DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.4098#0334
300 MONUMENT OF THRASYLLOS
There is a marble statue of Bacchus in the Vatican, clothed in a
similar manner; and it might easily be mistaken for a female, were
not the indications of the sex distinguished.
The cave seems to have been originally formed by nature, and to
have been enlarged by art. It penetrates about thirty-four feet
under the rock, and its general breadth is twenty feet. The only
antiquities that it contains are a few blocks of marble, a small cc-
lumnar pedestal, perhaps for a tripod ; and a fluted columnar altar,
similar to those at Chaeroneia.1 Here is also an Ionic capital of small
proportions and coarse workmanship, with some appropriate paint-
ings of the Virgin of the Cave. It receives a dim and mysterious
light, through two small apertures in the modern wall, by which a
singular and picturesque effect is produced ; near the eastern angle
of the monument is a marble sun-dial, which has hitherto escaped
the rapacious grasp of amateurs and antiquarians ! It is quite out
of the reach of the Turks, as indeed was the Bacchus : and has more
to fear from hyperborean than from Turkish barbarism!
The two columns which appear above the monument evidently
did not form part of any building; but were, as Stuart observes,
supporters of tripods; they differ in height and diameter, as well as
in the forms of their bases, and are composed of grey marble from
Mount Hymettos.
The painted terra cotta vases frequently exhibit tripods upon
columns similar to these.
The face of the rock on which the monument of Thrasyllos is
erected has been cut, and forms a concave segment of a circle; the
upper part of the KoiXov of a theatre, probably that of Bacchus. It
faces the south; an excavation which has been made, has discovered
part of the wall of the scene; and some of the seats are concealed
below the earth. This theatre was more than a semicircle, being nearly
in the form of a horse's shoe. On the western side of the monument of
Thrasyllos some square cavities of a large size, which are cut in the
1 See c. 7. p. 222. of this vol.
There is a marble statue of Bacchus in the Vatican, clothed in a
similar manner; and it might easily be mistaken for a female, were
not the indications of the sex distinguished.
The cave seems to have been originally formed by nature, and to
have been enlarged by art. It penetrates about thirty-four feet
under the rock, and its general breadth is twenty feet. The only
antiquities that it contains are a few blocks of marble, a small cc-
lumnar pedestal, perhaps for a tripod ; and a fluted columnar altar,
similar to those at Chaeroneia.1 Here is also an Ionic capital of small
proportions and coarse workmanship, with some appropriate paint-
ings of the Virgin of the Cave. It receives a dim and mysterious
light, through two small apertures in the modern wall, by which a
singular and picturesque effect is produced ; near the eastern angle
of the monument is a marble sun-dial, which has hitherto escaped
the rapacious grasp of amateurs and antiquarians ! It is quite out
of the reach of the Turks, as indeed was the Bacchus : and has more
to fear from hyperborean than from Turkish barbarism!
The two columns which appear above the monument evidently
did not form part of any building; but were, as Stuart observes,
supporters of tripods; they differ in height and diameter, as well as
in the forms of their bases, and are composed of grey marble from
Mount Hymettos.
The painted terra cotta vases frequently exhibit tripods upon
columns similar to these.
The face of the rock on which the monument of Thrasyllos is
erected has been cut, and forms a concave segment of a circle; the
upper part of the KoiXov of a theatre, probably that of Bacchus. It
faces the south; an excavation which has been made, has discovered
part of the wall of the scene; and some of the seats are concealed
below the earth. This theatre was more than a semicircle, being nearly
in the form of a horse's shoe. On the western side of the monument of
Thrasyllos some square cavities of a large size, which are cut in the
1 See c. 7. p. 222. of this vol.