ARCHITECTURAL INSCRIPTION. 595 



Of the coping * over the portico opposite the Cecropium the 

 dovetails f and cramps are not placed ; it was necessary that III 

 ceiling stones ' supported by the statues |,' should have the 

 upper surface tooled, thirteen feet in length, five feet in width. 

 It is necessary that the echinus molding §," above the epistylia, 

 should be finished. 



From Photius we learn that the Ovrj^ooi were 01 ispcij 01 inrep ixKaiv duovrs; roi; SeoIc. Some 

 of the MSS. of tliis author write the word fluijxdoi ; that of Bcckius, quoted by Hermarij 

 gives it witli tiie ^. 



* The swopoplx is the inclined and outward surface of the roof. This portico is covered 

 with four blocks of marble extending from the south wall of the temple over the epistylia 

 or marble beams, supported by the statues. The cornice of the portico is worked in these 

 blocks. The gentle inclination given to the upper surface was for the purpose of throwing 

 off' the rain. The under surface of the same blocks formed the ceiling; it is divided into 

 pannels deeply sunk in the marble. 



The numerals of the inscription make the number of blocks to be tooled three. Each 

 block measures twelve feet ten inches in length: they are not all of equal width; two of 

 them exceed, and two of them fall something short of five feet. The width of the four 

 together is somewhat less than twenty feet six inches, so that they may be said to average 

 five feet one inch and a half. 



f S^ijxiVxoi were small tenons of metal in the shape of two wedges, united at the points. 

 Vitruvius calls them securiculcc, iv. ?• They were likewise termed yoi/.<poi. 



X The word KOPON is one of those which Chandler was at a loss to explain, under the 

 impression that its nominative nmst be xo'ps. It here alludes to the statues of females, 

 which, in this portico, supply the place of columns. By the modern Greeks they are still 

 called xogil^ix, the damsels. 



§ KaA;^r), the word here applied to the ornament over the epistylia of the stylagalmatic 

 portico, signifies the shellfish which produced the scarlet dye of the Tyrians. KaKy^r) yip 

 lo-Tiv 6 KQ^Koi Tr\i tsaptpvpai. Schoi. in Hesych. Hfsychius likewise explains it to denote 

 some part of the capital of a column, filpo; xs^aX^; xiovoj : that part probably of the Ionic 

 capital which is now termed the ovnl:\ Vitruvius calls this molding the Ec/i/mis, because, 

 perhaps, it was a type of the shell i\ h of the same name ; the shell and its spines being 

 represented in a continued ornament, to which has been given the vulgir name of Egg 

 and dart. 



It was the practice of the Greeks to paint with red the moldings of the cornice and 

 other parts of the building. This has been done in the Propylaea at Athens. At Rham- 

 nus the cornice of the temple of Nemesis has been thus ornamented all around. The 

 parts tinted with red stand out beyond the rest, the colour having resisted the corrosion 

 which attacked the natural surface. A solution of dragon's blood is found to harden the 

 surface of marble to such a degree, that if a piece partially stained be exposed to the action 



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