DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.4377#0084
414 TEMENOS OF DEMETEll, PE11SEP1IONE,
Continuing the blasting to a depth of 28' below
the surface, I found no change in the angle or
character of the rock. The entire height, from the
top of the escarp to the point reached by blasting,
was 127'.
When I first examined the escarp, the extreme
regularity of its slope, the general smoothness of
the surface, and the occurrence of the niches,
led me to suppose that the rock had been
wrought hy the hand of man; an opinion
which the authors of the Dilettanti Arolume, and
other travellers, have expressed. As, however,
it was clearly shown by blasting, that the rock
descends to a great depth, at the same angle
and with the same level surface, it cannot be the
work of human hands, and must be considered as
an upheaved limestone stratum, overlaid at its
base by broken strata of breccia, which lean against
it in the manner already described. The singular
configuration of the ground may have been caused
by volcanic action, of which the extinct crater in the
island of Nisyros would probably be the centre, as
this island is only twelve miles distant from Cnidus.
The dedication of the temenos to Hades and Per-
sephone makes it a priori probable that this site
was thus selected on account of some physical pe-
culiarity which, in the eyes of the Greek, was asso-
ciated with the worship of the Infernal Deities.
Thus, Pausanias tells uss that at Hermione, in
s 'O-urtiti' ce tov vaov rije ydovicKj ^upta ecrrlv, a kclXovoiv
Epfiiovele ru ^iti' KKvixivov, to at tlxovrwyog, to rptTOV ve avr&v
\iflvnv A^epovatav, WipiiipyiTUi fiiv 01} nnvrn OinyKole XiDior, iv tk
Continuing the blasting to a depth of 28' below
the surface, I found no change in the angle or
character of the rock. The entire height, from the
top of the escarp to the point reached by blasting,
was 127'.
When I first examined the escarp, the extreme
regularity of its slope, the general smoothness of
the surface, and the occurrence of the niches,
led me to suppose that the rock had been
wrought hy the hand of man; an opinion
which the authors of the Dilettanti Arolume, and
other travellers, have expressed. As, however,
it was clearly shown by blasting, that the rock
descends to a great depth, at the same angle
and with the same level surface, it cannot be the
work of human hands, and must be considered as
an upheaved limestone stratum, overlaid at its
base by broken strata of breccia, which lean against
it in the manner already described. The singular
configuration of the ground may have been caused
by volcanic action, of which the extinct crater in the
island of Nisyros would probably be the centre, as
this island is only twelve miles distant from Cnidus.
The dedication of the temenos to Hades and Per-
sephone makes it a priori probable that this site
was thus selected on account of some physical pe-
culiarity which, in the eyes of the Greek, was asso-
ciated with the worship of the Infernal Deities.
Thus, Pausanias tells uss that at Hermione, in
s 'O-urtiti' ce tov vaov rije ydovicKj ^upta ecrrlv, a kclXovoiv
Epfiiovele ru ^iti' KKvixivov, to at tlxovrwyog, to rptTOV ve avr&v
\iflvnv A^epovatav, WipiiipyiTUi fiiv 01} nnvrn OinyKole XiDior, iv tk