Dr. Wheeler's Sixth Lecture.

In the lecture-room of the Jefferson Physical Laboratory, yesterday afternoon, Dr. Wheeler delivered his sixth lecture in the series on the Athenian Acropolis. The room was again filled and Dr. Wheeler's talk on the Marbles of the Parthenon was listened to with an interest which must certainly be flattering to the lecturer.

Dr. Wheeler said that we unfortunately know very little about the chryselephantine statues. He read Pausanias' account of the statue of Athena Parthenos, a description that is a little more satisfactory than the most of that author's work. The statue was a composite work of gold and ivory. It was about forty feet in height, and between forty and fifty talents of gold were used in its construction. The technique of the statue is not clearly understood. The best representation which has come down to us is a statuette about a meter high, which was discovered in Athens near one of the gymnasia. It is the work of an inferior artist, however, and is only a fair production. It is executed in Pentelic marble, and, of course, many of the details of the great statue have been omitted. In a second statuette, discovered later, the reliefs on the shield of the great statue are reproduced after a fashion; the statuette as a whole, however, is a very clumsy piece of workmanship, and much inferior to the one first discovered. But even from the meager accounts we have of the statue of Athena Parthenos, we cannot but conclude that it was a magnificent and imposing work of art.

In beginning his remarks on the sculptures of the Parthenon, Dr. Wheeler spoke first of the metopes. There were ninety-two in all of these, of which we have only a very few preserved. The examples shown to illustrate his remarks were from the metopes carried to London by Lord Elgin. The subject of the sculptures on the metopes is the battle of the centaurs. The figures are for the most part, rather stiff, but we have two which are really the work of a master. It is probable that the metopes were executed by different sculptors.

The eastern and western pediments were next described. The remarkable beauty and natural grace of the figures in these pediments, as well as the skill displayed in their arrangement, are beyond praise. The great central group in the eastern pediment is unfortunately lost.

In a subsequent lecture, Dr. Wheeler will continue his discussion of the Marbles of the Parthenon.