DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.796#0042
THE EARLIEST HISTORIC PERIOD 21
foundations of the earlier Parthenon and the beginnings of its
superstructure, which formerly were attributed to Cimon, are
now assigned to the period of the restored democracy under
Clisthenes and accordingly antedate the Persian invasion.
The arguments for this view are best given in connection
with the history of the Parthenon in the chapters that follow.
Much probability may be claimed for the argument advanced
by Dorpfeld that it would be strange if during this period
marked by so much activity in Athens, when the Pnyx was
built and the new market in the Ceramicus was provided,
when the Athenians built their Treasury at Delphi and the
Alcmaeonidae rebuilt the temple of Apollo, no edifice of any
importance on the Acropolis should have been planned. But,
as will be seen later, more cogent arguments for placing the
earlier Parthenon before the Persian destruction are furnished
by recent investigations of the ruins themselves.
After this brief sketch of the history of the Acropolis in the
period closing with the Persian invasion let us turn to a study
of the remains of buildings and statuary that have come down
to us from this early time.
First in order of time we must discuss the so-called
Pelargicon (29). Under this term we will treat the general
question of the more ancient walls, although the word is
more commonly applied to the line of ramparts that defended
the western foot of the Acropolis and ran partly round the
northern and southern slopes. This limitation of the term,
however, seems to have arisen soon after the Persian invasion,
before that time the term having been employed to designate
the whole line of fortification that enclosed the Acropolis.
That the Acropolis was enclosed and defended from the
earliest times by walls surrounding its crest and protecting
the entrance at the west, not only seems probable from the
nature of the case but finds confirmation both in the legends
connected with the building of the walls and in the remains
of them that have survived to the present time. Of these
legends one runs that Athena herself was carrying a huge
rock to be placed as a defense of the Acropolis at its western
end, but that unhappily she let it drop when she heard of
the disobedience of the daughters of Cecrops, and that later
this rock was called Mount Lycabettus. Another legend
foundations of the earlier Parthenon and the beginnings of its
superstructure, which formerly were attributed to Cimon, are
now assigned to the period of the restored democracy under
Clisthenes and accordingly antedate the Persian invasion.
The arguments for this view are best given in connection
with the history of the Parthenon in the chapters that follow.
Much probability may be claimed for the argument advanced
by Dorpfeld that it would be strange if during this period
marked by so much activity in Athens, when the Pnyx was
built and the new market in the Ceramicus was provided,
when the Athenians built their Treasury at Delphi and the
Alcmaeonidae rebuilt the temple of Apollo, no edifice of any
importance on the Acropolis should have been planned. But,
as will be seen later, more cogent arguments for placing the
earlier Parthenon before the Persian destruction are furnished
by recent investigations of the ruins themselves.
After this brief sketch of the history of the Acropolis in the
period closing with the Persian invasion let us turn to a study
of the remains of buildings and statuary that have come down
to us from this early time.
First in order of time we must discuss the so-called
Pelargicon (29). Under this term we will treat the general
question of the more ancient walls, although the word is
more commonly applied to the line of ramparts that defended
the western foot of the Acropolis and ran partly round the
northern and southern slopes. This limitation of the term,
however, seems to have arisen soon after the Persian invasion,
before that time the term having been employed to designate
the whole line of fortification that enclosed the Acropolis.
That the Acropolis was enclosed and defended from the
earliest times by walls surrounding its crest and protecting
the entrance at the west, not only seems probable from the
nature of the case but finds confirmation both in the legends
connected with the building of the walls and in the remains
of them that have survived to the present time. Of these
legends one runs that Athena herself was carrying a huge
rock to be placed as a defense of the Acropolis at its western
end, but that unhappily she let it drop when she heard of
the disobedience of the daughters of Cecrops, and that later
this rock was called Mount Lycabettus. Another legend