Parthenon Frieze _ South V, 13-14

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The forward momentum, often seen in the procession of the south frieze, occurs more frequently in the north. Figure 13 is a rare exception. He wears a leather tunic, wrapped around his body, under a metal cuirass.\r\nThe north side of the frieze is preserved completely and the sculptured surface was not damaged in the tremendous catastrophe suffered by the Parthenon in the fire of 1687. This is why the sequence from block XIX on is certain. Although the Carrey drawings show the representations on many of the existing sections, we have been unable to locate a number of missing fragments. The original length of the frieze along the north side was 58.73 m. It was composed of forty-eight blocks, some of which are exhibited in the Acropolis Museum, others in the British Museum. The average width of each block is 1.23 m. The workmanship as a whole is clearly more skillful than that of the south frieze, although some of the scenes may be less impressive (blocks IV, IX, X, XXVII, XXXIII and XLV).The procession begins at the east corner and proceeds toward the left. The variety of pose, garment and movement of figures and animals seen in the south frieze is present here. The riders move in a curved line, looking to their right, with multiple exceptions on blocks III, VII and XI. The varied rendition of the horses’ trimmed manes reflects their speed of movement.As in the south frieze, the sections evident in the north are: a) the horsemen, b) the chariots and c) the sacrificial procession.It is likely that the arrangement of the horsemen in the procession was according to tribe, following the political organisation of the Athenian state. The variation seen in the garments, according to which there are nine groups of five riders each, appears to support this interpretation. The horsemen of the first group (1-5) wear a fox-hide cap, long chiton, chlamys and boots, the second group (6-10) only chlamys. In the third group the horsemen (11-15) wear a short cuirass over a short chiton and boots. The horsemen of the fourth group (16-20) are clad in short chiton and chlamys, of the fifth (21-25) anatomical cuirass over short chiton and boots. The horsemen of the sixth group (26-30) wear a fox-skin cap, long chiton over which is a cuirass with flaps, and boots. Those of the seventh group (31-35) wear helmet of Athenian type, short chiton, chlamys and boots and of the eighth group (36-40), chlamys over short chiton and boots. The riders of the ninth group (41-45) are clad in petasos, short chiton, chlamys and boots. Then comes the procession of chariots, which is preserved almost completely and can be seen on many blocks. Ten chariots are in the course, each taking up a single block. Some are standing still (X), some starting (XXV) and some race full speed ahead (XXIX).Depicted on the blocks that follow is the procession of the sacrifice. Taking part are thallophoroi with olive branches, musicians with citharas (kitharai), skaphephoroi with offering trays and the animals with their herdsmen.The frieze of the Parthenon forms a continuous band with scenes in low relief that encircles the upper part of the cella, the main temple, within the outer colonnade. The theme represented was the procession toward the Acropolis that took place during the Great Panathenaia, the commemoration of the birthday of the goddess Athena.Numbering taken from I. Jenkins, The Parthenon Frieze, 1994. Frieze slabs are marked in Roman numerals, People are marked in Arabic numerals.