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

THE ATHENIAN PNYX.

247

god of healing should be worshipped as the Highest and not as Umolv,
%«iTrip, or the like. Further, the worship of Zeus as a god of healing
was not confined to this place, as is shown by inscriptions found by
Ross north of the Acropolis. He thinks that these tablets were more
probably set in some of the niches of the rock of the Acropolis than
carried there from the Pnyx, as Welcker supposes; for there are
niches in the north side of the citadel rock very similar to those in
the Pnyx. So the inscription opos Ato? below the little church Hagia
Marina is rather against Welcker and Curtius than for them, for this
slope is distinctly separated from the Pnyx Hill. The rcfxevo? of
Zeus can scarcely have extended over the ravine between these two
hills. If, with Welcker, we admit that Zeus, who was worshipped
on the Acropolis as Zeus Hypatos, was formerly worshipped here as
Hypsistos, he thinks it an unsafe supposition that the tradition of this
worship was preserved and the worship renewed here in Roman times
in consequence of this tradition. Or if, as Curtius supposes, the
service of Zeus was never given up in this place, why do we not find
more distinct references to it in literature than the very vague ones
which Curtius cites? If it had been the " Gotter Markt " of Athens,
it is not likely that it would not have been mentioned. We have
no right, he says, to identify Zeus Hypatos and Zeus Hypsistos,
nor do we even know that Curtius's old Kpavaot ever worshipped
Zeus. We dare not, he thinks, go further than to say that the hill
was sacred to one or more of the deities worshipped in this part of
the city.

When we inquire where the Pnyx was, he proceeds to say, other
locations than those suggested by Curtius and Lolling can be left
out of consideration, as he has already shown that its site must be
sought on one of the three Pnyx hills. Christensen then reviews Dr.
Lolling's paper, which was published in the G'dttinger Nachrichten in
1873, and is decidedly inclined, with him, to place the Pnyx on the
north-eastern slope of the Hill of the Nymphs. This we cannot but
regard as an unfortunate conclusion. Dr. Lolling has lived in Athens
most of the time, we believe, since he wrote this paper, and he gave
us permission to say that he had entirely abandoned this idea In
minor details Christensen has followed Curtius very closely. His
paper is marred by a few inaccuracies in the descriptive part, which,
however, do not affect the main question.