DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.803#0034
28
, THE BRITISH MUSEUM,
Theatre of Bacchus.
see the Parthenon rising over the wall of the Acro-
polis, and the Propylaea to the left of it. Pausanias
also describes a street which he calls the Street of
Tripods, leading from the Prytaneium to the Dio-
nysiac theatre. " It contained," he says, " several
temples dedicated to the gods, on which there stood
tripods of bronze, the work of the best artists."
There is a monument still existing at Athens which
appears to belong to the class described by Pausanias,
and to confirm the idea of the hollow in the south-east
angle of the Acropolis, denoting the site of the great
theatre. It is natural, as it has been well remarked,
that we should expect to find the triumphal monu-
ments of the victorious choragi near the place of
victory. The monument to which we allude is that
vulgarly called the Lantern (Fanari) of Demosthenes;
it is now walled into one angle of the Capuchin con-
vent, which stands near the east end of the Acropolis.
The inscription on the architrave informs us that it is
the choragic monument of Lysicrates, erected B.C.
340, to commemorate the victory of the youth of the
tribe Acamantis, at the festival of Dionysus. It is a
small round edifice of marble with six slender Corin-
thian columns: the diameter is only about oj feet.
The top has a sipping roof, surmounted by a flower-
, THE BRITISH MUSEUM,
Theatre of Bacchus.
see the Parthenon rising over the wall of the Acro-
polis, and the Propylaea to the left of it. Pausanias
also describes a street which he calls the Street of
Tripods, leading from the Prytaneium to the Dio-
nysiac theatre. " It contained," he says, " several
temples dedicated to the gods, on which there stood
tripods of bronze, the work of the best artists."
There is a monument still existing at Athens which
appears to belong to the class described by Pausanias,
and to confirm the idea of the hollow in the south-east
angle of the Acropolis, denoting the site of the great
theatre. It is natural, as it has been well remarked,
that we should expect to find the triumphal monu-
ments of the victorious choragi near the place of
victory. The monument to which we allude is that
vulgarly called the Lantern (Fanari) of Demosthenes;
it is now walled into one angle of the Capuchin con-
vent, which stands near the east end of the Acropolis.
The inscription on the architrave informs us that it is
the choragic monument of Lysicrates, erected B.C.
340, to commemorate the victory of the youth of the
tribe Acamantis, at the festival of Dionysus. It is a
small round edifice of marble with six slender Corin-
thian columns: the diameter is only about oj feet.
The top has a sipping roof, surmounted by a flower-