It is the birthday of Athéné, the 28th day of the Greek month, called Hecatombæon, supposed to be our Midsummer Day, the day of the sun's summer solstice; and the beautiful crocus-coloured peplus is her birthday present from the city which she honours with her patronage and mild sway. A young boy bears it folded up in a large fringed square, and presents it to the priest of the temple, while the priestess beside him turns to receive the sacrificial cakes which a maiden carries on her head, on a tray covered with a cloth. We have by this time come to the space immediately over the main entrance to the temple, at the east end; and here we see the twelve gods of Greece ranged, six on each side, over the doorway, the presentation of the peplus dividing the two groups of gods. Amongst them sits Athéné, as described in Homer's "Odyssey." "Like a fair virgin in her beauty's bloom," a tall and simple maiden; her armour is cast off, she does not even wear her helmet; a golden spear formerly rested by her side, and the snake, type of the native soil, coils round her arm like a delicate bracelet. The gay procession which this bas-relief represents actually took place every fourth year at Midsummer. The festival lasted, as I have mentioned, for twelve days, during which time various games, or rather trials of strength and skill, were performed, in which the bravest and noblest of the Athenian youths eagerly competed. Each day was held a different game or contest. The procession and prize-giving terminated the proceedings. None but free-born Athenian citizens, however noble they might be held elsewhere, were allowed to take part. None others might even walk in the procession, except, as we have seen, in a servile capacity. The games consisted of chariot races, races on horseback and on foot; and musical contests, in which the flute players, and the players on the cithæra (or lyre) contended for pre-eminence. On the last day of the festival the citizens met in the Agora, or market-place, where the procession was formed in the early morning; they wound round the city and across the plain; and by noon they were streaming up the steep hill of the Acropolis, their shining armour of bronze flashing in the bright sunlight, and their white or yellow holiday garments brilliant against the blue sky of Greece, as they paced along on the hill-top towards their temple, chanting the praise and story of their goddess as they went. Arrived at the temple, sacrifices were offered up to Athéné and her father, Zeus. This ceremony was performed in a manner somewhat similar to that used for burnt-offerings in the Jewish Ritual, and described in Leviticus. Certain portions of the victim were burnt, another portion was set aside for the priests, and the rest was afterwards eaten by the common people. The Greeks believed that their gods were actually nourished by the fumes of the burning food. I give a description of a Greek sacrifice from Homer's "Iliad":--