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 ATHENS

730

side was found to slope outwards to a depth of 14 metres. In the lower strata were discovered the remnants of Cyclopean or pre-historic architecture already mentioned. The foundations of the Parthenon were now for the first time completely investigated, as well as the area of the interior. The huge substruction, probably built T ,e Ja under administration soon after the enon. pers-anCimon’s wa^ -g 250 feet long by 105 feet broad ; it was designed for a longer and somewhat narrower building than the Parthenon, the stylobate of which measures 228 feet by 101. This earlier or Cimonian temple, which was never finished, was of Pentelic marble, with eight columns at the ends and nineteen at the sides; only some of the lower drums, which are unfluted, have been found, and there is nothing to show that an upper portion ever existed. With regard to the interior of the 9. Hand rose ion 10. Erechtheum

1. Cave of Apollo 2. Cave of Pan 3. Pinakotheka 4. Roman Cistern 5. Propylaea clepsydra

6. Roman Gateway 7. Temple of Nike 8. Precinct of the ne Brauronian Artemis

Parthenon much controversy exists; the western compartment, which corresponds to the opisthodomos in other temples, appears to have been the HapOevuv proper or “maiden’s chamber,” and like the eastern compartment, or “ Hekatompedon,” to have given its name to the whole building; the arrangement and interpretation of the sculptures have also been a fertile theme for discussion. For details regarding the Parthenon and the older temple the special authorities enumerated in the bibliography should be consulted. In the deep interval between the substruction and the south wall of the Acropolis ran a long retaining-wall constructed for temporary use during the building of the temple. The lower portion of the substruction is believed by Penrose to have been the foundation of the ancient “Hekatompedon ” destroyed by the Persians. The name was subsequently applied to the cella or eastern chamber of the Parthenon, which is exactly 100 feet

°f' Scale of feet 200 Plan of the Acropolis, Athens. (By permission of the Hellenic Society.) Cyclopean Masonry.

long, and also became a popular designation of the temple itself. The ancient Hekatompedon, however, may in all probability be identified with an early temple, also 100 feet The Old long, the foundations of which were pointed out temple of in 1885 by Dorpfeld on the ground immediately thena. adjoining the south side of the Erechtheion. On this spot was apparently the primitive sanctuary of Athena, the rich temple (ttluv vr]6s) of Homer, in which the cult of the goddess was associated with that of Erechtheus (II. ii. 549); the Homeric temple is identified by Eurtwangler with the “compact house of Erechtheus” (Od. vii. 81), which, he holds, was not a royal palace but a place of worship, and traces of it may perhaps be recognized in tlm fragments of prehistoric masonry enclosed by the existing foundations. The foundations seem to belong to the 7 th century, except those of the colonnade, which was added possibly by Pisistratus. According to Dorpfeld, this was the “ old temple ” of Athena Polias, frequently mentioned in literature and inscriptions, in which was housed the most holy image or £davov of’ the goddess which fell from heaven; it was burnt, but not completely destroyed, during the Persian war, and some of

its external decorations were afterwards built into the north wall of the Acropolis; it was subsequently restored, he thinks, with or without its colonnade—in the former case a portion of the peristyle must have been removed when the Erechtheion was built so as to make room for the porch of the maidens ; the building was set on fire in 406 b.c. (Xen. Hell. i. 6. 1), and the conflagration is identical with that mentioned by Demosthenes (In Timocr. xxiv. 155); its opisthodomos served as the Athenian treasury in the fifth and fourth centuries; the temple is the dpyafos veto? rijs HoAtdSo? mentioned by Strabo (ix. 16), and it was still standing in the time of Pausanias, who applies to it the same name (i. 27. 3). The conclusion that the foundations are those of an old temple burnt by the Persians has been generally accepted, but other portions of Dorpfeld’s theory—more especially his assumption that the temple was restored after the Persian war—have provoked much controversy. Thus J. G. Frazer maintains the hitherto current theory that the earliest temple of Athena and Erechtheus was on the site of the Erechtheion ; that the Erechtheion inherited the name apyolos vew? from its predecessor, and that the “opisthodomos” in which the treasures were kept was the west chamber of