DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.4326#0028
G NI D U S.
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namely that the building delineated in our plates was too small for one so celebrated, as that
which contained the Praxitelian Venus, we may remark that this temple was noted, not for its
magnificence or its architecture, but for its statue, for the reception of which the cella in our plan
was perfectly well adapted by its dimensions, and more particularly by its form; for the statue, as
we are told by Lucian, stood in the middle of the chamber, whence we may presume that the
chamber was nearly square, as in our temple ; and not oblong with the statue towards the posterior
extremity, as invariably occurred in peripteral temples. There is nothing adverse to our hypothesis
in the style of architecture of the building in question, though it be less ancient than the age of
Praxiteles, as a new building may have been erected for the statue long after his time. In fact
the fame which Cnidus derived from the work of Praxiteles appears not to have been at its
height during his life; but at a later period, namely when the Cnidians refused the offer of
Nicomedes king of Bithynia, when Cicero cited the statue as the glory of Cnidus,* when it was
noticed by Athenaeus-f and described by Lucian, and when the epigrammatists exerted their poetical
talents in its praise, in short during the two centuries which preceded, and the two which followed
the commencement of the Christian aera. It is precisely to some part of this interval of time that
the architectural style of our temple belongs; and nothing is more probable than that the in-
creasing fame of the Praxitelian Venus and the accumulated offerings made to it, should, in those
times, have induced the Cnidians to build a new temple for the goddess. Nor can it be justly
said that the platform on which the temple stands is too confined for the Temenos of the Aphro-
disium. The area was not less than three acres, a space amply sufficient for such a garden as
Lucian describes, and which irrigated by some of the artificial conduits necessary for the supply
of the city, may have deserved the description which he has given of it. According to this and
our former supposition as to the stoa of Sostratus, it would follow that this " pensilis ambulatio"
adjoined the southern side of the Temenos of Venus, an arrangement not at all improbable.
The Cnidians had three temples of Aphrodite, bearing the respective epithets of Doritis, Acraea
and Euplcea.J The worship of this last having been the latest in date, we cannot have much
doubt that the Praxitelian Venus was the Euplcea. The epithet Acraea indicates a Phoenician
origin, like that of several Aphrodisia situated on other maritime projections in Cilicia, Crete,
Sicily and particularly in Cyprus, where in one of them the goddess bore, as at Cnidus, the epithet
of Acraea.^ The worship of Venus Acrasa at Halicarnassus may be traced to the same origin, and
* Cicero in Verr. II. 4, 60.
f Athen. lib. XIII. c. 6. (59.)
J KviS/oi rifiUxjiv A(j>pociTriv paAiara, Kai aipiaiv ecrrlv lepa rr/g
Ocov' to ptv yap aoyaionpov AwpiTicog, fiera §e to, ' A.Kpaiag' vzut-
tcltov Se, ijv KviSlav oi n-oAA.cn, Ki>ictoi ce ovtoi KaXovcnv EuwAoiav.
Pausan. Att. 1, 3.
The following inscription found at Corycus on the coast of
Lycia, records the worship of Euplcea at that place :
©£<w SEGaorw Ka'iaapi Kai TLoouciovi AafyaXeib)
Kai A(j>po$t'iTir) JLvirXo'iq.
Walpole's Memoirs of Travels, II, p. 585.
We find allusion also to the epithet in the novel of Chariton
a native of another city of Caria ; Callirhoe addressing Venus
says ' ir\rjv ov (jtobovpai gov pot avprrXeoviTrtg.
Chariton Aphrodis. p. 135.
It was probably in the temple of Venus Euplcea that the
great Conch shells were dedicated, which had the reputation of
having arrested the ship of Periander of Corinth, conveying
300 Corcyrean youths to Alyattes of Sardis, destined to a fate,
of which Venus could not approve. Plin. H. N. IX, 25 (41.)
XXXII. 1. Herodot. Ill, 48. Diog. Laert. in Periand.
§ Strabo, p. 682. At Cnidus the Venus Doritis was held
to have been more ancient than the Venus Acrasa: whence
we may infer that the worship of the goddess had been brought
from the Peloponnesus, before it was imported from Syria;
unless we suppose that the Cnidians had improperly given
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namely that the building delineated in our plates was too small for one so celebrated, as that
which contained the Praxitelian Venus, we may remark that this temple was noted, not for its
magnificence or its architecture, but for its statue, for the reception of which the cella in our plan
was perfectly well adapted by its dimensions, and more particularly by its form; for the statue, as
we are told by Lucian, stood in the middle of the chamber, whence we may presume that the
chamber was nearly square, as in our temple ; and not oblong with the statue towards the posterior
extremity, as invariably occurred in peripteral temples. There is nothing adverse to our hypothesis
in the style of architecture of the building in question, though it be less ancient than the age of
Praxiteles, as a new building may have been erected for the statue long after his time. In fact
the fame which Cnidus derived from the work of Praxiteles appears not to have been at its
height during his life; but at a later period, namely when the Cnidians refused the offer of
Nicomedes king of Bithynia, when Cicero cited the statue as the glory of Cnidus,* when it was
noticed by Athenaeus-f and described by Lucian, and when the epigrammatists exerted their poetical
talents in its praise, in short during the two centuries which preceded, and the two which followed
the commencement of the Christian aera. It is precisely to some part of this interval of time that
the architectural style of our temple belongs; and nothing is more probable than that the in-
creasing fame of the Praxitelian Venus and the accumulated offerings made to it, should, in those
times, have induced the Cnidians to build a new temple for the goddess. Nor can it be justly
said that the platform on which the temple stands is too confined for the Temenos of the Aphro-
disium. The area was not less than three acres, a space amply sufficient for such a garden as
Lucian describes, and which irrigated by some of the artificial conduits necessary for the supply
of the city, may have deserved the description which he has given of it. According to this and
our former supposition as to the stoa of Sostratus, it would follow that this " pensilis ambulatio"
adjoined the southern side of the Temenos of Venus, an arrangement not at all improbable.
The Cnidians had three temples of Aphrodite, bearing the respective epithets of Doritis, Acraea
and Euplcea.J The worship of this last having been the latest in date, we cannot have much
doubt that the Praxitelian Venus was the Euplcea. The epithet Acraea indicates a Phoenician
origin, like that of several Aphrodisia situated on other maritime projections in Cilicia, Crete,
Sicily and particularly in Cyprus, where in one of them the goddess bore, as at Cnidus, the epithet
of Acraea.^ The worship of Venus Acrasa at Halicarnassus may be traced to the same origin, and
* Cicero in Verr. II. 4, 60.
f Athen. lib. XIII. c. 6. (59.)
J KviS/oi rifiUxjiv A(j>pociTriv paAiara, Kai aipiaiv ecrrlv lepa rr/g
Ocov' to ptv yap aoyaionpov AwpiTicog, fiera §e to, ' A.Kpaiag' vzut-
tcltov Se, ijv KviSlav oi n-oAA.cn, Ki>ictoi ce ovtoi KaXovcnv EuwAoiav.
Pausan. Att. 1, 3.
The following inscription found at Corycus on the coast of
Lycia, records the worship of Euplcea at that place :
©£<w SEGaorw Ka'iaapi Kai TLoouciovi AafyaXeib)
Kai A(j>po$t'iTir) JLvirXo'iq.
Walpole's Memoirs of Travels, II, p. 585.
We find allusion also to the epithet in the novel of Chariton
a native of another city of Caria ; Callirhoe addressing Venus
says ' ir\rjv ov (jtobovpai gov pot avprrXeoviTrtg.
Chariton Aphrodis. p. 135.
It was probably in the temple of Venus Euplcea that the
great Conch shells were dedicated, which had the reputation of
having arrested the ship of Periander of Corinth, conveying
300 Corcyrean youths to Alyattes of Sardis, destined to a fate,
of which Venus could not approve. Plin. H. N. IX, 25 (41.)
XXXII. 1. Herodot. Ill, 48. Diog. Laert. in Periand.
§ Strabo, p. 682. At Cnidus the Venus Doritis was held
to have been more ancient than the Venus Acrasa: whence
we may infer that the worship of the goddess had been brought
from the Peloponnesus, before it was imported from Syria;
unless we suppose that the Cnidians had improperly given