x that had seized a
Theban youth; below the sphinxes the children of Niobe were slain by
the arrows of Apollo and Artemis." This statue, Flaxman observes,
sixty feet in height, was the most renowned work of ancient sculpture,
not for stupendous magnitude alone, but more for careful majesty and
sublime beauty. His Minerva in the Parthenon was of gold and ivory.
The goddess was represented standing robed in a tunic, and her head
covered with the formidable aegis; with her right hand she held a
lance; in the left she held a statue of Victory about five feet high;
her helmet was surmounted by a sphinx and two griffins, and over the
visor eight horses in front in full gallop. The shield erected at the
feet of the goddess was adorned on both sides with bas-reliefs. At the
base of the statue were a sphinx and a serpent. This colossus was
thirty-seven feet high. The gem of Aspasus and the silver tetra-drachm
of Athens are said to be copies of the head of this Minerva.

Another remarkable statue of Phidias was the Athene Promachus, in the
Acropolis. It represented the tutelary goddess of the Athenians, fully
armed and in the attitude of battle, with one arm raised and holding
spear in her hand. This work was of colossal dimensions and stood in
the open air, nearly opposite the Propylaea. It towered above the roof
of the Parthenon and it is said the crest of the helmet and the point
of the spear could be seen far off by ships approaching Athens from
Sunium. Its height is supposed to have been, with its pedestal, about
seventy feet, the material was bronze. There are two marble statues
which have come down to us, and which give some idea of the Minervas
of Phidias. One is the Pallas of Velletri, which is supposed to be a
copy of the Minerva Promachus (cut is on p. 530). The Farnese Minerva,
at Naples, may afford some idea of the chryselephantine statue of the
Parthenon. It does not, however, present the accessories of the
Athenian figure. The Sphinx, the serpent and the shield are not
represented. The sculptures of the Parthenon, now in the British
Museum, can lead us to appreciate the manner of Phidias, and the
character of his school, so observed by Flaxman. The statues of the
pediments, the metopes, and bas-reliefs, are remarkable for the
grandeur of style, simplicity, truth, beauty, which are the
characteristics of this school. On the eastern pediment was
represented the birth of Minerva, and on the western the contest
betwee