Commentary Prepared by Dr. Julia Lenaghan, Ashmolean Museum

A 086 F
Arrhephoroi (Slab 5); Parthenon Frieze East

Marble (Pentelic)
Frieze
W 86 cm

The slab was probably first removed from the frieze when the Parthenon was converted into a Christian church. It was not drawn by Carrey, but later by Stuart who saw it incorporated into medieval or Turkish fortification walls on the Acropolis. From there it was removed by Lord Elgin in 1802 and subsequently transferred to London.
United Kingdom, London, British Museum
High Classical, ca. 440-432 BC

Preservation:
The surface of the relief is heavily worn and abraded, the figures are battered. The legs of the stools they carry are missing; most of the right arm of the right figure, and the lower right arm, feet and lower legs of the left figure have broken off. The features of their faces are entirely obliterated.

Description:
Depicted are two female figures carrying stools with folded garments or cushions on them on their heads. They both wear chitons and himatia. The figure to the left is shown frontally; she is slightly smaller than her companion. Her right arm is raised, the hand holds on to the stool. In her left she carries a much destroyed object. The second figure is shown in right profile; with her raised left she holds one of the legs of the stool she carries on her head, her right arm reaches out to a taller figure approaching her from the right. The right arm and hand of this figure are just about visible, reaching up to the stool. There are circular dowel holes on the right elbow of the left figure and to the left of the right shoulder of the second figure, for the fastening of metal attributes or separately carved marble additions (legs of the stools?).

Discussion:
The identification of these figures is highly controversial and closely linked to the interpretation of the central “peplos” scene and the frieze as a whole. Their relative size indicates that they are girls of different age. Traditionally they have been interpreted as sacrificial servants or diphrophoroi, stool-carriers, attested for the Panathenaic procession. They carry stools with cushions, intended for the Priestess of Athena Polias and the Archon Basileus, or for the girls themselves (or even for other gods or heroes, as some have argued, although they are of much smaller size). Some have thought to recognise a lion’s paw on the object carried in the left arm of the smaller girl, and therefore identified it as a footstool or small box, but so little is preserved that this interpretation seems by no means certain. A different reading sees them as arrhephoroi, noble Athenian girls aged between seven and eleven, who weaved the new peplos for Athena. In this case they would either carry the peplos or similar garments for the cult image, or other ritual implements that for cult reasons had to remain unseen and were therefore hidden under a cover. B. Wesenberg has recently argued that this scene of the arrhephoria is entirely unconnected to the “peplos-scene” depicted next to it (A 86g), and that the frieze therefore does not at all represent a unified theme but rather several different religious ceremonies. He also recognises sacrificial trays rather than stools in the objects carried by the maidens, and interprets the object in the left hand of the right girl as a lamp. Critics of this view have argued that the girls depicted appear to old to be arrhephoroi. In mythological interpretations of the frieze they figure as Kekropids, or, in a recent theory proposed by J. B. Connelly, as the two older daughters of King Erechtheus and his wife Queen Praxithea; according to her they are depicted carrying their sacrificial shrouds, as they are about to be sacrificed for the salvation of Athens following an oracle from Delphi.

Bibliography:
F. Brommer, Der Parthenonfries (Mainz 1977) 112-116 pls. 163.1-2; 174-175 A very detailed study of the Parthenon frieze including previous bibliography and ample photographic documentation.
J. Boardman, "Notes on the Parthenon East Frieze": M. Schmidt (ed.), Kanon. Festschrift Ernst Berger (Basel 1988) 9-14 pls. 4-5 Argues that the two female figures are too old to be arrhephoroi.
I. Jenkins, The Parthenon Frieze (London 1994) 78-79 The latest official documentation of the frieze by the British Museum. Jenkins has renumbered some of the slabs and put them in a different order.
B. Wesenberg, "Panathenäische Peplosdedikation und Arrhephorie. Zur Thematik des Parthenonfrieses" (JdI 110 1995) 149-178 Wesenberg interprets the figures as arrhephoroi, carrying trays and torches rather than stools.
J. Connelly, "Parthenon and Parthenoi: A Mythological Interpretation of the Parthenon Frieze" (AJA 100 1996) 53-80 Connelly interprets the two female figures as daughters of King Erechtheus and Queen Praxithia, carrying their sacrificial shrouds as they are about to be sacrificed.
E. Berger and M. Gisler-Huwiler, Der Parthenon in Basel. Dokumentation zum Fries (Basel 1996) 155-161; 171-175 pl. 133 Detailed study of the Parthenon frieze based on the reconstruction in the Basel cast collection, including an extensive bibliography.