king of Pisa in Elis, refused the hand of his daughter save to one who should beat him in a chariot-race.  Suitor after suitor tried and failed, till at last Pelops, a young prince from over sea, succeeded In the pediment group Zeus, as arbiter of the impending contest, occupies the center.  On one side of him stand Pelops and his destined bride, on the other Oenomaus and his wife, Sterope (Fig. 108).  The chariots, with attendants and other more or less interested persons follow (Fig. 109).  The moment chosen by the sculptor is one of expectancy rather than action, and the various figures are in consequence simply juxtaposed, not interlocked.  Far different is the scene presented by the western pediment.  The subject here is the combat between Lapiths and Centaurs, one of the favorite themes of Greek sculpture, as of Greek painting.  The Centaurs, brutal creatures, partly human, partly equine, were fabled to have lived in Thessaly.  There too was the home of the Lapiths, who were Greeks.  At the wedding of Pirithous, king of the Lapiths, the Centaurs, who had been bidden as guests, became inflamed with wine and began to lay hands on the women.  Hence a general metee, in which the Greeks were victorious.  The sculptor has placed the god Apollo in the center (Fig. 110), undisturbed amid the wild tumult; his presence alone assures us what the issue is to he.  The struggling groups (Figs. 111, 112) extend nearly to the corners, which are occupied each by two reclining female figures, spectators of the scene.  In each pediment the composition is symmetrical, every figure having its corresponding figure on the opposite side.  Yet the law of symmetry is interpreted much more freely than in the Aegina pediments of a generation earlier; the corresponding figures often differ from one another a good deal in attitude, and in one instance even in sex.

Our illustrations, which give a few representative specimens of these sculptures, suggest some comments.  To begin with, the workmanship here displayed is rapid and far from faultless.  Unlike the Aeginetan pediment-figures and those of the Parthenon, these figures are left rough at the back.  Moreover, even in the visible portions there are surprising evidences of carelessness, as in the portentously long left thigh of the Lapith in Fig. 112.  It is, again, evidence of rapid, though not exactly of faulty, execution, that the hair is in a good many cases only blocked out, the form of the mass being given, but its texture not indicated (e.g., Fig. 111).  In the pose of the standing figures (e.g., Fig. 108), with the weight borne about equally by both legs, we see a modified survival of the usual archaic attitude.  A lingering archaism may be seen in other features too; very plainly, for example, in the arrangement of Apollo’s hair (Fig 110).  The garments represent a thick woolen stuff, whose folds show very little pliancy.  The drapery of Sterope (Fig. 108) should be especially noted, as it is a characteristic