HORSEMEN FROM THE PARTHENON FRIEZE To understand the history and meaning of the bas-relief reproduced in our illustration, we must first learn something of the worship of Athena in her chosen city of Athens. An annual festival was held here in her honor, and every four years occurred a very elaborate celebration called the Panathenæa. The Panathenæa lasted several days, and attracted throngs of people from all parts of Greece. There were contests in gymnastics and music, torch-races, horse-races, feasts and dances. Sacrifices of oxen were offered on the altar of the goddess, every state having to furnish an ox for the purpose. The climax was reached on the last day, when a great procession started at sunrise and traversed the streets of the city to the temple of Athena. It is with this procession that the bas-relief of our picture is connected, as we shall presently see. Some time before the festival a group of Athenian maidens of the noblest families had made and embroidered for Athena a beautiful robe called the _peplos_. This was carried above the procession, stretched like a sail on the mast of a ship which was rolled through the street on wheels. The pageant was made up of many different companies. There were the Athenian magistrates, grave and dignified, maidens carrying sacrificial vessels, men bearing trays of cakes, citharists (harpists) and flute-players, old men with olive branches, four-horse chariots with armed warriors, rows of young men mounted on prancing steeds, and attendants with the cattle for the sacrifice. During the invasion of Greece by the Persians, the temple of Athena in Athens was destroyed by fire. Later, on its site, was erected another to replace it, called the Parthenon. The city was now at the height of its prosperity under the statesman Pericles. At this time also lived the great sculptor Phidias, and to him Pericles intrusted the decoration of the new temple. The Parthenon was built of Pentelic marble, and the temple proper was surrounded by a portico supported on rows of columns. The outside of the building was richly adorned with bas-reliefs. There were designs in the triangular spaces under the roof called _pediments_. Above the columns ran a series of panels called _metopes_. Finally, there was a _frieze_ extending around the temple wall, to be seen from within the portico. It is a bit of this frieze which is reproduced in our illustration. [Illustration: London Stereoscopic Co., Photo. John Andrew & Son, Sc. HORSEMEN FROM THE PARTHENON FRIEZE _British Museum, London_]