136 ISLAND OF PAROS. 
example, the Temple of Ceres at Eleusis,} were 
executed in the marble of Pentelicus. But the 
finest Grecian sculpture which has been pre- 
served to the present time is generally of Parian 
marble. The Medictan J^enus, the Belvidere 
Apollo, the Mutinous, and many other celebrated 
works, are of Parian marble ; notwithstanding 
the preference which was so early bestowed 
upon the Pentelican : and this is easily ex- 
plained. While the works executed in Parian 
marble retain, with all the delicate softness of 
wax, the mild lustre even of their original 
polish, those which were finished in Pentelican 
marble have been decomposed, and sometimes 
exhibit a surface as earthy and as rude as com- 
mon limestone. This is principally owing to 
veins of extraneous substances which intersect 
the Pentelican quarries, and which appear more 
or less in all the works executed in this kind of 
marble. The fracture of Pentelican marble is 
sometimes splintery, and partakes of the foliated 
texture of the schistus which traverses it ; con- 
sequently, it has a tendency to exfoliate, like 
cipolino, by spontaneous decomposition. 
We descended into the quarry, whence not a 
single block of marble has been removed since 
the island fell into the hands of the Turks : and 
perhaps it was abandoned long before ; as 
