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On the Orientation of Greek Temples. 



Metonic cycle. It is therefore necessary to consult lunar tables to 

 see in what year or years 7 Pyanepsion would agree with October 6, 

 and the nearer to 470 B.C. this can be, the better it would also agree 

 with the orientation date. 



The first Attic month was Hecatombaion having thirty days, in 



general agreement with July. 

 Then Metageitnion having twenty -nine days, in general agreement 



with August. 



Then Boedromion having thirty days, in general agreement with 

 September. 



After which Pyanepsion. 



The first three months with seven days of Pyanepsion numbers 

 ninety-six days. Twenty-nine days of July with August, September 

 and six of October also give ninety-six days. It follows that when the 

 first of Hecatombaion agrees with the third of July, the seventh of 

 Pyanepsion will represent the sixth of October. 



This would have happened in 466 B.C. and not again until 447. 

 The year 466, about three years subsequent to the recovery of the 

 Theseian relics, would have given time for the building of the Naos 

 of the temple, if not for its final completion ; so that it may well have 

 been the year of its dedication. On that year the astronomical com- 

 bination would have been exact (not but that on any year of the cycle 

 the rising sun would have nearly answered the purpose of the 

 Thesea celebration, though not quite so perfectly). Of the two years 

 above named which would have satisfied this condition, the earlier 

 seems preferable, firstly on architectural grounds (derived chiefly from 

 the greater spread of the capital of the column, compared with that of 

 the Parthenon, which was commenced about the later of the two 

 dates), and secondly, there is no record of Pericles, who was at that 

 time the guiding spirit in Athens, having built a great temple in the 

 lower city. If the earlier date be correct, the conclusion appears in- 

 evitable both from its combination with the Thesian relics in 469, and 

 from its connection with the Thesea year after year, that the temple 

 has been rightly named by tradition. 



The orientation of the new Erechtheum corresponds with two of the 

 principal Attic festivals, and also offers a suggestion of the exact year 

 of its foundation or dedication. This is not drawn from the vernal 

 sunrise, of which I have given elements in combination with a star ; 

 but from the autumnal return of the sun to the same declination, 

 heralded by a Pegasi, which took place, touching the northern edge of 

 the eastern incolumnium on September 2, and parallel with the axis 

 on September 7. In the year 447, when the 2nd of September would 

 have agreed with the 2nd of Boedromion, and the 7th September 

 with the 7th of the same month; the former date would have 



