DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.796#0246
212 THE ACROPOLIS OF ATHENS
which Pausanias describes the objects in the Erechtheum is to
be accounted for not so much by the relation of the parts of the
building to one another as by the relation which the objects
within have to the building and its cults. He supposes that
Pausanias first arrives at the eastern front, and that the altars
named by him stood in the eastern cella (B), usually assigned
to Athena. He next speaks of the objects which more than
anything else interest his credulous piety. These he viewed
by going down the small staircase which led from the central
chamber (C) to the crypt under the northern porch. After
surveying the " tokens" he re-ascends by the same stairway.
Before dismissing from our attention the interior plan of
the Erechtheum, it is worth while to notice the new view of
Professor Dorpfeld (142) on the original plan of this building.
The irregularity of the plan of this temple, together with
certain architectural defects, such as e.g. the lack of a corner
pilaster at the northwest corner of the porch of " the
Maidens," have led him to believe that the original plan of
the Erechtheum was a symmetrical one which included a west
half that was never built, to correspond with the east half.
From the accompanying plan it will be seen that a north
and south axis running through the centre-of the north porchv
and of the small door opposite, suggests at once a symmetrical
extension of the building to the west. With this extension
the temple has three divisions ; in the east and west respec-
tively a cella, and in the middle a structure of three
compartments having at the north a large decorative porch,
and at the south a small one. The two end divisions lie on
the terrace of the old Athena temple, but the central part
on the lower level of the " tokens" (a-tifieia). That the east
and west cellas with their porticos had each a roof and
pediment cannot be doubted. But the entire middle part
was uncovered with the exception of the central chamber (C).
The east cella was designed to be the sanctuary of
Athena, and to house the old wooden image of the Polias.
The central chambers were intended to be the substitute for
the old Erechtheus-Poseidon temple, which at the time
of Herodotus (viii. 55), contained the "tokens," that is to
say, the sea of Erechtheus and the trident-mark, and also
to shelter the sacred olive tree, which must have stood under
which Pausanias describes the objects in the Erechtheum is to
be accounted for not so much by the relation of the parts of the
building to one another as by the relation which the objects
within have to the building and its cults. He supposes that
Pausanias first arrives at the eastern front, and that the altars
named by him stood in the eastern cella (B), usually assigned
to Athena. He next speaks of the objects which more than
anything else interest his credulous piety. These he viewed
by going down the small staircase which led from the central
chamber (C) to the crypt under the northern porch. After
surveying the " tokens" he re-ascends by the same stairway.
Before dismissing from our attention the interior plan of
the Erechtheum, it is worth while to notice the new view of
Professor Dorpfeld (142) on the original plan of this building.
The irregularity of the plan of this temple, together with
certain architectural defects, such as e.g. the lack of a corner
pilaster at the northwest corner of the porch of " the
Maidens," have led him to believe that the original plan of
the Erechtheum was a symmetrical one which included a west
half that was never built, to correspond with the east half.
From the accompanying plan it will be seen that a north
and south axis running through the centre-of the north porchv
and of the small door opposite, suggests at once a symmetrical
extension of the building to the west. With this extension
the temple has three divisions ; in the east and west respec-
tively a cella, and in the middle a structure of three
compartments having at the north a large decorative porch,
and at the south a small one. The two end divisions lie on
the terrace of the old Athena temple, but the central part
on the lower level of the " tokens" (a-tifieia). That the east
and west cellas with their porticos had each a roof and
pediment cannot be doubted. But the entire middle part
was uncovered with the exception of the central chamber (C).
The east cella was designed to be the sanctuary of
Athena, and to house the old wooden image of the Polias.
The central chambers were intended to be the substitute for
the old Erechtheus-Poseidon temple, which at the time
of Herodotus (viii. 55), contained the "tokens," that is to
say, the sea of Erechtheus and the trident-mark, and also
to shelter the sacred olive tree, which must have stood under