ATHENS. 295 
that the structures of Pericles possessed a pecu- CHAP. 
liar and unparalleled excellence of character ; - < < 
"a certain freshness bloomed upon them, and pre- 
served their faces uninjured, as if they possessed 
a never-fading spirit, and had a soul insensible to 
age." In the description given of the THESEUM 
by Pausanias, he mentions TPAOAI among the 
decorations 4 ; and Chandler gives this word as 
he found it in the original text of that author 5 , 
without rendering it, as some have done, 
"pictures," or "painted representations." The 
very subjects of those representations corre- 
spond with the remaining sculptures upon the 
metopes and frieze ; and Mycon, who is men- 
tioned as the artist, was a statuary as well as 
a painter. The history of the hero, to whose 
memory this magnificent building was erected, 
resembles, as to its probability, one of the 
extravagant fictions of the " Arabian Nights ," 
and may be regarded as upon an equality with 
the " Voyages of Sinbad" or the " Story of 
Aladdin.'" That it was originally a tomb, like 
all other Grecian temples, can admit of no doubt : 
eight hundred years had elapsed, when Cimon 
(4) Tc&.} S lift, x. r. X. Tty^ttfreu ai it <ru rev Qnfiuf <sgi xxi i 
Kiy-rvgA xz] n ^.KifiSai [&&%*. Pa.usa.nifB Allied, c. 17. j>. 40. Lips. 1696. 
(5) Trav. in Greece, c. 14. p. 71. O.rf. 1776. 
