Phidias is probably the greatest sculptor that ever lived, but he did a thing which the Greeks considered a crime and would not forgive. We do not see anything so terribly wrong in what he did, but the Greeks’ idea of right and wrong was different from ours. This is what he did. On the shield of the statue of Athene that he had made, Phidias carved a picture of himself and also one of his friend Pericles. It was merely a part of the decoration of the shield, and hardly any one would have noticed it. But according to the Greek notion it was sacrilege to make a picture of a human being on a statue of a goddess. So when the Athenians found out what Phidias had done they threw him into prison, and there he died. The Greeks used different kinds of columns on their buildings, and these columns are used in many public and in some private buildings to-day. I’ll tell you what each kind is like; then see how many you can find. The Parthenon was built in a style called Doric. The top of the column is called the capital, and the capital of the Doric column is shaped like a saucer with a square cover on top of it. There was no base or block at the bottom of the column. It rested directly on the floor. As the Doric column is so plain and strong-looking it is called the man’s style. The second style is called _Ionic_. The capital of the Ionic column has a base, and the capital has ornaments like curls underneath the square top, and the column has a base. As this column is more slender and more ornamental than the Doric, it is called the woman’s style. The third style is called _Corinthian_. [Illustration: 1. Doric. 2. Ionic. 3. Corinthian.] The capital of the Corinthian column is higher than either of the other two and still more ornamental. It is said that the architect who first made this column got his idea for its capital from seeing a basketful of toys that had been placed on a child’s grave as was the custom instead of flowers. The basket had been covered with a slab, and leaves of the thistle called the acanthus had grown up around the basket. It looked so pretty that the architect thought it would make a beautiful capital for a column, and so he copied it. I asked some boys which one could find the most columns. The next day one boy said he had seen two Ionic columns, one on each side of the door of his house. The second had seen ten Doric columns on the savings-bank. But the third said he had seen 138 Corinthian columns. “Where on earth did you see so many?” I asked. “I counted the lamp-posts from my house to the school,” he said. “They were kind of Corinthian columns.”