Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume I Part 1.djvu/309

 ATHENAE.

This building, vulgarly called the "Temple of the Winds," from the figures of the winds upon its faces, is situated north of the Acropolis, and is still extant. Its date is uncertain, but the style of the sculpture and architecture is thought to belong to the period after Alexander the Great. Müller supposes it to have been erected about 100; and its date musty be prior to the middle of the first century  since it is mentioned by Varro (R. R. iii. 5. § 17). It served both as the weathercock and public clock of Athens. It is an octagonal tower,

THE HOROLOGIUM OF ANDRONICUS CYRRHESTES.

with its eight sides facing respectively the direction of the eight winds into which the Athenian compass was divide. The directions of the several were indicated by the figures and names of the eight winds, which were sculptured on the frieze of the entablature. On the summit of the building there stood originally a bronze figure of a Triton, holding a wand in his right hand, and turning on a pivot, so as to serve for a weathercock. (Vitruv. i. 6. § 4.) This monument is called a horologium by Varro (l. c.). It formed a measure of time in two ways. On each of its eight sides, beneath the figures of the winds, lines an still visible, which, with the gnomons that stood out above them, formed a series of sundials. In the centre of the interior of the building there was a clepsydra, or water-clock, the remains of which are still visible. On the south side of the building then was a cistern, which was supplied with water from the spring called Clepsydra, near the cave of Pan. Leake states that a portion of the aqueduct existed not long since, and formed part of a modern conduit for the conveyance of water to a neighbouring mosque, for the service of the Turks in their ablutions. It may not be unnecessary to remind the reader that ATHEMAE. Clepsyrda was the common term for a water-clock and was not so called from the fountain of the same name, which supplied it with water; the similarity; of the names is accidental. The reason of the fountain near the cave of Pan being called Clepsydra has been given above. [See p. 286, b.]

The height of the building from its foundation is 44 feet. On the NE. and NW. sides are distyle Corinthian porticoes, giving access to the interior; and to the south wall is affixed a sort of turret, forming three-quarters of a circle, to contain the cistern which supplied water to the clepsydra.

This elegant monument, vulgarly called the "Lantern of Demosthenes," was dedicated by Lysicrates in 335–4, as we learn from an inscription on the architrave, which records that "Lysicrates, son of Lysitheides of Cicynna, led the chorus, when the boys of the tribe of Acamantis conquered, when Theon played the flute, when Lysiades wrote the piece, and when Evaenetus was archon." It was the practice of the victorious choragi to dedicate to Dionysus the tripods which theu had gained in the contests in the theatre. Some of these tripods were placed upon small temples, whoch were erected either in the precints of the theatre, or in a street which ran along the eastern side of the Acropolis, from the Prytaneium to the Lenaeum, or enclosure of Dionysus near

CHORAGIC MONUMENT OF LYSICRATES.