DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.804#0043
38 THE BRITISH MTISEDM.
text of any antient author, and I believe that we are
indebted to the discovery of this valuable inscription
for the bare knowledge of his existence*."
But the supposition of Xenophon alluding to the
" older temple,'' by which we suppose the Hecatom-
pedon is meant, appears to us inadmissible. Colonel
Leake's explanation is more simple: he supposes
the Erectheium was really burnt in the archonship of
Callias, as Xenophon says, and not repaired till after
the close of the Peloponnesian war. The present
building then is that which was repaired and restored
after the fire mentioned by Xenophon.
It was on the spot occupied by this temple, that
Minerva and Neptune were said to have contended
for the honour of naming the city. Athenian super-
stition long showed the mark of Neptune's trident, and
a briny fountain, which attested his having there
opened a passage for his horse.
The beautiful vestibule of the temple of Erectheus,
when Lord Elgin was at Athens, was used as a pow-
der magazine; and no other access to it could be had,
but by creeping through an opening in a wall which
had been recently built between the columns. Lord
Elgin was enabled to keep it open during his oper-
ations within; but it was then closed, so that subse-
quent travellers were prevented from seeing the inner
door of the temple, which, as has been before stated, is
perhaps the most perfect specimen in existence of
Ionic architecture f. Under the new order of things
it will, we presume, be open for examination.
A singularly beautiful piece of architecture, con-
sisting of the capital, a portion of the shaft, and the
base of an Ionic column from the portico, forms a
* Inquiry into the Principles of Beauty in Grecian Architecture,
8vo. London, 1822, p. 165.
f Memorandum of the Earl of Elgin's Pursuits in Greece, Svo.
Lond. 1815, p, 25.
text of any antient author, and I believe that we are
indebted to the discovery of this valuable inscription
for the bare knowledge of his existence*."
But the supposition of Xenophon alluding to the
" older temple,'' by which we suppose the Hecatom-
pedon is meant, appears to us inadmissible. Colonel
Leake's explanation is more simple: he supposes
the Erectheium was really burnt in the archonship of
Callias, as Xenophon says, and not repaired till after
the close of the Peloponnesian war. The present
building then is that which was repaired and restored
after the fire mentioned by Xenophon.
It was on the spot occupied by this temple, that
Minerva and Neptune were said to have contended
for the honour of naming the city. Athenian super-
stition long showed the mark of Neptune's trident, and
a briny fountain, which attested his having there
opened a passage for his horse.
The beautiful vestibule of the temple of Erectheus,
when Lord Elgin was at Athens, was used as a pow-
der magazine; and no other access to it could be had,
but by creeping through an opening in a wall which
had been recently built between the columns. Lord
Elgin was enabled to keep it open during his oper-
ations within; but it was then closed, so that subse-
quent travellers were prevented from seeing the inner
door of the temple, which, as has been before stated, is
perhaps the most perfect specimen in existence of
Ionic architecture f. Under the new order of things
it will, we presume, be open for examination.
A singularly beautiful piece of architecture, con-
sisting of the capital, a portion of the shaft, and the
base of an Ionic column from the portico, forms a
* Inquiry into the Principles of Beauty in Grecian Architecture,
8vo. London, 1822, p. 165.
f Memorandum of the Earl of Elgin's Pursuits in Greece, Svo.
Lond. 1815, p, 25.