DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.804#0041
34 THE BRITISH MUSEUM,
Chapter III.
REMAINS FROM THE DOUBLE TEMPLE OP THE EREC-
THEIUM AND PANDROSOS.
Numbers 108, 110, 114, 118, 125, 126, 127, 128,
219, 220, 252, 253, 254, 255.
To the north of the Parthenon, at the distance of
about one hundred and sixty feet from that temple,
are the beautiful and curious remains of the Eree-
theium or temple of Athene (Minerva) Polias; ad-
joining to and forming a part of which stands the
temple or little chapel of Pandrosos.
Pausanias's account of the Erectheium is ambi-
guous ; but Colonel Leake, by a comparison of his
words with the passages in Herodotus, Apollodorus,
and Dionysius Haliearnassensis, added to an exami-
nation of the existing ruins, is of opinion that this
building, sometimes supposed to have comprehended
three*, in fact comprized but two temples; those of
Minerva Polias and Erectheus in reality constituting
one, and the Pandrosion the other -j-.
Speaking of the temple of Minerva Polias, Lord
Aberdeen remarks, " It is difficult to ascertain the age
of the celebrated double temple at Athens, of the Ionic
order. From the earliest times a building dedicated
to Minerva Polias and Erectheus appears to have
been an object of the highest veneration among the
Athenians. It is probable, that in some cases the
more modern edifice may have been confounded with
that by which it was preceded. The antient temple
was to a certain extent destroyed by Xerxes, and we
are not informed that the present building was restored
* See Stuart. f Leake, Topogr. of Athens, p. 257.
Chapter III.
REMAINS FROM THE DOUBLE TEMPLE OP THE EREC-
THEIUM AND PANDROSOS.
Numbers 108, 110, 114, 118, 125, 126, 127, 128,
219, 220, 252, 253, 254, 255.
To the north of the Parthenon, at the distance of
about one hundred and sixty feet from that temple,
are the beautiful and curious remains of the Eree-
theium or temple of Athene (Minerva) Polias; ad-
joining to and forming a part of which stands the
temple or little chapel of Pandrosos.
Pausanias's account of the Erectheium is ambi-
guous ; but Colonel Leake, by a comparison of his
words with the passages in Herodotus, Apollodorus,
and Dionysius Haliearnassensis, added to an exami-
nation of the existing ruins, is of opinion that this
building, sometimes supposed to have comprehended
three*, in fact comprized but two temples; those of
Minerva Polias and Erectheus in reality constituting
one, and the Pandrosion the other -j-.
Speaking of the temple of Minerva Polias, Lord
Aberdeen remarks, " It is difficult to ascertain the age
of the celebrated double temple at Athens, of the Ionic
order. From the earliest times a building dedicated
to Minerva Polias and Erectheus appears to have
been an object of the highest veneration among the
Athenians. It is probable, that in some cases the
more modern edifice may have been confounded with
that by which it was preceded. The antient temple
was to a certain extent destroyed by Xerxes, and we
are not informed that the present building was restored
* See Stuart. f Leake, Topogr. of Athens, p. 257.