Riders

North frieze, Parthenon, 442-438 B.C.E.

This depiction of Riders is the section that most people find familiar because it is one of the most dramatic and well known sculptures within the entire frieze. Here the horsemen are not as tightly massed as in some other areas, for they tend to overlap each other fairly consistently in certain sections. The different groups of riders express their own individual formations but one here is seen holding the reins low in the left hand, as another reaches out his right hand and lays the fingers lightly on the horse's mane between the ears. This sculpture is intentionally created to depict the Classical ideal of both man and horse. The action begins gradually on the North frieze beginning solemnly and then accelerating into the dramatic representation depicted here where the horses are in full gallop.

R.R.