D'Ooge, Martin L.: The Acropolis of Athens (New York, 1908)

72 THE ACROPOLIS OF ATHENS

occupied the attention of Themistocles and Cimon. Though
we have no statement of an ancient author to prove it, yet,
as Wachsmuth (61) says, it is inconceivable that the south side
of the Acropolis should have been defended by a wall and no
defense should have been erected to protect the entrance at the
west. That the Nike bastion became again a strong tower of
defense and defiance need not be doubted, whatever doubts
we may have as regards its form and outline at that time
in distinction from its later appearance and its relation to
the Propylaea of Mnesicles. As Furtwangler {Masterpieces,
p. 422) says: "The Pyrgos (tower) at the western extremity
of the wall only lost its significance as a fortification by the
erection of the Periclean Propylaea and of the temple of Nike."
Its position is such that, like fortifications of the ancients in
general, it threatens the right and unprotected side of the
enemy as he advances. From its summit we gain the best
view of the Saronic gulf, the coast line of Attica, the islands
of Salamis and Aegina, the mountains of the Peloponnesus,
the Attic plain, and the ranges of Parnes, Cithaeron, and
other mountains beyond. It was from this cliff King Aegeus
watched for the return of his son Theseus from his conflict
with the Minotaur, and seeing the ship returning with black
sails he thought his son had been slain. So he flung himself
down and was killed. {Paus. i. 22, 5.)

From what has been said in the preceding chapter con-
cerning the approach to the summit of the Acropolis, it is
plain that at the level of the Nike bastion and in close relation
to it there must have been an ancient portal, possibly in the
earliest time the uppermost of the nine gates of the Pelasgic
fortification that guarded the entrance to the Acropolis. This
gateway was probably rebuilt (Judeich, Topogr. 62), in part
if not wholly of marble, by Pisistratus. Marks of fire on the
marble ruins found by Ross point to its existence before
the Persian destruction. Dorpfeld (62) points out that the
marble metopes of the old Hecatompedon were used to con-
ceal and face the old Pelasgic wall that ran in front of the
Propylon.

Let us now note more particularly what remains of this
ancient Propylon can be identified. Adjoining the Pelasgic
wall which runs across the southwestern corner of the Aero-