Parthenon Frieze _ East V, 31-32

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The peplos was a robe that was renewed every four years when it was carried away by the procession of the Great Panathenaic festival and dedicated to a statue of Athena on the Acropolis. The robe featured scenes of a mythical battle between gods and giants, which were woven in nine months before the Panathenaia at another festival, the Chalkeia. Two girls, appointed to serve Athena, the arrephoroi, set up the warp on the loom. The east frieze is made up of eight or nine blocks that are significantly longer than the blocks of the other sides. Block V in the middle measures 4.50 m. in length, while the corner blocks are narrow because they are actually the narrow ends of block I of the north frieze and block XLVII of the south frieze. The surviving blocks and fragments are scattered among various museums: on the Acropolis are blocks II and VI, in the British Museum blocks I, III-V, VIII, and in the Louvre block VII. A number of fragments are also found in the British Museum and others in the Archaeological Museum of Palermo. In contrast to the west frieze, the east frieze has a certain symmetry of composition because it is the focal point of the processions on the other sides. The Parthenon's frieze forms a continuous band with scenes in low relief that encircles the upper part of the cella within the outer colonnade. The theme represented was the procession toward the Acropolis during the Great Panathenaia, which commemorates the birthday of the goddess Athena. Numbering is based on I. Jenkins' work, "The Parthenon Frieze," published in 1994. Frieze slabs are marked with Roman numerals, while people are marked with Arabic numerals.