Note 1 — Chapter I · THE PANATHENAIC.

As his gaze rested on this, the Athenian’s eye began to sparkle still more brightly; for here was the reflection of the festal procession, chiselled in marble—scenes from the Panathenaic procession and the preparations for it: groups of beautiful, modest maidens, youths on rearing steeds, pairs of horses dashing proudly along, battle-scenes of the Agones,1 the presentation of the peplos, and amid all the beautiful human forms, the Olympic gods, who had emerged from their invisible, unapproachable sphere, as witnesses of the magnificent festival. So simple, so noble appeared every figure, despite its beauty, that they seemed to say from the marble to the Athenian nation for all futurity: “Maintain beautiful symmetry, and let your lives constantly develop into the noble simplicity, loveliness, and purity, that confront you here in the marble forms from Phidias’ studio—”