Figure 49 The Parthenon as seen from the northwest.
Source: © David Ball / Alamy Stock Photo.
PEDIMENT The triangular area under the gabled roof, at either end of a Greek temple or similar
structure (figure 9.3), often filled with RELIEF sculpture.The best preserved element of the Parthenon’s sculptural decoration is the relief frieze that ran in a
continuous sequence around the top of the four sides of the cella, about 10 meters above eye level. An
unusual amount of attention has been paid over the past two hundred years to this frieze, almost half of
which was removed to England between 1801 and 1805, where it is now displayed in the British
Museum. Part of the reason for this attention, apart from the pressing ethical question of the
appropriateness of these sculptures remaining outside Greece, is the nature of the scene depicted.
Controversy has raged unabated over the question of whether, like the reliefs in the pediments and
metopes, it represents a mythical event or a feature of contemporary practice. A large portion of the frieze
represents a procession moving toward the east end of the temple, the end at which one enters the main
room of the cella. At the east end, the frieze depicts the 12 Olympian gods (figure 50), seated, flanking a
scene in which some mortals are engaged in a ritual activity that cannot with certainty be identified. The
ritual, witnessed by the gods, is clearly the object of the procession, which occupies the frieze on the
other three sides of the cella. Regardless of whether the ritual depicted is conceived as taking place in a