ÆGINA, or EGINA, or EGIA, an island in the Saronic gulf, 20 miles distant from the Piræus, formerly vying with Athens in naval power, and, at the sea-fight of Salamis, disputing the palm of victory with the Athenians. It was the country and kingdom of Æacus, who called it Ægina, from his mother's name, it being before called Ænopia. (Ovid) The inhabitants were called Æginææ and Æginenses.
Ægina is about 8 miles from N.W. to S.E., and about 6 in a transverse direction. Strabo states its periphery at 180 stadia, which would give a circumference of about 22½ English miles. Its western side consists of stony but yet fertile plains, which are well cultivated, and produce luxuriant crops of grain, with some cotton, vines, almonds, and figs. The rest of the island is mountainous: the southern end rises in the conical Mount Oros; and the Panhellenian ridge stretches to the north; from which fertile narrow valleys descend on either hand. From the absence of marshes, and its insularity, the climate is mild, and the most salubrious of Greece.
The ruins of the ancient Ægina extend along two small ports, still protected by well-built ancient moles, and the shores of an open bay, defended by an ancient breakwater, near the N.W. cape of the island. On the land side, the city-walls are still distinctly traceable, 10 feet in thickness, strengthened by towers at unequal distances, and pierced by three gates. They abutted on those of the ports, which were thus included within the line of fortifications; as at Athens and elsewhere in ancient Greece. Two elegant Doric columns and sub-structures are all that remain of the buildings
noticed by Pausanias within the precincts of a city that was long the greatest and most opulent maritime power of Greece; but the ruins of seventeen Christian churches, still visible, prove that after the glories of the proud city had passed away,—after what it suffered from the jealousy of its rival, Athens, and from an earthquake about the beginning of our era,—a considerable modern town had occupied its site. Some of these may perhaps only date from the time that Ægina remained under its Venetian masters, as does a tower erected at the entrance of the largest port; but they resigned possession of the island to the Turks in 1715, under whom it became the prey of Mainote and other pirates; until the emancipation of Greece made it, in 1828-29, the seat of the Greek government. On a hill near the N.E. corner of the island, stands the modern little town of Ægina (as it is pronounced by the modern Greeks). It is separated by a ravine from the hill, on which rises in lonely majesty the ruins of the noble temple of Jupiter Panhellenius, occupying, at the extremity of the mountain ridge known by that name, the rocky summit of a hill, in the midst of a forest of pines. The temple was a ruin in the days of Cicero, as mentioned in one of his letters; and seems to have been thrown down by an earthquake at an unknown epoch. This temple is conspicuous from a distance, and was visited by Chandler in the last century; but has been chiefly known to us by the successful excavations of our countrymen Cockerell and Foster, assisted by Baron Haller, and M. Linckh of Stuttgart in 1811. These gentlemen united in clearing away the rubbish which the lapse of 2000 years had accumulated on the basement and floor of the cell; and after 20 days exertion they were rewarded by the discovery not only of many interesting details relating to Grecian architecture, but also of many statues in most wonderfully energetic action, that had once adorned the fallen pediments of this celebrated temple. These consist of the 11 figures of the eastern, and 5 statues of the western pediment, almost entire; besides fragments of the rest, and two statuettes, and other ornaments of the acroteria. These sculptures supply an important link in the history of ancient art, and connect the schools of early Greece with that of Etruscan sculpture. The efforts of Messrs Cockerell and Foster to secure those treasures to their country are well known; and how they were defeated by the unlucky mistake of the agent sent out to purchase them for the British Museum. They now form one of the most interesting acquisitions of the magnificent Glyptothek of Munich.
The temple stands on a stylobate of 94 feet by 45 feet. The original number of columns in the peristyle was 32, of which 12 were ranged on each side, and six in each front; 17 feet 2 inches high, including the wide-spreading ovolo of the capital, and a diameter of 3 feet 3 inches at the base. Two other columns of 3 feet 2 inches between antæ, are in the pronaos, and two similar in the opisthodomus or posticum. The cella had a door at each end; a double row of smaller columns 2 feet 4 inches in diameter, were within the cella to support its partial roof; but the greatest portion of the cella was open, as this temple was hypostylal. There still remain 21 columns of the peristyle with their architraves; six of the eastern front, and continuously with them are five columns of the north side; the four columns of the pronaos and opisthodomus; and the lower part of the shafts of five within the cella. The tympana had been painted of a bright azure to give relief to the statues, and the drapery of Minerva, the middle figure of each group, had been painted red and blue. The whole of the ornaments on the cornices and upper mouldings of the pediment had been painted in encaustic, not carved.
The subject of the groups of statuary appears to be the contest for the body of Patroclus, one of the Æacidae (or
Ægineta royal progeny of Ægina of old) as described by Horner. — Cockerell on the Ægina Marbles. Brand's Journal.
Ægis. This magnificent structure undoubtedly belongs to the brilliant period of Æginetan power, when its navy and its commerce were the pride of Greece, and carried its citizens to the remotest shores of the Mediterranean and the Euxine. Money was struck at Ægina long before it was fabricated even at Athens. The victory of Salamis was mainly owing to the 30 ships of Ægina, and the voice of grateful Greece assigned to her warriors on that eventful day the prize of valour. Yet not long after, the rivalry of Athens began to cloud the prosperity of the haughty islanders, whose fleet she had before defeated; and Ægina at length sunk under the enmity of a relentless commercial rival, that banished her citizens, and supplied their place with Attic colonists. (v. s. x.)