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

148 CATALOGUE OF SCULPIUEE.Before examining how far the frieze represents thePanathenaic procession in detail, it may be well to statewhat facts respecting the festival have been handed downto us by ancient authors. Its origin was ascribed inantiquity to pre-histoiio times. Its mythic founder wasErichthonios, the son of Hephaestos and foster-son ofAthene herself; and the festival is said to have beenrenewed by Theseus when he united all the Attic deraesinto one city. The goddess in whose honour it was celebratedwas Athene Polias, the tutelary deity of theAthenian Acropolis, where she was supposed to dwell indrawn by the melody. But at length the appearance of the youthfulcaralry and of its leader proved that a noble sight was better than anymusic. There were fifty ephebi, in two troops of five-and-twenty, actingas body-guard of the leader of the embassy.Their boots were laced withpurple thongs, and tied above the ankle. Their cloaks were white withdark blue borders, and were fastened on their breasts with golden brooches.The horses were all Thessalian, and breathed the freedom of their nativeplains. They tried to spue out their bits and covered them with foam, as ifrebellious, yet submitted to the will of the riders. It seemed as if therehad been a rivalry among the masters in adorning their horses withfrontlets and phalerae, silver or gilded. But, as a flash of lightningmakes all else seem dark, so, when the captain, Theagenes (the hero ofthe novel), appeared, all eyes were turned to him. He also was mounted,and wore armour, and brandished an ashen spear, tipped with bronze.He had not put on his helmet, but rode bareheaded. He wore a purplecloak, embroidered in gold with a fight of Centaurs and Lapiths ; on hisbrooch was an amber figure of Athenfe, wearing the Gorgon's head on herbreastplate. A gentle breeze gave him further grace, spreading his hairabout his neck, and parting the locks on his forehead, and blowing theends of his cloak about the back and flanks of his horse. And the horseitself seemed conscious of the exceeding beauty of its master, as it archedits neck, and pricked up its ears, and frowned its brows, and advancedproudly, giving ready obedience to the rein, balancing on alternateshoulders, lightly striking the tips of its hoofs on the ground, and attuningits pace to a gentle motion." Interesting passages of Xenophon describehorses that prance as they ought in p^-ocessions, and also lay down theduty of the leaders of a procession of horsemen (Xen. Eipp. 11 andHipparch. 3).