of the same kind of limestone as the Cimonian wall of the Acropolis, with the western extremity of which it forms a right angle. It supported the platform of the temple of Victory without Wings, and, together with another similar wall, forming an obtuse angle with its northern end, it served as a termination to the southern defences of the Acropolis, and their connexion with those of the western entrance 1. There can be little doubt that the approach to the Propylæa from the southward, by which Pausanias conducts his reader to the Acropolis from the Lenæum, passed along this wall, or parallel to it, at no great distance, and that a little farther it joined the direct access to the Acropolis. At the foot of the wall are two doors, coeval with the wall, and conducting into a small grotto, or excavated chamber. This chamber is probably the Adytum of Ceres and Tellus: 1. Because the worship of the Earth in this place was very ancient, having, it is said, been established by Erichthonius'; and we find in the case of other sanctuaries-for example, those of the Eumenides, of Apollo, of Agraulus, and possibly of Ceres Eleusinia, that the caverns of Athens were among the most ancient places of worship. 2. Because the two doors are well appropriated to the two deities, and equally so the single subterraneous Adytum into which they led, 1 For some further remarks on these ancient works, see Appendix XV. 2 Κουροτρόφος Γῆ' ταύτῃ δὲ θῦσαι φασὶ τὸ πρῶτον Εριχθόνιον ἐν ̓Ακροπόλει καὶ βωμὸν ἱδρύσασθαι, χάριν ἀποδίδοντα τῇ Γῇ τῶν τροφείων καταστῆσαι δὲ νόμιμον τοὺς θύοντάς τινι θεῷ ταύτῃ προθύειν. Suidas in Κουροτρόφος. for these two deities were no more than personations of the same terrene essence, Ceres having been here in her capacity of a x0óvioç Otoç'. The Adytum is divided into two portions of unequal depth, in each of which there was probably an altar, for we find mention made of an altar of Tellus Curotropha, and a fragment of a comedy of Eupolis alludes to the sacrifice of a ram to Ceres Chloë". 3. The position near the right hand of the traveller, on his way from the Asclepieium, not long before he began the direct ascent to the Propylæa, accords exactly with that given to the temple of Ceres and Tellus by Pausanias, who treats of it as the last object before he arrives at the Propylæa. It was thus very conveniently placed for receiving the preparatory offerings of those who were about to sacrifice to the greater deities of the Acropolis. One of the writers just cited, speaks of the temple as having been at the Acropolis 1 1 V. Aristoph. Thesm. 101. et Schol. nothing more than Turnp, Mother-Earth. Δημήτηρ is indeed γῆν δᾶν λέγουσι. Etym. Μ. in 'Αλευάδα. Chrysippus M. . . . disputat Terram eam esse quæ Ceres diceretur. Cicero de Nat. Deor. 1, 15. For a description of some monumental illustrations of this subject see Appendix VI. 2 Suid. 1. 1. 3 Εὐχλόου Δήμητρος ἱερόν ἐστι πρὸς τῇ ̓Ακροπόλει. καὶ Εὔπολις Μαρικά, ̓Αλλ ̓ εὐθὺ Πόλεως εἶμι· θῦσαι γάρ με δεῖ κριὸν Χλόῃ Δήμητρι. Schol. in Sophoc. Colon. Edip. 1600. The Scholiast has confounded the temple of Ceres Chloë, intended by Eupolis, with that of Ceres Euchlous, mentioned by Sophocles, which was near Colonus. 4 Suid. 1. 1. (πρὸς τῇ ̓Ακροπόλει), and another as having been in the Acropolis (v tỷ 'Akpowódεi). Placed, indeed, as it was within a wall, which was one of the defences of the western end of the citadel, this cavern might almost be described as a part of it, though the situation accords still better with an allusion made to the temple in the Lysistrata of Aristophanes, where the Athenian women being in possession of the citadel, Lysistrata is represented as suddenly alarmed at the approach of a man, whom, when he has arrived at the sanctuary of Ceres Chloë, Myrrhina, one of the women, distinguishes to be her husband Cinesias 1. Marcel At the second or principal gate of a succession of Gate of modern defences on the approach to the citadel of linus. Athens, are two inscribed marbles, still serving their original purpose of architraves: though the gate at which they are found is a modern structure, and one of the inscriptions is reversed. This latter testifies the presentation of gates to the Polis (Acropolis) by a Roman flamen, named Flavius Septimius Marcel AY. 'Ioù, ioù, yvvat̃kes . . ΓΥ. *Ανδρ', ἄνδρ' ὁρῶ προσιόντα . . .. Ποῦ δ ̓ ἐστὶν ὅστις ἐστί; ΛΥ. Παρὰ τὸ τῆς Χλόης. ΛΥ. Ορᾶτε, γινώσκει τις ὑμῶν; ΜΥΡ. Ν) Δία Εγωγε κἀστὶν οὑμὸς ἀνὴρ Κινησίας. Aristoph. Lysist. 829. Χλόη- ή Δημήτηρ ἐπιθετικῶς. Schol. in v. 835. Immediately after this scene follows the dialogue between Cinesias and Myrrhina at the gate, where he proposes that they should retire to the grotto of Pan, and wash in the Clepsydra. There appears, therefore, to have been an access from the citadel to the cave of Pan, as well as to the Clepsydra. linus'; the other, which is of much earlier date, records a dedication to Demeter and Core 2. As it is evident that a road from the southward, forming a lateral junction with the direct access to the Propylæa, would have required a gate in an exterior inclosure of the western defences of the hill, this inscription may relate to gates which stood very near, if not exactly upon, the spot where it is now found. The dedication to Ceres and Proserpine belonged probably to some monument erected near the temple of Ceres and Tellus, and perhaps within its inclosure. 1 Φλ. Σεπτίμιος Μαρκελλεῖνος Φλαμὴν) καὶ ἀπὸ ἀγωνοθετῶν, ἐκ τῶν ἰδίων, τοὺς πυλῶνας τῇ πόλει. The form of the characters, as well as the names Flavius Septimius, seem to indicate the beginning of the second century of the Christian æra, as the date of this monument. ..... * Μνησικλῆς Ἐπικράτου Οἰναῖος, . . . . ̓Αμφιτρύπηθεν, Δήμητρι καὶ Κόρῃ ἀνέθηκαν. SECTION VIII. Fifth and last Part of the Description of Pausanias.The Acropolis, Areiopagus, and Academy. So many of the most interesting evidences of Athenian history were contained within the walls of the Cecropian fortress; and it still possesses so many of the surviving antiquities of Athens, that this division of the city must ever demand the largest share of attention from the archæologist as well as from the artist and topographer. By the diligence of Stuart and Revett, who first gave the public a correct idea of the invaluable specimens of Grecian art, contained in the Athenian Acropolis, together with more recent operations of the same kind, which have added many important additions and amendments to the work of Stuart', we are at length arrived, after a gradual approximation to the truth from the middle of the seventeenth century, at a correct knowledge of those magnificent buildings which adorned the citadel of Athens; not that many curious discoveries upon the monuments of the Acropolis may not still be made; but that in 1 Among those which have been published, may be particularly mentioned the notes to the second volume of the new edition of Stuart's Antiquities of Athens by Mr. W. Kinnard. |