A catalogue of sculpture in the Department of ... - Warburg Institute

114 CATALOGUE OF SCULPTURE.chiton, confined at the waist by a girdle, and has amantle wrapped about her legs. She appears to haveworn a bracelet on the right arm.On comparing the composition of this triad with thatof the triad placed next to Helios in the opposite half ofthe pediment a curious analogy of treatment may beobserved. The so-called Theseus (D), like the recliningfigure (M), seems to be quite unconscious of the greatevent which is being announced, and they are turnedas by law of attraction to the groups of Day and Nightwhich bound the scene on either side. The central figureon either triad seems only half aroused, while on eitherside the figure nearest the central action appears to haveheard the news of the birth.If the triad near Selene arethe Three Fates, as Visconti and many of his successorshave supposed, their place would more naturally be in thecentral part of the composition, or at least they might besupposed to be more on the alert with respect to what waspassing. By others it has been argued that the placeof this triad in immediate succession to Selene, and thedirection in which the figure nearest to the angle (M) isturned, would point to some mythic connection betweenthese three figures and the Goddess of the Moon. Such aconnection is suggested by the names given to the groupby Welcker, who saw in them the three daughters ofCecrops, Aglauros, Herse, and Pandrosos, mythic impersonationsof the Dew, who have a conspicuous place inAttic legend, though Pandrosos alone of the three seems tohave been honoured with worship at Athens. The samedesire to connect this triad with Selene has led Brunn(Ber. d. k. layer. Akad. Phil. hist. CI., 1874, ii., p. 16) tosee in them personifications of clouds.Among the writers who have regarded K as separatefrom L and M, the most common opinion has beenthat K is Hestia ; L and M have been called Aphrodite in