ornament must have been inserted. Two horses' heads still remain in the angle of the pediment. See above, 303 N. _Mus. Marbles_, VI., pl. 12; Michaelis, pl. 6, figs. 18, 18_a_; Murray, II., pl. 6; _Stereoscopic_, No. 109. WESTERN PEDIMENT OF THE PARTHENON. [Sidenote: =304.=] The subject of the western pediment of the Parthenon according to Pausanias (i., 24, 5) was the strife of Poseidon with Athenè for the soil of Attica. This contest, according to tradition, took place on the Acropolis itself. Athenè, on this occasion, showed her power by making the soil produce the olive-tree; Poseidon, striking the ground with his trident, produced a salt spring, or, according to another and later version, a horse. The victory in the contest was adjudged to Athenè. The spot where this double miracle took place was marked in subsequent times by the joint temple of Erechtheus and Athenè Polias; within the precincts of which were the sacred olive-tree produced by Athenè, and the salt spring of Poseidon. In the time of Carrey, the composition in this pediment was nearly perfect, and to understand the torsos which remain, reference should be made to Carrey's drawing (Plate v., fig. 2), or to the large model of the Parthenon. A few of the early writers on the Parthenon (Spon, Woods, Leake, Weber) mistook the western pediment for that which contained the representation of the birth of Athenè. If we omit the archaeologists who were under this misapprehension, we find that, while there is much difference of opinion as to the identification of the single figures in the western pediment as drawn by Carrey, it is generally admitted that the space bounded by the reclining figures in the angles represents the Acropolis between the two rivers of Athens, and that the figures to the left of Athenè are Attic deities or heroes, who would sympathise actively with her in the contest which is the subject of the pediment, while those to the right of Poseidon are the subordinate marine deities who would naturally be present as the supporters of the Ruler of the sea. The most interesting dissentient theory is that of Brunn (_Ber. d. k. bayer. Akad. Phil. hist. Cl._, 1874, ii., p. 23). By an ingenious but inconclusive series of arguments he has endeavoured to show that the west pediment contains a personified representation of the whole coast of Attica, from the borders of Megaris to Cape Sunium.