Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume I Part 1.djvu/305

 ATHEHAE. eastward of the grotto of Pan. [See above, p. 266, b.] It is said to have been the spot from which Aglaurus  and her sister Herse threw themselves from the rocks  of the Acropolis, upon opening the chest which contained Erichthonios (Paus. i. 18. § 2); and it was also near this sanctuary that the Persians gained access to the Acropolis. (Herod.. viii. 35.) We learn from Pausanias that the cave was situated at the steepest part of the hill, which is also described by Herodotus as precipitous at this point. At the distance of about 60 yards to the east of the cave of Pan and at the base of a precipice is a remarkable cavern; and 40 yards further in the same direction, there is  another cave much smaller, immediately under the wall of the citadel, and only a few yards distant from the northern portico of the Erechtheium. In the latter there are thirteen niches, which prove it to have been a consecrated spot; and there can be no doubt that the larger was also a sanctuary, though niches are not equally apparent, in consequence of the surface of the rock not being so well preserved as in the smaller cavern. One of these two caves was undoubtedly the Aglaurium. Leake conjectured, from the account of a stratagem of Peisistratus, that there was a communication from the Aglaurium to the platform of the citadel. After Peisistratus had seized the citadel, his next object was to disarm the Athenians. With this view he summoned the Athenians in the Anaceium, which was to the west of the Aglaurium. While he was addressing them, they laid down their arms, which were seized by the partisans of Peisistratus and conveyed into the Aglaurium, apparently with the view of being carried into the citadel itself. (Polyaen. i. 21.) Now this conjecture has been confirmed by the discovery of an ancient flight of stairs near the Erechtheium, leading into the cavern, and from thence passing downwards through a deep cleft in the rock, nearly parallel in its direction to the outer wall, and opening out in the face of the cliff a little below the foundation. [See above, p. 268, a.] It would therefore appear that this cave, the smaller of the two above mentioned, was the Agraulium, the access to which from the Acropolis was close to the northern portico of the Erechtheium, which led into the sanctuary of Pandrosus, the only one of the three daughters of Cecrops who remained faithful to her trust. Leake conjectures that the Aglaurium, which is never described as a temple, but only as a sanctuary or sacred enclosure, was used in a more extended signification to comprehend both caves, one being more especially sacred to Aglaurus and the other to her sister Herse. The position of the Aglaurium, as near the cave of Pan, and in front of the Erechtheium and Parthenon (wph UaWdios ¥auv), is clearly shown in the following passage of Euripides (Ion, 506, seq.), where the fivx^cci /uucpai probably refer to the flight of steps:—

2 TloMhs baiefinara Ktd wapwXi^awra r4Tpa Xra xop^^ irr§l€ova't wo^iif ^Aypavkov xSpai rpiyovot rriiita x^ofpi vpb UaXXdSios vwv^

Wordsworth (p. 87) conjectures, with some probability, that it may have been by the same secret communication that the Persians got into the Acropolis.

According to one tradition Aglaurus precipitated herself from the Acropolis, as a sacrifice, to save ATHENAE. 287 her country; and it was probably on this account that the Athenian ephebi, on receiving their first suit of armour, were accustomed to take an oath in the Aglaurium, that they would defend their country to the last. (Dem. de Fals. Leg. p. 438; Pollux, viii 105; Philostr. Vit. Apoll/ iv. 21; Hermann, Griech, Staatsalterth. § 123. n. 7.)

The Theseium (Oiytrcioy), or tomple of Theseus, is the best preserved of all the monuments of ancient Athens. It is situated on a height in the NW. of the city, north of the Areiopagus, and near the gymnasium of Ptolemy. (Paus. i 17. § 2; Plut. Thes. 36.) It was at the same time a temple and a tomb, having been built to receive the bones of Theseus, which Cimon had brought from Scyros to Athens in 469. (Thuc. i. 98; Plut. Cim, 8, Thes. 36; Diod. iv. 62; Paus. l. c.) The temple appears to have been commenced in the same year, and, allowing five years for its completion, was probably finished about 465. It is, therefore, about thirty years older than the Parthenon. It possessed the privilege of an asylum, in which runaway slaves, in particular, were accustomed to take refuge. (Diod. l. c.; Plut. Thes. l. c, de Exil. 17; Hesych., Etym. M. s. v. Bi^ciby.) Its sacred enclosure was so large as to serve sometimes as a place of military assembly. (Thuc. vi. 61.)

The Temple of Theseus was built of Pentelic marble, and stands upon an artificial foundation formed of large quadrangular blocks of limestone. Its architecture is of the Doric order. It is a Peripteral Hexastyle, that is, it is surrounded with columns, and has six at each front. There are thirteen columns on each of the flanks, including those at the angles, which are also reckoned among those of the front, so that the number of columns surrounding the temple is thirty-four. The stylobate is two feet four inches high, and has only two steps, instead of three, a fact which Stuart accounts for by the feet of the temple being an heroum. The total length of the temple on the upper step of the stylobate is 104 feet, and its total breadth 45 feet, or more accurately 104·23 and 450·11 respectively. (Penrose.) Its height from the bottom of the stylobate to the summit of the pediment is 33½ feet. It consists of a cella having a pronaos or prodomus to the east, and an opisthodomus or posticum to the west. The pranaos and opisthodomus were each separated from the ambulatory of the peristyle by two columns, and perhaps a railing, which may have united the two columns with one another, and with the antae at the end of the prolongation of the walls of the cella. The cella is 40 feet in length, the pronaos, including the eastern portico, 33 feet, and the opisthodomus, including the western portico, 27 feet. The ambulatory at the sides of the temple is six feet in breadth. The columns, both of the peristyle and in the two vestibules, are three feet four inches in diameter at the base, and nearly nineteen feet high.

The eastern front of the temple was the principal one. This is shown not only by the depth of the pronaos, but still more decisively by the sculptures. The ten metopes of the eastern front, with the four adjoining on either side, are exclusively adorned with sculpture, all the other metopes having been plain. It was not till the erection of the Parthenon that sculpture was employed to decorate the entire