S St/idia 
 
 IRE F E EE CE 
 
 1 FiitnuL Gate 
 
 2 Pornpe^t 
 
 3 Baji'Hieo/ 
 
 4 T ttf'.ApoUti 
 
 5 Metruon 
 
 O Sauute~hoiM\> doo 
 
 7 Tholus 
 3 Odeuen 
 
 0 Fovaitauv EnnecLcrurios 
 lo T of Geras 
 M r. qf TriptolanuAS 
 
 12 T. Pltltxut 
 
 13 PoMla Stoa 
 
 14 jipura, 
 
 15 Gynuta^fuj/n of Phil tm}- 
 
 16 T. qf Tlhe^eus 
 
 if T.qf the Duii'furi 
 l8 Pnytaneumj 
 If) T. ofAtflaut-tM 
 
 20 T. of Serapis 
 
 21 T.qf Lueetuz. 
 
 22 jirdv of Hadrieuv 
 
 23 Paniheow 
 
 24 T.qf Jupiter Olympius 
 
 25 T. of lH/merJf/rotera, 
 
 26 Steuliwn qfffet'odas 
 
 27 Cfutroffio Monument 
 
 28 Odetmty (^'‘PericteiS 
 2g Theettre ofBiuxfius 
 3 o Portico 
 
 3 U OvoTytefic Momurhent 
 
 32 Chareufic Columnee 
 
 33 Propylav 
 
 34 Picture Gallery 
 36 T. of Vietory 
 38 T. of Mutest n 
 3^ Ereotheuen 
 
 38 Grotto of Pan 
 3g Ttieutre^ of JPetodes 
 
 40 Ptiyoe 
 
 41 Monurnfqf Pfulnpappus 
 
 42 .Jncient/ Walls 
 
 43 Lonp walL qf Piraats 
 
 44 GateiEipylon. 
 
 45 Saet'ed/ Gate 
 48 Pedestal 
 
 To Pentelieus 
 
 25 
 

 ATHENIENSIA, 
 
 OR 
 
 REMARKS 
 
 ON THE 
 
 TOPOGRAPHY AND BUILDINGS 
 
 OF 
 
 ATHENS. 
 
 WILLIAM WILKINS, A. M. F. A. S. 
 
 LATE FELLOW OF GONVIL AND CAIUS COLLEGE, 
 CAMBEIDGE. 
 
 LONDON : 
 
 PRINTED BY W. BULMER AND CO. CLEVELAND-ROW, 
 
 AND PUBLISHED BY JOHN MURRAY, ALBEMARLE- 
 STREET. 
 
 1816 '. 
 
TO HIS GRACE 
 
 HENRY PELHAM, 
 
 DUKE OF NEWCASTLE, K.G. 
 
 ^C. <S*C. fyc. 
 
 THIS VOLUME IS INSCRIBED, 
 
 WITH EVERY SENTIMENT OF RESPECT, 
 
 BY HIS GRACE’S 
 
 MOST FAITHFUL 
 
 AND DEVOTED HUMBLE SERVANT, 
 
 W. WILKINS. 
 
ADVERTISEMENT 
 
 The following Remarks on the Build- 
 ings and Topography of Athens, are the 
 result of observations made during a re- 
 sidence there in the year 1802 , and were 
 intended as supplementary to the descrip- 
 tive part of the valuable work of Stuart, 
 on the antiquities of that celebrated city . 
 
 They were compiled for the purpose of 
 appearing amongst a collection of papers 
 now editing by Mr. Walpole, from the 
 manuscript journals of recent travellers in 
 Greece and Asia-Minor ; but were after- 
 wards deemed too voluminous for a work 
 b 
 
VI 
 
 of that nature. It was determined, in 
 consequence, to publish them in the form 
 they now assume. The publication which, 
 from various circumstances, was inter- 
 rupted, has subsequently been delayed by 
 the well-known intention of Lord Elgin to 
 offer his collection of marbles to the Eng- 
 lish nation; the author, who entertains a 
 different idea as to the merits of the major 
 part of that collection, was apprehensive 
 that the public avowal of an opinion con- 
 trary to that of an host of admirers, might 
 be construed into an attempt to depreciate 
 their worth, and withheld the publication 
 until the question between his Lordship 
 and the public as to their supposed value, 
 should be decided. 
 
 During the period of the author’s re- 
 sidence at Athens, the artists in Lord 
 Elgin’s employ were making excavations 
 within, and around the ruins of the Acro- 
 polis ; he therefore felt it unnecessary to 
 engage in the attempt to supply the archi- 
 
Vll 
 
 tectural details which are wanting in the 
 publication of Stuart ; convinced that 
 every particular unexplained in that work 
 was in a train to be fully investigated. 
 
 The author has been informed that 
 Lord Elgin’s intention of publishing a 
 complete and splendid work from the 
 drawings made upon the spot has been 
 abandoned, in consequence of the esti- 
 mated cost of the undertaking, and the 
 little probability that such a work would 
 be in sufficient demand to defray the 
 necessary expenses of publication. In 
 times like the present this obstacle is 
 insuperable. 
 
 The particulars so desirable to the 
 amateurs and professors of architecture, 
 are, however, likely to be amply supplied 
 through the exertions of Mr. Robert 
 Cockerell, a gentleman every way quali- 
 fied for the undertaking, and to whom 
 the arts are chiefly indebted for the dis- 
 covery of the Phigalian marbles, recently 
 
viii 
 
 purchased by the British government. 
 The result of his investigations, to the pro- 
 secution of which he devoted a consider- 
 able length of time, will, in all probability, 
 be soon laid before the public. 
 
 36 Wey mouth-street, 
 
 May, ISlfi. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 I. 
 
 On the Origin of Grecian Architecture 
 
 p. 1 
 
 II. 
 
 On the Plan of Athens 
 
 37 
 
 III. 
 
 On the Acropolis 
 
 7f> 
 
 IV. 
 
 On the Buildings of the City 
 
 151 
 
 V. 
 
 On the Athenian Inscription 
 
 193 
 
 The Plan of Athens to face the title page. 
 View of the Erectheum, to face page 193. 
 
ERRATA. 
 
 Page J 4, Line 23, for te read the. 
 
 5, Olympium, Olympieum. 
 
 4, that emperor, 
 
 y, corresponded, 
 
 20, direction, 
 
 4, temple, 
 
 — dele the comma after Apollo. 
 
 1 2, for frize read the frize. 
 
 22, octastylos ( oct-astylosin ) in, read 
 
 octastylos in ( oct-asty-losin. ) 
 
 4.S 
 
 46 , 
 
 65, 
 
 68 , 
 
 Ib. 
 
 123, 
 
 155, 
 
 Hadrian, 
 correspond, 
 a direction, 
 temples. 
 
ON 
 
 THE ORIGIN 
 
 OF 
 
 GRECIAN ARCHITECTURE. 
 
 In contemplating the remains of Athe- 
 nian magnificence, we are compelled to 
 admit the existence of that pre-eminence 
 which polished nations have conceded to 
 the architecture of the Greeks. It will 
 be no detraction to admit that a partici- 
 pation in the merit of its first institution 
 may be claimed by a people whose emi- 
 grating colonies first implanted amongst 
 the nations of Europe the germ of almost 
 every science. To them, indeed, the intro- 
 
 B 
 
2 
 
 duclion of architecture into Greece must 
 be indirectly attributed ; but the interval 
 between the art when its precepts were 
 first inculcated, and the perfection it 
 subsequently attained in the hands of the 
 Greeks, is immeasurable. 
 
 The little ground for the pretension, 
 that the Greeks were materially indebted 
 to the Easterns for all that renders the 
 architecture of that enlightened people so 
 captivating, will be obvious, by a reference 
 to the state of the art when first introduced 
 into Greece, and comparing it with its 
 maturity, as it is displayed in the buildings 
 of Attica, and principally in those of the 
 Athenian Acropolis. 
 
 It is admitted by ancient writers, that 
 the rocky country of Attica was early in- 
 habited by a colony from the shores of 
 Egypt, and that the Aborigines were in- 
 debted to the emigrants, and to the inter- 
 course subsisting between their descend- 
 ants and the nations of the East, for their 
 
3 
 
 first notions of agriculture and science. In 
 tracing, therefore, the origin of Athenian 
 architecture, we must consider the early 
 productions of Egypt, and the states bor- 
 dering upon it, at the period when the 
 voice of religion, demanding the erection 
 of buildings consecrated to the celebra- 
 tion of her rites, could be no longer disre- 
 garded by the rising population of Greece. 
 This consideration will enable us to assign 
 to both nations the merit to which they 
 are respectively intitled for a science to 
 which society is so greatly indebted. 
 
 The art of building, in opposition to 
 those of sculpture and painting, owed its 
 origin to necessity; these, it is universally 
 allowed, sprung from growing luxury and 
 dawning taste. The wants of mankind, 
 gradually emerging from a state of barba- 
 rous nature, dictated the necessity for 
 dwellings capable of affording shelter 
 against the inclemencies of the seasons ; 
 yet, although the art of constructing habi- 
 
4 
 
 tations must, from the gradual iucrease of 
 society, have beeu coustautly progressive, 
 the specimeus of early ages were doubt- 
 less rude aud imcouth ; uor could much 
 improvemeut be expected, before the euer- 
 gies of mau had L^eeu called forth by the 
 coustaut operatious of the mind, directed 
 to the accomplishmeut of this great aud 
 paramouut object. The attempt to trace 
 every iulermediate step betweeu the pri- 
 maeval caverus of the Troglodites, aud the 
 stupeudous temples of Egypt, the earliest 
 productious of architecture uow existiug, 
 would be vaiu ; but the measures first re- 
 sorted to by savages uuskilled iu every art, 
 must be obvious. 
 
 The earliest dwelliugs would be necessa- 
 rily constructed with such materials as the 
 countries inhabited by the wandering na- 
 tions who separated on the dispersion of 
 the descendants of Noah, most readily and 
 abundantly supplied. The branches of 
 trees, canes and reeds, would offer them- 
 
selves in those regions where materials so 
 easily convertible to the purpose of build- 
 ing abounded. Clay and sods would alone 
 be attainable in the humid climates which 
 some of these erratic tribes were destined 
 to inhabit. 
 
 The observations which travellers have 
 been enabled to make upon the efforts of 
 barbarous nations, so situated, to shelter 
 themselves against the inclemencies of the 
 skies, seem to indicate the existence of a 
 universal feeling or instinct in the method 
 of building. The huts of the nations 
 who have made the least advance to- 
 wards civilization, are in their construction 
 similar to those of the postdiluvians, de- 
 scribed by Vitruvius. The conical sheds 
 of the savages of North America, formed 
 by poles or branches of trees fixed in the 
 ground and meeting at a point, are in no 
 respect dissimilar to those which history 
 recounts to have been constructed by the 
 earliest people. In all places where forests 
 
6 
 
 abounded tins mode of building may be 
 presumed to have been practised. 
 
 Amongst a people where timber was 
 less abundant, the Ethiopians for instance, 
 a mode totally different must necessarily 
 have been pursued : and any advance 
 towards the improvement of the Troglo- 
 dite cavern could have been only effected 
 by the more difficult task of putting to- 
 gether the fragments of stone which nature 
 or accident had detached from the native 
 rock of the country. Whether this was 
 accomplished by a few masses of the 
 material, or by the more artificial mode of 
 uniting a number of smaller stones, the 
 effort must necessarily have been greater, 
 and the art displayed, more considerable. 
 
 The nations thus circumstanced, may be 
 imagined to have been the first to exhibit 
 a certain degree of architectural science in 
 the construction of their dwellings. 
 
 From the greater facility of working 
 and fashioning wood, and the less degree 
 
7 
 
 of art necessary in covering habitations 
 of a certain extent with timber, it might 
 be supposed that the people of a country 
 producing this useful material, would be 
 the first in point of time to enlarge their 
 dwellings, and thence imbibe an early 
 taste for luxury and refinement in build- 
 ing : yet it is evident that art and inven- 
 tion would be less powerfully exercised , 
 and hence, that all improvement, which 
 followed from the incessant attempt to 
 obviate the disadvantages attending the 
 employment of material rendered subser- 
 vient to that purpose by vast labour and 
 assiduity, would originate with a people 
 who possessed no other. 
 
 From a similar mode of reasoning, it 
 would follow that the origin of the appli- 
 cation of timber to those purposes of life 
 which only could be obtained by means of 
 its peculiar properties, ought to be refer- 
 red to nations who had forests capable 
 of affording an abundant supply: and 
 
hence, that amongst other arts connected 
 with that of carpenti'y, these would be the 
 first to make advances in naval architecture. 
 The truth of such reasoning is confirmed 
 by the history of the great nations of anti- 
 ^l^^hty, the Syrians and the Egyptians ; 
 for as architecture arose amongst these, 
 so navigation was brought by the former 
 to a degree of perfection attained by no 
 other people of the same, or the following 
 age. 
 
 Vitruvius, in attempting to trace the 
 progress of the art of building, deduces 
 the origin of the ornamental parts of the 
 superstructure from the desire of imitat- 
 ing, in stone, the appearance which the 
 early buildings of timber necessarily as- 
 sumed ; and as he leaves the introduction 
 of columns unexplained, it has been the 
 custom to trace this also to a similar source. 
 But if it be true, that columns were first 
 used by those nations who, from the de- 
 ficiency of timber, cannot be supposed to 
 
have applied it to the most common pur- 
 poses of life, and therefore could never 
 have possessed these imagined prototypes, 
 we must look for some other origin of this 
 prominent feature of architecture, than that 
 which seems obviously to present itself. 
 Indeed, if it be considered how few means 
 a rude and untutored people possessed of 
 felling trees for every common-place occa- 
 sion, the less reluctance will be felt in 
 abandoning this opinion ; notwithstanding, 
 by a very general adoption, it has obtained 
 popularity. 
 
 The true origin of the Egyptian column 
 may perhaps be determined from the spe- 
 cimens afforded by the early architectural 
 productions of the country, in which it 
 formed a principal feature. These lead to 
 the conjecture that bundles of canes, which 
 the Nile copiously supplied, bound together 
 at intervals, first suggested the idea of a 
 sculptured support.* This deduction of 
 
 ^ In confirmation of this opinion it may be observed, 
 
10 
 
 the origin of columns, will sufficiently ex- 
 plain why, in buildings of the highest 
 antiquity, they are found gradually to 
 diminish in thickness from the bottom to 
 the top. Reeds and canes are known to 
 
 that the old Greek word pa/38oj(7J$, which signifies staf- 
 fing or reeding, as the operation is now called, was applied 
 to signify the fluting of columns. pa/38o)cr<5 xlovog. Aristot. 
 Ethic, ad Nicom. x. 3. The Egyptians, says Diodorus, 
 constructed their dwellings with reeds, a custom which 
 was still continued by the shepherds of the country. y.u\ 
 oh^osig SK TWV KaXctj/,aiV Karaa-xstJx^sar&at. Se toutcov 
 
 8<ajU.lv£»v Tra^a Toig rdlg xclt AtyuTrTov, ovg airavTag 
 
 (pacr) jW.r]Sep./av aAAvjv oixrjcriV ^ t»)V lx twv 
 
 xciXociJicov sx^tv hxiiJi.a^ 0 VTCig, apx£i(7&cu ToaiTr]. i. 43. 
 
 Sanchoniatho, quoted by Warburton, likewise alludes 
 to the primaeval custom of building cottages of reeds. 
 KaXujSaj Ts sTTivorjcrai utto xoiXaf^wv, xoc) Sguwv, xal Trcunvgcov. 
 Divine Leg. of Moses, ii. sect. 4. 
 
 Vitruvius ridicules the practice of painters, who, in 
 decorating walls with the representations of rustic build- 
 ings, introduced bundles of reeds supporting pediments. 
 “ Pro columnis etiam statuuntur calami.” These repre- 
 sentations of pastoral scenes seem to qidicate what pain- 
 ters thought of the origin of the column. Vitruvius, in 
 the sequel, reasons upon the absurdity of such pictures. 
 “ Quemadmodum enim potest calamus vere sustinere 
 tectum ?” is a question he asks, and which he appears to 
 think unanswerable. 
 
11 
 
 grow uniformly tapering from the stem to 
 the point ; a fasciculus of these therefore, 
 when reduced to an equal length, would 
 assume the form of a truncated cone. 
 
 The Syrians, when they had succeeded 
 in establishing a constant intercourse 
 with the Egyptians through the facilities 
 afforded by a growing navy, profited by the 
 greater advances made in building by this 
 people and united the durability so mani- 
 fest in their edifices, with the spaciousness 
 which, by the use of timber in constructing 
 roofs, they were enabled to observe in their 
 own. To them therefore maybe attributed 
 the practice of combining stone and timber 
 in the construction of their buildings, which 
 continued to be followed in later ages by 
 the Greeks. By the use of timber, the 
 inhabitants of Syria were released from 
 that frequent occurrence of columns in the 
 interior of their temples, which forms so 
 striking a difference between the modes of 
 building severally practised by the Asiatics 
 
12 
 
 and tlie almost neighbouring inhabitants of 
 Africa. 
 
 In conformity with this supposed mode 
 of building, we may imagine the Syrians 
 to have begun after the manner of the 
 Egyptians, avith erecting columns of stone 
 and uniting them at their summits by a 
 material of equal durability. Plere the 
 imitation ceased; the practice of the two 
 nations had nothing more in common. The 
 Egyptians, in a similar stage of advance- 
 ment, directed their thoughts towards the 
 means of supporting the ponderous blocks 
 with which they covered their buildings ; 
 for this purpose they introduced columns 
 jn range beyond range, behind those of 
 the front, throughout the whole extent of 
 the temple. The Syrians, on the other 
 hand, alter so far providing for the dura- 
 tion of the building by using stone for 
 their columns and epistylia, availed them- 
 selves of the facility their native timber 
 afforded, for the formation of the roof. 
 
13 
 
 The greater spaciousness they were enabled 
 to give to their covered buildings led them 
 to use that perishable material in prefer- 
 ence to one, the adoption of which in- 
 volved a greater expenditure, and rendered 
 contraction in the width of the edifice a 
 measure of necessity. 
 
 From a building constructed after the 
 manner of the Egyptians, to the extent 
 of stone columns and stone epistylia, and 
 covered with a roof of timber, those orna- 
 mental parts of temples which differ in 
 character from the corresponding mem- 
 bers of Egyptian buildings may subse- 
 quently have arisen. Such an origin 
 would be consistent with what Vitruvius 
 relates as to their invention ; and it is to 
 be observed that the imitation in stone 
 of the parts originally formed of* timber, 
 according to the theory of that author, 
 begins with the tigna, or beams, whose 
 ends were supported by the epistylia.* 
 
 * A passage in Euripides seems to allude to the prac- 
 
14 
 
 According to a more recent hypothesis, it 
 has been the custom to deduce all the 
 members of architecture from one early 
 prototype ; whereas it must be obvious 
 that some were additions to others of long 
 standing. For, admitting the supposition, 
 it must follow, that the type of the 
 Doric entablature existed in the same 
 example that suggested the application of 
 the column ; and that one invariably ac- 
 companied the other in all the intervening 
 stages between original rudeness and the 
 practice of architecture as a science. But 
 in Fgypt, we find the column to have been 
 employed for ages, combined with an 
 entablature which bears no resemblance 
 to that of Grecian times. 
 
 With regard to the reputed origin of the 
 proportions observed in columns of the 
 
 tlce of introducing timber in the entablatures of the 
 buildings of the Greeks; where Agave desires Tentheus 
 to fasten with pegs of wood the head of the lion taken in 
 t e chase to the triglyphs.— Trao-craXeuo-s Bacch. 
 
 1215 . 
 
15 
 
 several orders,* and of the different cha- 
 racters each was made to assume, from 
 the consideration of the human form in 
 different sexes and different stages of life, 
 it can be viewed in no other light, than 
 as the offspring of a mind addicted to the 
 practice of tracing every invention to an 
 imaginary source ; and if in the first in- 
 stance it might appear plausible to deduce 
 the origin of the masculine proportions of 
 the Doric from the athletic form of man, 
 it would seem but pursuing the train of 
 thought to derive the proportions of the 
 lighter orders from the more slender figure 
 of the fairer sex. 
 
 With no other more satisfactory autho- 
 rity for its admission, we cannot accept 
 the evidence relating to the invention of 
 the several orders of architecture ; and 
 if we feel inclined to retain that which, 
 with some modifications, is applicable to 
 the origin of the ornamental part of the 
 
 * Vitruv. iv. I. 
 
superstructure, it is because the remains of 
 Egyptian art present no rude type fromi 
 which we might expect the more finished 
 ornaments of the Grecian entablature to 
 have been derived. 
 
 Although we know that the use of co- 
 lumns, as a decorative and prominent fea- 
 ture, prevailed in Phoenician architecture^ 
 more than a thousand years before the 
 Christian era, their introduction as such„ 
 into Greece, does not seem to have fol- 
 lowed their adoption by the Syrians with 
 the rapidity which might have been ex- 
 pected from the intercourse subsisting be- 
 tween the two nations. This slowness of 
 the advancement made by the Greeks in 
 architecture, may, in a great measure, be 
 attributed to the enfeebled state into which 
 they had fallen, in consequence of their 
 exertions in the w^ar against Troy ; a con- 
 dition from which it required all the ad- 
 vantages of a long period of tranquillity, 
 and an extensive commerce, to recover. 
 
17 
 
 By attributing such an influence to the 
 Trojan expedition, we may be enabled to 
 account for the state of barbarism into 
 which the countries of Greece appear to 
 have relapsed, at the period of the Dorian 
 invasion of the Peloponnesus. To the 
 descendants of these Dorians however, we 
 may safely attribute the introduction of 
 architecture into Greece ; although no 
 great progress could be expected until 
 the empire had recovered its wasted ener- 
 gies, nor until the unremitting efforts of 
 the Heraclidae, in the cause of the arts 
 and sciences, called forth the dawning 
 of that excellence for which their coun- 
 try was afterwards so deservedly cele- 
 brated. 
 
 At what period ornamental architecture 
 arose in Greece cannot now be ascertained. 
 Certain it is, however, that it must have 
 been subsequent to the time of Homer ; 
 because columns, and all other decorative 
 features of the art, were unknown to this 
 
 c 
 
poet.* The absence of all mention of 
 architects in the Iliad, is a further proof of 
 the want of architectural decoration in 
 that age ; especially when it is contrasted 
 with the encomiums bestowed upon those 
 who excelled in working and fashioning 
 timber.-f* 
 
 Historians are not agreed as to the pre- 
 cise age of Homer. By some, he is sup- 
 
 * C'wil Arch, of Vitruv. Introd. p. 34 et seq. 
 
 f II. V. .59. XV. 411. 
 
 Hancarville imagines the Doric order to have been 
 known in Greece soon after the return of the Heraclidge. 
 In the eighth year of his reign, Oxylus, one of the chiefs 
 of that family, built a temple to Juno at Elis. This 
 event happened about 88 years after the fall of Troy. 
 The temple of Juno, which was seen by Pausanias, was 
 a Doric structure. This building, according to the 
 report of the Eleans, was the temple built in that early 
 age. But this is mere tradition. “ Certainly,” ad&s the 
 traveller, “ no one knows who was the architect.” v. 16‘. 
 One of the columns in the opisthodomus was of oak ; 
 probably the only remaining one of the early temple. In 
 the same neighbourhood another wooden column was 
 preserved ; this was recorded to have formerly belonged 
 to the house of Oenomaus ; it was one of four which 
 stood near the temple of J upiter. The wooden column 
 was bound by iron straps in order to preserve it. 
 Pausan. v. 20. 
 
19 
 
 posed to have flourished 968 years before 
 the Christian era. Herodotus conjectures 
 him to have been contemporary with 
 Hesiod, and to have lived 84 years subse- 
 quently to the time assigned by other 
 writers to the age of the author of the 
 Iliad. If we suppose him of the higher an- 
 tiquity it will follow, that more than two 
 centuries intervened between the repos- 
 session of the Peloponnesus by the de- 
 scendants of Hercules and the time he 
 flourished : and his birth will have been 
 47 years subsequent to the commence- 
 ment of the Jewish temple by Phoenician 
 artists. 
 
 If, on the other hand, by accepting the 
 testimony of Herodotus, we bring the age 
 of Homer so low down as 884 years be- 
 fore Christ, we shall be compelled to 
 admit that the use of columns, as a prin- 
 cipal feature of ornamental architecture, 
 was practised in Syria more than 130 
 years before the birth of the poet. Ac- 
 
20 
 
 cording, therefore, to the hypothesis, that 
 their introduction into Greece was subse- 
 quent to this event, we must suppose the 
 Greeks, notwithstanding their commercial 
 
 intercourse with the Syrians, to have 
 
 / 
 
 remained ignorant of their use for a 
 longer interval than may be thought 
 consistent with that thirst for knowledge 
 and love of science which distinguished 
 the Dorians of Corinth and the Pelopon- 
 nesus. 
 
 It must be apparent, that the Corin- 
 thians had made considerable progress in 
 architecture at least so early as 80 years 
 after the period above-mentioned : for the 
 colonists who emigrated to Sicily, in the 
 middle of the eighth century, must have 
 been long acquainted with the science : a 
 fact which the temples they erected in their 
 colonies, soon after their settlement, suffi- 
 ciently attest. These indicate a degree of 
 perfection to the attainment of which half 
 a cenluiy, from the first introduction of 
 
21 
 
 the art, cannot be thought too long a 
 period. 
 
 Whatever be the true age of Homer, 
 the result to be deduced from the fore- 
 going observations is, that architecture 
 arose in Greece at some period in the 
 interval from the time he flourished and 
 the Corinthian migration ; that is, taking 
 the greater limits, between the years 968 
 and 757 before our era. Whether we take 
 the mean of these limits for the probable 
 period of its introduction, or suppose the 
 age of Homer to be more correctly stated 
 by Herodotus and follow a similar method, 
 we shall obtain results whose diflerence is 
 of no material consequence in a question 
 of this nature. These results date the 
 origin of architecture in Greece in some 
 interval between the 863"'* and 821*‘ year 
 before Christ. 
 
 Before this time, temples and public 
 buildings requiring no very considerable 
 strength, were constructed with wood ; 
 
22 
 
 although treasuries, and the walls of cities 
 which contributed to its defence, were 
 built with vast blocks of stone.* Even the 
 temple at Delphi, the most celebrated in 
 Greece for its sanctity, was formed of the 
 wood of the olive, and resembled externally 
 a cabin .-j'* Herodotus observes of the 
 
 Geloni, that they built their temples after 
 the manner of the Greeks, that is to say, 
 with timber.;!; So late as the time of 
 Pindar, stone columns had not superseded 
 the use of wooden piers in the palaces of 
 
 * Pausanias reckoned the wall of Tyrins amongst the 
 early wonders of Greece, ii. 25. 
 
 In the earliest times, however, cities seem to have 
 owed their safety to fortifications of less substantial ma^ 
 terials. Before the wall which surrounded the Acropolis 
 of Athens was built by the Pelasgi, it was protected by 
 a palisade formed of the trunks of trees. The walls of 
 Mantinea are said to have been built of unburnt clay. 
 Pausan. viii, 8, Those of the city of Gelonus are said 
 by Herodotus to have been wholly of timber, iv. J 08. 
 
 -f- Pausan. x. 5. The temple of Neptune at Mantinea 
 was built by Hadrian enclosing the early temple, which 
 was constructed with beams of wood. Ih. viii. lO. 
 
 I Herod, loc. cit. 
 
23 
 
 royalty ; for describing the felling of an 
 oak, he observes that it might serve for the 
 pillar of a regal palace.* 
 
 The plan of the buildings first adopted 
 by the Greeks, was similar to that accord- 
 ing to which the generality of Egyptian 
 temples appear to have been erected. This 
 mode is termed by Vitruvius in antis, that 
 is, with antae, or pilasters, instead of co- 
 lumns, at the angles of the front : these antae 
 were the terminations of the lateral walls. 
 The number of columns interposed between 
 them varied from two to six. The plan 
 of the Jewish temple was undoubtedly 
 borrowed from the simplest of the Egyp- 
 tian forms.J* Temples of this description 
 were consequently without the embellish- 
 ment of lateral porticoes. J 
 
 * Pyth. iv. 478. Pausanias mentions a small temple 
 in the forum of the Eleans whose roof was supported by 
 columns of wood : ’^Ear* 8e u\I/ijAov, TOjp(^ot /xev oux 
 
 sjcTj Tov ogotpov dpvo$ avs^ou(riv elgycta-ixsvoi kiovs;. vi. 24. 
 
 -f Antiq. of Magna Grcecia. Introd. 
 
 + There is a building at Hermonthis, which is repre- 
 
It is admitted that the Doric order pre- 
 ceded the Ionic, although by what interval 
 of time cannot be ascertained. The title 
 by which it has always been recognised 
 informs us where we are to look, for the 
 scene of its first introduction into Greece 
 — the Dorian cities of the Peloponnesus. 
 
 I have elsewhere* attempted to prove 
 that in the progress of architecture from 
 Egypt to Greece, the column in Phoenicia 
 assumed those proportions which, after 
 some modifications by the people amongst 
 whom it was received, distinguish the 
 Doric of Corinth and its colonies from the 
 columns of less ancient buildings.^ 
 
 sen ted by Denon (Voyage d'Egypte, pi. 51 ) as having 
 four columns in the front and seven in the flanks. But 
 it seems probable that these remains are only a portion 
 of the original building, the exterior avails having been 
 destroyed. 
 
 * Antiq. of Magna Groecia. Introd. 
 
 -f- It has been objected to my hypothesis, by the ano- 
 nymous author of a work of great merit entitled “ Prin- 
 ciples of Design in Architecture,” that I am not war- 
 ranted in my interpretation of the word which, in the 
 
35 
 
 The column and its capital were the 
 chief and perhaps the only portions of 
 ornamental architecture for which Greece 
 was indebted to Syria. We cannot re- 
 cognise in the sacred writings, nor in the 
 history of Josephus, those peculiarities 
 which are so striking in the entablature of 
 the Doric order. The epistylia of the 
 Syrian temple were covered with a net 
 work of brass, from which were suspended 
 brazen bells in shape resembling pome- 
 granates. 
 
 The practice of fluting columns seems 
 to have been amongst the many improve- 
 ments which the ruder architecture re- 
 ceived from the hands of the Greeks.* 
 
 English translation of the septuagint, is rendered chapi- 
 ters. I have only to observe, in answer, that the inter- 
 pretation is not given as my own. The word epistylia 
 has been adopted in the vulgate version, and is sanc- 
 tioned by the approbation of the most celebrated 
 commentators. 
 
 * This practice has been thought, with greater inge- 
 nuity than the authorities for such a supposition warrant, 
 to have originated from the custom of depositing spears 
 
26 
 
 Independently of this we may attribute to 
 them that beauty of proportion so much 
 admired in their temples, the introduction 
 of metopes, triglyphs and mutules in the 
 
 against the posts which, in the great halls of ancient 
 palaces, supported the roof. The channels are supposed 
 to have been made for the purpose of receiving them. A 
 passage in Homer has been interpreted so as to favour 
 this hypothesis. In the introduction to the civil archi- 
 tecture of Vitruvius this passage has been amply dis- 
 cussed. The reader is referred to it, p. 41. 
 
 If a conjecture might be hazarded on the supposed 
 origin of fluting columns, without incurring the imputa- 
 tion of proceeding upon a postulate that has not been 
 conceded ; I should be tempted to allude to what has 
 already been observed on the origin of the column amongst 
 the Egyptians. I have supposed the first idea to have 
 been suggested by a fasciculus of reeds, bound together 
 in order to form a prop, where timber could not be pro- 
 cured in abundance. The Greeks, who borrowed their 
 columns from models formed on the practice of the 
 Egyptians, sought to give their improved architecture all 
 the embellishment of which it was capable, without losing 
 the traces of its first employment : and whilst they 
 rejected the servility of closely imitating the reeded 
 trunk of its early prototype, disdained the heaviness of a 
 plain shaft. Recurring therefore to the original of 
 Egyptian columns they may be conjectured to have pre- 
 served the remembrance of its invention under a material 
 difference of appearance. In anticipating the effects of 
 time they may have regarded the column, when the out- 
 
27 
 
 cornice and, in all probability, the pedi- 
 ment; a termination no where met with in 
 the temples of Egypt, the roofs of which 
 are invariably flat. 
 
 The invention of the pediment afforded 
 the Greeks a mode of embellishment, of 
 which the Egyptians never entertained an 
 idea — the introduction of statues in perfect 
 relief; thus giving to architecture the 
 powerful aid of sculpture. 
 
 If we should be compelled to admit that 
 the Doric order followed from a gradual 
 and progressive improvement upon build- 
 ings designed after Phoenician models, we 
 must still attribute to the Greeks the sole 
 invention of two orders differing from the 
 former both in character and proportion. 
 
 To the invention of the second order of 
 architecture the Asiatic colonies of Greece 
 prefer a claim ; and the name by which it 
 
 ward facing of the reeds and the straps by which they 
 were bound together would have perished, and left the 
 hollow of the reeds exposed throughout their enthe 
 length. 
 
28 
 
 has always been acknowledged proves it to 
 be undisputed. Its introduction must have 
 been subsequent to that of the Doric ; 
 and the period of its first adoption may 
 probably be ascertained with some degree 
 of accuracy. 
 
 The earliest building of antiquity which 
 denotes a departure from the established 
 forms of the European Greeks, is the 
 temple of Juno at Samos : this may be 
 regarded as one of the first indications 
 of that order which was subsequently 
 termed Ionic. It was built about the 
 Olympiad.* 
 
 It is worthy of remark that the volutes of 
 the capitals belonging to the columns of 
 this building were formed in a manner no 
 where else observed ; instead of the hollow, 
 which Vitruvius calls the canal and which 
 
 * Civil Arch, of Vitruvius. Introd. p. 59. 
 
 Vitruvius mentions Theodorus as the author of a treatise 
 upon this temple. He calls the order of the building 
 Doric, proem, vii. Herodotus says it was built by 
 Rhoecus, a native of Samos, hi. 60. 
 
29 
 
 gives to the volute the appearance of 
 having been the matrix of a horn, these 
 have a convex spiral resembling the cast, 
 or horn itself ; thus affording some autho- 
 rity for the supposition which traces the 
 origin of this ornament to the horn of the 
 Ammonian Jupiter.* 
 
 Pliny asserts that the Ionic capital and 
 base were first introduced in the columns of 
 the temple of Diana at Ephesus ; an asser- 
 tion which is contradicted by their prior 
 existence in the columns of the Samian 
 temple. 
 
 The origin of the capital of the Ionic 
 column, as it has been related by Vitru- 
 vius, is improbable, the invention of the 
 base is not less absurd. The Athenian 
 inscription designates the volute by the 
 term anthemion, and the propriety of the 
 appellation is borne out by its tendril- 
 shaped outline, and the flower of the 
 lotus which, in the Ionic temples of Asia 
 
 * Civil Arch, of Vitruvius. Gloss, on the word volute. 
 
30 
 
 Minor, is found constantly attached to 
 it. 
 
 Of all the opinions entertained by Vi- 
 truvius on the origin of the orders of archi- 
 tecture, that relating to the invention of the 
 Corinthian capital seems alone entitled to 
 any attention : both because the reputed 
 age of Callimachus, its supposed inventor, 
 approaches within certain limits to the first 
 recorded instances of the introduction of 
 the order into Greece and because the 
 recital is less open to the charge of ab- 
 surdity and fiction. It must, however, 
 be observed that the capitals of some 
 of the Egyptian columns might have ori- 
 ginally suggested to the Grecian sculp- 
 
 * Callimaclius lived towards the end of the Pelopon- 
 nesian war. He made the golden lamp which was sus- 
 pended in the temple of Minerva Polias. Pausan. i. 26. 
 This temple was nearly completed in the 94th Olympiad, 
 about the time that the old temple of Minerva at Tegea 
 was destroyed. '^I'he celebrated Scopas of Paros, after- 
 wards built a new temple, the first year after the 96th 
 Olvmpiad, in which he introduced Corinthian columns, as 
 well as Doric and Ionic. Pausan. viii. 45. 
 
31 
 
 tor the idea of representing the leaves 
 of plants amongst the decorations of a 
 capital : and if the intercourse between 
 Greece and Egypt at this period be con- 
 sidered, no doubt can be entertained of 
 the possibility that such might be its origin. 
 But the alterations it underwent and the 
 beauties it received in the hands of Grecian 
 artists were of such a nature, as to leave 
 the original, if indeed such there were, far 
 behind in the essentials of design and 
 execution. 
 
 Before architecture had attained in 
 Greece that excellence which it reached 
 through the exertions and under the pro- 
 tection of Pericles, an interval of time had 
 elapsed, from its first introduction, of four 
 centuries. Amongst the earliest examples 
 erected by the people of the Peloponnesus 
 and its colonies, are the temples of Corinth, 
 Nemea, Paestum, Syracuse and the other 
 Greek settlements in Sicily. These have 
 been described so much at length'^ that 
 * Antiq, of Magna Groscia. This work comprehends 
 
32 
 
 any further observations on the present 
 occasion would be unnecessary. 
 
 Let us hasten to notice the architecture 
 of the Athenians, which, although a sub- 
 ject not wholly new, has been by no means 
 exhausted. On the contrary,' it is one 
 which daily acquires fresh interest ; owing 
 in a great degree to a more familiar ac- 
 quaintance with its beauties, obtained 
 through means of the recent acquisitions 
 with which this country has been enriched. 
 
 At the period of which we are now pre- 
 paring to speak, the attention of the Athe- 
 nians was directed by their rulers to the 
 acquirement of a taste for every thing 
 great in science and in art. In no one 
 did the desire of cultivating the taste of a 
 nation shine forth more conspicuously 
 than in Pericles, one of the most accom- 
 plished statesmen to whom the revenue of 
 a government was ever intrusted. With 
 a zeal worthy the emulation of the nations 
 
 notices on the temples of Sicily and those of Paestura in 
 Lucania. 
 
33 
 
 of civilized Europe, he availed himself of 
 every occasion to increase the ascendency 
 and establish the pre-eminence, of the 
 country which his talents contributed to 
 raise above the level of surrounding 
 nations. 
 
 The degree of excellence which A thens 
 attained is proved no less by the concur- 
 ring testimonies of ancient writers, than 
 by the spectacle which it presents at this 
 distant period. Barbarians animated by 
 a blind and bigoted zeal have laid waste 
 the country, and destroyed her temples ; 
 the violence of the Goths, the predatory 
 incursions of the Romans, and the ig- 
 norance of the Mahomedan conquerors, 
 have each in their turn contributed to the 
 downfall of Athens; debased below the 
 common level of conquered states, it is 
 still mistress of treasures, the possession 
 of which, by any nation more polished, 
 would render it the envy and admiration 
 of the world. That they are thus highly 
 
 D 
 
34 
 
 6stim3;t6d) tHc efforts ot the Vcncti&ns 3 /iid 
 the French, and the later exertions of the 
 Eno-lish, to enrich their several countries 
 with such of the spoils as admitted of 
 deportation, sufficiently attest. 
 
 Such inconsiderable portions of her al- 
 most inexhaustible treasures, can, how- 
 ever, convey no adequate idea of their 
 beauty, and the effect they produced 
 when entire. The efforts of individuals 
 have not been wanting to accomplish this 
 desirable end, so far as it could be effected 
 by means of graphical illustrations. For 
 our acquaintance with these remains, we 
 are chiefly indebted to the exertions of our 
 countrymen Revett and Stuart, whose va- 
 luable work on the antiquities of Athens, 
 augmented by contributions from the So- 
 ciety of Dilettanti, is admirably calculated 
 to make known the superiority of Grecian 
 architecture and to inculcate a taste for 
 the pure style of the ancients.* 
 
 * The intentions of Revett and Stuart to provide 
 
35 
 
 Grecian architecture was at that period 
 unknown to the English nation. The 
 descriptions of Wheeler and Spon, neither 
 of whom were at all versed in the science, 
 
 themselves with materials for the interesting work on 
 the antiquity of Athens, which appeared in the sequel, 
 was publicly made known, by means of advertisements, 
 at Rome, where they were then studying. Le Roy, a 
 Frenchman, and likewise a student in the same school, 
 was determined to claim, at the expense of truth and 
 accuracy, the merit due to a new discovery. Repairing 
 to Athens, he hastily collected the documents which he 
 contrived to publish, before the accurate investigation 
 and patient inquiries of the former allowed them to make 
 the necessary preparations for promulgating their disco- 
 veries. This work is no less remarkable for the hasti- 
 ness of its execution than for the inaccuracy of every 
 part. In the second edition, the author confesses that 
 accuracy was not so much his object, as the desire to re- 
 present the buildings in a picturesque point of view 
 Some of his more enlightened countrymen have lately 
 paid a just tribute to the superior merit of the English 
 publication. 
 
 I am happy in having an opportunity of adding my 
 testimony to that of others as to the value and import- 
 ance of the work in question. The details of the build- 
 ings are given with so much precision and minuteness, as 
 to leave any architectural publication on the remains of 
 Athens, but little scope for the production of any thing 
 unexplained. 
 
36 
 
 unaccompanied by illustrations, which 
 could throw light upon the subject, were 
 of no other use than to direct the attention 
 of travellers to the spot which contained 
 relicks of antiquity : to the architectural 
 student, they were of no assistance. The 
 labours of Revett and Stuart unfolded a 
 new scene of interest, and led to the study 
 of Grecian architecture. 
 
 It is not surprising that in treating of a 
 subject entirely new, some errors should 
 have found their way amidst the great 
 bulk of intelligence the work affords ; er- 
 rors which could only have been avoided 
 by a long and intimate acquaintance with 
 the subject. It is on this account only 
 that any further observations on the build- 
 ings of Athens can be thought necessary. 
 
ON THE 
 
 PLAN OF ATHENS. 
 
 Asa preliminary step towards enabling 
 us to appreciate the merits of Grecian 
 architecture, it becomes necessary to 
 ascertain, with as much accuracy as the 
 nature of the subject will admit, the date 
 and origin of the various buildings we 
 find scattered over the tract formerly oc- 
 cupied by the city of Athens ; in order 
 that the defects which may be thought 
 imputable to some of the works with which 
 this interesting city was at various inter- 
 vals embellished, may not attach to the 
 purer style of the Greeks. 
 
38 
 
 There are so many minutiee of design 
 and execution in the productions of ar- 
 chitecture, that few individuals are com- 
 petent to determine the particular age 
 of buildings, whose principal characters 
 are derived from one and the same source : 
 these, however, easily as they may elude 
 the eye of the common observer, cannot 
 fail of being recognized by those who have 
 attentively studied the architectural pro- 
 ductions of different periods, and various 
 countries. 
 
 With regard to the buildings of Athens, 
 indeed, authorities ma}^ be found, inde- 
 pendent of all character, which indicate 
 their age. Such are, in the first place, 
 their precise situations as they are pointed 
 out in the writings of ancient authors ; 
 secondly, the peculiarities related of them 
 when no certain position is correctly de- 
 signated ; thirdly, the existence of inscrip- 
 tions which determine the origin and the 
 purposes of the buildings on which they 
 
39 
 
 are inscribed. In the first description 
 may be included the temples and public 
 buildings of the Acropolis, and the sta- 
 dium of Herodes-Atticus ; in the second, 
 the temple of Theseus, the Olympium, and 
 the Pantheon of Hadrian, and the octagon 
 Clepsydra, better known by the name of 
 the Tower -of the Winds. In the third, 
 the gate of the Agora, the arch of Ha- 
 drian, the monument of Philopappus, and 
 the choragic trophies of Lysicrates and 
 Thrasyllus. 
 
 The buildings here enumerated, toge- 
 ther with the theatre of Herodes-Atticus, 
 constitute the principal remains of the 
 once populous and crowded city of 
 Athens. 
 
 W e are informed by the Greek historian 
 that the ancient inhabitants of the shores 
 of the Grecian continent, as well as those 
 of the adjacent islands, abandoned their 
 maritime dwellings,* through the dread 
 
 * Amongst the Demi of Attica was Ao-ruTraAa/a, 
 
40 
 
 of pirates and freebooters, who infested 
 the seas, and frequently made sudden 
 descents upon the coasts. Hence it is that 
 we find every Grecian city of high anti- 
 quity, situated at a considerable distance 
 from the sea ; and usually built upon the 
 acclivity of some insulated hill or rock : 
 such was the situation of Athens and Co- 
 rinth, and such the situation of Troezene, 
 on the island of the same name. 
 
 The Acropolis of Athens offered to the 
 early inhabitants the advantages which 
 experience had taught them to consider 
 essential to their protection. A rock, in- 
 accessible on three sides, and easily de- 
 fended on the fourth, nearly five miles 
 distant from the coast, held out no allure- 
 ment to the predatory bands, whose suc- 
 cess depended chiefly upoil the sudden- 
 
 situated on a promontory of that name. This was in 
 all probability the residence of those who afterwards in- 
 habited the Acropolis. The promontory is noticed by 
 Strabo, Lib. ix. 
 
41 
 
 ness of their enterprize, and the defence- 
 less position of the invaded. Posted on 
 its summit, and protected by the rude 
 barrier, which the western side alone 
 required, they might bid defiance to any 
 attack not planned with great discretion, 
 nor prolonged by the formal operations 
 of a regular siege. 
 
 By what stratagem the emigrants from 
 the east obtained possession of Athens, 
 and what straightened means reduced the 
 Pelasgi to submission, it is now in vain to 
 enquire ; it is only known that the latter 
 yielded the possession of the Acropolis, 
 which they had nearly surrounded with a 
 massive wall,* and accepted a tract of 
 ground at the foot of the rock.-f 
 
 * Herodot. vi. 1 37. 
 
 The causes which finally led to the expulsion of the 
 Pelasgi is given by the father of history from report only. 
 The Athenians, under pretence that their sons and 
 daughters, who went from the citadel, then called the 
 city, to the Fountain Enneacrunos, were way-laid and 
 carried off by this people, expelled them from their 
 territory. -j- Pausan. i. 28. 
 
42 
 
 Cecrops and his immediate descendants 
 appear to have confined the extent of the 
 city within the circuit of the walls surround- 
 ing the Acropolis, the increasing popula- 
 tion dispersing itself amongst the villages 
 of Attica. This portion retained the appel- 
 lation of “ the city^^ long after the habi- 
 tations had spread around the foot of the 
 rock upon which it stood. 
 
 When Theseus succeeded to the govern- 
 ment, every town of Attica possessed its 
 separate magistracy and its proper tribu- 
 nal ; but the wisdom of this chief sug- 
 gested the policy of abolishing these petty 
 courts, and of establishing one general Pry- 
 taneum at Athens, to which all appeals 
 were thenceforward, of necessity, referred. 
 This judicious regulation seems to have 
 been followed by the migration of vast 
 numbers from the country round Athens 
 to the vicinity of the Acropolis, and by 
 the consequent foundation of a new city 
 at its foot, towards the south. 
 
43 
 
 Thucydides mentions, in proof that this 
 quarter was the first inhabited after the 
 Acropolis, the existence of ancient temples 
 there ; particularly those of Jupiter-Olym- 
 pius, Apollo-Pythius, the Earth, and Bac- 
 chus in Limnae.* The motive for prefer- 
 ring a situation on the south side is suffi- 
 ciently obvious, the proximity of the foun- 
 tain Callirhoe, the only spring of pure 
 water which the neighbourhood of the 
 Acropolis supplied. The irregular sup- 
 ply afforded by the Ilissus, which flowed 
 through the plain at the foot of the citadel, 
 continued to be felt until a period compa- 
 ratively late ; and the inconvenience was 
 only obviated when the discovery was 
 
 * Valla’s reading of this passage places the city on 
 the north side, vpos apxrov is there put for itpog votqv. 
 Those who contend for the first reading object to the 
 other, the absence of all remains of antiquity in the plain 
 to the south of the Acropolis, without reflecting that the 
 same objection applies with equal force to the north, 
 which has no remains of antiquity of the age of which 
 Thucydides is here speaking. 
 
44 
 
 made that this necessary element could 
 be obtained by sinking wells in various 
 parts of the city. 
 
 In process of time, the increase of 
 population extended the city all round the 
 citadel, and at the commencement of the 
 Peloponnesian war, the circuit of the city- 
 walls is stated, by Thucydides, to have 
 been forty -three stadia, exclusive of a por- 
 tion comprehended between the long walls 
 of Phalerum and Piraeus. 
 
 Many vestiges of these walls are re- 
 maining ; and by following the direction 
 pointed out by the fragments which occur 
 at intervals, it is manifest that they em- 
 braced a very considerable extent. Un- 
 less, however, the city may be supposed 
 to have spread more to the north-east than 
 has hitherto been imagined, the extent 
 assigned to them by Thucydides must be 
 considered as over-rated.* 
 
 ♦ Thucydides says, that that part alone of the walls 
 surrounding the city, requiring a guard, was forty-three 
 
45 
 
 It is to be observed, that Hadrianopolis, 
 or New Athens, is comprised within this 
 circuit ; whence we maj conclude, that its 
 extent was not enlarged bj that emperor, 
 but that he only embellished a division of 
 the city which was subsequently called 
 Athens, and in later times by his name, 
 in contradistinction to the part originally 
 founded by Theseus. 
 
 The division of the city which was thus 
 distinguished from that of a more remote 
 antiquity, is ascertained by the existence 
 of a building, whose inscriptions prove it 
 to be coeval with, or some little time sub- 
 sequent to, the period when Athens expe- 
 rienced the munificence of this her bene- 
 factor. It is an arch of considerable 
 beauty, and in latter times has been called 
 the gate of Hadrian. This building may 
 be considered in the light of a very inte- 
 
 stadia in extent ; added to this, there was a portion 
 where it was unnecessary to place troops. This inter- 
 mediate wall appears to have been about four stadia. 
 
46 
 
 resting record, which assists us in drawing 
 the line between the division first peopled 
 under Theseus, and that which was se- 
 lected to exhibit the proofs of the empe- 
 ror’s regard for this favoured spot. Its 
 direction is nearly north-east, the south- 
 west end approaching within thirty feet of 
 the peribolus surrounding a sacred struc- 
 ture whose remains corresponded with the 
 description given by Vitruvius of a temple 
 of Jupiter-Olympius, begun by Pisistratus, 
 and continued by Antiochus-Epiphanes. 
 
 The inscriptions alluded to appear to 
 have misled all former travellers who have 
 attempted to illustrate the plan of Athens. 
 Chandler places Hadrianopolis to the 
 south of the arch, and the city of Theseus 
 to the north ; yielding to the popular belief 
 that the building adjoining the arch was a 
 creation of the Emperor Hadrian, and con- 
 sequently within the boundary of his city. 
 Wheeler and Spon had previously adopt- 
 ed a similar opinion. Stuart, who pro- 
 
47 
 
 fessed the same opinion as to the author 
 of this building, very properly questions 
 the propriety of appropriating to Ha- 
 drianopolis, a situation in that part of the 
 plain lying south-east of the Acropolis; 
 but as any other disposition of the new 
 city appears to be at variance with his in- 
 terpretation of the inscriptions, he sur- 
 mounts the difficulty by supposing them 
 to be “ rather a complimentary effiision 
 of Athenian gratitude to so liberal a bene- 
 factor, than an absolute truth, or the re- 
 cord of an historical fact/^ 
 
 Now although it is admitted that in 
 later times the Athenians gave many 
 proofs of gross adulation, by obliterating 
 old inscriptions, and affixing new, to flat- 
 ter the favourite of the day,* these could 
 not have been inscribed with that view, 
 for their existence has a tendency diame- 
 trically opposite. Had Hadrian, although 
 
 * See the observations upon the character of the 
 Athenians, in Chandler’s Travels in Greece, c. 21. 
 
48 
 
 not the projector of the temple, whose 
 remains prove it to have been the most 
 considerable and costly amongst the pro- 
 ductions of Athens, contributed in any 
 material degree towards its completion, 
 his flatterers would have claimed for him 
 a greater share of merit, rather than 
 have permitted the erection of a monu- 
 mental record which, by placing the tem- 
 ple without the boundaries of Hadriano- 
 polis, excludes him from all participation 
 in the applause due to those who were 
 instrumental in perfecting this celebrated 
 structure. 
 
 The evidence that these testimonies 
 afford are moreover easily reconcileable to 
 the conclusions which may be deduced 
 from other authentic sources of informa- 
 tion. 
 
 On approaching the south front of the 
 arch, the description declares, that “ What 
 you see is the city of Hadrian, and not 
 
49 
 
 that of Theseus/" * On the other front is 
 inscribed, “ What you see is Athens, the 
 ancient city of Theseus/" In reading 
 the first of these inscriptions, the eye is 
 immediately directed to the picture seen 
 beyond the arched opening over which it 
 is placed, and of which it forms the frame. 
 Through this the greater part of the 
 modern town presents itself, lying in the 
 plain on the north-east side of the citadel, 
 .whilst the Acropolis itself is on the left, 
 without the field of view. Amid the 
 buildings of modern Athens, therefore, we 
 are instructed to search for the remains of 
 those with which the ancient city was 
 adorned by Hadrian. The ruins of the 
 
 * 'A 'ASgjavoy jc’ ov^i 0y)(rscof ttoA/j, sc. Quae vides, 
 Hadriani et non Thesei urbs. Inscrip. Antiq. p. xxvi. 
 Travels in Greece^ c. xv. 
 
 •f* 'A i8si^ A$r]vcii 0y](Tscos fj Trpiv TroXig. 
 
 I adopt Chandler’s reading of these inscriptions in 
 preference to Stuart’s ; inasmuch as the former ranks as 
 a scholar far above the author of the Antiquities of 
 Athens. The latter reads the first quoted of these in- 
 scriptions, thus, 
 
 'Ai 8’ SKT 'ABgpioivov K &r}(xecog ttoA/j. 
 
 E 
 
50 
 
 Oljmpieum, for such they will be found 
 to be, are all this while in the rear of the 
 spectator, and consequently without the 
 boundary of Hadrian's city. 
 
 On approaching the arch from the 
 north, the most prominent object in the 
 foreground of the view before us, is a 
 cluster of gigantic columns of the Corin- 
 thian order of architecture. These for- 
 merly belonged to the peristyle of a 
 building of vast magnitude and extent. 
 To what origin and to whom we are to 
 attribute these magnificent remains, will 
 form the subject of subsequent inquiry. 
 
 Independently of the proof which the 
 inscription affords that the position of the 
 buildings of Hadrian was north of the 
 arch, it will appear in the sequel, that 
 there are remains in the direction thus 
 pointed out, whose style of architecture is 
 precisely similar to that observed in the 
 building on which this record is preserved. 
 If further proof were required, it would 
 
51 
 
 be afforded by the remains of the aque- 
 duct begun by Hadrian, and finished by 
 Antoninus-Pius for the supply of the new 
 city. I'he direction it followed is easily 
 traced from the foot of Mount Anchesmus 
 to that quarter of the city which has here 
 been called Hadrianopolis. 
 
 It by no means follows that every build- 
 ing whose remains may be discovered in 
 New Athens owed its origin to Hadrian ; 
 we know indeed from unequivocal proofs 
 that some were of earlier date : but this 
 circumstance does not militate against the 
 assumption that the division of the city, of 
 which we are now speaking, was, in the 
 language of the inscription, Athens ; nor 
 does the existence of a temple, begun by 
 Antiochus, and finished by Hadrian, prove 
 the site it occupies to be without the 
 ANCIENT CITY OF ThESEUS. 
 
 This collocation leaves an area around 
 the foot of the Acropolis towards the 
 south-west, intervening between the ap- 
 
52 
 
 proach to the citadel and the city of 
 Theseus, without the pale of the latter. It 
 is obvious, however, from the excursions 
 of Pausanias, that there were in his time, 
 many public edifices dispersed about it. 
 W hy therefore the city of Theseus should 
 not have occupied this area in preference 
 to another more distant from the citadel 
 seems to require explanation. 
 
 Ancient writers, as it has been already 
 remarked, allude to the retirement of the 
 Pelasgi from the summit of the rock, which 
 they had surrounded with a wall, and 
 which afterwards became the citadel ; 
 and although Herodotus* relates that they 
 were indemnified by a grant of land at the 
 foot of Hymettus, Thucydides and Pausa- 
 nias, who had better means of information, 
 assure us that the land assigned to them 
 was at the foot of the Acropolis, below the 
 wall they had erected. f- On the final 
 
 * Herod vi. 187* 
 
 -f* Thucyd. lib. ii. 17. Pausan. i, 28. We must be 
 
53 
 
 expulsion of ihe Pelasgi, the spot they had 
 inhabited was declared infamous and 
 uninhabitable. The oracle which decreed 
 this sentence was respected until the 
 Peloponnesian war compelled the people 
 of Attica to seek shelter within the walls of 
 Athens. It was then that the influx of 
 population and the want of accommoda- 
 tion left the refugees no alternative ; and 
 those to whom the already crowded in- 
 closures of the sacred buildings could 
 afford no shelter were compelled to erect 
 their temporary dwellings within this pro- 
 scribed spot. 
 
 Added to this prohibition, which we 
 find to have continued in full force until 
 a period comparatively late, the induce- 
 ment afforded by the proximity of the 
 
 careful in distinguishing between the Pelasgic wall of 
 Herodotus and Pausanias, which surrounded the Acro- 
 polis, and the Pelasgicum, or domain, which was 
 assigned to the early possessors of the citadel when they 
 yielded it up. The editors of Thucydides have inadver- 
 tently translated the Pelasgicum to mean a temple. 
 
54 
 
 fountain Callirhoe to the followers of 
 Theseus was one of considerable weight, 
 in determining the site of a new city. 
 
 Besides the wall enclosing the city, 
 there were two others which abutting 
 against it at an interval of about half a 
 mile asunder, went diverging towards the 
 sea-ports of Phalerum and Piraeus. The 
 southern of these, beginning at the city 
 wall to the south of the hill of the Museum, 
 terminated at Phalerum; the northern, 
 which was the longer of the two, con- 
 nected Athens with the Pir^us, and 
 appears to have formed a junction with 
 the city wall in the hollow between the hill 
 of the Museum and Mount Lycabettus, 
 near the remains of a gateway which was 
 probably the Piraic. The portion of the 
 city wall comprehended between the long 
 walls was denominated (5<a ^{o'ou Te7^og^ or 
 middle wall.*' The long walls were de- 
 
 * Some authors have supposed that the middle wall 
 was a long wall extending from Athens to Munychia, 
 
55 
 
 stroyed during the reign of the Pisistrati, 
 and afterwards restored by Conon : in the 
 time of Pausanias they were again in 
 ruins. 
 
 Pausanias lands at Piraeus, and before 
 taking the direct road to Athens makes a 
 digression to the right, visiting Phalerum 
 and the promontory Colias, twenty stadia 
 beyond it in a south-eastern direction. 
 From hence he appears to have returned, 
 and to have resumed the route to Athens 
 along the road from Piraeus. 
 
 Whether, however, he entered Athens to 
 the south of the long southern wall, a 
 
 interposed between the other two, in a line nearly parallel 
 with them, making all together three long walls. The 
 words of Thucydides, however, prove this middle wall 
 between the Phaleric and the long, or Piraic, wall to 
 have been a portion of that surrounding the city, too 
 T£ yap ^aXriguov rslypog crraSioj ^crav ttevts xa» rpiUKOVTO. 
 7 rpo{ Tov kvkXov too uttsoos, xa) uotoo too kokXoo to 
 <poXao'(ro[x,svov Tpsig xou recrcrapaxoVTa. aXTJ 8e avTOO o xai 
 oi^oXaxTOV ^v, TO {ji,eTu^b too ts (j^axpob xu) too <t»aXrjptxob. 
 Thucyd. ii. 13. In a preceding part of his work, he 
 mentions the long walls as being two in number, to ts 
 ^ocXT/pccds xu) TO eg TleipMct. i. 107- 
 
56 
 
 supposition by no means unsupported, or 
 through the Piraic gate, he must equally 
 have reached some point in the plain ex- 
 tending from the foot of the Acropolis, 
 towards the south. In this situation, there- 
 fore, we must place a portion of that divi- 
 sion of the city which was called the Ce- 
 ramicus.* What were the limits of this 
 division it is impossible to ascertain, but 
 that it comprehended the gate Dipylon, 
 which led from the city to the Ceramicus 
 without the walls, is clear from the wordsK 
 in which Plutarch relates the slaughter 
 made by Sylla on his obtaining possession 
 of Athens : he says that it filled the whole 
 of the Ceramicus within the gate Dipy Ion. f 
 The names of the several gates through 
 which Athens was approached have been 
 preserved; and although the positions of 
 some may be determined, others can have 
 no ceitam situation assigned to them. 
 
 * ^Tou) Sg glo-jv 0C-7T0 TWV TTuAcJiv If Tov Pauson. i. 2. 
 
 f Plut. in Syll, 
 
57 
 
 Amongst the first are the Thriasian, which 
 was likewise called Dipylon,* from its 
 magnitude, and the Ceramic, from its prox- 
 imity to the Ceramicus the Sacred, or 
 Eleusinian, and the Piraic ; the situation 
 of these may be determined, as well from 
 vestiges remaining, as by the course of the 
 roads, which still lead to the places from 
 which they received their appellations. 
 The position of the others, which were the 
 Acharnaean, the Aegean, the Diomean, 
 the Sepulchral, the Itonian, the Thracian, 
 the Equestrian, and the Melitensian, can 
 only be conjectured. 
 
 On entering the city, the building which 
 first presents itself to the view of Pausanias 
 is the Pompeion, from whence the public 
 processions departed ; a temple of Ceres 
 was not far distant, and in the interval 
 between the gates and the Ceramicus, 
 several porticoes were dispersed. After 
 
 * Pint, in Pericl. 
 
 *f* Meursius in Ceram, gem. c. 18. 
 
58 
 
 visiting the porticoes, and noticing the 
 statues and paintings they contained, he 
 arrives at the Ceramic quarter, and pro- 
 ceeds to describe the buildings on his left 
 hand, in the order they occurred. The 
 basilica and a portico beyond it, are first 
 mentioned ; from these he proceeds to the 
 temple of Apollo-Patrbus, the Metrbon, 
 the Council of the Five-hundred, the 
 Tholus, the temple of Mars, the Odeum, 
 and, near the latter, the fountain Ennea- 
 crunos. Beyond the fountain were the 
 Eleusinium, or temple of Ceres and Pro- 
 serpine, in which the lesser ipysteries were 
 celebrated, the temple of Triptolemus, and, 
 further on, the temple of Euclea. 
 
 These are the objects described in the 
 first excursion he makes through the city. 
 
 The fountain Enneacrunos, to which he 
 directs his course from the Ceramicus, 
 was, as we learn from Thucydides,* in that 
 
 * Thucyd. ii. 1 5. Pliny and Solinus describe Ennea- 
 crunos and Callirhoe, as two distinct springs ; but thei 
 
59 
 
 part of the plain inhabited under Theseus. 
 It was likewise near the Ilissus,* and not 
 far distant from the temple of Jupiter. d* 
 In this situation the remains of a fountain 
 may still be seen. The Odeum which 
 Pausanias describes as being near the 
 fountain has been often confounded with 
 that erected upon the site of a circular 
 edifice, built by Pericles, whose roof was 
 constructed with the masts and spars of 
 the defeated Persian fleet. J Whereas this 
 was near the Theatre, and is afterwards 
 mentioned by the Grecian traveller, who 
 describes it as a tent-shaped building, 
 without alluding to the purposes for which 
 it was erected. 
 
 In his second excursion, Pausanias 
 having returned to the Ceramicus, proceeds 
 
 testimony is of no weight in opposition to that of Thu- 
 cydides. 
 
 * ’Evvsaxpovvo§ xpi^vr) ’ASjjvjjcti 'srapd tov ’lM(r<rov, Etymol. 
 auct. 
 
 *f* Hierocl in proem Hippiatr. quoted by Meursius 
 Ceram, gem. 1 4 . 
 
 I Vitruv. lib. iv. c. 9. Pint, in Pericl. 
 
60 
 
 to describe the buildings beyond that 
 quarter and the basilica. These were the 
 temples of Vulcan and Venus-coelestis, 
 the Poikile Stoa, the Agora, the Gymna- 
 sium of Ptolemy, the temple of Theseus, 
 the ancient temple of the Dioscuri, the 
 sacred portion of Aglaurus and the Pry- 
 taneum. Prom the latter building, he 
 descends towards the temple of Jupiter- 
 Olympius and the lower part of the city, 
 passing the temple of Serapis and the site 
 of an ancient temple of Lucinas On 
 reaching the Olympieum, he makes a di- 
 gression, and enumerates the works under- 
 taken and completed by Hadrian. Further 
 on 'was the statue of Apollo-Pythius and 
 the Delphinium. Leaving the city, he 
 proceeds towards the temple of Venus in 
 the gardens, from thence to the temple of 
 Hercules in Cynosarges and the Lyceum ; 
 he then crosses the Ilissus to Agrae and the 
 temple of Diana-Agrotera, and ends his ex- 
 cursion at the stadium of Herodes-Atticus. 
 
61 
 
 Before attempting to trace the line of 
 route taken by the traveller in his second 
 excursion through the city, it is necessary 
 to determine the sites of some of the build- 
 ings he describes, from the evidence af- 
 forded by other authorities ; particularly 
 that of the Prytaneum : for as he directs 
 his steps to this building, and commences 
 his third excursion from the same spot, 
 its situation is a point of some consequence 
 in illustrating the topography of the city. 
 We are told that it was not far from the 
 sacred portion of Aglaurus Herodotus 
 informs us,-!* it Avas near the spot where 
 the Persians surprised the citadel.J 
 
 * Pausan. lib.i. l.S. The Tejxsvosor sacred portion has 
 been frequently mistaken for a temple. It was a consi- 
 derable portion of land which was sometimes hired out 
 to the agriculturist. An inscription discovered at Piraeus 
 by Dr. Chandler, records an agreement for letting the 
 sacred portions in the neighbourhood. The occupiers 
 were bound not to carry away either the soil or tim- 
 ber belonging to them. T>jv Ss uA»v, x«i Tyjv yrjv s^s(ttco 
 e^atysiv Toug [xia^cti(Taix.svovg jw-yjrs sk too ©>]crs<oy grjre sa roov 
 uWmv TSfLsvctiv. Chand. Inscr. c. x. pp. xxxi. 75- 
 
 -f* Herod. Lib. viii. 53. 
 
 I Pausanias says, that at the place where the Acropo- 
 
62 
 
 During the siege of Athens by the 
 forces under Xerxes, the latter occupied 
 the hill of the Areopagus ; immediately 
 opposite to the gates of the Acropolis, 
 and the only road that afforded access to 
 them : in this situation, their efforts were 
 chiefly directed against the western side, 
 the Acropolis being considered inacces- 
 sible at all other points. Finding the 
 Athenians prepared to resist every attack 
 from this quarter, they had recourse to 
 stratagem, and succeeded in an attempt 
 to surprise the citadel at a spot remote 
 from the scene of active operations, where, 
 on account of the steepness of the rock, no 
 guard had been deemed necessary. Ac- 
 cording to Herodotus,* this escalade was 
 
 lis was stormed by the Persians, the rock was steepest ; 
 ev5a ju-aAiora a7roTO[xov. Chandler justly observes of the 
 Acropolis, “ The hill of the Acropolis, is more abrupt 
 and perpendicular, as well as narrower, at the extremity 
 or end opposite to the Propylea.” Travels in Greece, 
 c. 12. 
 
 * Herod. Lib. viii. 53. 
 
63 
 
 affected in front of the Acropolis, behind 
 the gates and the way by which the cita- 
 del was approached : or, in other words, 
 at the east end. The historian appears to 
 have been aware that, in stating the as- 
 sault to have taken place in the front of the 
 Acropolis, the west end, by which it was 
 approached, might be inferred ; but this 
 impression is destroyed by the conclusion 
 of the passage, which explains that the 
 front of the Acropolis was 07 n(r 9 ev, or be- 
 hind, with regard to the gates and the 
 approach.* 
 
 Having, therefore, ascertained that the 
 site of the sacred portion of Aglaurus was 
 
 * Ulpian, who places the temple of Aglaurus near the 
 Propylaea of the citadel, was probably induced to assign 
 such a situation to it from confounding the front with 
 the approach. In like manner the western front of the 
 Parthenon, which is that opposite to the Propylaea, is fre- 
 quently mistaken by travellers for the principal or en- 
 trance front of the temple ; when it is known, from the 
 sculptures recently discovered, that the subject repre- 
 sented in the western pediment is that described by 
 Pausanias as ornamenting the ottjctSsv. 
 
64 
 
 near the eastern foot of the Acropolis,* it 
 follows that the Prytaneurn must have 
 been in the same quarter of the city. 
 
 The situation thus assigned to the Pry- 
 taneum, is consistent with that of the tem- 
 ple of Jupiter-Olympius, and likewise with 
 the well known direction of the street of 
 the tripods ; for Pausanias, in going 
 thence to the Ilissus, arrives at the temple ; 
 and departing afterwards from the same 
 spot, in his way to the Acropolis, his route 
 lies through the street of the tripods, be- 
 tween the theatre and choragic grotto. 
 
 The site of the Agora,-]- which he visits 
 in his way towards the temple of Theseus, 
 is ascertained by the existence of the 
 Propylaea, or gateway, which gave access 
 to it ; the celebrated inscriptions of Ha- 
 drian, regulating the sale of oil, upon one 
 
 ♦ See note j p. 61. 
 
 •f* The Agora, of which mention is made by Pausa- 
 nias, was the Forum novum; the old one, which no longer 
 existed, was in the Ceramicus. See Meursius Ceram, 
 gem. 16. 
 
of the door-jambs, affords a conclusive 
 proof of the destination of the building. 
 
 Hence it seems that at the outset of his 
 second excursion, having returned to the 
 Ceramicus and the Basilica, whence he 
 had deviated from the way before him 
 for the purpose of visiting the remarkable 
 buildings on his right, he now resumes the 
 path and proceeds towards the Agora, 
 along the valley intervening between the 
 Acropolis and the Areopagus. From the 
 Agora he directs his steps to the temple 
 of Theseus. In the interval between the 
 Agora and the temple, there are ruins of 
 an edifice, which have been conjectured, 
 with great probability, to have been part 
 of the Gymnasium of Ptolemy, the statues 
 of which he notices in his way. 
 
 From the temple of Theseus he takes 
 direction towards the Prytaneum, first 
 retracing his steps for a short distance 
 and afterwards following the road along 
 the foot of the north side of the Aero- 
 
66 
 
 polls ; visiting on his route the temple of 
 the Dioscuri, and the sacred portion of 
 A glaums. 
 
 From the Prjtaneum he appears to 
 have proceeded towards the Arch of Ha- 
 drian, although he makes no mention of 
 this structure ; and near this spot he 
 pauses to describe the buildings with 
 which the Roman emperor embellished the 
 city. Of their situation he says nothing ; 
 but either they must have been dispersed 
 about the eastern quarter of the city, or 
 he must be supposed to have passed over 
 in silence the whole of that extensive divi- 
 sion of Athens. His route from this point 
 towards Agrae, across the Ilissus, cannot 
 be traced with any degree of certainty ; 
 there are many ruins lying to the south- 
 east of the Acropolis, which might have 
 belonged to the buildings to which he al- 
 ludes in this part of his route ; but they 
 are not sufficient to indicate the purposes 
 for which they were erected. 
 
67 
 
 Pausanias appears to have pursued his 
 different routes in a methodical manner, 
 and previously to departing on a second 
 excursion to have returned to some point 
 described in that preceding it. Thus the 
 commencement of the second is dated 
 from the Ceramicus ; and he returns to the 
 Prytaneum before he enters upon the third. 
 On leaving this building, he proceeds 
 towards the Propylaea of the Acropolis, 
 along the street of the Tripods, and arrives 
 at the temple of Bacchus, adjoining the 
 Theatre. Near the latter was a building, 
 whose plan resembled a tent, restored 
 upon the site of a similar edifice which 
 had been destroyed by Sylla. Plutarch 
 and Vitruvius both describe this to have 
 been an Odeum. Proceeding along the 
 street of the Tripods he reaches a grotto, 
 at the vertex of the theatre, and passing 
 the tomb of Calus, or Talus, and the tem- 
 ples of Aesculapius and Themis, arrives at 
 the only road by which the Acropolis was 
 
68 
 
 accessible. After describing the buildings 
 in the citadel, he descends the western 
 slope to a spring in a cavern,* and the 
 temple of Apollo, and Pan. He then crosses 
 the Areopagus, and passing through the 
 Ceramic gate, goes to the academy in the 
 Ceramieus without the walls. 
 
 The street of the Tripods received its 
 appellation from the brazen trophies with 
 which some of its choragic buildings were 
 ornamented. Pausanias alludes to the 
 subject sculptured upon one in particular, 
 which was placed over a grotto at the ver- 
 tex of the theatre.p At the spot thus 
 clearly indicated by Pausanias, a grotto 
 still remains. The enl ranee has been 
 ornamented by an architectural skreen, 
 or front ; it is surmounted by pedestals, 
 
 * This is the grotto to which Lucian alludes in the 
 following passage : Ka» to a7r’ skbIvov, rrjv vtto t»j axpoTroksi 
 (mY^kfjyya Tuurrjv uTroKaBoy^svog oJxsi [J^ixpov utto too 7rska<ryixou. 
 Bis Accusatus. 
 
 *1* ’Ev 8e Tjj xogvipfj TOO Ssarpov <T7ojAa<ov ecrriv, Iv xaij 
 TTSTpMg mo TY\v axpoTToKiV rpmouiU suBdTi xu) i. 21. 
 
69 
 
 which bear inscriptions recording victories 
 gained in musical competitions ; on which 
 occasion, tripods, the prizes of victory, 
 were dedicated, and placed in some build- 
 ing or temple. 
 
 This edifice, which tlie inscriptions de- 
 scribe to have been erected by Thrasyl- 
 lus, in commemoration of similar victories, 
 was built 328 years before the Christian 
 era. Over the centre was a colossal figure 
 of the female Bacchus in a sitting posture. 
 This is not the only object indicating the 
 course which the street thus denominated 
 followed ; to the west of the grotto, there 
 are two Corinthian columns, the abacus of 
 whose capitals, instead of being quadrilate- 
 ral, is triangular ; and exhibit in each horn 
 the hole sunk to receive a foot of the tri- 
 pod it supported. In the same line of 
 direction, nearly east of the grotto at 
 the distance of about two hundred yards 
 from it, is a beautiful edifice, likewise of 
 the Corinthian order. Its form is circular. 
 
70 
 
 and the inscription it bears declares it to 
 have been erected upon the occasion of a 
 similar victory. It is covered by a roof 
 formed of a single block, and crowned by 
 a singular mass of beautiful foliage: to- 
 wards the upper part, the ornament is 
 divided into three branches, each termi- 
 nated by a spiral resembling the volute of 
 the Corinthian columns. Like the trian- 
 gular capitals of the columns above-men- 
 tioned this ornament supported a tripod. 
 This beautiful building of Lysicrates is 
 now absurdly called The Lantern of Be- 
 mosthenes. The course, therefore, of the 
 street may be accurately traced from this 
 object to the grotto and the columns be- 
 low the south wall of the Acropolis. 
 
 The route followed by Pausanias, af- 
 ter leaving the Acropolis is sufficiently 
 obvious. 
 
 An ancient edifice, of which some re- 
 mains are still visible, seems to have es- 
 caped the observation of Pausanias : this 
 
71 
 
 is the Pnyx, a kind of theatre in which 
 those to whom the Athenian people de- 
 creed civic honours, were crowned. This 
 building has been mistaken by some for 
 the Odeum erected by Herodes-Atticus, 
 in honour of Regilla, although its position, 
 with regard to the fall of the ground 
 whereon it stands, and the form of the 
 interior, are wholly dissimilar to that ob- 
 served by the Greeks in their theatres. In 
 these the convex side is towards the hill, 
 on the side of which we usually find them 
 built ; but in the Pnyx the contrary has 
 been observed. Indeed the whole of the 
 area of the Pnyx, excepting the or 
 
 pulpit, seems to have been on a level : nor 
 is it possible that it could ever have been 
 constructed in a manner similar to the 
 cavea of the ancient theatre. 
 
 Pausanias, alluding to the hill of the 
 Museum, observes that a tomb had been 
 erected upon it to a certain Syrian. This 
 Syrian was Philopappus, as the inscription 
 
upon the monument indicates. The hill 
 took its name from the poet Musaeus, who 
 is leported to have been buried there ; 
 It was strongly fortified by Demetrius, who 
 made it a military post when, after obtain- 
 ing possession of the Piraeus, he placed a 
 garrison at Athens : it commanded the ap- 
 proach to the city from Phalerum and 
 Piraeus. 
 
 The magnificent theatre of Herodes-At- 
 ticus was not in existence at the time Pau- 
 sanias visited Athens ; but it had been be- 
 gun before he completed his tour through 
 Greece. He alludes to it in his descrip- 
 tion of Patrae, where his admiration is 
 excited by a similar edifice; this, he says, 
 was only exceeded in magnitude and mag- 
 nificence, by the Athenian theatre. 
 
 Of all the monuments of Grecian times 
 which formerly adorned the city of Athens, 
 the temple of Theseus and a few buildings 
 of minor consequence alone are standing. 
 Of the structures of later times, there are 
 
73 
 
 more considerable, although less perfect 
 remains. In the latter denomination are 
 included the temple of Jupiter-Olympius, 
 the theatre and stadium of Herodes, the 
 gate of the Agora, the pantheon of Ha- 
 drian, the arch of the same emperor, and 
 the monument of Philopappus. 
 
 The Acropolis, indeed, still boasts of its 
 magnificent relics, which are of such im- 
 portance as to claim our first notice. 
 
THE ACROPOLIS. 
 
 The rock of the Acropolis is on three 
 sides rugged and steep. On the west the 
 ascent is less difficult : here, as in former 
 times, is the only approach. Near the 
 summit is a broad flight of nine steps by 
 which the terrace, or platform, in front of 
 the Propylaea* was formerly approached. 
 These steps extend the whole width of 
 the principal portico, and are flanked by 
 two square pedestals of considerable mag- 
 nitude and height, which appear to have 
 
 * The whole of the building was termed ‘ Propylaea.’ 
 although in fact, this term only alludes to the porticoes ; 
 they were called so from being advanced before the five 
 gates by which the citadel was entered. 
 
76 
 
 supported equestrian statues. The most 
 entire of them bears an inscription in 
 honour of Agrippg.. Pausanias mentions 
 the existence of such statues,* near this 
 building, although he affects uncertainty 
 as to their representing the sons of Xeno- 
 phon. 
 
 The evidence afforded by the inscrip- 
 tion would have determined the question ; 
 but Pausanias is thought to have preferred 
 a state of ignorance, rather than gratify 
 his curiosity at the risque of being obliged 
 to perpetuate a compliment paid by the 
 ^/Athenian people to a deified Roman. 
 
 The ancient entrance to the Acropolis 
 has been closed by the Turks : the co- 
 lumns in front are almost wholly immured 
 in the buildings of the modern fortifica- 
 tion. Proceeding along the platform in 
 front of the portico, we enter through a 
 gateway made in the flank of a building 
 
 * Meursius says, that the equestrian statues were upon 
 the roof, but in this he has misrepresented Pausanias. 
 
77 
 
 attached to the Propylaea, and forming a 
 kind of wing to the edifice ; whence turn- 
 ing suddenly to the left< and following the 
 course of the flank wall, we arrive at that 
 portico of the Propylaea which fronted in- 
 wardly towards the Acropolis. 
 
 When we contemplate the remains of 
 the buildings of the Acropolis, and the 
 imagination has cleared them from the 
 masses that encumber them, we discover 
 sufficient grounds for the encomiums la- 
 vished by all writers, both ancient and 
 modern, upon the monuments which cast 
 a lustre upon the government of Pericles 
 Recurring to the ages which have elapsed 
 since their erection, and the ravages in- 
 flicted upon them, as well through the 
 wanton excesses of the Goths, as by the 
 destructive engines of modern warfare, 
 we might be prepared for the loss of all 
 beauty and character in these master- 
 pieces of art. But beauty and character 
 still exist, although certainly in a far less 
 
degree, than before Alaric and the nortli- 
 ern barbarians over-ran Greece and con- 
 verted her richest shrines to heaps of 
 ruins. 
 
 It has been objected to the design of 
 the Propylaea, that the enlargement of the 
 interval between the two central columns 
 of the porticoes, is inconsistent with the 
 apparent stability and massive grandeur 
 which ought to characterize all buildings 
 of a severe style of architecture. In the 
 present state of the ruin it is not easy to 
 decide whether a failure in these requisites 
 accompanied such a deviation from the 
 common practice of the Greeks. The 
 temples of Egypt, which have a still 
 greater heaviness of character, are deficient 
 in neither, yet a similar enlargement has 
 been adopted in most of them. I am in- 
 clined to think that neither suffered from 
 this circumstance, especially as no viola- 
 tion of symmetry in the outline presented 
 by the front, followed from this enlarge- 
 
79 
 
 ment of the central opening and it was 
 to the preservation of this symmetry that 
 the Greeks seem to have attached an im- 
 portance beyond all other considerations. 
 
 In all the temples of Greece, the pro- 
 portion of the heighth to the extent was 
 particularly an object of attention; and 
 although the proportion was different in 
 temples which had a different number of 
 columns in the front, yet the desire to de- 
 part from it as little as possible is manifest. 
 Wherever, therefore, the number of co- 
 lumns in the fronts was increased, their 
 intervals were diminished. Thus the in- 
 tercolumniations of the hexastyle temple 
 of Theseus, are not in the same proportion 
 to the diameter of the columns as those of 
 
 * It is singular that the proportions of the outlines 
 presented by the porticoes of the Propylaea, and the hexa- 
 style temple of Theseus are very nearly alike. If the 
 diameter of the columns be represented by unity, the ex- 
 tents of the fronts will be severally 13.71 and 13.7S; 
 and their heights, exclusive of the pediment, which 
 must have been in the same proportion, 7 -f 07 , and 7-682. 
 
80 
 
 the Parthenon, which is octastyle ; the 
 proportion in the latter is less by nearly 
 half the diameter.^ In the tetraslyle por- 
 tico of the Erectheum, the intervals are 
 equivalent to three diameters of the co- 
 lumns, but in the hexastyle portico of the 
 same building, they are two only. 
 
 The expediency of adopting such a 
 principle seems to have been generally 
 felt, and especially in hexastyle temples ; 
 for if we compare buildings of this de- 
 scription, however remotely situated, and 
 however the proportions of the parts in 
 detail may be different, little variation will 
 be found in the extent compared with the 
 height.-f* 
 
 When it is considered that the Propylaea 
 afforded the only approach to the Acro- 
 
 * If the diameter of the columns of the temple of 
 Theseus be expressed by unity, the intervals would be 
 represented by Upon a similar supposition the 
 
 intervals between the columns of the Parthenon would 
 be represented by 1.155. 
 
 *f* The proportions of the four following temples, all 
 
polls, the necessity for one wide entrance 
 will be readily admitted. The intervals 
 between the columns would not have 
 been, but for this enlargement, more than 
 seven feet ; the central interval is made 
 by this expedient more than thirteen. 
 Now although the carriages of the ancients 
 were not so wide as those of the present 
 day, sufficient room must have been al- 
 lowed in order to protect the columns 
 from the injuries to which they were liable 
 through the delicacy of the angles of the 
 flutings. Thirteen feet is probably more 
 than would have been necessary, but on 
 the other hand, seven feet would not have 
 been sufficient for this purpose; there 
 could however be no alternative between 
 
 of the hexastyle Idncl, will sufficiently attest the acciiracv 
 of this observation. 
 
 Temple at Pmstum 
 
 - - - - of Jupiter in 
 
 Ef^ina. 
 
 - - - - - Theseus. 
 Concord at 
 
 Agrigentum 
 
 } 
 
 } 
 
 Height. 
 
 Width. 
 
 
 
 42.1.47 
 
 78.10 — ' 
 
 5" r 
 
 1 to 1. 870 
 
 24 2. 3 
 
 44.10 65 
 
 is in 
 rtio 
 
 1,855 
 
 26.2.27 
 
 43.2.93 
 
 ^ S. 1 
 
 1.793 
 
 30.8.82 
 
 54.10.5 J 
 
 1 § 1 
 
 1.785 
 
the usual interval and that space, because 
 both were governed bj the arrangement 
 of the tri glyphs. 
 
 I am here assuming it for granted, that 
 carriages were admitted through the Pro- 
 pylaea : a supposition against which the 
 abruptness of the ascent offers no real ob- 
 jection ; since carriages laden wdth the 
 blocks used in the construction of the 
 Parthenon were drawn by mules up the 
 steep and if the whole of the Panathe- 
 naic procession reached the temple of 
 Minerva, a supposition highly probable, 
 horsemen and chariots must have passed 
 through the porticoes of the former build- 
 ing. The steps both without and within 
 may seem to present an obstacle to the 
 passage of carriages ; but this might have 
 been obviated by means of inclined 
 planes, either permanently constructed, or 
 occasionally placed for this purpose. p 
 
 * Pint, in Catone maj. 
 
 •f* I have been informed by travellers recently returned 
 
83 
 
 The broad flight leading to the terrace in 
 front of the building could not indeed have 
 been ascended by such means ; but the 
 carriage road may have proceeded along 
 the front of these steps and, after gradually 
 ascending for a certain distance, turned to 
 the right under the walls of the right wing, 
 and formed a junction with the terrace, 
 between the angle of the building and the 
 great pedestal flanking the steps at that 
 end. There are considerable remains of 
 a strong wall which seems to have been 
 built to support an embankment of earth, 
 raised for such a purpose, upon the sur- 
 face of the rock. 
 
 The Propylaea were begun under the 
 auspices of Pericles, in the fourth year of 
 the 85th Olympiad.* The architect was 
 
 from Greece that some excavations lately made within 
 the Propylaaa have shewn that this was actually the case : 
 the floor from one front to the other, for a width nearly 
 equal to the central intercolumniation, is one continued 
 inclined plane ; and is much worn by wheels. 
 
 * The building was begun in the archonship of Euthy- 
 menes, and finished in that of Pythodorus. B. C. 437- 
 
Mnesicles. The building was complete 
 in five years, and is reputed to have cost 
 a sum equivalent to iJ46‘4,000. sterling. 
 Tliis statement seems wholly incredible, 
 when the value of money at that time, and 
 the facilities of building possessed by the 
 Athenians, are considered. The marble 
 of Pentelicus was brought from the quar- 
 ries either upon a descent, or on level 
 ground, for nearly the whole interval of 
 space between them and the foot of the 
 Acropolis. Here the difficulties of trans- 
 porting it began, and a considerable ex- 
 pense must have been incurred in over- 
 coming them ; but compared with the 
 vast sum reported to have been expended, 
 it could not hatve been considerable. The 
 cost has either been mis-stated, or it may 
 probably be understood to have embraced 
 the execution of all the works completed 
 by Pericles. 
 
 Each front of the building was adorned 
 with a Doric hexastyle portico, raised 
 
85 
 
 upon a basement consisting of three steps. 
 The columns were five feet in diameter, 
 and nearly twenty-nine high, including 
 the capital. A vestibule of considerable 
 depth presented itself on entering at the 
 west front ; it was divided into three aisles 
 by six Ionic columns, disposed in two 
 ranges : these supported the marble ceil- 
 ing * which was constructed in a manner 
 similar to that still observable in the late- 
 ral porticoes of the Erectheum. The lacu- 
 naria of the side aisles were formed by 
 blocks twenty-two feet in length, extend- 
 ing from the walls to the epistylia of these 
 columns ; some of them are yet visible, 
 and the others are, in all probability, 
 buried beneath the ruins. 
 
 The wall at the end of the vestibule had 
 five openings, to which the gates of the 
 Acropolis were formerly fitted ; of these 
 
 * Ta Se TTpoTTuKoua Xl^ov Ksvkoo tyjv opo^prjv aa) k6(Ti/,co 
 Ku) jasysOsj tmv kIQcov TTpoel^^. Pausan. 
 
 i. 22. 
 
86 
 
 the central one is by much the widest ; 
 and through this it seems probable that 
 carriages were allowed to pass. The eas- 
 tern portico, to which there was an ascent 
 by five steps, was entered through these 
 intervals : from hence there was a descent 
 of three steps to the level of the ground 
 before the interior front of the building. 
 
 Upon a minute inspection of several 
 fragments of the two pediments, found 
 among the ruins, it was discovered that 
 some of the members of the cornice were 
 gilt, and on others an enrichment was 
 painted, with a reddish ochre : in one in- 
 stance, the form of the echinus moulding 
 was slightly sculptured for the purpose of 
 assisting the effect of the painting. This 
 mode of decoration is not uncommonly 
 met with in Grecian buildings ; in the 
 temple of Theseus, an ornament appears 
 painted upon the cornice surrounding the 
 interior of the pronaos and posticum, and 
 the rafters of the lacunaria, within the 
 
87 
 
 peristyle, were ornamented in a similar 
 manner. The meander,^' an ornament 
 which in the Theseum is sculptured, we 
 find to have been painted in some of the 
 temples of Greece. The pannels of the 
 lacunaria were frequently enriched by 
 having a star-like figure painted upon 
 them. It seems probable that the colour 
 we now distinguish on such parts of a 
 building, was originally the ground of 
 gilding which has perished. f 
 
 The colouring is not confined to the 
 moldings, and the lacunaria, for traces of 
 it are, in some instances, perceptible upon 
 the sculptures which adorn the buildings 
 
 * KoVo? r)g opotpmog, or, as some read, with greater 
 probability, ypcc<pncog. Hesych. in fj^ouav^pog. The mean- 
 der is commonly called the labyrinth, and sometimes the 
 Grecian fret. 
 
 f The custom of painting stars upon the ceiling of 
 the ambulatory seems to have originated with the Egyp- 
 tians. Diodorus Siculus describes a building at Thebes, 
 on the ceiling of which stars were painted upon a blue 
 ground, 6po<pn^v TSTroccav ein ’TrXaTog Sosiv opyvicav VTrxp^stv 
 
 |W,ovoAiOov, xcTspag h xvavS ji«T5t7r£7rojxiA/x.£vy)V. Lib. i. 47* 
 
88 
 
 of Athens. Those in the pediment of the 
 Parthenon, and on the frize of the The- 
 seiim exhibit vestiges of this practice.* 
 Nor was the custom of gilding the fronts 
 of temples peculiar to the Greeks, for 
 the Italians appear to have esteemed it as 
 highly ornamental. An inscription relat- 
 ing to a temple of Pomona, at Saler- 
 niim, lecoids the gilding of the pediment 
 amongst other works of embellishment.f 
 On the right and left of the portico on 
 
 * The faces of statues were sometimes of gold ; that of 
 Jupiter at Megara was gold and ivory. Pausan. i. 40. 
 Sometimes the face was painted vermillion, and the rest 
 of the statue was gilt, like the wooden statues of Bacchus 
 m the forum at Corinth. The statue of Jupiter at 
 Olympia, was made of gold and ivory. Pausan. v. 1 1. ; 
 as was that of Minerva, at the same place. Ib. vi. 26. 
 
 *|* T . TETTIENVS . FELIX . AVGVSTALIS 
 SCRIRA . LIBRAR . AEDIL . CVRVL . 
 
 VIATOR . AEDIL . PLEBIS . ACCENSVS 
 
 CONSULl . H-S . L. M. N. LEGAVIT 
 
 AD EXORNANDAM . AEDEM. TOMONIS 
 
 EX . QVA , svmma' FACTVM EST FASTIGIVM 
 
 INAVRATVM . PODIVM . PAVIMENTVM . HARM . OPVS . 
 
 TECTQRIVM. 
 
 Lipsii liber Inscrip. Antiq.fol. vi. 
 
89 
 
 the west were two buildings nearly similar, 
 of a quadrangular figure. Each had a 
 portico of the Doric order, but the pro- 
 portions much smaller than those of the 
 central building ; a space of nearly eighty 
 feet intervened between them. These 
 were buildings of that mode of construc- 
 tion which Vitruvius terms in antis^ that 
 is, the three columns of the porticoes were 
 interposed between two antae : they were 
 made to unite with the principal front by 
 the continuation of their flank walls, which 
 abutted at right angles against the lateral 
 walls of the main building. 
 
 The right wing has hitherto been sup- 
 posed to have been the temple of Apteral- 
 Victory ; and the corresponding building, 
 an edifice described by Pausanias, in 
 which were preserved some paintings by 
 Polygnotus. This assumed disposition 
 must at all events be incorrect, for if it be 
 granted that these are the buildings to 
 which that author alludes, we must place 
 
 t 
 
90 
 
 the temple of Victory on the right hand of 
 the spectator, and the corresponding 
 building on the left ; according to the ex- 
 press intimation of Pausanias. From the 
 temple of Victory, a spectator, he adds, 
 might command a view of the sea ; upon 
 the spot where it stood ^geus is said to 
 have watched the return of Theseus from 
 Crete. 
 
 Besides sloping to the west, the rock in 
 front of the Propylaea falls abruptly from 
 the south towards the north ; on this ac- 
 count it was necessary to form an artificial 
 level for the basement of the building. 
 This was effected by cutting away the rock 
 on the higher ground, and raising a solid 
 substructure of masonry on the north : 
 the surface of the rock without the left 
 wing was levelled, but the level was suffer- 
 ed to remain higher than the pavement 
 within this part of the Propylaea. 
 
 These monuments of ancient greatness 
 seem to ha^ e suffered no important dila- 
 
91 
 
 pidation until a lale period. Wheler de- 
 scribes them as wanting in no very mate- 
 rial part. Their subsequent overthrow 
 seems chiefly to have been effected by the 
 operations of the siege against Athens, by 
 the Venetians, in the year 1687, when the 
 marble roof and ceiling appear to have 
 been destroyed. 
 
 The whole of the superstructure above 
 the columns of the western portico has 
 fallen: the ruins of the entablature and 
 ceiling so far fill the body of the building, 
 that not more than a third pari of the 
 columns appear rising above them. The 
 Ionic columns of the interior have pre- 
 served their stations amidst the shock of 
 fallen masses, and rear their summits above 
 the vast heaps formed by the ruins around 
 thern.'^ 
 
 • Wheler does not seem to have known the original 
 destination of this building, although he surmises that 
 it was the Propylaea. His description of it is very 
 erroneous: he says “The Eagle of the front was sustained 
 hy four pillars of the Doric order.” Again he says, 
 “ the roof within is held up by Jour beautiful Ionic 
 
92 
 
 The right wing suffered from an acci- 
 dental explosion, whilst used by the Turks 
 as a magazine for powder : the pediment 
 is described as remaining so late as the 
 year 1676 ; the intercolumniations were 
 then closed by modern masonry, and a 
 tower of considerable height reared upon 
 the building, amongst other means adopted 
 for the protection of the citadel. 
 
 Advanced at a little distance before the 
 front of the left wing, was a small build- 
 ing, having a portico of four Ionic columns. 
 This edifice was mistaken by Wheler and 
 Spon for the temple of Victory : the 
 
 building has disappeared ; but there are 
 the remains of foundations above the 
 southernmost of the two pedestals already 
 mentioned. The frize is described to have 
 been enriched with sculpture in high relief. 
 Some fragments inserted in the walls of 
 the modern fortifications are said to be 
 
 columns.” After this no reliance can be placed upon 
 the accuracy of his details. 
 
93 
 
 portions of it ; the subject represented is a 
 combat; but not, as Chandler has sup- 
 posed, a conflict between the Athenians 
 and Amazons. 
 
 In a direction nearly south-east from 
 the Propylea, at the distance of about an 
 hundred yards from the east front, stand 
 the remains of the temple of Minerva-Par- 
 thenon ; in former times the pride of Athens 
 and the boast of architecture.* In what- 
 ever direction we approach the Acropolis, 
 this temple forms a conspicuous feature 
 of the scene, overtopping the modern 
 buildings and ancient ruins by which it is 
 surrounded. 
 
 * It is probable that the Parthenon was finished be- 
 fore the Propylasa were begun ; for Pericles only survived 
 the completion of this building five years. "I he death of 
 Cimon secured to Pericles the government of Athens, 
 of which he availed himself to erect the buildings of the 
 Acropolis. The Parthenon was therefore built in the in- 
 terval between the death of Cimon and the commence- 
 ment of the Propylaea ; which will allow of 1 1 years for 
 its completion The death of Cimon took place 448 years 
 B.C. 
 
94 
 
 The architect of the temple, as we are 
 told bj Pausanias, was Ictinus ; in speak- 
 ing of the temple of Apollo-Epicurius in 
 Arcadia, the traveller observes that it was 
 built bj the architect who designed the 
 temple of Minerva at Athens.* Some au- 
 thors make Callicrates to have shared the 
 glory of this work with Ictinus.'j- Strabo 
 gives the whole merit to the latter. 
 
 The level of the rock, which forms the 
 basis of the temple, is more than thirty 
 feet higher than in front of the Propylsea. 
 The platform is elevated three steps above 
 the surrounding ground: the area em- 
 
 braced by the uppermost is little more than 
 227 feet in length and 101 in width. 
 
 There were eight columns in the portico 
 of either front, and seventeen in the flanks ; 
 conformably with the principle assumed 
 by Vitruvius, who asserts that the number 
 of the columns in the flanks of Grecian 
 
 * Pausan, lib. viii. 41 . 
 ■f* Plut. in Peric. 
 
95 
 
 temples exceeded bj one, double the 
 number observed in the fronts. This rule 
 is likewise applicable to the temple of 
 Theseus, but, as I have elsewhere shewn,* 
 it was oftener violated than observed. 
 
 In the epistjliinn of the eastern, or prin- 
 cipal front, triangular holes have been sunk 
 at equal intervals, one under each of the 
 metopae : they appear to haA^e been made 
 for the insertion of metal cramps for the 
 support, probably, of shields of gilt metal, 
 in conformity with the practice observed 
 in the temple of Jupiter at Olympia, whose 
 front was thus ornamented.'f* 
 
 The metopae were enriched with sculp- 
 tures executed in high relief; the subject 
 represented is a series of combats between 
 
 * Antiq. of Magna Grcecia^ Introd. 
 
 *1* ToO 8e Iv ’OXWjW-Tr/a vaoD UTrep tcwv xnVoJV 7:epiSsov(rrjc 
 jcara to Iktoj, a(T7r/Se? s’kt'iv £7ri^pv(T0( fia ko.) tlxotu 
 api&[xov. Pausan. lib. v. c. ]0. The number introduced 
 was twenty-one, whence it appears that one must have 
 been placed below each of the metopae and each of the 
 triglyphs ; the temple being hexastyle. 
 
96 
 
 one of the Lapithae and a centaur. In the 
 pediments were groups of heroic size ; 
 many of the figures were perfect statues, 
 whohy detached from the tympanum and 
 finished all around. The circumstances 
 attending the fabulous birth of Minerva 
 were represented over the entrance, and 
 the contest between that Goddess and 
 Neptune, for the honour of presiding over 
 the affairs of the city, in the western 
 front.* 
 
 It seems extraordinary that Pausanias, 
 wdio has devoted so many of his pages to 
 the description of the Acropolis and the 
 treasures of art it contained, should not 
 have been more circumstantial in his ob- 
 servations on this temple : they are 
 
 limited to a general mention of the sub- 
 jects represented in the pediments : whilst 
 his admiration of the individual statues 
 
 •f* Wheler calls the western the principal front, mis- 
 taking the opisthodomus for the pronaos, which latter he 
 terms the posticJc. 
 
97 
 
 dispersed over this confined area, draws from 
 him the minutest details relating to them. 
 
 Behind the columns of either front was 
 another range of lesser dimensions, ad- 
 vanced before the antae of the'pronaos 
 and posticum. This was not the usua 
 practice of the Greeks, who generally in- 
 terposed the second range between the 
 antae terminating the flank walls of the 
 cella. The mode adopted in the present 
 instance leaves an interval between the 
 columns at the angles of the interior 
 ranges and the antae, a circurhstance that 
 led Stuart to apply to the Parthenon a 
 corrupted passage of Vitruvius, alluding 
 to the lateral porticoes of the temple of 
 Minerva-Polias.* The area of the pronaos 
 and of the posticum was elevated two steps 
 ^ above the level of the peristyle. 
 
 * The printed editions of Vitruvius, in the passage 
 alluded to, read “ Athenis in arce Minervas et in Attica 
 Sunio, Palladis.” but in the MSS. the word Minerva 
 is placed at the end of the passage. Y or Palladis Minerva 
 I propose reading Poliadis Mmervce. See the Civil Arch, 
 of' Vitruv. Sect. ii. p. 90, 
 
 II 
 
98 
 
 These columns were surmounted by an 
 entablature, the zophorus, or frize, of which 
 was continued along the flank walls of the 
 cella : it was enriched with sculptures exe- 
 cuted in bas-relief. Unlike the frize of the 
 exterior columns, it is uninterrupted by 
 the insertion of triglyphs, but in the 
 epistylium the guttae are introduced in the 
 same manner as when the usual dispo- 
 sition of triglyphs is observed By their 
 omission the subject of the sculptures 
 was connected, and an opportunity was 
 offered of representing the extensive pro- 
 cession in honour of Minerva, which took 
 place at the celebration of the Panathenean 
 festival. 
 
 The transverse walls terminating the 
 pronaos and posticum receded twelve feet 
 behind the columns of the interior ranges; 
 and doorways of ample width and height 
 were left in them for the approaches to 
 the cella. Between the posticum and the 
 cella, the opisthodomus ^ was situated ; 
 
 * We must be careful not to confound the opstho- 
 
99 
 
 this division of the body of the building 
 was 62.6 in width, and 42. JO in depth; 
 the cella, of equal width and 98. 7 in 
 length, occupied the rest. 
 
 Misled by a passage in Vitruvius which is 
 manifestly corrupt, Stuart, amongst others, 
 imagined the Parthenon to have been ori- 
 ginally of the description of temples which 
 that author terms hypaethral ; that is, with 
 
 domus of the temple with the building of the same name 
 which served as the treasury of the Athenians. This 
 treasury was behind the .temple of Minerva in the middle 
 of the citadel. The scholiast of Aristophanes ( ad Pint.) 
 says that the treasury Avas a building surrounded by a 
 double wall, situated behind the temple of Minervar-Polias. 
 Pollux and Ulpian place it behind the Acropolis, which 
 is explained by Meursius to signify, “ behind the temple 
 of Minerva in the Acropolis.” 
 
 In the volume of inscriptions edited by Chandler, one, 
 found amongst the ruins of the Parthenon, relates to the 
 donaria deposited in the temple ; sv tw vew Tai'Exaro/xTreSi^. 
 Inscrip. Antiq. p. 41, 20. Another to the donaria pre- 
 served in the temple, ev tw vs» tw ['ExaT0jU.7rgS]<w ; and 
 likewise to such as were kept in the opisthodomus. TaSe 
 sv Tw OvKT'doSof/.ca. Ibid. p. 42, 16, p. 54. 21. Thus dis- 
 tinguishing the vsof, in which term every part of the en- 
 tire temple is comprehended, from the or 
 
 treasury. 
 
100 
 
 two interior ranges of columns dividing 
 the cella into three aisles ; of these, the 
 two next the walls alone were roofed, and 
 that in the center exposed to the heavens.* 
 
 * It is certain that in later times there was a double 
 order of columns within the cella of the temple : the circles 
 made to mark the situations of the lower still remain in 
 the pavement. From these circles it appears that the co- 
 lumns were nearly two feet two inches in diameter ; the 
 lower portion of one whose diameter corresponded with 
 this dimension was lying within the cella. The method 
 observ e in fluting proves this column to have been of 
 the Doric order, but it is to be observed that the lower 
 part of the shaft was planed and not fluted, a circum- 
 stance which tends in some measure to invalidate its claim 
 to the high antiquity of the other parts of the building. 
 Reasoning from the examples of hypaethral temples, 
 these columns are not commensurate with those of the 
 peristyle, but considerably less in proportion. It will 
 easily be shewn that this want of proportionate bulk is an 
 argument against the probability that the temple was 
 hypaethral. In temples of this description, the height of 
 the upper and lower ranges of the interior columns toge- 
 ther, reached from the floor to within a certain distance 
 of the roof. In the temple at Paestum the entablature of 
 the upper columns ranged very nearly with the upper 
 member of the external order. No probable extension of 
 the proportionate height could bring a double range of co- 
 lumns, the diameter of the greatest of which was only two 
 feet two, within a limited distance of the external cornice 
 
101 
 
 Sir George Wheler’s description of the 
 state in which the temple remained when 
 he saw it, at that time, according to his 
 account, the most splendid mosque the 
 Mahornmedan world could boast, has 
 tended to propagate an error, derived 
 from a different source. But this abounds 
 in mistakes, and the original work of the 
 Athenians is so confounded with the mo- 
 dern additions made by the Greeks and 
 
 of the Parthenon. In order to understand this it is only 
 necessary to observe that in the temples at Passtum and 
 at jEgina the ratio of the diameter of the external to that 
 of the internal order is nearly as 3 to 2 ; but in the Par- 
 thenon the proportion is nearly as 3 to 1 ; whence it 
 follows that the internal columns ought to have been 
 double the bulk of those which were subsequently intro- 
 duced in the cella of the Parthenon to have rendered the 
 supposition admissible that they were coeval with the other 
 parts of the edifice. 
 
 Mr. Walpole has a memorandum made from the in- 
 formation he obtained from Fauvel, a French artist of 
 great merit, who devoted many years to the study of 
 Grecian architecture and sculpture at Athens. It con- 
 tains a positive assertion that the interior columns of 
 the Parthenon, of which there were then remaining seve- 
 ral portions, were of the lower Greek empire. 
 
102 
 
 thfi Turks, as to render it manifest that he 
 possessed no faculty of discriminating 
 between them. 
 
 I have elsewhere shown that the Parthe- 
 non is not the building to which Vitruvius 
 alludes, in illustration of what he intended 
 by an hypaethral temple when the 
 want of an example of this kind at Rome, 
 obliged him to seek for an instance 
 amongst the temples of Greece, The 
 chief authority, therefore, upon which 
 Stuart founds his supposition is inadmis- 
 sible; and the proof of the Parthenon 
 having had interior columns rests solely 
 upon the capacity of Wheler to distinguish 
 between the productions in architecture of 
 two very different ages. 
 
 The particulars given in his description 
 afford abundant proof that the interior 
 perist}de was a modern work differing es- 
 sentially, in principle and construction, 
 from that of the Greeks in the age of Peri- 
 
 * CivU Architecture of Vitrwvius, Sect. i. p. 9. 
 
103 
 
 cles. The following extract will show how 
 little his opinion is to be regarded on 
 subjects of architecture : — “ Before you 
 enter into the body of the temple from 
 the front, is the pronaos, whose roof is 
 sustained b}'^ six channelled pillars, of the 
 same order and bigness with those of the 
 portico, and contains near the third part 
 of the cella ; to wit, forty-four feet of the 
 length. We observed in place of one of 
 the pillars, a great pile of stone and lime, 
 of most rude work ; which they told us 
 the Kizlar-Haga had ordered to be so 
 done, to help to support the roof ; because 
 he could never find a stone big enough to 
 supply the place of the old pillar broken 
 down f although he had spent two thou- 
 sand crowns to do it. — When the Chris- 
 tians consecrated it to serve God in, they 
 let in the light at the east end ; which is 
 
 * It would undoubtedly be inferred from this passage 
 that the columns were single stones. This is by no 
 means the case, they consist of five courses, or frusta. 
 
all that it jet hath. And not only that, 
 but made a semi-circle for the holy place, 
 according to their rites ; which the Turks 
 have not yet much altered. This was se- 
 parated from the rest by jaspar pillars ; 
 two of which on each side, yet remain. 
 Within this chancel is a canopy, sustained 
 by four porphyry pillars, with beautiful 
 white marble chapters of the Corinthian 
 order.— On both sides, [of the cella] and 
 towards the door, is a kind of gallery, 
 made with two ranks of pillars, twenty-two 
 below, and twenty-three above. The odd 
 pillar is over the arch o f the entrance^ which 
 was left for the passage.'** 
 
 The last passage of this extract contains 
 sufficient to prove that these galleries had 
 no connection with the original building. 
 The existence of an arch denies the claim 
 to coexistent antiquity, and a column in 
 the upper range unsupported by another 
 immediately below it, for this is his mean- 
 
 * Wilder. Book V- p, 361 et seg. 
 
105 
 
 iiig, is so contrary to every principle of 
 architecture adopted by the Romans as 
 well as the Greeks, that we can have no 
 hesitation in attributing this departure 
 from the practice of both to very different 
 authors: it is consistent with the introduc- 
 tion of the jasper pillars, and the canopy 
 with its supporting columns of porphyry.* 
 The pavement of the opisthodomus 
 exhibits the marks made by the hinges of 
 the ancient doors ; it is very little above 
 that of the posticum ; the rise of the step 
 
 * It Is much to be regretted that Stuart and Chandler 
 both followed the pre-conceived notions of Wheler and 
 Spon, without sufficient examination of the facts on 
 which they were founded. In the disposition of the 
 interior columns of the Parthenon, as it appears in the 
 work of Stuart, it is to be observed, that some grreat 
 error has unaccountably been made. Their number 
 and position is wrong : neither do the written dimensions 
 accord with the distances which the plan of the temple 
 assigns to them. The floor of the cella around the 
 walls is a little raised, and this circumstance has been 
 adduced in proof of the original collocation of columns 
 in that division of the buildings : this however proves 
 nothing, for in the hypasthral temple of Paestum instead 
 of being raised next the walls the floor is sunk. 
 
106 
 
 at the door-way, from being so incon- 
 siderable, has been frequently overlooked. 
 Steps of this description were not, how- 
 ever, unusual ; on entering the posticum 
 of the temple at Paestum there is first 
 a step of two inches, and afterwards a se- 
 cond, which exceeds eighteen; the posti- 
 cum, likewise, of the temple of Theseus 
 has a step from the level of the peristyle 
 of three inches and a half. 
 
 In conformity with the description of 
 Wilder, quoted in the beginning of the 
 foregoing extracts, Stuart has introduced 
 six columns, disposed in two ranges, within 
 the opisthodomus of the temple ; although, 
 he confesses, no traces of them remained. 
 This remark is not easily to be reconciled 
 with the state of preservation of that divi- 
 sion of the building : for although the walls 
 of the cella were nearly demolished, by 
 the explosion which took place eleven 
 years after Wheler visited Athens, those of 
 the opisthodomus received very little 
 
107 
 
 injury ; indeed they are still existing, and 
 very nearly of their original height. Un- 
 der these circumstances, it does indeed 
 appear unaccountable that six columns, 
 
 ‘ equal in bulk ’ to those of the exterior 
 peristyles, should have perished, and left 
 no trace behind. The original pavement 
 remains in a verv entire state ; it is formed 
 of large marble slabs, a foot in thickness, 
 but exhibits no appearance whatever of 
 columns having been placed upon it. 
 
 From the result of an attentive observa- 
 tion I am convinced that no columns ex- 
 isted at any time within this division of 
 the temple ; and that Wheler, in the fore- 
 going extract, alludes to the columns of 
 the posticum, six in number, and nearly 
 equal in size to those of the peristyle. 
 By the expression that they “ supported 
 the roof,'" he merely meant that they up- 
 held the marble ceiling, over the interval 
 between them and the columns of the 
 western front. In speaking of the larger 
 
108 
 
 division of the Erectheum, he assigns the 
 same office to the columns of the hexa- 
 style portico,* which were still less con- 
 nected with the roof of the building than 
 the six columns belonging to the posticum 
 of the Parthenon. The story of the de- 
 molition of one of the columns, and the 
 fruitless attempt to replace it, is one in 
 general currency at Athens ; it was told 
 with some variation of one of the columns 
 of the temple of Jupiter-Olympius, to 
 Dr. Chandler ; and repeated to me, when 
 the building which suffered by its removal 
 was said to be the Poikile-Stoa. It was 
 probably told to Wheler of the posticum 
 of the Parthenon, and introduced by him 
 without investigating its accuracy ; al- 
 though if he inserted it at the moment he 
 was examining the building, it would have 
 
 * “ The bigger is sixty-three foot and a half long, 
 and thirty-six foot broad. Its roqf 'is sustained by Ionic 
 pillars channelled.” Wheler, book v. p. 364. — Here he 
 means that the columns of the front sustained the ceiling 
 of the portico. 
 
109 
 
 been an admission less scrutinized than 
 many that are to be found dispersed 
 throughout his work. The origin of the 
 story, and of Wheler's error, seems to 
 have been this. The angular column of 
 the posticum is almost wholly immured in 
 a mass of modern masonry, raised for the 
 purpose of supporting a minaret* when 
 the temple was used as a mosque. This 
 is the “ rude pile^^ which, as he imagines, 
 supplies the place of the angular column. 
 
 The roof the Parthenon was unquestion- 
 ably of timber; it was covered with marble 
 sculptured so as to represent large tiles, 
 after the mode observed in the temple of 
 Jupiter at Olympia, as described by Pau- 
 sanias some of these are yet to be seen . 
 
 * The staircase of the minaret remains in part, and 
 has been frequently mistaken for part of the original 
 structure. Visconti erroneously imagines the tympanum 
 of the pediment to have been accessible by means of this 
 staircase, and that the sculptures there might conse- 
 quently be viewed all round. 
 
 *f- Pausan. v. 10. 
 
110 
 
 amongst the mins. Stuart discovered 
 some of the harmi or joint-tiles,* which 
 extending from the ridge to the eaves, 
 covered the junction of the contiguous 
 rows, and preserved the timbers of the 
 roof by preventing the admission of rain 
 between them. 
 
 One of the objections urged by Vitru- 
 vius against the adoption of the Doric 
 order, is the inequality which he imagined 
 must necessarily take place in the intervals 
 between the beams of the lacunaria.-f 
 
 * The tiles which I have ventured to term joint-tiles, 
 were of the same length as the flat tiles, whose joints 
 they covered. "they were formed of narrow slips of 
 marble, so hollowed underneath, that when fixed, a 
 cavity was left over the joints. They were terminated 
 at the eaves by a sculptured ornament, commonly called 
 the Grecian lotus. A representation of one of these is 
 given by Stuart (Vol. IT. c. i. pi. h.) The entablature of 
 the choragic monument of Lysicrates,. shewn by the 
 same author, (Vol. I. c. iv. pi. 6.), is surrounded by an 
 ornamental termination, representing a continued series 
 of the joint eaves-tiles. 
 
 In the Athenian inscription, the joint-tiles are termed 
 
 a^jaoi. 
 
 •f* Lib. iv. c. 3. 
 
Ill 
 
 This unequal division might have hap- 
 pened had the Greeks deemed it necessary 
 to regulate the lacunaria according to the 
 disposition of the columns ; a mode of 
 arrangement which they do not always 
 appear to have pursued. In the present 
 instance the ceiling is divided into equal 
 compartments ; the marble joists, if the 
 expression may be allowed, being sup- 
 ported by the opposite entablatures, with- 
 out any regard to placing them imme- 
 diately over the columns. 
 
 Acroteria were placed at the angles of 
 the pediments, and, from their exhibiting 
 the marks of cramps in their upper sur- 
 face, it is evident that they must have 
 supported some ornamental termination. 
 It was the custom of the Greeks to place 
 ornaments upon the acroteria at the an- 
 gles of the pediments, and small figures 
 on those at the apex : they were generally 
 of bronze, or some metal gilt. The tem- 
 ple of Jupiter- Olympius at Olympia, we 
 
112 
 
 are informed . bj Pausanias,* had vases 
 of gilt metal at each termination of the pe- 
 diment, and a victory of similar composi- 
 tion on the summit. The same author 
 relates that upon the apex of the pedi- 
 ment belonging to the treasur\^ of the 
 Megareans, at Olympia, a shield was 
 placed.*!* Over the Propylaea at Corinth, 
 were fixed two brazen chariots gilt.J 
 It does not seem improbable that the 
 ornaments upon the acroteria of the Par- 
 thenon might have been vases of a simi- 
 lar description ; the custom of placing 
 them in such situations appears to have 
 been common amongst the nations of anti- 
 
 * Ae/Srjf STrl^pva-og Ittj hxacTTcp tow 6po<^ov tm TrepotTi sTrUsiTUi 
 xu) N/x>) xocTu [xs(TOV [/.uXkttoc scTTYjxs Tov asTOV, sTrl^pvaog 
 xu) avrrj. Lib. v. c. 10. That they were placed upon 
 the acroteria cannot admit of a doubt ; for Pausanias 
 afterwards proceeds to describe the sculptures within the 
 pediment. 
 
 •f ’AvaxeiToct 8e xai a<r7r)g inrsp too aeroti. Lib. vi. 10. 
 The pediment of this building was enriched with sculp- 
 tures, representing the battle of the giants. 
 
 I Pausan. Lib. xi. c. 3. 
 
113 
 
 quity.* In this situation, they might have 
 had some allusion to the prize bestowed 
 upon the conquerors in the games which 
 took place at the Panathenaic festival. 
 It is not unlikely that the Parthenon was 
 the temple alluded to in a fragment of 
 Callimachus, to which the scholiast upon 
 Pindarq* refers ; the vases he speaks of 
 were placed upon the summit of the 
 temple. The blocks of the cornice at the 
 angles of the fronts extend on each side 
 over the second triglyph, each measuring 
 twelve feet either way. 
 
 When Wheler visited Athens in 16*76’, . 
 the Parthenon remained entire ; excepting 
 the roof, which having been constructed 
 with perishable materials, may be conjec- 
 tured to have yielded to the attacks of 
 
 * Vases are often represented in ancient paintings 
 upon the summits of buildings. See the Pitture (TErco^ 
 lano, plates 50, 52, and 55. 
 
 *f* In Nem. 10 : 
 
 K«) 7rx'g”A5ijva/o5 yap stt) areyog Upov 
 KaATTiSej • ou ko(T[j.ov (ruia^oKov, oAAa TraKYjg, 
 
 r 
 
time long before this event. The Greeks 
 who had at a much earlier period abolished 
 the heathen riles, and converted the tem- 
 ple to a Christian church, covered it with 
 a roof and cupolas* in their usual manner. 
 In this state it remained until the siege of 
 Athens in 1687, when the explosion of a 
 shell, fired from the opposite hill of the 
 Museum, destroyed nearly half the fabric. 
 The walls of the cella before the opistho- 
 domus were almost wholly levelled, toge- 
 ther with five of the columns of the pro- 
 naos ; eight columns of the peristyle on 
 the north side, and six on the south were 
 thrown down. 
 
 The shell appears to have exploded near 
 the middle of the cella, spreading destruc- 
 tion in a circle around it, and forcing huge 
 
 * Chandler seems to have imagined the roof which 
 was destroyed by the Venetians, to have been that of the 
 original temple. The account of the siege, given by a 
 Venetian officer who was present, describes the burst- 
 ing of the shell, which, he says, “ fell near one of the 
 cupolas.” See Stuarfs Athens, Vol, II. p. 6, note. 
 
115 
 
 masses to a considerable distance beyond 
 the circuit of the building. The eastern 
 portico seems to have been just without 
 the range of its destructive influence ; but 
 the pediment and the sculptures it con- 
 tained, suffered from the shock and were 
 almost wholly destroyed. The pediment 
 of the western front, although it escaped 
 this eventful catastrophe, has nevertheless 
 experienced the dilapidation inflicted by 
 time, and wilful spoliation ; most of the 
 statues which remained in the time of 
 Wheler have wholly disappeared. Moro- 
 sini the Venetian, who accompanied the 
 forces under Koningsmark, after the re- 
 duction of the citadel, attempted to take 
 down one of the principal groupes, but it 
 fell in the effort and was shattered to 
 pieces. 
 
 Many of the metopae remain in a very 
 perfect state; some of the best preserved 
 have been removed from their stations on 
 the south side by the zeal and activity of 
 
one who, following the example of Mo- 
 rosini, but with better success, has suc- 
 ceeded in transporting them to his own 
 country.* 
 
 It has been already observed, that the 
 
 * Let me rescue Athenian architecture from an attack 
 which Dr. Clarke, in his Travels, has been instrumental 
 in levelling against it. A comparison is made between 
 the architecture of the Acropolis and that at Paestum, 
 which the ingenious and learned author relates upon 
 the authority of an Italian artist, much in favour of the 
 latter. I have no hesitation in asserting that what are 
 described by the painter as “ faults in the building and 
 proofs of negligence,” would be adduced by the architect 
 as evidence of that science which proportions the means 
 to the end. The outer and inward casings, if the term 
 may be allowed, of the zophorus or frize have been found 
 amply sufficient for the support of the cornice and lacu- 
 naria of the peristyle ; whilst such “ prodigious masses” 
 as those in a similar situation at Pmstum, throw an un- 
 necessary and somewhat dangerous weight upon the 
 epistylia, and add nothing to the durability of the 
 building. 
 
 The walls of the cella are constructed in a similar 
 manner ; the heading-stones, as they are called, run 
 through the whole thickness of the walls ; where the 
 blocks are placed lengthways, the wall is in two thick- 
 nesses ; the outer faces of these blocks alone are smooth- 
 ed, the inner are left rough, with sometimes a consider- 
 able interval between them. 
 
117 
 
 walls of the cella, towards the peristyle, 
 were ornamented with sculptures in bas- 
 relief: of five hundred and twenty-one 
 feet, which must have been the length of 
 this ornamented frize, when entire, there 
 were about two hundred remaining in the 
 year 1751, when Stuart visited Athens ; 
 seventy over the portico of the posticum, 
 and one hundred and thirty upon the 
 walls of the opisthodomus. Many other 
 portions were lying around amongst the 
 ruins, almost all of which had experienced, 
 besides the ravages of time, and the shock 
 of explosions, the violence inflicted by the 
 wanton hands of the Turks. 
 
 In forming an opinion of the merit of 
 the sculptures adorning the Parthenon, we 
 must divest our minds of all those associ- 
 ations which diffuse a charm over the pro- 
 ductions of the Greeks; and endeavour 
 to consider them abstractedly as works of 
 art. If upon examination they should be 
 found to demand, in this point of view. 
 
118 
 
 less of our admiration than is commonly 
 claimed for them, no argument will be 
 thereby afforded against the pre-eminence 
 of Grecian sculpture : the neglect of exe- 
 cution is to be attributed to a laudable 
 economy of talent, which withheld its pro- 
 fuse expenditure upon occasions so little 
 favourable to its display. 
 
 Whoever considers the composition of 
 the frize, will not fail to observe, that all 
 the groupes, whatever their attitudes, 
 occupy the entire height of the frame. 
 Horsemen, pedestrians, and victors in cars 
 of triumph, are all nearly of one uniform 
 height. This isocephalism has not been 
 effected without some violation of draw- 
 ing ; but the picture was to be filled, and 
 richness of effect produced at the expense 
 of keeping in the proportions of the parts.* 
 
 * The subjects of the sculptures have been explained, 
 with great ingenuity, by Visconti in his work upon the 
 marbles of the Parthenon. His explanation differs in 
 many points from that of Stuart, and is altogether much 
 more satisfactory. Some inaccuracies of Stuart are care- 
 fully noticed by this learned antiquary. 
 
119 
 
 The learned and accomplished author 
 of a recent essay on ancient sculpture, 
 whose taste and judgment upon such sub- 
 jects is undisputed, has well explained in 
 what the merit of the sculptures consist. 
 In his remarks upon the works of the most 
 celebrated sculptors of Greece, he ob- 
 serves, ‘‘ Of Phidias's general style of 
 composition, the frizes and metopes of 
 the temple of Minerva at Athens, pub- 
 lished by Mr. Stuart, and since brought 
 to England, may afford us competent in- 
 formation ; but as these are merely archi- 
 tectural sculptures executed from his de- 
 signs and under his directions, probably 
 by workmen scarcely ranked amongst 
 artists, and meant to be seen at more than 
 forty feet from the eye, they can throw 
 but little light upon the more important 
 details of his art. From the degree and 
 mode of relief in the frizes they appear to 
 have been intended to produce an effect 
 like that of the simplest kind of mono- 
 
120 
 
 chromatic paintings, when seen from their 
 proper point of sight ; which effect must 
 have been extremely light and elegant. 
 The relief in the metopes is much higher, 
 so as to exhibit the figures nearly com- 
 plete; and the details are more elaborately 
 made out ; but they are so different in 
 their degrees of merit, as to be evidently 
 the works of many different persons ; some 
 of whom would not have been entitled to 
 the rank of artists in a much less cultivated 
 and fastidious age."'^ 
 
 Supported by such authority, we may 
 venture to check that mistaken enthusiasm 
 which venerates the sculptures as the 
 works of Phidias ; who rarely, if ever, 
 wrought in marble, and whose employ- 
 ment in directing and superintending the 
 works of the Parthenon is too clearly 
 explained to admit of any misconstruc- 
 tion. 
 
 * Specimens of ancient sculpture, Introd. p. xxxix. 
 
 f Plutarch expressly states that Phidias was the 
 
121 
 
 The situation of the sculptures would 
 lead us to expect that their execution was 
 adapted to the circumstances under which 
 they could be inspected. The groupes 
 
 director and inspector of the architects and artizans em- 
 ployed about the buildings ; and that Callicrates and 
 Ictinus took part in their execution. TIxvtu Ss SisItts ku) 
 TTuvTMv s7rl(TK07irog avrS xxlroi fx-syaXoiig Scp^iTsxTOVug 
 
 \yJvTm xixi Tsyulra; twv spyMV’ rov fji,h yacp Ixaro’jO.TrsSov 
 7cxp$:VMva. KaAAiJcoarrjf slpyoc^BTO xu) "ixTivog. In Peric. 
 Unless we can suppose these great architects to have 
 worked as masons, it would seem as if the sculpture had 
 been chiefly executed by them. The professions of ar- 
 chitecture and sculpture were frequently united in the 
 same person. 
 
 The same author makes use of the verb to 
 
 describe the employment of Phidias, as a sculptor, when 
 engaged about the statue of the Goddess. 'O Ss <t>sidlag 
 s]pya'i^sT 0 jW,ev rrjg 0sou to ypucouv s%g. Ib. 
 
 The performances of Phidias were almost wholly con- 
 fined to works in metal and ivory. There are three 
 instances where marble statues are said to have been the 
 work of this inimitable artist, recorded by Pausanias. 
 One of them was a Nemesis formed out of a block of 
 Parian marble the Persians brought with them for the 
 purjx)se of erecting a trophy of their anticipated victo- 
 ries. i. 33. The second was a statue of Venus for the 
 temple in the Ceramicus; and the third a statue of 
 Hermes-Pronaos, near Thebes, ix. 10. The statue of 
 
122 
 
 in the pediments, and the figures in the 
 metopae might indeed be viewed from 
 a distance more than sufficient to obviate 
 the disadvantages arising from the fore- 
 shortening occasioned bj the proximity 
 of a spectator to the building : but the loss 
 of the minutia3 of execution must have 
 been the necessary consequence of this 
 distant inspection ; nor could a vigorous 
 effect be produced without extravagant 
 action in the composition, and a dispro- 
 portionate relief in the details of execution. 
 
 The sculpture in the frize along the 
 
 Nemesis is, however, said by Pliny to have been the work 
 of Agoracritus, a disciple of Phidias, xxxvi. 5. 
 
 Visconti, in the work already mentioned, attempts to 
 controvert this opinion; and as an argument decisive of 
 the contrary, he quotes the words of Aristotle, who calls 
 Phidias o-o<pog A»9oupyoyj,in contradistinction to Polycletus, 
 who, working chiefly in metal, was denominated acvdptav- 
 TOTTOm. If, as Visconti imagines, Aristotle intended by 
 these different terms to explain their different professions 
 of statuary and founder, it w'^ould follow that Phidias 
 worked wholly in marble ; which is contrary to the 
 known fact, By the expression a-ofog XtSovpyotjg Aristotle 
 probably meant that Phidias was skilled in masonry, 
 whilst the other was merely a sculptor. 
 
123 
 
 cella walls, could only have been viewed 
 under great disadvantages : a spectator 
 must have approached within thirty feet 
 of the peristyle, before the whole height of 
 the frize could be seen by him : he had 
 then to contemplate an object raised more 
 than forty feet above the eye. Removed 
 therefore, beyond the reach of critical ex- 
 amination, no reason can exist for imagin- 
 ing that all the energies of art should have 
 been exerted in their execution. 
 
 The better execution of frize over the 
 two entrances into the body of the temple 
 may perhaps be accounted for, by ob- 
 serving, that as these receded further from 
 the columns before them, the frize above 
 might be viewed from a greater distance ; 
 when the angle made by the axis of vision 
 would be less acute, and the light consi- 
 derably stronger. 
 
 It has been imagined that the Greeks 
 used no cement in the construction of 
 their buildings. The supposition is un- 
 
124 
 
 founded ; although, indeed, it was intro- 
 duced sparingly, and never applied near 
 the face of the building. It is to this pre- 
 caution, that the great precision in uniting 
 the joints, so conspicuous amongst the 
 other perfections of their architectural 
 remains, is to be attributed. This part of 
 the mechanism of the art was highly es- 
 teemed : Pausanias extols the temple of 
 Apollo at Phigalia, no less for the beauty 
 of the stone than the accuracy with which 
 the courses were united.* 
 
 Some of the blocks of the Parthenon 
 are so closely fitted, that no separation is 
 visible : and in some instances, where the 
 adjoining fragments of two contiguous 
 stones have been broken off, they adhere 
 almost as firmly as though they had never 
 been disjoined. This cohesion is only 
 
 * This close fitting of the contiguous block? was 
 termed up[/,oviot» Pausan. ii. 25; viii. 41 ; ix. 33, 89. 
 From whence, perhaps, arose the fabulous creation of the 
 walls of Thebes, by the power of music or harmony. 
 
125 
 
 observable in the vertical joints, the sepa- 
 ration between the horizontal beds of the 
 blocks is far more conspicuous. 
 
 The want of cement was amply supplied 
 by the liberal use of iron cramps :* these 
 indeed occur so frequently that in a 
 block of four feet in length three cramps 
 are sometimes found, connecting it with 
 the next adjoining. The cramps were of 
 two kinds : one sort was used for uniting 
 the blocks of the same course; and the 
 other for connecting the superincumbent 
 with the course below it. The first re- 
 sembled the letter H protracted so as to 
 be eleven, and sometimes fifteen inches in 
 
 * The ancients made use of both Avood and metal for 
 the cramps and ligatures of the stones. The mode of 
 cramping with wood is termed by Suidas jaavxwcrjf. 
 Cramps of metal were termed yoy.pi, or ^a\xBoyo[x.pi, 
 from their resembling two wedges united at the points. 
 These are now commonly called dovetail cramps. In 
 the Athenian inscription they are termed arpalo-xot. 
 
 No cement was used in building the long walls uniting 
 Piraeus to Athens. The blocks were fastened together 
 by iron cramps, run in with lead. Thucyd. i. 9.3. 
 
126 
 
 length : these united the blocks in contact 
 both at the ends and at the sides. The 
 others were plates of iron, five inches in 
 depth, three in width, and three quarters 
 of an inch in thickness. They were gene- 
 rally inserted half their depth in the blocks 
 beneath the vertical joints of the next su- 
 perior course ; the other half remaining to 
 be received into an incision made across 
 the common joint of the two blocks meet- 
 ing above it. Holes of the same form but 
 of greater dimensions were sunk for the 
 reception of the cramps first described, the 
 space around being filled with melted lead. 
 Lead was likewise used in fixing cramps 
 of the second description in the lower 
 courses, but no means appear to have 
 been employed for its introduction at the 
 angles of the two blocks whose vertical 
 joint is immediately above them. 
 
 The five frusta, composing the shaft of 
 each column, were held together by 
 wooden pins of a cylindrical form. Square 
 
127 
 
 sockets of the same material were first 
 sunk in the axes of two adjoining blocks ; 
 the socket of the lower course received 
 half the pin, and when the next superior 
 frustum was placed, its socket covered 
 the remaining half. Several of these have 
 lately been found ; the pins appear to 
 have shrunk very considerably, their dia- 
 meters being much less than the square of 
 the socket ; besides these there wereusually 
 two metal plates of the kind already men- 
 tioned, inserted in the manner before re- 
 lated. The columns, like those of the pro- 
 pylaea diminish from the bottom to the 
 top, in a line which is slightly curved. 
 
 North of the Parthenon stand the 
 ruins of the Erectheum, a double temple 
 of the Ionic order of architecture. 
 
 If we could suppose the porticoes in the 
 flanks of the building removed, the plan 
 would be simply that of the kind of temple 
 termed by Vitruvius, prostyle: that is 
 with a portico in the principal front only, 
 
128 
 
 and no peristyle. If to a temple of this 
 description two porticoes be added at the 
 western extremities of the flanks, a gene- 
 ral idea of the plan of the building may 
 be formed. 
 
 The two divisions of the building, al- 
 though under one continued roof, were 
 nevertheless sufficiently distinct, the level 
 of one part being eight feet lower than 
 that of the other : the different levels took 
 place at the wall separating the two cellae.* 
 Each division had its particular approach, 
 the higher by an hexastyle portico at the 
 east end, and the lower by a tetrastyle 
 portico attached 1o the north-west angle of 
 the building. The door of the portico at 
 the other angle, where statues of women 
 supply the place of columns, and which 
 may therefore be termed, for distinction 
 
 * fliis kind of double temple was not uncommon in 
 Greece. Pausanias mentions one at Mantinea, where 
 the cella, like that of the Erectheum, was divided by a 
 wall. viii. 
 
129 
 
 sake, stjlagalmatic, was nearly level with 
 that of the lower division of the building ; 
 whilst the ground without on the south and 
 east was so much higher as to have been 
 level with that in front of the east portico. 
 Under these circumstances the statues 
 were placed upon a continued pedestal 
 elevated upon three steps so as to be more 
 than eight feet above the ground.* 
 
 The lower division had no approach 
 from the west, for at this end the columns 
 were raised upon a podium, or low wall, 
 and the intervals between them closed ; 
 excepting where three openings afforded 
 light to the pronaos of the lower temple. 
 
 There is no difficulty in recognizing in 
 this beautiful edifice the Erectheum of 
 Pausanias, which he says was a double 
 temple, having within it the salt-water 
 spring. Although the building, when 
 
 * During the time I resided at Athens, Lord Elgin 
 excavated this portico, and discovered several steps 
 leading down to a door-way in the south wall of the 
 Pandroseum. 
 
 K 
 
130 
 
 spoken of collectively, was called the 
 Erectheum, the two temples comprised 
 within it were dedicated to Minerva-Po- 
 lias, and the nymph Pandrosus.* 
 
 Pausanias gives no information respect- 
 ing the origin of the present building, and 
 none being furnished by earlier writers, 
 the period of its commencement has been 
 referred to a time subsequent to the burn- 
 ing of the temple of Minerva, which is 
 recorded by Xenophon to have happened 
 in the 93"'* Olympiad. 
 
 A very valuable inscription, which will 
 appear to relate to the temple now under 
 consideration, was brought from the Acro- 
 polis of Athens, by Dr. Chandler, for the 
 society of Delettanti.-f Prom this docu- 
 ment it is evident that the building was 
 nearly completed in the archonship of 
 
 * Pausan. Lib. i. 2J. 
 
 -f- This interesting inscription, of which I purpose 
 giving an interpretation, is inserted in Chandler’s In- 
 scriptiones Antiquoe ; and, by way of distinction, is 
 termed by him Marmor Atheniense. 
 
131 
 
 Diodes,* three years prior to the event 
 related by Xenophon. In this there are 
 many particulars related from which it can 
 be only inferred, that the building under 
 discussion was a recent structure, approach- 
 ing towards completion by a gradual pro- 
 gress. The bases of the columns, the wall 
 towards the west on which the columns of 
 that front are elevated, the substructure of 
 the portico towards the south, and other 
 particulars in the lower part of the edi- 
 fice, are described to be in an unfinished 
 state ; whence it is evident that the build- 
 ing was not then undergoing that kind of 
 repair, which a conflagration would have 
 rendered necessary, for in this case the 
 unfinished work would have been wholly 
 confined to the higher parts. 
 
 * It is probable that this building was begun imme- 
 diately after the Propylaea were completed, five years 
 before the death of Pericles : although the Peloponne- 
 sian war, which broke out soon afterwards, delayed its 
 progress. The Propylaea were finished 432 years before 
 Christ, and Diodes was archon 408 before the same epoch. 
 
132 
 
 From the earliest period of history there 
 appears to have been a temple of Erec- 
 theus upon the Athenian Acropolis. This 
 building, although it is said by Herodotus 
 to have been burned, probably existed 
 until a few years prior to the period of 
 which we are now speaking.* When 
 Xerxes gained possession of the citadel of 
 Athens he set fire to the temples, and the 
 Erectheum was amongst the number of 
 those which suffered on this occasion. It 
 was not, however, totally destroyed, for 
 
 * Through the vague terms in which historians have 
 described the destruction of buildings by fire, a general 
 inference has been drawn, which some particular instances 
 are far from establishing. It has been concluded that 
 such buildings were wholly destroyed. The error of 
 such a conclusion is strongly exemplified in the temples 
 of Agrigentum, which to this day remain a proof of the 
 inefficacy of fire to accomplish their overthrow. The 
 Sicilian historian informs us that some were burned, and 
 some wholly undermined : the distinction observed in 
 the terms expressing the different kinds of violation in- 
 flicted upon them is deserving of remark, inasmuch as it 
 implies that their fall could not be accomplished by 
 means of fire. If after the lapse of two thousand years. 
 
133 
 
 the second day after the execution of this 
 act of impiety the Persian monarch com- 
 manded the Athenian refugees, who ac- 
 companied him in his invasion of Greece, 
 to ascend the Acropolis, and perform 
 sacrifices according to the custom of 
 the Greeks. On repairing to this temple 
 they were surprised at the miraculous 
 growth of the sacred olive. From the 
 construction of the passage in which this 
 circumstance is related, it must necessarily 
 be mferred, that the temple of Erectheus 
 was in existence at the time when the 
 Halicarnessian was reciting his history ; 
 and the circumstances under which the 
 recital was made, as they would have led to 
 
 and after the desolation to which the city, in the absence 
 of all means of defence, was subjected, their remains are 
 so considerable and their condition still respectable, in 
 what light are we to regard them towering above the 
 expiring embers of their timbers, and other inflammable 
 materials ? It should seem, therefore, that by the ex- 
 pression of a temple being burned, the destruction of the 
 roof, and such of the ornamental part of the interior as 
 was constructed of wood, is alone to be understood 
 
134 
 
 the detection of an unfounded assertion, 
 leave no doubt of the accuracy of his 
 statement.* 
 
 It is probable that the old temple of 
 Erectheus, after the Persian invasion, was 
 siiflered for a time to decay, in conformity 
 with the policy observed by the Athenians, 
 who kept alive the animosity of their pro- 
 geny against the Persians by permitting 
 their sacred fanes to remain in the same 
 state of profanation as they were left by 
 their successful invaders.^j" The sacred 
 olive and the holy spring, so highly revered 
 by the Athenians, as proofs of the conten- 
 tion of immortals for the guardianship of 
 
 * ’'Eo'ti ev Tjj txKpOTToXt TauTj) Tou ytj'ysvsog Asyo- 
 
 /jtsvoy elvai vr] 0 c, ev tZ e\ctlrj re x.ou ^uXa<T<ja. evi. viii. 55. 
 
 It must be remembered that Herodotus was address- 
 ing an Athenian audience. He read his history to the 
 Athenians in the third year of the 83'^'^ Olympiad. 
 
 ■f* Pausan. Lib. x. 35. This author mentions a tem- 
 ple of Juno, in the road from Phalerum to Athens, which 
 was without a roof, and without doors. Mardonius is 
 said to have burned this temple. Here then is an in- 
 stance of the injuries occasioned by fire. 
 
135 
 
 the city, were objects in whose preservation 
 they were highly interested. Since these 
 were incapable of removal the Erectheum 
 must of necessity have been rebuilt upon 
 the ancient site. The great temple of their 
 tutelary deity, on the contrary, was erected 
 in a new situation; the ancient one, which 
 it was intended to replace, remaining un- 
 touched until time finally obliterated every 
 trace of its former existence. 
 
 The building erected to enshrine these 
 precious objects, was called the Erec- 
 theum, and there was an altar at one of 
 the entrances, upon which offerings were 
 made to the hero from whom it was 
 named f but the two divisions of the 
 building were appropriated, as has al- 
 ready been observed, to the worship of 
 Minerva and Pandrosus.f 
 
 It has been thought that the temple to 
 which the Athenian inscription relates, 
 
 * Pansan. Lib. i. 26. 
 
 ■f Ib. Lib. i. 27 . 
 
was burned three years after the survey 
 was made. Xenophon, upon whose au- 
 thority the supposition is grounded, does 
 not describe the injury the building sus- 
 tained : although, as little more than the 
 wood-work was ever destroyed by acci- 
 dents of this nature, it may be conjectured 
 that no destruction of the masonry ensued. 
 It is far from certain, that the temple al- 
 luded to by Xenophon, was the one in 
 question ; the probability is that he was 
 speaking of the old Hecatompedon.* 
 
 The sacred olive appears to have been 
 preserved in the Pandroseum ; a passage 
 in Apollodorus,-f and another in Dionysius 
 of Halicarnessus, alludes to its position 
 there : the latter determines to which of 
 
 * Xenophon calls the temple which suffered on this 
 occasion, 6 TraXotios vrjos ’Aflrjvac. i. 6. Strabo, speak- 
 ing of the temple of Minerva-Polias, calls it 6 
 vscas 6 xijf UoKiahg. Lib. viii. 
 
 *}* Msxa 8e rovTOV rjxsv xai TrojyjxajiteV)] rtj^ xuTtxX^- 
 
 \pscog KsxpoTra ficcpTvpa £<puTsu<rocv sXaiocv^ i) vvv Iv Tcp7rcivdpo(rlco 
 
 leUvuToa. Lib. iii. 
 
137 
 
 the two divinities either portion was ap- 
 propriated. “ A dog/' he says, “ having 
 entered the temple of Minerva-Polias and 
 got down to the Pandroseum, leaped upon 
 the altar of Jupiter-Hircaeus, under the 
 olive tree, and lay down there."* By the 
 use of the word it is obvious there 
 must have been a descent from the temple 
 of Minerva-Polias to the Pandroseum, a 
 circumstance which is illustrated by the 
 different levels of the buildings. Hence 
 the division entered through the hexastyle 
 portico was the temple of Minerva-Polias, 
 and that approached through the portico 
 in the south side, the Pandroseum : the 
 stylagalmatic portico being attached to the 
 latter. 
 
 The last-mentioned portico is a singular 
 production of architecture ; although, if 
 
 * Kucov, sig TW T^g TloXta^og vsoj'v sKrsXSoutra, xai 8u(ra stg 
 Tov TlavSpoVjov, stt) tov ^co[ji,ov kva^oica. tov 'Epxs/oo Ajoj, tov 
 U7T0 IXa/«, xarexeiTO. In Dinarcho. 
 
 Pausanias places the olive in the temple of Minerva- 
 Polias. 
 
138 
 
 we are to credit the assertion of Vitru- 
 vius, such buildings were not uncommon 
 in Greece. He instances, as an example, 
 a portico at Sparta, where the statues of 
 men were substituted for columns. In 
 this particular instance he seems to have 
 formed a wrong conception of their posi- 
 tion, which, according to Pausanias, was 
 immediately above, or upon the columns, 
 and not such as to supersede altogether 
 the use of them.* There are the remains 
 of a building at Thessalonica, now called 
 the Incan tada,-j" which the Persian portico 
 probably resembled : like this, it appears 
 to have been part of a portico, two stories 
 in height, surrounding the Agora. 
 
 The origin of the introduction of statues 
 instead of columns, is thus related by Vi- 
 truvius : “ Carya, a city of Peloponnesus, 
 sided with the Persians against the Grecian 
 
 * EI(7» 8s sTTi Tciv xJoVcov UspcToci \ldov Asuxou XUi uXXoij Koil 
 MapSoVioj 6 TcujSpuou. Pans. iii. 1 1. 
 
 -f* Stuart's Athens. Vol. iii. c. 9. 
 
139 
 
 states. When the country was freed from 
 the invaders, the arms of the Greeks were 
 turned against the Caryans. Upon the 
 capture of the city, the males were put to 
 the sword, and the women led awa}^ cap- 
 tives. The architects of the age, in order 
 to perpetuate the ignominy of this people, 
 introduced statues of their women, instead 
 of columns, in the porticoes of their build- 
 ings : the ornaments and drapery were 
 faithfully copied from the attire of the 
 women, the mode of which they were 
 never permitted to change.^"* 
 
 The proof of the defection of the Caryans 
 rests upon no other authority than this as- 
 sertion of Vitruvius ; and in the absence 
 of all concurring testimony by historical 
 writers, it is impossible to attach any de- 
 gree of credit to it.“f In this instance had 
 it been the intention to record such a fact, 
 
 * Vitruv. i. 1. 
 
 *|* Pausanias mentions two villages of this name, one 
 in Laconia and the other in Arcadia. In the latter there 
 
140 
 
 the attire of the statues, like that of the 
 Persians, would have been such as to dis- 
 tinguish it from what was common to all 
 Greece : otherwise all Greece would have 
 shared in the obloquy the introduction of 
 female statues is thought to have been 
 designed to perpetuate. The ordinary 
 dress of slaves, it is probable, would have 
 been chosen for this purpose, to comme- 
 morate the nature of the punishment in- 
 flicted ; but as the costume in which they 
 are represented, is similar to that observed 
 in various instances of early Grecian sculp- 
 ture, the application to any particular na- 
 tion or class of subjects wholly fails.* 
 
 was a temple of Diana^Caryatis. The Caryatides appear 
 to have been the nymphs of Diana ; they were seized hy 
 Aristomenes as they were celebrating a feast in honour 
 of the Goddess, but were subsequently ransomed. Pait- 
 san. iv. 16. 
 
 * The reader is referred to Mr. Hope’s elegant and 
 interesting publication on the costume of the ancients. 
 The style of the hair of the Caryatides, as they are 
 termed, the most striking peculiarity of these statues, 
 may be noticed in many of the sculptures representing 
 divinities as well as mortals. 
 
141 
 
 It is probable that they are representa- 
 tions of the virgins, who assisted at the 
 Panathenaea and were called Canephorae ; 
 two of whom are said by Pausanias to 
 have had their habitation near the Pandro- 
 seuni. In the Athenian inscription relating 
 to this temple, they are termed Kopal, and 
 it is singular that they are still called by 
 the modern Greeks by a word of similar 
 import, Kopi^ix. 
 
 It has been generally thought that the 
 entire edifice constituted a triple temple, 
 dedicated to Erectheus, Minerva-Polias, 
 and the nymph Pandrosus. In confor- 
 mity with this supposition, Stuart has ap- 
 propriated to each a separate portion of 
 the building. The part entered through 
 the hexastyle portico he imagines to have 
 been the temple of Erectheus ; that ap- 
 proached through the tetrastyle porch he 
 assigns to Minerva-Polias ; and the por- 
 tico where statues supply the use of 
 columns, he calls the Pandroseum. Pau- 
 
142 
 
 sanias, however, distinctly describes the 
 Erectheum to be a double building a 
 description which the plan completely 
 illustrates. He goes on to state that the 
 temple of Pandrosus was contiguous, or 
 attached, to that of Minerva. The word 
 votoq, by which the nature of both buildings 
 is particularized, makes it evident that the 
 portico called the Pandroseum by Stuart, 
 could not have been contemplated in al- 
 luding to either. 
 
 The Erectheum has suffered more by 
 wilful spoliation than any other building 
 of the Acropolis : f the portion of this 
 edifice dedicated to the protectress of the 
 city has experienced in a greater degree 
 the neglect which accompanied the expir- 
 
 * Lib. i. c. 2fi. 
 
 ■f* The Turks are accused of mutilating, without dis- 
 tinction, the sculptures of the Acropolis. The compara- 
 tive state of preservation these statues have retained, 
 although open to public approach and within the reach 
 of every hand, is a proof that so long as a building re- 
 mains nearly intire, no disfigurement, on the part of the 
 Turks, ensues. 
 
143 
 
 ing influence of its tutelary deity. Five 
 columns of its portico, and their epistylia, 
 remain ; but, mutilated and shaken, they 
 will not long resist the attacks of time and 
 wanton dismemberment. The wall to- 
 wards the north is nearly level with the 
 ground ; that facing the south exists to a 
 considerable height : the transverse walls 
 have almost wholly disappeared. 
 
 The Pandroseum was in a state of better 
 preservation, and had no modern col- 
 lectors seconded the efforts of the unseen 
 and slow destroyer, future ages might have 
 admired in the remains of this monument, 
 a striking example of the exquisite taste 
 and the delicacy of execution, so peculiar 
 to the Greeks. 
 
 There were originally six statues sup- 
 porting the south portico of the Pandro- 
 seum, four in front, and one in each re- 
 turn ; one of the latter was wanting when 
 Stuart visited Athens. Its place had been 
 ill supplied by a pile of modern masonry. 
 
144 
 
 which disfigured the ancient building and 
 afforded little aid in upholding it ; another 
 has been lately removed, and the unseem- 
 liness of the fabric considerably increased, 
 by a substitute of similar rudeness and 
 equal inefficiency. The statue last re- 
 moved was taken from the front of the 
 building, and consequently is one whose 
 loss is more felt, and whose removal is the 
 more to be lamented.* 
 
 The tetrastyle portico of this building 
 is used by the Turks as a magazine for 
 powder; to make it subservient to this 
 purpose the intervals between the columns 
 
 * I am far from joining in the clamour which has been 
 unjustly raised against Lord Elgin, by some recent tra- 
 vellers, As I resided at Athens whilst the collection, 
 now in England, was removing, I can venture to say 
 that the absence of what was actually taken down from 
 the Parthenon will scarcely be felt. Had the Erectheum 
 been suffered to remain untouched, his Lordship might 
 have escaped all well-grounded censure. The advan- 
 tages, however, that we may confidently expect to derive 
 from the possession of the collection, are of too great a 
 magnitude to permit us long to regret the loss the origi- 
 nals have sustained. 
 
145 
 
 have been closed by a wall of rough stone. 
 The unhallowed hand is thus withheld 
 from fixing its rude grasp upon this part , 
 of the building ; the circumstance, how- 
 ever, which preserves its sanctity, is no 
 subject of congratulation to the lover of 
 Grecian antiquities, since some sinister 
 accident, similar to that which has already 
 befallen the other buildinsrs of the Aero- 
 
 O 
 
 polls, may level it with the ground in an 
 instant. 
 
 The lacunaria of the two last-mentioned 
 porticoes, are formed of marble, and re- 
 main entire; those of the south are men- 
 tioned in the inscription to which allusion 
 has already been made ; they are termed 
 XiQoi opo'piuiot or the ceiling stones. 
 
 The roof, formed in the same blocks, is 
 in four pieces, which extend from the south 
 wall of the m ain building, and comprise the 
 cornic^^ over the heads of the statues in 
 front : the upper surface is made with a 
 gentle inclination from the wall towards 
 
 L 
 
146 
 
 the front : and the joints where the blocks 
 meet are saddled, which clearly indicates 
 the intention of leaving this part of the 
 edifice without any superior roof. 
 
 The columns of this building were highly 
 enriched ; besides the usual concomi- 
 tants of the capital, they had a sculptured 
 necking, which is observed in no other 
 known instance of the Ionic order. The 
 volutes are beautiful in design, and most 
 exquisitely wrought. 
 
 The capitals of the antse have no orna- 
 ment at all resembling the distinguishing 
 feature of the capitals of the columns ; 
 every indication of the volute has been 
 avoided. In the examples of the Doric 
 order, already described, a distinction 
 likewise prevails in the moldings severally 
 forming the capitals of the columns and 
 of the antae ; this, which to the eye accus- 
 tomed to the resemblance prevailing be- 
 tween these members in Roman buildings, 
 might appear to be a want of harmony in 
 
147 
 
 the parts of the edifice, obtains in all 
 buildings of pure Grecian origin of these 
 two orders of architecture. 
 
 The same practice was most probably 
 extended to the Corinthian, although as 
 we have no Grecian buildings of that order 
 in which both columns and antae remain, 
 we have no authority for speaking with 
 decision upon the subject."^ It is remark- 
 able that Vitruvius neither alludes to the 
 proportions or details of pilasters through- 
 out the whole of his work. 
 
 A very singular circumstance occurs in 
 the construction of this edifice ; the zopho- 
 rus, or frize, is faced with thin slabs of 
 greyish lime-stone ; the fastigium of the 
 pediment belonging to the north portico 
 of the Pandroseum, the only one remain- 
 
 * If we may be permitted to class the Clepsydra and 
 its porticoes amongst buildings of the Corinthian order, 
 we shall be furnished with an example of the truth of 
 this supposition ; although the building, strictly speak- 
 ing, cannot be considered as a production of Grecian 
 times. 
 
148 
 
 ing, is formed of the same material. The 
 frize is studded with iron cramps, the use 
 of which seems obviously to have been to 
 attach bronze sculpture to this ground. 
 These circumstances would be in them- 
 selves sufficient, in the absence of all other 
 proof, to identify the temple with the 
 building which is the subject of the Athe- 
 nian inscription ; this most interesting 
 document alludes to the use of Eleusinian 
 stone, in the frizes of the building. A 
 specimen of this stone which I procured 
 from Athens, was analysed by Dr. Edward 
 Clarke, the professor of mineralogy at 
 Cambridge. He describes it to be “a 
 blueish-grey compact limestone, of se- 
 condary formation, with a flat conchoidal 
 fracture, rather splintery, and hard enough 
 to cut glass : of course susceptible of po- 
 lish. It has a slate-like appearance, and 
 exhibits a lively effervesence in diluted 
 nitric acid. The temple of Apollo at Phi- 
 galia is built of similar stone. So are the 
 Cathedral and walls of York. 
 
149 
 
 In order to ascertain the propriety of 
 calling this stone Eleusinian, I procured 
 a fragment from the walls of the cella of 
 the mystic temple of Ceres ; which are of 
 the same stone as the rock upon which 
 they are built. The analysis of this stone 
 is thus given by the learned professor : 
 “ The Eleusinian stone is also a limestone 
 of a light grey colour ; it effervesces briskly 
 in acids. It is hard enough to cut glass, 
 but it has no conchoidal fracture. This 
 sort of limestone is common in Greece. 
 It is particular!}^ found upon Parnassus.'’^ 
 
 I shall have occasion to allude to se- 
 veral peculiarities of this building in the 
 subsequent translation of the Athenian 
 inscription ; for the present therefore, I 
 shall quit the subject and proceed- to no- 
 tice the buildings of the city ; no other 
 object of ancient skill existing in the 
 Acropolis, sufficiently interesting to de- 
 mand attention. 
 
ON THE 
 
 BUILDINGS OF THE CITY. 
 
 In a south-eastern direction from the 
 Acropolis, at the distance of about five 
 hundred yards from the foot of the rock, 
 stand sixteen gigantic columns, of the Co- 
 rinthian order of architecture. They are 
 the remains of a temple which formerly 
 boasted of an hundred and twenty ; so 
 disposed as to present a triple row of ten 
 in each front, and a double row of twenty 
 in the flanks. The length of the temple, 
 measured upon the upper step, was three- 
 hundred and fifty-four feet ; its breadth, 
 one-hundred and seventy-one. The co- 
 
152 
 
 lumns of this stupendous edifice were six 
 feet and a half in diameter, and more than 
 sixty feet high. The entire building was 
 constructed with the marble from the 
 quarries of Pentelicus. 
 
 From the contemplation of a building 
 of these extraoi’dinary dimensions, and of 
 a cost commensurate with its extent and 
 the beauty of its execution, we are natu- 
 rally led to an enquiry after the bold pro- 
 jector of a structure, worthy of the Athenian 
 people in the most brilliant period of their 
 history. 
 
 From amongst the most celebrated tem- 
 ples of antiquity Vitruvius has selected 
 four examples, which he extols as surpas- 
 sing all others in magnificence and extent : 
 these were the temple of Diana at Ephe- 
 sus, that of Apollo at Miletus, the mystic 
 temple of Ceres at Eleusis, and the temple 
 of Jupiter-Olympius at Athens. 
 
 Whether or not the ruins in question 
 foimed a part of the Athenian temple 
 
152 
 
 which ancient writers have concurred in 
 celebrating, may be thought to depend in 
 great measure upon the magnitude of the 
 building in its original state, compared to 
 that of the others with which the Olym- 
 pieum is conjointly mentioned by Vitru- 
 vius ; and it is material to the identification 
 of these ruins with the object of the eulo- 
 gium of this author, to shew that, in point 
 of extent it was no I inferior to one, at least, 
 of the four selected examples. That such is 
 the fact is placed beyond the shadow of a 
 doubt, by the result of a recent research ; 
 and although upon the authority of Pliny, 
 we presume the Ephesian temple to have 
 been considerably larger than that which 
 is the subject of the present enquiry, ex- 
 ceeding it, according to his report, in 
 length seventy feet, and in width fifty, we 
 can assert from the undoubted testimony 
 of competent witnesses that the other two 
 were inferior in size to the temple of which 
 these columns constituted a part."^ 
 
 * The mission lately sent out by the Society of Dilet- 
 
Hence it follows, that the building of 
 wliich we are now speaking was entitled 
 to be ranked amongst the sacred structures 
 most celebrated for their magnificence and 
 colossal proportions, and this alone, con- 
 sidering that one of them is stated to have 
 adorned the Athenian capital, would have 
 been proof sufficient that the ruins in 
 question are the remains of the temple of 
 Jupiter-Oljmpius. But Vitruvius bj re- 
 lating that the edifice to which he alludes 
 was of the Corinthian order^ — that it had 
 ten columns in the frontsf- and a double 
 
 tanti to explore Asia-Minor were enabled to obtain accu- 
 rate admeasurements of both the temples in question. 
 The mystic temple of Ceres was two-hundred and six- 
 teen feet in length, and one-hundred and seventy-eight 
 in width. The temple of Apollo at Miletus was nearly 
 three-hundred and sixty-eight feet in length, but in 
 width, upon which the proportionate scale depends, it 
 was not quite one-hundred and sixty-five. In point of 
 magnificence, the temple at Athens surpassed them both. 
 
 * In asty vero Jovem Olympium amplo modulorum 
 comparatu, Corinthiis symmetriis et proportionibus ar- 
 chitectandum. Vitruv.in ‘prcef. lib. vii. 
 
 f Vitruvius describing hypaethral temples, says that 
 
155 
 
 row in the flanks establishes the point and 
 places it beyond the doubt of the most 
 inveterate scepticism. 
 
 The temple thus described by Vitruvius 
 is said to be situated in asty — the city, so 
 called in contradistinction to the Acropolis, 
 
 such buildings were constructed with ten columns in 
 front : and in the same passage he is made, hy his edi- 
 tors, contrary to all sense and consistency, to allude to a 
 temple in illustration of this precept which had only 
 eight columns in front. All agree that the obscurity of 
 the passage, as it now stands, is occasioned by the intro- 
 duction of the word octastylos ; and that by omitting it 
 altogether the difficulty would disappear. But as striking 
 out a word of this length would be taking too unwar- 
 rantable a liberty with the text, they yield to the neces- 
 sity of retaining it. 
 
 A simple correction of the text will not only make the 
 two passages alluding to this temple (one in the first 
 chapter of the third book and the other in the proem to 
 the seventh) concordant, but likewise restore the sense 
 and consistency of the first. For “ Aihenis octastylos 
 ( oct-astylosin) in templo Olympio.'" I propose reading 
 “ Athenis, in asty, Jovis templo Olympii.” 
 
 It must be observed that on all other occasions where 
 Vitruvius is speaking of Athens he subjoins either the 
 words in asty, or in arce ; for the purpose of distinguish- 
 ing the division of the city to which he alludes. See a 
 note on the subject of the appellation asty at the begin- 
 ning of the translation of the Athenian inscription. 
 
which was anciently termed ttoA/?, by the 
 Athenians, and is always denominated by 
 Vitruvius arcc, or citadel. 
 
 In an early period of Grecian history, 
 mention is made of a temple of Jupiter- 
 Olympius at Athens. The foundation of 
 this structure having outlived all record at 
 the time Pausanias visited Greece, vulgar 
 opinion regarded it as a production of the 
 age of Deucalion. It is probable that 
 Ihucydides,* who mentions the existence 
 of an ancient temple of Jupiter-Olympius, 
 in the plain lying south of the Acropolis, 
 alludes to the building whose earD date is 
 thus noticed by the Grecian traveller. 
 
 Scarcely any author of antiquity, who 
 has had occasion to speak of Athens, fails 
 to mention the efforts made to complete a 
 tempie dedicated to Jupiter-Olympius. •j'* 
 It appears to have been projected in the 
 
 * Lib. ii. 15. 
 
 f See the authorities, quoted by Meursius, relating to 
 this temple. Athence Atticce, i. 10. 
 
157 
 
 first instance by Pisistratus, but remained 
 unfinished until the time of Hadrian : by 
 no one however is any allusion made to the 
 advancement in any stage of its progress 
 towards completion. Pisistratus, accord- 
 ing to Vitruvius, seems to have prepared 
 for its commencement, but the plan, such 
 as we now discover it to have been, was 
 not finally determined until the time of 
 Antioch us, who engaged Cossutius to com- 
 plete the design.* It was not however 
 finished in the time of Augustus, for Sue- 
 tonius, in his life of this Emperor, alludes 
 to an engagement which the kings in al- 
 liance with Augustus contracted to com- 
 plete the edifice.-f The task of putting the 
 finishing stroke to this stupendous under- 
 
 * Strabo, indeed says that Pisistratus left it lialf 
 finished ; Kal uvto to 'OXui^ttiov onsp f/jaJTeXsj xarsXjTrs 
 TsKsvruiv 6 amds)$ lib. ix. 
 
 ■j* Eeges amici atque socii, et singuli in suo quisque 
 regno, Csesarseas urbes condiderunt ; et cuncti simul 
 aedem Jovis Olympii Athenis, antiquitus incohatam per- 
 ficere communi sumptu destinaverunt 
 
158 
 
 taking was reserved for Hadrian, who de- 
 dicated the temple and placed the statue 
 of the deitj.* 
 
 In what state of advancement the temple 
 was found bj Hadrian, it is impossible to 
 ascertain ; but the progress of the building 
 is so frequently alluded to by ancient 
 writers in treating of the period between 
 the foundation and its completion, that no 
 extension of compli mentary language could 
 cause it to be regarded as a work of the 
 Emperor : we consequently find it ex- 
 cluded from that division of the city which 
 Hadrian contributed solargely to embellish. 
 The substructure of the peribolus, which 
 is in part remaining, proves that to have 
 been the production of later times ; and 
 if it has been originally surrounded withir 
 by a cloister, or portico, according to the 
 mode which was almost universal, it woulc 
 
 * Pausan. i. 18. The dedication took place in tl ■ 
 third year of 227“’ Olympiad. 
 
159 
 
 of itself have been no contemptible under- 
 taking. 
 
 There are some peculiarities in this 
 building which plainly denote a departure 
 from the principles of the Greek architects, 
 and the adoption of a mode which was 
 prevalent at Rome. The bases of the co- 
 lumns of the outer peristyle are. less in 
 depth than those of the inner colonnade, 
 and instea,d of rising immediately from the 
 unbroken line of the step, are elevated 
 upon plinths. As this is an unequivocal 
 proof of the Roman school of architecture, 
 we may perhaps be warranted in drawing 
 the line between the portion completed 
 before Antiochus, and that subsequently 
 finished in the intervening period between 
 his reign and the dedication of the temple 
 by Hadrian. There is nothing in the 
 architecture of the building to render it 
 improbable that the outer peristyle was 
 completed by Roman architects ; on the 
 contrary the epistylia, divided into three 
 
16*0 
 
 unequal fasciee, denote a style of architec- 
 ture not so early as the Greek, nor so late 
 as the Roman in the time of Hadrian/^' 
 
 There is a manifest obscurity in the 
 passage of Pausanias relating to this build- 
 ing, which seems to be caused by some 
 omission in the text. In descending from 
 the temple of Lu'cina towards the lower 
 division of the city, the traveller approaches 
 the hieron,*!- or sacred inclosure, of Jupiter 
 
 * Pliny asserts that Sylla, upon the capture of Athens, 
 transported to Rome the columns intended for this 
 temple for the purpose of making use of them in a 
 building he Avas constructing, xxxvi. 6. 
 
 -f- The hieron has been supposed to mean the peri- 
 bolus, or what we should call the cloister, surrounding 
 the vaog, or temple. This is the sense in which it is used 
 by Herodotus. Ipov Ss to Iv A»8ujaoj(r<, xca 6 vrjo; x. t. X. vi. 
 19. SsMV Ipu ’KXXYjVixwg ?caTa<rx6U«0"jasy« a'yuXf/.uo-l ts xci) 
 /3coyoTcr» jcai vjjoicri ^uXlvoiari. iv, 108. Ammonius quoted by 
 Duker f ad Thucyd. iv. dO.) says Upa rovg TrspifSoXovg 
 TOOV vctcov 
 
 With Pausanias, however, it sometimes has a more 
 extensive signification, he uses the word to denote both 
 the temple properly so called, and its peribolus, i, 20. 
 ii. 2. ii. 7* ii- 13* x. 32. 
 
 Wherever we find it said that a temple has been 
 
161 
 
 Olympius ; in this stage of his progress he 
 makes the following observation : 
 
 TO le^ov levou tov ^log tod OXu^TTiou, A^piotvog 
 0 VufjLotloov BoiO’iXsijg rov re vocov uve9vi}cs. jc. r. X. 
 
 ‘‘ Before arriving at the hieron of Jupiter- 
 Olympius, Hadrian the Roman emperor 
 dedicated the temple, &c/' It ^rould 
 appear from this incomplete passage, as 
 if some object intervened between the 
 temple of Lucina and the hieron, or sa- 
 cred inclosure, the description of which 
 has been omitted ; and it is not improbable 
 that that object was the arch of Hadrian. 
 
 The circuit of the peribolus is said by 
 Pausanias to have measured four stadia, 
 or 2400 Greek feet. The extent of the 
 south wall, measured without, was .688 
 feet ; and of the east 463 ; hence the cir- 
 cuit of the walls would have measured 
 2302 ; and wanted 114 feet of four stadia. 
 
 ornamented with paintings, we may conclude that they 
 were preserved under the shelter afforded by the por- 
 ticoes of the peribolus. 
 
 M 
 
162 
 
 The difference in a measure of this mag- 
 nitude would have been overlooked by 
 Pausanias, whom we may imagine to have 
 used round numbers in speaking of a 
 boundary. 
 
 The arch of Hadrian has already been 
 noticed and the inscriptions it bears dis- 
 cussed. One of these we have shewn, places 
 Hadrianopolis to the north of the building, 
 on which it is inscribed. Let us follow the 
 direction it points out, and seek amongst 
 the habitations of modern Athens for the 
 remains of those buildings of the Roman 
 emperor which excited the admiration of 
 the Grecian tourist. “ Hadrian,'^ says Pau- 
 sanias, “ erected other works for the Athe- 
 nians, the temple of Juno and of Jupiter- 
 Panhellenius, and a sacred enclosure com- 
 mon to all the Gods. The most remarkable 
 things are one hundred and twenty co- 
 lumns of Phrygian marble.* The walls are 
 
 * A more beautiful material for building than the 
 Pentelican marble can scarcely be conceived. With this 
 
163 
 
 constructed after the manner of porticoes. 
 The cellae ^ there have a roof of alabaster 
 gilt, and are every where ornamented with 
 statues and paintings. A library lies over 
 
 almost upon the spot it seems incredible that Hadrian 
 should have had recourse to the quarries of distant coun- 
 tries. The columns thus extolled by Pausanias were pro- 
 bably of Pentelican marble coloured to resemble the 
 Phrygian and Libyan. This custom was prevalent 
 amongst the Romans. Mr» Walpole observes of the opu- 
 lent Romans that Not content with inserting in the 
 walls pieces of marble of the most beautiful kind, they 
 also had them painted and varied with different colours. 
 This custom commenced under Claudius ; under Nero 
 they began to cover th^ marble with gold. Thus the 
 marble of Numidia was gilded ; that of Phrygia was 
 stained with purple, ‘‘ ut ovatus esset Numidicus, utpur~ 
 pur a distmgueretur SynnadicusT' Plin. lib. xxxv. 1 . — 
 The mode of staining marble was so perfect, that the 
 dyers of Lacedemon and Tyre were envious of the purple 
 lustre which the marbles exhibited.” Herculanensia, 
 p. 17s. If any excavation should bring to light the co- 
 lumns of the portico surrounding the inclosure, and such 
 a measure is said to be in contemplation, they will pro- 
 bably be found to be of indigenous marble. 
 
 * The omriiuaTci are the chapels or oratories of the 
 peribolus, 
 
 “ Oijojju-a denotare partem totius osdificii, cuhiculum, 
 conclave, ex re ipsa patet. Facius ad Pausan. iii. 16 ‘. 
 
against the inclosure, and there are an 
 hundred columns of Libyan marble/"* 
 
 In the direction the inscription instructs 
 us to look for the city of Hadrian, are the 
 remains of several extensive buildings ; the 
 most considerable of these has been mis- 
 taken by Stuart and by Chandler for the 
 Poikile-stoa of Pausanias. It was the pe- 
 ribolus of a sacred building. The walls 
 next the street are adorned with Corin- 
 thian columns advanced before them : in 
 the centre is a portico of four columns, 
 through which the area within is ap- 
 proached. The line of the walls is inter- 
 rupted by several projections forming 
 cellae or chapels, some circular and some 
 rectangular. Around the walls within was 
 a cloister or portico, formed by a continued 
 row of columns twenty-three feet distant 
 from them. 
 
 * Pausan. i. 18 . The editors of Pausanias find some 
 difficulty in rendering this passage. They do not seem 
 to be aware that he is throughout describing the hieron 
 or peribolus. 
 
165 
 
 This building, whose walls are con- 
 structed like porticoes with its chapels, or 
 olitviiA,oiTcc, was the hieron sacred to all the 
 Gods built by Hadrian ; for besides the 
 correspondence of the ruin with the de- 
 scription of Pausanias, the details of the 
 design as well as the execution prove it to 
 have been contemporary with the arch of 
 the Roman emperor. Both are Corinthian 
 buildings — the columns in both are raised 
 upon pedestals and but little detached 
 from the walls — the entablatures, instead 
 of being continued in an uninterrupted 
 line, are broken around the columns of 
 both buildings — the lower fascia of the 
 epistylium is wanting in both, and the 
 abacus of the capitals has its concave sides 
 produced so as to meet in acute angles. 
 
 Almost the whole of the west and the 
 greater part of the north wall are remain- 
 ing, and would enable us, if the interior of 
 the building had been uniform, and no one 
 who attentively considers the plan will see 
 
16‘6 
 
 reason to doubt that it was so, to ascertain 
 the extent of the peribolus. There are con- 
 siderable remains of a wall on the east, 
 which Stuart conjectured to have been 
 one of the boundaries, but there are indi- 
 cations of another lying about fifty feet 
 to the west of this which, as I imagine, 
 mark the extent in that direction. The 
 wall beyond seems to have belonged to a 
 kind of terrace before the eastern front of 
 the peribolus. Whether this were so or not 
 is of no avail against dispelling an idea 
 which some, who have not properly appre- 
 ciated the testimony of Wheler and Le 
 Roy, have entertained as to the propriety 
 of considering these ruins to be the remains 
 of the peribolus of the Olympieum. If 
 we were even to allow them to have ex- 
 tended to the easternmost of these walls, 
 the whole circuit of the peribolus would not 
 have exceeded 1250 English feet, or little 
 more than half that which Pausanias assigns 
 to the sacred boundary of the Olympieum. 
 
167 
 
 The remains of the buildings within 
 the peri bolus are inconsiderable ; they 
 constitute part of a Greek church. There 
 appears to have been formerly a double 
 row of Ionic columns within the body of 
 the building, the remains, probably, of 
 the porticoes within Hadrian's temple of 
 Jupiter-Panhellenius. Three of the co- 
 lumns and a pilaster retain their original 
 situations, but they have been subsequently 
 surmounted by rude capitals of various 
 forms. 
 
 The adjoining ruins, lying wxst of the 
 Pantheon are thought by Stuart and 
 Chandler to be the remains of the Gym- 
 nasium of Ptolemy the grandson of Lagus, 
 which is said by Pausanias * to have been 
 situated near the agora. Within these 
 ruins an inscription was found recording 
 the dedication of a statue to Ptolemy the 
 son of Juba.T 
 
 * Lib. i. 17. 
 
 -|- Antiq. Athens, 1 . 
 
168 
 
 The Propylaea * of the agora stand in a 
 line with the western front of the Pantheon 
 about eighty yards distant from its southern 
 extremity. The front of this portico resem- 
 bles, in the mode of its construction, that 
 of the Propylaea of the Acropolis ; except- 
 ing that this has six columns in the portico 
 whilst the former has but four ; and there 
 is but one door- way within the vestibule. 
 
 The appropriation of this portico has 
 never been questioned but by Wheler and 
 his copyist Le Roy. The former, ignorant 
 of architecture, was not aware that the 
 stone on which is inscribed the edict of 
 Hadrian regulating the sale of oil, formed 
 part of the original structure. The latter 
 in addition to his professional incapacity, 
 
 * I venture to call this portico the Propylaea of the 
 agora ; a designation peculiarly applicable to the kind of 
 building. It is to the agora what the Propylaea were to 
 the Acropolis. Pausanias calls a similar kind of structure 
 at one of the entrances into the agora at Corinth by this 
 appellation. Ex §g rfjs uyopus ty;v stt) As^um^ 
 
 'KpOTtvXaia IcTTU ii. 3. 
 
169 
 
 added a total want of the powers of inves- 
 tigation. This deficiency led him to dis- 
 regard the first line of the inscription upon 
 the epistylium of the building, recording 
 its dedication to Minerva the Patroness, 
 and to assert that it was the front of a 
 temple consecrated to Augustus. 
 
 The portico consists of four Doric co- 
 lumns advanced twenty-seven feet before 
 the wall of the agora, forming with the 
 flank walls a vestibule in front of the gate- 
 way. The central opening between the 
 columns, like that of the Propylaea of the 
 Acropolis, was enlarged beyond the usual 
 interval in order to admit of free ingress. 
 The columns are four feet four inches in 
 diameter, and somewhat more than six 
 diameters in height. The acroterium over 
 the apex of the pediment is still remaining 
 and bears an inscription implying that it 
 formerly supported a statue or some trophy 
 decreed by the Athenians to Lucius Caesar 
 the adopted son of Augustus. 
 
From the unusual size of the acroterium, 
 Stuart inferred that it bore an equestrian 
 statue, a surmise admitting of great doubt; 
 since it appears that wherever the orna- 
 mental decorations of the acroteria have 
 been discovered, they are invariably of 
 diminutive proportions. If we suppose 
 the trophy to have been a victory perso- 
 nified under the figure of a winged genius 
 drawn in a triumphal car, it will be more 
 consistent with the practice both of the 
 Romans and the Greeks.* 
 
 * Ornaments of a similar kind seem to have been 
 placed over the Propylaea of the agora at Corinth. Kai 
 Itt’ amS)v agixarct S7rl^gv(7a. Pausan. ii. 3. one perhaps 
 over the pediment of each front. 
 
 The victory upon the summit of the temple of Jupiter 
 at Olympia might be personified in a similar manner. 
 Ib. V. 10. 
 
 The triumphal arch erected in honour of Trajan at 
 Ancona was surmounted by a trophy of this description, 
 “ In ejus medio noscitur arcus ejus sublimis, quadrigis et 
 trophaeis in fastigio onustus.” Cyprianus Eichovius 
 quoted by Bergier. 
 
 The triumphal arch dedicated to Augustus upon the 
 bridge over the Tiber was crowned by a bronze qua- 
 driga carrying a statue. 
 
171 
 
 The inscription upon the epistylium 
 proves the portico to have been coeval with 
 Augustus, and to have been erected out of 
 the donations bestowed upon the Athe- 
 nians by the son of Caius Julius Caesar. 
 
 The extent of the agora eastward cannot 
 be ascertained ; although it is probable 
 that a street only intervened between it 
 and the water-dial, or Clepsydra, erected 
 by Andronicus-Cyrrhestes. This monu- 
 ment is placed behind the agora near 
 where the other entrance may be supposed 
 to have been situated. 
 
 The western boundary of the agora 
 ranged with the remaining front of the 
 Pantheon, and if the line of the wall, which 
 I conjecture to have been that of a terrace 
 before the eastern front of this building, 
 be carried on, it will leave a space of about 
 fifty feet for the width of a street between 
 the agora and the water-dial. 
 
 The Clepsydra, which lies to the east of 
 the Agora, corresponds so correctly with 
 
172 
 
 the account given by Vitruvius of the 
 tower of the winds, that no dou bt can exist 
 as to its identity with the subject of his 
 description. He describes it to be an oc- 
 tagon tower, built of marble, having in 
 each front a personification of one of the 
 winds sculptured, facing the quarter from 
 which it blew. The building was sur- 
 mounted with a pointed roof, for such I 
 understand to have been meant by the 
 term meta, and crowned with the bronze 
 figure of a triton ; which revolved round 
 an axis, and pointed with a wand to that 
 front of the building on which the wind 
 then prevailing was represented. We 
 have no certain data whereon to form 
 an opinion as to the age of this building ; 
 but its porticoes are not of a very ancient 
 date. Corinthian capitals, such as we 
 there find them, indicate a Roman rather 
 than a Grecian origin, and resemble very 
 nearly one found in the island of Milo, 
 amongst other fragments of a building. 
 
173 
 
 decidedly of Roman origin. The inclina- 
 tion of the pediments over the door-ways, 
 and the repetition of the denticulus in its 
 cornice, are circumstances strongly corro- 
 borative of this opinion. The details of the 
 interior, although they are few in number, 
 lead to the same conclusion. 
 
 4 
 
 Varro is the oldest writer who has de- 
 scribed this building, which he, as well as 
 Vitruvius, calls an horologium. The ear- 
 liest buildings erected for the purpose of 
 measuring time were dials which shew the 
 hour when the sun appeared ; but in win- 
 ter, when the sun was sometimes obscured, 
 the lapse of time could no longer be indi- 
 cated by such expedients, and the passing 
 hours were marked by means of a ma- 
 chine, worked by a constant and equable 
 flow of water. These, as they were chiefly 
 useful in that season when clouds darkened 
 the face of the sky, were termed winter- 
 dials, and sometimes Clepsydrae. A spring 
 which arose near the grotto of Pan at 
 
174 
 
 Athens f was called Clepsydra from the 
 circumstance, as Stuart conjectures, of its 
 supplying the reservoir connected with the 
 building we are describing. 
 
 There were two entrances to the tower, 
 one in the north-west, and the other in the 
 north-east front : a circular turret, more 
 than half the height of the building, was 
 constructed against the south side. This 
 appears to have inclosed the castellum, or 
 reservoir. 
 
 Two springs of brackish water are said 
 by Pausanias to have had their sources in 
 the rock of the Acropolis ; one towards 
 the north, near the grotto of Pan, and the 
 other, near the temple of AEsculapius, in 
 the south side of the slope, in the road 
 from the Theatre of Bacchus to the Pro- 
 pylaea.^ Both these had probably a com- 
 mon source, and this might have been the 
 salt fountain or spring in the Erectheum. 
 The former still flows, and, after being 
 
 * Pausan. i. 2 1 . 
 
175 
 
 joined a tributary spring in its neigh- 
 bourhood, is conveyed by means of pipes 
 to the principal mosque of the present 
 city, passing within a few yards of the 
 Tower of the Winds. 
 
 Stuart indeed found the remains of the 
 aqueduct which supplied the Clepsydra, 
 although he was not aware of the purposes 
 for which they were originally intended. 
 This is the more extraordinary inasmuch 
 as he describes the ruins to face the south- 
 east, and to lie due south with regard to 
 the Clepsydra; consequently in a line 
 which if prolonged would pass through 
 the circular projection containing the re- 
 servoir. In this situation he saw three 
 arches, part of an extensive range, built 
 into the wall of a modern house, the desti- 
 nation of which he is at a loss even to 
 conjecture.* 
 
 The choragic monument of Lysicrates, 
 of which the description has already been 
 given, stands at the foot of the Acropolis, 
 
 * Antiq. of Athens^ vol iii. c. 12. 
 
176 
 
 near the south-east angle. It was erected 
 in the archonship of Evanetus 330 years 
 before our aera. 
 
 Midway between this building and the 
 arch of Hadrian three Ionic columns of 
 greyish marble, supporting their entabla- 
 ture, may still be seen. They appear to 
 have formed part of the peribolus of a 
 building no longer extant. They have 
 been thought to be the remains of the 
 Gymnasium of Hadrian. 
 
 Amongst the ruins of buildings of later 
 times the odeum of Herodes-Atticus is 
 one of the most considerable : it has been 
 frequently mistaken for the theatre of 
 Bacchus, on the south side of the Acro- 
 polis, mentioned by Pausanias. The site 
 of the latter is however still very percep- 
 tible, and its situation conformable with 
 that assigned to it by the Grecian writer, 
 who marks the spot by informing us that 
 a grotto hewn in the rock and adorned 
 with tripods stood at its vertex. 
 
177 
 
 Above an excavation in the side of 
 the rock, which still retains the form of 
 the cavea of an ancient theatre, there is a 
 choragic monument, which is now con- 
 verted into a Greek chapel, and dedi- 
 cated to our Lady of the Grotto, in allu- 
 sion to its natural formation. 
 
 The theatre therefore whose site is still 
 perceptible was that dedicated to Bacchus, 
 and the same to which Vitruvius alludes 
 as an instance of ancient theatres, having 
 porticoes behind the scene.* With this 
 example he conjointly mentions the the- 
 atre at Pompeia, whose porticoes are still 
 remaining, and seem to illustrate the au- 
 thor, by exhibiting the mode in which the}^ 
 were made to conduce to the magnificence 
 and convenience of the theatre. There 
 
 * The porticoes behind the scene were those of the 
 ancient peribolus of Bacchus, described by Pausanias, 
 within the area of which were two temples. Tou Ajovuctov 
 Se e(TT» Trpog tco ^sarpco to ag^aloroLTOv Ugov’ duo ds eicr<v evTog 
 TOU TTspjjSoXoy Vtxo). i. 20. 
 
 N 
 
178 
 
 was a further resemblance between these 
 ancient examples, for in both there was 
 an odeum immediately adjoining. 
 
 Pausanias speaks of no other theatre at 
 Athens, excepting the Odeum, near the 
 fountain Enneacrunos ; but he alludes to 
 one begun by Herodes, whilst he was yet 
 engaged in his tour through Greece. He 
 extols its magnitude, and the costliness of 
 its execution. Chandler, who with great 
 propriety places the site of the theatre of 
 Bacchus immediately below the choragic 
 grotto, commits an error by identifying 
 the Odeum of Herodes with that mentioned 
 by Vitruvius ; he imagines the former to 
 be a restoration of the earlier building 
 which was burned by Sylla,* and after- 
 wards repaired by Ariobarzanes : but in 
 this he loses sight of his author, who speaks 
 of the facility afforded by the proximity 
 of the Odeum, to such of the audience 
 who quitting the theatre on the left hand 
 
 * Pausan. loc. cil. Vitruvius, Lib. v. c. 9. 
 
179 
 
 sought shelter from a sudden shower. 
 The Odeum of Herodes is nearly three- 
 hundred yards distant from the site of the 
 theatre of Bacchus, and consequently ill- 
 calculated for the immediate shelter which 
 the porticoes behind the scene, and the 
 Odeum are said to have afforded. 
 
 The magnificent theatre of Herodes was 
 constructed upon the plan generally pre- 
 vailing in Greece, The auditory was 
 scooped in the declivity, and the seats 
 formed in the rock. The cavea is the 
 greater segment of a circle, whose radius 
 is one-hundred and twenty-four feet ; the 
 depth of the sagitta being ten feet more 
 than the radius.* 
 
 The front of the scene recedes twenty- 
 five feet from the chord line, so that if the 
 
 * A plan of this theatre is given in the Ciml Archi- 
 tecture Vitruvius, section iii. plate 7 • lii the expla- 
 nation of this and the plates preceding it, the reader will 
 find some observations on the theatres of the Greeks and 
 Romans. 
 
180 
 
 continued circle of the orchestra had 
 touched the scene, in conformity with 
 the principle laid down by Vitruvius, for 
 placing the latter, its diameter would 
 have been seventy feet. The extent of 
 the scene, exclusive of the two returns, is 
 one-hundred and seventeen feet. 
 
 There appears to have been only two 
 ranges of seals ; the praeci notion, or pas- 
 sage separating them, may be still distin- 
 guished. I’he only approaches to the 
 theatre were at the horns of the auditory, 
 where the staircases communicating with 
 the praecinctions are remaining. 
 
 To return to the choragic monument at 
 the vertex of the theatre of Bacchus. This, 
 as Pausanias observes, was originally a 
 cavern or grotto, but subsequently an ar- 
 chitectural skreen was built in front of it, 
 on the occasion of a victory obtained by 
 Thrasyllus of Deceleia in a contention for 
 a musical prize. The inscription upon the 
 architrave records the name of Nesechmus, 
 
181 
 
 who was archon at the time, and thus 
 proves it to have been erected three-hun- 
 dred and twenty-eight years before Christ. 
 Instead of a pediment, the common ter- 
 mination of an architectural front, it Avas 
 surmounted by a sitting figure of the fe- 
 male Bacchus.* On each side of the 
 statue was a pedestal with inscriptions re- 
 cording similar victories ; one obtained in 
 the sa e archonship, and another in that 
 of Pytharatus, fifty-seven years after the 
 dedication of the building. It is probable 
 that the tripods gained in these contests 
 were placed on the two corresponding 
 
 * A learned and accomplished traveller calls this figure 
 the Indian Bacchus, under the impression that he could 
 discern a part of the beard lying upon the bosom, the 
 head having perished Stuart imagined it to have been 
 a statue of Niobe, Dr. Clarke is mistaken when he as- 
 serts tliat the cavern was not necessarily associated with 
 the architectural front before it, and that when this was 
 added, it closed the mouth of the grotto. He does not 
 seem to*l»be aware that the masonry between the three 
 pilasters of the front is a rude and recent work, inserted 
 for the purpose of inclosing the modern chapel. 
 
182 
 
 pedestals, although Pausanias speaks of 
 only one."^ 
 
 The grotto is nearly thirty feet in depth, 
 and nineteen in width, the rock all around 
 the mouth has been smoothed away, and 
 the architectural front placed in advance 
 four feet before it. 
 
 Pausanias passes over the Pnyx in si- 
 lence, although to this day there are con- 
 siderable vestiges of that place of public 
 assembly. Modern writers who have de- 
 scribed Athens, are not however agreed 
 in the propriety of bestowing this appella- 
 tion upon the circular area, lying on the 
 eastern slope of mount Lycabettus ; and 
 there are circumstances connected with 
 the form of these remains, which appear 
 to exclude them from the right to be 
 so denominated. Stuart, amongst others, 
 objects to it, because, as he justly observes, 
 there is a difficulty in reconciling the mode 
 of its construction with an observation 
 
 * TplTToug 8g eirffTTi x«i toutw, i. 2L 
 
 \ 
 
183 
 
 made upon the Pnyx by Plutarch in his 
 life of Themistocles : he therein informs 
 us that according to the original design of 
 the building, the pulpitum commanded a 
 view of the Piraeus ; and that its position 
 was subsequently changed by the Pisistri- 
 dae, under an impression that the orators, 
 with the country in view, would forego 
 the discussion of topics suggested by the 
 desire of maritime superiority ; which they 
 considered as subversive of aristocracy. It 
 is not easy to imagine how this change of 
 position could be effected in a building 
 purposely constructed for public meetings. 
 An assembly of the people which was to 
 be addressed from the pulpitum, would be 
 most advantageously placed for hearing 
 in a building similar in form to the theatre ; 
 and that this mode of construction was 
 well calculated for the purpose is proved 
 by the fact that the business of the Pnyx 
 was subsequently transacted in the the- 
 atre of Bacchus. Such is the form of 
 
 
184 
 
 the building of whose vestiges we are 
 speaking : it is so constructed that a 
 speaker addressing the people from the 
 tribunal, occupied a station similar to that 
 of an actor reciting upon the proscenium 
 of a theatre. Plutarch, if his observations 
 be entitled to any credit, must have al- 
 luded to an earlier building in a different 
 situation, rather than to any interchange 
 of the stations respectively appropriated 
 to the orators and the people. But the 
 wall supporting the circular parapet 
 around the area occupied by the people 
 is of ancient masonry, and denotes an 
 early period of construction. 
 
 Of the temple of Theseus Stuart ob- 
 serves, “ The travellers who have visited 
 the city of Athens, and the authors who 
 have described its antiquities, all agree 
 that this Doric temple, one of the noblest 
 remains of ancient magnificence, and at 
 present the most entire, was built in honor 
 of Theseus. This opinion is abundantly 
 
185 
 
 justified by the sculptures in some of the 
 metopes, for, mutilated as they are, it is 
 evident that several of the exploits of that 
 hero are there represented/^* 
 
 However little we may be disposed to 
 dissent from the conclusion at which he 
 arrives, his reasoning is inadmissible, and 
 the inference he deduces from the subjects 
 represented in the metopae, which are 
 rather the labours of Hercules than of 
 Theseus, is open to objections. The me- 
 topae thus ornamented are eighteen in 
 number, ten in the entablature of the prin- 
 cipal front, and four in each return ; of 
 these, all in the front, where the subjects 
 represented are still sufficiently perfect to 
 be decyphered, relate to the prodigies 
 performed by Hercules ; and two of the 
 remaining eight are obviously representa- 
 tions of the exploits of this hero: and al- 
 though, perhaps, Hercules and Theseus 
 rna}^ in fact be considered to have been 
 
 * Antiq. of Athens^ vol. iii. c. J . 
 
186 
 
 one and the same individual, the mjtho- 
 logy of the later Greeks regarded them as 
 two distinct personages. 
 
 There is a singular coincidence in the 
 selection of the labours of Hercules, repre- 
 sented in this building, and that which 
 Praxiteles is said to have adopted for the 
 subject of his sculptures, in the pediment 
 of the Heracleum at Thebes.^ In neither 
 instance does it appear that his adventure 
 with the Stymphalian harpies, nor the pu- 
 rification of the Augean stables were re- 
 presented ; but, instead of them, the cir- 
 cumstances connected with the contests 
 between Hercules and Antaeus were intro- 
 duced. We learn from Pausanias that 
 the labours of Hercules were chosen for 
 the subjects of sculpture over the pronaos 
 and posticum of the temple of Jupiter at 
 Olympia.-^j" 
 
 * Pausan. ix 11. 
 
 -|* Ibid.v. 10. The sculptures were introduced over 
 the two entrances into the temple and the opisthodomus ; 
 that is to say, in the metopse of the pronaos and posti- 
 cum. llie temple was hexastyle, and consequently the 
 
187 
 
 Instead of metopae and triglyphs the 
 frizes within the porticoes of the Theseum 
 have an unbroken length of sculptures in 
 relief, in the same manner as in the Par- 
 thenon.^ The battle of the Centaurs and 
 the Lapithae is represented on the frize of 
 theposticum. This subject appears to have 
 been a favourite with the Grecian sculp- 
 tors, and was introduced in temples de- 
 dicated to their different divinities. It 
 adorns the metopae of the Parthenon, and 
 the interior frize of the temple of Apollo 
 at Phygalia; and Pausanias informs us 
 that it was represented in one of the pedi- 
 ments of the Olympian temple. 
 
 A battle is sculptured on the frize of 
 
 number of the metopae in the situations described would 
 have been twelve. Pausanias mentions the subjects of 
 eleven, but one is obviously omitted, for the pronaos 
 must have had six as well as the posticum. This is the 
 only temple of which Pausanias gives any admeasure- 
 ■ ments, or architectural details. 
 
 * In some temples triglyphs were introduced over 
 the columns of the pronaos and posticum. This occurs 
 at Paestum and Agrigentum. 
 
188 
 
 the pronaos ; it is distinguished bj the 
 presence of six deities, three espousing 
 either side. The combatants are variously 
 employed, and in onegroupe, themissiles 
 used by the adverse parties are masses of 
 rock. Stuart conjectures that the subject 
 intended to be represented was the battle 
 of Marathon, but there is nothing in the 
 incidents related to justify the opinion. 
 If the same subject were represented with 
 similar featur es both in sculpture and 
 painting, we should search in vain for a 
 resemblance in the picture before us with 
 the battle of Marathon, as it was painted 
 upon one of the walls of the Poikile-stoa.* 
 In this division of the city we know the 
 sacred inclosure of Theseus to have been 
 situated. Pausanias, who affords us this 
 information, is silent with regard to the 
 temple within it. Such omission is not 
 uncommon with this author. In speaking 
 of Rhamnus he alludes to the hieron, but 
 
 * Pausan. i. 15 . 
 
189 
 
 says nothing of the two temples it in- 
 closed. All traces of the peribolus have 
 disappeared, but it was evidently formed 
 upon an artificial level ; although, through 
 the want of support, the ground has sub- 
 sequently given way on the north, where 
 it was raised to obviate the inconvenience 
 of the natural slope. On this side part of 
 the substructure of the temple has been 
 left exposed by the soil receding. 
 
 This is one of the temples of Greece 
 according with the proportions laid down 
 by Vitruvius for length and width : it has 
 six columns in each front, and thirteen in 
 each flank, reckoning those at the angles. 
 They are raised upon a basement formed 
 by two steps only : the area measured upon 
 the upper is one-hundred and four feet 
 three inches in length, and forty-five feet 
 three inches in width. 
 
 On entering the portico at the east end 
 the columns of the pronaos present them- 
 selves, at the distance of sixteen feet from 
 
190 
 
 those of tlie front, ranging in a line with 
 tlie columns in the flanks which stand se- 
 cond in order from those at the angles of 
 the building. The pronaos, of equal 
 depth, separates the portico from the cella. 
 
 The cella is thirty-nine feet nine inches 
 in length, and nearly twenty feet five in- 
 ches in width beyond it is the posticum, 
 twelve feet six inches in depth ; the re- 
 maining space, a little short of fourteen 
 feet, is occupied by the western portico. 
 The columns are three feet four inches in 
 diameter, and eighteen feet nine inches in 
 height, including the capital. 
 
 The temple has been converted into a 
 Greek church, and for the greater con- 
 venience of the service, the transverse 
 wall separating the cella from the pronaos 
 
 * I have elsewhere observed that in hexastyle temples 
 the width of the cella was generally half the extent mea- 
 sured between the axes of the columns at the ang-les of 
 the front. Half the distance in the present instance 
 would be rather more than twenty feet eight inches. — 
 Antiq. of Magna Grcec. Introd. p. xiv. 
 
191 
 
 has been destroyed, and the columns re- 
 moved. The cella thus elongated has 
 been yet further extended by means of a 
 bow made to project into the eastern por- 
 tico. The western door- way has been 
 walled up, and the present approach is by 
 a small door made in the southern wall of 
 the cella. 
 
 The temple is, in other respects, in a 
 high state of preservation ; the roof alone 
 is wanting. Some of the columns of the 
 south front appear to have suffered from 
 the shock of an earthquake ; the frusta 
 composing the shafts are in some in- 
 stances dislocated, but the cause, whatever 
 it may have been, has not otherwise af- 
 fected the building in any material degree. 
 
 Without the city walls, the traces of the 
 Stadium of Herodes-Atticus are still visible. 
 The marble of Pentelicus, which was so 
 profusely expended in its decoration, has 
 wholly disappeared, and nothing is left 
 but the rude masonry which the inequali- 
 
192 
 
 ties of the rocky dell, whose hollow it 
 occupied, rendered necessary. Thu 
 stript of its decorations, it has the appear- 
 ance of having relapsed into the state in 
 which Herodes found the stadium pre- 
 pared by Lycurgus for the Athenians : 
 for this seems to have been mereW the bed 
 of a torrent, levelled in the centre, with 
 the sides made uniformly sloping. 
 
ON THE 
 
 ATHENIAN INSCRIPTION. 
 
 The Athenian Inscription brought to 
 England by Dr. Chandler, and now de- 
 posited in the British Museum, relates to 
 the survey of some temple in the citadel 
 of Athens. That building is the Erec- 
 theum, described in the preceding remarks 
 on the sacred structures of the Acropolis. 
 
 The observation of Stuart * on the pur- 
 port of the inscription is erroneous, and 
 his conjecture that it related to a temple 
 of earlier date than that now existing is 
 
 * Antiq. of Athens, vol. ii. 
 
 O 
 
194 
 
 untenable. There are too many pecu- 
 liarities of this building noticed in the in- 
 scription to leave any doubt of the edifice 
 which in the archonship of Diodes,* in 
 the third year of the 9 ^^^ Olympiad, wanted 
 little to be completed. 
 
 The temple indeed is mentioned by no 
 particular designation, it is only said to be 
 in the city, the ancient name for the Acro- 
 polis, -f- and to be that in which the old 
 statue was kept. This object of Athenian 
 worship is alluded to by Pausanias in his 
 description of the relics preserved in the 
 temple of Minerva-Polias. The statue 
 was carved in wood of the olive, and was 
 probably amongst those described by the 
 Grecian traveller, as black from the effects 
 of the conflagration with which the temples 
 of the Acropolis were visited by Xerxes, 
 after obtaining possession of Athens. 
 
 The survey begins at the angle of the 
 
 * B. C. 408. 
 
 •f- Pausan. i. 26. 
 
195 
 
 building next the Cecropium. It is mani- 
 fest that this monument was situated to the 
 south of the temple ; for in the 56‘^^ line 
 it is said that, “ the wall facing the south 
 wind was unpolished, excepting part with- 
 in the portico facing the Cecropium/’ 
 This point established, we know where to 
 look for the unfinished parts with the enu- 
 meration of which the survey begins. 
 
 As it is my intention on a future occa- 
 sion to make public some remarks on the 
 paleography of this celebrated specimen of 
 early writing, accompanied by a fac-si- 
 mile of the inscription, and some notices 
 respecting the restoration of the passages 
 which Chandler has either left unattempted 
 or failed in the endeavour to recover, I 
 shall proceed without further observation, 
 to give the inscription with a more modern 
 orthography and in the common charac- 
 ter.* 
 
 * I must not omit mentioning that I owe to tlie eru- 
 dition of Mr. Elmsley, some words of the corrected 
 
196 
 
 inscription, together with the 42"** line of the first 
 column. 
 
 Visconti, in his memoirs on the Elgin marbles, has ex- 
 plained a passage of the inscription left uninterpreted 
 by Chandler ; and he further discovered that the nume- 
 ral letters prefixed to many of the lines, referred to the 
 number of pieces whose state of forwardness is described. 
 My translation, and the view hereto annexed, were, how- 
 ever, long previously in the hands of several friends. 
 
 In two or three places there are errors in the ortho- 
 graphy which I have suffered to remain without correc- 
 tion. There are four instances in which the aspirate 
 has been omitted in the original: it is supplied in the 
 transcript. Some of the numeral letters were too indis- 
 tinct to be decyphered. 
 
IvKyruTou tou vsco too sv 7roAf» ev cp to up^ottov ayaX[ia, ^poTov . . . e? 
 ls(pi<nsog Xocpia^rjg AypoXyjdsv Aiodrjg KspKnsog ap^iTSXTMV 
 l><AoxA>)f Kyjxpvvjg ypap,fJiOiTsog Ersap^og KoSadrjvxisog 
 |aSs civsypoc\pav epya too vsm cog xaTsXajSov s^ovToi xuTu to rprj 
 |<(TjW-a TOO Brjfjcoo 6 Emysvrjg eJTrsv e^spyaa-pcsva xctt Yjpuspya sttj Aio 
 j^sog ap^ovTOg Ksxpovidog TrpoTomooarrig 'srpoOTYjg svi Ttjg (iooKYjg 
 I Nixo<pav»)5 Mapa5o)V<oj -srpcjoTog syypa.p^pctx.Tsoa'sv 
 
 ] Tow veto Tads xaTsXajBopcsv rj[J.ispya 
 Etti TYj ycovia Tpog too EsxpoTrioo 
 P TlKiv^oog aSsTOog pcrixog Tsrpa 
 III mdag TcKuTog dimdag rra^og 
 TpiYjpctTTodioog 
 
 Maa-^a\taiav fx,Yixog TSTpairoda 
 I TtKaTog Tpmoda %ay(og Tpnov 
 ^jW,» 7 ro 8 (WV 
 
 EvixpaviTtdag pcrixog TSTparro 
 n dag ThaTog Tpmodag Tayog 
 TpiOOV Yip,t7T0dKOV 
 Tcoviatav p,r]xog STiTarroda 
 9 TrXaTog TSTparroda rra^og 
 TpiOOV rip^iTTOdtOOV 
 
 ToyyoXoog Xi$oog adsTOog AvTipco 
 pog Taig evixpaviTiTiv pcrjxog 
 dsxamog 6\pog Tpicov 
 fjpcmodicov 
 
 AvTipcOpCO TOig STTlCTTOXlOig 
 II p,Yixog TSTpamds TkaTog ttsv 
 Ts TtakadToo 
 Ktoxpavov a&STOV 
 ? I pcSTOOTtOV TO saopcsvov 
 
 TTkaTog Tpiaov f]p.modicov Ttayog 
 Tp\m Yjp.iTrodnov 
 
 TOOTcov sxaa-TOo oox s^spya 
 (TTai 0 dppcog 6 STspog oods 
 01 ottktQsv dppcoi 
 M»)xoj sxTodsg TTkaTog dijro 
 All dsg Tra^og rrodiaioi 
 
 TOOTCOV exaiTTOO oox s^epya 
 <TTai 6 dppcog 6 srspog oods 
 6i 07ri(T$sv dppcoi 
 TsTpamdsg pcrjxog jrkaTog diTTO 
 n dsg Ttayog Todiaioi. 
 
 TOOTcav sxacTTOO oox s^spya 
 CTTai 0 dppcog 6 STSpog oods 
 6i ottktSsv dgpcoi 
 YlsVTSTTOog pcrjxog TkaTog dmoog 
 T rra^og Trodiaiog 
 TOOTOO apyog d agpcog 6 Its 
 pog xai 01 07Tta$sv dgpcot 
 Ystcra pcYjxog Tsrparroda vkaTog 
 Tpmoda Txayog TrsvTSTrakaaTa 
 mi Asj« sx’TTS'TOiripcsva avso xaTa 
 TOp,Yjg 
 
 n 'Erspcov pcsysGog to aoTOV 
 
 xopcoTtoo xai acTTpayakoo sxaTspto 
 aTpcYiTOt YjTav TSTTapsg Todsg 
 sxaTTOo 
 
198 
 
 ETTiCTTUXja adsTOt jW,)]XOJ OXTCO 
 
 n TTOOa ttXutos Suojv ttoSojv 
 
 xui ’iiaka.o'Tfji Tru^og SiTTOoa ' 
 
 ETTKTTUXja «VCO 0VT« sSsj 
 
 STTSpyacraa^ui f/,rjxog oxtcutto 
 III Sa 'nkuTog Syojv mdoiv xou tto. 
 kaa-Trjg 'nayog SjTroSa 
 
 40 Tou 8s Aoittou spyou UTTUvrog 
 sy xvxkco upysi 6 E.ksv<nviaxog 
 kidog Trpog cp tu \rnat. xou sTs$rj 
 STTl TCOV STtUrTUTCOV TOUTCOV 
 TCtiV XiOVCOV TOOV S7T< TOU TOlyOV 
 TOU Trpog TOO Uav^po<rsiou 
 nil Ksiposvcuv xiomv 
 
 OLTp^flTd SX TOU SVTOg dV$S 
 
 puQv kxu(TTOv TOU xiovog rpioi 
 
 Yj[Xl7rodiCi 
 
 50 E7r»(TTUAJ0U OXTOOTTO^Og 
 
 STTl TOV TOiyOU TOV TtpOg VOTOV 
 xUjU-aTJOV £if TO ao'ctf e8s< 
 
 STTtSsimi 
 
 ToiEs dxdToi^e(rToc xou 
 apa/SEuiroi 
 
 Tov Totyov TOV Trpog votov 
 avspoov oixuToi^e(TTOV 
 orArjv tou ev T>j tt^ottutsi 
 
 T)) TTpOf T«) KsjtpOTnW 
 
 6o Touf opSoTTUTa-g axotra 
 
 ^sTTOvg SX TOU s^coQev sy xvxk'p 
 TrkYjV TOOV SV Tip TTgOTTOl 
 asi Tp Trgog too KsxpoTrico 
 Tag (jTTsipag aTrarrag 
 appa^EaoTOug tu avcodsv 
 Tou; xiovag apa^E'OOTOUg aTravrag 
 
 II EiTSpOtV 
 
 aTpoYjToi vjorav tou xupouTiou TSTTapsg 
 TTOosg TOU Es UTTgayakou oxtco iroEsg 
 1 ETspou 
 
 TOU xujj,UTiou Tpix rjfJUTToEia arpoipTa 
 acTTpayakou TSTTxpsg TroEsg 
 I ETspov 
 
 Ttjv jj,sv ksiav spyaTiav spyaaTO 
 
 III TOU Es xupoxTiou apyoi -yrav 
 
 xai YjfUTroEiov a<STpayakou apyoi 
 
 TToEsg OXTCO 
 
 ‘ETSpCOV 
 
 xupoaTiou 1^ TToEsg apyoi 
 acTTpayakou oxtco TroEsg 
 
 I 'Ets^ov 
 
 iflfoispyov Trig ksiag sgyacriag 
 Tcov «7T0 Trjg cTToag porixog TSTpuTTO 
 nil Ea TrkaTOg TpnroEa Trayog ttsvts 
 T rakacTTa ksia sxTTSTroupposva 
 avsu xaTaTOfopg 
 Tcaviaia stti TYjv TroTTacriv TYjv 
 Trpog ECO fOYjxog sxttoEs irkaTog 
 
 II TSTagTOU rjfjLiTroEiou Trayog 
 irsVTsirakacTTa 
 
 TOUTCOV TOU sTspou T) ksia pcsv spya 
 (nag svspyacTo to 8s xup,aTiov 
 apyov okov xai 6 acTTpayakog 
 TOU 8e sTspou xufJoaTiou Tpsig 
 TroEsg xai vjpoiTroEiov tou Es acTTpa 
 yakou apyoi TroEsg ttsvts 
 Etti tov Toiyov tov Trpog tou UavEpoT 
 porjxog sTTTaTToEcov xai rjpcnroEiou 
 irkaTOg Tpicov ttoEcov xai ppuTroEiov 
 •i][Xispyov Trjg ksiag spyacnag 
 
199 
 
 7tX>jv rm sTTi rov roiyoi) T»]V xprjTriSoi sy 
 I xvxXa) ctTracrav ax«T«^ecTT 0 V 
 
 ; Too TOi^ov TOO exTog xxcnct^zcna. 
 
 ^ Too yaoXoo A<5oo rsTpumhag IIIII 
 
 TOO SV TM TTpO(TTOlMa . . . 
 
 TsrpctTToluxg A. 
 
 T)jf iroLputXTuZog . . . 
 
 TSTpCtTTO^tUg . . 
 
 TOO TT^oj TOO yaXiiUTog 
 TSTpamhug . . . 
 
 SV Tjj vpoa-Tacsi TYj Trpog 
 TOO SupM/XOiTOg 
 Tov ^COfLOV TOO $UYj^0V 
 b olQstov 
 
 Tvjg svopofiug <r<prjxt<rxoug 
 xott ifXMVTixg a^sTOug 
 
 STTt TYj TTpOTTOtTSl TYJ TTpOg TOO 
 KsxpOTTlM ESsi 
 
 j Toug \i$ovg Tovg opoficuoug Tovg 
 I 6771 TCOV xopcov STTSpyUTOL 
 III cr5ai avcodev fxrjxog rpicov 
 
 I X«1 Ssxst TToScOV 7rX«TOJ 7T6VT5 
 
 TToScOV 
 
 ) Tag xaX^ag rag stti toij soti 
 
 i (TToAioif sTTspyacracr^ui sSsi A . . . 
 
 I Aifiiva TravTsKwg s^spya<ryi.sva 
 
 I « 
 
 I riAivSoi TSTpaTTodsg /xrjxog 
 I irXaTog dimhg Tayog 
 Al T^icov YjfxiTrohcov a7roo[xou 
 i M-ucr^aXiaia [XYjxog rsrpa 
 i 1 iroug irXaTog rpivoog rray^og 
 I rpioov fjfxiwohwv 
 
 [lYjXog IxTToScov TrAaTOj Tpuov 
 TToScov xai TraXcuTTYig 'na')(pg irsvrs 
 tiaXacTTcav xai tov toi^ov tov Trpog 
 TOV HavdpoTsm 
 
 TOVTov UTTpayaXov aTjar^TOi TroSej 
 776VTe 
 
 Aienaioi twv am TYjg crToag jxrjxoj 
 m iCTTaOToSsj TTXaTog rpicov ttoScov 
 x«i rjfxivTodiov Tra^og TroSiaioi 
 ooroi Yiixispyoi 
 
 TiTspoo fXYjxog 'TTSVTS'STO^e TrXaTog 
 II Tpicav TToScov xai fjjxi'sxoStov Trap^op 
 m^iatoi Yjfxispyoi 
 Tsi<ra eCTi rooj aierouj TXaTOg 
 
 TSVTS YjfXI'SroBlCOV [XYjXOg TSTTa 
 pm TToSm xai Yj/U'SToSlOV 77«p^0J 
 TToSiaia TYjv Xsiav spyaaiav 
 
 I SX'STStSOlYip.SVOV 
 
 ETspov rjfxispyov TYjg 
 
 II Xsiag epyadiag 
 
 &vpai Xi&tvai [XYjxog oxtoo 'urodm 
 xai TraXacTTYjg TrXaTog Trevrs 
 nil ^jW-i-oroSicov 
 
 Toorcov ra [xsv aXXa e^siJTSZTOi 
 YjTO sig Ta ^vya Ss shi TOug Xidovg 
 TOvg [xsXavag svdstvai 
 Ovg TCp VTTSpdvpCU Tca TTpog Ico 
 
 I Yj^ispyov 
 
 Tcp ^M[XCp TCp TOV SvYj^OV Xl$0l 776V 
 TsXsixoi ixYjXog TSTgaTTodsg 
 III vrpog Svoiv ■CToSotv xai -sxaXao'TYjg 
 Ysayog 'srodiaioi 
 I ‘ETspof Tpmovg 
 
201 
 
 The parts alluded to have characters, 
 in the annexed view, corresponding to 
 the letters which are affixed to the 
 marks of reference. 
 
 A. The Temple of Minerva-Polias. 
 
 B. The temple of Pandrosus, called the Pandroseum. 
 C Portico of the Pandroseum, facing the Cecropium. 
 D. The exterior walls, supporting the higher ground. 
 
 F. The angle of the portico next the Cecropium. The 
 
 angle of the temple next the Cecropium is at n. 
 
 G. Principal entrance to the Pandroseum. 
 
 H. Portico facing the east, the entrance to the temple 
 
 of Minerva-Polias. 
 
 N. S. W. Indicate cardinal points. 
 
 Brosyn...es of Cephisia,* Chariades 
 of Agraule, Diodes of Cephisia, the epi- 
 statae of the temple in the citadel, “f* in which 
 is the ancient statue; Philocles of Acharnse 
 
 * Cephisia, and the other places mentioned in this 
 preamble, Agraule, Acharnas, Cydathenaeum and Ma 
 rathon, were demi, or borough-towns, of Attica. 
 
 f The Acropolis was anciently called otoAj? (the 
 city. (Pausan. i. 26 .) When the habitations had begun 
 to spread around the foot of the rock, the new city was 
 termed asty, in contradistinction to the citadel. To ao-ru 
 T>;v Ts -aroAJv 'srpoo'vjyopeua-g, — Pint, in Plies, 
 
202 
 
 the architect, Etearchus of Cydathenaeum 
 the secretary, have reported the works 
 completed and half-finished, as they found 
 them to be, according to the decree of the 
 people proposed by Epigenes, in the ar- 
 chonship of Diodes ; the Cecropic tribe 
 presiding in the council, to which Nico- 
 phanes of Marathon was principal secre- 
 tary. 
 
 We have found these parts of the tem- 
 ple half-finished at the angle next the 
 Cecropium. 
 
 IV. Tiles*‘ not placed, four feet in length, 
 two feet in width, a foot and a half in 
 thickness. 
 
 * The tiles were slabs of marble wrought with great 
 precision ; every precaution calculated to keep out the 
 wet being adopted in the mode of their formation. The 
 meeting joints of the tiles in the same line were saddled, 
 as it is now termed ; that is, a rim, raised above the 
 surface, was left on each side ; so that if any wet found 
 admission under the narrow strips that covered the meet- 
 ing joint of two contiguous tiles, its further progress was 
 prevented. A similar kind of rim was left at the top of 
 each tile, and the under side of the one next above it was 
 throated, or grooved, where it overlapped the other. 
 
203 
 
 I. Shoulder four feet in length, 
 
 three feet in width, a foot and a h^lf 
 in thickness. 
 
 V. Epicranitides-f four feet in length, 
 
 The tiles usually varied in length and breadth according 
 to the scale of the building. In temples of no great 
 magnitude, such as the Erectheum, they were about two 
 feet wide. The tiles at the eaves of the roof were formed 
 out of the sloping blocks immediately above the cornice, 
 which were almost invariably equal in width to two tiles. 
 These are the tiles alluded to in the beginning of the 
 survey. The common tiles were seldom more than four 
 inches thick ; they were sometimes made with clay, al- 
 though every other part of the building was marble. 
 Where gutters were introduced at the eaves, they were 
 hollowed out of these blocks : the front of such gutters 
 were formed into a molding, which Vitruvius calls the 
 sima. Whether or not gutters were carried along the 
 eaves, the sima was made to surmount the cornice of the 
 pediments, and was returned for a short distance round 
 the angle of the cornice, 
 
 * The tile here alluded to was probably that at the 
 point or extremity of the pediment, which was returned 
 along the flank. It might be so termed, because here 
 they were placed immediately upon the humeri^ as Vitru- 
 vius, speaking of this temple, calls the returns of the 
 building at the angles of the front. See the note upon 
 the word «7rwjaou, in the ninety-third line. 
 
 -|- The Epicranitides were tiles forming the sima, or 
 top-bed of the cornice belonging to the pediments. Ett;- 
 
204 
 
 three feet in width, a foot and a half 
 in thickness. 
 
 I Angular**^ (epicranitis) seven feet in 
 
 length, four feet wide, a foot and a 
 half in thickness. 
 
 Eaves joint-tiles-f ' not placed. 
 
 I ContinuationJ of the epicranitides, 
 
 Kpuvov or sTTiKpaviov, from which the term is derived, sig- 
 m^e$,fastigium and vertex. Poll Lib. ii. c. 4. 3. 
 
 * The angular Epicranitis was that at the vertex of 
 the fastigium, or pediment. 
 
 f ToyyoKoi Aidoi, I imagine to be the upright cir- 
 cular pieces, terminating the joint-tiles at the eaves 
 or gutters, of the roof. By joint -tiles I mean those 
 which were placed over the meeting joints of the flat 
 tiles ; they were equal to them in length, but narrow ; 
 resembling in their outward form an hexagonal prism 
 cut in two. They extended from the ridge of the 
 roof down to the eaves, or gutters. In some temples, 
 these, as well as the common, or flat tiles, were made of 
 clay. The imbrex, or eaves-tde, of potter’s earth, was 
 termed by the Greeks dToyyvKosilrig, or yoyyvXosiliig, xepa- 
 [/,og : when made of marble, the word xldog would proba- 
 bly be substituted for xsqap.og. The joint-tiles are men- 
 tioned in a subsequent part of the inscription, wliere they 
 are termed a.pjxoi. 
 
 i AvTip.ogog means, I presume, a corresponding portion, 
 or continuation, of the member of the building with 
 which the term is conjoined, perhaps the contiguous piece. 
 
205 
 
 ten feet in length, a foot and a half 
 in height. 
 
 II Portions in continuation of the epi- 
 stylia,* four feet in length, five palms 
 in width. 
 
 I Capital of a column, ^ to be above 
 the window-jamb,-f not placed. 
 
 V Epistylia Jg not placed , eight feet long, 
 
 two feet and a palm wide, two feet in 
 thickness. 
 
 * The epistylia were blocks extending from centre to 
 centre of two adjoining columns. In temples where co- 
 lumns were not employed to form a peristyle round the 
 building, as in the example before us, the epistylia were 
 nevertheless continued along the flanks. The two por- 
 tions alluded to in this passage are said to be adjoining 
 or contiguous, probably to the five mentioned almost 
 immediately afterwards. 
 
 *f* Mstcottov, That part of the forehead immediately 
 above the interval between the eyes. In this place it 
 means part of the building above the interval, or jamb, 
 between two windows. A narrow entrance was termed 
 (TTsvctiTTOi by the Attic Greeks. Pausan. v. 15. 
 
 :j; The epistylia here alluded to, seem to be those upon 
 the wall, beginning from the angle of the building. The 
 length of each piece being eight feet, the extent of all 
 five together would have been greater than the length 
 of the building in front. One described in a subsequent 
 
206 
 
 III Epistylia which are up^ (in their 
 places ) require to be worked on the 
 surface, eight feet in length, two feet 
 and a palm in width, two feet in 
 thickness. The Eleusinian stone,* 
 against which are the sculptures,* 
 surmounts the rest of the work all 
 around, and is placed above the 
 epistylia-j' of those columns’" which 
 are upon the wall next the Pandro- 
 seum. 
 
 passage, of equal length, is said to have been upon tlie 
 south wall : whence it is probable that these also Avere 
 part of the same range in the flank of the temple. 
 
 * A remarkable singularity is to be observed in the 
 construction of the Erectheum. The facing of the frize 
 and of the tympanum of the remaining pediment, is 
 formed of a hard stone, similar to that found in the 
 neighbourhood of Eleusis. It is studded with iron 
 cramps, which formerly served to fasten either bronze 
 or marble sculptures. The word ^oou signifies, as Facius 
 observes, small statues. “ Mihi quidem et 
 
 minutiora varii generis simulacra denotare videntur.” 
 
 Ad Pausan. v. 11. 
 
 t The word sTna-TUTOv is one of rare occurrence ; it is 
 found in the Sigean inscription, where it seems to allude 
 to the base or stand of the consecrated vase. On this 
 
207 
 
 Of IV engaged columns,* a foot and 
 a half of each column is left un sculp- 
 tured, measured from the volute-f 
 within. 
 
 account, Chandler supposed it to signify, in this place, 
 the bases of the columns- These, however, are men- 
 tioned in a subsequent passage, under the common deno- 
 mination (TTrsipoti. 
 
 In another Athenian inscription (given in Chandler’s 
 work pp. xviii. 43), which is nearly coeval with that 
 under discussion, the base, or stand, of a consecrated 
 vase is termed. vnocrTciTov ; whence it seems evident that 
 e7n(TT«rov is an Attic word, and signifies here, something 
 placed over the columns. 
 
 Mr. Elmsley supposes the sentence to end with the 
 words sTTKTTCiTMv TO'jTMv. The epistatae are, however, 
 speaking in the first person, and the works in the pream- 
 ble are said to be done under Diodes the archon, and 
 not under the epistatae. Besides, the actual existence of 
 Eleusinian stone in the frize of the temple, makes it evi- 
 dent that the sOTioraTa, over which it is described as 
 placed, must be synonymous with the epistylia. 
 
 * The blocks of marble out of which the capitals of 
 the four columns of this front are formed, constitute 
 part of the wall in which they appear inserted. The 
 parts of them thus immured were consequently unsqulp- 
 tured. 
 
 -|- Chandler supposes the word avSe/ijov to signify some 
 spot in the Acropolis. Hesychius says of avSe/Ajov, roWoj 
 ’A5))v>](r»v sv TJ 5 ; but he likewise gives another 
 
208 
 
 It is necessary to place the inner cy . 
 matium of I epistylium, eight feet 
 long, upon the wall towards the south. 
 These are unpolished and unfluted.* 
 The wall ^ facing the south wind is 
 unpolished, excepting in the portico “ 
 opposite the Cecropium. 
 
 The antae” without are unpolished 
 throughout, excepting in the portico ° 
 opposite the Cecropium. 
 
 The bases-f p of all the columns are 
 unfluted in the upper part. 
 
 All the columns are unfluted except- 
 ing those upon the wall. 
 
 explanation ; rj yqu[j,fiy] tjj kKix.osi^g Iv Tolg xloatf some 
 spiral-shaped line in columns ; that is to say, the volute. 
 Vitruvius terms the volutes of the Corinthian capital, 
 helices. 
 
 * Apac^^coTog and ccppujSdcaTog, for it is written both ways, 
 signifies not Jluted. Chandler reads upap^oToc, m which 
 he has been followed by the learned author of the Pro- 
 legomena in Homerum. Upon submitting my reading 
 of the word to that profound and elegant scholar, he ex- 
 pressed his conviction of its propriety. 
 
 t The upper torus of the bases are found to have been 
 fluted in a manner similar to the shafts of the columns. 
 
209 
 
 The whole plinth* *1 is unpolished 
 all around. 
 
 Paris unpolished of the exterior wall. 
 Four feet lengths of the gutter- 
 stone, VIII in the entrance^. . . . 
 four feet lengths next the pilaster .... 
 
 * The columns of the western front, and the statues 
 supporting the south portico of the building, are raised 
 upon a podium or low wall ; the xprimg is the footing, or 
 plinth, of this wall. 
 
 *f- Chandler here reads lOAATl/OHOlS, but the true 
 reading is, TO AATl/O H0O, sc. tou yctv>,ov \i$ov. The 
 first letter has a mark below it such as is found below the 
 initial letters in many of the lines of the inscription, 
 which gives it the appearance of the ancient ?. The 
 yavXoc Xi^og was, perhaps, the stone forming the cistern 
 or trough, into which the water from the salt-spring, or 
 well, in the Pandroseum, flowed ; or, more probably, the 
 gutter stone which conveyed the water rising from the 
 spring away from the building ; because of its being 
 under the head of the parts unpolished of the exterior 
 wall. Along the wall in the flank of the temple of 
 Diana-Propylaea at Eleusis, there is a gutter-stone of 
 the kind here alluded to. lined. Antiq. (^'Attica, c. v. 
 pi. 6. 
 
 I UpoorT0[/.ioi, the opening between the door-jambs. 
 As the windows of the building were metaphorically 
 
 P 
 
210 
 
 four feet lengths near the statue .... 
 four feet lengths in the portico next 
 the door opening. 
 
 The altar of the Thy ecus* is not 
 placed. 
 
 Of the coping-f over the portico oppo- 
 
 termed the eyes, so the door-way was called the mouth. 
 Vitruvius, who preserves the same kind of metaphor, calls 
 the passage leading from the door-way to the atrium, or 
 court of the Jlmces. vi. 4. ‘H Ss uXXYjXcx. toov 
 
 xsiKcov (Tv^/SoAij, 'srpocTToixiov 'tsrpoaroij.ia. Pollux^ Lib. ii. 
 c. 4. 20. 
 
 * This word, of which the two first letters are want- 
 ing, was in all probability ©TEXO. This may be in- 
 ferred from a passage towards the end of the inscription 
 in which all the letters remain perfect. Tea ^ca[ji,cp rca too 
 Xidol 'srevTsXsixoi. x. t. A. 
 
 Prom Photius we learn that the SvYj^ooi were 6< Upstg 
 6i vTTsp aXXcav duovrsg rolg Qsolg. Some of the MSS. of this 
 author write the word So>jxo'oj ; that of Beckius, quoted by 
 Herman, gives it with the 
 
 f The sTTopoepea. is the inclined and outward surface of 
 the roof. This portico is covered with four blocks of 
 marble extending from the south wall of the temple over 
 the epistylia or marble beams, supported by the statues. 
 The cornice of the portico is worked in these blocks. 
 The gentle inclination given to the upper surface was 
 for the purpose of throwing off the rain. The under 
 
211 
 
 site the Cecropium the dovetails* 
 and cramps are not placed ; it was 
 necessary that III ceiling stones * 
 supported by the statues, “i"* ^ should 
 have the upper surface tooled, thir- 
 teen feet in length, five feet in width. 
 It is necessary that the echinus mold- 
 ing,^ ^ above the epistylia should be 
 finished. 
 
 surface of the same blocks formed the ceiling ; it is di- 
 vided into pannels deeply sunk in the marble. 
 
 The numerals of the inscription make the number of 
 blocks to be tooled three. Each block measures twelve 
 feet ten inches in length: they are not all of equal 
 width ; two of them exceed, and two of them fall some- 
 thing short of five feet. The width of the four together 
 is somewhat less than twenty feet six inches, so that they 
 may be said to average five feet one inch and a half. 
 
 * ;S(p>)j£<(rjco< were small tenons of metal in the shape 
 of two wedges, united at the points. Vitruvius calls 
 them securkulcB, iv. 7. They were likewise termed 
 
 yofj,(poi. 
 
 -f- The word KOPON is one of those which Chandler 
 was at a loss to explain, under the impression that its 
 nominative must be xopog. It here alludes to the statues 
 of females, which, in this portico, supply the place of 
 columns. By the modem Greeks they are still called 
 the damsels. 
 
 I the word here applied to the ornament over 
 
212 
 
 Stone-work lying upon the ground 
 wholly finished. 
 
 XI Tiles four feet long, two feet wide, a 
 foot and a half in thickness, belong- 
 ing to the shoulder.* 
 
 I Shoulder tile, four feet long, three 
 feet wide, a foot and a half in thick- 
 ness. 
 
 Of each of these, the alternate joint- 
 
 the epistylia of the stylagalmatic portico, signifies the 
 shell fish which produced the scarlet dye of the Tyrians. 
 KaX;^ii] yap 6 >c(3%Aof tjjj vropfvpag. Schol. in Hesych. 
 Hesychius likewise explains it to denote some part of the 
 capital of a column, pi^spog xeipaAijj >uQvog : that part pro- 
 bably of the Ionic capital which is now termed the ovalo. 
 Vitruvius calls this molding the Echinus, because, per- 
 haps, it was a type of the shell fish of the same name ; 
 the shell and its spines being represented in a continued 
 ornament, to which has been given the vulgar name of 
 Egg and dart 
 
 * The shoulders of this building were those parts of 
 the flanks against which the two lateral porticoes were 
 built. Vitruvius speaking of this temple, says it was 
 constructed like the temple of Castor in the Circus Fla- 
 minius, “ columnis adjectis dextra et sinistra ad hume- 
 ros pronai.” iv. 7* See The Civil Architecture of Vi- 
 truvius. Sect. ii. 7- 
 
213 
 
 lile is not finished, nor those in suc- 
 cession behind it.^ 
 
 XII Six feet long, two feet wide, a foot in 
 thickness, of each of these the alter- 
 nate joint-tile is not finished, nor 
 those behind it. 
 
 V Four feet long, two feet wide, a foot 
 in thickness, of each of these the al- 
 ternate joint-tile is not finished, nor 
 those behind it. 
 
 I Five feet long, two feet wide, a foot 
 in thickness, of this the alternate 
 joint-tile is not worked, nor those be- 
 hind it. 
 
 * The apja&j, as I have before mentioned, were the 
 tiles covering the joints where the flat tiles met. In 
 laying the tiles the rows at the eaves or gutters were first 
 placed, and then other rows in succession, up to the 
 ridge. The dp[jt,oi were laid in the some order of suc- 
 cession, one behind the other. 
 
 The tiles at the eaves or gutters were formed in the 
 top-bed of the comice, commonly in blocks twice the 
 length of the other tiles ; consequently there was no 
 joint corresponding to that between the two tiles of the 
 next superior course ; here therefore the harmus was 
 worked out of the solid, and this took place at every al- 
 ternate row of the harmi. 
 
214 
 
 VII Eaves* four feet long, three feet 
 wide, five palms in thickness, worked 
 smooth without the carving. 
 
 Of V others the size was the same, of 
 both the cjmatium and astragal, four 
 feet were not carved of each. 
 
 Of II others there were uncarved, of 
 the cjmatium four feet, of the astragal 
 eight feet. 
 
 Of I other a foot and a half of the 
 cjmatium, and four feet of the astra- 
 gal were not carved. 
 
 I Other, the smooth work was done but 
 of the cjmatium of III there was 
 unwrought six feet and a half ; of 
 the astragal eight feet un wrought. 
 
 Of . . others, six feet of the cjma- 
 
 * rej(7«, the eaves or cornice. Upon this member of 
 the entablature the moldings are carved. The eaves are 
 here said to be \sia. exTrsTrojSjaeva uvsu ^caraTOjaijf ; by which 
 is probably meant that they were, at the time of the sur- 
 vey, Avorked as plain moldings, preparatory to the en- 
 richment, or carving upon them. The lower moldings of 
 the cornice were a cymatium and astragal. 
 
215 
 
 tium unwrought, of the astragal eight 
 feet. 
 
 I Other, half worked, as to the smooth 
 work 
 
 Of the IV belonging to the portico 
 four feet in length, three feet in width, 
 five palms in thickness, the smooth 
 work is finished without the carving. 
 The II angular y (eaves) upon the por- 
 tico facing the east, six feet in length, 
 three feet and a half in width, five 
 palms in thickness. Of the one of 
 these the smooth work is done, but 
 the cyinatium is wholly unwrought, 
 and the astragal ; of the other — of the 
 cymatium three feet and a half are 
 unwrought, and of the astragal five 
 feet are unwrought. 
 
 Upon the wall next the Pandroseum, 
 seven feet and a half in length, three 
 feet and a half in width, are half 
 finished. 
 
 Of smooth work, six feet in length. 
 
216 
 
 three feet and a palm in width five 
 palms in thickness. 
 
 And I upon the wall next the Pan- 
 droseum, the astragal of this has five 
 feet un carved. 
 
 VI Stones of the fastigium* belonging 
 to the portico, seven feet long, three 
 feet and a half wide, a foot in thick- 
 ness ; these half finished. 
 
 II Others five feet long, three feet and a 
 half wide, a foot in thickness ; half 
 finished. 
 
 The eaves upon the pediment, ^ two 
 feet and a half in width, four feet 
 and a half in length, a foot in thick- 
 ness, the smooth work finished. 
 
 I Other half finished as to the smooth 
 work. 
 
 V Stone door-frames eight feet and a 
 
 * A«£Ti«iO( SC. AjSoj, are the slabs forming the face of the 
 tympanum of the pediment. The facing of this part of 
 the building is done with vertical joints, one course of 
 stone in height. Like the facing of the frize, the stone 
 is that called Eleusinian. 
 
217 
 
 palm in length, two feet and a half in 
 width ; of IV of these, some were 
 wholly completed, but it was necessary 
 to place the black marble* against the 
 supercilia.-f* 
 
 * The situation of the black marble between the ?uya, 
 or transverse pieces of the door-frame, and the hyper- 
 thyra, or cornices above it, is analagous to that of the 
 marble frize between the epistylia and cornice. The 
 black marble was therefore the same, probably, as that 
 mentioned in the forty-second line, under the epithet 
 Elusinian. Pausanias mentions a black stone or marble 
 found under Parnassus, of which the walls of the city of 
 Ambryssus were built. The temple and statue of Diana 
 at the same place were also of the same material ; it 
 was remarkable for its hardness. Pausan. x. 36. The 
 stone found around Parnassus is of similar formation 
 to that produced by the quarries of Eleusis. 
 
 The numeral letter prefixed to this sentence, was pro- 
 bably n, although it has now the appearance of two 
 units ; this, as well as the one next above and below it, 
 are all placed too high up in the inscription ; each should 
 have ranged one line lower. 
 
 f The upright pieces of a door frame were called by the 
 Romans, antepagmenta, and those placed across them, 
 mpercilia. The latter are the ?yya of the Greeks. In 
 some instances, nothing intervened between the superci- 
 lium and hyperthyrum ; although very often a sculp- 
 tured frize was intermediate^ placed. 
 
218 
 
 T ' Consol* to the hyperthyrum facing 
 the east, half finished. 
 
 Ill Pentelican stones to the altar of the 
 Thyecus, four feet in length, two feet 
 and a palm in height, a foot in thick- 
 ’ ness. 
 
 I Other, three feet 
 
 * Ooj is the handle of a vase, so called from its resem- 
 blance to the human ear. Ears of the kind alluded to 
 here, are something similar in shape to the Greek letter 
 Vitruvius calls these ornaments ancones and parotides 
 The last word I have corrected from the edition of Vi- 
 truvius, published by Schneider, which has only very 
 lately fallen into my hands. The cunhs are germed by 
 us consols f from the French console. 
 
 L(H»doii : Printed by W. Bulmer and Co. 
 Cleveland-row, St. James’s.