OF ARTS AND SCIENCES. 147 



and for many centuries no traveller was allured by its ancient fiime to 

 visit the scene which had once been the gathering-place of the civilized 

 world. There is an utter blank in its history. But tlie revived inter- 

 est in the antiquities and art of Greece, of which the publication of 

 Stuart and Revett's monumental work on the Antiquities of Athens 

 was at once a sign and a stimulus, led travellers, in tlie early part of 

 this century, to turn their steps to Olyrapia, in order to investigate the 

 remains which might still be found there.* It was not, however, till 

 1829 that any thorough exploration of the ruins was undertaken. In 

 that year, tliey were carefully investigated and measured by an expedi- 

 tion, of which JNI. Abel Blouet was the head, sent out by the French 

 government ; and the results were published, in 1831, in the well-known 

 work, the " Expedition scientifique de Moree." According to Pau- 

 sanias, the Temple was 230 feet in length, 98 feet in breadth, and 68 

 feet in height ; and it was not without surprise that it was found that 

 the French measures of the length and breadth of the Temple differed 

 widely from the measures given by the only ancient authority. 



For more than forty years, no further investigations were undertaken 

 on the spot. But the German expedition which began its work of 

 excavation at Olympia in 1875, and which has already made dis- 

 coveries of the highest interest and importance, has once more taken 

 the measures of the ruins, and with results generally coi-responding 

 with those of the French expedition. f 



It thus appears evident that the measures given by Pausanias are 

 incorrect ; and this conclusion is confirmed by the fact, that no simple 

 ratio, such as appears to have been frequently, if not always, estab- 

 lished in the main dimensions of the Greek temples, exists between the 

 dimensions as stated by him. 



It is likely, indeed, that at the time when Pausanias wrote (near the 

 close of the second century of our era), the knowledge of the mathe- 

 matical principles on which the science of Greek architecture rested, 

 was, if not wholly lost, at least completely neglected. No ancient 

 treatise on the subject has come down to us. Vitruvius gives very 

 little information regarding it ; and it has been reserved for students in 

 this century to rediscover some of the elements of this lost science, 



* Mr. J. S. Stanhope, in 1824, in his work entitled, "Olympia; or Topo- 

 graphy illustrative of the Plain of Olympia, arid of the Ruins of the City of 

 Elis," gave a series of views of the general features of the locality, and of the 

 condition of the ruins. 



t These measures are given by Herr F. Adler in " Die Ausgrabungen zu 

 Olympia," by Curtius, Adler, and Hirschfeld, Berlin, 1876, p. 20. 



