same size, regardless of the statue’s position in the pediment. Unlike
the experimental design at Corfu (FIG. 5-17), the Aegina pediments
feature a unified theme and consistent scale. The designer was able
to keep the size of the figures constant by using the whole range of
body postures from upright (Athena) to leaning, falling, kneeling,
and lying (Greeks and Trojans).
The sculptures of the Aegina pediments were probably set in
place when the temple was completed around 490BCE. Many schol-
ars believe the statues at the eastern end were damaged and replaced
with a new group a decade or two later, although some think both
groups were installed after 480BCE. Whatever the precise dates of the
sculptures, it is very instructive to compare the eastern and western
figures. The west pediment’s dying warrior (FIG. 5-28) was still con-
ceived in the Archaic mode. His torso is rigidly frontal, and he looks
out directly at the spectator—with his face set in an Archaic smile in
spite of the bronze arrow that punctures his chest. He is like a man-
nequin in a store window whose arms and legs have been arranged
by someone else for effective display. There is no sense whatsoever of
a thinking and feeling human being.
The comparable figure (FIG. 5-29) in the east pediment is radi-
cally different. His posture is more natural and more complex, with
the torso placed at an angle to the viewer. (He is on a par with the
painted figures of Euphronios,FIG. 5-23.) Moreover, he reacts to his
wound as a flesh-and-blood human would. He knows that death is in-
evitable, but he still struggles to rise once again, using his shield for
support. And he does not look out at the spectator. He is concerned
with his pain, not with the viewer. No more than a decade separates
the two statues, but they belong to different eras. The eastern warrior
is not a creation of the Archaic world, when sculptors imposed ana-
tomical patterns (and smiles) on statues from without. This statue be-
longs to the Classical world, where statues move as humans move and
possess the self-consciousness of real men and women. This was a rad-
ical change in the conception of what a statue was meant to be. In
sculpture, as in painting, the Classical revolution had occurred.Early and High Classical Periods
Art historians mark the beginning of the Classical* age from a histor-
ical event: the defeat of the Persian invaders of Greece by the allied
Hellenic city-states. Shortly after the Persians occupied and sacked
Athens in 480BCE, the Greeks won a decisive naval victory over the
Persians at Salamis. It had been a difficult war, and at times it had
seemed as though Asia would swallow up Greece, and the Persian
king Xerxes (see Chapter 2) would rule over all. When the Persians
destroyed the Greek city Miletos in 494BCE, they killed the male in-
habitants and sold the women and children into slavery. The narrow
escape of the Greeks from domination by Asian “barbarians” nur-
tured a sense of Hellenic identity so strong that from then on the his-
tory of European civilization would be distinct from the civilization
of Asia, even though they continued to interact. Typical of the time
were the views of the great dramatist Aeschylus, who celebrated, in
his Oresteia trilogy, the triumph of reason and law over barbarous
crimes, blood feuds, and mad vengeance. Himself a veteran of the
epic battle of Marathon, Aeschylus repudiated in majestic verse all
the slavish and inhuman traits of nature that the Greeks at that time
of crisis associated with the Persians.118 Chapter 5 ANCIENT GREECE
5-28Dying warrior, from the west
pediment of the Temple of Aphaia,
Aegina, Greece, ca. 490 bce.Marble,
5 2 – 21 long. Glyptothek, Munich.
The statues of the west pediment of
the early-fifth-centuryBCEtemple at
Aegina exhibit Archaic features. This
fallen warrior still has a rigidly frontal
torso and an Archaic smile on his face.
5-29Dying warrior, from the east
pediment of the Temple of Aphaia,
Aegina, Greece, ca. 480 bce.Marble,
6 1 long. Glyptothek, Munich.
The eastern dying warrior already
belongs to the Classical era. His
posture is more natural, and he
exhibits a new self-consciousness.
Concerned with his own pain, he does
not face the viewer.
*Note: In Art through the Ages,the adjective “Classical,” with uppercase C, refers
specifically to the Classical period of ancient Greece, 480–323BCE. Lowercase
“classical” refers to Greco-Roman antiquity in general, that is, the period treated
in Chapters 5, 9, and 10.1 ft.1 ft.