a 



ATHENa 



ATI! 



in the Acropolis during the last few years, many fragments of the 

 architecture and sculpture of the Parthenon have been discovered, and 

 several of the columns have been restored to their former positions. 

 The whole building has also been carefully repaired, so as to check as 

 far as poasible it* further decay. Quite recently the edifice has been 

 measured with mathematical exactness by Mr. r . C. Penrose, in order 

 to determine the question of the use of certain refined curves by the 

 Grecian architect*, in what are generally regarded as the straight lines 

 of their buildings ; and the result has been to establish that there was 

 in their finest works a systematic departure from the ordinary recti- 

 linear motfe of construction, and that this was founded on the most 

 refined optical laws. Thus the steps and the entablature of the Par- 

 thenon are convex curves, but of such exquisite proportions as to 

 appear to be straight lines to a spectator standing in front of the 

 building. (Penrose's ' Investigation of the Principles of Athenian 

 Architecture.') The position of this temple is indicated in the plan of 

 the Acropolis : it is in 37 58' 2" N. lat, 23 43' 37" E. long, (i 

 W. H. Smyth.) 



Of the other remains on the Acropolis the next in importance and 

 in interest is the temple dedicated to Erechtheus and known as the 

 Erechtheium, a building connected with the earliest legends of Attica, 

 and the most revered of the sanctuaries of Athens. The site of the 

 edifice and its general form are denoted on the plan : itg details will 

 be treated more particularly in a separate article. A temple stood on 

 the site of the Erechtheium from the earliest period in the history of 

 Athens, but the constriction of the present bunding was not com- 

 pleted till about B.C. 395. In form this differed from all other 

 Grecian temples. It had the usual oblong form, but instead of having 

 like most of the temples a portico at each end, it had a portico at the 

 east end only ; while at the western end was a high basement upon 

 which were four Ionic columns in anta> supporting an entablature, 

 and porticoes projected from each side, forming a sort of transept 

 This arrangement was due partly to the irregularity of the ground, 

 but mainly to the necessity of inclosing certain objects of religious 

 veneration. The great eastern portico, which formed the p< 

 entrance, consisted of six Ionic columns in a line, five of which are 

 till standing. The northern portico also consisted of six Ionic 

 columns, but only four in the front line : these columns were about 

 three feet higher than those in the eastern portico. The southern 

 portico was quite different in character from the others. Its roof 

 was supported by six caryatides, or figures of females in long drapery, 

 which stand on an elevated basement This portico has been copied 

 in St. Pancras Church, New Road, London, by Mr. Inwood, who also 

 published a work on the Erechtheium. Four of the caryatides were 

 standing a few yean back ; a fifth had been removed to the British 

 Museum ; and the sixth was missing. But in the course of the exca- 

 vations the ipimong statue was discovered, and M. Piscatory, the then 

 French Ambassador at Athens, in 1846, caused a new statue to be 

 carved in the place of that in the British Museum, and the whole ol 

 this portico which was in a very ruinous condition to be carefully 

 restored. The interior of the building consisted of the Temple of 

 Athena Polias, in which were the altars of Zeus Hypatos, Poseidon- 

 Erechtheus, Ac., the palladium or statue of the goddess, the statue ol 

 Hermes, chair of Dtcdalu*, and golden lamp of Callimachun ; tin 

 Pandnweium, in which were the statue of Pandrosus, the sacred olive 

 tree, /to. The northern portico was the entrance to the Pandroseium 

 and covered the Salt Well and the mark left in the rock by the 

 trident of Poseidon. The southern portico was not an entrance to 

 the Erechtheium, but rather a sort of ante-chapel, and appears to have 

 served as the Cecropium, or Tomb of Cecropx, the exact position o 

 which has been a good deal discussed. In front of the eastern portia 

 was an altar of Zeus Hypatos. The Erechtheium stood in a t. 

 or sacred inclosurc. which was separated from the rest of the A 

 by a wall. The determination of the position of the various objects 

 contained in the Erechtheium in chiefly to be ascribed to M. Tetkz, a 

 French architect who has studied the Erechtheium with the same close 

 and minute attention which Mr. Penrose has given to the Parthenon. 

 The result of his investigations were published by M. Tetoz in th 

 ' Revue Archcologiquo ' for 1851. The remains of the Erechtheiim 

 are in a very ruinous condition. In the storm of October 26th, 1862 

 three of the columns then standing on the western side of the Erech 

 theium were thrown down and broken. 



Besides these and the smaller temples of Artemis Brauronia, and o 

 Rome and Augustus, which adorned the Acropolis, it contained a pro 

 digious number of statues and other works of art some of colossa 

 ice, and others distinguished for their exquisite beauty. The bronze 

 colossal statue of Minerva the Defender ('Ai|ra rip<Wx<>), the work 

 of Phidias, i* probably the statue represented on the coin which show 

 the steps of the Acropolis. The spear and helmet of this colossal 

 figure (Pausan. L 28) were visible toweling above the Acropolis tt 

 those who approached Athens by sea, as soon as they had romidc, 

 Cap* Stinium. A bronze statue of the Trajan Horse stood near the 

 temple of Artemis ; and near the PropyUca stood a brazen Quadriga, 

 erected from the spoil* of Chalci*. 



The Propybea formed the defence of the western Aero 



polis ; the rest wan surrounded by a strong wall That on tt 

 side was called the Pelaagicum, a term also applied to that part of th 

 city immediately below it, and by Herodotus (v. 64) to the whole 



.cropolis. According to tradition, the north wall was built by the 

 elasgi : possibly the existing wall nrw be part of this original con- 

 traction, which in ;ill probability is the oldest existing monument 

 f Athens. The south wall was built, or probably rebuilt, and 

 strengthened by Cimon the son <( Miltiodrs, from whom it took the 

 name of Cimoniuui ; in Home parte it is 60 feet high. Near this south 

 wall, as Pausanias tells i ; u the Gigantomachia, a represen- 



ation of the wars of the giants, the battle between the Athenians and 

 le Amazons, the battle of Marathon, and the defeat of the Caul* in 

 lyua by King Attaint) I. Of the Hellenic walla large portions still 

 remain, but they have been to a great extent encased in the medueval 

 work ; several buttresses of medueval date, together with portions of 

 "'urkish towers, are also standing. Besides the buildings and objects 

 hich are mentioned by Pausaniaa numerous substructions and 

 ragmenta of works of art have been discovered, which are yet 

 nexplained. 



The authorities which may be consulted for the topography "f 

 ancient Athens are very numerous. The ancient writers are Pausanias 

 book i.) ; Strabo (book ix.) : with the scattered passages of other 

 Jreck and Latin writers. The moot important recent works are 

 jeake's 'Topography of .\ih.n-.' 2nd ed., 1841; r'orchhim> 

 Topographic von Athun' in ' Kiclcr I'hilologischeStudirn,' Kir!, 1841; 

 'enrose's 'Investigation of the Principles of Athenian Arohitec- 

 ure,' 1851; K " Midler's art 'Attika' in Ersch and Gru 

 Encyclopiidie ' (vol. vi.), translated by Lockhart. IMI'I : Wordsworth's 

 Athens and Attica,' 1836, and 'Pictorial Greece,' new ed. 1853; 

 iure'a ' Tour in Greece,' 1842 ; Prof. H. N. I'lrich's Topography of 

 he Harbours and Long Walls of Athena ' [ol Xi^tcVci itai TO fuucpa TIXI 

 ur 'AMivar, Athens, 1843], translated from the modern Grc. 

 !. P. Colquhoun, London, 1847 ; Curtius' ' De Portibua Atheiiarnm,' 

 842, and ' Die Akropolis von Athen,' Berlin, 1843 ; the complete and 

 critical survey of all that has been done in modern times for the 

 Topography of Athens by A. Westerniann, in Uhrlmch.-r 



Ur Philologue und Podagogik' (vol. xli.) ; and the elaborate : 

 Athenao ' by Dr. W. Smith in the ' Dictionary of Greek and Roman 

 Geography,' 1852, in which most of the above and many other autho- 

 rities are referred to. The following must also be examined by the 

 student : Stuart and Revolt's 'Antiquities of Athens ;' the ' Travels 

 in Greece,' of Spon 1678, Wheler 1682, Chandler 1769, and Dodwell 

 1819; Wilkins's ' Atheniensia ; ' ' Klgin Marbles,' published by the 

 Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge ; Hoss, Schaubert, and 

 Sansen's 'Der Tempel der Mk. AptvroH, 1 Berlin, 1839; Bockh's 

 ' Public Economy of Athena,' and the works incidentally referred to in 

 ;he course of this article. 



With regard to the modern city, dating from 1834, the commence- 

 ment of King Otho's government, it can be considered at present as 

 mh in a state of formation. It is the capital of the modern kingdom 

 of Greece ; the seat of the government and residence of the sovereign ; 

 the seat of the archbishop of Attica ; and of a university. The p< >|>u 

 lation in 1845 was estimated at 27,800, including the garrison, which 

 numbered 1500. The modern city is built chiefly on the west and 

 north-west sides of the Acropolis ; the ancient Agora being very nearly 

 in its midst Hardly anything amounting to description is as yet to 

 be collected respecting it The precautionary measures which ought 

 to have been adopted in the first instance appear to have been ne- 

 glected, and houses were allowed to be erected too precipitately, with 

 regard only to immediate convenience, and with scarcely any 

 deration for the future growth, regularity, and beauty of the city ; 

 consequently houses of a very inferior class have got possession of 

 some of the best or what ought to have been rendered the best 

 parts of the town. However, as, though many of them are showy 

 structurex, they are not of vrry durable or costly construction, being 

 for the most part merely of lath and plaster, they will probably 

 in a few years begin to give place to other*. In the meanwhile some 

 of the more recently erected habitations ami othi -r buildings are 

 spoken of as being of a very superior kind, such OB would be an 

 ornament to any capital in Eumpo ; l>nt c\m it dc- r\ idly bestowed 

 such commendation -on general and vague to afford an. 



of their Ktyl !-ir merit*. 



H in the same with hat public vo hitherto 



been erected. Wo can Hi. cnumri-:it.- tl 'in. <>r rather 



only give the names of the principal ones, such an the mint, the 

 military hospital, two barrack*, the royal stable*, il .lace, a 



university, a cathedral, a church, thr chamber of r< , > *, and 



a theatre. It wax at lir.-t propon. -.1 ih.-it the palace should be erected 

 on the Acropolis, at its oast end, and along the south Hide, nearly 

 as far as the Parthenon, and designs for the purp- ule by 



S. hinkcl, who afterwards published them in his ' llohere Bauknnst;' 

 but the idea was abandoned, probably on account of the difficulty 

 of forming a u!> mmodious ascent for carriages. Other 



designs for a different situation were then prepared by the great 



they also were 1 'id H 



third aade by Giirtm-r, another very eminent Munich 



architect Gartner's design* were finally adopted, and 1 1 ; > 

 of the new structure was laid in March 1836 on quite a different sito 



e at first proposed, namely, mi the east of tic 



and at that Hermes Street It is now fiiiinhcd, 



but though of considerable size, being 300 feet long by 280 feet wide, 



