SCULPTURE AND ARCHITECTURE OP ATHENS. 55? 



and the women not only condemned to the most servile employ, 

 meats, but those of rank and family forced in this abject condition, 

 to wear their ancient dresses and ornaments. In this state they 

 are here exhibited. The drapery is fine, the air of each figure is 

 braided in a different manner, and a kind of diadem they wear on 

 their head forms the capital. Besides drawings and mouldings of 

 all these particulars, Lord Elgin has brought to England one of 

 the original statues. The Lacedaemonians had used a species of 

 vengeance similar to that above mentioned in constructing the Per- 

 sian Portico, which they had erected at Sparta, in honour of their 

 victory over the forces of Mardonius at Plataea : placing statues of 

 Persians in their rich oriental dresses, instead of columns, to sup. 

 port the entablature. 



The architects hav also made a ground plan of the Acropolis, in 

 which they hare not only inserted all the existing monuments, but 

 have likewise added those, the position of which could be ascer. 

 tained from traces of their foundations. Among these are the tern, 

 pie and cave of Pan ; to whom the Athenians thought themselves 

 so much indebted for the success of the battle of Marathon, as to 

 TOW him a temple. Ail traces of it are now nearly obliterated ; 

 as well as of that of Aglauros, who devoted herself to death to save 

 her country. Here the young citizens of Athens received their 

 first armour, enrolled their names, and swore to fight to the last 

 for the liberties of their country. Near this spot the Persians 

 scaled the wall of the citadel, when Themistocles had retired wijth 

 the remainder of the army, and the whole Athenian navy, to 

 Salamis. 



The remains of the original wall may still be traced in the midst 

 of the Turkish and Venetian additions, and they are distinguishable 

 by three modes of construction at very remarkable epochs, the 

 Pelasgic, the Cecropian, and that of the age of Cimon and Pericles; 

 It was at this last brilliant period, that the Acropolis, in its whole 

 extent, was contemplated with the same veneration as a consecrated 

 temple ; consistent with which sublime conception, the Athenians 

 crowned its lofty walls with an entablature of grand proportions 

 surmounted by a cornice. Some of the massy triglyphs and mo. 

 tules still remain in their original position, and producing a most 

 imposing effect. 



The ancient walls of the city of Athens, as they existed in the 

 Peloponnesian war, have been traced by Lord Elgin's artists im 



