Εικόνες σελίδας
PDF
Ηλεκτρ. έκδοση

Oblivion. The building was double, a partition-wall dividing it into two temples, which fronted different ways. One was the temple of Neptune Erectheus, the other of Minerva Polias. The latter was entered by a square portico, connected with a marble screen, which fronts towards the propyléa. The door of the cell was on the left hand, and at the farther end of the passage was a door leading down into the pandroséum, which was contiguous.

Before the temple of Neptune Erectheus was an altar of Jupiter the Supreme, on which no living thing was sacrificed; but they offered cakes without wine. Within it was the altar of Neptune and Erectheus; and two, belonging to Vulcan and a hero named Butes, who had transmitted the priesthood to his posterity, who were called Butadæ. On the walls were paintings of this illustrious family, from which the priestess of Minerva Polias was also taken. It was asserted that Neptune had ordained the well of salt water, and the figure of a trident in the rock, to be memorials of his contending for the country. The former, Pausanias remarks, was no great wonder, for other wells, of a similar nature, were found inland; but this, when the south wind blew, afforded the sound of waves.

acropo

The temple of Minerva Polias was dedicated by all Attica, and possessed the most ancient statue of the goddess. The demi or towns had other deities, but their zeal for her suffered no diminution. The image, which they placed in the lis, then the city, was, in after ages, not only reputed consummately holy, but believed to have fallen down from heaven in the reign of Erichthonius. It was guarded by a large serpent, which was regularly served with offerings of honied cakes for his food. This divine reptile was of great sagacity, and

attained to an extraordinary age. He wisely withdrew from the temple, when in danger from the Medes; and, it is said, was living in the second century. Before the statue was an owl; and a golden lamp. This continued burning day and night. It was contrived by a curious artist, named Callimachus, and did not require to be replenished with oil oftener than once a year. A brazen palm-tree, reaching to the roof, received its smoke. Aristion had let the holy flame expire, while Sylla besieged him, and was abhorred for his impiety. The original olive-tree, said to have been produced by Minerva, was kept in this temple. When the Medes set fire to the acropolis, it was consumed; but, they asserted, on the following day, was found to have shot up again as much as a cubit. It grew low and crooked, but was esteemed very holy. The priestess of Minerva was not allowed to eat of the new cheese of Attica; and, among her perquisites, was a measure of wheat, and one of barley, for every birth and burial. This temple was again burned when Callias was archon,* twenty-four years after the death of Pericles. Near it was the tomb of Cecrops, and within it Erectheus was buried.

It was related in the mythology of Athens, that Minerva intrusted to Aglauros, Herse, and Pandrosos, a chest; which she strictly enjoined them not to open. It contained Erectheus or Erichthonius, an infant, the offspring of Vulcan and of the earth; guarded by a serpent. Curiosity prevailing, the two elder sisters disobeyed. The goddess was gone to Pallene for a mountain, intending to blockade the entrance of the acropolis. A busy crow met her, on her return, and

* Before Christ, 404. Pericles died of the plague in the 4th Olymp. 87.

informed her what had passed, when she dropped the mountain, which was afterwards called Lycabettus; and, displeased with the officious tale-bearer, commanded that no crow should ever again visit the acropolis. The guilty sisters were seized with a frenzy, and threw themselves down one of the precipices. Pandrosos was honoured with rites and mysteries. She was joined with Minerva; and, when a heifer was sacrificed to the goddess, it was accompanied with a sheep for Pandrosos. This story is alluded to by Homer, who mentions the temple of Minerva, with the offerings of bulls and young sheep made annually by the Athenians. Crows, as I have often observed, fly about the sides of the rock, without ascending to the height of the top; and Lucretius asserts, that not even the smoking of the altars, when they might expect food, could entice them thither; which he sensibly attributes, not to the dread of Minerva, as the Greek poets sung, but to the nature of the place.

The ruin of the erecthéum is of white marble, the architectural ornaments of very exquisite workmanship, and uncommonly curious. The columns of the front of the temple of Neptune are standing with the architrave; and also the screen and portico of Minerva Polias, with a portion of the cell retaining traces of the partition-wall. The order is Ionic. An edifice revered by ancient Attica, as holy in the highest degree, was in 1676 the dwelling of a Turkish family; and is now deserted and neglected; but many ponderous stones and much rubbish must be removed, before the well and trident would appear. The former, at least, might probably be discovered. The portico is used as a powder-magazine; but we obtained permission to dig, and to examine the outside. The door-way of the vestibule is walled up, and the soil risen

nearly to the top of the door-way of the Pandroséum. By the portico is a battery commanding the town, from which ascends an amusing hum. The Turks fire from it, to give notice of the commencement of Ramazan, or of their Lent, and of bairam, or the holy-days, and on other public

occasions.

The Pandroséum is a small, but very particular building, of which no satisfactory idea can be communicated by description. The entablature is supported by women, called Caryatides. Their story is thus related. The Greeks, victorious in the Persian war, jointly destroyed Carya, a city of the Peloponnesus, which had favoured the common enemy. They cut off the males, and carried into captivity the women, whom they compelled to retain their former dress and ornaments, though in a state of servitude. The architects of those times, to perpetuate the memory of their punishment, represented them, as in this instance, each with a burthen on her head, one hand uplifted to it, and the other hanging down by her side. The images were in number six, all looking toward the parthenon. The four in front, with that next to the propyléa, remain, but mutilated, and their faces besmeared with paint. The soil is risen almost to the top of the basement on which they are placed. This temple was open or latticed between the statues; and in it was also a stunted olive-tree, with an altar of Jupiter Hercéus standing under it. The propyléa are nearly in a line with the space dividing it from the parthenon; which disposition, besides its other effects, occasioned the front and flank, of the latter edifice, to be seen at once by those, who approached it from the entrance of the acropolis.

The deities of the acropolis had a variety of ministers and

inferior servants, whose dwellings were near their temples. In particular, at a small distance from the temple of Minerva Polias, lived two virgins, called Canephori, who continued some time with the goddess, and, when the season of her festival approached, were employed as follows in the night-time. They placed on their heads something, they knew not what, which they received from the priestess, who was reputed equally ignorant; and descended with it into a subterraneous passage in the city, not far from the temple of Venus in the gardens; where they exchanged one mysterious load for another, and returned to the acropolis. They were then dismissed, and two new virgins admitted in their room. Pausanias wondered much at this custom. One of these virgins, after her discharge, was honoured by the council and people with a statue, as appears from an inscription extant in the town. The houses, it may be presumed, were judiciously arranged in streets, forming avenues to the temples; where now are mean cottages, narrow lanes, walls and rubbish. The rock, in many places, is rugged, and bare, or cut into steps, perhaps to receive marble pavement, or the foundation of a building.

Besides the statue of Minerva Polias, which was of olive, and that in the parthenon, the acropolis possessed a third, which was of brass, and so tall that the point of the spear, and the crest of the helmet, were visible from Sunium. It was an offering made with a tenth of the spoils taken at Marathon, and dedicated to the goddess. The artist was Phidias. It remained to the time of Arcadius and Honorius; and Minerva, it was said, appeared to Alaric, as represented in this image. There were likewise some images of her, which escaped the flames, when Xerxes set fire to the acropolis.

« ΠροηγούμενηΣυνέχεια »