DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.5074#0365
THE EKECIITHEUM.
347
life that became intolerably bitter to him, when de-
prived of his beloved son Theseus, who thus received, in
the death of his father, his punishment of sorrow for
the desertion of the beautiful Ariadne in the island of
JNTaxos, almost within sight of the Acropolis.
Passing through the Propylsea you are in the pre-
sence of the ghosts of the three Minervas of the Acro-
polis—the bronze statue of Minerva Promachus, which
stood on a pedestal, in the great enclosure, alone in her
glory: the chryselephantine statue of Minerva Parthenos,
also by Phidias, which was placed within the sanctuary:
and the original olive-wood statue of Minerva Polias, said
to have come down from heaven, which was mysteriously
concealed from vulgar view within the inner chamber of
the Erechtheum.
The interior of the Parthenon was completely destroyed
by the shells of the Venetians in 1687, and the central
columns, six on one side and eight on the other, of the
noble peristyle were thrown down: but the rest of the
columns, with the beautiful porticos at the eastern and
western ends, remain to delight the eyes of the world,
while it is doubly sad to pass from under the rich
sculptures and many columns of the exterior into
the empty space and ruin within, — some beautiful
fragments are treasured there, but all broken and de-
faced like the walls that shelter them: and the only
way to fancy the Parthenon less a ruin than she is, is to
stand without, where naught but the rich tomb raised
upon the marble bier can be seen, from whence even the
fair form of the dead maiden has been rudely torn away.
The eastern half of the Erechtheum was dedicated
to Athena Polias: all the columns of the Ionic portico
but one are still standing, and they look very fine in the
morning sunlight. The western end had no direct en-
trance, but a splendid and still beautiful portico on the
347
life that became intolerably bitter to him, when de-
prived of his beloved son Theseus, who thus received, in
the death of his father, his punishment of sorrow for
the desertion of the beautiful Ariadne in the island of
JNTaxos, almost within sight of the Acropolis.
Passing through the Propylsea you are in the pre-
sence of the ghosts of the three Minervas of the Acro-
polis—the bronze statue of Minerva Promachus, which
stood on a pedestal, in the great enclosure, alone in her
glory: the chryselephantine statue of Minerva Parthenos,
also by Phidias, which was placed within the sanctuary:
and the original olive-wood statue of Minerva Polias, said
to have come down from heaven, which was mysteriously
concealed from vulgar view within the inner chamber of
the Erechtheum.
The interior of the Parthenon was completely destroyed
by the shells of the Venetians in 1687, and the central
columns, six on one side and eight on the other, of the
noble peristyle were thrown down: but the rest of the
columns, with the beautiful porticos at the eastern and
western ends, remain to delight the eyes of the world,
while it is doubly sad to pass from under the rich
sculptures and many columns of the exterior into
the empty space and ruin within, — some beautiful
fragments are treasured there, but all broken and de-
faced like the walls that shelter them: and the only
way to fancy the Parthenon less a ruin than she is, is to
stand without, where naught but the rich tomb raised
upon the marble bier can be seen, from whence even the
fair form of the dead maiden has been rudely torn away.
The eastern half of the Erechtheum was dedicated
to Athena Polias: all the columns of the Ionic portico
but one are still standing, and they look very fine in the
morning sunlight. The western end had no direct en-
trance, but a splendid and still beautiful portico on the