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

154 CATALOGUE OF SCULPTURE,324. Nearly all the authorities who have written on this questionagree in recognising the two groups of seated figuresas deities. This is indicated not only by the dignity oftheir appearance but also by their scale. While thefigures of the mortals are about 3 ft. 2 in. high, those ofthe deities are about 4 ft. 4 in. high. Though by theprinciple known as Isokephalistn the heads in a relief areusually nearly on a level, this marked difference of scalecan hardly fail to indicate divine rank ;compare the friezeof the Theseion (No. 404). There is, however, a widedivergence of opinion as to the particular divinities hererepresented. From the destruction of most of the facesand the absence of attributes or other indications bywhich the figures can be severally identified, it is verydiflScult to judge between the rival schemes of interpretationwhich have been proposed. In Michaelis' Parthenon,pp. 262, 263, a tabular view is given of theseschemes (cf. Guide to the Elgin Boom, I., Table C). Theattributions proposed by Michaelis himself are for themost part adopted here, with certain changes suggestedby Flasch in his memoir : Zum Parthenonfries (Wiirzburg,1877).The interpretations proposed by those who hold thatthe seated figures are deities, are of two kinds. Mostwriters have tried to identify some at least of the figureswith personages who were worshipped near the Acropolis,or connected with the mythological history of Athens.By this system, deities of lower rank such as the Dioscuri,or heroeslike Triptolemos are admitted, on the frieze, tothe company of the Olympian Gods. Petersen and Flasch,on the other hand, argue that the twelve Olympiandeities are represented in the two groups, without regardto local considerations. Hestia alone is omitted, whoalwaj's stays in Olympos to keep the hearth, (Plato,Phaedr., 247a). Petersen substitutes Peitho for Hestia;