Parthenon. South metope 1
Inventory number
Ακρ. 20707
Artist
Pheidias' workshop
Category
Architectural sculpture
Period
Classical Period
Date
445-440 BC
Dimensions
Height: 1.345 m
Length: 1.305 m
Material
Marble from Penteli
Location
Parthenon Gallery
On metope 1, a Centaur grips a Lapith by the neck while he prepares to strike him a hard blow with a tree branch held in his right hand. However, the outcome of the combat has not been yet decided as the Lapith, who struggles to escape the Centaur's deadly headlock simultaneously plunges his spear into his opponent's belly. The Centaur's tail was originally sculpted in a separate piece of marble but after it had been repaired at some point in antiquity, it was replaced by another tail rendered in lower relief. A fragment from the Centaur’s rear leg is found today in the Staatliche Antikensammlungen in Munich.
The main theme of the thirty two metopes on the south side of the Parthenon is the Centauromachy, the mythical battle between the Lapiths and the Centaurs. The Centaurs, half-human creatures with a horse's body from the waist down, while attending the wedding feast of king Peirithoos, close friend of Theseus, became drunk and attempted to carry off the Lapith women.
Each metope on the south side depicts either a fight between a Centaur and a Lapith or the seizing of a Lapith woman by a Centaur. However, the nine central metopes (nrs. 13-20), portray different subjects which still cannot be easily interpreted. Some scholars connect them with Athens' mythical past, but it seems more probable that they are scenes of the marriage from inside the palace of Peirithoos in Thessaly.
The south metopes were not damaged by Christiansas severely as those on the other sides of the temple. The bombardment of the monument by Francesco Morosini in 1687 broke fourteen of them into fragments (nrs. 11, 13-25). In the beginning of the 19th cent. fifteen out of the eighteen best preserved were forcibly detached by Thomas Bruce, lord of Elgin, when Greece was under Ottoman occupation, and ended up in the British Museum in London (nrs. 2-9 and 26-32). Metope 10, which had originally fallen on the ground, after its many adventures, ended up in the Louvre Museum in Paris. Some smaller metope fragments have been dispersed in other museums abroad. The Acropolis Museum houses metopes 1 and 12 as well as fragments of nine further metopes, which were found scattered on the Acropolis and the surrounding area (nrs. 11, 13, 16, 17, 19-22 and 24). Their reconstruction was achieved with the help of the drawings attributed to the painter Jacques Carrey, who visited Athens in 1674, just thirteen years before its bombardment by Morosini.
Smith, A.H., British Museum. The Sculptures of the Parthenon, London, 1910, σελ. 21, εικ. 44, πίν. 16.1
Schrader, H., Phidias, Frankfurt am Mainz, 1924, εικ. 192
Praschniker, C., Parthenonstudien, Augsburg/Wien, 1928, σελ. 51, αρ. κατ. Süd I
Langlotz, E., Phidiasprobleme, Frankfurt am Main, 1947, σελ. 19-21, εικ. 4
Rodenwaldt, G., Köpfe von den Südmetopen des Parthenon, Phil. Hist. Klasse, 1945-6, Abhandlungen der Deutschen Akademie der Wissenschaften zu Berlin Nr. 7 (48), Berlin, 1948, σελ. 14-15, εικ. 11-13
Lippold, G., Die griechische Plastik, Handbuch der Archäologie III 1, München, 1950, εικ. 52.4
Brommer, F., «Fragmente der Parthenonmetopen», Jahrbuch des Deutschen Archäologischen Instituts 75, 1960, σελ. 45, 46, εικ. 13, αρ. κατ. 10
Brommer, F., Die Metopen des Parthenon, Mainz, 1967, σελ. 71-76, εικ. 155-163, αρ. κατ. SÜD 1
Bowie, Th., Thimme, D. (εκδ.), The Carrey Drawings of the Parthenon Sculptures, Bloomington, Indiana University Press, 1971, σελ. 45, 46, πίν. 5
Simon, E., «Versuch einer Deutung der Südmetopen des Parthenon», Jahrbuch des Deutschen Archäologischen Instituts 90, 1975, σελ. 101-106, εικ. 1
Himmelmann, N., «Die Zeitliche Stellung der Südmetopen am Parthenon», στο Μ. Προύνη-Θιλίπ, Α.Γ. Καλογεροπούλου (επιμ.), ΣΤΗΛΗ, Τόμος εις μνήμην Νικολάου Κοντολέοντος, Αθήνα, 1980, σελ. 166
Ridgway, B.S., Fifth Century Styles in Greek Sculpture, Princeton, 1981, σελ. 21, 26, εικ. 1
Fehr, B., «Die gute und die schlechte Ehefrau. Alkestis und Fhaidra auf den Sudmetopen des Parthenon», Hephaistos 4, 1982, σελ. 37
Wesenberg, B., «Parthenongebälk und Südmetopen», Jahrbuch des Deutschen Archäologischen Instituts 98, 1983, σελ. 57-86
Boardman, J., Greek Sculpture. Τhe Classical Period. A Handbook, London, 1985, σελ. 103-104, εικ. 90-91
Berger, Ε., Der Parthenon in Basel. Dokumentation zu den Metopen, Mainz, 1986, σελ. 82, εικ. 74-75, αρ. κατ. SÜD 1
Mantis, A., «Contribution à la reconstitution de la 11e métope Sud du Parthénon», Bulletin de Correspondance Hellénique 111, 1987, σελ. 137
Schwab, K., The Parthenon metopes and Greek vase painting: a study of comparison and influences, UMI (διδακτορική διατριβή), 1988, σελ. 88-91, εικ. 61, 131.1
Castriota, D., Myth, Ethos and Actuality. Official Art in fifth century BC Athens, Madison, 1992, σελ. 152-165, εικ. 15
Holtzmann, B., Pasquier, Al., Histoire de l'art antique: l' art grec, Manuels de l' Ecole du Louvre III, Paris, 1998, σελ. 179-180
Blundell, S., «Marriage and the maiden: narratives on the Parthenon», στο S. Blundell, M. Williamson (επιμ.), The sacred and the feminine in ancient Greece, London-New York, 1998, σελ. 55, 57-58
Rolley, Cl., La Sculpture Grecque. La periode classique, 2, Paris, 1999, σελ. 73, 86-89, ιδίως 87, εικ. 61
Holtzmann, B., L’ Acropole d’Athènes. Monuments, cultes et histoire du sanctuaire d’Athèna Polias, Paris, 2003, σελ. 124-126, εικ. 101
Χωρέμη-Σπετσιέρη, Α., Τα Γλυπτά του Παρθενώνα. Ακρόπολη-Βρετανικό Μουσείο-Λούβρο, Aθήνα, 2004, σελ. 48-49, εικ. 23
Schwab, K., «Celebrations of Victory: the Metopes of the Parthenon», στο J. Neils (επιμ.), The Parthenon: From Antquity to the Present, Cambridge, 2005, σελ. 161, 166-167, 173-178, εικ. 52
Barringer, J. M., Art, Myth, and Ritual in Classical Greece, Cambridge, 2008, σελ. 74-80, εικ. 55
Patay-Horváth, A., Metallanstückungen an griechischen Marmorskulpturen in archaischer und klassischer Zeit, Tübinger Archäologische Forschungen 4, 2008, σελ. 85, αρ. κατ. 49
Davison, C.C., Lundgreen, B., Waywell, G.B., Pheidias. The Sculptures and Ancient Sources, Bulletin of the Institute of Classical Studies Supplement 105, London, 2009, σελ. 577
Ellinghaus, C., Die Parthenonskulpturen. Der Bauschmuck eines öffentlichen Monumentes der demokratischen Gesellschaft Athens zur zeit des Perikles -Techniken in den bildenden Kunst zur Tradierung von Aussagen, Hamburg, 2011, σελ. 51, 63, 66, αρ. κατ. 48
Παντερμαλής, Δ., Ελευθεράτου, Σ., Βλασσοπούλου, Χ., Μουσείο Ακρόπολης. Οδηγός, Αθήνα, 2016, σελ. 208-209, εικ. 249
Hurwit, J.M., «Helios Rising: the Sun, the Moon, and the Sea in the Sculptures of the Parthenon», American Journal of Archaeology 121, 2017, σελ. 546
Meyer, M., Athena, Göttin von Athen Kult und Mythos auf der Akropolis bis in klassische Zeit, Wien, 2017, σελ. 107-108, εικ. 146
Michaelis, Α., Der Parthenon, Leipzig, 1870 und 1871, σελ. 36:30, 127-131, πίν. ΙΙΙ
