39 The illustrated work of Michaelis is probably the most complete and critical account both of the plan and the details, which have often been discussed, and especially with great accuracy by Mr. Penrose, whose monumental work, the _Principles of Athenian Architecture_, has recently been republished. Among the many newer works, I would call special attention to the first volume of Viollet-le-duc’s _Entretiens sur l’Architecture_, already translated into English, which is full of most instructing and suggestive observations on Greek architecture; also to M. E. Bournouf’s _Acropole d’Athènes_. 40 They will be most readily consulted in the plates of Michaelis’s _Parthenon_. 41 The discovery of the figures from the western pediment of the temple at Olympia, carved by Alcamenes, a contemporary of Phidias, will hardly lead us to modify this judgment. For though they show a great talent in the composition, the defects in execution are so grave as to lead many critics to suspect that we have in them the work of mere local artists, certainly not the masterful hands that adorned the Parthenon. 42 It is very uncertain, perhaps unlikely, that any of the architectural sculpture we possess was actually finished by Phidias’s own hand. But there can be no doubt that he directed it, and must have designed much of it in detail, since the general composition was certainly his creation. 43 This very pattern, in mahogany, with cane seats, and adapted, like all Greek chairs, for loose cushions, was often used in eighteenth century work, and may still be found in old Irish mansions furnished at that epoch. 44 I state this because many critics have drawn an opposite inference from a mistranslation of a passage in Plato (_Apol._ 26, E). 45 The exact number, according to Papadakis (cf. A. Müller, _Bühnenalt._, p. 47), is stated at 27,500. But I am convinced this is a great exaggeration. I should rather give 15,000 as a liberal estimate; and this agrees with the measurements made for me by Dr. Dörpfeld in 1889. This mistake is also due to misunderstanding a passage in Plato’s _Symposium_, which says that “Agathon, whom 30,000 citizens hear——”. It is not said that they heard him at the same time. 46 Cf. on this point my _History of Greek Literature_, i. p. 345. 47 Cf. on the details of Greek painting the last chapter of my _Social Life in Greece_.