DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.800#0447
424 ANCIENT A THENS.
not. It may be added that the image was made of olive wood;" and it
was for this, and not for Pheidias' splendid statue in the Parthenon, that
the peplus was woven. Callimachus made the golden lamp for the god-
dess. It was replenished with oil on a certain day in every year, which
sufficed till the same day recurred, though the lamp was kept burning
day and night. It had a wick of Carpasian flax, which is the only sort
that fire does not consume. The smoke was carried off through a
bronze palm-tree over the lamp, which reached to the roof. This shows
that the temple of Athena Polias was a covered one, while that of Pan-
drosus, as we shall see, appears to have been hypsethral.
Pausanias then proceeds to relate (c. 27, 1) that there was in the
temple of Polias, which he now names for the first time, a wooden
Hermes, said to have been an anathema of Cecrops. It could not be
seen at the first glance, for the myrtle boughs round about it.2 It was
customary to deck the images of the gods with boughs, hair, garlands,
&c. ;3 and the myrtle was sacred to Hermes as a ^#owo9 #eo?, or infernal
deity. We cannot explain why he should have been placed in this
temple, except that he appears to have been one of the original deities
of the Cecropia, unless indeed he be here as conductor of the dead. For
the whole building appears to have had a funereal character, as we shall
see further on.4 We may mention that near the Erechtheium is still
seen a very archaic Hermes, bearing a calf on his shoulders. The ori-
ginal gods of Cecropia (dicpaloi 8eol) appear to have been Zeus, Hermes,
and Poseidon; to which were afterwards added Athena and Hephaestus.
Apollo was a still later addition, and had no shrine on the Acropolis
itself, but in the grotto under it ('AttoXKxov inraicpaios;)? It seems probable
that there was also a statue of Erechtheus in the temple, though Pau-
sanias does not here mention it. For in another place he says that there
was such a statue at Athens, and that it was one of the most famous
works of Myron.6
1 c'fcXaiW—Demosth.c. Androt. p. 134, 3 SeePaus.ii.ll,6;iii.26,l; viii.39,fin.
Reiske, and scholia, p. 597. * See Siebelis, ad loc. and Mommsen,
2 The vulgate has tvavvoirrov, which Heortologie, p. 15, note.
makes no convenient sense; and we must 5 Biitticher, in Philologus, B. xxii. S. 93.
therefore read, with Facius, ou for tu. 6 lib. ix. 30, 1.
not. It may be added that the image was made of olive wood;" and it
was for this, and not for Pheidias' splendid statue in the Parthenon, that
the peplus was woven. Callimachus made the golden lamp for the god-
dess. It was replenished with oil on a certain day in every year, which
sufficed till the same day recurred, though the lamp was kept burning
day and night. It had a wick of Carpasian flax, which is the only sort
that fire does not consume. The smoke was carried off through a
bronze palm-tree over the lamp, which reached to the roof. This shows
that the temple of Athena Polias was a covered one, while that of Pan-
drosus, as we shall see, appears to have been hypsethral.
Pausanias then proceeds to relate (c. 27, 1) that there was in the
temple of Polias, which he now names for the first time, a wooden
Hermes, said to have been an anathema of Cecrops. It could not be
seen at the first glance, for the myrtle boughs round about it.2 It was
customary to deck the images of the gods with boughs, hair, garlands,
&c. ;3 and the myrtle was sacred to Hermes as a ^#owo9 #eo?, or infernal
deity. We cannot explain why he should have been placed in this
temple, except that he appears to have been one of the original deities
of the Cecropia, unless indeed he be here as conductor of the dead. For
the whole building appears to have had a funereal character, as we shall
see further on.4 We may mention that near the Erechtheium is still
seen a very archaic Hermes, bearing a calf on his shoulders. The ori-
ginal gods of Cecropia (dicpaloi 8eol) appear to have been Zeus, Hermes,
and Poseidon; to which were afterwards added Athena and Hephaestus.
Apollo was a still later addition, and had no shrine on the Acropolis
itself, but in the grotto under it ('AttoXKxov inraicpaios;)? It seems probable
that there was also a statue of Erechtheus in the temple, though Pau-
sanias does not here mention it. For in another place he says that there
was such a statue at Athens, and that it was one of the most famous
works of Myron.6
1 c'fcXaiW—Demosth.c. Androt. p. 134, 3 SeePaus.ii.ll,6;iii.26,l; viii.39,fin.
Reiske, and scholia, p. 597. * See Siebelis, ad loc. and Mommsen,
2 The vulgate has tvavvoirrov, which Heortologie, p. 15, note.
makes no convenient sense; and we must 5 Biitticher, in Philologus, B. xxii. S. 93.
therefore read, with Facius, ou for tu. 6 lib. ix. 30, 1.