FLOOR.] 
HELLENIC ROOM. 
77 
At the North end of the Room are some remains taken from 
the Erechtheum, a temple erected on the Acropolis of Athens, 
towards the close of the fifth century before Christ, and de- 
dicated jointly to Minerva Polias, and Pandrosos, daughter of 
Cecrops. It is the purest and most characteristic monument 
of the Ionic order of architecture remaining in ancient Greece. 
Its form is oblong, with a hexastyle portico at the East end, 
and two unusual additions at its North-west and South-west 
angles ; the one a tetrastyle portico, the other a porch sup- 
ported by six Caryatides, a structure which has been imitated 
as a decoration to St. Pancras Church, London. 
The remains of the temple which are in the British Museum consist 
of one of the Caryatides, and, by its side, the column which originally 
stood at the Northern angle of the Eastern portico ; on the West side of 
the room is a considerable portion of the frieze from the wall imme- 
diately behind the same column ; and near this, a large piece of the 
architrave, and a smaller fragment of the cornice, from other parts of 
the building, an ornamental coffer from the ceiling of the interior, 
and several minor fragments, mouldings, &c. 
Towards the North end of the room are the capital of a Doric 
column, and a fragment of the architrave, from the Propylaea, a build- 
ing which stood at the entrance to the Athenian Acropolis. 
Facing the Eastern door is a colossal draped statue of Bacchus, 
seated, which formerly surmounted the choragic monument of Thrasyllus, 
at Athens, erected B.C. 320. 
Attached to the Eastern wall are some casts of the bas-reliefs which 
decorated the frieze of the choragic monument of Lysicrates, erected 
B.C. 334. They represent Bacchus punishing the Tyrrhenian pirates. 
Near these are placed some miscellaneous fragments of architecture 
from various buildings in Athens and Attica. 
The door on the East side leads into the 
HELLENIC ROOM. 
The marbles exhibited in this room have been brought, at 
different times, from various parts of Greece and its colonies, 
exclusive of Athens and Attica. With them are also exhibited 
plaster casts of some important monuments of the period 
preceding that of the marbles. The description commences 
with the casts. 
The earliest and rudest development of the art is represented by 
four casts, attached to the Western wall, which were taken from 
