" 
 
 . 
 
 : _ • . * * 
 
SCULPTURED METOPES 
 
 DISCOVERED AMONGST 
 
 THE RUINS OF THE TEMPLES 
 
 OP THE 
 
 ANCIENT CITY OF SELINUS 
 IN SICILY, 
 
 BY 
 
 WILLIAM HARRIS AND SAMUEL ANGELL, 
 
 IN THE YEAR 1823. 
 
 DESCRIBED BY 
 
 SAMUEL ANGELL AND THOMAS EVANS, 
 
 ARCHITECTS. 
 
 LONDON 
 
 PUBLISHED FOR THE AUTHORS BY PRIESTLEY AND WEALE. 
 
 MDCCCXXVI. 
 
TO 
 
 WILLIAM HAMILTON, ESQ. 
 
 F.R.S. F.S.A. F.R.S.L. ETC. 
 
 LATE HIS MAJESTY’S ENVOY-EXTRAORDINARY AT THE COURT 
 OF NAPLES, 
 
 THIS WORK IS RESPECTFULLY INSCRIBED 
 
 BY HIS MOST OBLIGED 
 
 AND OBEDIENT HUMBLE SERVANTS, 
 
 SAMUEL ANGELL AND THOMAS EVANS. 
 
LIST OF SUBSCRIBERS 
 
 Abud, William, Esq. 
 
 Abud, W. T. Esq. 
 
 Acton, Samuel, Esq. 
 
 Ady, William, Esq. Devonport. 
 
 Angell, John, Esq. 
 
 Angell, Mr. Alfred. 
 
 Armstrong, Mr. 
 
 Ashton,-Esq. 
 
 Atkinson, Mr. Charles. 
 
 Baker, Sir Edward, Bart. Ranston, Dorset. 
 Baker, Samuel, Esq. Darland, Rochester. 
 Baker, George, Esq. ditto. 
 
 Bankes, the Rev. Edward, Corfe Castle. 
 Banks, Sir Edward. 
 
 Barnouin, J. H. Esq. 
 
 Basevi, George, Esq. F.S.A. 
 
 Bayne, William, Esq. 
 
 Beazley, Samuel, Esq. 
 
 Bent, Thomas, Esq. 
 
 Blaaw,-Esq. 
 
 Booth, W. J. Esq. 
 
 Boyd, John, Esq. 
 
 Breeds, Thomas, Esq. Hastings. 
 
 Britton, John, Esq. F.S.A. 
 
 Brondsted, le Chevalier. 
 
 Brookes, Henry, Esq. 
 
 Brouncker, Richard, Esq. Boveridge, Dor¬ 
 set. 
 
 Brown, Mr. Richard. 
 
 Bryce, Sir Alexander, Royal Engineers. 
 Burton, Decimus, Esq. 
 
 Butts, Thomas, Esq. 
 
 CATnEitwooD, Frederick, Esq. 
 
 Cheetham, Joseph, Esq. 
 
 Chitty, George, Esq. Shaftesbury. 
 
 Clarke, Calvert, Esq. 
 
 Clarke, Edward, Esq. 
 
 Cockerell, C. R. Esq. F.S.A. 
 
 Colby, Lieutenant-Colonel Thomas, Royal 
 Engineers. 
 
 Compton, Lord Viscount. 
 
 Cook, Richard, Esq. R.A. 
 
 Cressy, Edward, Esq. F.S.A. 
 
 Croft, William, Esq. 
 
 Crompe, Giles, Esq. 
 
 Currie, H. Esq. 
 
 Dallaway, the Rev. James, A.M. F.S.A. 
 
 Chichester. 
 
 Darley, Mr. Robert. 
 
 Daubenny, Charles, Esq. M.D. Magdalen 
 College, Oxford. 
 
 Davies, John, Esq. 
 
 Devall, John, Esq. 
 
 Donaldson, 'I'. L. Esq. 
 
 Donthorn, W. J. Esq. 
 
 b 
 

 In wood, H. W. Esq. F.S.A. 
 
 Jearrad, Mr. Robert. 
 
 Johnson, Thomas, Esq. Lichfield. 
 
 Jones, Lieutenant-Colonel Thomas, J. Royal 
 Engineers. 
 
 Jones, Michael, Esq. F.S.A. 
 
 Fac; ell, Baron. 
 
 Favell, Samuel, Esq. 
 
 Fletcher, Reuben, Esq. 
 
 Forbes, C. F. Esq. M.D. 
 
 Foster, John, Esq. Jun. Liverpool. 
 
 Fox, Thomas, Esq. Beaminster. 
 
 Fuller, Benjamin, Esq. 
 
 Gell, Sir William, A.M. F.R.S. F.S.A. 
 
 &c. 
 
 Glyn, Sir Richard Carr, Bart. Gaunt’s, 
 Dorset. 
 
 Glyn, Richard Plumtre, Esq. 
 
 Glyn, George Carr, Esq. 
 
 Gore,-Esq. 
 
 Greenwood, the Rev. John, A.M. 
 
 Gwilt, Joseph, Esq. F.S.A. 
 
 Hall, Thomas, Esq. 
 
 Hamilton, William, Esq. F.R.S. F.S.A. 
 F.R.S.L. &c. 
 
 Hardwick, Thomas, Esq. F.S.A. 
 
 Hardwick, John, Esq. 
 
 Hardwick, Philip, Esq. 
 
 Harris, William, Esq. 
 
 Harvey, George, Esq. Ealing (2 Copies). 
 Henfree, Mr. 
 
 Hollingsworth, R. M. Esq. 
 
 Holmes, William, Esq. M.P. 
 
 Hope, Thomas, Esq. F.R.S. F.S.A. &c. 
 Hope, R. W. Esq. 
 
 Howard, the Hon. Henry. 
 
 Key, John, Esq. Alderman. 
 
 Kinnard, W. Esq. 
 
 Laing, David, Esq. F.S.A. 
 
 Langley, Henry, Esq. Dover. 
 
 Lawrence, Sir Thomas, Bart. P.R.A. &c. 
 Leake, Lieutenant-Colonel, Royal Artillery, 
 LL.D. F.R.S. F.S.A. F.R.S.L. &c. 
 Lees, William, Esq. 
 
 Mathews, Charles, Esq. 
 
 Millingen, J. V. Esq. Paris. 
 
 Mountague, William, Esq. 
 
 Mountague, Frederick, Esq. 
 
 Mudford, William, Esq. 
 
 Newman, John, Esq. 
 
 Nicholson, William, Esq. Rochester. 
 
 Nott, the Rev. George Frederick, D.D. 
 F.S.A. Winchester. 
 
 Parke, Henry, Esq. 
 
 Parker, Charles. Esq. 
 
 Parr,-- Esq. Poole. 
 
 Payne, Joseph, Esq. 
 
 Pisani, il Barone, &c. Palermo. 
 
 Poynder, Thomas, Esq. 
 
 Rennie, John, Esq. F.R.S. 
 
 
Sanderson, James, Esq. 
 
 Scott, John, Esq. 
 
 Serradifalco, il Duca, Palermo. 
 
 Sharp, R. H. Esq. York. 
 
 Shaw, John, Esq. F.S.A. 
 
 Shaw, John, Esq. Jun. 
 
 Slatter, James, Esq. 
 
 Smith, C. S. Esq. Warwick. 
 
 Soane, John, Esq. R.A. F.S.A. &c. 
 Stace, William, Esq. 
 
 The Travellers’ Club. 
 
 Thorwaldsden, il Cavaliere, &c. Rome. 
 Tite, W. Esq. 
 
 Toker, Philip, Esq. 
 
 Turner, John, Esq. 
 
 Turner, J. H. Esq. 
 
 Tyrrell, Charles, Esq. 
 
 Upham, John, Esq. Bath. 
 
 Walker, George F. Esq. 
 
 Walker, George, Esq. 
 
 Walters, Melmoth, Esq. Bath Easton. 
 Ward, John, Esq. 
 
 Wardlaw and Co. Edinburgh. 
 
 Welbank, John, Esq. 
 
 Welbank, Richard, Esq. 
 
 Westmacott, Richard, Esq. R.A. F.S.A. &c. 
 Westmacott, William, Esq. 
 
 Wilkins, William, Esq. A.M. R.A. F.S.A. 
 Winstanley, Edward, Esq. 
 
 Wood, John, Esq. 
 
 Wood, William B. Esq. 
 
 Wrighton,-Esq. 
 
 Wyatt, Mr. Edward. 
 
 Wyattville, Jeffrey, Esq. R.A. F.S.A. &c. 
 
ERRATA 
 
 Page 0, Note 1, for “ the chamjeriphes of Linnsus ” read “ the chamsrhiphes of Pliny”, 
 Linnsus 
 
 Page 24, lines 16, IT, for “ ages. Her name ” read “ ages ; her name 
 Page 36, line 10, for “ acroteriai ” read “ acroteria 
 
ADVERTISEMENT. 
 
 The interesting objects of ancient art which form the subject of 
 the following memoir, were discovered by Mr. William Harris 
 and Mr. Samuel Angell, Architects, in the course of a pro¬ 
 fessional tour of Sicily, in the year 1823. 
 
 The drawings of the sculptures (with the exception of 
 Plate viii.) were made by Mr. Harris, but his premature 
 death having deprived him of the satisfaction which he would 
 have had in presenting them to the public, that duty has de¬ 
 volved on his fellow traveller and coadjutor in the discovery, in 
 concurrence with Mr. Thomas Evans, the brother-in-law of 
 Mr. Harris, who, out of respect to his deceased relation, and 
 as representing his right to the drawings, has joined in the pub¬ 
 lication. 
 
■ 
 
 ■ 
 
 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 The Sculptured Metopes described in the following pages and accompanying 
 Plates, belonged to two temples of the ancient city of Selinus in Sicily, 
 among the ruins of which they had remained concealed for a space probably 
 of more than two thousand two hundred years, when they were fortunately 
 discovered in March 1823. 
 
 The very early style and high antiquity of these Metopes, throw an ad¬ 
 ditional light on the history of the rise and progress of sculpture, and their 
 subjects offer interesting representations of some of the fables of antiquity. 
 For these reasons we feel it incumbent on us to make them known, and we 
 are encouraged in so doing by the hope that their publication may afford 
 some degree of interest to the scholar, the antiquary, and the artist. In the 
 execution of our task, the sculptures will form the principal object, but we 
 shall preface our explanation of them with a concise relation of the particu¬ 
 lars of the discovery; and, for their better illustration, we propose to take a 
 general view of the history of Selinus, and to give an architectural descrip¬ 
 tion of the ruins of the temples. 
 
 It was after a gratifying tour of the island, and several months satisfac¬ 
 torily passed among the antiquities of Syracuse and Agrigentum, that, towards 
 the close of 1822, we arrived at Selinus, prepared to find in its ruins objects 
 highly interesting, and much matter for new and professional research. These 
 expectations were more than realized, for on our first examination of the 
 ruins we found them deserving more attention than we had anticipated ; we 
 therefore determined to devote to their investigation whatever time and pains 
 should be necessary to elucidate them thoroughly. Many circumstances 
 however appeared at first to frustrate our intentions ; the very confused state 
 of the ruins, the great accumulation of earth and cultivated soil surrounding 
 them, the difficulty of moving the enormous blocks which concealed many 
 
8 
 
 of the most important architectural members, the thickets and dwarf palms' 
 by which the ruins were overgrown, were obstacles difficult to surmount in so 
 deserted a spot’, and which have without doubt deterred other travellers, no 
 less zealous than we were, from devoting to the ruins of Selinus the time 
 and attention they undoubtedly deserve. We were enabled in a great mea¬ 
 sure to surmount these difficulties through our good fortune in obtaining a 
 farm-house immediately adjoining the ruins for our abode, and encouraged by 
 the facilities thus afforded us, we prosecuted our labour with zeal and dili¬ 
 gence. We soon found however that all attempts to ascertain the plans of 
 the temples, without making considerable excavations, would be useless, and 
 being well aware of the difficulty and great uncertainty of obtaining a per¬ 
 mission to this effect from the Sicilian Government, and induced at the same 
 time by a powerful temptation, that of being the first travellers who have 
 correctly measured these ruins, we ventured to remove the accumulated 
 earth at our own risk without the knowledge or permission of the Govern¬ 
 ment. 
 
 Our labour was fully rewarded by the discovery of the sculptures, the 
 subject of the present work, and our operations in other respects were attended 
 with complete success, for we had the satisfaction of ascertaining and mea¬ 
 suring correctly the plans and architectural details of six temples, three ol 
 which (marked A, B, C, Plate I.) had till then been considered as mere heaps 
 of ruins, in too confused a state for their plans to be made out. 
 
 On discovering the sculptures, we felt most anxious that such in¬ 
 teresting specimens of ancient art should it possible be added to the na¬ 
 tional collection in the British Museum, where they would acquire an addi¬ 
 tional interest from being viewed and compared with the fine examples of 
 Egyptian sculpture, and with the Phigaleian and Elgin collections. \\ e lost 
 
 1 The chamteriphes of Linnreus. This plant is supposed to have given occasion to the expression 
 “ palmosa Selinus,” as applied by Virgil; “ Teque datis linquo ventis, palmosa Selinus; .Eneid. lib. 
 in. v. 705. and is without doubt the same as alluded to by Cicero, in his “ Orat. in \ err. where he 
 describes the misery of the Syracusan sailors, in being obliged to subsist on its roots in consequence of 
 having no other food. This plant is called by the modem inhabitants “ giumarra or ££ palmetto, and 
 its leaves are used for making brooms and cordage by the peasantry. 
 
 2 The nearest habitable spot to Selinus is the town of Castel N etrano, situated about seven miles to 
 the northward of the ruins. 
 
y 
 
 no time therefore in writing to Mr. Hamilton, his Majesty’s minister at the 
 Court of Naples, informing him of all the circumstances of the discovery, 
 and soliciting him to apply to the Neapolitan Government for permission to 
 have the sculpture conveyed to England. 
 
 Our request was attended to with the greatest kindness on the part of 
 Mr. Hamilton, who, with that love for the fine arts for which he is so justly 
 distinguished, interested himself most earnestly in the discovery, and lost no 
 time in forwarding our petition to the King of Naples. The result of our ap¬ 
 plication was such as we had partly anticipatedj the Neapolitan Government, 
 with a laudable desire of enriching its own museums, could not allow the sculp¬ 
 tures to be sent to England, but ordered them to be placed in the museum then 
 forming at Palermo. Having been thus unsuccessful in obtaining the sculp¬ 
 ture for the British Museum, we now suggested that a present of casts taken 
 from the Metopes would be the most acceptable compensation to us for the 
 expences we had incurred in excavating, and the time we had employed in 
 putting the fragments together, previous to their being deposited in the Mu¬ 
 seum at Palermo. Our representation however had for some time remained 
 unnoticed, when, by the advice of Mr. Hamilton, the subject was communi¬ 
 cated to Mr. Canning, through whose kind interference and powerful in¬ 
 fluence the Neapolitan Government has at length been induced to grant us 
 the casts of these antiquities. 
 
 At the time when the sculptures were delivered to the proper Autho¬ 
 rities at Palermo, Mr. Angell proceeded to that city for the purpose of super¬ 
 intending their disembarkation and putting together. Soon after this the 
 melancholy death of Mr. Harris took place, an event which occasioned to 
 his friends the greatest sorrow and affliction. 
 
 Over-anxious to make his professional researches as extensive as 
 possible, Mr. Harris unfortunately remained at Selinus, engaged in taking a 
 general plan of the remains and site of the ancient city; his ardour made 
 him too inattentive to the approach of the season when the neighbourhood is 
 annually infected with malaria; he was attacked by a malignant fever, and 
 it was with difficulty he reached Palermo. Soon after his arrival, a relapse of 
 his disorder came on, which baffled the skill of all medical aid, and termi¬ 
 nated after a few days’ illness in the death of this most excellent young man. 
 
10 
 
 The most honourable and firm principles, a mild and very amiable dis¬ 
 position, with many accomplishments, united to claim for Mr. Harris confidence 
 and affection as a friend and fellow-traveller, and to render him a blessing to 
 his family; while his superior abilities, his various acquirements, his assi¬ 
 duity and entire devotion in the pursuit of his profession, the progress he 
 had already made in its study, and his enthusiastic predilection for it as an art, 
 caused his untimely end to be regretted as a loss to society. The concurring 
 testimony of several enlightened travellers who met him in Sicily, and who 
 have lamented his premature death and the loss of his talents and taste, gives 
 assurance that there is no undue partiality in this tribute to the memory of a 
 much esteemed and most valued friend. 
 
HISTORY OF SELINUS. 
 
 Amongst the earliest establishments of the Greeks in Sicily, a 
 colony from Megara in Attica, settling in the vicinity of Mount 
 /Etna, founded a city, to which they gave the name of Hybla 
 Megara. About a century after this event, and in the thirty- 
 second Olympiad, or 650 is. c. a colony was sent out from 
 this city under the command of Pammilus 1 , who had lately 
 arrived from Megara in Greece, and built Selinus on the 
 south-west coast of the island". This new settlement conti¬ 
 nued to flourish during a space of two centuries and a half, 
 increasing rapidly in power and consequence, until a sudden and 
 fatal calamity interrupted its career, and plunged it at once from 
 the height of prosperity into irretrievable ruin. At the time 
 when this disaster befel her, Selinus had attained a rank with 
 the first cities of the island, yielding precedence to none ex- 
 
 1 Tliucyd. lib. vi. 4. 
 
 It lias been maintained by modern writers, on the authority of Fazellus, in whom the 
 idea seems to have originated, that Selinus existed as a Phoenician city long before the set¬ 
 tlement made there by the Megareans; and this opinion has been adopted by the Baron 
 Pisani in his ingenious pamphlet entitled “ Memoria sulle Metope Selinuntine,” on the 
 strength of a passage in Diodorus Siculus, where that author, recording the arrangement 
 of the baths constructed by Dasdalus, describes them as in the country of the Selinuntians. 
 Diod. Sic. lib. iv. 78. 
 
12 
 
 cepting Syracuse and Agrigentum, while the consideration in 
 which she was held by more distant states, engaged her as an 
 auxiliary in the contests of the principal powers of Greece '. 
 She was distinguished for her public and private riches, for the 
 extent' of her population, and for her military and naval re¬ 
 sources 2 . In the splendour of her public buildings she emulated 
 the other cities of Magna Graecia, and her temples, admired for 
 their grandeur and for the treasures they contained, were objects 
 not only of pride to herself, hut of solicitude to neighbouring and 
 even rival states 3 . For this opulence and prosperity she was 
 probably indebted to foreign commerce, for which her situation, 
 though exposed and insecure against Hostilities, was in ancient 
 times highly favourable ; her position over against the continent 
 of Africa, the short and easy passage across the intervening 
 channel, and a convenient emporium for her merchandize at the 
 confluence of the river Mazzara with the sea, gave her every 
 facility for traffic with the Carthaginians, who were the most 
 commercial people of those days. 
 
 The extent of the dominion of the Selinuntians over the 
 surrounding country is not precisely known. Their inland boun¬ 
 dary has never been distinctly defined, and it appears never to 
 have been settled by themselves, since it was the subject of 
 continual dispute with the neighbouring /Egestans. On the 
 coast the limits of their jurisdiction are less uncertain: from 
 their emporium at the mouth of the Mazzara westward, their 
 sway seems to have extended eastward as far as Heraclea Minoa, 
 which was their colony. Whether all the intervening country 
 
13 
 
 was subject to them is not free from question, but it is certain 
 that their territory comprised the celebrated mineral and va¬ 
 pour baths known by the names of Thermae Selinuntiae, Acquae 
 Selinuntiae, and Thermae Colonise, situated near the coast, about 
 twenty miles eastward of Selinus, and which, besides the repu¬ 
 tation of their medicinal virtues, enjoy the fame of having ex¬ 
 ercised the skill of the renowned Daedalus to adapt them for 
 public use 1 . 
 
 With all these advantages, Selinus itself was subject to a 
 great evil, in the insalubrity of the air, which committed an¬ 
 nually dreadful ravages among the population, till the science of 
 Empedocles liberated the city from so dire a scourge. The 
 Agrigentine philosopher discovered the cause of the evil, and 
 applied its remedy by effecting a current to the stagnant waters 
 of the neighbouring marshes 2 . The citizens, in gratitude to 
 their deliverer, paid him divine honours 3 . 
 
 The piety of the Selinuntians towards the gods is attested by 
 
 1 Diod. Sic. lib. IV. 78. Strabo, lib. vi. Plin. lib. in. 8. 
 
 These baths are known in modern times by the name of the Baths of Sciacca, and are still 
 much resorted to. The mineral baths are situated close to the town of Sciacca ; the va¬ 
 pour baths are on the summit of a mountain called St. Calogero, between two and three 
 miles from the town. The vapour issues from artificial caverns, in the recesses of which 
 are seats cut in the rock: these caverns and seats are shewn by the hermits who keep 
 the hospital as the works of Daedalus. The number of patients who annually take the 
 benefit of these baths is computed at 1500. 
 
 2 Laert. in Emp. See also the Abate Scina’s very clever work, “ Memoria sulla Vita e 
 Filosofia d’Empedocle.” 
 
 3 Some of the ancient coins of Selinus, representing the river Hypsa sacrificing, and on 
 the reverse a quadriga, are supposed to allude to this event. See “ Sicilian veteres nummi”. 
 Tab. lxv. and Burmannus, in Tab, xm. 
 
 D 
 
14 
 
 the number and grandeur of their sacred structures, but, with re¬ 
 gard to their tutelar deities, the objects of their more especial 
 adoration, to whom the temples were consecrated, history has left 
 us no positive information. That Hercules was ranked among the 
 number of their divinities, and was held by them in particular 
 veneration, may be inferred from the coins of Selinus, on which 
 the head and attributes of that hero are frequently represented 1 . 
 A similar conclusion respecting Bacchus may be drawn, though 
 less satisfactorily, from the circumstance of a statue ot that 
 demi-god being preserved in the treasury of the Selinuntians at 
 Olympia 2 . This statue was remarkable for having the face, feet, 
 and hands made of ivory. The existence of a treasury at 
 < llympia particularly consecrated by the Selinuntians to Jupiter, 
 and an altar also sacred to him in the agora of their own city 5 , 
 are proofs that they were not wanting in devotion to the “father 
 of all the gods”. With regard to illustrious citizens we are still 
 more ignorant. Telestes is the only Selinuntine name of note 
 which has reached posterity. He was a noble dithyrambic poet 4 , 
 and flourished about the period of the fall of his native city. His 
 verses were much esteemed; on one occasion they procured him 
 the honour of being crowned victor at Athens 5 : and when Alex¬ 
 ander the Great, in the distant provinces of Asia, commanded a 
 selection of works of the best authors to be sent to him, the 
 poems of Telestes and Philoxenus 8 , with the history of Philistus, 
 and the tragedies of Euripides, Sophocles, and fEschylus, formed 
 
 1 See Sicilia: Veteris Nummi. Tab. lxv. 1 Pausan. Post Eliac. c. xix. 
 
 3 Herod, lib. v. *7. * Diod. Sic. lib. xiv. 46. 3 Parian Chron. F.p. ixvi. 
 
 « Philoxenus, a poet of Cythcra. His witty and uncourtier-like treatment of the verses 
 of Dionysius the tyrant is generally familiar. 
 
15 
 
 the collection made by Harpalus for the Macedonian conqueror 1 . 
 A few lines only of the works of Telestes are now extant, pre¬ 
 served by Athenreus from his poems entitled Argos and /Escula- 
 ptus 2 . Insufficient to enable the critic to form an opinion of his 
 own on the merits of the poet, the extant verses are just enough 
 to cause him to doubt the subject of their metre 3 . 
 
 The first incident recorded in the history of Selinus, shows 
 how early the state was involved in those unhappy disputes with 
 the neighbouring /Egestans, which proved so continually dis¬ 
 astrous, and ultimately fatal to both parties. 
 
 In the fiftieth Olympiad, some Gnidians and Rhodians, im¬ 
 patient of the tyranny of the Asiatic monarchs, determined on 
 emigrating from their country, and having chosen for their 
 leader Pentathlus of Guidos, who boasted his descent from 
 Hercules, sailed in quest of a settlement, and landed at Lily- 
 baeum. They found the country involved in a war between the 
 TEgestans and Selinuntians, and they were induced to join the 
 party of the Selinuntians; but these being shortly afterwards 
 
 1 Plut. in Vita Alex. 
 
 * Suidas in Telestes. Athenarus Deipnosophistarum. The lines preserved by Athenasus 
 related to the tibia which they laud in opposition to Melanippides. Telestes controverts 
 the idea that Minerva had rejected that instrument on account of the deformity it occa¬ 
 sioned to the visage : he argues that a deity to whom is attributed “ virginity , “ without 
 nuptials, and without children”, would be little solicitous about personal beauty. 
 
 1 Fabricii Bibl. Griec. vol. i. 598. Annotator on Athenasus loc. cit. 
 
 AVe are indebted to Mr. Charles C. Atkinson for the above interesting account of Telestes, 
 and for other valuable notices in the history of Selinus. Mr. Atkinson accompanied Messrs. 
 Harris and Angell in their tour of Sicily, and, from the great interest he took in their studies, 
 his extensive literary acquirements and able researches afforded them much assistance in the 
 investigation of the antiquities. 
 
16 
 
 defeated in a grand battle, in which Pentathlus and many of his 
 associates fell, the surviving adventurers abandoned Sicily and 
 settled at Lipari 1 2 . 
 
 After an interval of seventeen Olympiads, during which pe¬ 
 riod the ancient historians are silent with regard to Selinus, the 
 next event noticed by them in which she is concerned, affords a 
 proof that she was not exempt from such intestine commotions 
 as occasionally agitated every Grecian republic. 
 
 In the sixty-seventh Olympiad, Euryleon, a Spartan, with 
 other Lacedaemonian adventurers, having Dorieus, the son of 
 Anaxandridas, of the royal line of the Agidae, for their leader, had 
 joined in an enterprise for the recovery of the western parts of 
 Sicily, as the patrimony of the Heraclidae. They failed how¬ 
 ever in their object, being overcome in an engagement with the 
 Phoenicians and rEgestans, in which Dorieus and the greater 
 part of his followers were slain. Euryleon survived, and made 
 himself master of Heraclea Minoa, a colony of the Selinun- 
 tians, whence he proceeded to Selinus itself, which he liberated 
 from the tyranny of its monarch Pythagoras”; but having him¬ 
 self usurped the supreme authority, the people, exasperated, rose 
 in a tumult against him, and slew him at the altar of Jupiter 
 Agoreus 3 , where he had taken sanctuary. 
 
 1 Diod. Sic. lib. v. 9. Pausan. Phoc. c. 11. following Antiochus, the Syracusan histo¬ 
 rian, gives rather a different account of the Gnidian expedition: he relates, that the Gni- 
 dians were expelled from a city they had built at Pacbynus, by the Elymi and Phoenicians. 
 
 2 Herod, lib. v. 47. 
 
 3 Agoreus, a title given to Jupiter in consequence of his altar being placed in the ayo^a, 
 forum, or public place, as the Minerva Agorea at Sparta, and Mercury Agoreus at Athens. 
 Pausan. Lacon. c. 11. and lb. Atticis. c. 15. 
 
17 
 
 In the seventy-fifth Olympiad, on the great invasion of Greece 
 b y Xei xes, the Selinuntians alone of all the Sicilians were 
 among those Greeks, who, unmindful of their origin, took part 
 with the barbarians. To this abandonment of the common 
 cause they were probably instigated by them enmity to Gelon, on 
 account of his recent destruction of their parent city, Hybla 
 Megara 1 . Whatever may have been their motive, they leagued 
 with the Carthaginians, when these, in concert with the Per¬ 
 sians, and in order to divert the aid which Gelon and the Syra¬ 
 cusans were preparing to afford the Greeks, invaded Sicily with 
 a large armament under Hamilcar, and laid siege to Himera. 
 Gelon, with the forces he had collected for the assistance of 
 Greece, marched with all speed to the relief of Himera. Both 
 armies were encamped under the walls of the city, when a for¬ 
 tunate accident made the Selinuntians the innocent cause of the 
 destruction of the barbarians. Some Syracusan scouts having 
 intercepted a message which announced to Hamilcar the ap- 
 proach ol a promised reinforcement of Selinuntine cavalry, 
 Gelon, after ascertaining the purport of the despatch, caused it 
 to be forwarded to its destination. He then ordered a body of 
 his own troops, personating the Selinuntians, to appear before the 
 entrenchments of the enemy, a short time previous to the hour ap¬ 
 pointed for the arrival of the expected auxiliaries. The stratagem 
 was attended with complete success : the disguised Syracusans 
 were unsuspectingly admitted as friends, and they immediately 
 commenced the dreadful slaughter, which terminated in the death 
 of Hamilcar, and the total annihilation of the Carthaginian host 2 . 
 This event, so glorious to the Sicilians, is said to have occurred 
 
 Iierod. lib. vm. 15G. Thucyd. lib. vi. 4. 
 Diod. Sic. lib. xi. 20, 21, et seq. 
 
18 
 
 on the very same day on which Leonidas and his followers de¬ 
 voted themselves at Thermopylae 1 . 
 
 The enmity between the Selinuntians and Syracusans was not 
 of long duration ; for a few years after the event just narrated, 
 and in the seventy-eighth Olympiad, we find the Selinuntians 
 engaging to aid the Syracusans in their struggle to free them¬ 
 selves from the yoke of the tyrant Thrasybulus, who, after the 
 death of his elder brother Hiero, had succeeded to the despot¬ 
 ism established by Gelon, but without inheriting the virtues 
 which had rendered the usurpation of that great man toler¬ 
 able 2 . 
 
 About this time also, Selinus afforded an asylum to Giscon 
 the Carthaginian, who, proscribed by his countrymen on account 
 of the disaster which had happened to his father, Hamilcar, at 
 Himera, had fled to Sicily, and ended his days in tranquillity at 
 Selinus 3 . We shall shortly see how little her hospitality on this 
 occasion affected the gratitude of the son of the same Giscon, 
 when in command of an army destined for the destruction of 
 Selinus ; an event not far distant, and to the period of which our 
 narration is now hastening. 
 
 11 has already appeared at how early a period of their career 
 the Selinuntians were involved in disputes with their neighbours 
 the iEgestans. Their quarrels were on points of territorial 
 
 1 Diotl. Sic. lib. xi. 24*. or, according to Herodotus, lib. vir. 1G6. and Aristotle, Poet. 23. 
 
 on the same day in which the Greeks obtained the victory of Salamis over the Persians. 
 
 3 Diod. Sic. lib. xi. G3. 
 
 3 Diod. Sic. lib. xm. 48. 
 
19 
 
 boundary, which never ceased to be the subject of contention 
 between them, till their differences terminated in the loss of in¬ 
 dependence to the one state, and in the total destruction of the 
 other. The fEgestans were the weaker party, and their inability 
 to cope with the superior power of their adversaries obliged them 
 to resort to foreign aid. With this view, they had recourse first 
 to the Athenians and then to the Carthaginians. The Athenian 
 expedition to Sicily is too well known to require minute relation 
 in these pages ; the wide prospects of ambition which it pre¬ 
 sented to the people of Athens, their elated hopes and confi¬ 
 dence of success, the famous siege of Syracuse, and the total 
 destruction of the armament of the Athenians and all their 
 lofty views on Sicily, have been a favourite theme with some of 
 the most eloquent of the ancient historians : to then- volumes 
 therefore we shall refer our readers, contenting ourselves with 
 calling to mind that the complaints of the Leontines against 
 the Syracusans, enforced by the admired orator Gorgias, and 
 the prayers of the rEgestans against the Selinuntians, if not the 
 motives which instigated the Athenians in their disastrous en¬ 
 terprise, were at least the pretext with which they cloaked then- 
 ambitious views on Sicily, and that before laying siege to Syra¬ 
 cuse it had been the subject of debate with their- leaders, whe¬ 
 ther that city or Selinus should be first attacked 1 . 
 
 The dEgestans, having failed in this attempt to obtain redress 
 by aid of the Athenians, for the encroachments and insults of 
 their neighbours, now applied to the Carthaginians for protec¬ 
 tion, and offered to put the city itself into their hands. This 
 
 1 Thucyd. lib. vi. Diod. Sic. lib. xm. 1. Plutarch in Vit. Nic. and Alcib. Dion. Hal. 
 de Orat. Antiq. 82. 
 
20 
 
 proposal, so favourable to the execution of designs, long fostered, 
 of extending the Punic possessions in Sicily, was not to he neg¬ 
 lected by that ambitious and enterprising people, who, after 
 some management to secure the neutrality of the Syracusans, 
 whose interference thet T dreaded, took the city of fEgesta under 
 their protection. As a preliminary step, they immediately gar¬ 
 risoned their new acquisition with a body of mercenary troops: 
 aided by these the inhabitants making a sally on the unpre¬ 
 pared and scattered Selinuntians, slaughtered above a thousand 
 of them, and recovered all the spoil they had amassed 1 . This 
 reverse was a prelude to a far greater calamity which already 
 threatened Selinus. In the ensuing year, the third of the nine¬ 
 ty-second Olympiad, Hannibal, the son of Giscon, at the head 
 of an armament, which the lowest computation estimates at one 
 hundred thousand men 2 , burning with a desire of avenging the 
 calamity which his grandfather and countrymen had experienced 
 at Himera, invaded Sicily and made Selinus the first object of his 
 attack. The city was wholly unprepared to resist such an enemy ; 
 confiding in the tranquillity it had long enjoyed, its walls were 
 dilapidated, and its fortifications dismantled. The natural courage 
 of the inhabitants, and the despair with which the known ferocity 
 of their invaders inspired them, were their only hopes of defence ; 
 and these enabled them, in spite of all disadvantages and im¬ 
 mense disparity of force, to oppose, for the space of nine days, 
 a brave resistance to the repeated and impetuous assaults of the 
 enemy. Their most devoted efforts, however, were vain against 
 the superior numbers of their invaders, and against the destruc¬ 
 tive and formidable engines of war with which these were pro¬ 
 vided. On the tenth day of the siege, the Carthaginians forced 
 
 Diod. Sic. lib. xm. 13 and 11. 
 
 ? Xenophon, Ilist. Grzec. lib. i. 
 
21 
 
 an entrance into the city, and alter a severe conflict in the 
 streets and passages, where every foot of ground, was disputed 
 with desperation, at length made their way to the market-place, 
 where the last of the valiant defenders of the city fell combat¬ 
 ing. The barbarians now masters of the city, it was delivered 
 over to all the horrors of pillage and massacre. Sixteen thou¬ 
 sand of the Selinuntians had fallen; and of those who survived 
 the carnage, and to whom the fate of then- slain kindred ap¬ 
 peared an enviable lot, six hundred were carried away into 
 Afiica, to end their days in slavery. Two thousand six hundred 
 escaped by flight, and sought refuge at Agrigentum, where they 
 met with every kind attention which compassion for their de¬ 
 plorable fate could suggest. The walls of the city were levelled 
 with the ground, and of the edifices some were burnt, the rest 
 demolished 1 . 
 
 1 he Selinuntians who escaped to Agrigentum, were there 
 met by a body of chosen troops from Syracuse, who had been 
 dispatched with all haste to the relief of the besieged city, 
 i hese, on being apprised of the fate of Selinus, sent messengers 
 to Hannibal, proposing to treat for the ransom of the prisoners, 
 and conjuring him to respect the temples of the gods. The 
 haughty conqueror replied, that the Selinuntians, incapable of 
 defending their liberty, deserved the lot of slaves; that the 
 gods, in wrath with the inhabitants, had already abandoned then- 
 city 2 . 
 
 For a more minute account of this siege, see the interesting description in Diod. Sic. 
 lib. xiii. 54, et seq. 
 
 2 Diod. Sic. lib. xiii. 59. 
 
22 
 
 This severity however was somewhat relaxed, through favour 
 to one citizen, tire orator Empedion, who in his public conduct 
 had always shewn himself favourable towards the Carthaginians, 
 and had advised the Selinuntians against the war. On his inter¬ 
 cession, Hannibal liberated to him all the prisoners whom he 
 could claim as relations, and granted permission to those Seli¬ 
 nuntians who had escaped by flight, to return and inhabit their 
 city, on condition of paying tribute to Carthage. 
 
 The Agrigentines were not the only people whom compassion 
 prompted to alleviate the fate of the unfortunate Selinuntians. 
 On the siege of Ephesus by the Athenians, in the last year of 
 the ninety-second Olympiad, the Syracusans and Selinuntians 
 with their naval force assisted in the defence of that city. On 
 the discomfiture and retreat of the Athenians, the Ephesians 
 paid every honour, both public and private, to the Syracusans 
 and Selinuntians who had distinguished themselves in the en¬ 
 gagement, and they granted perpetual immunity to all who 
 should choose to become citizens of Ephesus; and this was de¬ 
 creed more especially in consideration of the Selinuntians, and 
 of the recent destruction of their city, that, being deprived of 
 a country of their own, they might enjoy the privileges of 
 Ephesian citizens'. 
 
 Shortly after the destruction of Selinus by the Carthaginians, 
 the city in its dismantled state was seized upon by Hermocrates, 
 a banished leader of Syracuse. Contemplating a forcible return 
 to his native city, he had collected five triremes, and a body of 
 a thousand men, but his design being frustrated, he was reduced 
 
 Xenophon, Hist. Gnec. lib. i. Diod. Sic. lib. xnr. 64. 
 
23 
 
 to range the country at large with his followers for some time, 
 till they at length took possession of Selinus, and there formed 
 a temporary settlement. He surrounded part of the city with a 
 new wall, and called together all the inhabitants who had fled 
 at the time of its recent destruction. His adherents thus 
 greatly increased, he harassed the Carthaginians by continual 
 irruptions into their possessions, carrying his depredations to the 
 very walls of Motya and Panormus. By these and similar ex¬ 
 ploits he became generally popular with the Sicilians, and the 
 occasion seemed favourable for his making another attempt to 
 be received into Syracuse ; he so far succeeded as to gain ad¬ 
 mission within the walls of that city, but being there over¬ 
 powered by the populace, he was slain, with the greater part of 
 his followers'. 
 
 During the succeeding century and a half, Selinus continued 
 to exist as a Greek city, subject to Carthage, but in a condition 
 of extreme wretchedness and insignificance 1 2 , though the inha¬ 
 bitants never wanted the spirit to take advantage of every de¬ 
 cline in the fortune of her conquerors to declare against them. 
 Such was the frequent case in the wars which the Carthaginians 
 had to sustain, for the maintenance of their Sicilian possessions, 
 with Dionysius, Timoleon, Agathocles, Pyrrhus, and the Ko- 
 mans 3 . On each of these occasions, the Selinuntians found an 
 opportunity to join the enemies of their destroyers ; but on each 
 successive reinstatement of the Punic affairs, and on the re¬ 
 moval of the seat of war to other parts of the island, leaving 
 
 1 Diod. Sic. lib. xm. 03—75. Xenophon, Hist. Grac. lib. r. 
 
 2 Diod. Sic. lib. xiv. 47, et seq. 
 
 3 Pint, in Vit. Tim. et Pyrr. Diod. Sic. lib. xvi. 73. Ibid. lib. xix. lib. xx. 56. et 
 Diod. Sic. Ec. lib. xxii. 14. Ibid. xxiv. T. Liv. lib. xiv. I. 9, 10. Ibid. lib. xvm. 50. 
 
2 1 - 
 
 the western districts again subject to the dominion of Carthage, 
 the Selinuntians, with the inhabitants of the other Greek cities, 
 returned to their obedience, sometimes experiencing tbe rigour, 
 and at others the clemency of their subjugators. 
 
 At length, however, the fortune of the Romans decidedly 
 prevailing, the Carthaginians were gradually driven from their 
 possessions, and Lilybaeum, and a few dependent holds in the 
 vicinity, were all that remained to them 1 ; but here they deter¬ 
 mined to concentrate their forces, and make one grand effort, 
 before abandoning for ever a territory which had cost them so 
 many lives and so much treasure in acquiring and maintaining. 
 In the execution of this plan, the extinction of Selinus was 
 decreed ; the city was demolished, and the inhabitants were re¬ 
 moved to Lilybaeum 2 . This catastrophe was final, and Selinus 
 never afterwards found a place in the page of ancient history. 
 Her memory, however, has been preserved in subsequent ages. 
 Her name finds a place in the verses of the poets 3 ; her site is 
 indicated by the Itineraries, and by the geographers of antiquity 
 she is enumerated among the uninhabited cities of Sicily 1 . 
 
 Some authors suppose that Selinus once more revived after 
 the Christian sera. On the conquest of Sicily by the Saracens 
 in the ninth century she is represented as the first object of their 
 attack, and as easily taken by assault. The horrors the inha¬ 
 bitants are related to have endured on this occasion, are calcu¬ 
 lated to make us think lightly of her ancient woes. In order 
 
 ' Polyb. lib. i. c. 3. • Diod. Sic. Ec. lib. xxiv. 
 
 1 Yirg. yEiieid. lib. m. 705. Sil. Ital. Punic, lib. xiv. 200. 
 
 1 Strabo, lib. vi. 
 
25 
 
 to strike terror into the minds of the rest of the Sicilians, the 
 unfortunate Selinuntians are said to have been burnt in brazen 
 cauldrons 1 . “ Bibidel Borghot”, or “ Beldel Braghit”, inter¬ 
 preted “ Terra Pulicorum”, is the very unfavourable appellation 
 by which Selinus was known to the Saracens. But the Cam¬ 
 bridge Chronicle, and other authentic annals are silent on this 
 tale altogether, and it is doubtful whether it be not a mere fable, 
 or perhaps a story relating to some other place. Whatever the 
 case may be, there is no other authority for supposing that Se¬ 
 linus has had any modern existence beyond her ruins and the 
 fame which they enjoy, or that she has had any other inhabit¬ 
 ants except the shepherds, whose flocks are penned within her 
 fallen temples, and the guards of the solitary watch-tower 
 erected on her shore. 
 
 1 Caruso Mem. Istor. ile Sic. lib. x. 041. 
 
 G 
 
DESCRIPTION 
 
 THE RUINS. 
 
 The ruins of Selinus, situated on the south-west coast of 
 Sicily, occupy the summits of two opposite hills rising rather 
 abruptly from the sea, but at no great height above its level; 
 these hills are divided by a narrow valley, where is conjectured 
 
28 
 
 to have been the ancient port, of which a few vestiges are still 
 discoverable among the heaps of accumulated sand. The river 
 Selinus 1 , now called the Maduini, is at a short distance to the 
 westward, and the Hypsa 2 , the modern Belici, between two atid 
 three miles to the eastward of the ruins. 
 
 On the hill to the eastward of the valley are the remains of 
 three temples, without any signs whatever of other ruins, a cir¬ 
 cumstance which has led to the conclusion, perhaps not altoge¬ 
 ther satisfactory, that these temples were without the city walls. 
 These are the ruins most visited and generally alluded to by tra¬ 
 vellers ; and which, from their enormous masses and grand ap¬ 
 pearance, have acquired, from the modern inhabitants of the 
 neighbourhood, the title of “ I Pilieri dei Giganti.” 
 
 The western hill is supposed to have been the Acropolis, and 
 is probably the spot where the founders planted their colony. 
 Here the remains of a wall 3 , nearly a mile in circuit, inclose a 
 space entirely covered with the ruins of buildings, but, with the 
 exception of three temples, described in the sequel, in so con¬ 
 fused a state as to render it impossible to ascertain their original 
 purpose, without the aid of judicious and extensive excavations. 
 
 Of the temples on the eastern hill, the principal (marked F, 
 
 1 Said to be so called from treAwr, apium, or parsley, which grew there in abundance; 
 the leaf of this plant is represented on many of the Selinuntian coins. See Sicilia? Veteris 
 Nummi, Tab. lxv. and lxvi. 
 
 * This river is represented on the ancient coins of Selinus, under the figure of an old 
 man. Burmannus, Tab. xni. 
 
 ’ There can be but little doubt that these are the remains of the wall built by Hermo- 
 crates, after the destruction of the city by the Carthaginians. See Diod. Sic. lib. xni. G3. 
 
29 
 
 Plate I.) is celebrated as ranking among the largest of the sa¬ 
 cred structures of antiquity, and is supposed, perhaps from that 
 circumstance, to have been dedicated to Jupiter Olympius. In 
 point of extent it nearly equals the great temple at Agrigentum, 
 sacred to the same divinity: in the arrangement of its plan, in 
 execution, and materials, it is infinitely superior 1 . It is octa- 
 style pseudo-dipteral", with seventeen columns on the sides, and 
 there is every reason to suppose it to have been hypeethral. 
 The pronaos is formed by a portico of four columns in front, 
 with a projection of two, behind which are antae which have a pe¬ 
 culiar description of enriched capital. Three entrances conduct 
 
 1 The following are the relative dimensions of these temples : 
 
 Temple at Agrigentum. Temple at Selinus. 
 
 ft- inc - ft. inc. 
 
 Extreme length. 359 8 . 307 0 
 
 Do. breadth.173 11.ieo 11 
 
 The dimensions being taken on the upper step. 
 
 Lower diameter of semi-columns . 
 Height of do. calculated from* 
 the remaining fragments . . i 
 
 ft. 
 
 12 
 
 63 
 
 9 Lower diameter of columns . . 
 9. 
 
 ft. 
 
 10 
 
 56 
 
 G 
 
 0 
 
 It should be observed, that the exterior of the great temple at Agrigentum had semi¬ 
 columns only, which were attached to the walls of the cella, thus leaving no external peri¬ 
 style, and the courses of their shafts were formed by a nucleus or core, and several radiating 
 blocks. The columns of the great temple at Selinus, on the contrary, were all insulated, 
 and the courses of their shafts were formed by single blocks. 
 
 2 This temple has hitherto been supposed to have formed an example of the dipteros, 
 but after a most minute and careful examination of the ruins, we ascertained most satisfac¬ 
 torily that the plan was pseudo-dipteral . Colonel Leake in his interesting work, the “ Jour¬ 
 nal of a Tour in Asia Minor”, remarks, that Vitruvius has informed us that Hermogenes 
 of Alabanda, the architect of the temple at Magnesia, was the inventor both of the pseudo- 
 dipteios and eustylos, but, in regard to the former, his merit does not seem to have been 
 very great, as the Temple of Jupiter Olympius at Selinus was constructed on the principles 
 of the pseudo-dipteros, long before the time of Hermogenes. 
 
 II 
 
30 
 
 from the pronaos to the cella, which is divided in its width by 
 two rows of Doric columns 1 in a similar manner to the great 
 temple at Paestum. At the western extremity of the cella is a 
 space inclosed by walls, which range with the columns ; this 
 formed, in all probability, the adytum. The posticum is of the 
 usual plan, with two columns between the antae : these ant® 
 differ from those of the pronaos, being without the enrichment, 
 and are of the form common to the antae of the Sicilian temples. 
 This difference in the form of the capitals is not confined to the 
 antae; the capitals of the columns possess great variety in this 
 respect; those of the east front, of both flanks, and of the pro¬ 
 naos, have the echinus of a considerable curve and great projec¬ 
 tion, with a concavity immediately below the annulets, a form al¬ 
 ready well known, as observable at Paestum, at the Temple of 
 Diana at Syracuse, and the Greek Temple at Pompeii, while the 
 capitals of the western front, and of the posticum, are without 
 the concavity under the annulets, and have a much less projection 
 and curve of the echinus. This temple was evidently destroyed 
 before the building was completed 2 . It now presents an immense 
 pile of ruins, and, for grandeur or interest, is not surpassed by 
 any other remains of Grecian antiquity whatever. One shaft of 
 
 1 The columns in the cella, distinguished on the Plan F, Plate I. by a lighter shade, are 
 not restored without sufficient authority; they have been thrown down, hut still remain 
 amongst the ruins, and their original situations were easily ascertained, by observing the 
 manner in which they had fallen. This remark will apply to many parts of the plans as 
 shewn on the Plate, where, at first sight, the restorations may appear numerous. It will be 
 observed, that only those parts of the plans are shadowed dark of which the materials ac¬ 
 tually remained standing in their original situations, and no restorations whatever have been 
 ventured on in the Plates, without unquestionable authority obtained on the spot. 
 
 2 Among the proofs of this is the state of the columns, some being fluted, others of a 
 polygonal form in preparation for fluting, and many left quite plain. 
 
31 
 
 a column alone remains standing, and rears itself majestically 
 above the enormous fallen masses which surround it. 
 
 The central temple, on the eastern hill (marked E, Plate I.), 
 is situated about two hundred feet to the south of the great 
 temple. This antiquity is in a very ruined state ; most of the 
 squared stones used in the walls of the cella have been carried 
 away, and it was only by making very considerable excavations 
 that the plan was correctly ascertained. It is hexastyle-peripteral, 
 with fourteen columns on the sides. At the east end is a double 
 portico, behind the inner columns of which are the foundations 
 of the pronaos or vestibule; this appears to have been inclosed by 
 bronze gates or doors, as the grooves in which they turned are 
 still distinctly marked in the pavement. The chamber behind 
 the cella possibly served as the adytum, or perhaps the treasury. 
 The cella of this temple is extremely narrow, occasioned by the 
 great width of the peristyles. The metopes of the eastern 
 front only were sculptured, and their fragments form part of the 
 subject of this work, and are shewn in the Plates III. and IV. 
 The cornice of the pediments was found buried among the ruins ; 
 it is enriched with the mseander and other ornaments, very 
 slightly relieved, and painted red and blue. 
 
 In the course of the excavations which we judged it neces¬ 
 sary to make in this temple, we had the opportunity of examin- 
 insr the foundation of one of the side walls of the cella. V e 
 
 O 
 
 found four courses of masonry under the pavement, each couise 
 about one foot four inches in height, and immediately under the 
 lowest course was a layer of sand, about four inches deep, placed 
 upon the solid rock. 
 
32 
 
 At a distance of about one hundred and fifty-four feet to 
 the south of the last described, is another hexastyle-peripteral 
 temple (marked D, Plate I.), with fifteen columns on the sides. 
 Its plan is very similar to that generally adopted in hexastyle 
 Doric temples, having the usual pronaos and posticum, with 
 their columns in antis: behind the cella is a second chamber, 
 the adytum, or probably an opisthodomus or treasury. This 
 temple had the metopes of the frizes of the pronaos and posti¬ 
 cum sculptured, while those of the peristyle were all plain, a 
 peculiarity of which, it is believed, this temple affords the only 
 example. Another remarkable feature in this building, is, that 
 the steps at the principal front are only half the height, and 
 consequently double the number of those at the sides, and at 
 the west end, affording, by this arrangement, a greater facility of 
 entrance to the temple. 
 
 The antiquities on the western hill, within the walls of the 
 Acropolis, are in a state of much greater ruin than those de¬ 
 scribed as situated on the eastern hill ; they are much less 
 known, and, without doubt, have never before been thoroughly 
 investigated. They are generally alluded to as mere heaps of 
 ruins, in too confused a state to enable an opinion to be hazard¬ 
 ed on their original form or purpose. We found them however 
 of considerable interest, and we were induced to carry on exca¬ 
 vations similar to those we had already made on the opposite 
 hill. By these means, we succeeded in making out the plans 
 and architectural details of three temples which have never 
 heretofore been published. 
 
 The principal temple (marked B, Plate I.) is apparently the 
 
most ancient of the three, and is supposed by some, from this 
 circumstance, to have been the one alluded to by Herodotus as 
 dedicated to Jupiter Agoreus 1 . It has many striking' peculiari¬ 
 ties, both in plan and detail, and presents many curious varieties 
 in the architecture of the ancients. It is hexastyle peripteral, 
 with seventeen columns on the sides, a proportion, it is believed, 
 not to be found in any other ancient example. At the eastern 
 end are two rows of columns, forming a double portico, the 
 inner columns being on a line with, and between the third co¬ 
 lumns of the flanks. The pronaos or vestibule, without columns 
 or antae, is formed by a continuation of the side walls of the 
 cella, which return in front, on a line with the fifth columns of 
 the flanks, leaving a wide opening in the centre for the entrance. 
 The wall dividing this vestibule from the cella is of consider¬ 
 able thickness, allowing space for four steps, which conduct to 
 the cella, within which is another chamber, the adytum, or 
 serving perhaps as an opisthodomus or treasury. It is worthy 
 of remark, that in this temple the columns of the fronts are of 
 a greater diameter than those of the sides, and the interco- 
 lumniations are wider; a mode adopted for the purpose of cor¬ 
 recting, m some measure, the great disproportion, in reference 
 to other temples, of six columns on the fronts to seventeen on 
 the flanks. The columns are of heavy proportion, with a de¬ 
 cided entasis, and have only sixteen flutings ; the entablature is 
 heavy, and has a very remarkable peculiarity, the mutules over 
 the metopes being only half the width of those over the tri- 
 glyphs, and containing only half the number of guttse. The 
 
 1 Herod, lib. v. 46. It may be here observed that Herodotus only mentions the Altar, 
 and not the 1 emple of Jupiter Agoreus, and it is hardly probable that the ctyogu. was 
 situated within the Acropolis. 
 
34 
 
 steps at the entrance of this temple are arranged in a similar 
 manner to those of the temple last described. The metopes 
 of the eastern front only were sculptured; they are represented 
 in Plates VI. VII. VIII. and IX. and are described in the 
 sequel. 
 
 There are some indications of the remains of a peribolus in 
 front of this temple, which we regret to state we were prevent¬ 
 ed from excavating and examining. 
 
 The temple (marked A, Plate I.) is situated about seventy- 
 live feet to the northward of that last described. It is hexa- 
 style-peripteral, with thirteen columns on the sides. The pro- 
 naos has two attached columns in the place of antae, with two 
 columns between them. The peristyle of this temple is ex¬ 
 tremely wide, leaving a comparatively narrow space for the cella; 
 there is no posticum, but there was probably a second chamber 
 within the cella. This temple has the same variety in the size 
 of the mutules as was described in the last. 
 
 The temple (marked C, Plate I.) is situated about one hun¬ 
 dred and sixty feet to the south of the central one, and is the 
 smallest of the Selinuntian temples. Its plan is hexastyle-pe- 
 ripteral, with fourteen columns on the flanks : the pronaos and 
 posticum are of the more usual form ; an elevation of the pave¬ 
 ment of the cella in all probability marks the situation of the 
 statue. There are but very few portions of this edifice remain¬ 
 ing, the greater part of the squared stones having been entirely 
 removed, and a small modern chapel now occupies the site of the 
 posticum. The plan and details of this temple are very similar 
 to those of the southern temple on the eastern hill, already de- 
 
scribed ; the capitals of both are without the concavity under 
 the annulets common to the four other temples, and the archi¬ 
 tecture generally approaches nearer to the examples found in 
 Greece. From these circumstances, it is conjectured that these 
 two temples are of a later date than the other four. 
 
 It is almost superfluous to mention that the six temples 
 just described are of the Doric order ; they are built of a very 
 compact lime-stone 1 , of a grayish colour, which was covered 
 with a thin coating of fine plaster, still remaining perfect on 
 many parts of the architecture. Several members of the enta¬ 
 blature were painted, particularly the soffits ; red and blue ap¬ 
 pear to have been the prevailing colours. Many fragments of 
 the crown mouldings, with ornaments painted in encaustic, still 
 remain amongst the ruins. 
 
 The roofs of the temples are conjectured to have been of 
 wood, covered with earthen tiles, and the ceilings of the peri¬ 
 styles, being extremely wide, are supposed also to have been 
 constructed with wooden beams. 
 
 1 This stone was brought from the quarries now called Rocca di Cusa, at a distance of 
 seven miles from Selinus. These quarries are extremely interesting, and it is a curious cir¬ 
 cumstance, that several blocks of the columns, and even a capital, prepared for the great 
 temple, still remain attached to the bed of the rock. 
 
PLATE I. 
 
 Plans of the six temples, ascertained and restored from actual 
 measurements :—the plans are all drawn to the same scale. 
 
 PLATE II 
 
 Elevation of the principal front of the central temple upon 
 the eastern hill (marked E on the plan). The height of the 
 door-way, and the antae at the angles of the cella, are the only 
 parts which are restored without authority obtained from the re¬ 
 maining ruins. There is little doubt that the pediment was 
 adorned with acroteriae; these ornaments are not shewn on the 
 elevation in the Plate, as there were no fragments found which 
 would authorize the restoration of them. 
 
DESCRIPTION 
 
 OF 
 
 T H E M E T () I* E S. 
 
 After the preceding general account of the architecture of the’ 
 temples, it is here proposed to describe the sculpture which more 
 immediately forms the subject of these pages. In the perform¬ 
 ance of this task the authors have to entreat the indulgence of 
 then - readers, as they are well aware that the subject requires 
 much more antiquarian research and knowledge than they can 
 lay claim to. 
 
 The Metopes first discovered were those belonging to the 
 central temple on the eastern hill (marked E, Plate 1.); they 
 were found on the steps of the eastern or principal front of the 
 temple, with the sculptured face downwards. Large blocks of 
 the architrave and other members of the front had fallen upon 
 and so much destroyed them, that of the ten Metopes of this 
 front, two only were found sufficiently perfect to deserve parti¬ 
 cular notice. Several fragments of the remaining eight metopes 
 were discovered, but so much ruined that it was found to be 
 impossible to unite them, or to form any idea of their subjects. 
 
 K 
 
38 
 
 PLATE III. 
 
 The principal fragment represented in this Plate is part of 
 the second metope of the eastern front, reckoning from the 
 south-east angle of the temple 1 . This metope was constructed 
 in two blocks of stone, which were joined together with metal 
 cramps ; the fragment shewn in the Plate formed the lower 
 block, the size of which is four feet in width by two feet eight 
 inches in height. The subject represented appears to be that of 
 a combat between a warrior and a female, whether the latter is 
 an amazon or a divinity is not quite certain, as there are un¬ 
 fortunately no characteristic emblems or attributes remaining on 
 the fragment which might lead to a satisfactory discovery of this 
 figure. The warrior is in a kneeling posture, apparently yield¬ 
 ing to the superior force of his adversary. The costume is par¬ 
 ticularly interesting; the body appears to be covered with the 
 close fitting leathern dress, or armour, the “ rax«t”, of pecu¬ 
 liar form ; two guards, apparently intended to represent metal, 
 
 From the very regular manner in which the temples had fallen, the original situation 
 of many of the architectural members W'as easily known. Metope and triglyph were found 
 in regular order, and nearly under their former positions, whereby, having discovered the 
 angular triglyph, the exact situation of each metope in the frize was satisfactorily ascer¬ 
 tained. It has been a subject of much dispute whether the temples were overthrown by 
 the Carthaginians or by the effects of an earthquake; the supposition which we formed on 
 the spot, was, that both causes must have operated in their destruction. Mr. Wilkins in 
 his account of these temples, thus justly observes: “ In answer to the objection of the in¬ 
 efficacy of human means to effect their overthrow, it may be replied, that the age capable 
 of furnishing machines for their construction, may be supposed competent to produce others 
 equally well adapted for their demolition.” Wilkins’s Magna Gracia. 
 
39 
 
 seem adapted to protect the shoulders, and a belt of singular 
 shape crosses over the left shoulder-guard and passes down to 
 the right thigh ; this, however, is too much ruined to enable 
 us to discover its original form or purpose: two rows of 
 straps, which were commonly of brass, perhaps the “ £«rrj ? ” 
 or “ pnga. , are attached to the “ itkoXu;'' at the waist, and 
 under these is seen the tunic, which is strained tight by the 
 position of the left leg. The scabbard for the sword is sus¬ 
 pended by the thong, “ which crosses the breast, and 
 
 passes over the right shoulder-guard ; the large round shield is 
 placed behind the warrior, and the sculptor has ingeniously 
 enough designed the hollow of it to form the relief to the 
 figure ; a small portion of the rim of the helmet is seen over 
 the left shoulder. The female is draped with the tunic and 
 peplum, which fall in a number of stiff’ parallel folds, observable 
 always in the earliest representations of drapery : her majestic 
 and commanding attitude induce a supposition that she is intend¬ 
 ed to represent a goddess', possibly Minerva 1 2 , to whom this 
 temple might have been dedicated, and her exploits sculptured 
 on the metopes. 
 
 It is much to be regretted, that two small fragments were 
 the only portions that could be found of the upper part of this 
 metope, after a very long and diligent search ; the upper frag- 
 
 1 Horn. II. Lib. xvm. v. 5ID. Xao) ytruv. 
 
 “ And from the multitude of humbler form 
 Distinguished, with propriety, as gods. 
 
 By beauty, size, and majesty of mien.” 
 
 COWPER. 
 
 2 There is a figure of Minerva, very much resembling this, on some of the ancient coins 
 of Syracuse. See Sicilia? Veteris Numrni, tab. lxxxiii. 
 
40 
 
 ment is part of the shoulder, with the peplum thrown over it ; 
 its situation, as shewn on the Plate, cannot be doubted, whilst 
 it is evident that the other is correctly placed. The dotted lines 
 above shew the fascia or capital of the metope, ascertained from 
 the remaining fragments. 
 
 PLATE IV. 
 
 Represents a portion of the third metope of the eastern 
 front, reckoning from the south-east angle of the temple. It 
 consists of the body and head of a dying warrior, and a part of 
 a female figure. The body of the warrior is covered with a 
 cuirass, which was probably intended to represent metal, made 
 to the form and shape of the body : at the bottom of this cuirass 
 is a rim with some description of girdle under it, and formed 
 possibly to protect the loins from the weight and friction of the 
 cuirass, and beneath this is the tunic, which appears also at the 
 neck and arms. The head of this figure is a most valuable and 
 interesting fragment, as it at once determines the style and cha¬ 
 racter of the sculpture of this temple ; it was found in a sepa¬ 
 rate piece, but undoubtedly belonged to this figure, as the 
 fractured parts fitted exactly. This example of early Greek sculp¬ 
 ture bears a very marked resemblance to some of the heads in the 
 .Elgin a marbles, with perhaps rather more expression; the sculptor 
 has evidently intended to mark the agonies of death by the closed 
 eyes, the mouth slightly opened, and the tongue appearing be¬ 
 tween the teeth ; the hair and beard are most carefully and symme¬ 
 trically arranged, and finished with singular minuteness ; the hel¬ 
 met is thrown back, and appears to be of that kind called “ yiitm”, 
 
41 
 
 part of the crest, “ xo'pos”, is seen under the left shoulder of the 
 ligure ; it is slightly relieved from the ground of the metope. 
 The fragment of the female figure is very spirited, and evidently 
 in strong action ; part of the left foot belonging to it is seen on 
 the thigh of the warrior ; it affords some idea of the attitude of 
 the figure, and has guided us in restoring the position of the 
 fragment as shewn in the Plate. The head of the male figure 
 is drawn to a larger scale, in order to convey a more perfect idea 
 of the style and character of the sculpture. 
 
 These metopes, like those of the Parthenon and the The- 
 seium, are in very high relief, some parts being quite detached; 
 they bear a great resemblance to some of the figures on the 
 early Greek and Sicilian fictile vases, and the sculpture, though 
 not quite equal, is very similar, both in style and execution, to 
 the sculpture of the Panhellenium of jEgina 1 . The metopes 
 are formed of a fine compact lime-stone 2 , of a superior quality 
 to that used in the fabric. Several vestiges of red, blue, and 
 green colour were distinguishable upon the fragments when they 
 were first discovered. 
 
 The success which attended our excavations at this temple 
 
 1 We are supported in this observation by the opinion of Mr. Thorwaldson, who saw the 
 drawings of the sculptures in Rome in 1824. The authority of so distinguished a sculptor 
 is valuable, more especially from the circumstance of Mr. Thorwaldson’s intimate know¬ 
 ledge of the iEgina marbles, the restorations to those valuable objects of ancient art hav¬ 
 ing been effected by him. 
 
 For an account of these marbles the reader is referred to Mr. C. R. Cockerell’s descrip¬ 
 tion of them in Vols. VI. and VII. of the Journal of Science and the Arts. 
 
 2 The quarries which yield this stone are at Menfri, about eight miles distant from Se- 
 linus, and still furnish the material used by the modern inhabitants in the ornamental parts 
 of their masonry. 
 
 L 
 
encouraged us to examine the others with equal care, and in the 
 course of our researches we found two sculptured metopes be¬ 
 longing to the posticum of the adjoining temple (marked D, 
 Plate I.). Of these metopes a very slight description only can 
 be given, as our further researches were prevented by the Sici¬ 
 lian Government 1 . They were found under some immense 
 fallen masses of the posticum, and, as they were not much en¬ 
 cumbered with earth, a slight view of them was obtained. One 
 is in a tolerable state of preservation, and represents a male and 
 female figure combating ; the female bears a shield on the left 
 arm, and the warrior has the chlamys falling over the right 
 shoulder; the heads and other parts of these fig-ures are much 
 ruined. The stone of the other metope was so much decom¬ 
 posed that it was with some difficulty the sculpture could be 
 made out; it appeared however to represent a subject similar to 
 the last. 
 
 As far as the disadvantageous situation of these metopes 
 would allow an opinion to be formed concerning the style of then- 
 sculpture, it appeared to be of a later date, and superior in point 
 of taste to that of the other metopes already described, and the 
 corresponding character of the architecture of this temple, cor¬ 
 roborates, in some measure, this opinion. It was most satisfac¬ 
 torily ascertained that these two metopes belonged to the frize 
 of the posticum 2 , and there can be little or no doubt that the 
 
 1 In the hope that these sculptures may ultimately be recovered from the ruins where 
 they are now buried, Mr. Angell gave a plan, shewing their exact situation, to the Duca di 
 Serra di Falco, and the Baron Pisani, at Palermo, two gentlemen much distinguished for 
 the zealous interest which they take in the antiquities of their country. 
 
 2 This is supposed to be the only known example in which the metopes of the peristyle 
 
lrize of the pronaos was adorned in a similar manner : the me¬ 
 topes of the peristyle were all plain. 
 
 PLATE V. 
 
 A restored elevation of the eastern or principal front of the 
 central temple of the Acropolis (marked B, Plate I.). 
 
 The height of the doorway is the only restoration for which 
 there is no authority from the existing remains. There can be 
 but little doubt that the apex and the angles of the pediment 
 were ornamented with acroteria, but as no remains of these 
 were found, it has been thought better to omit any restorations 
 of them in the Plate. 
 
 The researches made on the Acropolis, or western hill, were 
 still more successful and of greater interest than those already 
 described. On the steps of the eastern front of the central 
 temple (marked B, Plate I.), the remains of the metopes which 
 adorned that front were found; they are in a more early style 
 of art, and in a better state of preservation than the others, 
 though still much broken by the blocks of architrave which 
 had fallen on them. Of the ten metopes of the front, only 
 three were recovered sufficiently perfect to be united. 
 
 were plain, while those of the pronaos and posticum were sculptured. In the Temple of 
 Theseus, at Athens, there is a continued sculptured frize over the pronaos and posticum, 
 but, in that instance, both ends and parts of the flanks of the temple had their metopes 
 enriched with sculpture. 
 
44 
 
 PLATE VI. 
 
 Represents the metope which was placed to the spectator’s 
 right of the centre of the front of the temple, and consequently 
 one of those over the central intercolumniation. It is a most 
 interesting specimen of ancient sculpture, and perhaps may be 
 considered as one of the most curious and important examples 
 of the ancient alto-relievo that we are at this day acquainted 
 with. The subject is composed of a quadriga and three figures ; 
 one of these, apparently a youth, is standing in the car, and 
 holds the reins of the horses with his left hand; the right arm and 
 hand, which probably held the reins also, are wanting, as well 
 as the upper part of the body and the neck of this figure. On 
 either side the car, and standing immediately behind the outer 
 horses of the quadriga, is a figure with one arm raised towards 
 the youth, and holding some emblem or attribute, which, from 
 the ruined state of the metope, cannot be clearly made out; 
 the feet of these attendants are shewn close to the hoofs of the 
 hinder legs of the horses. The figure to the spectator’s left 
 appears to hold the ring of a shield, whilst the hand of the other 
 seems to be covered with a description of hand-guard, the “ ', 
 
 continuing partly up the wrist; from the waist downwards, these 
 two figures present a plain surface, possibly intended for drapery 
 fitting close to the body ; of the heads, a small fragment of one 
 only could be found; a slight difference is observable in the re¬ 
 maining portions of the hair of these figures. The horses are 
 
 Meyrick’s Ancient Armour, p. .31. Horn. Oil. xxiv. 229. 
 
45 
 
 not represented in action, but appear just ready for the course; 
 they are very highly relieved, the heads, necks, and fore-legs 
 being quite detached from the ground of the metope: they are 
 remarkably small in proportion to the figures behind them, even 
 exceeding the disproportion so common in this respect in Greek 
 sculpture, hut well adapted to give greater dignity to the human 
 figure by comparison ; they are designed and sculptured with 
 much spirit, and there is more grace and elegance in their forms 
 than could reasonably he expected in such early examples of an¬ 
 cient art 1 . A side view of the head and neck of one of the 
 horses is introduced, to shew the manner of plaiting the mane. 
 
 The car is of very simple form; the wheels are not perforat¬ 
 ed, they project from the ground of the metope about one half 
 of their diameter. The two centre horses only 2 have the ap¬ 
 pearance of being fastened to the yoke, which is attached to the 
 
 1 The elevated and arched neck, prominent eye, extended nostrils, small ears, and short 
 loins of these horses, answer well to the forms in horses to which Xenophon gives the pre¬ 
 ference. Xenoph. de Re Equest. c. i. Thus also Virgil, 
 
 “ -illi ardua cervix, 
 
 Argutumque caput, brevis alvus, obesaque terga, 
 
 Luxuriatque toris animosum pectus — georg. hi. 
 
 2 “ The chariot first introduced into the Olympic Hippodrome was the r'eXetov agpct, or 
 complete chariot, so named either because it was drawn by full-aged horses, or because it 
 was drawn by four horses, which number seems to have made a complete set among the 
 ancients. These four horses were all ranged abreast, the two middle ones only were har¬ 
 nessed to the chariot by the yoke, from whence they were called Zygii; the two side horses 
 were fastened either to the yoke or some other part of the chariot by their traces, and were 
 called Pareori, Paraseiri, Seiraphori, and Seinei, and their reins or traces Seirce and Pareo- 
 rias.” Lee’s Pindar, s. xiii. 
 
 In the representations of the quadriga upon the ancient coins the same arrangement is 
 observable. 
 
 M 
 
45 
 
 pole of the car. Many parts of the sculpture appear to have 
 been painted ; an ornamental girdle on the figure of the youth, 
 the pole of the car, and the harness of the horses, were coloured 
 red. 
 
 It is much to be regretted that, in consequence of the very 
 imperfect state of this metope, no very satisfactory explanation 
 of its sculpture has yet been offered : several subjects have been 
 proposed as being’ applicable 1 . In order, however, to assist any 
 suggestions as to the subject represented, it should be here re¬ 
 marked, that some fragments belonging to the other central 
 metope were found, corresponding both in size and style to those 
 of the metope now under consideration. From this circum¬ 
 stance it is forcibly conjectured that the two sculptures had re¬ 
 lation to each other ; admitting which, we are inclined to think 
 that the subject represented might have been the celebrated race 
 of Pelops and CEnomaus, and that this metope represents Pe- 
 lops with his attendant grooms just preparing for the course, 
 while the figure of CEnomaus in his car might have been the 
 subject of the adjoining metope. We learn from Pausanias 
 
 ' The Car of Apollo, Phaeton attended by his Sisters, the Triumph of a victor at the 
 Games, Castor and Pollux returning with Helen to Sparta, Amphiaraus and Peace carry¬ 
 ing the boy Pluto, (Paus. in Atticis, c. vm.) Erichthonius, who, according to Virgil, was 
 the first who drove with four horses, and, according to Mamilius, was for that invention 
 honoured with a place among the heavenly bodies. 
 
 “ Primus Erichthonius currus, et quatuor ausus 
 Jungere equos rapidisque rotis insistere victor.” 
 
 VIRG. GEORG. III. 
 
 “ Quern curru prirnum volitantem Jupiter alto 
 Quadrijugis conspexit equis, cceloque sacravit.” 
 
 Mamil. lib. i. p. 12. Edit. Scalig. 
 
47 
 
 that this celebrated story was sculptured in front of the Temple 
 of Jupiter at Olympia, and his description of it coincides in 
 many points witli the sculpture of this metope 1 . 
 
 PLATE VII. 
 
 Is a representation of the metope which was placed to the 
 spectator’s right of the last. It is by far the most perfect of 
 the three, and is particularly interesting, from the illustration 
 which it presents of one of the most celebrated subjects in an¬ 
 cient mythology, the death of the Gorgon Medusa". 
 
 Perseus, emboldened by the presence of Minerva, is repre¬ 
 sented in the act of slaying Medusa ; his look is averted from 
 
 In the front part of the top of the temple, the equestrian contest of Pelops against 
 CEnomaus is represented, and each seems preparing himself for the course. On the right 
 hand of the statue of Jupiter, which nearly stands about the middle of the summit, there is 
 a statue of CEnomaus with a helmet on his head, and near him you may perceive his wife 
 Sterope, who was one of the daughters of Atlas. Myrtilus, the charioteer of CEnomaus, 
 is seated behind the horses. The horses are four in number, and after Myrtilus there are 
 two men whose names are not mentioned, but they appear to be those to whom CEnomaus 
 committed the care of his horses. Near the top of the temple, the river Cladeus is repre¬ 
 sented, for this river is honoured by the Eleans next to Alpheus. On the left hand of the 
 statue of Jupiter, Pelops and Hippodamia are represented, together with the charioteer of 
 Pelops, the horses, two men, and the grooms of Pelops. And the Trcezenians report, that 
 the name of the charioteer of Pelops was Sphacrus, but the historians of the Olympian 
 affairs say that his name was Cillas.” Taylor’s Pausan. in Prior. Eliaeis, c. x. 
 
 2 This subject was represented by Myron in the Acropolis of Athens, and on the throne 
 of the statue of eEsculapius at Epidaurus. Pans. Attic, c. xxm. and Corinthiacis, 
 
 c. xxvu. 
 

 the object of his horror, while with his right arm, guided by the 
 goddess, he thrusts his sword into the throat of the Gorgon. 
 Pegasus, a winged foal, springs from her blood, and Medusa 
 resses him to her side with apparent solicitude. 
 
 The Gorgon herself is a monstrous figure, above the human 
 size; her large round head and hideous face' rise from her 
 shoulders, without any appearance of neck. All her features 
 are frightfully distorted ; her projecting ears are placed close to 
 her eyes, which are large and staring, and, in order to render 
 them still more frightful, are painted red ; her nose is Hat and 
 spreading, and her mouth, extending nearly the whole width of 
 the face, is armed on each side with two immense tusks, with 
 the tongue protruding itself between them. Her hair over the 
 forehead is curiously shewn, and almost appears to have been 
 intended to represent the serpents which her beautiful locks are 
 said to have been changed into, while at the same time it falls 
 down in abundance over the shoulders, without any indication 
 
 1 The most ancient representations of Medusa all present us with this monstrous head; 
 it is seen upon many of the ancient coins and medals, particularly those of Parium, Abydos, 
 Populonia, Camarina, and Syracuse (see Coombe’s Description of the Hunterian Collection, 
 Micali Italia avanti il dominio dei Romani, and Sicilia? Veteres Nummi). It is most fre¬ 
 quently represented upon the iEgis of Minerva, and upon many ancient patera;, gems and 
 terra-cottas. Dr. Clarke, in his account of a marble ex voto representing the head of 
 Medusa, which he found at Delphi, thus ingeniously remarks : “ The Gorgonian head has 
 been supposed by some to denote lubricity, but its real signification is death, and it is one 
 of the most remarkable circumstances concerning this image that, long after its original 
 signification as a ‘ memento mori ’ was lost, it should have found its way from the oldest 
 temples of the pagan world into Christian churches, where it yet appears, either in their 
 painted windows or carved roofs, as it also does upon heraldic ornaments.” 
 
 In Argos the head of Medusa was buried, and in the same place was a tomb of Perseus 
 Gorgophone. Paus. in Corinthiacis, c. xxi. 
 
 
1-9 
 
 whatever of the change into serpents, but seeming rather to ex¬ 
 press the luxuriant beauty by which she enchanted her admirers 
 previous to her metamorphosis by Minerva into the monstrous 
 form sculptured on the metope'. 
 
 The figure to the right of Perseus can be no other than 
 Minerva, although it must be confessed that the goddess does 
 not form a very principal feature in the composition. She ap¬ 
 pears to be directing the arm of her favoured hero. She is 
 draped with the peplum, which has the masander (or labyrinth) 
 ornament painted on the edge ; on her breast is shewn the aegis, 
 which is painted red; the form of it is extremely simple, almost 
 answering to the description given by Herodotus 2 of the goat¬ 
 skins worn by the Lybian women, and which are said to have 
 given the origin to the aegis. The goddess is without the hel¬ 
 met, an omission not very often noticed in her statues ; it was 
 probably left out, in this instance, in consequence of the de¬ 
 crease in height which its introduction would have occasioned 
 to the figure, the head of which now reaches to the capital of 
 the metope. The eyes and eye-brows of this figure were paint¬ 
 ed, and the drapery has several vestiges of colour upon it ; the 
 lower part of the garment, and the maeander ornament or bor¬ 
 der, appeared to us to have been gilt. The figure of Perseus 
 occupies the centre of the metope; he is armed with the harpe 
 of Mercury and helmet of Pluto, which latter has a pendant 
 falling’ on each shoulder 3 . An ornamented girdle encircles the 
 
 ' Apollod. II. c. IV. Hesiod. Theog. Ovid. Met. lib. iv. 618. 
 
 2 Herod, lib. iv. clxxxix. 
 
 3 “ The helmet of Pluto with a pendant falling on each shoulder, given to him by the 
 Cyclops in the war with the giants, and again given to Perseus when he killed Medusa, 
 
 N 
 
50 
 
 waist, and to this is attached some drapery, which hangs down 
 in folds. The “ *rv* or talaria 1 , are curiously represent¬ 
 
 ed ; they cover the feet entirely, and the front part is attached 
 to the ancle by thongs ; they bear some resemblance to the an¬ 
 cient greaves, but there can be little or no doubt that they are 
 intended for the talaria, as it is hardly probable that so import¬ 
 ant a part of the equipment of Perseus for this expedition would 
 have been omitted by the sculptor, who has been so careful in 
 representing him as provided with all the other attributes lie is 
 said to have been furnished with on that celebrated occasion. 
 
 There is some elegance and spirit in the form of the young 
 Pegasus, who appears just bounding from the earth. r i he line 
 on the body immediately under the arm of Medusa, marks the 
 right wing, which was probably coloured ; the upper part, form¬ 
 ing’ the termination of it, was not found. On the fascia or ca¬ 
 pital, a maeander ornament was painted, which is seen more dis¬ 
 tinctly in the metope shewn in the following Plate. 
 
 * * * * and thought to be represented upon a coin of Amastus in Paphlagonia. Fos- 
 broke, Encycl. of Antiquities. Medailles de Peup. xi. pi. 40. 
 
 ' Many of the figures of Mercury upon the ancient Sicilian vases are represented with 
 the talaria in this manner. 
 
51 
 
 PLATE VIII. 
 
 The subject of the next metope, represented in Plate VIII. 
 is the curious adventure of Hercules, surnamed Melampyges 
 from the black and hairy appearance of his loins. The story 
 related by various authors concerning this singular subject ap¬ 
 pears to be as follows 1 2 :—Passalus and Aehemon, two brothers, 
 by some called Cercopes, from their fraudulent and insolent 
 acts, were notorious robbers; they reviled their mother - , who 
 reproved them for their unjust conduct, and cautioned them 
 against falling into the hands of the man whose loins were co¬ 
 vered with black hair. It happened that Hercules, arriving in 
 that part of the country where the brothers then were 3 4 , and 
 falling asleep, the Cercopes endeavoured to rob him ; Hercules 
 awoke, and seizing them, bound them hand and foot, fast¬ 
 ened them to his bow, and, with the heads downwards, carried 
 them in that manner on his shoulders’. This punishment gave 
 the brothers an opportunity of discovering that their mother’s 
 prediction was verified, and they began laughing; Hercules de- 
 
 1 Suidas, Nh\u.[nrvyov rvyoiq. Apollod. xi. c. 6. 
 
 2 According to Suidas they were sons of Memnonis. 
 
 3 This adventure is supposed to have taken place at Thermopylae, for Herodotus, in de¬ 
 scribing the path which the Persians took at that place, has the following passage" This 
 path runs thus: it begins at the river Asopus, which passes through an aperture of the 
 mountain (the name both of the mountain and the path is Anopaea) ; it extends along the 
 back of the hills, and ends near Alpenus, the first Locrian city, near Melis, by the stone of 
 the Melampygus, and the seats of the Cercopes , where the way is more narrow than in 
 the other part.” Herod, lib. vii. 216. 
 
 4 Suidas signifies that he suspended them in a manner from the “ am(po ? o V \ 
 
manded the reason of their mirth, when they told him of their 
 mother’s prophecy, on hearing which, the hero joined in then- 
 laughter, and then liberated them 1 2 . 
 
 The sculpture of the metope answers extremely well to the 
 story as here given". Hercules is represented as a strong, mus¬ 
 cular, naked figure ; his quiver is suspended by a belt, which 
 passes over the right shoulder, and his victims, hound hand and 
 foot, are fastened by thongs at the knees and ancles to his how, 
 which he carries across his shoulders, placing his left hand 
 on the knees of one of the figures. The two prisoners present 
 a very ludicrous appearance, and, in consequence of then- re¬ 
 versed position, the hair falls down in a curious manner ; then- 
 countenances have much of the Egyptian expression or cha¬ 
 racter in them. Many parts of this metope also were painted ; 
 the girdle and quiver of Hercules were red, and there are some 
 remains of the same colour upon the right arm, immediately 
 below the shoulder ; the thongs which bound the Cercopes were 
 also coloured red. The mseander ornament on the fascia or 
 capital is more distinctly seen on this than on the other metopes. 
 This metope is unfortunately much broken, the parts which 
 were found consisting of thirty-three fragments ; the metope as 
 represented in Plate VII. was found in twenty-four pieces, and 
 that in Plate VI. was found in no less than fifty-nine pieces. 
 
 1 A very ancient MS. in the library of tire Archbishop of Metz relates, that Hercules, 
 indignant at seeing them laugh at their fate, dashed them to death on the ground. Mont- 
 faucon, l’Antiquite Expliquee, tome i. c. vii. 
 
 2 This subject is represented on a vase in the possession of the Duca di Serra di Falco 
 at Palermo, and also on one published by Millingcn in his “ Peintures de Vases Grecs”, 
 p. 56. The figure of Hercules also is seen on some of the ancient coins of Selinus. See 
 Sicilia? Yoteres Nummi, tab. lxvi. 
 
The only remains of any consequence which were found of 
 the other metopes were some heads, which are represented in 
 Plate IX. Nos. 1. and 3. are female heads; No. 2. hems' the 
 profile of No. 1. No. 4. is the head of a warrior; the helmet 
 was partly coloured red. No. 5. is the head of a female figure, 
 with the hair falling down in front over the shoulders. 
 
 The size of these metopes is three feet eight inches in width 
 hy four feet nine inches in height, the width varying slightly in 
 the different metopes. The space occupied by the sculpture is 
 a square of three feet five inches only ; the difference in height 
 is occasioned by a fascia or capital of six inches, and a band or 
 plinth at the bottom, on which the sculpture is placed. The 
 fascia and plinth, with a slab on each side of an inch and a half 
 in thickness, form a frame to the metope, beyond the line of 
 which the relief of the sculpture does not project; this arrange¬ 
 ment, we presume, may be considered as peculiar to this temple, 
 as in all other examples of sculptured metopes the sculpture 
 projects beyond the face of the triglyphs. 
 
 The sculptures are in high relief, and are of the same de¬ 
 scription of stone as those of the temple on the eastern hill ; 
 their style is crude, though not without expression 1 ; the general 
 
 1 The following note, taken from the work on Specimens of Ancient Sculpture published 
 by the Dilettanti Society, must prove interesting to the reader, as it relates to the coins of 
 Selinus, and, from the connexion which exists between the arts of sculpture and numisma¬ 
 tology, it is presumed that its introduction here will not be considered inappropriate : 
 
 . . . . “ The city of Selinus was taken and sacked by the Carthaginians only twelve 
 years after the fall of Leontium, and though it was again restored 140 years afterwards, the 
 coins of its first period are easily distinguished from those of its second. The progress of art 
 appears to have been nearly the same as at Leontium, and its coins finished with still more 
 
 O 
 
54 
 
 attitudes of the figures are simple ; the bodies are dispropor- 
 tionably short, and the waists much contracted ; the heads and 
 upper part of the bodies are shewn as viewed in front, while the 
 legs and feet are generally shewn in profile. The eyes are large 
 and fixed, and there is a peculiar expression in the mouths ; the 
 hair is long and plaited, falling down in front over the shoul¬ 
 ders ; the execution of it is extremely formal, nearly approach¬ 
 ing to the manner in which it is represented on many of the 
 Egyptian statues. 
 
 With regard to the date of these antiquities, it is presumed 
 that there can be but little doubt that the six temples described 
 in this work were all erected previous to the destruction of the 
 city in the third year of the ninety-second Olympiad ; the early 
 style of the architecture in general, more particularly the pro¬ 
 portion of the columns, varying from four and a half to five 
 and a quarter diameters in height, the decidedly ancient charac¬ 
 ter of the sculptures, and the grandeur of the works, inconsist¬ 
 ent with the state of weakness and comparative insignificance 
 to which the city was reduced, and in which it afterwards re¬ 
 
 care and nicety, whence the figures upon them afford the best possible additional illustra¬ 
 tion. From these it appears that much of the dryness and hardness before observed in the 
 more ancient medals of Posidonia was still retained, though in a lesser degree ; the muscles 
 of the body being still marked more strongly than ever they exist in nature, though with 
 great accuracy as to form and disposition. The general proportions of the figures are 
 long, being as much as seven and a half heads, and, as in the more ancient style, the sto¬ 
 mach and belly are much contracted, while the breast and haunches are remarkably large 
 and full. The attitude is just approaching to grace, the weight of the body being raised 
 upon one leg, but with both feet pointed straight forwards, without any of that elegant 
 character of easy dignity which distinguishes the figures of the same personages on the late 
 coins of this city.” 
 
 
oo 
 
 mained till its final demolition towards the end of the First Funic 
 war, forbid our supposing them the works of more recent times. 
 
 For the gradual erection of the temples, we have a period 
 of about two hundred and forty-five years, and assuming, not 
 without strong grounds, the central temple on the western hill 
 to have been the first erected after the foundation of the colony, 
 established by concurring testimony about the thirty-second 
 Olympiad, or six hundred and fifty years b. c. we may safely 
 place its sculptures at more than half a century prior to the as¬ 
 signed date of the jEgina marbles, and at least a century and a 
 half before the sculptures of the Theseium'. 
 
 These sculptures, although they are not the production of 
 Greece herself, and have no pretensions as models of excellence 
 in the arts, and though some of the peculiarities in the archi¬ 
 tecture of the temples at Selinus may be considered as defects, 
 are not perhaps on these accounts less deserving of consideration. 
 That they are the works of a colony will not diminish their 
 value, when it is considered how closely Sicily kept pace in the 
 career of civilization and the arts, with the most forward of the 
 Grecian States, of which, even were historians silent on the 
 subject, the magnificent remains at Syracuse, Agrigentum, and 
 Selinus would sufficiently attest. 
 
 At this day no proofs are wanting of the degree of excel¬ 
 lence which the arts attained among the Greeks. In such the 
 European museums had long- been rich, when the discoveries at 
 
 See Additional Notes to Leake’s Topography of Athens. 
 
56 
 
 tEgina opened to us a new page in the history of sculpture, and 
 afforded a remarkable instance of the spirit and skill which pre¬ 
 ceded the perfection to which the art attained in the time of 
 Pericles. The discoveries at Selinus, it is presumed, afford an¬ 
 other striking example of the early progress of art ; and while 
 the metopes of the temple on the eastern hill are supposed to 
 approach the style of the dEgina marbles, the metopes of the 
 temple on the western hill may be considered as still earlier spe¬ 
 cimens, retaining some of the style and character of Egyptian 
 sculpture. 
 
 the 
 
 END. 
 
 G. Woodfall, Angel 1 
 
 rl, Skii 
 
 ireet, London. 
 

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