ON THE TOPOGRAPHY OF ATHENS. 



493 



Whatever may be the decision of grammarians in regard to the 

 literal meaning of this expression of Herodotus, it is certain that the 

 latter interpretation of it is more consistent than the former with the 

 general sense of the passage ; for how, when the army of Xerxes is 

 stated to be encamped directly in front of the entrance to the Acropolis, 

 and so near it as the Areopagus, could this end of the citadel be 

 supposed to be so negligently guarded as to be taken by surprise in 

 the way here described ? 



We may be allowed therefore to place that part of the precipice, 

 by which the Persians ascended, at the eastern end of the platform of 

 the Acropolis, where in fact Pausanias evidently understood it to have 

 been ; the Prytaneum, which he says, was not far from it, being un- 

 questionably on this side of the hill. It follows, that what Herodotus 

 says of a temple, 'Upov of Aglaurus, must be applied to the Ttphog of 

 that personage, which Pausanias places on the eastern declivity of 

 the hill. 



We come next to the Prytaneum, which was hard by, ttXhtiov h 

 U^vTuvBtov eg-n; and on the lower slope of the hill ; for according to 

 Pausanias, you passed from hence into the lower part of the city, 

 evrev^ev icvcriv eg to, Kara rr,q ttoXbuc, to the temple of Serapis; near which, 

 he adds, was the temple of Ilythya.* All this is perfectly consistent 

 with the natural form of the ground on the eastern side of the 

 Acropolis, where the soil, as I was informed, had accumulated to the 

 depth of 18 feet. 



The two last-mentioned temples must have been in the way from 

 the Prytaneum towards the Olympium, to which we are now con- 

 ducted. Here Pausanias seems not to distinguish between an 'Iepoi* 

 and a N»oc, for he applies both terms to this temple. Within its 

 peribolus, he says, were a temple of Saturn and Rhea, and a Te^cvog 

 of this goddess, who is styled Olympia. All the particulars which 

 he, as well as Vitruvius, give us of this temple, impress us with a 



* Vide the distinction which Pausanias makes between this goddess and Latona. 



