DOI chapter:
Division C: The road immediately east and south of the Acropolis, from the street of Tripods to the shrine of Demeter Chloe
DOI chapter:Section XII
DOI Page / Citation link:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.61302#0438
266
MYTHOLOGY AND MONUMENTS
DIV. C
In his account of the temple of Zeus at Olympia, with its veil,
offered by Antiochus, Pausanias says31—“Antiochus also gave to
the theatre at Athens a golden aegis with a Gorgon’s head upon
it.” This splendid and conspicuous bit of decoration must have
been set up about 174 B.C., when Antiochus formed the project-
interrupted by his death—of completing the Olympeion. The
asgis would stand just above the cave of Thrasyllus, as seen in fig.
13, and it is impossible to conceive a more effective situation for
the symbol of Athene’s guardianship.
His attention once caught by the golden Medusa, Pausanias
notes what probably he would otherwise never have seen, a cave
FIG. 14. — THRASYLLUS MONUMENT, FROM STUART’S DRAWING.
with a tripod over it. On it was depicted the slaying of the
Niobids—a subject rather Apolline than Dionysiac, but anyhow
well in place on a tripod. Probably the subject was sculptured in
relief. It is worth noting that a Pompeian painting found in the
Casa dei Dioscuri32 represents two large tripods decorated with
gold figures of the Niobids—the sons on one tripod, the daughters
on the other.
It is possible, though by no means certain, that this tripod may
have belonged to the well-known Thrasyllus monument, of which
remains are still extant. What is now left is seen in fig. 13.
For fuller details Stuart must be referred to. In his days the
MYTHOLOGY AND MONUMENTS
DIV. C
In his account of the temple of Zeus at Olympia, with its veil,
offered by Antiochus, Pausanias says31—“Antiochus also gave to
the theatre at Athens a golden aegis with a Gorgon’s head upon
it.” This splendid and conspicuous bit of decoration must have
been set up about 174 B.C., when Antiochus formed the project-
interrupted by his death—of completing the Olympeion. The
asgis would stand just above the cave of Thrasyllus, as seen in fig.
13, and it is impossible to conceive a more effective situation for
the symbol of Athene’s guardianship.
His attention once caught by the golden Medusa, Pausanias
notes what probably he would otherwise never have seen, a cave
FIG. 14. — THRASYLLUS MONUMENT, FROM STUART’S DRAWING.
with a tripod over it. On it was depicted the slaying of the
Niobids—a subject rather Apolline than Dionysiac, but anyhow
well in place on a tripod. Probably the subject was sculptured in
relief. It is worth noting that a Pompeian painting found in the
Casa dei Dioscuri32 represents two large tripods decorated with
gold figures of the Niobids—the sons on one tripod, the daughters
on the other.
It is possible, though by no means certain, that this tripod may
have belonged to the well-known Thrasyllus monument, of which
remains are still extant. What is now left is seen in fig. 13.
For fuller details Stuart must be referred to. In his days the