The Cruise of the Branwen

ATHEN identical in orientation with the gateway of the Propylaea, as you notice when you stand beneath the enormous blocks of marble, over twenty-two feet long, which span that gateway from one pillar to another, but so placed that the play of light and shade may be varied in each building; and the Erechtheum is set at a different angle . too, its graceful outlines forming a perfect con– trast to the majestic solemnity of the larger structure. This subtle quality of variation persists through– out the best Greek architecture. I have dealt with it at length elsewhere/ so it will only be necessary here to say that just as the sites of these buildings are all set on slightly varying angles, so the measurements of their detailed construction are all different from those which are apparent to the casual eye. There is not a single straight line in the Parthenon. Each mighty step is planned upon so wide a curve that a stone slab six inches high placed at one extremity was invisible from the other when I had placed my head at the same level, owing to the swelling marble in between. No two columns are spaced at the same distance from each other as the next pair. The columns also lean slightly inwards. The angles at the exterior of the building lean slightly outwards. There are many more curious instances of deliberate and delicate divergence • See my" Spirals in Nature and Art" Gohn Murray). Mr. Penrose published long ago his careful measurements of the Pai:thenon, and Mr. Goodyear has lately proved that these same subtleties of calculated difference occur in other buildings. 137