hen, to guide his impressions, the restored model which
stands near the south-east corner of the room. His business is now
with the frieze that ran round the building behind the columns, and
upon which a series of bas-reliefs were sculptured; of which Sir Henry
Ellis gives the following clear outline:--

THE FRIEZE OF THE PARTHENON.

"One of the richest objects with which Phidias embellished the outside
of the temple of the Parthenon, was, without doubt, that uninterrupted
series of bas-reliefs which occupied the upper part of the walls
within the colonnade, at the height of the frieze of the Pronaos, and
which was continued entirely round the building. The situation
afforded to the work only a secondary light, and, so far, prescribed
to Phidias the manner in which he was to direct the execution of the
figures.

"From the position intended for it, it was evident that the direct
rays of the sun could never reach the Panathenaic frieze. Being placed
immediately below the soffit, it received all its light from between
the columns, and by reflection from the pavement below. The flatness
of the sculpture is thus sufficiently accounted for; had the relief
been prominent, the upper parts could not have been seen; the shade
projected by the sculpture would have rendered it dark, and the parts
would have been reduced by their shadows. The frieze could only be
seen in an angle of forty-two degrees and a half.

"The subject represented the sacred procession which was celebrated
every fifth year in honour of Minerva, the guardian goddess of the
city, and embraced in its composition all the external observances of
the highest festival of the Athenians.

"The blocks of marble of which the frieze was composed were three feet
four inches high; they were placed about nine feet within the external
row of columns; and occupied, slab after slab, a space of five hundred
and twenty-four feet in length. As a connected subject, this was the
most extensive piece of sculpture ever made in Greece. The images of
the gods, deified heroes, basket bearers, bearers of libatory vessels,
trains of females, persons of every age and sex, men on horseback,
victims, charioteers--in short, the whole people were represented in
it conveying, in solemn pomp, to this very temple of the Parthenon,
the sacred veil which was to be suspended before the statue of the
goddess within.

"Meursius, in his Panathenaea and Reliquiae Atticae, has collected
from anci