Page:History of Architecture in All Countries Vol 1.djvu/299

 Bk. III. Ch. II. MODE OF LIGHTING TEMPLES. 267 Owing to the Erechtheium liaving been converted into a Byzantine cliurch during the Middle Ages, ahiiost all traces of its original internal arrangements have been obliterated, and this, with the peculiar combination of three temples in one, makes it more than usually difficult to restore. The an- nexed plan, however, meets all the re- quirements of the case in so far as they are known. To the east was a portico of 6 columns, between two of which stood an altar to Dione, mentioned in the inscription enumerating the re- jiairs in 409 n.c. ; ^ inside, according to Pausanias, ^were three altars, the prin- cipal dedicated to Neptune, the others to Bata and Vulcan. From its form, it is evident the roof must have been supported by pillars, and they probably also bore a clerestory, by which, I be- lieve, with rare exceptions, all Greek temples were lighted. The Temple of Pandrosus was on a lower level, and was approached by a flight of steps, corresponding with which was a chamber, containing the well of salt Avater, and which apparently was the abode of the serpent-god Erecthonios, mentioned by Herodotus.^ The central cell was lighted by the very exceptional expedient of three M'indows in the western wall, which looked directly into it. Beyond this on the south, was the beautiful caryatide porch, where, if anywhere within the temple, grew the olive, sacred to Minerva. Unfortunately, our principal guide, Pausanias, does not give us a hint where the olive tree grew, and on the whole I am inclined to believe it was in the enclosure outside the western wall of the temple,"^ and to which a doorway leads directly from the Temple of Pandrosus, 15S. Kestored Plan of Erectheium. Scale 50 ft. to 1 in. The dark parts remain ; the shaded are restorations. 1 Boeckh, Corpus Inscript. Grrec. No. 109. - Attica, xxvi. 3 Historia, viii. 41. restore the interior of tliis temple, the last and most elahorate is that by the late E. Beule, " Acropole d'Athenes," 1854, vol. ii. pi. ii. ; but it is also one of the worst. Indeed it is qnite painful to see how the author twists Ids authorities to meet a preconceived theory. With- out going into it, there is one objection which seems fatal to the whole. Like most antiquaries when in diffi- culties for lighting Greek temples, he talves off tiie roof and makes the Temple of Pandrosus an open courtyard, in which he plants the olive. This is so opposed to the whole spirit of Greek art as to be inadmissible on general grounds, but in this instance it introduces the f ur- ther abstuxlity that the Greeks opened tln-ee windows in the west wall of the temple to liglit this courtyard which was already open to the sky! The mode of lighting a temple by vertical windows is so exceptional that it would not have been introduced here had any other means ex- isted of lighting the interior, and con- sequently the combination shown by M. Beule seems simply impossible.
 * Among the many attempts made to