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reason, it has been surmised, why temples are commonly found simple, and unadorned on the insides. In the wall, beneath the window, were inserted two pieces of the stone called Phengites, a species of marble discovered in Cappadocia, in the time of Nero; and so transparent, that he erected with it a temple to Fortune, which was luminous within, when the door was shut. These pieces were perforated, and the light which entered was tinged with a reddish, or yellowish hue. The picture of the Panagia, or Virgin Mary, in Mosaic, on the ceiling of the recess, remained ; with two jasper columns belonging to the screen, which had separated that part from the nave; and within, a canopy supported by four pillars of porphyry, with Corinthian capitals of white marble, under which the table had been placed; and, behind it, beneath the window, a marble chair for the archbishop; and also a pulpit, standing on four small pillars in the middle aisle. The Turks had white-washed the walls, to obliterate the portraits of saints and the other paintings, with which the Greeks decorate their places of worship; and had erected a pulpit on the right hand for their iman or reader. The roof was disposed in square compartments; the stones massive; and some had fallen in. It had been sustained in the pronaos by six columns, but the place of one was then supplied by a large pile of rude masonry; the Turks not having been able to fill up the gap more worthily. The roof of the naos was supported by colonnades ranging with the door, and on each side; consisting of twenty-two pillars below, and of twenty-three above. The odd one was over the entrance, which by that disposition was left wide and unembarrassed. In the portico were suspended a few lamps, to be used in the mosque at the seasons, when the mussulmen assemble before

day-break, or to be lighted up round the minaret, as is the custom during their Ramazan, or Lent..

It is not easy to conceive a more striking object than the parthenon, though now a mere ruin. The columns within the naos have all been removed, but on the floor may be seen the circles, which directed the workmen in placing them; and, at the farther end, is a groove across it, as for one of the partitions of the cell. The recess, erected by the Christians, is demolished, and from the rubbish of the ceiling the Turkish boys collect bits of the Mosaic, of different colours, which composed the picture. We were told, at Smyrna, that this substance had taken a polish, and been set in buckles. The cell is about half demolished; and in the columns, which surrounded it, is a large gap near the middle. On the walls are some traces of the paintings. Before the portico is a reservoir, sunk in the rock, to supply the Turks with water for the purifications, customary on entering their mosques. In it, on the left hand, is the rubbish of the pile, erected to supply the place of a column; and, on the right, a staircase, which leads out on the architrave, and has a marble or two with inscriptions, but worn so as not to be legible. It belonged to the minaret, which has been destroyed.

The travellers, to whom we are indebted for an account of the mosque, have likewise given a description of the sculpture then remaining in the front. In the middle of the pediment was seen a bearded Jupiter, with a majestic countenance, standing, and naked; the right arm broken. The thunderbolt, it has been supposed, was placed in that hand, and the eagle between his feet. On his right was a figure, it is conjectured, of Victory, clothed to the mid-leg; the head and

arms gone. This was leading on the horses* of a car, in which Minerva sat, young and unarmed; her head-dress, instead of a helmet, resembling that of a Venus. The generous ardour and lively spirit visible in this pair of celestial steeds, was such as bespoke the hand of a master, bold and delicate, of a Phidias, or Praxiteles. Behind Minerva was a female figure, without a head, sitting, with an infant in her lap; and in this angle of the pediment was the emperor Hadrian, with his arm round Sabina, both reclining, and seeming to regard Minerva with pleasure. On the left side of Jupiter were five or six other trunks to complete the assembly of deities, into which he received her. These figures were all wonderfully carved, and appeared as big as life. Hadrian and his consort, it is likely, were complimented by the Athenians with places among the marble gods in the pediment, as benefactors. Both of them may be considered as intruders on the original company; and possibly their heads were placed on trunks, which before had other owners. They still possess their corner, and are easy to be recognized, though not unimpaired. The rest of the statues are defaced, removed, or fallen. Morosini was ambitious to enrich Venice with the spoils of Athens, and, by an attempt to take down the principal group, hastened their ruin. In the other pediment is a head or two of sea-horses, finely executed, with some mutilated figures; and on the architrave beneath them are marks of the fixtures of votive offerings, perhaps of the golden shields, or of festoons suspended on solemn occasions, when the temple was dressed out to receive the votaries of the goddess.

*These horses are mentioned in a letter to Crusius.

It is to be regretted that so much admirable sculpture, as is still extant about this fabric, should be all likely to perish, as it were immaturely, from ignorant contempt and brutal violence. Numerous carved stones have disappeared; and many, lying in the ruinous heaps, moved our indignation at the barbarism daily exercised in defacing them. Besides the two pediments, all the metopes were decorated with large figures in alto relievo, of which several are almost entire on the side next Hymettus. These are exceedingly striking, especially when viewed with a due proportion of light and shade, the sun rising behind the mountain. Their subject is the same as was chosen for the sandals of Minerva, or the battle of the Centaurs and Lapithæ. On the frieze of the cell was carved, in basso relievo, the solemnity of a sacrifice to Minerva; and of this one hundred and seventy feet are standing, the greater part in good preservation, containing a procession on horseback. On two stones, which have fallen, are oxen led as victims. On another, fourteen feet long, are the virgins called Canephori, which assisted at the rites, bearing the sacred canisters on their heads, and in their hands each a taper; with other figures, one a venerable person with a beard, reading in a large volume, which is partly supported by a boy. This piece, now inserted in the wall of the fortress, is supposed to have ranged in the centre of the back front of the cell. The sacrifice designed to be represented was pro bably that performed at stated times by the Athenian cavalry; and perhaps the figure last mentioned is the herald praying for the prosperity of the Athenians and Platæensians, as was usual, in commemoration of their united bravery at Marathon. We purchased two fine fragments of the frieze, which we found inserted over door-ways in the town; and

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were presented with a beautiful trunk, which had fallen from the metopes, and lay neglected in the garden of a Turk.

The marquis de Nointell, ambassador from France to the Porte in the year 1672, employed a painter to delineate the frieze; but his sketches, the labour of a couple of months, must have been very imperfect, being made from beneath, without scaffolding, his eyes straining upwards. Mr. Pars devoted a much longer time to this work, which he executed with diligence, fidelity, and courage. His post was generally on the architrave of the colonnade, many feet from the ground, where he was exposed to gusts of wind, and to accidents in passing to and fro. Several of the Turks murmured, and some threatened, because he overlooked their houses; obliging them to confine or remove the women, to prevent their being seen from that exalted station. Besides views and other sculptures, he designed one hundred and ninety-six feet of bass-reliefs in the acropolis.

CHAP. XI.

Of the erecthéum-Temple of Neptune-Temple of Minerva Polias-Story of Pandrosos-Present state of the temples of Neptune and Minerva-Of the Pandroséum-Business of the virgins called Canephori-Images of Minerva-The treasury-Inscriptions.

WE proceed now to the cluster of ruins on the north side of the parthenon, containing the erecthéum, and the temple of Pandrosos, daughter of Cecrops.

Neptune and Minerva, once rival deities, were joint and amicable tenants of the erecthéum, in which was an altar of

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