Page:Greek Buildings Represented by Fragments in the British Museum (1908).djvu/164

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148 THESEUM, ERECHTHEUM, AND OTHER WORKS. A few years ago it was always assumed that the Theseum pre- dated the Parthenon, but Dr Dorpfeld has shown good reason for supposing that it followed it. On comparing the friezes around the cells he observed that at the Parthenon regulae and guttse are placed at intervals beneath the sculptured procession as they would be beneath a triglyph frieze. The architect of the Theseum, however, has omitted them. At Sunium not only are the guttae absent, but the columns are all equally spaced. He therefore puts the buildings in the following order : — The Parthenon, the Theseum, the temple at Sunium. In regard to this, I do not think that it has been noticed that the temple of Rhamnus, exhaustively illustrated by the Dilettanti Society, is so like the Theseum that one must be a copy of the other,* and this in points so minute that the likeness cannot be a mere coincidence. Now, the cult statue of Rham- nus, of which there are fragments at the British Museum, was the work of a pupil of Phidias, and there cannot be a doubt that this temple is later than the Parthenon. The Theseum is remarkable for a difference between the roofing of the portico and the posticum. The frieze over the inner columns of the former runs on right and left of the antse until it joins the main order, while in the latter the frieze returns. At Rhamnus this arrange- ment is repeated, and the disposition of the transverse ceiling beams and lacunaria are almost identical in both temples. The cymatium of the pediment at Rhamnus was continued along the flanks as a gutter, but at the Parthenon there was no gutter. It is interesting to recall that Penrose found a fragment of a gutter at the Theseum which he concluded came from the flanks of that temple. In one respect, at least, Rhamnus is intermediate Fig. 147. — Theseum, East Front.

  • Uned. " Antiq. of Attica.'