DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.5253#0406
372 THE AGE OF PHEIDIAS AND OF POLYCLEITOS.
lature by bands and ornaments, less ponderous than usual, gives the burden
an appearance of lightness, suited to the graceful bearers. The impression
left by these maidens, as they still stand supporting the temple portico, is that
of the dignity and seriousness of those who perform a work of religious devo-
tion, while their glorious marble forms reveal, on the part of the sculptor, the
keenest sense for aesthetic truth.
Besides the Attic-Doric Parthenon and Ionic Erechtheion, there was raised
on the Acropolis, during this golden age of Attic art, the so-called temple
of Nike Apteros, a little gem of Ionic architecture, whose sculptures have
happily been preserved. That rocky prominence of the Acropolis jutting out
towards the south, where old Aigeus had watched for the sails of his son The-
seus returning from Crete, was sacred to Athena, under her special title of
Athena Nike, or Victory. Here Pausanias saw a diminutive temple, which he
misleadingly calls the temple of Nike Apteros, or wingless Nike, thus repre-
sented, according to his story, that she might never fly away, and desert her
people.688 But, according to other authors, there can be no doubt that the
building was sacred to Athena herself as Nike, a part of the Erechtheion hav-
ing been sacred to her as Polias.6S9
In 1676 the English traveller Wheler saw this small temple, and wrote of it,
"The architrave hath a Basso-relievo on it of little Figures well cut, and now
serveth the Turks for a Magazine of Powder." 69° Less than one hundred years
later, in 1751, Stuart found no trace whatever of the temple, except a few signs
of the foundations, and a few sculptured slabs built into an adjacent powder-
magazine. These four slabs of the "little Figures well cut," Lord Elgin
removed to England, where they now adorn the British Museum.69I In our
century, in 1835, Ross, the German archaeologist, caused the Turkish battery
on the Acropolis to be cleared away, and was rewarded by finding many more
sculptures, besides architectural fragments ; so that he and his colleagues were
enabled to charm the structure back into existence. And so again, although
without its pediments, it forms one of the most graceful features in the Athe-
nian landscape.692 Bohn's recent explorations prove, that the substructure of
this temple was built at the same time as that of the great propylaia, or
entrance portico to the Acropolis, known from literature to have been erected
between 437 and 432 B.C.693 This exquisite little temple (5.49 by 8.23 meters)
was then, doubtless, one of the last architectural achievements of Athens
before the Peloponnesian war broke upon her.
The Ionic frieze of Pentelic marble, 27.45 meters (90 feet) long, which
encircles the building over its columns, is only about forty-six centimeters high,
and is sculptured with figures in very high relief.694 On the east, or front, and
still in situ, appears an assemblage of mostly quiet, erect figures, occasionally
interrupted by a seated one, and partly represented in Fig. 166. This com-
pany of gods, in the midst of which Athena with her shield certainly appears,
lature by bands and ornaments, less ponderous than usual, gives the burden
an appearance of lightness, suited to the graceful bearers. The impression
left by these maidens, as they still stand supporting the temple portico, is that
of the dignity and seriousness of those who perform a work of religious devo-
tion, while their glorious marble forms reveal, on the part of the sculptor, the
keenest sense for aesthetic truth.
Besides the Attic-Doric Parthenon and Ionic Erechtheion, there was raised
on the Acropolis, during this golden age of Attic art, the so-called temple
of Nike Apteros, a little gem of Ionic architecture, whose sculptures have
happily been preserved. That rocky prominence of the Acropolis jutting out
towards the south, where old Aigeus had watched for the sails of his son The-
seus returning from Crete, was sacred to Athena, under her special title of
Athena Nike, or Victory. Here Pausanias saw a diminutive temple, which he
misleadingly calls the temple of Nike Apteros, or wingless Nike, thus repre-
sented, according to his story, that she might never fly away, and desert her
people.688 But, according to other authors, there can be no doubt that the
building was sacred to Athena herself as Nike, a part of the Erechtheion hav-
ing been sacred to her as Polias.6S9
In 1676 the English traveller Wheler saw this small temple, and wrote of it,
"The architrave hath a Basso-relievo on it of little Figures well cut, and now
serveth the Turks for a Magazine of Powder." 69° Less than one hundred years
later, in 1751, Stuart found no trace whatever of the temple, except a few signs
of the foundations, and a few sculptured slabs built into an adjacent powder-
magazine. These four slabs of the "little Figures well cut," Lord Elgin
removed to England, where they now adorn the British Museum.69I In our
century, in 1835, Ross, the German archaeologist, caused the Turkish battery
on the Acropolis to be cleared away, and was rewarded by finding many more
sculptures, besides architectural fragments ; so that he and his colleagues were
enabled to charm the structure back into existence. And so again, although
without its pediments, it forms one of the most graceful features in the Athe-
nian landscape.692 Bohn's recent explorations prove, that the substructure of
this temple was built at the same time as that of the great propylaia, or
entrance portico to the Acropolis, known from literature to have been erected
between 437 and 432 B.C.693 This exquisite little temple (5.49 by 8.23 meters)
was then, doubtless, one of the last architectural achievements of Athens
before the Peloponnesian war broke upon her.
The Ionic frieze of Pentelic marble, 27.45 meters (90 feet) long, which
encircles the building over its columns, is only about forty-six centimeters high,
and is sculptured with figures in very high relief.694 On the east, or front, and
still in situ, appears an assemblage of mostly quiet, erect figures, occasionally
interrupted by a seated one, and partly represented in Fig. 166. This com-
pany of gods, in the midst of which Athena with her shield certainly appears,