DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.800#0372
0DE1UM OF ItEGlLLA. 351
Pausanias himself accounts for his silence about the Odeiura. He
says in his Achai'ca that he had passed it over in his Atthis, because
the building was not begun before he had finished that book.1 In the
same place he calls it the finest Odeium in Greece, and says that it was
built by Herodes in memory of his departed wife, Eegilla, whose name
it commonly bore. Of Herodes and his works at Athens we have
already spoken.2 Philostratus, in his life of Herodes,3 says that his
Odeium at Athens was much superior to the roofed theatre which he
built at Corinth. It was principally the roof, as we have before observed,
which distinguished an Odeium from a theatre. The roof of that of
Herodes was of cedar, beautifully carved.
From the time of Spon and Wheler down to that of Chandler, the
Odeium of Eegilla was thought to be the Dionysiac theatre. Even
Stuart and Bevett adopted this error. The opinions of earlier topo-
graphers were still more absurd. The Anonymous who visited it in
1460 called it the palace of Leonidas and Miltiades, and the school of
Aristotle. Theodore Zygomalas, in a letter to Crusius in 1575 also
calls it the school of Aristotle and Miltiades ; Babin in 1665 took it for
the Areiopagus. In the reign of Valerian it had been converted into a
fortress;4 and when excavated in 1857, under the superintendence of
M. Pittakis, was found covered with rubbish to a great depth. This
debris, among which was a mass of shells whose presence it is difficult to
account for, showed, by the coins found in it, five different strata, from the
Byzantine times down to the Turkish. It contained a great many other
remains, such as vases, and other earthenware, sculptures, rings, &c.;5
also pieces of calcined cedar, which must have belonged to the roof. A
bomb still full of powder was also discovered, probably one of those
discharged by Morosini and Konigsmark. The scene must have ex-
tended upwards of seventy feet to the south of what is still seen, as
indicated by several large stones, which must have belonged to the
foundations of the facade.
1 See lib. vii. 20, 3. s See M. Christopulos' Keport to the
2 See above, p. 178. King, ap. Breton, Athenes, p. 289. In 1825
3 cap. 5. General Fabvier got into the Acropolis
* Zosimus, i. 29; Zonaras, xii. 23. . through one of the arches of this Odeium.
Pausanias himself accounts for his silence about the Odeiura. He
says in his Achai'ca that he had passed it over in his Atthis, because
the building was not begun before he had finished that book.1 In the
same place he calls it the finest Odeium in Greece, and says that it was
built by Herodes in memory of his departed wife, Eegilla, whose name
it commonly bore. Of Herodes and his works at Athens we have
already spoken.2 Philostratus, in his life of Herodes,3 says that his
Odeium at Athens was much superior to the roofed theatre which he
built at Corinth. It was principally the roof, as we have before observed,
which distinguished an Odeium from a theatre. The roof of that of
Herodes was of cedar, beautifully carved.
From the time of Spon and Wheler down to that of Chandler, the
Odeium of Eegilla was thought to be the Dionysiac theatre. Even
Stuart and Bevett adopted this error. The opinions of earlier topo-
graphers were still more absurd. The Anonymous who visited it in
1460 called it the palace of Leonidas and Miltiades, and the school of
Aristotle. Theodore Zygomalas, in a letter to Crusius in 1575 also
calls it the school of Aristotle and Miltiades ; Babin in 1665 took it for
the Areiopagus. In the reign of Valerian it had been converted into a
fortress;4 and when excavated in 1857, under the superintendence of
M. Pittakis, was found covered with rubbish to a great depth. This
debris, among which was a mass of shells whose presence it is difficult to
account for, showed, by the coins found in it, five different strata, from the
Byzantine times down to the Turkish. It contained a great many other
remains, such as vases, and other earthenware, sculptures, rings, &c.;5
also pieces of calcined cedar, which must have belonged to the roof. A
bomb still full of powder was also discovered, probably one of those
discharged by Morosini and Konigsmark. The scene must have ex-
tended upwards of seventy feet to the south of what is still seen, as
indicated by several large stones, which must have belonged to the
foundations of the facade.
1 See lib. vii. 20, 3. s See M. Christopulos' Keport to the
2 See above, p. 178. King, ap. Breton, Athenes, p. 289. In 1825
3 cap. 5. General Fabvier got into the Acropolis
* Zosimus, i. 29; Zonaras, xii. 23. . through one of the arches of this Odeium.