DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.796#0031
io THE ACROPOLIS OF ATHENS
Pausanias, who seems not to have known anything about
it. Probably the postern was " the hole at the cave of
Pan" through which Lysistrata caught one of the women
endeavoring to steal out of the Acropolis (Aristophanes,
Lysistr. 720 ff.). Some suppose that this is the entrance
by which, according to Herodotus (viii. 53), the Persians
secretly gained admission to the summits of the Acropolis.
But the language of the historian as well as that of Pausanias
(i. 18, 2) seems rather to favor the view according to which
another stairway (42 in plan), connected with a narrow
underground passage further east and leading to the cave of
Aglauros, was the entrance made use of by the Persians.
This underground passage-way was discovered about seventy
yards to the east of the cave of Pan. It is about 33 metres
(44 yards) long, and ends in a cavern which is about 4 metres
(13 ft.) high. A branch of this passage leads by means of
a staircase (/) to a fissure in the rock, through which one can
gain under the fortification wall the summit of the Acropolis.
Entering by this fissure and ascending by a short stairway
you land on the summit to the north-west of the Erechtheum,
within the precincts of the Arrephoroi (see p. 218). The
existing stairway is of late origin, the steps being constructed
of marble slabs, bricks and mortar. Between the upper nine
and lower five steps there is an empty gap of 6 \ metres
(22 ft.) enclosed by the sheer rock, into which probably a
hanging ladder was placed. This passage may have been
the one by which the Arrephoroi descended on their secret
mission. It seems highly probable that this cave is to be
associated with Aglauros (9), the daughter of Cecrops, who
had a sanctuary, according to Euripides among the Long
Rocks and near the cave of Pan. Below this supposed
Aglaurium there are traces of a plateau levelled off in ancient
days, which may well be the spot referred to by the poet
as " the green on which Aglauros and her sisters danced to
the music of the pipes of Pan." In this cave undoubted
traces of worship have been found, such as a niche cut into
the rock for the reception of a votive offering, while in
the rubbish that covered the floor was discovered a marble
pedestal which, to judge from the hollow in its upper surface,
may have supported a statue of half life-size.
Pausanias, who seems not to have known anything about
it. Probably the postern was " the hole at the cave of
Pan" through which Lysistrata caught one of the women
endeavoring to steal out of the Acropolis (Aristophanes,
Lysistr. 720 ff.). Some suppose that this is the entrance
by which, according to Herodotus (viii. 53), the Persians
secretly gained admission to the summits of the Acropolis.
But the language of the historian as well as that of Pausanias
(i. 18, 2) seems rather to favor the view according to which
another stairway (42 in plan), connected with a narrow
underground passage further east and leading to the cave of
Aglauros, was the entrance made use of by the Persians.
This underground passage-way was discovered about seventy
yards to the east of the cave of Pan. It is about 33 metres
(44 yards) long, and ends in a cavern which is about 4 metres
(13 ft.) high. A branch of this passage leads by means of
a staircase (/) to a fissure in the rock, through which one can
gain under the fortification wall the summit of the Acropolis.
Entering by this fissure and ascending by a short stairway
you land on the summit to the north-west of the Erechtheum,
within the precincts of the Arrephoroi (see p. 218). The
existing stairway is of late origin, the steps being constructed
of marble slabs, bricks and mortar. Between the upper nine
and lower five steps there is an empty gap of 6 \ metres
(22 ft.) enclosed by the sheer rock, into which probably a
hanging ladder was placed. This passage may have been
the one by which the Arrephoroi descended on their secret
mission. It seems highly probable that this cave is to be
associated with Aglauros (9), the daughter of Cecrops, who
had a sanctuary, according to Euripides among the Long
Rocks and near the cave of Pan. Below this supposed
Aglaurium there are traces of a plateau levelled off in ancient
days, which may well be the spot referred to by the poet
as " the green on which Aglauros and her sisters danced to
the music of the pipes of Pan." In this cave undoubted
traces of worship have been found, such as a niche cut into
the rock for the reception of a votive offering, while in
the rubbish that covered the floor was discovered a marble
pedestal which, to judge from the hollow in its upper surface,
may have supported a statue of half life-size.