least because of their size and frontal position. Pedimental sculpture was originally in massive relief figures, as in the earliest to survive, from shortly after 600 BCE, on the temple of Artemis at Kerkyra, where the west pediment is taken up by the gorgon Medusa and her children at the centre, flanked by panthers. Smaller scenes are displayed in the low corners of the pediments, including Zeus with a thunderbolt, fighting a Giant. The pedimental sculpture of the first peripteral temple on the Athenian Acropolis, from , is nearly free-standing sculpture, but remains dominated by a central scene of fighting lions. Again, the corners contain separate scenes, including Heracles fighting Triton. After the mid-6th century BCE, the compositional scheme changes: animal scenes are now placed in the corners, soon they disappear entirely. The central composition is now taken over by mythological fights or by rows of human figures, and the figures become free-standing, as in the Elgin Marbles from the Parthenon. The high regard in which the Greeks held pedimental sculptures is demonstrated by the discovery of the sculptures from the Late Archaic temple of Apollo at Delphi, which had received a veritable burial after the temple's destruction in 373 BCE. The themes of the individual pedimental scenes are increasingly dominated by myths connected with the locality. Thus, the east pediment at Olympia depicts the preparations for a chariot race between Pelops and Oinomaos, the mythical king of nearby Pisa. It is the foundation myth of the sanctuary itself, displayed here in its most prominent position. A similarly direct association is provided by the birth of Athena on the east pediment of the Parthenon, or the struggle for Attica between her and Poseidon on its west pediment. The pediment of the later temple of the Kabeiroi at Samothrace, late 3rd century BCE, depicted a probably purely local legend, of no major interest to Greece as a whole. Roofs The roofs were crowned by acroteria, originally in the form of elaborately painted clay disks, from the 6th century BCE onwards as fully sculpted figures placed on the corners and ridges of the pediments. They could depict bowls and tripods, griffins, sphinxes, and especially mythical figures and deities. For example, depictions of the running Nike crowned the Alcmaeonid temple of Apollo at Delphi, and mounted amazons formed the corner of the temple of Asklepios in Epidauros. Pausanias (5, 10, 8) describes bronze