DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.796#0264
230 THE ACROPOLIS OF ATHENS
limestone quarried at Kara, and the Peiraic limestone, and
that these three materials appear to have been used together
at Athens only in buildings which antedate the Persian war.
The style of the. masonry and the form of the clamps (*—-,)
also confirm this date. The image that stood in this temple
is probably the archaic wooden one called the Eleutherian and
brought, according to tradition, from Eleutherae to Athens.
South of this building, with a slightly different orientation,
lies the later temple. The foundations, which alone are left,
are built of conglomerate stone. Its plan differed from that
of the older temple already described, and in that it was,
according to Dorpfeld's reconstruction, a prostyle temple with
a portico deep enough to have two intercolumniations. In
the cella are to be seen the foundations of a large base
(3 in plan) which possibly supported the gold and ivory
statue of Dionysus, mentioned by Pausanias as the workman-
ship of Alcamenes. Since conglomerate is seldom found
as a building material prior to the time of Pericles or in
the buildings that were erected under his supervision, it seems
probable that this temple was built after 420 B.C., and it
may be as late as the beginning of the fourth century B.C.
The precinct of Dionysus extended south as far as the
modern boulevard and north to the base of the wall around
the Acropolis, and it included the two temples already
described, the great theatre, and a colonnade adjacent to
the stage-building. Between the theatre and the boulevard
is seen a circular altar of late date and not in situ, dedicated
to Dionysus and adorned with garlands and masks of Silenus.
About fifteen steps to the southwest stands a marble shaft
on which was recorded a resolution of the Amphictyonic
council in favor of the guild of actors, a body which enjoyed
important privileges in the time of Demosthenes and numbered
also dramatic writers and musicians among its members.
The great theatre of Dionysus has been so fully discussed
in books that are accessible to most readers, and is in itself so
large a subject, that anything like an adequate treatment of
it in a work of this scope would perhaps be superfluous,
besides being impossible. Accordingly, we proceed to give
an account of only the most important features of this
structure (150).
limestone quarried at Kara, and the Peiraic limestone, and
that these three materials appear to have been used together
at Athens only in buildings which antedate the Persian war.
The style of the. masonry and the form of the clamps (*—-,)
also confirm this date. The image that stood in this temple
is probably the archaic wooden one called the Eleutherian and
brought, according to tradition, from Eleutherae to Athens.
South of this building, with a slightly different orientation,
lies the later temple. The foundations, which alone are left,
are built of conglomerate stone. Its plan differed from that
of the older temple already described, and in that it was,
according to Dorpfeld's reconstruction, a prostyle temple with
a portico deep enough to have two intercolumniations. In
the cella are to be seen the foundations of a large base
(3 in plan) which possibly supported the gold and ivory
statue of Dionysus, mentioned by Pausanias as the workman-
ship of Alcamenes. Since conglomerate is seldom found
as a building material prior to the time of Pericles or in
the buildings that were erected under his supervision, it seems
probable that this temple was built after 420 B.C., and it
may be as late as the beginning of the fourth century B.C.
The precinct of Dionysus extended south as far as the
modern boulevard and north to the base of the wall around
the Acropolis, and it included the two temples already
described, the great theatre, and a colonnade adjacent to
the stage-building. Between the theatre and the boulevard
is seen a circular altar of late date and not in situ, dedicated
to Dionysus and adorned with garlands and masks of Silenus.
About fifteen steps to the southwest stands a marble shaft
on which was recorded a resolution of the Amphictyonic
council in favor of the guild of actors, a body which enjoyed
important privileges in the time of Demosthenes and numbered
also dramatic writers and musicians among its members.
The great theatre of Dionysus has been so fully discussed
in books that are accessible to most readers, and is in itself so
large a subject, that anything like an adequate treatment of
it in a work of this scope would perhaps be superfluous,
besides being impossible. Accordingly, we proceed to give
an account of only the most important features of this
structure (150).