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THE GIRL’S OWN PAPER
Vol. VIII.—No. 363.
Price One Penny.
DECEMBER 11, 1886.
[Transcriber’s Note: This Table of Contents was not present in the original.]
GREEK AND ROMAN ART AT THE BRITISH MUSEUM.
MERLE’S CRUSADE.
CHRISTMAS IN A FRENCH BOARDING-SCHOOL.
LACE-MAKING IN THE ERZGEBIRGE.
“NO.”
THE SHEPHERD’S FAIRY.
VARIETIES.
ANSWERS TO CORRESPONDENTS.
GREEK AND ROMAN ART AT THE BRITISH MUSEUM.
By E. F. BRIDELL-FOX.
THE BIRTH OF ATHÉNÉ.
(From a Vase in the British Museum.)
All rights reserved.]
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PART II.
THE ELGIN MARBLES.
“Abode of gods whose shrines no longerburn.”
I have now to complete my account of thesculptures of the Parthenon, that wonderfullybeautiful temple to Athéné (or Minerva), atAthens, which has never ceased to be thecentre of attraction for all visitors to Greecefrom the time it was first built—namely,about 435 years B.C.—even till the presentmoment, when it stands a shattered wreck onits rocky height.
My first article dealt chiefly with the long,sculptured frieze that ran continuously thewhole length of the walls of the building (protectedby the outer colonnade), and the ceremonialswhich that frieze represented. Thepresent article will be devoted chiefly to thefragments of the external frieze, and to thefigures of the eastern and western pediments,which represented the chief legends connectedwith the goddess.
I will, before proceeding, here pause amoment to account for the shattered conditionin which those fragments now are.
In 630 A.D. the Parthenon was consecratedfor use as a Christian church. Like thefamous church at Constantinople, it was dedicatedto Santa Sophia, the Divine Wisdom.The older temple, that stood near the Parthenon,called the Erecthium, which had beenfar more venerated by the early Atheniansthan the Parthenon itself, was about the sametime also consecrated. This latter was dedicatedto the Virgin Mary.
Long before this date, Chri