26o

THE ATHENIAN PNYX.

still retain this as one of the most valuable passages in fixing the site
of Pnyx. It points plainly to the usually accepted place.

We must further disagree with Curtius, in regard to the mass of
rock left in the south-east corner of the Pnyx. It bears, as we have
seen above, all the marks of a piece of unfinished work. Why should
not the Greeks make their " Gotter Markt," as Curtius calls the Pnyx,
uniform in shape in the two corners? What reason can be given for
putting the official persons, whom he supposes to have stood on it,
away here in the corner, more than a hundred and seventy feet away
from the supposed altar and a hundred feet from the large niche in
which the statue of Zeus is supposed to have stood? If this is a stage
for officials to stand on, why cut it loose from the rock of the hill ?
If this precaution were taken with a stage for men to stand on, why
not bestow the same attention on the altar of Zeus the Highest,
for the so-called bema which Curtius takes for an altar is still attached
to the hill ? Further, how does it happen that the cut or trench
by which this supposed stage is separated from the common rock
is cut down to the level of, the lower step of the bema? This cut
is just wide enough for a man to work in, and is in some places
six or seven feet deep. It is cut in with a manifest view to the
saving of labor. The sides of it are left perfectly smooth. Thus
when the mass of rock was removed, the -back wall would present
a smooth surface, and the blocks into which the mass might be
broken would on one side need no further dressing before being laid
up in the wall, if they were to be used for such a purpose. "Why so
deep, if the intention was to produce a simple line of separation ? u

Several other points of more or less interest in regard to the Pnyx
will be omitted, as they do not materially affect the principal point
under consideration.

We have tried to present the question fairly; and we have found
that, while we cannot say with absolute certainty that the so-called Pnyx
is the real Pnyx, the evidence taken collectively is strongly in favor of
this conclusion.

U. On the constructive character of these masses of rock remaining in the
south-eastern corner of the auditory, see note N, p. 242, and note O, p. 244. —
J. T.C.