DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.796#0347
DESCRIPTIVE TOUR OF PAUSANIAS 301
Pylos, since it is Cleon, the hero of Pylos, who speaks in
this passage of the comic poet.
The bronze chariot made out of a tithe of the spoils taken
from the Boeotians and the Chalcidians of Euboea is next
mentioned by Pausanias. This is doubtless the trophy erected
by the Athenians to commemorate their victory about 507 B.C.
and mentioned by Herodotus (v. 77), who speaks of "the
bronze chariot drawn by four horses which stands on the
left hand immediately as one enters the gateway of the citadel."
An inscription in two elegiac distichs sets forth the occasion
of this dedication and alludes to the chains with which the
prisoners had been bound and which, according to Herodotus,
were hung up on walls blackened and scorched by the fires of
the Persian destruction. Just what walls Herodotus refers to
is not clear, but either the western wall of the older Erechtheum
is meant, or, if we adopt the view of Dorpfeld, the building in
question is the " old Athena temple." The inscription (vid.
Anthol. Palat vi. 343) reads as follows in the translation :
" When Chalcis and Boeotia dared her might
Athens subdued their pride in valorous fight,
Gave bonds for insults ; and the ransom paid,
From the full tenth these steeds for Pallas made."
From fragments of inscriptions belonging to different periods,
it is clear that the chariot which Herodotus and Pausanias
saw, was not the original one but a new one set up probably
soon after the conquest of Euboea in 445 B.C., or at the time
of the battle of Oenophyta (456 B.C.), and designed to replace
the old one which had been destroyed or carried away by the
Persians. The location of this splendid offering has been a
matter of much discussion. According to Herodotus it stood
on the left hand as one enters the Propylaea on the Acropolis.
But in his tour of the Acropolis, Pausanias in returning toward
the Propylaea mentions the bronze chariot directly after he
has spoken of the bronze Athena. According to Pausanias
then the chariot is to be located east of the Propylaea, in
contrast with the statement of Herodotus, which seems to
locate it west of or within the Propylaea. The apparent
contradiction is cleared up when we understand, first, that
Herodotus spoke of the old Propylon, recently more fully
Pylos, since it is Cleon, the hero of Pylos, who speaks in
this passage of the comic poet.
The bronze chariot made out of a tithe of the spoils taken
from the Boeotians and the Chalcidians of Euboea is next
mentioned by Pausanias. This is doubtless the trophy erected
by the Athenians to commemorate their victory about 507 B.C.
and mentioned by Herodotus (v. 77), who speaks of "the
bronze chariot drawn by four horses which stands on the
left hand immediately as one enters the gateway of the citadel."
An inscription in two elegiac distichs sets forth the occasion
of this dedication and alludes to the chains with which the
prisoners had been bound and which, according to Herodotus,
were hung up on walls blackened and scorched by the fires of
the Persian destruction. Just what walls Herodotus refers to
is not clear, but either the western wall of the older Erechtheum
is meant, or, if we adopt the view of Dorpfeld, the building in
question is the " old Athena temple." The inscription (vid.
Anthol. Palat vi. 343) reads as follows in the translation :
" When Chalcis and Boeotia dared her might
Athens subdued their pride in valorous fight,
Gave bonds for insults ; and the ransom paid,
From the full tenth these steeds for Pallas made."
From fragments of inscriptions belonging to different periods,
it is clear that the chariot which Herodotus and Pausanias
saw, was not the original one but a new one set up probably
soon after the conquest of Euboea in 445 B.C., or at the time
of the battle of Oenophyta (456 B.C.), and designed to replace
the old one which had been destroyed or carried away by the
Persians. The location of this splendid offering has been a
matter of much discussion. According to Herodotus it stood
on the left hand as one enters the Propylaea on the Acropolis.
But in his tour of the Acropolis, Pausanias in returning toward
the Propylaea mentions the bronze chariot directly after he
has spoken of the bronze Athena. According to Pausanias
then the chariot is to be located east of the Propylaea, in
contrast with the statement of Herodotus, which seems to
locate it west of or within the Propylaea. The apparent
contradiction is cleared up when we understand, first, that
Herodotus spoke of the old Propylon, recently more fully