Page:A history of architecture on the comparative method for the student, craftsman, and amateur.djvu/139

 GREEK ARCHITECTURE. 8l pediment is only 23 feet. The sculptured frieze, 18 inches high, originally consisting of fourteen slabs (four are in the British Museum), is in high relief. The marble balustrade mentioned above was 3 feet 2 inches high, enriched with very fine sculpture dating from b.c. 425-400. The Temple was removed by the Turks in 1684 and built into a battery on the Acropolis. In 1836, on the destruction of the battery, the materials were recovered and reconstructed by the architects Ross, Schaubert, and Hansen. The Erechtheion, Athens (b.c 420-393) (Nos. 17, 18 m, 29 e, F, G, and 30), of which Mnesicles was the architect, is situated on the Acropolis, north of the Parthenon, and was erected on the site of an older temple burnt by the Persians in B.C. 480. The temple was regarded with special veneration by the Athenians, as it contained the memorials of the religion of the State, viz. : — the sacred olive tree that Athena called forth in her contest with Poseidon, the salt well produced by the trident of Poseidon, the tomb of Cecrops, the olive wood Xoanon (primitive statue) of Athena Polias, the golden lamp of Callimachus, and other curiosi- ties and spoils from the Persians. It is an interesting example of unusual and irregular planning, due to its sloping site and the fact that it consisted of three distinct shrines. The distribution of the interior, which measures 61 feet 3 inches by 31 feet 6 inches, is still a matter of conjecture. It has no side colonnades, hence it is called " apteral." The eastern portion was appropriated to the shrine of Athena Polias (guardian of the city), the western portion to those of Erechtheus and Poseidon, the Pandroseion being pro- bably included within the precincts to the west of the temple proper. There are three porticos of different designs : an eastern Ionic hexastyle portico, a northern Ionic tetrastyle portico, and a southern Caryatid portico. The eastern portico probably formed the principal entrance. The columns are two diameters apart (systyle), the northern one being now in the British Museum. The northern portico gave access to the western cella ; it is on a level 10 feet lower than the eastern one, from which it is approached by a wide flight of steps on the north. It projects westward of the main building, and its columns, three diameters apart (diastyle), are arranged in a manner unknown in other Greek buildings. They are 2 feet g inches in diameter and 25 feet high. The doorway in this portico is of the finest workmanship (No. 37) with carved consoles and architrave enrichments. The southern or Caryatid portico (as it is called) was probably not an entrance, but a raised " tribune," as it had only a small entrance on its eastern side, whence the lower level of the western cella was reached by means of steps (No. 30 d, f). It has six sculptured draped female figures, 7 feet 9 inches high (Nos. 30 g and 42 g), similarly spaced to the columns of the northern portico, but restin<4: on a solid marble wall about 8 feet above the level of the