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placed, and a separate sanctuary of Pandrosus, the only one of the sisters who remained faithful to her trust. The more usual name of the entire structure was the Erechtheum, which consisted of the 2 temples of Athena Polias and Pandresus. But the whole building was also frequently called the temple of Athena Polias, in consequence of the importance attached to this part of the edifice.

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take an account of the unfinished parts of the building. The commission consisted of two inspectors (érioтáтαι), an architect (aρxiтéкTwv) named Philocles, and a scribe (ypaμμатeus). The inscription is printed by Böckh (Inser. No. 160), Wilkins, Leake, and others. It appears from this inscription that the principal parts of the building were finished; and we may conclude that they had been completed some time before, since Herodotus (viii. 55), who probably wrote in the early years of the Peloponnesian war, describes the temple as containing the olive-tree and the salt well, without making any allusion to its being in an incomplete state. The report of the commission was probably followed by an order for the completion of the work; but three years afterwards the temple sustained considerable damage from a fire (Xen., Hell., i. 6, § 1). The troubles of the Athenians at the close of the Peloponnesian war must again have withdrawn attention from the building; and we therefore cannot place its completion much before B.C. 393, when the Athenians, after the restoration of the Long Walls by Conon, had begun to turn their attention again to the

The original Erechtheum was burnt by the Persians; but the new temple was built upon the ancient site. This could not have been otherwise, since it was impossible to remove either the salt well or the olive-tree, the latter of which sacred objects had been miraculously spared. Though it had been burnt along with the temple, it was found on the second day to have put forth a new sprout of a cubit in length, or, according to the subsequent improvement of the story, of 2 cubits in length (Herod., viii. 55; Paus., i. 27, § 2). The new Erechtheum was a singularly beautiful building, and one of the great triumphs of Athenian architecture. It was of the Ionic order, and in its general appearance formed a striking contrast to the Parthenon of the Doric order by its side. The rebuilding of the Erech-embellishment of their city. theum appears to have been delayed by the determination of the people to erect a new temple exclusively devoted to their goddess, and of the greatest splendour and magnificence. This new temple, the Parthenon, which absorbed the public attention and means, was followed by the Propylæa; and it was probably not till the completion of the latter in the year before the Peloponnesian war, that the rebuilding of the Erechtheum was commenced, or at least continued, with energy. The Peloponnesian war would naturally cause the works to proceed slowly until they were quite suspended, as we learn from a very interesting inscription, bearing the date of the archonship of Diocles, that is, B.C. 409-8. This inscription, which was discovered by Chandler, and is now in the British Museum, is the report of a commission appointed by the Athenians to

"The Erechtheum was situated to the N. of the Parthenon, and close to the northern wall of the Acropolis. The existing ruins leave no doubt as to the exact form and appearance of the exterior of the building; but the arrangement of the interior is a matter of great uncertainty. The interior of the temple was converted into a Byzantine ch., which is now destroyed; and the inner part of the building presents nothing but a heap of ruins, belonging partly to the ancient temple, and partly to the Byzantine ch. The difficulty of understanding the arrangement of the interior is also increased by the obscurity of the description of Pausanias. Hence it is not surprising that almost every writer upon the subject has differed from his predecessor in his distribution of some parts of the building; though there are two or three impor

"The building has been frequently examined and described by architects; but no one has devoted to it so much time and careful attention as M. Tetaz, a French architect, who has published an account of his investigations in the 'Revue Archéoligique,' Nos. 1 and 2; and we follow, with a few alterations, his restoration, reminding our readers that it must be regarded as, after all, to a great extent conjectural.

tant points in which most modern | placed, 1 in each flank, before a corscholars are now agreed. responding anta in the wall on either side of the door. These columns are all standing. They are about 3 ft. higher, and nearly 6 in. greater in diameter, than those in the eastern portico. It must not, however, be inferred from this circumstance that the northern portico was considered of more importance than the eastern one; since the former appeared inferior from its standing on lower ground. Each of these porticoes stood before 2 large doors ornamented with great magnificence. There appears to have been in each an altar of fumigation.

"The form of the Erechtheum differs from every other known example of a Grecian temple. Usually a Grecian temple was an oblong figure, with 2 porticoes, 1 at its eastern, and the other at its western, end. The Erechtheum, on the contrary, though oblong in shape and having a portico at the eastern front, had no portico at its western end; but from either side of the latter a portico projected to the N. and S., thus forming a kind of transept. Consequently the temple had 3 porticoes, and which may be distinguished as the eastern, the northern, and the southern prostasis, or portico. The irregularity of the building is to be accounted for partly by the difference of the level of the ground, the eastern portico standing upon ground about 8 ft. higher than the northern; but still more by the necessity of preserving the different sanctuaries and religious objects belonging to the ancient temple. The skill and ingenuity of the Athenian architects triumphed over these difficulties, and even converted them into beauties.

"The eastern portico stood before the principal entrance. This is proved by its facing the E., by its greater height, and also by the disposition of its columns. It consisted of 6 Ionic columns standing in a single line before the wall of the cella, the extremities of which are adorned with antæ opposite to the extreme columns. Five of these columns are still standing.

"The northern portico stood before the other chief entrance. It also consisted of 6 Ionic columns, but only 4 of these are in front; the 2 others are

"The southern portico was of an entirely different character. Its roof was supported by 6 Caryatides, or columns, of which the shafts represented young maidens in long draperies. They are arranged in the same manner as the columns in the northern portico, namely, 4 in front, and 1 on either anta. They stand upon a basement 8 feet above the exterior level; the roof which they support is flat, and about 15 feet above the floor of the building. The entire height of the portico, including the basement, was little more than half the height of the pitched roof of the temple. There appears to have been no access to this portico from the exterior of the building. There was no door in the wall behind this portico; and the only access to it from the interior of the building was by a small flight of steps leading out into the basement of the portico between the Caryatid and the anta on the eastern flank. All these steps may still be traced, and two of them are still in their place. At the bottom of these, on the floor of the building, there is a door opposite the great door of the northern porch. It is evident, from this arrangement, that this southern portico formed merely an appendage of that part of the Erechtheum to which the great northern door gave access. A few years ago the whole of this portico was in a state of ruins, but in 1846 it was restored by M. Piscatory, then the French Minister in Greece, under the direction of M. Paccard. Four of

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wall, thus forming, with the two antæ | (πрò τns éσódov). In the portico itself at the corners, five intercolumniations, (èreλovo, Paus.) were altars of corresponding to the front of the prin- Poseidon-Erechtheus, of Butes, and cipal portico. The wall behind was pierced with three windows in the spaces between the engaged columns in the centre.

"The frieze of this building was composed of black Eleusinian marble, adorned with figures in low relief in white marble; but of this frieze only three portions are still in their place in the eastern portico.

"With respect to the interior of the building, it appears from an examination of the existing remains that it was divided by two transverse walls into three compartments, of which the castern and the middle were about 24 feet each from E. to W., and the western about 9 feet. The last was consequently a passage along the western wall of the building, at one end of which was the great door of the northern portico, and at the other end the door of the staircase leading to the portico of the Caryatides. There can, therefore, be little doubt that this passage served as the pronaos of the central compartment. It appears, then, from the ruins themselves, that the Erechtheum contained only two principal chambers, in accordance with the statement of Pausanias that it was a double building (διπλοῦν οἴκημα). That the eastern chamber was the temple of Athene Polias follows from the eastern portico being the more important of the two, as we have already shown.

"A portion of the building was called the Cecropium. We may conclude that the Caryatid portico, with the crypt below, was the Cecropium, or sepulchre of Cecrops. It is evident that this building, which had no access to it from the exterior, is not so much a portico, as an adjunct, or a chapel.

"We may now proceed to examine the different objects in the building and connected with it. First, as to the temple of Athena Polias. In front of the portico was the altar of Zeus Hypatus (a), which Pausanias describes as situated before the entrance

of Hephaestus (b, c, d). In the cella (ev Tva), probably near the western wall, was the Palladium (e), or statue of the goddess. In front of the latter was the golden lamp (h), made by Callimachus, which was kept burning both day and night; it was filled with oil only once a year, and had a wick of Carpasian flax (the mineral Asbestus). It is mentioned as one of the offences of the tyrant Aristion, that he allowed the fire of this lamp to go out during the seige of Athens by Sulla. Pausanias says, that a brazen palm-tree rising above the lamp to the roof carried off the smoke. In other parts of the cella were a wooden Hermes, said to have been presented by Cecrops, a folding chair made by Daedalus, and spoils taken from the Persians. The walls of the temple were covered with pictures of the Butadæ.

"The statue of Athena Polias, which was the most sacred statue of the goddess, was made of olive wood. It is said to have fallen down from heaven, and to have been a common offering of the demi many years before they were united in the city of Athens. It was emphatically the ancient statue.

"With respect to the objects in the Pandroseum, the first thing is to determine, if possible, the position of the olive-tree and the salt well. Leake supposed the well and olive-tree were in the Cecropium or southern portico, since the air would be freely admitted to the foliage between the statues that supported the roof. But this hypothesis is disproved by M. Tetaz, who states that the floor of the portico is formed of a continuous mass of stones which could not have received any vegetation. Probably, the olive-tree stood in the centre of the cella of the Pandroseum; the lateral walls of the temple of Polias were continued under the form of columns in the Pandroseum, and the inner space between these columns formed the cella of the temple, and was open to the sky. Here grew the olive-tree (o) under the altar

of Zeus Herceius (p). The description
by Virgil (En., ii. 512) of the altar at
which Priam was slain, is applicable
to the spot before us:-

Edibus in mediis nudoque sub ætheris axe,
Ingens ara fuit; juxtaque veterrima laurus
Incumbens ara, atque umbra complexa
Penates."

diately after the War of Independence. Dr. Wordsworth has described its state in 1833:

"Of the eastern hexastyle portico 5 columns are still standing, but the S. wall of the Cella is almost entirely destroyed. In the Caryatid portico 1 of the 4 marble beams has fallen, 3 only of the 6 caryatids remain; there

in the western wall; the N. wall of the cella, and 3 of the columns in the N. hexastyle portico, with the roof over these last columns, are yet entire; the rest of the roof of this graceful portico has fallen. It fell during the seige of Athens in 1827.”—Smith's Dict.

The probable position of the salt well has been determined by the dis-survive but 2 of the 4 engaged columns covery, under the northern portico, of what appear to be the marks of Poseidon's trident. They were discovered by M. Tetaz. A plan and discription of them are given by Mr. Penrose. Upon the removal, in 1846, of the remains of a Turkish powder magazine which encumbered the northern portico, there were observed three boles sunk in the rock; and it is not unlikely that this was the very spot shown to devout persons, and to Pausanias among the number, as the memorial of Poseidon's contest with Minerva.

"They occur upon the surface of the rock of the Acropolis, about 7 feet below the level of the pavement, and are partly natural and partly cut in the rock. At the bottom of two of them were found fragments of ordinary ancient pottery. There appears to have been a low and narrow doorway through the foundation of the wall dividing this portico from the temple, to the underground space or crypt, where these holes occur, and also some communication from above, through a slab rather different from the rest, in the pavement of the portico immediately over them.

"Pausanias has not expressly mentioned any other objects as being in the Pandroseum, but we may presume that it contained a statue of Pandrosus and an altar of Thallo, one of the Hora, to whom he informs us elsewhere (ix. 35, § 1), the Athenians paid divine honours."

The Temenos which surrounded the Erechtheum has been already described in following the course of Pausanias. As the building has recently been more or less restored, it may be desirable to present the reader with a sketch of its appearance imme

[The Greeks, who at that time held the fortress, endeavoured to make the portico bomb-proof by loading the roof with earth; but the load caused the marble beams to break, and it fell, killing a number of women and children who were underneath it. The hurricane of Oct. 26, 1852, threw down the western wall of the Erechtheum with the engaged three-quarter columns, 2 of which had been replaced. The columns fell inwards, and their capitals were dashed to pieces.]

The individual buildings have been described in their actual as well as in their original state. We may lastly take a general glance at the present condition of the Acropolis. The reader will have imagined some of its characteristics, the surface generally strewn with ruins, here and there partially cleared, and in other places intersected by excavations, with the ruins rising in solemn majesty. The sketcher will here enjoy almost complete retirement. The naturalist and the botanist will each find his objects of interest. The Parthenon is the haunt of ravens which fly about it gloomily during the day, and settle upon it towards sunset. In the spring time come numbers of small hawks, kestrels, which, to the annoyance of the ravens, take up their abode in the Parthenon during their sojourn in Athens. It is haunted generally by one or two owls, and sometimes an

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