At each end of the west frieze stands a marshall. Between them unfolds the scene of horsemen and horses in various poses.
Some are bridling their horses, some are talking to each other, while others prepare to mount. Many horses are already prancing and rearing. Some have begun to gallop.
Each scene is confined to a single block, thus raising the possibility that the sculpture was carved on the ground and the block set in place afterwards.
Horsemen are shown tying their sandals.
In the very center is the figure of the cavalry commander trying to restrain his rearing horse. It is an extraordinarily impressive composition both in conception and in execution. This is the only block in the entire frieze that is devoted to a man and a horse alone. Some consider it to be a work by Pheidias himself.
A unique scene shows a herald whose horse bends down his head between his forelegs in a pose not repeated elsewhere in the frieze.
Two horsemen try to retrain a horse that has turned counter to the procession.
The two sides of the southwest corner block mark the departure point of hte two files of the Panathenaic Procession on the Parthenon Frieze.
A marshall stands at the departure point of the northward moving light.
