AEGINETAN SCULPTURES

The marble pediments of Athena's temple at Aegina, discovered in 1811, restored by Thorwaldsen, and preserved in the Glyptothek at Munich. Their great value consists in the full light they throw on the condition of Greek art, especially of the Aeginetan school, in B.C. 480. (Comp.SCULPTURE.) Both groups present, with lifelike accuracy and in strictly symmetrical distribution, combats of the Greeks before Troy, while Athena in the centre, as protectress of the Greeks, retains the rigid attitude of the ancient religious statues. Of the figures, originally twentytwo in number, ten in the west pediment representing the contest for the body of Patroclus, are complete, while the eleventh is preserved in fragments; of those in the east pediment representing Heracles and Telamon shielding the fallen Oicles from Laomedon, five remain and many fragments.