CHAP. IX.

OF PERICLES-OF HIS BUILDINGS-ENTRANCE OF THE ACROPOLIS-THE PROPYLEA-STORY OF THE ARCHITECT-THE TEMPLE OF VICTORY, OR RIGHT WING OF THE PROPYLEA -THE LEFT WING-PRESENT STATE OF THE PROPYLEA— OF THE TEMPLE-IGNORANCE OF THE TURKS AND GREEKS -OF THE LEFT WING-THE PROPYLEA, WHEN RUINED— INSCRIPTION ON A PEDESTAL.

It was the fortune of Athens, while flourishing in glory, dominion, and revenue, to produce Pericles, a man as distinguished by the vastness of his ideas, as by the correctness of his taste, and as eloquent as splendid. His enemies declaiming against his temples and images, and comparing the city with its gilding and painting to a vain woman hung with jewels, he took occasion to shew, it was wisdom to convert the prosperity of a state, sufficiently prepared for war, into its perpetual ornament by public works, which excited every liberal art, moved every hand, and dispensed plenty to the labourer and artificer, to the mariner and merchant; the whole city being at once employed, maintained, and beautified by itself. "Think ye," said he, "it is much I have expended?" Some answered, "Very much." "Be mine then," he replied, "the whole burden, and mine the honour of inscribing the edifices raised for you." But the multitude refused, and calling out, bade him take from the treasury and spare not.

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The architects employed by Pericles were possessed of consummate skill in their profession, and Phidias was his overseer. The artificers in the various branches were emulous to excel the materials by their workmanship. To grandeur of proportion were

added inimitable form and grace. The vigour of one administration accomplished what appeared to require the united efforts of many; yet each fabric was as mature in perfection, as if it had been long in finishing. Plutarch affirms, that in his time the structures of Pericles alone demonstrated the relations of the ancient power and wealth of Hellas not to be romantic. In their character was an excellence peculiar and unparalleled. Even then they retained all their original beauty. A certain freshness bloomed upon them, and preserved their faces uninjured; as if they possessed a never-fading spirit, and had a soul insensible to age. The remains of some of these edifices, still extant in the acropolis, cannot be beheld without admiration.

The acropolis has now, as formerly, only one entrance, which fronts the Piræus. The ascent is by traverses and rude fortifications, furnished with cannon, but without carriages, and neglected. By the second gate is the station of the guard, who sits cross-legged under cover, much at his ease, smoking his pipe or drinking coffee; with his companions about him in like attitudes. Over this gateway is an inscription in large characters on a stone turned upside down, and black from the fires made below. It records a present of a pair of gates.

Going farther up, you come to the ruins of the propylea, an edifice which graced the entrance into the citadel. This was one of the structures of Pericles, who began it when Euthymenes was archon, four hundred thirty-five years before Christ. It was completed in five years, at the expense of two thousand and twelve talents. It was of mar

ble, of the Doric order, and had five doors, to afford an easy passage to the multitudes, which resorted on business or devotion to the acropolis.

While this fabric was building, the architect, Mnesicles, whose activity equalled his skill, was hurt by a fall, and the physicians despaired of his life; but Minerva, who was propitious to the undertaking, appeared, it was said, to Pericles, and prescribed a remedy, by which he was speedily and easily cured. It was a plant or herb growing round about the acropolis, and called afterwards parthenium.

The right wing of the propylea was a temple of victory. They related that Ægeus had stood there, viewing the sea, and anxious for the return of his son Theseus, who was gone to Crete, with the tributary children to be delivered to the Minotaur. The vessel which carried them had black sails, suiting the occasion of its voyage; and it was agreed, that if Theseus overcame the enemy, their colour should be changed to white. The neglect of this signal was fatal to Egeus, who, on seeing the sails unaltered, threw himself down headlong from the rock, and perished. The idol was named Victory

q Pausanias, p. 20. Τῶν δὲ προπυλαίων ἐν δεξιᾷ—ἐν ἀριστερᾷ οἴκημα exov ypapás.—Wheler, p. 358. and Spon, p. 137. not attending enough to this passage, have mistaken one wing for the other; substituting the right and left of the human body, for the right and left of the propylea.

The right wing of the propylea was a temple of victory.] Instead of these words, Revett has substituted, "On the right hand "entering the propylea was a temple of victory without wings, of "the Ionic order, which stood on the rampart before the wing of "the propylea on the same hand."

⚫ one wing for the other] Wheler and Spon are certainly right. R.

without wings; it was said, because the news of the success of Theseus did not arrive, but with the conqueror. It had a pomegranate in the right hand, and an helmet in the left. As the statue was without pinions, it was hoped the goddess would remain for ever on the spot.

On the left wing of the Propylea, and fronting the temple of Victory ", was a building decorated with paintings by Polygnotus, of which an account is given by Pausanias. This edifice, as well as the temple, was of the Doric order, the columns fluted, and without bases. Both contributed alike to the uniformity and grandeur of the design; and the whole fabric, when finished, was deemed equally magnificent and ornamental. The interval between Pericles and Pausanias consists of several centuries. The Propylea remained entire in the time of this topographer, and, as will be shewn, continued nearly so to a much later period. It had then a roof of white marble, which was unsurpassed either in the size of the stones, or in the beauty of their arrangement; and before each wing was an equestrian statue.

The Propylea have ceased to be the entrance of the acropolis. The passage, which was between the columns in the centre, is walled up almost to their capitals, and above is a battery of cannon. The way now winds before the front of the ancient structure, and, turning to the left hand among rubbish and mean walls, you come to the back part, and to the five doorways. The soil without is risen higher t wing] hand. R.

than the top of the two smaller. There, under the vault and cannon, lies an heap of large stones, the ruin of the roof.

The temple of Victory, standing on an abrupt rock, has its back and one side unincumbered with the modern ramparts. The columns in the front being walled up, you enter it by a breach in the side within the Propylea. It was used by the Turks as a magazine for powder, until about the year 1656; when a sudden explosion, occasioned by lightning, carried away the roof, with a house erected on it, belonging to the officer who commanded in the acropolis, whose whole family, except a girl, perished. The women of the aga continued to inhabit in this quarter, but it is now abandoned and in ruins.

The cell of the temple of Victory, which is of white marble, very thick, and strongly cemented a, sufficiently witnesses the great violence it has undergone; the stones in many places being disjointed, as it were, and forced from their original position. Two of these making an acute angle, the exterior edges touching, without a crevice; and the light abroad being much stronger than in the room, which has a modern roof and is dark; the portion in contact becoming pellucid, had illumined the vacant space with a dim colour, resembling that of amber. We were

The temple of Victory,] The wing on the left hand. R. z It was used by the Turks-whose whole] For these words Revett has substituted, "It adjoined to, and was part of the Dis"dar Aga's house, until about the year 1656, when the vestibule " of the Propylea, being used as a magazine for powder, was blown "up by lightning, and the whole”

a The cell-cemented,] The walls of the wing on the left hand are cramped like the rest of the building, not cemented. R.