Papers of the American School of Classical Studies at Athens (4.1885-1886)

THE ATHENIAN PNYX.

255

already been suggested by others : these inscriptions are generally
admitted to date from a late period, that of the Roman emperors;
the inscriptions found by Ross north of the Acropolis indicate that
the worship of Zeus Hypsistos was not confined to the Pnyx; there
is a lack of evidence that the Kpavaoi, who Curtius thinks inhabited
the region of the Pnyx Hills, ever worshipped Zeus Hypsistos; it is
unsafe to assume that Hypsistos is the same as Hypatos; there is no
evidence that the tablets found by Lord Aberdeen were arranged
with any reference to the statue which is supposed to have stood in
the large niche in the back wall of the Pnyx, as one of the small
niches has been destroyed in making the large one; that a tradition
of an ancient worship of Zeus was preserved here through the ages,
and the worship resumed in later times in consequence of the tradition,
is highly improbable, as Christensen suggests; the names on the
tablet found by Lord Aberdeen indicate that the tablets were set up
by women of the lower classes; if the worship of Zeus as a healer in
this place had had a national character, he would in all probability
have been worshipped under some other name than Hypsistos.

5. The character of the so-called Pnyx is out of harmony with the
age of Attic oratory.

This can scarcely be said of any part of the Pnyx except the semi-
circular wall which supports the terrace at the lower side.7. The
bema belongs manifestly to a later date than the remains of the
rock-dwellings north-west of it on the Pnyx Hill. The semicircular
wall is not so rude in structure as the walls of Tiryns, nor as many
of the ancient walls that are to be seen in southern Italy, and would
seem, therefore, to belong to a later period than several writers on
the topography of Athens have supposed. Goettling, as stated
above, held the opinion that the circular wall is older than the bema
and the rock-wall.

After almost a month of work on the Pnyx Hill, during which time
the blocks of the circular wall, the bema, and many details were
measured many times, we came away with a strong impression that
the work about the Pnyx has extended over a long period of time,
and that while some of it was certainly done in remote antiquity,
some belongs to a period much later than that of many specimens

T. On this point compare note N, p. 242. —J. T. C.