The International Monthly Magazine, Volume 5, No. 1, January, 1852 | Page 8

met the rays of the morning sun, and excited the reverential
admiration of the assembled multitudes."
On the northeast side of the Parthenon stood the Erechtheum, a temple
dedicated to the joint worship of Neptune and Minerva. There are
considerable remains of this building, particularly those beautiful
female figures called Caryatides, which support, instead of columns,
three of the porticoes; besides three of the columns in the north
hexastyle with the roof over these last columns, the rest of the roof of
this graceful portico fell during the siege of Athens, in 1827. Lately,
much has been done in the way of excavation; the buried base of this
tripartite temple has been cleared; the walls, which had been built to
make it habitable, have been removed; the abducted Caryatid replaced
by a modern copy, the gift of Lord Guildford, and the whole prepared
for a projected restoration.
The Temple of Victory without wings, already mentioned is, with the
exception of the pavement, entirely a restoration; for nearly two
centuries all trace of it was lost, all mention omitted. In removing one
of the Turkish batteries, in order to clear the entrance to the Propylæa,
some fragments were found which led to a more minute investigation;
and, after a short time, the foundation, the pavement, and even the
bases of some of the columns were disinterred, making its
reconstruction not only very easy, but extremely satisfactory. It is small,
but of exquisite proportions, and now perfect, with the exception of a
portion of the frieze, which is in the British Museum. A peculiarity of

this temple is, that it stands at an angle slightly differing from that of
the Propylæa itself,--a fact for which, as it clearly formed one of the
chief ornaments to, and was certainly built after, this noble portico, it is
difficult to assign any very good reason.
Such is an outline of the chief buildings of the Acropolis, which, in its
best days, had four distinct characters: being at once the fortress, the
sacred inclosure, the treasury, and the museum of art, of the Athenian
nation. It was an entire offering to the deity, unrivalled in richness and
splendor; it was the peerless gem of Greece, the glory and the pride of
genius, the wonder and envy of the world.
Beneath the southern wall of the Acropolis, near its extremity, was
situated the Athenian or Dionysiac theatre. Its seats, rising one above
another, were cut of the sloping rock. Of these, only the two highest
rows are now visible, the rest being concealed by an accumulation of
soil, the removal of which would probably bring to light the whole
shell of the theatre. Plato affirms it was capable of containing thirty
thousand persons. It contained statues of all the great tragic and comic
poets, the most conspicuous of which were naturally those of Æschylus,
Sophocles, and Euripides, among the former, and those of Aristophanes
and Menander among the latter. On the southwest side of the Acropolis
is the site of the Odeum, or musical theatre of Herodes Atticus, named
by him the theatre of Regilla, in honor of his wife. On the northeast
side of the Acropolis stood the Prytaneum, where citizens who had
rendered services to the state were maintained at the public expense.
Extending southwards from the site of the Prytaneum, ran the street to
which Pausanias gave the name of Tripods, from its containing a
number of small temples or edifices crowned with tripods, to
commemorate the triumphs gained by the Choragi in the theatre of
Bacchus. Opposite to the west end of the Acropolis is the Areopagus,
or hill of Mars, on the eastern extremity of which was situated the
celebrated court of the Areopagus. This point is reached by means of
sixteen stone steps cut in the rock, immediately above which is a bench
of stone, forming three sides of a quadrangle, like a triclinium,
generally supposed to have been the tribunal. The ruins of a small
chapel consecrated to St. Dionysius the Areopagite, and

commemorating his conversion by St. Paul, are here visible. About a
quarter of a mile southwest from the centre of the Areopagus stands
Pnyx, the place provided for the public assemblies at Athens in its
palmy days. The steps by which the speaker mounted the rostrum, and
a tier of three seats hewn in the solid rock for the audience, are still
visible. This is perhaps the most interesting spot in Athens to the lovers
of Grecian genius, being associated with the renown of Demosthenes,
and the other famed Athenian orators,
"whose resistless eloquence Wielded at will that fierce democratie,
Shook the arsenal and fulmined over Greece, To Macedon, and
Artaxerxes' throne."
[Illustration: THE ARCH OF HADRIAN.]
Descending the Acropolis, the eye is at once arrested by the
magnificent