DOI chapter:
Division A: The Agora and adjacent buildings lying to the west and north of the Acropolis, from the city gate to the Prytaneion
DOI chapter:Section VII
DOI Page / Citation link:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.61302#0312
140
MYTHOLOGY AND MONUMENTS
DIV. A
remarks of Synesius is simply this : Honorius, the proconsul,
was annoyed that the Poikile, a stronghold of Pagan philosophy,
should be held in such honour—more so, indeed, than the temples
themselves ; he therefore set to work to deface and dishonour
it by the destruction of the pictures. “ Boards ” (σανίδα?) is not a
natural expression for pictures, though it may be paralleled by the
Latin “tabula,” and again it is quite possible that it was merely a
contemptuous expression. Pictures were usually painted on wood
in the time of Synesius, so he would not stop to consider
whether his expression was archaeologically correct; in fact, he'
may only have meant, “ so the proconsul took away or made an
end of the rubbishing things.”
As to the style of the works of Mikon, Polygnotus, and Panainos,
it is perhaps possible to recover something of their manner from
the best early red-figured vase-paintings, but to argue from decora-
tive to monumental art is precarious. Of this we may be sure,
that the work of these contemporaries of Pheidias was simple and
austere, was rather of the nature of polychrome drawing than of
painting proper, and, however grand in outline and impressive
in conception, showed little knowledge of aerial perspective.
Within the portico Pausanias mentions two sets of shields-
those of the Skionaioi and their allies, and those taken from the
Lacedaemonians at Sphakteria. Skione 282 revolted in 423 B.C.,
and was finally taken and handed over to the Plataeans in 421 B.c. ;
Sphakteria, after a blockade of ten weeks and two days, surrendered
(425 B.c.). Thucydides recounts in full the disasters of both.
There seem to have been statues inside the Poikile, though
Pausanias mentions none. In one of Lucian’s dialogues, Demo-
nax,283 “ seeing a statue in the portico with one hand,” says—“At
last Kynaigeiros is honoured by the Athenians with a bronze statue.”
In front of the Poikile, Pausanias noted two statues of Solon and
Seleucus. Demosthenes,284 in his second speech against Aristo-
geiton, and ALlian 285 both mention that Solon had a bronze statue
in the agora.
The mention of Seleucus gives Pausanias occasion for a digres-
sion which occupies the sixteenth chapter, the only point of special
interest in which is that as an instance of the piety of this king he
notes that Seleucus restored to the Milesians at Branchidae the
bronze Apollo that had been carried away by Xerxes to Ecbatana.
After this digression about Seleucus, Pausanias mentions that
the Athenians, among other notable things, had an altar of Mercy
in the agora, but he does not speak of it as if he saw it at the
MYTHOLOGY AND MONUMENTS
DIV. A
remarks of Synesius is simply this : Honorius, the proconsul,
was annoyed that the Poikile, a stronghold of Pagan philosophy,
should be held in such honour—more so, indeed, than the temples
themselves ; he therefore set to work to deface and dishonour
it by the destruction of the pictures. “ Boards ” (σανίδα?) is not a
natural expression for pictures, though it may be paralleled by the
Latin “tabula,” and again it is quite possible that it was merely a
contemptuous expression. Pictures were usually painted on wood
in the time of Synesius, so he would not stop to consider
whether his expression was archaeologically correct; in fact, he'
may only have meant, “ so the proconsul took away or made an
end of the rubbishing things.”
As to the style of the works of Mikon, Polygnotus, and Panainos,
it is perhaps possible to recover something of their manner from
the best early red-figured vase-paintings, but to argue from decora-
tive to monumental art is precarious. Of this we may be sure,
that the work of these contemporaries of Pheidias was simple and
austere, was rather of the nature of polychrome drawing than of
painting proper, and, however grand in outline and impressive
in conception, showed little knowledge of aerial perspective.
Within the portico Pausanias mentions two sets of shields-
those of the Skionaioi and their allies, and those taken from the
Lacedaemonians at Sphakteria. Skione 282 revolted in 423 B.C.,
and was finally taken and handed over to the Plataeans in 421 B.c. ;
Sphakteria, after a blockade of ten weeks and two days, surrendered
(425 B.c.). Thucydides recounts in full the disasters of both.
There seem to have been statues inside the Poikile, though
Pausanias mentions none. In one of Lucian’s dialogues, Demo-
nax,283 “ seeing a statue in the portico with one hand,” says—“At
last Kynaigeiros is honoured by the Athenians with a bronze statue.”
In front of the Poikile, Pausanias noted two statues of Solon and
Seleucus. Demosthenes,284 in his second speech against Aristo-
geiton, and ALlian 285 both mention that Solon had a bronze statue
in the agora.
The mention of Seleucus gives Pausanias occasion for a digres-
sion which occupies the sixteenth chapter, the only point of special
interest in which is that as an instance of the piety of this king he
notes that Seleucus restored to the Milesians at Branchidae the
bronze Apollo that had been carried away by Xerxes to Ecbatana.
After this digression about Seleucus, Pausanias mentions that
the Athenians, among other notable things, had an altar of Mercy
in the agora, but he does not speak of it as if he saw it at the