lead to flow into the dowel hole.
As an example she offers (20, fig. 23) an unpublished fragment of a female figure discovered on the north
slope of the Acropolis.
572 Caskey, “The Inscriptions,” in Paton, ed., The Erechtheum 397.
573 LSJ 9 , 1514, s.v.pro&sqesij.
291