PERSEPOLIS 



PERSEUS 



63 



with the Mountain of the Tombs (Rachmed), also 

 called Takht-i-Jamshid or the throne of Jamshid, 

 after a fabulous king, the reputed founder of Per- 

 sepolis. The next in order is Naksh-i-Kustam, 

 to the north-west, with its tombs; and the last, 

 the building called the Haram of Jamshid. The 

 most important is the first group, situated on a 

 vast terrace of cyclopean masonry at the foot of 

 a lofty mountain-range. The extent of this terrace 

 is about 1500 feet north by south and about 800 

 east by west, and it was, according to Diodorus 

 Siculus, once surrounded by a triple wall of 16, 32, 

 and 60 cubits respectively in height. The whole 

 internal area is further divided into three terraces 

 the lowest towards the south ; the central lieing 

 800 feet souare and rising 45 feet above the plain, 

 and the tliird, the northern, about 550 feet long 

 and 35 feet high. No traces of structures are to 

 be found on the lowest platform ; on the northern, 

 only the so-called 'Propyliea' of Xerxes; but the 

 central platform seems to have been occupied by 

 the foremost structures, which 

 again, however, do not all appear 

 to have stood on the same level. 

 There are distinguished here the 

 so-called 'Great Hall of Xerxes' 

 (called Cliehel - Mimir by way of 

 eminence), the Palace of Xerxes, 

 and the Palace of Darius. The 

 stone used for the buildings is 

 dark gray marble, cut into gigantic 

 square blocks, and in many cases 

 exquisitely polished. The ascent 

 from the plain to the great north- 

 ern platform is formed by two 

 double (lights, the steps of which 

 are nearly 22 feet wide, 3J inches 

 lii^'li. and 15 inches in the tread, 

 so that many travellers have been 

 able to ascend them on horseback. 

 What are called the Propyliea of 

 Xerxes on this platform are two 

 masses of stone-work, which prob- 

 ably formed an entrance-gateway 

 for foot passengers, paved with 

 gigantic slalw of polished marble. 

 Portals still standing l>ear figures 

 of animals 15 feet high, closely 

 resembling the Assyrian bulls of 

 Nineveh. The building itself, 

 conjectured to have been a hall 

 82 feet square, is, according to 

 the cuneiform inscriptions still extant, the work 

 oi Xerxes. 



An expanse of 162 feet divides this platform from 

 the central one, which still bears many of those 

 eoltunns of the Hall of Xerxes from which the 

 ruins have taken their name. The staircase lead- 

 ing up to the Chehel -Minar or Forty Pillars is, 

 if possible, still more magnificent than the first; 

 and the walls are more superbly decorated with 

 sculptures, representing colossal warriors with 

 spears, gigantic bulls, combats with wild l>easts, 

 processions, and the like ; while broken capitals, 

 slmfls, pillars, and countless fragments of build- 

 iris's, with cuneiform inscriptions, cover the whole 

 vast space of this platform, 350 feet from north to 

 -on th and 380 from east to west. The Great Hall 

 of X'erves, perhaps the largest and most magnifi- 

 cent structure the world has ever seen, is com- 

 puted to have lieen a rectangle of about 300 to 350 

 feet, and to have consequently covered 105,000 

 ire feet or 2$ acres. The pillars were arranged 

 in four divisions, consisting of a centre group six 

 leep every way, and an advance body of twelve 

 in two ranks, the same number flanking the centre. 

 Fifteen columns are all that now remain of the 

 nuirtber. Their form is very beautiful. Their 



height is 60 feet, the circumference of the shaft 16, 

 the length from the capital to the torus 44 feet. 

 The shaft is finely Huted in fifty-two divisions ; at 

 its lower extremity begin a cincture and a torus, 

 the first 2 inches in depth and the latter 1 foot, 

 from whence devolves the pedestal, shaped like the 

 cup and leaves of the pendent lotus, the capitals 

 having l>een surmounted by the double semi-bull. 

 Behind the Hall of Xerxes was the so-called Hall 

 of Hundred Columns, to the south of which are 

 indications of another structure, which Fergusson 

 terms the Central Edifice. Next along the west 

 front stood the Palace of Darius, and to the south 

 the Palace of Xerxes, measuring about 86 feet 

 square, similarly decorated and of similar grand 

 proportions. 



For a more minute description, see the travels of 

 Niebuhr, Ker Porter, Rich, &c. ; Fergusson's Palaett 

 of Nineveh and Persfpolis Restored, Vaux's Nineveh 

 and Persepolis, Rawlinson's Fire Great Monarchies, 

 Madame Dieulafoy's La ferte et La Susianc, M. Dieu- 



Oreat Staircase to Northern Platform, and Propylaea of Xerxes ; 

 Great Hall of Xerxes and Palace of Darius in the distance. 



lafoy's L'Art Antique de la Perse, and above all, for 

 detailed photographic views, Penepolis, by F. Stolze and 

 Th. Nbldeke (Berlin, 1882). See also CYRUS, DARIUS, 

 XERXES, CUNEIFORM, and PERSIAN ARCHITECTURE. 



Persons, in Greek Mythology, the son of Zeus 

 and Danae (q.v.) and grandson of Acrisius. He 

 was brought up at Seriphos, one of the Cyclades, 

 where Polydectes reigned, who, wishing for private 

 reasons to get rid of him, sent him when yet a 

 youth to bring the head of the Gorgon Medusa, on 

 the pretence that he wanted to present it as a 

 bridal gift to Hippodamia. Perseus set forth under 

 the protection of Athena and Hermes, the former 

 of whom gave him a mirror by which he could see 

 the monster without looking at her (for that would 

 have changed him into stone), the latter a sickle, 

 while the nymphs provided him with winged san- 

 dals and a helmet of Hades or invisible cap. After 

 numerous wonderful adventures he reached the 

 abode of Medusa, who dwelt near Tartessus, on 

 the coast of the ocean, and succeeded in cutting 

 off her head, which he put into a bag ami carried 

 off. On his return he visited Ethiopia, where he 

 liberated and married Andromeda (q.v.), by whom 

 he subsequently had a numerous family, and arrived 

 at Seriphos in time to rescue his mother from the 



