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

126 CATALOGUE OF SCULPTURE.the upper part of the shoulders is roughly cut away ; thechiselling does not appear to be ancient, but may havebeen done after the figure had fallen from the pediment.The upper part of this torso is remarkable for the grandeurof the lines.Mas. Marbles, VI., pi. 17 ;Lower part, Michaelis, pi. 8, fig. 16 ;Laborde, Le Parthenon. The two parts are combined, Overbeck,Gr. Flast., 3rd ed., I., p. 312, fig. 65; Stereoscopic, No. 101.Though we know from Pausanias that the strife betweenAthene and Poseidon for the soil of Attica was the subjectof the western pediment, the exact action represented bythe central group cannot be determined. Most writerssuppose that the combatants have produced their respectivetokens, and that the strife is just decided. Amongthe fragments found on the Acropolis were three whichare certainly parts of an olive-tree (Michaelis, pi. 8,fig. 15). The scale of these fragments, casts of which areexhibited (see below, Nos. 339, 15-17), would be suitablefor a tree placed in the centre of the pediment betweenthe two contending deities.If these fragments belong tothe Parthenon (of which there is no positive proof), itseems natural to suppose that Athene is represented ^shaving produced her olive, which stood in the centre ofthe pediment, and was fixed in a rectangular socket, welladapted to support it (Sauer, Athenische Mittheilungen,xvi., pi. 3, p. 72). In this case the two gods are seenstarting asunder, but looking inwards, after the decisivemoment. The salt spring produced by the trident ofPoseidon may also have had a place in the composition,though no trace of it is to be found either among thefragments or in Carrey's drawing.The chief divergent theory is that of Stephani, who publisheda vase-painting representingthe contest (^CompteBendu, 1872, pi. 1, p. 5; Joum. of Hellenic Studies, in.,p. 245). In that design Poseidon and Athene form an