Part 76

The *=Theatre of Dionysos= (Pl. D, 7), whose entrance we soon reach, was once the centre of the dramatic art of Greece, the spot in which the masterpieces of Æschylus, Sophocles, Euripides, and Aristophanes first excited delight and admiration. From the early 5th cent, this site was occupied by a round enclosed orchestra (‘dancing place’), while for each performance a stage had to be specially erected, the audience being seated in a levelled hollow in the Acropolis hill-side. In the 4th cent., mainly in the time of Lykourgos (p. 507), tiers of stone seats and a permanent stage were erected for the first time. The present semicircular orchestra, paved with marble, and the remains of the stage-building belong to Roman restorations. The Roman raised stage rested on a wall adorned with good sculptures of the time of Nero. During the Greek age the actors and the chorus, the former wearing the raised cothurnus, performed on the level space in the orchestra, while the skēnē or stage served them as a kind of booth. The proskēnion, or wooden front of the stage, formed the background of the play, and was only superseded by a stone wall with columns at the close of the late Hellenistic period. Between the rectangular wings of the stage (paraskēnia) and the lowest seats for the spectators opened the entrances for the chorus (párodoi). The auditorium was divided by narrow flights of steps into 13 ‘wedges’ (kerkides) and by two cross passages (diazomata) into three main sections. The seats, originally for 14–17,000 spectators, are only partly preserved. In the front row were marble seats for the priests and state officials; that in the centre, set apart for the priest of Dionysos, is adorned with reliefs. The pedestal to the right, behind it, bore the throne of Hadrian.

Adjoining the theatre was the _Sacred Precinct of Dionysos Eleuthereus_, the wine-dispensing god, with whose festivals the dramatic performances were connected. The walls of his temple (5th or early 4th cent.) are still partly preserved between the stage of the theatre and the modern street. Behind the stage ran a colonnade offering shelter in rainy weather; at its S.W. end once stood an older temple, the N.W. corner of which has been discovered.

The ancient buildings to the W. of the theatre of Dionysos skirt the hill-side in two terraces. The E. half of the upper terrace, on the steep slope of the castle-hill, above the conspicuous arched wall, is the site of the famous =Asklepieion=, or sacred precinct of Asklepios (Æsculapius), Hygieia, and kindred deities, with which institutions for the treatment of the sick were connected. Of the temple, founded in 420, the foundations only are left. The perpendicular side of the Acropolis is here faced with masonry, in which is the entrance to a round well-house converted into a chapel. In front of it ran a colonnade towards the W., leading to a round pit, once roofed over, which is supposed to have been used for sacrificial purposes or as the abode of the sacred serpents.

On the lower terrace, from the theatre to the Odeion, ran the _Stoa of King Eumenes II._ of Pergamon (B.C. 197–159), 180 yds. long, with its back to the masonry supporting the upper terrace.

The *=Odeion of Herodes Atticus= (Pl. C, 7; keys kept by a pensioner, in the red hut at the W. entrance; 25–50 l.), founded by a rich citizen (p. 507; about 160 A.D.), dominates all the other ruins at the foot of the castle-hill. Unlike the usual odeon or theatre for musical entertainments, this building was constructed with a view to dramatic performances. The yellowish-brown façade is constructed in the Roman round-arched style and consisted of three stories. The usual entrance is by the westmost of the three doors. A niche here contains the statue of a Roman official.

The INTERIOR affords a good example of a Roman theatre (comp. p. 510). The stage (logeion), raised 3½ ft. above the orchestra, is 38½ yds. in breadth, but only 6 yds. deep. At the back of the stage is a massive wall, broken by the usual three stage-doors and relieved by niches and a row of columns. The orchestra, 20 yds. wide, was paved with

## particoloured squares of marble. The auditorium, 83 yds. in diameter,

could hold 5000 spectators. The tiers of seats rise in a semicircle, one above the other, on the rocky slope of the Acropolis. The lower 19 tiers were divided by steps into five, the upper (probably 13), above the transverse passage (see p. 510 and above), into ten sections. The seats, like the whole of the masonry, were coated with Pentelic marble; the lowest tier had backs. The whole edifice was covered with a superb roof of cedar-wood.

From the Dionysios Areopagites Street (p. 510), where it passes the Odeion, there diverges to the W. the avenue leading to the Acropolis, immediately to the right of which a steep path ascends on the W. side of the Odeion to the Acropolis gate.

Halfway up we diverge to the left to visit the summit of a rocky plateau (377 ft.) separated from the Acropolis by a depression, and descending abruptly to the N.E., still called as in ancient times the =Areopagus= (Pl. B, C, 6). A narrow flight of steps in the rock, partly destroyed, ascends to the site of some ancient altars, for which platforms were hewn in the rock. Here met the time-honoured court of justice, composed of noble and aged citizens who wielded supreme criminal jurisdiction. The cleft in the rock below the N.E. corner was probably connected with the cult of the avenging _Erinyes_ (Furies), or _Eumenides_ (the benevolent), as they were euphemistically called. This was the scene of Æschylus’s famous tragedy of that name.

To the S.W. of the Areopagus rock, and below (to the E. of) the modern road from the Theseion (p. 521) to the Acropolis, the OLDEST QUARTER OF THE LOWER TOWN has been partly excavated (comp. Pl. B, 7, and p. 524). Descending at the W. point of the Areopagus rock from the modern to the ancient road, we reach, on the left, the DIONYSION EN LIMNAIS (Pl. B, 7), a triangular space enclosed by an antique polygonal wall of limestone. This was the sacred precinct of Dionysos Lenæos, the inventor of the wine-press, and once contained a temple of the 7th or 6th cent. B.C., a wine-press (in the N.W. angle), and a large hall of the Roman period (in the N.E. half).

To the S. of the temple-precinct lay the _City Well of Kallirrhoë_. Peisistratos connected it with his aqueduct from the upper Ilissos valley, and provided it with nine spouts, whence it was called _Enneákrunos_.

b. The Acropolis.

The abrupt limestone plateau (512 ft.) on which stands the _Acropolis_, or castle of Athens, has formed from hoar antiquity the nucleus of all the settlements in the Attic plain. The legendary Pelasgi are said to have first levelled the top of the hill, enclosed it with a wall, and erected the so-called _Enneápylon_, an outwork with nine gates, to defend the sole approach on the W. side. The Acropolis contained the residence of the kings and the chief sanctuaries of the state. The kings afterwards transferred their seat to the lower city, Peisistratos alone preferring to reside in the Acropolis. The ancient buildings were destroyed by the Persians in 480–479. Themistokles and Kimon rebuilt the walls, and Perikles then became the chief founder of those magnificent buildings which, even in their ruins, still present the finest picture of the unrivalled art of antiquity.

Tramway, see p. 503.

The avenue mentioned above which ascends to the W. at the Odeion of Herodes Atticus brings us to the so-called Beulé Gate, on the plateau below the last steep W. slope of the **=Acropolis=. Carriages stop here. Visitors admitted till sunset.

The BEULÉ GATE, named after the French savant who discovered it, was entirely built over by bastions down to 1852, but since 1889 has formed the chief entrance to the Acropolis (side-entrance under the Nike bastion). The towers flanking the gateway were built about 50 A.D.; the gateway itself dates from 160 A.D. and is embellished with fragments from a choragic monument erected by Nikias in 319.

From the Beulé Gate we ascend a flight of marble steps, with many gaps, to the Propylæa. This staircase, which also was made in the first half of the 1st cent. A.D., replaces the steep ancient track.

The tower-like pedestal on the left, below the Propylæa, once bore a _Statue of M. Vipsanius Agrippa_, the general and son-in-law of Emp. Augustus, erected between 27 and 12 A.D.

To the right of the Propylæa projects a bastion, 26 ft. high, from which a small flight of marble steps descends, stopping short of our staircase. On this bastion rises the *=Temple of Nike= (Athena Nike, erroneously called Nike Apteros), which was reconstructed with the ancient stones in 1835–6. Its date is uncertain (probably between 440 and 410 B.C.).

Like the Propylæa this little temple, 27 ft. long and 18 ft. wide, is built entirely of Pentelic marble. It stands on a basement of three steps, and is preceded at the E. and W. ends by a portico of four Ionic columns 13 ft. high. Above the tripartite architrave runs a sculptured frieze 85 ft. long and 18 inches high. At the E. end it represents a council of the gods, among whom are Athena with her shield (in the centre) and Zeus (sitting) next to her. On the sides are battles of the Greeks with the Persians (some of them mounted). At the W. end is a conflict between Greeks and Greeks. Only a few fragments of the roof have been found; it ended on the E. and W. in pediments which were unadorned. The entrance to the cella is formed by two pillars.

On the marble cornice of the temple bastion there once rose a _Balustrade_ adorned with reliefs outside, and bearing a bronze railing. These admirable reliefs, remains of which are preserved in the Acropolis Museum (p. 520), represented goddesses of victory erecting trophies and presenting offerings in presence of Athenä.

The *VIEW from beside the Temple of Nike is justly celebrated. In the picturesque intermingling of land and sea we descry the bay of Phaleron (p. 528), the peninsula of Munychia, the Piræus (p. 494), Salamis, and its adjoining islet of Psyttaleia (p. 494). A little farther to the right, beyond the bay of Eleusis, appears the dome-like rock of Acro-Corinth, backed by distant mountains. To the right of this, but in the immediate foreground, rises the Pnyx Hill with its rock-steps. The plain is overgrown with fine old olive-groves. Above it rise Mt. Ægaleos and the hills of Megara. To the S.W., to the left of the tower-like monument of Philopappos, stretches the Saronic Gulf, bounded by Ægina, with Mt. St. Elias, and by the Argolic Mts. and the island of Hydra. To the left runs the Attic coast as far as the islet of Gaïdaronisi, off Cape Colonna.

The **=Propylæa=, the greatest secular edifice in ancient Athens, composed entirely of Pentelic marble, were erected in 437–432 B.C. by the architect _Mnesikles_. This highly artistic building consists of three parts—a central gateway with wings on the N. and S.

The CENTRAL BUILDING, ruined by an explosion in 1645, consists of a wall pierced with five openings and preceded by Doric colonnades on the E. and W. sides. Each colonnade has six columns in front, above which ran a frieze of triglyphs and metopes, crowned by a plain pediment. The _W. Colonnade_, to which three huge steps ascend, is 19 yds. wide and 17 yds. deep. Its front columns belong to the Doric order and consequently rise directly from the ground (stylobate), without bases; they are 29 ft. high, and each is fluted with twenty grooves separated by sharp edges. Behind the two central columns, which are 12½ ft. apart, and flanking the main passage there are on each side three slender Ionic columns, 33 ft. high, resting on their cushion-like bases, and grooved with twenty-four flutes separated by broad fillets. The ceiling was divided into sunk panels adorned with painting.

On the N. and S. sides the central building was bounded by massive walls, 17½ yds. long, ending in huge buttresses (antæ). Between these extended the _Gateway_ proper consisting, as above remarked, of a wall with five openings. Five marble steps ascend to the threshold, composed of black Eleusinian stone, on which the side-gates rest. The broad central gateway is without steps. All the gateways were once provided with massive folding doors.

The _E. Colonnade_ is as broad as the other, but only 23 ft. deep. Of its six Doric columns five still have their capitals, and two are connected with their architrave.

The well-preserved NORTH WING consists of a porch or vestibule, open towards the S., with three Doric columns between antæ, and an inner hall connected with it by a door and two windows. This was called the _Pinakotheka_, from its use as a receptacle for votive pictures (‘pinakes’) on marble or terracotta. The SOUTH WING, of which two columns and the back-wall only have been preserved, was never quite completed.

Passing through the E. Colonnade of the Propylæa we enter the INNER WARD of the Acropolis and ascend a gradual slope, now covered with profoundly impressive ruins. When we picture to ourselves the mighty Parthenon, on the right, and the exquisite Erechtheion on the left, in the full glory of their sculptures and colouring, surrounded by smaller sanctuaries and a forest of statues, we may well understand the enthusiastic pride of the Athenians in their unrivalled Acropolis.

From the central gateway of the Propylæa a broad pathway ascends along the main axis of the citadel. The rock has evidently been much cut away to facilitate the ascent, as we see from a glance at the rocky terrace on the right, which has a precipitous face 6½ ft. in height. Fragments of pedestals and square hollows in the rock indicate the ancient sites of numerous votive offerings.

The terrace of rock just mentioned, to which nine low steps ascend farther on, once bore the temple of _Artemis Braurōnia_, but is now strewn with beams and fragments of ceiling from the Propylæa (panels with traces of blue colouring). The terrace is bounded on the W. by a fragment of a broad wall belonging to the original Pelasgic fortifications (p. 512).—Another rock-terrace, about 2½ ft. higher, and also cut perpendicularly, to the E. of the Brauronion, is supposed to have been the place where, without any actual temple, _Athena_ was worshipped as _Ergánē_, the mistress and inventor of every art. To the S. of this terrace we observe traces of walls which, together with the S. wall itself, seem to have formed a gigantic building. It was perhaps the _Chalkotheka_, an arsenal where not only implements of war but also bronze votive offerings, and other objects were kept. Towards the Parthenon the terrace had nine narrow steps on which votive offerings were deposited.

About forty paces from the Propylæa, straight on, we come to a large cutting in the rock, the supposed site of the bronze statue of _Athena Promachos_, about 26 ft. high, by Phidias, erected with the booty of Marathon. The goddess was represented in full armour, with shield and lance. The gilded point of the lance, gleaming in the sun, was a landmark for sailors rounding Cape Colonna. The principal roadway, once used by the festal processions, passes between the Erechtheion and the Parthenon to the E. front of the latter.

The **=Parthenon=, the most perfect monument of ancient art, once far surpassing all other Athenian buildings in the brilliancy of its plastic and polychrome decoration, and even in its ruins a marvel of majestic beauty, stands on the highest S. margin of the Acropolis precincts. On this site, as early as the middle of the 6th cent., a large temple was begun, adjoining the ancient Hekatompedon (p. 518), in poros or Piræan stone, and after the battle of Marathon down to the Persian occupation was continued in marble. In the time of Perikles, after 447, the whole edifice as it now stands was rebuilt in Pentelic marble. The architects were _Iktinos_ and _Kallikrates_, but Perikles himself presided over the works and provided the funds. The external sculptures are attributed to _Phidias_ and his pupils. The temple was probably opened for worship in 438, on the occasion of the erection of the statue of Athena at the Panathenæan Festival. This marvellous work must therefore have been completed within ten years. Its decoration alone included 98 columns, 50 life-size statues for the pediments, a frieze 524 ft. long, 92 metopes, and a gold and ivory figure of Athena 43 ft. high.

On the massive basement in three steps, whose _Stylobate_, or platform for the colonnade, measures 75½ by 33 yds., rise 46 Doric columns averaging 34 ft. high, eight at each end and seventeen on each side (the corner-columns being counted twice). On the abaci of the columns rests the undivided _Architrave_ or _Epistyle_, above which runs a _Triglyph Frieze_, the most characteristic feature of the Doric order. This consists of _triglyphs_ or triple grooves, alternating with _metopes_ or flat spaces, which in this case are adorned with reliefs. Above the frieze is the _geison_, or lowest flat moulding of the cornice, while below each triglyph hang _regulae_ (_guttae_, or drops), corresponding with drops above it. The triglyphs and drops were painted blue, the ground of the metopes blue or red, and the lower surface of the geison and the continuous moulding above the frieze and architrave red. The smooth spaces in front were left white, as were also the columns, with the exception of the four rings or annuli below the capitals.

The gable-roof rose at an angle of 13½°. At each end is a pediment, framing the _tympanum_, or receding space for statuary 91½ ft. long, 3 ft. deep, and in the centre 10½ ft. high. It was painted red at the back, so as to throw the statues into strong relief. The raised edges (_simae_) of the external members of the pediment, 18½ inches high, are intended to prevent the rain-water from escaping over the front; they were adorned with wreaths of foliage. The pediment was crowned with a boldly executed palmette, and at each corner was placed a golden oil-jar.—The roof, resting partly on timber and partly on stone framework, consisted of slabs of Parian marble 1¼ in. thick; it was edged with artistic _antefixae_, or hollowed tiles, between which the rain-water escaped. The lions’ heads at the ends of each side were purely ornamental.

The _Cella_, or sanctuary proper, enclosed by the outer colonnades, is raised two steps above the stylobate. At each end a portico is formed by six Doric columns, 33 ft. high, and by the projecting sides. Above the architrave, round the whole building ran a frieze, of which hardly any traces remain except on the W. side (comp. p. 517).—The porticos were closed by high bronze railings between the columns. From the E. portico massive folding doors led into the interior, which was divided by a

## partition into an eastern and a smaller western section. The former, the

inner sanctuary, was known as the _Hekatompedon_, being ‘100 ft. long’ (comp. p. 518). It was divided into three aisles by two rows of Doric columns (9 in each). On a square of darker stone in the pavement stood the famous gold and ivory statue of Athena Parthenos by Phidias. The ceiling was of wood in lacunars, which were doubtless richly coloured. Light was admitted by the door alone. The walls were painted dark-red, but no adequate idea can now be formed of the original wealth of colouring.—Between the partition and the W. portico, which is supposed to have formed a kind of treasury (_opisthodomos_), lay the W. section of the cella, 14 yds. in depth, sometimes called the _Parthenon_ in the narrower sense.

The crowning glory of the Parthenon consisted in its plastic decoration, executed under the direction of _Phidias_. Most of the sculptures still preserved were taken to London by Lord Elgin in 1802–3 and are now in the British Museum, but there are several others in the Acropolis Museum (see p. 519).

The _E. Tympanum_ was devoted to the nativity of Athena. All that remains of its sculptures in their original position consists of two horses’ heads belonging to the chariot of the rising Helios, on the left, and remains of a horse’s head of the chariot of the setting Selene, on the right. In the _W. Tympanum_, which illustrated the victory of Athena over Poseidon in their contest for the possession of Attica, are still seen, near the left angle, a half-recumbent male figure, round whose neck is the arm of a kneeling woman (Æsculapius and Hygieia?), and in the right angle a female figure supposed to be Kallirrhoë (p. 512).

The _Metope Reliefs_ are of inferior artistic value. Of the 92 there still exist the 28 at each end and 12 on the N. side. They represent the conflicts of the gods with the Giants (E.), of the Lapithæ and Athenians with the Centaurs (S.), of the Athenians with the Amazons (W.), and lastly the siege of Troy. The high relief in some cases assumes an almost entirely rounded form.

The masterpiece of Attic bas-relief is the *_Frieze_ of the cella wall, 175 yds. long and 39 in. high. On the W. front the greater part of it has been preserved, but on the S. side there are only scanty fragments. Twenty-two slabs are now in the Acropolis Museum (see p. 519). The reliefs represented the festal procession in which every four years, at the close of the Panathenæa, the maidens of Athens presented the goddess with a magnificent woven robe. Over the chief entrance is the presentation of the robe to Athena; to the right and left of it are the assembled gods; on the sides and at the back are Athenians. The figures were executed in low relief of 2–2½ in. only, in order to prevent strong shadows being thrown by the light entering the covered hall from below. The effect was enhanced by painting and mountings in metal.

In the hollows on the S. side of the Parthenon, far below, may be traced the line of the _Pelasgic Wall_ (p. 512), which was covered up when the terrace of the temple was formed. Excavations here, and notably also to the N.W. of the Erechtheion, brought to light a number of archaic statues and architectural fragments dating from the Persian destruction.

Near the N. margin of the Acropolis precincts, but in a slight depression, rises the **=Eréchtheion=, the temple of the tutelary goddess _Athena Poliás_ and the other deities of the city. The building was probably begun soon after the Peace of Nikias (421), but only completed in 407 or after 400. It contained chambers for the cult of Athena and Poseidon Erechtheus, while the vestibule had an entrance to the salt-spring produced by Poseidon. But the temple is now sadly ruined, having served in the middle ages as a church and afterwards as a Turkish harem. Since 1902, however, the ancient fragments have been pieced together, and they now afford a fairly complete idea of the exterior of the building, which differed from that of the ordinary temples.

The nucleus of the edifice (24 by 12 yds.) rises on a threefold basement in steps, and the sanctuary was entered by three porticos (E., S., and N.) of charmingly varied type.