more than two sources of water in Athens, besides Enneacrunus; one near the cave of Pan, the other in the temple of Esculapius. The former named Empedo, or Clepsydra, was reputed to have had a subterraneous course from Athens to Phalerum, a fable for which it is difficult to find any foundation, the natural course of these streams being in the opposite direction: and Pliny relates the same story of the fountain of Esculapius'. There is every appearance therefore, that the water flowing from the fountain of Esculapius, was a branch of the Empedo, or Clepsydra; and that the slender stream of brackish water which rises at the south-western angle of the Acropolis, and which, after pursuing a short course to the north-eastward, joins the rivulet rising near the grotto of Pan, from whence it flows towards the Agora of Augustus, is that which had its origin in the Asclepieium. As waters with mineral impregnations were often held sacred to Esculapius, the spring may have been the original cause of the position of the Asclepieium in this spot. This temple stood therefore between the summit of the Odeium of Herodes, and the temple of Victory a little towards the northern side of the ground which here separates the course of the waters. The situation was formerly occupied by a mosque formed out of the ruins of a church 2, and as 1 Subeunt terras rursusque redduntur Lycus in Asia, Erasinus in Argolica, Tigris in Mesopotamia; et quæ in Esculapii fonte Athenis immersæ sunt, in Phalerico redduntur. Plin. H. N. 2, 103 (106). Stuart's Antiq. of Athens, II. p. v. Tomb of the temples of Athens were generally converted into churches upon the establishment of Christianity, it is not improbable that this church was built upon the Asclepieium. We have already remarked, that in the year 1676, Wheler observed on a part of the rising ground to the south of the Areiopagus, and to the west of the Propylæa, a fountain of brackish water issuing from a Turkish tchesméh, in the road which leads into the modern town from the southward, across the ridge which unites the Areiopagus with the Acropolis, and that he mistook it for the fountain Enneacrunus ; it was probably the spring of Esculapius, diverted from its natural course by pipes, to supply a fountain constructed in the usual Turkish manner by the road side. About eighty years afterwards, when Stuart was the first who examined the topography of Athens with the care which the subject deserved, he did not find this fountain in the place where Wheler observed it; but in his plan he has marked the origin of the southern fountain and the course of the streamlet issuing from it, to its junction with that which rises near the grotto of Pan: whence it appears that the Turkish tchesméh had then fallen into neglect, and that the spring of Esculapius had reverted to its natural course. The site of the Asclepieium being fixed, it will follow that the tomb of Talos, or temple of Perdix, which Pausanias encountered in his way from the Theatre to the temple of Esculapius, stood on the side of the Cecropian hill, between the site of that temple and the theatre of Bacchus, and (as we may presume from the story of Calos and Perdix 1) immediately at the foot of the rocks of the Acropolis. And here we may remark, in reference to the tomb of Talos and the Asclepieium, that these two sites are links in a chain of positions around the rocks of the Acropolis, which were occupied by some of the most revered of the monuments of Athens, in the most ancient, central, and conspicuous part of the city, and that the completion of this chain would furnish a strong presumptive evidence of the accuracy of all the sites which the preceding pages have pretended to identify. On the northern side, beginning from the west, were the sanctuary of Apollo and Pan, the Anaceium, and the Agraulium thence proceeding to the south and west, were the Dionysiac theatre, the tomb of Talos, and the temple of Esculapius; the whole in agreement with Lucian, in "the Fisherman," where Parrhesiades, preparing to make his proclamation to the philosophers, alters his intention of ascending the Areiopagus, and thinks it better to mount up to the Acropolis, obviously to its western end, this being nearest to the Areiopagus, as well as to the most frequented parts of the city. From hence he observes the philosophers advancing from the side of the Areiopagus, and climbing up at the Anaceium, Pelasgicum, Asclepieium, and tomb of Talos. It seems evidently, therefore, to have been the author's intention to enumerate the remarkable 'See above, p. 140, n. 5. The Pelasgicum was below the cave of Pan, as will be seen more fully in Section VIII. Eleusinium. places which surrounded the western end of the Acropolis. At the eastern end, in the middle of the precipitous rocks, which terminate the hill on that side, there is a great cavern surmounting a slope, which lies between it and the situation of the path or street, which I have imagined to have led from the Prytaneium to the upper division of the Theatre. One cannot easily conceive, that when all the other caverns around the Acropolis were sanctuaries, this, the most remarkable, should not have been among them. I am inclined therefore to believe that here was the Eleusinium', a hierum inferior only in sanctity to the temple of the same deities at Eleusis, and which Clemens of Alexandria and Arnobius describe as situated below the Acropolis, but concerning which we have unfortunately no other direct testimony, in consequence of the religious silence of Pausanias, as to every thing connected with the mysteries. Future discoveries may perhaps decide this, among other doubtful questions in the Topography of Athens. At present we may be satisfied 1 In the former edition of this work, I had supposed the words of Pausanias (Attic. 14, 2, see above, p. 119,) decisive in showing that the Eleusinium was near Enneacrunus; but I must now admit that, considering the peculiarity of the style of Pausanias, and the abruptness of his transitions, no such inference can be safely drawn from those words: on the contrary, if, as there is good reason to believe, the temple of Ceres and Proserpine in Agræ was not the principal Athenian temple of those deities, or that commonly called the Eleusinium, it is more probable that the latter was in a different part of Athens. 2 Andocid. de Myst. p. 55. 57. 65. Reiske. Lys. c. Andocid. p. 196. 255. Plutarch de Exil. 17. with finding that there is nothing in this situation adverse to the testimony of other authors concerning the Eleusinium. If we suppose this sanctuary of Demeter and Core, to have occupied all the ground situated immediately at the foot of the eastern extremity of the Acropolis, the great cavern being perhaps the adytum of the temple, as we find exemplified in other Athenian sanctuaries of remote origin, the hypothesis will perfectly accord with the importance and magnitude of the Eleusinium; for we find that this temple was inclosed within a peribolus, which contained besides the cella reserved for the mysteries, some dedications requiring considerable space, such as the sepulchre of Immaradus', and a large equestrian statue of Simon by Demetrius 2. At the beginning of the Peloponnesian war, the Eleusinium was strongly inclosed, and it was on this account excepted, together with the Acropolis and some other place or places similarly protected, from those uninhabited parts of the city, which the people of Attica were allowed to occupy on that occasion 3. 1 * Τί δαὶ Εριχθόνιος ; οὐχὶ ἐν τῷ νεῷ τῆς Πολιάδος κεκήδευται ; Ιμμάραδος δὲ ὁ Εὐμόλπου καὶ Δαείρας οὐχὶ ἐν τῷ περιβόλῳ τοῦ Ελευσινίου, τοῦ ὑπὸ τῇ ̓Ακροπόλει ;-Clem. in Protrept. p. 13, Sylburg. Daeiras et Immaradus fratres (conditi sunt) in Eleusinio consepto, quod civitati subjectum est. Arnob. adv. Gent. 6. p. 193, Maire. Simon had preceded Xenophon as a writer on horsemanship, and his precepts were explained by figures on the basis of the statue; Xenoph. de Re Eq. in prooem. Hierocl. Hippiat. in procem. Plin. H. N. 34, 8. (19. § 15.) 3 * Οἱ δὲ πολλοὶ τά τε ἔρημα τῆς πόλεως ᾤκησαν καὶ τὰ ἱερὰ καὶ τὰ ἡρῷα πάντα πλὴν τῆς ̓Ακροπόλεως καὶ τοῦ Ελευσινίου καὶ εἴ τι ἄλλο βεβαίως κλειστὸν ἦν. Thucyd. 2, 15. |