How to See the British Museum in Four Visits eBook

William Blanchard Jerrold
This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 237 pages of information about How to See the British Museum in Four Visits.

How to See the British Museum in Four Visits eBook

William Blanchard Jerrold
This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 237 pages of information about How to See the British Museum in Four Visits.
the Persian dominion in Lycia, and was, as two inscriptions record, erected by the satrap Paiafa.  Upon the roof are groups of fighting warriors, and at each side are figures in chariots and four.  Sphinxes occur in the lower sculptures, and on the north side below, is a mixed combat of foot and horse soldiers; and the Satrap Paiafa himself, attended by four figures, is here represented.  The roof is drained by water-spouts in the shape of lion’s heads.  The visitor, having now examined the two most remarkable remains of Lycian tombs in the room, should rapidly notice the fragments of sepulchres placed here and there, but legibly numbered.  First, let him remark (17-21), a frieze conjectured to be from a tomb found inserted in the wall of the Acropolis of Xanthus.  Here he will find in bas-relief a procession consisting of a horse and horseman, priest and priestesses with wands, an armed female figure, and two chariots, with youthful charioteers and old men.  A triangular fragment of a tomb will next occupy his attention (23); this has distinct vestiges of colour, and represents a male and female figure separated by an Ionic column, surmounted by an harpy, and other fragments in the immediate neighbourhood; (24-27) have representations of the Sphinx, with a woman’s head, wings, and the body of a lion, as the daughter of the Chimaera, from the Xanthian Acropolis.  A curious relic is the Soros, discovered placed on the top of one of the Xanthian pillar tombs.  Here, amongst the bas-reliefs, the visitor will notice a man stabbing an erect lion; a lion playing with its young; and a figure on horseback followed by a pedestrian; and on the next fragment (32), a lioness is again represented fondling her progeny.  The roof of a tomb (143), closely resembling that which covers the Horse Tomb, is worth observing.  It is part of the tomb of an individual named Merewe, from Xanthus, and the scenes represented include that of an entertainment, divinities, and sphinxes, warlike encounters, and on the sides Bellerophon attacking the Chimaera.  Those casts marked (145-149), may next engage the visitor’s attention.  They were taken from a tomb carved in solid rock at Pinara, and include the frieze, upon which warriors are carved leading captives, the walls representing a walled city, and the Gorgons’ heads which decorated the extremities of the dentals.  The three next casts that demand particular remark (150-152), were taken from the decorations of a rock tomb at Cadyanda.  To the learned these groups are particularly interesting, because the figures are accompanied with inscriptions in the Greek, as well as the pure Lycian language.  The first cast is that from the panel of the tomb door, upon which Talas is represented standing:  the second represents a group of females; and the third an ancient entertainment with figures reclining on couches with children; a figure playing the double flute, and to the right a nude figure called Hecatomnas.  Six casts from
Copyrights
Project Gutenberg
How to See the British Museum in Four Visits from Project Gutenberg. Public domain.