Bassae Frieze
Encyclopedia
The Bassae Frieze is the high relief marble sculpture in 23 panels, 31m long by 0.63m high, made to decorate the interior of the cella
of the Temple of Apollo Epikourios at Bassae
. It was discovered in 1811 by Carl Haller
and Charles Cockerell, and excavated the following year by an expedition of the Society of Travellers led by Haller and Otto von Stackelberg
. This team cleared the temple site in an endeavour to recover the sculpture, and in the process revealed it was part of the larger sculptural program of the temple including the metopes of an external Doric frieze
and an over-life-size statue. The find spots of the internal Ionic frieze blocks were not recorded by the early archaeologists, so work on recreating the sequence of the frieze has been based on the internal evidence of the surviving slabs and this has been the subject of controversy.
Archaeological research has determined that the site of the present ruin of the temple of Apollo was in continuous use since the archaic period
, the existing temple is the last of four on the site and designated Apollo IV. Pausanias records that this last sanctuary was dedicated to Apollo Epikourios (helper or succourer) by the Phigalia
ns in thanks for delivery from the plague of 429 BC. The architecture of the temple is one of the most strikingly unusual examples of the period, departing significantly from the norms of Doric
and Ionic practice
and including what is perhaps the first use of the Corinthian order
and the first temple to have a continuous frieze around the interior of the naos
. From the style of the frieze it belongs to the High Classical period, probably carved around 400 BC. Nothing is known of its authorship: despite an ascription of the metopes to Paionios
(since refuted), the frieze cannot be associated with any sculptor, workshop or school. Instead Cooper identifies the artists of the frieze on morellian evidence
as a group of three anonymous masters.
The frieze was bought at auction by the British Museum
in 1815 where it is now on permanent display in a specially constructed room in Gallery 16. While the British Museum possesses most of the sculpture, eight fragments believed to belong to the frieze are in the National Museum, Athens. Copies of this frieze decorate the walls of the Ashmolean Museum
and London's Travellers Club
.
The site was explored in 1812 by British antiquaries who removed the twenty-three slabs of the Ionic cella frieze and transported them to Zante along with other sculptures. The frieze was bought at auction by the British Museum in 1815. This frieze's stones were removed by Charles Robert Cockerell
. Cockerell decorated the walls of the Ashmolean Museum
's Great Staircase and that of the Travellers Club
with plaster casts of the same frieze.
The frieze was purchased by the British Museum from James Linkh, Thomas Legh, Karl Haller von Hallerstein, George Christian Gropius, John Foster
and Charles Robert Cockerell who had bought it at auction.
The room where the frieze is displayed was specially constructed to be the same size as the main room in the Temple of Apollo. However in the original placing they would have been seven metres in the air and close to the ceiling. The reconstruction puts the frieze at an easily viewable height.
The table below shows the various proposals for how the frieze may have been originally designed to be displayed. There have been a number of ideas as to how the frieze should be arranged. The arrangement made by the British Museum follows that proposed by Peter Corbett, but others by the American scholar W.B.Dinsmoor and that proposed by Haller are amongst the conflicting theories shown below. In some cases the authors disagree not only about the order but also about which pictures were displayed on which wall. In this case the block positions are labelled E, W, S, and N to indicate the wall.
's masterpieces were the one-twentieth scale models he created of the Parthenon Frieze
and Bassae Frieze, which took him twelve years to complete. John and his son, also John, used this work to install recreations of both friezes on other buildings.
On the first slab, BM 536, the battle is evenly balanced, one Amazon and one Greek having the better of the fighting in a pair of duels. On the following slab, BM 533, appears the first casualty, BM 533:1, an Amazon probably holding the handle of an axe in her right hand as she collapses. Her helmet lies on the ground to her right side. The dress of the dying Amazon here, an overgirt peplos and mantle, distinguishes her from the other Amazon warriors who wear the more typical chitoniskos. The axe and helmet identify her as a combatant, and the peplos therefore must indicate that she is one of the three Amazonian queens who take part in the battle. As a queen and the first casualty she must be Melanippe
, and the Greek who kills her must be Telamon
. Telamon, BM 533:2, stands adjacent to his victim but now has tumed his spear to another.
The next victim of Telamon’s spear will be the Amazon BM 531:2, who helps up a wounded comrade. Although the other Amazon along this part of the frieze not already pitted against a foe is standing directly left of Telamon (BM 533:3), she cannot be his target, for she stands on a different ground line from Telamon and must be understood to be in a deeper spatial plane. As Telamon aims his spear at a distant enemy, so she aims her arrow past Telamon, probably at the Greek on the preceding slab, BM 536:3, who is about to drag off an Amazon. The Amazon Telamon is aiming at is dressed like Melanippe in an overgirt peplos, again probably a signifier of royalty. As Hippolyte will be seen later fighting Herakles, and Melanippe has already been slain, this Amazon may be identified as Antiope. The three slabs that comprise the south portion of the frieze, BM 542, BM 541, and BM 540, form a unit focusing on the figure of Herakles, BM 54l:3. The hero takes a prominent place, on the long axis of the temple and over the Corinthian capital, while at either end of the trio of slabs are balancing pairs of a Greek and an Amazon helping away wounded comrades, BM 542:1 and 2, and BM 540:5 and 4. Hippolyte, like the two other queens, is distinguished by dress. She wears a mantle wrapped about her waist, visually drawing attention to the disputed belt.
The final slab of the Heraklean Amazonomachy, BM 535, is separated physically from the preceding three, being the single Amazonomachy slab on the east side. lt also is separated temporally from the others in that it depicts a moment late in the conflict when the outcome is no longer in doubt. Thus it follows the pattern of the last scene of the Trojan Amazonomachy, marking the conclusion of the action and commenting on it. The tide of battle, distinctly on the Amazons' side along the south, has now turned against them. Here, BM 535:3, the last of the Amazons is depicted clasping to an altar as she is prised away by a Greek, BM 535:4.
Homer relates the events of Polypites birth and the attack of the centaurs, when the ritual procession to gift a girdle in the sanctuary of Artemis is interrupted. While nearing the sanctuary, the procession is set upon by a gang of centaurs, precipitating a brawl, much as had happened at the wedding feast. The first slab of the Centauromachy, BM 526, focuses on a pair of Greeks clad in mantles and fighting barehanded. Although they face in opposite directions, their poses are nearly identical, differing only in that one, BM 526:2, folds his lower left leg under the thigh as he kneels on the back of his adversary. On the next slab, BM 524, the goal of the procession, the ritual sanctuary of Artemis, is indicated by a tree hung with a lion or panther skin in thanksgiving for a successful hunt. The Greek (BM 524:1) who defends the two women against the centaur has no attributes save for the weapon that was held in his right hand. The roughly cut form that extends from the bottom of the fist seems to be the stump of a club. Into the top of the fist is fitted a metal club, requiring a stronger anchor than did the bronze swords attached to fists elsewhere. The hole for the club is therefore twice as wide and deep as those used for swords. This club identifies the hero as Theseus. The two victims of the centaur flank a small statue of Artemis. The axis of the statue is slightly off vertical, for it is not fixed to a base but carried by the priestess, BM 524:3. No base is actually seen, and the poses of the two women preclude there being one behind them. The left leg of the woman who gestures with extended arms, BM 524:4, reaches backward below the statue, where the base would be. The woman who holds the statue, BM 524:3, wraps her peplos around part of its back. As the centaur pulls the garment off her proper left shoulder, it passes behind her neck but does not appear between her nude torso and the statue. It reappears in the priestess’s left hand, being drawn from the left, up and to the right. As a result, it must be understood as partially encompassing the lower parts of the statue.
On the next four slabs, BM 525, BM 530, BM 528, and BM 527, the Greeks are meeting with little success. Each of the Greeks in this section bears some armour or weapon, but they seem to have been taken by surprise and are hard pressed to hold their own. One hero, BM 525:3, has lost his sword and now futilely arms himself with a small rock while retreating before a centaur. Elsewhere warriors hurry to the aid of comrades: 530:2, 52814. None of the Greeks achieves an unqualified victory. Rather than pitched duels, the melee breaks into multiple figure groups (BM 530:2, 3, 4, 5; BM 528:1, 2, 3; BM 527:1, 2, 3, 4) in which the distinction between victor and vanquished is often clouded. Appropriately for this kind of disorganized fight, the centaur attack employs weapons and tactics alien to the hoplites’ traditional mode of combat. One centaur (BM 525:2) swings a tree branch; others (BM 53(1) and 5) use huge stones; still another (BM 527:2) kicks and bites. Emblematic of this portion of the Centauromachy is the death of Kaineus, BM 530, where the hero, invulnerable to conventional weapons, is disposed of by being buried alive.
The last slab of the east side, BM 529 (Fig. 12, Pl. 45), restores a sense of ordered warfare, and the fortunes of the Greeks improve. One each of the armed (BM 529:2) and unarmed Greeks (529:4) is victorious over a centaur. The north portion of the frieze (Fig. 13), like that of the south that faces it, depicts the most important part of the action and is segregated from the rest of its subject by its compositional unity. The compositional patterns on both the north and south conform to the architectural forms below the frieze. On the three slabs at the south, groups balance one another in axial symmetry around the prominent central figure of Herakles, who stands above the Corinthian column. The four slabs on the north divide into two pain; the movement of the figures is largely centrifugal, so that the formal and narrative void at the center of the frieze echoes the architectural void of the doorway below. This centrifugal design brings to a halt the right-to-left movement of the spectator around the cella at the point where the frieze ends and he leaves the temple.
On the first pair of slabs at the north, Artemis has arrived in her chariot drawn by stags, with her brother Apollo, who has already alighted and draws his bow, BM 523. The rightward movement of the divine pair continue in the woman, the lint centaur, and the hoplite on the slab at the comer, BM 522. ApoIlo’s target is the centaur immediately before him, BM 522:4, who has grabbed hold of a woman carrying an infant, BM 522:3. Only she among the women in the Centauromachy is in the clutches of a centaur, yet undefended by a mortal.
The movement in the two left-hand slabs on the north is largely to the left. Although the first group of centaur and hoplite, BM 521:1 and 2, is virtually identical to the pair BM 522:1 and 2, the hoplite on BM 521 props himself on his shield, which serves as a visual stop to the centaur’s charge and as a reinforcement to the axis of the north side. The two figures on the left of the same slab, BM 521:3 and 4, repeat the pair of woman and centaur of BM 522:1 and 2. Here, however, the woman is not attacked by the centaur but runs past him. The centaur directs his attention to the hero on the next slab, BM 520:2, at whom he hurls a rock. The hero already grapples with one centaur, BM 520:1. As the only hero to engage two centaurs at once, and because of his proximity to the woman being carried away, BM 520:3, he must be Peirithoos. The woman is Hippodameia
, the only woman being abducted.
The four others who also have no cape: are all brought down from behind by Greeks: BM 526:1, BM 524:2, BM 528:23, BM 529:1. They must have been part of the procession and, lacking the advantage of surprise that the attacking centaurs had, were the first victims of the Greeks. The two pairs of slabs that form the north part of the frieze share the same general figural pattern. A male and female pair, divine or mortal, dominate the left slab. On the right slab, a female and centaur are placed at left and a centaur and hoplite at right. This repetition highlights the contrasting movements in each pair away from the central axis.
. The room is not always open, but researchers can request it be made available.
Cockerell also decorated the walls of the Ashmolean Museum
's Great Staircase and that of the Travellers Club
with plaster casts of the same frieze. The Ashmolean Museum in Oxford is open to the public.
The wealthy landowner Thomas Legh was one of the excavators of the temple and a plaster cast
copy of the frieze is displayed in the Bright Gallery of Lyme Hall
, one of his stately homes.
Cella
A cella or naos , is the inner chamber of a temple in classical architecture, or a shop facing the street in domestic Roman architecture...
of the Temple of Apollo Epikourios at Bassae
Bassae
Bassae or Bassai, Vassai or Vasses , meaning "little vale in the rocks", is an archaeological site in the northeastern part of Messinia Prefecture that was a part of Arcadia in ancient times. Bassae lies near the village of Skliros, northeast of Figaleia, south of Andritsaina and west of Megalopolis...
. It was discovered in 1811 by Carl Haller
Carl Haller von Hallerstein
Johann Carl Christoph Wilhelm Joachim Haller von Hallerstein was a German architect, archaeologist and art historian.-Biography:...
and Charles Cockerell, and excavated the following year by an expedition of the Society of Travellers led by Haller and Otto von Stackelberg
Otto Magnus von Stackelberg (archaeologist)
Count Otto Magnus Baron von Stackelberg was one of the first archaeologists, as well as a writer, painter and art historian.-Early life:...
. This team cleared the temple site in an endeavour to recover the sculpture, and in the process revealed it was part of the larger sculptural program of the temple including the metopes of an external Doric frieze
Frieze
thumb|267px|Frieze of the [[Tower of the Winds]], AthensIn architecture the frieze is the wide central section part of an entablature and may be plain in the Ionic or Doric order, or decorated with bas-reliefs. Even when neither columns nor pilasters are expressed, on an astylar wall it lies upon...
and an over-life-size statue. The find spots of the internal Ionic frieze blocks were not recorded by the early archaeologists, so work on recreating the sequence of the frieze has been based on the internal evidence of the surviving slabs and this has been the subject of controversy.
Archaeological research has determined that the site of the present ruin of the temple of Apollo was in continuous use since the archaic period
Archaic period in Greece
The Archaic period in Greece was a period of ancient Greek history that followed the Greek Dark Ages. This period saw the rise of the polis and the founding of colonies, as well as the first inklings of classical philosophy, theatre in the form of tragedies performed during Dionysia, and written...
, the existing temple is the last of four on the site and designated Apollo IV. Pausanias records that this last sanctuary was dedicated to Apollo Epikourios (helper or succourer) by the Phigalia
Phigalia
Phigalia or Phigaleia is an ancient Greek city in the south-west corner of Arcadia. It is also the present name of a nearby modern village, known up to the early 20th century as Pavlitsa . In modern geography it is located in the southeastern Elis Prefecture...
ns in thanks for delivery from the plague of 429 BC. The architecture of the temple is one of the most strikingly unusual examples of the period, departing significantly from the norms of Doric
Doric order
The Doric order was one of the three orders or organizational systems of ancient Greek or classical architecture; the other two canonical orders were the Ionic and the Corinthian.-History:...
and Ionic practice
Ionic order
The Ionic order forms one of the three orders or organizational systems of classical architecture, the other two canonic orders being the Doric and the Corinthian...
and including what is perhaps the first use of the Corinthian order
Corinthian order
The Corinthian order is one of the three principal classical orders of ancient Greek and Roman architecture. The other two are the Doric and Ionic. When classical architecture was revived during the Renaissance, two more orders were added to the canon, the Tuscan order and the Composite order...
and the first temple to have a continuous frieze around the interior of the naos
Cella
A cella or naos , is the inner chamber of a temple in classical architecture, or a shop facing the street in domestic Roman architecture...
. From the style of the frieze it belongs to the High Classical period, probably carved around 400 BC. Nothing is known of its authorship: despite an ascription of the metopes to Paionios
Paeonius
Paeonius of Mende in Macedonia was a Greek sculptor of the late 5th century BC. The only work that can be definitely attributed to him is the statue of Nike discovered at Olympia...
(since refuted), the frieze cannot be associated with any sculptor, workshop or school. Instead Cooper identifies the artists of the frieze on morellian evidence
Giovanni Morelli
Giovanni Morelli was an Italian art critic and political figure. As an art historian, he developed the "Morellian" technique of scholarship, identifying the characteristic "hands" of painters through scrutiny of diagnostic minor details that revealed artists' scarcely conscious shorthand and...
as a group of three anonymous masters.
The frieze was bought at auction by the British Museum
British Museum
The British Museum is a museum of human history and culture in London. Its collections, which number more than seven million objects, are amongst the largest and most comprehensive in the world and originate from all continents, illustrating and documenting the story of human culture from its...
in 1815 where it is now on permanent display in a specially constructed room in Gallery 16. While the British Museum possesses most of the sculpture, eight fragments believed to belong to the frieze are in the National Museum, Athens. Copies of this frieze decorate the walls of the Ashmolean Museum
Ashmolean Museum
The Ashmolean Museum on Beaumont Street, Oxford, England, is the world's first university museum...
and London's Travellers Club
Travellers Club
The Travellers Club is a gentlemen's club standing at 106 Pall Mall, London. It is the oldest of the surviving Pall Mall clubs, having been established in 1819, and was recently described by the Los Angeles Times as "the quintessential English gentleman's club." Visits are possible by invitation...
.
History
As has been remarked the temple's existence had been known to scholars from the record in Pausanias but its location was uncertain until the accidental discovery in November 1765 by the French architect J. Bocher of the site, but unfortunately he was unable to survey the place due to his murder on his second visit. Though the temple was visited several times in the intervening years, it wasn't until the expedition of 1812 that excavations began. Of the informal group of antiquaries who undertook the enterprise it fell to Haller to record the 1812 dig in his field notebook, the two copies of which are the only surviving details of the disposition of the intact site and finds since the drawings he made in 1811 were lost at sea. However, though Haller's study was exacting by the standards of the day no record was kept of the findspots of the frieze, and only sketchy details that parts of the frieze were found on the temple floor inside the cella by Brondsted. Furthermore the early explores of the temple make little discussion of the sculpture in their subsequent publications, it was not until 1892 that they were formally published with Arthur Smith's catalogue of the British Museum's holdings.The site was explored in 1812 by British antiquaries who removed the twenty-three slabs of the Ionic cella frieze and transported them to Zante along with other sculptures. The frieze was bought at auction by the British Museum in 1815. This frieze's stones were removed by Charles Robert Cockerell
Charles Robert Cockerell
Charles Robert Cockerell was an English architect, archaeologist, and writer.-Life:Charles Robert Cockerell was educated at Westminster School from 1802. From the age of sixteen, he trained in the architectural practice of his father, Samuel Pepys Cockerell...
. Cockerell decorated the walls of the Ashmolean Museum
Ashmolean Museum
The Ashmolean Museum on Beaumont Street, Oxford, England, is the world's first university museum...
's Great Staircase and that of the Travellers Club
Travellers Club
The Travellers Club is a gentlemen's club standing at 106 Pall Mall, London. It is the oldest of the surviving Pall Mall clubs, having been established in 1819, and was recently described by the Los Angeles Times as "the quintessential English gentleman's club." Visits are possible by invitation...
with plaster casts of the same frieze.
The frieze was purchased by the British Museum from James Linkh, Thomas Legh, Karl Haller von Hallerstein, George Christian Gropius, John Foster
John Foster (architect)
John Foster, Junior was an English architect.-Biography:Foster studied under Jeffry Wyatt in London and in 1809 travelled in the eastern Mediterranean. During 1810-11 he accompanied C. R. Cockerell and the German archaeologists Haller and Linckh in their excavation of the temples at Aegina and...
and Charles Robert Cockerell who had bought it at auction.
Reconstruction in the British Museum
The Frieze was constructed between 420 and 400 BC. Unlike the rest of the temple, the blocks were carved from marble. Each of the 23 stones shows sections of the frieze but it is rare to find any continuation of the design from one stone to the next. It has also been proposed that the stones were not eventually installed as they had originally been proposed in the Temple of Apollo. These two complications are important as when the stones were found they had already fallen to the ground and they were already mixed in with other building rubble. So the stones are arranged in one logical way, but it is not clear if the frieze was actually either intended or designed to be as it now appears.The room where the frieze is displayed was specially constructed to be the same size as the main room in the Temple of Apollo. However in the original placing they would have been seven metres in the air and close to the ceiling. The reconstruction puts the frieze at an easily viewable height.
The table below shows the various proposals for how the frieze may have been originally designed to be displayed. There have been a number of ideas as to how the frieze should be arranged. The arrangement made by the British Museum follows that proposed by Peter Corbett, but others by the American scholar W.B.Dinsmoor and that proposed by Haller are amongst the conflicting theories shown below. In some cases the authors disagree not only about the order but also about which pictures were displayed on which wall. In this case the block positions are labelled E, W, S, and N to indicate the wall.
| Image | Description | Smith | Ashmolean | Foster | Hahland | Dinsmoor | Hofkes-Brukker | Felton | Harrison | Cooper | BM/Corbett |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Centauromachy | BM520 | 21 | 05 | 09 | 01N | 17W | 05E | 01N | 01N | ||
| Centauromachy | BM521 | 18 | 09 | 04 | 22W | 15W | 16E | 03N | 02N | 19W | |
| Centauromachy | BM522 | 16 | 06 | 04 | 19W | 09E | 17E | 06E | 04N | 18W | |
| Centauromachy | BM523 | 13 | 01 | 03 | 04N | 15W | 12S | 04E | 03N | 04N | |
| Centauromachy | BM524 | 19 | 02 | 11 | 05E | 11E | 14S | 07E | 10W | 21W | |
| Centauromachy | BM525 | 17 | 04 | 10 | 21W | 10E | 20E | 01N | 09W | 23W | |
| Centauromachy | BM526 | 23 | 07 | 02 | 20W | 14S | 18E | 23W | 11W | 17W | |
| Centauromachy | BM527 | 14 | 10 | 08 | 02N | 08E | 15E | 21W | 06W | 02N | |
| Centauromachy | BM528 | 15 | 11 | 06 | 03N | 18W | 21E | 22W | 07W | 03N | |
| Centauromachy | BM529 | 20 | 03 | 07 | 18W | 12S | 19E | 20W | 05W | 20W | |
| Centauromachy | BM530 | 22 | 08 | 01 | 23W | 13S | 13S | 02N | 08W | 22W | |
| part of the Heraklean Amazonomachy | BM531 | 03 | 20 | 16 | 16W | 21W | 11W | 15W | 16E | 13S | |
| The attack on the Greeks at Troy by Amazons under Penthesilea | BM532 | 01 | 12 | 15 | 06E | 04E | 05W | 09E | 22E | 08E | |
| The first casualty of the Heraklean Amazonomachy. note - incomplete | BM533 | 02 | 13 | 20 | 11E | 06E | 08W | 10E | 18E | 11E | |
| part of the Heraklean Amazonomachy | BM534 | 08 | 17 | 19 | 07E | 22W | 07W | 16W | 17E | 10E | |
| part of the Heraklean Amazonomachy | BM535 | 11 | 22 | 18 | 07E | 23W | 09W | 18W | 12W | 16W | |
| one Amazon and one Greek. First part of the Heraklean Amazonomachy (see other picture too) | BM536 | 06 | 15 | 17 | 10E | 20W | 06W | 11E | 19E | 07E | |
| The death of Penthesilea Penthesilea Penthesilea or Penthesileia was an Amazonian queen in Greek mythology, the daughter of Ares and Otrera and the sister of Hippolyta, Antiope and Melanippe... at the hands of Achilles Achilles In Greek mythology, Achilles was a Greek hero of the Trojan War, the central character and the greatest warrior of Homer's Iliad.Plato named Achilles the handsomest of the heroes assembled against Troy.... after the attack on the Greeks by Amazons. (incomplete picture) |
BM537 | 04 | 21 | 22 | 12E | 19W | 03N | 08E | 21E | 09E | |
| The attack on the Greeks at Troy by Amazons under Penthesilea | BM538 | 12 | 19 | 21 | 08E | 05E | 10W | 17W | 23E | 12E | |
| The attack on the Greeks at Troy by Amazons under Penthesilea | BM539 | 07 | 14 | 23 | 17W | 07E | 02N | 19W | 20E | 06E | |
| part of the Heraklean Amazonomachy | BM540 | 05 | 16 | 12 | 13S | 01N | 01N | 12S | 13S | 05E | |
| part of the Heraklean Amazonomachy. note - see this picture too | BM541 | 09 | 18 | 13 | 14S | 02N | 13S | 14S | 14S | ||
| Heraklean Amazonomachy | BM542 | 10 | 23 | 14 | 15S | 03N | 04W | 14S | 15S | 15S |
Recreation
John HenningJohn Henning (1771-1851)
John Henning was a Scottish carpenter who turned to sculpturing. His masterpieces were the one twentieth scale models he created of the Parthenon and Bassae Friezes. These took him twelve years to complete...
's masterpieces were the one-twentieth scale models he created of the Parthenon Frieze
Parthenon Frieze
The Parthenon frieze is the low relief, pentelic marble sculpture created to adorn the upper part of the Parthenon’s naos. It was sculpted between ca. 443 and 438 BC, most likely under the direction of Pheidias. Of the of the original frieze, survives—some 80 percent...
and Bassae Frieze, which took him twelve years to complete. John and his son, also John, used this work to install recreations of both friezes on other buildings.
Description
Of the 23 slabs of the Ionic frieze 11 depict Greeks fighting centaurs and 12 represent Greeks fighting Amazons. Cooper and Madigan make a further distinction of the Trojan and Heraklean Amazonomachies following on from their determination of the block's arrangement. Yet contrary to customary practice these three scenes are not on separate sides of the building, but run continuously around the entablature with the only clear disjuncture at the northwest corner. This description follows Cooper and Madigan's reconstruction.Trojan Amazonomachy
The first four slabs of the frieze, from the northwest corner to the middle of the west side, depict the attack on the Greeks at Troy by Amazons under Penthesilea BM 538, BM 532, BM 537, and BM 539 The battle itself spans three blocks, culminating in the death of Penthesilea at the hands of Achilles on BM 537, while the fourth slab, BM 539, depicts a truce at the end of the battle. ln the first pair of combatants, on slab BM 538, an Amazon has gained the upper hand over her opponent, but with the second pair the situation is dramatically reversed. Here a bearded Greek, wearing a chiton, a cuirass, a helmet, and a baldric and carrying a shield, seizes an Amazon by the hair while trampling her underfoot. He is the most heavily armed soldier in either of the Amazonomachies depicted, and the only bearded Greek, so far as we can tell, anywhere on the frieze. On the second slab, BM 532, one Amazon uses a hoplite shield to guard a second kneeling Amazon who has just shot an arrow The battle reaches its climax on the third slab, BM 537, where Achilles slays the Amazonian queen. Achilles and Penthesilea appear in the center of the slab, while a single Greek and a single Amazon flank them. The final slab in the series, BM 539, represents the moment when a truce has been called between the Greeks and Amazons in order to clear the battlefield of equipment, the wounded and the deadHeraklean Amazonomachy
The next section of the frieze represents the battle between the Greeks, led by Herakles, against the Amazons in a bid by the hero to seize the belt of the Amazon queen Hippolyte. This Amazonomachy extends for eight blocks from the middle of the west side, around the southwest and southeast corners, to as far as the first slab of the east side. These are BM 536, BM 533. BM 534, BM 531, BM 542, BM 541, BM 540, and BM 535.On the first slab, BM 536, the battle is evenly balanced, one Amazon and one Greek having the better of the fighting in a pair of duels. On the following slab, BM 533, appears the first casualty, BM 533:1, an Amazon probably holding the handle of an axe in her right hand as she collapses. Her helmet lies on the ground to her right side. The dress of the dying Amazon here, an overgirt peplos and mantle, distinguishes her from the other Amazon warriors who wear the more typical chitoniskos. The axe and helmet identify her as a combatant, and the peplos therefore must indicate that she is one of the three Amazonian queens who take part in the battle. As a queen and the first casualty she must be Melanippe
Melanippe
In Greek mythology, Melanippe referred to several different people.* Daughter of the Centaur Chiron. Also known as Hippe or Euippe. She bore a daughter to Aeolus, Melanippe or Arne...
, and the Greek who kills her must be Telamon
Telamon
In Greek mythology, Telamon , son of the king Aeacus, of Aegina, and Endeis and brother of Peleus, accompanied Jason as one of his Argonauts, and was present at the hunt for the Calydonian Boar. In the Iliad he was the father of Greek heroes Ajax the Great and Teucer the Archer by different...
. Telamon, BM 533:2, stands adjacent to his victim but now has tumed his spear to another.
The next victim of Telamon’s spear will be the Amazon BM 531:2, who helps up a wounded comrade. Although the other Amazon along this part of the frieze not already pitted against a foe is standing directly left of Telamon (BM 533:3), she cannot be his target, for she stands on a different ground line from Telamon and must be understood to be in a deeper spatial plane. As Telamon aims his spear at a distant enemy, so she aims her arrow past Telamon, probably at the Greek on the preceding slab, BM 536:3, who is about to drag off an Amazon. The Amazon Telamon is aiming at is dressed like Melanippe in an overgirt peplos, again probably a signifier of royalty. As Hippolyte will be seen later fighting Herakles, and Melanippe has already been slain, this Amazon may be identified as Antiope. The three slabs that comprise the south portion of the frieze, BM 542, BM 541, and BM 540, form a unit focusing on the figure of Herakles, BM 54l:3. The hero takes a prominent place, on the long axis of the temple and over the Corinthian capital, while at either end of the trio of slabs are balancing pairs of a Greek and an Amazon helping away wounded comrades, BM 542:1 and 2, and BM 540:5 and 4. Hippolyte, like the two other queens, is distinguished by dress. She wears a mantle wrapped about her waist, visually drawing attention to the disputed belt.
The final slab of the Heraklean Amazonomachy, BM 535, is separated physically from the preceding three, being the single Amazonomachy slab on the east side. lt also is separated temporally from the others in that it depicts a moment late in the conflict when the outcome is no longer in doubt. Thus it follows the pattern of the last scene of the Trojan Amazonomachy, marking the conclusion of the action and commenting on it. The tide of battle, distinctly on the Amazons' side along the south, has now turned against them. Here, BM 535:3, the last of the Amazons is depicted clasping to an altar as she is prised away by a Greek, BM 535:4.
Centauromachy
The Centauromachy covers seven slabs along the east and four slabs of the north side of the entablature, making it the longest of the three subjects (BM 526, BM 524, BM 525, BM 530, BM 528, BM 527, BM 529; BM 522, BM 523, BM 521, and BM 520). The rocky landscape, the burial of Kaineus, centaurs fighting with tree limbs or rocks, and men with armour and weapons are all elements of a pitched battle between Lapiths and centaurs. However, four Greeks are dressed only in mantles, fight bare handed and are noticeably placed at the principal structural points: on the first slab, BM 526:2 and 3, at the corner, BM 529:4, and on the last slab, BM 520:2. Several women, too, including Hippodameia, BM 520:4, are scattered throughout the battle. These elements more commonly belong to a different scene in the Centauromachy narrative - the brawl at the wedding feast of Peirithoos. Also, the two infants carried by women, BM 525:11 and BM 522:15, are unknown in either of the two most popular versions of the battle. Further the direct intervention by the gods Apollo and Artemis, on BM 523, may also be a novel element unique to the frieze. This departure at Bassai from the more traditional designs of the centauromachy is perhaps an attempt unify it with the other two subjects of the frieze as well as to adapt the subject to the patron deities of the sanctuary.Homer relates the events of Polypites birth and the attack of the centaurs, when the ritual procession to gift a girdle in the sanctuary of Artemis is interrupted. While nearing the sanctuary, the procession is set upon by a gang of centaurs, precipitating a brawl, much as had happened at the wedding feast. The first slab of the Centauromachy, BM 526, focuses on a pair of Greeks clad in mantles and fighting barehanded. Although they face in opposite directions, their poses are nearly identical, differing only in that one, BM 526:2, folds his lower left leg under the thigh as he kneels on the back of his adversary. On the next slab, BM 524, the goal of the procession, the ritual sanctuary of Artemis, is indicated by a tree hung with a lion or panther skin in thanksgiving for a successful hunt. The Greek (BM 524:1) who defends the two women against the centaur has no attributes save for the weapon that was held in his right hand. The roughly cut form that extends from the bottom of the fist seems to be the stump of a club. Into the top of the fist is fitted a metal club, requiring a stronger anchor than did the bronze swords attached to fists elsewhere. The hole for the club is therefore twice as wide and deep as those used for swords. This club identifies the hero as Theseus. The two victims of the centaur flank a small statue of Artemis. The axis of the statue is slightly off vertical, for it is not fixed to a base but carried by the priestess, BM 524:3. No base is actually seen, and the poses of the two women preclude there being one behind them. The left leg of the woman who gestures with extended arms, BM 524:4, reaches backward below the statue, where the base would be. The woman who holds the statue, BM 524:3, wraps her peplos around part of its back. As the centaur pulls the garment off her proper left shoulder, it passes behind her neck but does not appear between her nude torso and the statue. It reappears in the priestess’s left hand, being drawn from the left, up and to the right. As a result, it must be understood as partially encompassing the lower parts of the statue.
On the next four slabs, BM 525, BM 530, BM 528, and BM 527, the Greeks are meeting with little success. Each of the Greeks in this section bears some armour or weapon, but they seem to have been taken by surprise and are hard pressed to hold their own. One hero, BM 525:3, has lost his sword and now futilely arms himself with a small rock while retreating before a centaur. Elsewhere warriors hurry to the aid of comrades: 530:2, 52814. None of the Greeks achieves an unqualified victory. Rather than pitched duels, the melee breaks into multiple figure groups (BM 530:2, 3, 4, 5; BM 528:1, 2, 3; BM 527:1, 2, 3, 4) in which the distinction between victor and vanquished is often clouded. Appropriately for this kind of disorganized fight, the centaur attack employs weapons and tactics alien to the hoplites’ traditional mode of combat. One centaur (BM 525:2) swings a tree branch; others (BM 53(1) and 5) use huge stones; still another (BM 527:2) kicks and bites. Emblematic of this portion of the Centauromachy is the death of Kaineus, BM 530, where the hero, invulnerable to conventional weapons, is disposed of by being buried alive.
The last slab of the east side, BM 529 (Fig. 12, Pl. 45), restores a sense of ordered warfare, and the fortunes of the Greeks improve. One each of the armed (BM 529:2) and unarmed Greeks (529:4) is victorious over a centaur. The north portion of the frieze (Fig. 13), like that of the south that faces it, depicts the most important part of the action and is segregated from the rest of its subject by its compositional unity. The compositional patterns on both the north and south conform to the architectural forms below the frieze. On the three slabs at the south, groups balance one another in axial symmetry around the prominent central figure of Herakles, who stands above the Corinthian column. The four slabs on the north divide into two pain; the movement of the figures is largely centrifugal, so that the formal and narrative void at the center of the frieze echoes the architectural void of the doorway below. This centrifugal design brings to a halt the right-to-left movement of the spectator around the cella at the point where the frieze ends and he leaves the temple.
On the first pair of slabs at the north, Artemis has arrived in her chariot drawn by stags, with her brother Apollo, who has already alighted and draws his bow, BM 523. The rightward movement of the divine pair continue in the woman, the lint centaur, and the hoplite on the slab at the comer, BM 522. ApoIlo’s target is the centaur immediately before him, BM 522:4, who has grabbed hold of a woman carrying an infant, BM 522:3. Only she among the women in the Centauromachy is in the clutches of a centaur, yet undefended by a mortal.
The movement in the two left-hand slabs on the north is largely to the left. Although the first group of centaur and hoplite, BM 521:1 and 2, is virtually identical to the pair BM 522:1 and 2, the hoplite on BM 521 props himself on his shield, which serves as a visual stop to the centaur’s charge and as a reinforcement to the axis of the north side. The two figures on the left of the same slab, BM 521:3 and 4, repeat the pair of woman and centaur of BM 522:1 and 2. Here, however, the woman is not attacked by the centaur but runs past him. The centaur directs his attention to the hero on the next slab, BM 520:2, at whom he hurls a rock. The hero already grapples with one centaur, BM 520:1. As the only hero to engage two centaurs at once, and because of his proximity to the woman being carried away, BM 520:3, he must be Peirithoos. The woman is Hippodameia
Hippodamia (wife of Pirithous)
Hippodamia and δαμάζειν damazein , "Tamer of horses"; also known as Deidamia ), daughter of Atrax or Butes, was the bride of King Pirithous of the Lapiths. At their wedding, Hippodamia, the other female guests, and the young boys were almost abducted by the Centaurs. Pirithous and his friend,...
, the only woman being abducted.
The four others who also have no cape: are all brought down from behind by Greeks: BM 526:1, BM 524:2, BM 528:23, BM 529:1. They must have been part of the procession and, lacking the advantage of surprise that the attacking centaurs had, were the first victims of the Greeks. The two pairs of slabs that form the north part of the frieze share the same general figural pattern. A male and female pair, divine or mortal, dominate the left slab. On the right slab, a female and centaur are placed at left and a centaur and hoplite at right. This repetition highlights the contrasting movements in each pair away from the central axis.
Access
The frieze can be seen in the British Museum's Gallery 16, near the Elgin MarblesElgin Marbles
The Parthenon Marbles, forming a part of the collection known as the Elgin Marbles , are a collection of classical Greek marble sculptures , inscriptions and architectural members that originally were part of the Parthenon and other buildings on the Acropolis of Athens...
. The room is not always open, but researchers can request it be made available.
Cockerell also decorated the walls of the Ashmolean Museum
Ashmolean Museum
The Ashmolean Museum on Beaumont Street, Oxford, England, is the world's first university museum...
's Great Staircase and that of the Travellers Club
Travellers Club
The Travellers Club is a gentlemen's club standing at 106 Pall Mall, London. It is the oldest of the surviving Pall Mall clubs, having been established in 1819, and was recently described by the Los Angeles Times as "the quintessential English gentleman's club." Visits are possible by invitation...
with plaster casts of the same frieze. The Ashmolean Museum in Oxford is open to the public.
The wealthy landowner Thomas Legh was one of the excavators of the temple and a plaster cast
Plaster cast
A plaster cast is a copy made in plaster of another 3-dimensional form. The original from which the cast is taken may be a sculpture, building, a face, a fossil or other remains such as fresh or fossilised footprints – particularly in palaeontology .Sometimes a...
copy of the frieze is displayed in the Bright Gallery of Lyme Hall
Lyme Park
Lyme Park is a large estate located south of Disley, Cheshire, England. It consists of a mansion house surrounded by formal gardens, in a deer park in the Peak District National Park...
, one of his stately homes.