The fragment numbered 91 is part of a figure of Hyperion rising out of the sea.  It marked that angle of the pediment to the left of the spectator, and the arms are stretched forward urging his coursers.  Near him are, alas, only the heads of two of his horses (92).  The next group that presents itself for notice is that of two sitting figures (94), the one to the left leaning on the right shoulder of the other.  This is a wreck of a group that represented Ceres and her daughter Proserpine on the pediment.  Next in succession is a figure full of action (95):  this is Iris, the messenger of the gods, but the particular property of Juno, on her way to carry to remote parts the interesting intelligence of the birth of Minerva.  A torso of Victory is placed next in order of succession (96).  The figure is now wingless, but holes can be seen which once attached them to the statue.  Three Fates, beautifully draped (97), and a head of one of the horses (98) of the chariot of Night which occupied the angle of the pediment on the spectator’s right, complete the recovered fragments of the eastern pediment.

Hence the visitor should turn to the fragments from the

Western pediment.

The subject illustrated on the western pediment was the contest between Minerva and Neptune for the honour of giving a name to Athens.  The relics of these sculptures will now engage the visitor’s attention.  Undoubtedly the first object that will attract his notice will be that numbered 99.  This recumbent figure has a noble presence even now, headless and otherwise mutilated as it is.  Canova stood undecided between this figure and that of Theseus (or Cephalus, according to Mr. Westmacott) as to which was pre-eminently beautiful.  The figure before which the visitor now stands is generally received as the statue of Ilissus, who was the Athenian god of the river Ilissus, which watered the southern side of the Athenian plain.  Others have declared it to be Theseus reposing after his herculean labours, and contemplating the contest between the two deities.  Having fully examined this fine sculpture, the visitor should turn to the fragments of the Minerva.  A small fragment of the upper part of a face (101) is all that remains of Minerva’s head, the holes being still visible by which the goddess’s bronze helmet was fastened to the statue.  Hereabouts, also, is a fragment of the statue (102), and a coil of the serpent that was about the figure (104).  The torso marked 100, from the western pediment, is conjectured to be part of a statue that represented Cecrops, the founder of Athens, at the contest.  The next fragment is the torso of Neptune (103); and hereabouts is the cast of the group supposed to have originally represented Hercules and Hebe.  The second object, marked 104, is the cast, presented by M. Charles Lenormand, of a head in the Bibliotheque Nationale at Paris, supposed to belong to one of the statues of the western pediment.