The Pediment Groups, from the east and west gables, are set forward on either side of the long room. These sculptures are in the round and, like the metopes, had a correspondingly projecting architectural frame. On the west side of the room are the fragments of the EASTERN PEDIMENT GROUP (No. 303), which represented the birth of Athene (fabled to have sprung fully armed from the brain of Zeus). The central group was entirely destroyed before Carrey's time; it probably consisted of Zeus, with Athene and Hephaistos on either side. A-C, in the angle, the horses of Helios (the sun) rear their heads up from the sea (in the other angle Selene drives her chariot below
the horizon), D, 'Theseus,' perhaps really Dionysos, a figure of wonderful power and grace, resting on a rock; he faces away from and is apparently indifferent to the central event of the group. The head (the only remaining one in the group), though damaged, heightens the noble impression of the figure and justifies the fame of the Pheidian school. E, F. Two draped and seated female goddesses, Demeter (Earth) and her daughter Persephone, or perhaps the Hours. G. 'Iris,' more probably Hebe, or Eileithyia, the goddess of childbirth, a figure starting away from the central group. H (cast), Torso of Hephaistos (or Prometheus), who clove the head of Zeus with an axe and so released Athene. K, L, M. 'The Fates,' three seated figures of great dignity, with richly modelled drapery; the outer two may represent Aphrodite resting in the lap of her mother Dione. N, O. Selene (the moon) or Nyx (night, a cast), and one of her horses, descending into the waves. In the centre of the east pediment is placed a capital and drum from one of the Doric columns of the temple.
On the east side are the more fragmentary remains of the WESTERN PEDIMENT GROUP (No. 304), which represented, as Pausanias tells us, the legendary strife between Athene and Poseidon for the possession of Attica: Poseidon with his trident made a salt spring gush from the rock of the Acropolis; Athene caused the first olive-tree to grow, and was awarded the victory. A few yards from the Parthenon stood the Erechtheion (Erechtheum), the temple of Erechtheus and Athene Polias, which contained the site of this mythical event, and enclosed the sacred spring and the sacred olive of the legend. The grouping of the figures is a subject of controversy. The angles must have been occupied by the recumbent figures called river-gods ('Ilissos' and 'Kephissos') and the centre by the colossal figures of Athene and Poseidon; probably the secondary figures in the group are the local deities, looking on at the contest. From left to right: A. 'Ilissos,' a nobly proportioned recumbent figure; B, C (cast), Cecrops, the mythical autochthonous first king of Attica, and his daughter Pandrosos (?). D-G survive only in fragments; G is interpreted as Nike (Victory). H, a powerful torso, is Hermes, guiding two horses but turning his head back, away from L, M, the central group, Athene and Poseidon, likewise represented only by fragments. Carrey's drawing suggests that the two deities are separating in anger, and perhaps pointing at their rival creations. N, Iris, is identified by the holes for the wings and the short robe. O, Amphitrite or a Nereid, acting as Poseidon's charioteer. P, Q. Fragments of a draped woman and a boy, interpreted as Leukothea, a marine goddess, and Palalmon, or else as Oreithyia and the two sons she bore to Boreas, the North Wind. V, W (casts) are probably river-gods, to pair with the 'Ilissos' in the other angle.
