DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.796#0076
THE EARLIEST HISTORIC PERIOD
5i
gods. It was still standing in the time of Pausanias, who
refers to it (i. 27, 1) as the temple of the Polias, and it
probably remained in existence until the close of the Byzan-
tine period. The grounds for this remarkable theory (48) are
briefly these : (1) During the interval of more than forty years
between the destruction wrought by the Persians and the
dedication of the Parthenon, the Athenians cannot have been
without a temple of Athena and a treasury. This may be
readily granted on any theory. (2) In official descriptions
•dealing with the sacred treasures and beginning with 435 B.C.,
the date when the Parthenon was finished, four separate
localities are named in which treasures and sacred objects
were kept. These are the pronaos, which is the eastern
portico of the Parthenon, the hecatompedos {yews eKar6fj.7reSoi)
which most scholars agree must refer to the cella of the
Parthenon, the parthenon used in the more limited sense
and referring to the western chamber of the building (see
below p. 136) and the opisthodomos, which term is to be
understood as referring to the compartment at the west end
of the old Athena temple or Hecatompedon (49). The identifi-
cation of the opisthodomos with these chambers in the old
temple rests mainly upon the following considerations : The
western chamber of the Parthenon was, as we have seen, called
the parthenon in the restricted sense and cannot therefore
have been the opisthodomos. Nor can this term well apply
to the western portico of the Parthenon, which would be too
small and too exposed to serve as a state treasury and a
storehouse for the treasure of the temple. Nor can the
opisthodomos be placed within the Erechtheum, for that
building had no rear chamber nor western portico. This
term then can only refer to the western chambers of the old
Athena temple. This view is strengthened by the directions
of a certain inscription {C.I.A. I, 32) dating from 435-4 B.C.,
which directs that the moneys of Athena shall be kept " in the
right-hand chamber" of the opisthodomos and the moneys of
the rest of the gods " in the left-hand chamber" of the same
apartment, applying these designations to the two small cham-
bers in the western part of the old temple. The latest
inscription which mentions the opisthodomos is not older than
.319 B.C., but the term occurs in many writers of the Roman
5i
gods. It was still standing in the time of Pausanias, who
refers to it (i. 27, 1) as the temple of the Polias, and it
probably remained in existence until the close of the Byzan-
tine period. The grounds for this remarkable theory (48) are
briefly these : (1) During the interval of more than forty years
between the destruction wrought by the Persians and the
dedication of the Parthenon, the Athenians cannot have been
without a temple of Athena and a treasury. This may be
readily granted on any theory. (2) In official descriptions
•dealing with the sacred treasures and beginning with 435 B.C.,
the date when the Parthenon was finished, four separate
localities are named in which treasures and sacred objects
were kept. These are the pronaos, which is the eastern
portico of the Parthenon, the hecatompedos {yews eKar6fj.7reSoi)
which most scholars agree must refer to the cella of the
Parthenon, the parthenon used in the more limited sense
and referring to the western chamber of the building (see
below p. 136) and the opisthodomos, which term is to be
understood as referring to the compartment at the west end
of the old Athena temple or Hecatompedon (49). The identifi-
cation of the opisthodomos with these chambers in the old
temple rests mainly upon the following considerations : The
western chamber of the Parthenon was, as we have seen, called
the parthenon in the restricted sense and cannot therefore
have been the opisthodomos. Nor can this term well apply
to the western portico of the Parthenon, which would be too
small and too exposed to serve as a state treasury and a
storehouse for the treasure of the temple. Nor can the
opisthodomos be placed within the Erechtheum, for that
building had no rear chamber nor western portico. This
term then can only refer to the western chambers of the old
Athena temple. This view is strengthened by the directions
of a certain inscription {C.I.A. I, 32) dating from 435-4 B.C.,
which directs that the moneys of Athena shall be kept " in the
right-hand chamber" of the opisthodomos and the moneys of
the rest of the gods " in the left-hand chamber" of the same
apartment, applying these designations to the two small cham-
bers in the western part of the old temple. The latest
inscription which mentions the opisthodomos is not older than
.319 B.C., but the term occurs in many writers of the Roman