a celebrated city of Greece, and capital tal of the ancient kingdom of Attica, situated in E. Long. 53° N. Lat. 38° 5'. See Attica.

In early times, that which was afterwards called the citadel was the whole city; and went under the name of Cecropia, from its founder Cecrops, whom the Athenians in after times affirmed to have been the first builder of cities, and called this therefore by way of eminence Polis, i.e., the city. In the reign of Erichthonius it lost the name of Cecropia, and acquired that of Athens, on what account is not certain; the most probable is, that it was so named in respect to the goddess Minerva, whom the Greeks call Athena, who was also esteemed its protectress. This old city was seated on the top of a rock in the midst of a large and pleasant plain, which, as the number of inhabitants increased, became full of buildings, which induced the distinction of Acro and Catapolis, i.e., of the upper and lower city. The extent of the citadel was 60 stadia; it was surrounded by olive trees, and fortified, as some say, with a strong palisade; in succeeding times it was encompassed with a strong wall, in which there were nine gates, one very large one, and the rest small. The inside of the citadel was adorned with innumerable edifices. The most remarkable of which were, 1. The magnificent temple of Minerva, styled parthenon, because that goddess was a virgin. The Persians destroyed it; but it was rebuilt with still greater splendour, by the famous Pericles, all of the finest marble, with such skill and strength, that, in spite of the rage of time and barbarous nations, it remains perhaps the first antiquity in the world, and stands a witness to the truth of what ancient writers have recorded of the prodigious magnificence of Athens in her flourishing state. 2. The temple of Neptune and of Minerva; for it was divided into two parts: one sacred to the god, in which was the salt fountain said to have sprung upon the stroke of his trident; the other to the goddess protectress of Athens, wherein was the sacred olive which she produced, and her image which fell down from heaven in the reign of Erichthonius. At the back of Minerva's temple was the public treasury, which was burnt to the ground through the knavery of the treasurers, who, having misapplied the revenues of the state, took this short method of making up accounts. The lower city comprehended all the buildings surrounding the citadel, the fort Munychia, and the havens Phalerum and Piraeus, the latter of which was joined to the city by walls five miles in length; that on the north was built by Pericles, but that on the south by Themistocles; but by degrees the turrets which were at first erected on these walls were turned into dwelling-houses for the accommodation of the Athenians, whose large city was now become too small for them. The city, or rather the lower city, had 13 great gates, with the names of which it is not necessary to trouble the reader. Among the principal edifices which adorned it, we may reckon, 1. The temple of Theseus, erected by Conon, near its centre. Adjacent thereto, the young people performed their exercises. It was also a sanctuary for distrest persons, slaves or free. 2. The Olympian temple erected in honour of Jupiter, the honour of Athens, and of all Greece. The foundation of it was laid by Pheidias; it was carried on but slowly in succeeding times, 700 years elapsing before it was finished, which happened under the reign of Adrian, who was particularly kind to Athens: this was the first building in which the Athenians beheld pillars. 3. The pantheon, dedicated to all the gods; a most noble structure, supported by 120 marble pillars, and having over its great gate two horses carved by Praxiteles: it is yet remaining, as we shall have occasion to shew hereafter when we come to speak of the present state of this famous city. In several parts of it were stoai or portico's, wherein people walked in rainy weather, and from whence a sect of philosophers were denominated stoics, because their master Zeno taught in those portico's.

There were at Athens two places called Ceramicus, from Ceramus the son of Bacchus and Ariadne; one within the city, containing a multitude of buildings of all sorts; the other in the suburbs, in which was the academy, and other edifices. The Gymnasia of Athens were many; but the most remarkable were the Lyceum, Academia, and Cynosarges. The Lyceum stood on the banks of Ilissus; some say it was built by Pheidias, others by Pericles, others by Lysicrates. Here Aristotle taught philosophy, instructing such as came to hear him as they walked, whence his disciples are generally thought to derive the name of peripatetics. The ceramicus without the city was the distance of six stadia from its walls. The academy made part thereof; as to the name of which there is some dispute. Some affirm that it was so called from Academus, an ancient hero, who, when Helen was stolen by Theseus, discovered the place where she lay hid, to Castor and Pollux: for which reason the Lacedemonians, when they invaded Attica, always spared this place. Diogenes writes, that Castor and Pollux had two Arcadians in their army, the one named Echedemus, the other Marathus; from the former of these he says this place took its name, and that the borough of Marathon was so called from the other. It was a marily unwholesome place, till Cimon was at great pains to have it drained; and then it became extremely pleasant and delightful, being adorned with shady walks, where Plato read his lectures, and from thence his scholars were styled academicians. The Cynosarges was a place in the suburbs not Cynosarges, far from the Lyceum: it was famous on many accounts; but particularly for a noble gymnasion erected there, appointed for the special use of such as were Athenians only by one side. In after times Themistocles derived to himself ill-will, by carrying many of the nobility to exercise with him here, because, being but of the half blood, he could exercise nowhere else but in this gymnasion. Antithebes instituted a sect of philosophers, who from the name of this district, as many think, were styled Cynics.

The havens of Athens were three. First the Pyræus, which was distant about 35 or 40 stadia from the city, till joined thereto by the long walls beforementioned, after which it became the principal harbour of the city. It had three docks: Cantharos, Aphrodium, and Zea: the first was so called from an ancient hero, the second from the goddess Venus who had there two temples, and the third from bread-corn. There were in this port five portico's, which joining together formed one great one called from thence Macra Stoa, or the grand portico. There were likewise two great markets or fora; one near the long portico, the other near the city. The second port was Munichia, a promontory not far distant from Pyraeus; a place very strong by nature, and afterwards rendered far stronger by art. It was of this that Epimenides said, if the Athenians foresaw what mischief it would one day produce to them, they would eat it away with their teeth. The third was Phalerum, distant from the city, according to Thucydides, 35 stadia, but according to Pausanias only 20. This was the most ancient harbour of Athens, as Pyraeus was the most capacious.

Of this city, as it stands at present, we have the following account by Dr. Chandler. "It is now called Athina; and is not inconsiderable, either in extent or the number of inhabitants. It enjoys a fine temperature, and a serene sky. The air is clear and wholesome, though not so delicately soft as in Ionia. The town stands beneath the Acropolis or citadel; not encompassing the rock, as formerly; but spreading into the plain, chiefly on the west and north-west. Corsairs infesting it, the avenues were secured, and in 1676 the gates were regularly shut after sunset. It is now open again; but several of the gateways remain, and a guard of Turks patrols at midnight. Some masses of brick-work, standing separate, without the town, belonged perhaps to the ancient wall, of which other traces also appear. The houses are mostly mean, and straggling; many with large areas or courts before them. In the lanes, the high walls on each side, which are commonly white-washed, reflect strongly the heat of the sun. The streets are very irregular; and anciently were neither uniform nor handsome. They have water conveyed in channels from mount Hymettus, and in the bazaar or market-place is a large fountain. The Turks have several mosques and public baths. The Greeks have convents for men and women; with many churches, in which service is regularly performed; and besides these, they have numerous oratories or chapels, some in ruins or confining of bare walls, frequented only on the anniversaries of the saints to whom they are dedicated. A portrait of the owner on a board is placed in them on that occasion, and removed when the solemnity of the day is over.

"The city of Cecrops is now a fortress with a thick irregular wall, standing on the brink of precipices, and inclosing a large area about twice as long as broad. Some portions of the ancient wall may be discovered on the outside, particularly at the two extreme angles; and in many places it is patched with pieces of columns, and with marbles taken from the ruins. A considerable sum had been recently expended on the side next Hymettus, which was finished before we arrived. The scaffolding had been removed to the end toward Pentele; but money was wanting, and the workmen were withdrawn. The garrison consists of a few Turks, who reside there with their families, and are called by the Greeks Caffrians, or the holders of the castle. The rock is lofty, abrupt, and inaccessible, except the front, which is toward the Piraeus; and on that quarter is a mountainous ridge, within cannon-shot. It is destitute of water fit for drinking; and supplies are daily carried up in earthen jars, on horses and asses, from one of the conduits in the town.

"The acropolis furnished a very ample field to the ancient virtuous. It was filled with monuments of Athenian glory, and exhibited an amazing display of beauty, of opulence, and of art; each contending, as it were, for the superiority. It appeared as one entire offering to the Deity, surpassing in excellence, and astonishing in richness. Heliodorus, named Periegetes the guide, had employed on it 15 books. The curiosities of various kinds, with the pictures, statues, and pieces of sculpture, were so many and so remarkable, as to supply Polemo Periegetes with matter for four volumes; and Strabo affirms, that as many would be required in treating of other portions of Athens and of Attica. In particular, the number of statues was prodigious. Tiberius Nero, who was fond of images, plundered the acropolis, as well as Delphi and Olympia; yet Athens, and each of these places, had not fewer than 3000 remaining in the time of Pliny. Even Pausanias seems here to be disheartened by the multiplicity of his subject. But this banquet, as it were, of the senses has long been withdrawn; and is now become like the tale of a vision. The spectator views with concern the marble ruins intermixed with mean flat-roofed cottages, and extant amid rubbish; the sad memorials of a nobler people; which, however, as visible from the sea, should have introduced modern Athens to more early notice. They who reported it was only a small village, must, it has been surmised, have beheld the acropolis through the wrong end of their telescopes.

"The acropolis has now, as formerly, only one entrance, which fronts the Piraeus. The ascent is by traverses and rude fortifications furnished with cannon, but without carriages, and neglected. By the second gate is the station of the guard, who sits cross-legged under cover, much at his ease, smoking his pipe, or drinking coffee, with his companions about him in like attitudes. Over this gateway is an inscription in large characters on a stone turned upside down, and black from the fires made below. It records a present of a pair of gates.

"Going farther up, you come to the ruins of the propylaea, an edifice which graced the entrance into the citadel. This was one of the structures of Pericles, who began it when Euthynnes was archon, 435 years before Christ. It was completed in five years, at the expense of 1212 talents. It was of marble, of the Doric order, and had five doors to afford an easy passage to the multitudes which resorted on business or devotion to the acropolis.

"While this fabric was building, the architect Mnesicles, whose activity equalled his skill, was hurt by a fall, and the physicians departed of his life; but Minerva, who was propitious to the undertaking, appeared, it was said, to Pericles, and prescribed a remedy, by which he was speedily and easily cured. It was a plant or herb growing round about the acropolis, and called afterwards parthenium.

"The right wing of the propylaea was a temple of Victory. They related that Agaeus had flood there, viewing the sea, and anxious for the return of his son Theseus, who was gone to Crete with the tributary children to be delivered to the Minotaur. The vessel which carried them had black sails suiting the occasion of its voyage; and it was agreed, that, if Theseus overcome the enemy, their colour should be changed to white. The neglect of this signal was fatal to Agaeus, who, on seeing the sails unaltered, threw himself down headlong from the rock, and perished. The idol was named..." named Victory without wings; it was said, because the news of the success of Theseus did not arrive, but with the conqueror. It had a pomegranate in the right hand, and an helmet in the left. As the statue was without pinions, it was hoped the goddefs would remain for ever on the spot.

"On the left wing of the propylæa, and fronting the temple of Victory, was a building decorated with paintings by Polygnotus, of which an account is given by Pausanias. This edifice, as well as the temple, was of the Doric order, the columns fluted, and without bases. Both contributed alike to the uniformity and grandeur of the design; and the whole fabric, when finished, was deemed equally magnificent and ornamental. The interval between Pericles and Pausanias consists of several centuries. The propylæa remained entire in the time of this topographer, and, as will be shown, continued nearly so to a much later period. It had then a roof of white marble, which was unsurpassed either in the size of the stones, or in the beauty of their arrangement; and before each wing was an equestrian statue.

"The propylæa have ceased to be the entrance of the acropolis. The passage, which was between the columns in the centre, is walled up almost to their capitals, and above is a battery of cannon. The way now winds before the front of the ancient structure; and, turning to the left hand among rubbish and mean walls, you come to the back part, and to the five doorways. The foil without is risen higher than the top of the two smaller. There, under the vault and cannon, lies an heap of large stones, the ruin of the roof.

"The temple of Victory, standing on an abrupt rock, has its back and one side unencumbered with the modern ramparts. The columns in the front being walled up, you enter it by a breach in the side, within the propylæa. It was used by the Turks as a magazine for powder, until about the year 1656; when a sudden explosion, occasioned by lightning, carried away the roof, with a house erected on it, belonging to the officer who commanded in the acropolis, whose family, except a girl, perished. The women of the Aga continued to inhabit in this quarter, but it is now abandoned and in ruins.

"The cell of the temple of Victory, which is of white marble, very thick, and strongly cemented, sufficiently witnesses the great violence it has undergone; the stones in many places being disjointed, as it were, and forced from their original position. Two of these making an acute angle, the exterior edges touching, without a crevice; and the light abroad being much stronger than in the room, which has a modern roof and is dark; the portion in contact becoming pellucid, had illumined the vacant space with a dim colour resembling that of amber. We were desired to examine this extraordinary appearance, which the Greeks regarded as a standing miracle, and which the Turks, who could not confute them, beheld with equal astonishment. We found in the gape some coals, which had been brought on a bit of earthen ware for the purpose of burning incense, as we supposed, and also a piece of wax-taper, which probably had been lighted in honour of the saint and author of the wonder; but our Swiss unfortunately carrying his own candle too far in, the smoke blackened the marble, and destroyed the phenomenon.

"The building opposite to the temple has served as a foundation for a square lofty tower of ordinary masonry. The columns of the front are walled up, and the entrance is by a low iron gate in the side. It is now used as a place of confinement for delinquents; but in 1676 was a powder-magazine. In the wall of a rampart near it are some fragments of exquisite sculpture, representing the Athenians fighting with the Amazons. These belong to the freeze, which was then standing. In the second century, when Pausanias lived, much of the painting was impaired by age, but some remained, and the subjects were chiefly taken from the Trojan story. The traces are since vanished.

"The pediment of the temple of Victory, with that of the opposite wing, is described as remaining in 1676; but on each building a square tower had been erected. One of the steps in the front of the propylæa was entire, with the four columns, their entablature and the pediment. The portico, to which the five doorways belonged, consisted of a large square room, roofed with slabs of marble, which were laid on two great marble beams, and sustained by four beautiful columns. These were Ionic, the proportions of this order best suiting that purpose, as taller than the Doric; the reason it was likewise preferred in the pronaos of the temple of Victory. The roof of the propylæa, after standing above 2000 years, was probably destroyed, with all the pediments, by the Venetians in 1687, when they battered the castle in front, firing red-hot bullets, and took it, but were compelled to resign it again to the Turks in the following year. The exterior walls, and, in particular, a side of the temple of Victory, retain many marks of their hostilities.

"The chief ornament of the acropolis was the parthenon or great temple of Minerva, a most superb and magnificent fabric. The Persians had burned the edifice, which before occupied the site, and was called hecatompodon, from its being 100 feet square. The zeal of Pericles and of all the Athenians was exerted in providing a far more ample and glorious residence for their favourite goddess. The architects were Callicrates and Ictinus; and a treatise on the building was written by the latter and Carpinus. It was of white marble, of the Doric order, the columns fluted and without bases, the number in front eight; and adorned with admirable sculpture. The story of the birth of Minerva was carved in the front pediment; and in the back, her contest with Neptune for the country. The heads of burden, which had conveyed up the materials, were regarded as sacred, and recompensed with pastures; and one, which had voluntarily headed the train, was maintained during life, without labour, at the public expense.

"The statue of Minerva, made for this temple by Herodes Atticus, was of ivory, 26 cubits or 39 feet high. It was decked with pure gold to the amount of 44 talents, so disposed by the advice of Pericles as to be taken off and weighed, if required. The goddess was represented standing, with her vestment reaching to her feet. Her helmet had a sphinx for the crest, and on the sides were griffins. The head of Medusa was on her breast-plate. In one hand she held her spear, and in the other supported an image of Victory about four cubits high. The battle of the Centaurs and Lapithæ. Lapithæ was carved on her sandals; and on her shield, which lay at her feet, the war of the gods and giants, and the battle of the Athenians and Amazons. By her spear was a serpent, in allusion to the story of Erichthonius; and on the pedestal, the birth of Pandora. The Sphinx, the Victory, and Serpent, were accounted eminently wonderful. This image was placed in the temple in the first year of the 87th Olympiad, in which the Peloponnesian war began. The gold was stripped off by the tyrant Lachares, when Demetrius Poliorcetes compelled him to fly. The same plunderer plucked down the golden shields in the acropolis, and carried away the golden Victories, with the precious vessels and ornaments provided for the Panathenaic festival.

"The parthenon remained entire for many ages after it was deprived of the goddess. The Christians converted it into a church, and the Mahometans into a mosque. It is mentioned in the letters of Crusius, and miscalled the pantheon, and the temple of the unknown God. The Venetians under Koningmark, when they besieged the acropolis in 1687, threw a bomb, which demolished the roof, and, setting fire to some powder, did much damage to the fabric. The floor, which is indented, still witnesses the place of its fall. This was the sad forerunner of farther destruction; the Turks breaking the stones, and applying them to the building of a new mosque, which stands within the ruin, or to the repairing of their houses and the walls of the fortresses. The vast pile of ponderous materials, which lay ready, is greatly diminished; and the whole structure will gradually be consumed and disappear.

The temple of Minerva in 1676 was, as Wheeler and Spon assert, the finest mosque in the world, without comparison. The Greeks had adapted the fabric to their ceremonial by constructing at one end a semicircular recess for the holy tables, with a window: for before it was enlightened only by the door, obscurity being preferred under the heathen ritual, except on festivals, when it yielded to splendid illuminations; the reason, it has been surmised, why temples are commonly found simple and unadorned on the inside. In the wall beneath the window were inserted two pieces of the stone called phrygites, a species of marble discovered in Cappadocia in the time of Nero; and so transparent, that he erected with it a temple to Fortune, which was luminous within, when the door was shut. These pieces were perforated, and the light which entered was tinged with a reddish or yellowish hue. The picture of the Panagia or Virgin Mary, in Mosaic, on the ceiling of the recess, remained; with two jasper columns belonging to the screen, which had separated that part from the nave; and within, a canopy supported by four pillars of porphyry, with Corinthian capitals of white marble, under which the table had been placed; and behind it, beneath the window, a marble chair for the archbishop; and also a pulpit, standing on four small pillars in the middle aisle. The Turks had whitewashed the walls, to obliterate the portraits of saints, and the other paintings, with which the Greeks decorate their places of worship; and had erected a pulpit on the right hand for their iman or reader. The roof was disposed in square compartments; the stones massive; and some had fallen in. It had been sustained in the pronaos by six columns; but the place of one was then supplied by a large pile of rude masonry, the Turks not having been able to fill up the gap more worthily. The roof of the naos was supported by colonnades ranging with the door, and on each side; consisting of 22 pillars below, and of 23 above. The odd one was over the entrance, which by that disposition was left wide and unembarrassed. In the portico were suspended a few lamps, to be used in the mosque at the feasts when the muezzins assemble before day-break, or to be lighted up round the minaret, as is the custom during their Ramadan or Lent.

"It is not easy to conceive a more striking object than the parthenon, though now a mere ruin. The columns within the naos have all been removed: but on the floor may be seen the circles which directed the workmen in placing them; and at the farther end is a groove across it, as for one of the partitions of the cell. The recesses erected by the Christians is demolished; and from the rubbish of the ceiling the Turkish boys collect bits of the Mosaic, of different colours, which composed the picture. We were told at Smyrna, that this substance had taken a polish, and been set in buckles. This cell is about half demolished; and in the columns, which surrounded it, is a large gap near the middle. On the walls are some traces of the paintings. Before the portico is a reservoir sunk in the rock, to supply the Turks with water for the purifications customary on entering their mosques. In it, on the left-hand, is the rubbish of the pile erected to supply the place of a column; and on the right, a staircase, which leads out on the architrave, and has a marble or two with inscriptions, but worn so as not to be legible. It belonged to the minaret, which has been destroyed.

"The travellers, to whom we are indebted for an account of the mosque, have likewise given a description of the sculpture then remaining in the front. In the middle of the pediment was seen a bearded Jupiter, with a majestic countenance, standing, and naked; the right arm broken. The thunder-bolt, it has been supposed, was placed in that hand, and the eagle between his feet. On his right was a figure, it is conjectured, of Victory, clothed to the mid-leg; the head and arms gone. This was leading on the horses of a car, in which Minerva sat, young and unarmed; her head-dress, instead of a helmet, resembling that of a Venus. The generous ardour and lively spirit visible in this pair of celestial steeds, was such as bespoke the hand of a master, bold and delicate, of a Phidias or Praxiteles. Behind Minerva was a female figure, without a head, sitting, with an infant in her lap; and in this angle of the pediment was the emperor Hadrian with his arm round Sabina, both reclining, and seeming to regard Minerva with pleasure. On the left side of Jupiter were five or six other trunks to complete the assembly of deities, into which he received her. These figures were all wonderfully carved, and appeared as big as life. Hadrian and his consort, it is likely, were complimented by the Athenians with places among the marble gods in the pediment, as benefactors. Both of them may be considered as intruders on the original company; and possibly their heads were placed on trunks, which before had other owners. They still still possess their corner, and are easy to be recognized, though not unimpaired. The rest of the statues are defaced, removed, or fallen. Morofini was ambitious to enrich Venice with the spoils of Athens; and by an attempt to take down the principal group, hastened their ruin. In the other pediment is a head or two of sea-horses finely executed, with some mutilated figures; and on the architrave beneath them are marks of the fixtures of votive offerings, perhaps of the golden shields, or of festoons suspended on solemn occasions, when the temple was dressed out to receive the votaries of the goddess.

"Neptune and Minerva, once rival deities, were joint and amicable tenants of the Erechtheum, in which was an altar of Oblivion. The building was double, a partition-wall dividing it into two temples, which fronted different ways. One was the temple of Neptune Erechtheus, the other of Minerva Polias. The latter was entered by a square portico connected with a marble screen, which fronts towards the propylaea. The door of the cell was on the left hand; and at the farther end of the passage was a door leading down into the Pandroseum, which was contiguous.

"Before the temple of Neptune Erechtheus was an altar of Jupiter the supreme, on which no living thing was sacrificed, but they offered cakes without wine. Within it was the altar of Neptune and Erechtheus; and two, belonging to Vulcan and a hero named Buter, who had transmitted the priesthood to his posterity, which were called Butades. On the walls were paintings of this illustrious family, from which the priestess of Minerva Polias was also taken. It was asserted that Neptune had ordained the well of salt water, and the figure of a trident in the rock, to be memorials of his contending for the country. The former, Panfunias remarks, was no great wonder, for other wells of a similar nature were found inland; but this, when the south wind blew, afforded the sound of waves.

"The temple of Minerva Polias was dedicated by all Attica, and possessed the most ancient statue of the goddess. The demoi or towns had other deities, but their zeal for her suffered no diminution. The image, which they placed in the acropolis, then the city, was in after ages not only reputed consecratedly holy, but believed to have fallen down from heaven in the reign of Erichthonius. It was guarded by a large serpent, which was regularly served with offerings of honied cakes for his food. This divine reptile was of great sagacity, and attained to an extraordinary age. He wisely withdrew from the temple, when in danger from the Medes; and, it is said, was living in the second century. Before this statue was an owl; and a golden lamp. This continued burning day and night. It was contrived by a curious artificer, named Callimachus, and did not require to be replenished with oil oftener than once a-year. A brazen palm-tree, reaching to the roof, received its smoke. Ariition had let the holy flame expire while Sylla befell him, and was abhorred for his impiety. The original olive-tree, said to have been produced by Minerva, was kept in this temple. When the Medes set fire to the acropolis, it was consumed; but, they asserted, on the following day, was found to have shot up again as much as a cubit. It grew low and crooked, but was esteemed very holy. The priestess of Minerva was not allowed to eat of the new cheese of Attica; and, among her perquisites, was a measure of wheat, and one of barley, for every birth and burial. This temple was again burned when Callias was archon, 24 years after the death of Pericles. Near it was the tomb of Cecrops, and within it Erechtheus was buried.

"The ruin of the Erechtheum is of white marble; the architectural ornaments of very exquisite workmanship, and uncommonly curious. The columns of the front of the temple of Neptune are standing with the architrave; and also the screen and portico of Minerva Polias, with a portion of the cell retaining traces of the partition-wall. The order is Ionic. An edifice revered by ancient Attica, as holy in the highest degree, was in 1676 the dwelling of a Turkish family, and is now deserted and neglected; but many ponderous stones and much rubbish must be removed before the well and trident would appear. The former, at least, might probably be discovered. The portico is used as a powder-magazine; but we obtained permission to dig and to examine the outside. The door-way of the vestibule is walled up, and the foil risen nearly to the top of the door-way of the Pandroseum. By the portico is a battery commanding the town, from which ascends an amusing hum. The Turks fire from it, to give notice of the commencement of Ramazan or of their Lent, and of Bairam or the holy-days, and on other public occasions.

"The pandroseum is a small, but very particular building, of which no satisfactory idea can be communicated by description. The entablature is supported by women called Caryatides. Their story is thus related. The Greeks, victorious in the Persian war, jointly destroyed Carya, a city of the Peloponnesus, which had favoured the common enemy. They cut off the males, and carried into captivity the women, whom they compelled to retain their former dress and ornaments, though in a state of servitude. The architects of those times, to perpetuate the memory of their punishment, represented them, as in this instance, each with a burden on her head, one hand uplifted to it, and the other hanging down by her side. The images were in number six, all looking toward the parthenon. The four in front, with that next to the propylaea, remain, but mutilated, and their faces bejewelled with paint. The foil is risen almost to the top of the basement on which they are placed. This temple was open or latticed between the statues; and in it also was a fluted olive-tree, with an altar of Jupiter Herculeus standing under it. The propylaea are nearly in a line with the space dividing it from the parthenon; which disposition, besides its other effects, occasioned the front and flank of the latter edifice to be seen at once by those who approached it from the entrance of the acropolis.

"The ruin of the temple of Jupiter Olympius con..." ved, one was overturned with much difficulty, and applied to the building a new mosque in the bazar or marketplace. This violence was avenged by the bailiwick of Negropont, who made it a pretext for extorting from the vassal or governor 15 purses; the pillar being, he alleged, the property of their master the Grand Signior. It was an angular column, and of consequence in determining the dimensions of the fabric. We regretted that the fall of this mighty mast had not been postponed until we came, as it would have afforded an opportunity of inspecting and measuring some members which we found far too lofty to be attempted. On a piece of the architrave, supported by a couple of columns, are two parallel walls, of modern masonry, arched about the middle, and again near the top. You are told it has been the habitation of a hermit, doubtless of a Stylistes; but of whatever building it has been part, and for whatever purpose designed, it must have been erected thus high in air, while the immense ruin of this huge structure was yet scarcely diminished, and the heap inclined so as to render it accessible. It was remarked that two stones of a step in the front had coalesced at the extremity, so that no juncture could be perceived; and the like was discovered also in a step of the parthenon. In both instances it may be attributed to a concretory fluid, which pervades the marble in the quarry. Some portion remaining in the pieces, when taken green as it were, and placed in mutual contact, it exuded and united them by a process similar to that in a bone of an animal when broken and properly set.

"Besides the more stable antiquities, many detached pieces are found in the town, by the fountains, in the streets, the walls, the houses, and churches. Among these are fragments of sculpture; a marble chair or two, which probably belonged to the Gymnasia or theatres; a sun-dial at the catholicos or cathedral, inscribed with the name of the maker; and, at the archiepiscopal house close by, a very curious vessel of marble, used as a cistern to receive water, but once serving, it is likely, as a public standard or measure. Many columns occur; with some maimed statues; and pedestals, several with inscriptions, and almost buried in earth. A custom has prevailed, as at Chios, of fixing in the wall, over the gateways and doors of the houses, carved stones, most of which exhibit the funeral supper. In the courts of the houses lie many round flecks, or pillars, once placed on the graves of the Athenians; and a great number are still to be seen applied to the same use in the Turkish burying grounds before the acropolis. These generally have concise inscriptions containing the name of the person, and of the town and tribe, to which the deceased belonged. Demetrius the Phalerean, who endeavoured to restrain sepulchral luxury, enacted, that no person should have more than one, and that the height should not exceed three cubits. Another species, which resembles our modern head-stones, is sometimes adorned with sculpture, and has an epitaph in verse. We saw a few mutilated Hermæ. These were built on long quadrangular bases, the heads frequently of bronzes, invented by the Athenians. At first they were made to represent only Hermes or Mercury, and designed as guardians of the sepulchres in which they were lodged; but afterwards the houses, streets, and porticoes of Athens, were adorned with them, and rendered venerable by a multitude of portraits of illustrious men and women, of heroes and of gods: and, it is related, Hipparchus, son of Pisistratus, erected them in the demi or borough-towns, and by the road side; inscribed with moral apophthegms in elegiac verse; thus making them vehicles of instruction."