Based on the new information, it is possible for us to wonder on the general meaning of the Frieze. This discussion cannot, obviously, leave out the clear bipolar character of the frieze. But what was its meaning in totality? Surely not the mythical one, since the necessary iconographic footings are missing. It is not a synthesis between the mythical and the historical level, as the Marathon hypothesis, even if it based on a religious theme.
The arrays are two and are distinct. Already in 1911, Premerstein suggested that we see in the frieze the moment of the constitution of two processions with different origins, which take place in the Agora, near the Altar of the Twelve Gods and the Monument of the Eponymous Heroes.
But the basis of this argument (the narration by Thucydides of the trap that the Tyrant Slayers set up during the preparations of the procession for the Great Panathenaia of 512 B.C) comes, now, in contrast with the concrete Kleisthenic organization of the south side. Simon made certain that the ambience of the frieze is not the ambiance of a departure from the agora, but that of the upcoming sacrifice. Therefore, the place of the procession is the Acropolis and the two parts of the procession must be moving in the immediate surroundings, towards the Archaic Temple and the Great Altar. The topography of the Acropolis could help this Hypothesis, with its two main roads, which start from the Propylaia and afterwards split, surrounding the Archaic Temple and its successor, the Erectheion. But the meaning of the frieze is not inside the limits of a realistic transcription. Simon’s view, while it seems to be true for those parts of the frieze related to the procession, it is not for the parades of chariots and horsemen, which took place in another place and time.
Someone could also suggest a confrontation of the rites of the Small, yearly, Panathenaia (sacrifices of the north side) and the rites of the Great Panathenaia, which took place every four years (the sacrifice of one hundred animals at the south side and the peplos dedication). But if the Small Panathenaia were attributed (in the collective Athenian conscience) to Erechthonios, the Great, instituted in 564 B.C. were, essentially, a Peisistrad creation. And for an Athenian would be an extremely loud contradiction to see the rendered with the democratic number ten.
The conversation is clarified, if we think again for a little while longer the mutual references of the three parts of each array.
F I r s t l y. The sacrificial procession, true and real, moves with a slow and formal pace. The place is the Acropolis, the morning of the 28th of Hekatombaion.
S e c o n d l y. The formation of the chariots moving with different speeds, equivalent to the pace of a race, is situated outside the temporal and spatial limits of the procession. Indeed the games took place after the procession, on the following days. The apobates race took place in the Dromos of the Agora, in the section between the Stoa of the Herms and the Eleusinion. The war chariot race was held at the Hippodrome.
T h i r d l y. The formation of the horsemen has rhythms which correspond to the start, running and fish. Their commanders are not at the heads of the arrays, as Xenophon mentions, as the symmetry in a beautiful procession commands. One of their duties as, according to a mention by Xenophon, which Demosthenes also repeats, to send processions. But together with horsemen they were also the protagonists of the horse race. So with this double meaning they become basic members of the festival.
We have therefore, different rhythms, times and places, which come in contrast with the generally accepted view that the frieze depicts a single procession moving from Keramikos to the Acropolis. The concept pronounced there is not the restrictive concept of procession, but the inclusive concept of festival, which is procession and agon.
The unity of the depiction is not created by the real place, but from an ideological one, derived from the religious place of a dedication: because the Parthenon frieze has been placed on a temple that lacks an altar and houses a colossal gold-and-ivory statue that is not a cult statue. The Parthenon is, therefore, a massive dedication and the frieze the biggest votive relief in history. The proof stems even from other, simpler votive reliefs, which follow chronologically the frieze and which, on the occasion of commemorating victories in the Panathenaic Games, repeat the very same subjects of the frieze. There are the two bases from the Agora and the Acropolis, with the depiction of the victory of an apobates, the Athens-London relief, depicting the crowning of a victorious tribe in Athena’s presence and lastly, the Agora relief, with a formation of horsemen the looks like a part of the Parthenon frieze and refers to a Panathenaic victory of the tribe Leontis.
The subject of the frieze, therefore, has been placed within the general scheme of the dedication, with some concrete choices of important themes, which are embellished with the presence of different figures from the wider program of the festival. These choices are organized and spaced out in two different fronts, according to their different source, historical – religious and political. They seem opposed, but are synthesized in a remarkable way at the east side.
If in the morphological features of the frieze the genius of a great artist, inspirer and coordinator like Pheidias is obvious, the narrative subject reveals, in my opinion, the ideology of a great politician, such as Pericles, the Administrator.
In that way, the Parthenon frieze, is a composition of the older Athenian tradition and the democratic renewal in a moment of rare balance, runs through the archaeological importance of the ideal depiction of a procession to the dense-in-meanings ideological-political message, which places it beside the Epitapheios, the Periclean funeral oration for the first fallen of the Peloponnesian War.
LUIGI BESCHI: THE PARTHENON FRIEZE A NEW PROPOSAL FOR ITS INTERPRATATION/ 2018 MOV SKIOUROS EDITIONS, 4 KARYTSI SQ. 105 61 ATHENS GREECE, http://www.movskiouros.com
Vocaburary English / Greek
General=geniko
Bipolar=dipolikos
Character=haraktiras
Synthesis=sinthesis
Mythical=mithikos
Historical=istorikos
Hypothesis=ipothesis
Agora=agora
Eponymous Hero=eponymos iroas
Organization=organosi
Archaic=arhaikos
Topography=topografia
Realistic=realistikos
Parade=parelasi
Dromos=dromos
Apobates=apovates
Symmetry=simetria
Protagonist=protagonistis
Basic=vasikos
Rhythm=rythmos
Agon=agonas
Scheme=shima
Different=diaforetiko
Theme=thema
Political=politiko
Ideological=ideologiko
Democratic=dimokratiko
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Cheers (plural) =Yamass
Cheers (singular) =Yassou
Discount = Ekptossi
Excuse me = Signomi
Few = Ligo
Good bye = Yassou
Good evening = Kalispera
Good morning = Kalimera
Good nigh t = Kalinichta
Hello = Yassou
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How much does it cost? = Posso kani?
Many greetings = Polla cheretismata
Many kisses = Polla filia
Much = Poli
My name is = Me lene
Please = Parakalo
Small = Mikro
Thank you = Efcharisto
What is your name? = Pos se lene?
Where it is? = Pou eine?
