How to See the British Museum in Four VisitsJerrold, Blanchard
History
How to See the British Museum in Four Visits
Jerrold, Blanchard
British Museum
A series of bas-reliefs from an Ionic temple, dedicated to the
Wingless Victory of Athens, are the next objects that command the
general visitor's attention. They are numbered from 158 to 161
successively. Upon these are represented battles between the Greeks
and Persians; and maidens leading a sacrificial bull. The fragments
marked successively from 165 to 175 are remarkable for the Greek
inscriptions on them, which cannot interest the general visitor. Let
the visitor, therefore, next pause before the fragment of a frieze in
green stone, marked 177, which is from the tomb of Agamemnon at
Mycenae. The sculptured scroll-work is of very remote antiquity. The
next fragment is a bas-relief, on which a bearded man is represented,
pressing a child towards him, and directing its attention to a votive
foot which he holds in his hand. Passing from this, the visitor may
next direct his attention to the fragment of a colossal statue
numbered 178. It belongs to one of the pediments of the Parthenon.
Hereabouts are various sepulchral urns and columns of no particular
interest to the casual observer;--the circular altar from Delos,
ornamented in relief with sacrificial bulls and other subjects. 179
may, however, be noticed, together with the column marked 183, which
bears the name of Socrates, son of Socrates, a native of Ancyra, of
Galatia. The object marked 186 is a Greek sun-dial found at Athens, of
a time not long before the reign of the Emperor Severus. Passing other
altars and fragments of columns, the visitor should pause on his way,
to notice a bas-relief upon which Latona and Diana are sculptured,
forming part of a procession (190). The bas-relief numbered 193 is
from the theatre of Bacchus: it is a Bacchanalian group, in which
Bacchus is holding forth a vessel to be filled by an attending
Bacchante. The next object to be noticed is marked 194, and is a
fragment of a head of the goddess Pasht, surmounted with a crown of
serpents. A spirited scene occurs upon bas-relief 197, where a
charioteer, heralded by a flying Victory, is represented driving four
horses at full speed. A series of urns and votive altars are grouped
hereabouts, which the casual visitor may pass, pausing before the
small statue of Ganymede (207); a fragment of a boy supporting a bird
on his arm (221); a small figure of Telesphorus, headless, and draped;
more sepulchral urns and stêles; capitals of Corinthian and Ionic
columns; various inscriptions, including a decree of a society of
musicians (235); an amphora (238); a female head; a large and small
head of a bearded Hercules (243-242); heads and fragments of heads;
the base of a statue supposed to have been that of the Minerva of the
western pediment of the Parthenon; urns and columns, and stales and
inscriptions; a bas-relief showing Health, the daughter of
AEsculapius, feeding a serpent; two more bas-reliefs; an inventory of
the articles of gold and silver belonging to the Parthenon (282);
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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