Wonders of sculpture . e Parthenon intwo. When, rather later, Morosini was compelled to abandon hisenterprise, he wished to carry off the richest trophies to the removal of the principal statues was so hastily andawkwardly effected, that they were thrown to the earth and brokento pieces. (M. Leon de Laborde, Athens in the fifteenth,sixteenth, and seventeenth centuries.) It was then at the end of the learned and polished seventeenthcentury, in the middle of the reign of Louis XIV., fourteen yearsafter the death of Moliere, and seven years before the birth ofVoltaire, that this suprem
Wonders of sculpture . e Parthenon intwo. When, rather later, Morosini was compelled to abandon hisenterprise, he wished to carry off the richest trophies to the removal of the principal statues was so hastily andawkwardly effected, that they were thrown to the earth and brokento pieces. (M. Leon de Laborde, Athens in the fifteenth,sixteenth, and seventeenth centuries.) It was then at the end of the learned and polished seventeenthcentury, in the middle of the reign of Louis XIV., fourteen yearsafter the death of Moliere, and seven years before the birth ofVoltaire, that this supreme deed of barbarism was perpetrated, thedestruction of the central figures of both pediments of the Parthenon ! GRECIAN SCULPTURE. 171 sovereign of gods and men is introduced presentinghis daughter to the other divinities. All theimmortals were struck with admiration when theardent goddess flung herself before her divine sire,with the aegis in his hand. The great Olympustrembled beneath the pointed lance of the warrior. Fig- 37-—Heads of Horses. (From the Parthenon.) maiden with the piercing glance ; the earth re-sounded far and wide; the sea held back herwaves ; the purple billows quivered ; the brilliantson of Hyperion reined in his swift steeds for atime, * * * and the wise Zeus rejoiced. As wehave before stated, there remain nine fragments ofthis pediment, five from the left side and four fromthe right. Of the left beginning at the extreme 172 GRECIAN SCULPTURE. point of the angle, we find first •. the head ofHyperion (Hehos, the sun) leaving the sea in theearly morning, his arms raised from the waterholding the reins of his chargers ; then two headsof the horses of the sun, rising from the waves ;then Theseus, the Athenian hero, half-recumbent
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