DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.803#0035
TOPOGRAPHY OF ATHENS. i 29
lite ornament, originally intended to hold the tripod
of Lysicrates. It is a beautiful little specimen of
architectural decoration; and may be seen any day in
London, in Regent Street, perched upon the top of a
church—a situation not quite so appropriate as that
which the original occupied.
The remains of the theatre at the south-west end of
the Acropolis are probably those of the Odeion (Mu-
sical Theatre) of Herodes, sometimes called the The-
atre of Regilla, after his wife. Pausanias remarks
in his description of Achsea, that this was the finest
building of the kind in Greece, and that he had not
described it in his account of Attica, because it was
not built when he was writing that part of his work.
From this we see that Athens was continuing to re-
ceive embellishments as late as the time of the Anto-
nines. This theatre, like others, was a large segment
of a circle; the length of the chord subtending it
within the walls is 248 feet, which would allow, accord-
ing to Leake, about eight thousand spectators.
One remarkable little spot on the north-west side
of the Acropolis is also determinable with certainty—
the grotto of Pan and Apollo, which was situated
under the Propykea, near alittle spring. Near the road
at the west end of the hill, which forms the approach
to the Acropolis, we still find the spring and cavern,
the latter furnished with " two excavated ledges for
the altars and statues of the deities, together with
several niches for votive offerings: the water of the
spring now supplies an artificial fountain a little
lower down the hill, and is conveyed from thence by
an aqueduct to the principal mosque near the bazaar*."
This stream was in antient days used for a different
purpose, having been carried by an aqueduct to supply
the horologium or water-clock of Andronicus Cyrr-
* Leake, p. 62.
d3
lite ornament, originally intended to hold the tripod
of Lysicrates. It is a beautiful little specimen of
architectural decoration; and may be seen any day in
London, in Regent Street, perched upon the top of a
church—a situation not quite so appropriate as that
which the original occupied.
The remains of the theatre at the south-west end of
the Acropolis are probably those of the Odeion (Mu-
sical Theatre) of Herodes, sometimes called the The-
atre of Regilla, after his wife. Pausanias remarks
in his description of Achsea, that this was the finest
building of the kind in Greece, and that he had not
described it in his account of Attica, because it was
not built when he was writing that part of his work.
From this we see that Athens was continuing to re-
ceive embellishments as late as the time of the Anto-
nines. This theatre, like others, was a large segment
of a circle; the length of the chord subtending it
within the walls is 248 feet, which would allow, accord-
ing to Leake, about eight thousand spectators.
One remarkable little spot on the north-west side
of the Acropolis is also determinable with certainty—
the grotto of Pan and Apollo, which was situated
under the Propykea, near alittle spring. Near the road
at the west end of the hill, which forms the approach
to the Acropolis, we still find the spring and cavern,
the latter furnished with " two excavated ledges for
the altars and statues of the deities, together with
several niches for votive offerings: the water of the
spring now supplies an artificial fountain a little
lower down the hill, and is conveyed from thence by
an aqueduct to the principal mosque near the bazaar*."
This stream was in antient days used for a different
purpose, having been carried by an aqueduct to supply
the horologium or water-clock of Andronicus Cyrr-
* Leake, p. 62.
d3