An elderly bearded man (No. 33), wearing a long chiton with short sleeves and shoes, stands next to No. 32. On his head are traces of metallic rust. He therefore may have worn a metallic wreath, for which the marble at the back of his head appears to have been hollowed. He turns his back to No. 32, and is engaged with a boy. The two figures between them support a large piece of cloth, folded once lengthwise, and twice breadthwise. In this case also archæologists have been doubtful which is the giver and which is the receiver of the cloth; but the action represented is not one either of giving or receiving. From the peculiar way in which the boy grips an angle of the folded cloth between his elbow and his side, while his hands are otherwise occupied, the act of folding the cloth square seems to be represented. The portion nearest to the spectator is being dropped down till its edges are parallel with those of the lower part, so that the two parts should be exactly doubled. The group of figures just described (30-34) contains the centre of the composition, and the interpretation of the frieze as a whole depends on the meaning we attach to this group. Leaving on one side the writers referred to on p. 147, who hold that the frieze does not represent the Panathenaic festival, we find that a majority of writers describes No. 32 as a Priestess of Athenè, giving the sacred vessels to the Arrhephori or Ersephori, and No. 33 as a priest or Archon Basileus receiving or giving the sacred peplos of Athenè. This view of Nos. 30-32 was necessarily abandoned, when it had been perceived that the objects held by the maidens are chairs, not baskets. As regards Nos. 33, 34, the main arguments for interpreting the cloth as the peplos are, that the accounts of the procession preserved in ancient authors show that the conveyance of the peplos of Athenè was the principal feature in it. If we look to the place assigned to this group in the eastern frieze, we find that these two figures (Nos. 33, 34) stand in the centre of the eastern front, under the apex of the pediment, and over the eastern door of the cella. They therefore occupy the most conspicuous place in the frieze, from the points of view alike of the sculptured Gods and of the human spectator, and accordingly may well be supposed to be busy with the chief ceremony of the festival. This view is opposed by Flasch. He argues that if the delivery of the peplos is represented, there is a violation of the unity of time, as the act which was the main motive of the procession is being completed, while the procession is still in progress, and in part has not yet started. Flasch therefore holds that we have here the priest and priestess preparing for the sacrifice that is to take place on the arrival of the procession. The priestess is receiving chairs for herself and for the priest from the Diphrophori.