Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 3.djvu/16

Rh measurements and architectural details of the edifice have never been so splendidly given as by our countryman Penrose, in his Principles of Athenian Architecture. We will turn now to the other buildings of the Acropolis, none of which, however, are so full of significance as the Parthenon itself. For, indeed, standing as it does on the higHst point of Athenian soil, its erection marked the culminating point of Athenian history, literature, politics, and art. The &quot; Birth of Athena,&quot; over the eastern entrance, may symbolise to us the sudden growth of Athenian great ness, while in the contest between the armed goddess of peaceful wisdom and the violent god of sea, which adorned the western front, we may see an allegory of the long struggle between the agricultural and the maritime interests which forms the central thread of Athenian history. Erech- Opposite to the Parthenon, on the northern edge of the theium. Acropolis, stands another remarkable temple, far smaller in size, and built in the most graceful forms of the Ionic order. The Erechtheium appears to be designed expressly to contrast with the severe sublimity of the Parthenon ; and on the side which confronts those mighty Doric shafts, the columns of the smaller building are allowed to trans form themselves into Canephori. The temple of Athena Polias, which contained the ancient wooden image of the goddess, and formed the centre of her worship, suffered from fire in the Persian War (479 B.C.) A building so sacred would hardly have been allowed to remain for long in ruins ; but it was reserved for Pericles to set about a complete restoration of it. However, the Peloponnesian War seems to have interrupted his designs, and in the year 409 B.C. the edifice was still unfinished, 1 and soon after this it was totally destroyed by fire. But soon afterwards it must have been rebuilt, without doubt retaining all its original features. The temple in its present state consists of an oblong cella extending fom E. to W. From each side of the W. end of the cella projects a portico, forming a sort of transept. The eastern portico formed the temple of Athena Polias, upon the site of her ancient contest with Poseidon. The west portion was the Pandroseium, dedicated to Athena Pandrosus. The building thus formed two temples in one, and is styled by Pausanias a SnrXovv ouc^/m. It seems at a later time to have been commonly called the Erechtheium, because of a tradition that Erechtheus was buried on this site. Propytea. Among the many glories of the Acropolis, the Propylaea are described by Pausanias as being exceptionally magni ficent (i. 22). They rivalled even the Parthenon, and were the most splendid of all the buildings of Pericles. The western end of the Acropolis, which furnished, and still furnishes, the only access to the summit of the hill, was about 160 feet in breadth, a frontage so narrow, that to the artists of Pericles it appeared practicable to fill up the space with a single building, which, in serving the main purpose of a gateway, should contribute to adorn as well as to guard the citadel. This work, which rivalled the Parthenon in felicity of execution, and surpassed it in boldness and originality of design, was begun in the archonship of Euthymenes, in the year 437 B.C., and com pleted in five years, under the directions of the architect Mnesicles. Of the space which formed the natural entrance to the Acropolis, 58 feet near the centre were left for the grand entrance, and the remainder on either side was occupied by wings projecting 32 feet in front of the central colonnade. The entire building received the name of Propylsea from its forming the vestibule to the five door- 1 An important inscription in the British Museum gives a survey of the works as they stood in that year, drawn up by a commission ap pointed for the purpose. See Greek Insertions in the British Mu- teum, vol. i. No. 35. ways, still in existence, by which the citadel was entered. The wall in which these doors were pierced was thrown back about 50 feet from the front of the artificial opening of the hill, and the whole may therefore be said to have resembled a modern fortification, although, in fact, the Propylcea was designed, not for defence, but for decoration. The whole building was of Pentelic marble. The Megaron or great vestibule in the centre consisted of a front of six fluted Doric columns, mounted upon four steps, which supported a pediment, and measured 5 feet in diameter and nearly 29 in height, with an intercolumniation of 7 feet, except between the two central columns, which were 13 feet apart, in order to furnish space for a carriage-way. Behind this Doric colonnade was a vestibule 43 feet in depth, the roof of which was sustained by six inner columns in a double row, so as to divide the vestibule into three aisles or compartments ; and these columns, although only three feet and a half in diameter at the base, were, includ ing the capitals, nearly 34 feet in height, their architraves being on the same level with the frieze of the Doric colonnade. The ceiling was laid upon marble beams, resting upon the lateral walls and the architraves of the two rows of Ionic columns, those covering the side aisles being 22 feet in length, and those covering the central aisles 17 feet, with a proportional breadth and thickness. Enormous masses like these, raised to the roof of a building, standing upon a steep hill, and covered with a ceiling which all the resources of art had been employed to beautify, might well overcome the reserve of a matter-of- fact topographer like Pausanias, and at once account for and justify the unusual warmth of his language when he is speaking of the roof of the Propylaea (i. 22). Of the five doors at the extremity of the vestibule, the width of the central and largest was equal to the space between the two central columns of the Doric portico in front, and the same also as that between the two rows of Ionic columns in the vestibule ; but the doors on either side of the principal one were of diminished height and breadth, and the two beyond these again were still smaller in both dimensions. These five gates or doors led from the vestibule into a back portico 1 8 feet in depth, which was fronted with a Doric colonnade and pediment of the same dimensions as those of the western or outer portico, but placed on a higher level, there being five steps of ascent from the western to the level of the eastern portico. From the latter or inner portico there was a descent of one step into the adjacent part of the platform of the Acropolis. The wings of the Propylooa were nearly symmetrical in front, each presenting on this side a wall adorned only with a frieze of triglyphs, and with antse at the extremities. The inner or southernmost column of each wing stood in a line with the great Doric columns of the Megaron ; and as both these columns and those of the wings were upon the same level, the three porticoes were all connected together, and the four steps which ascended to the Megaron were continued also along the porticoes of the two wings. But here the symmetry of the building ended ; for, in regard to interior size and distribution of parts, the wings were exceedingly dissimilar. In the northern or left wing, a porch of 12 feet in depth conducted by three doors into a chamber of 34 feet by 26, the porch and chamber thus occupying the entire space behind the western wall of that wing ; whereas the southern or right wing consisted only of a porch or gallery of 26 feet by 16, which, on the S. and E. sides, was formed by a wall connected with and of the same thickness as the lateral wall of the Megaron, and, on the W. side, had its roof supported by a narrow pilaster, standing between the N.W. column of the wing and an anta, which terminated its southern wall. In front of the southern or ri?ht wing of the 