Page:The Works of J. W. von Goethe, Volume 12.djvu/432

406 not reach round it. Of the fluting of the column, however, some idea may be formed from the fact, that, standing in it as in a niche, I just filled it up and touched it on both sides with my shoulders. Two and twenty men arranged in a circle would give nearly the circumference of such a column. We went away with the disagreeable feeling that there was nothing here to tempt the draughtsman.

On the other hand, the Temple of Hercules still showed some traces of its former symmetry. The pillars of the peristyles, which ran along the temple on its upper and lower side, lie parallel, as if they had all fallen together, and at once, from north to south,—the one row lying up the hill, the other down it. The hill may possibly have been formed by the ruined cells or shrines. The columns, probably held together by the architrave, fell all at once, being suddenly thrown down, perhaps by a violent wind, and lie in regular order, only broken into the pieces of which they were originally composed. Kniep was already, in imagination, preparing his pencil for an accurate sketch of this singular phenomenon.

The Temple of Æsculapius, lying beneath the shade of a most beautiful carob-tree, and closely built upon by some mean farm-buildings, presented to our minds a most agreeable aspect.

Next we went down to Theron's Tomb, and were delighted with the actual sight of this monument, of which we had seen so many models, especially as it served for the foreground of a most rare prospect; for, from west to east, we looked on the line of rocks on which lay the fragments of the walls, while through the gaps of the latter, and over them, the remains of the temples were visible.

This view has, under Hackert's skilful hand, furnished a most delightful picture. Here, too, Kniep will not omit to make a sketch.