Pausanias; Harrison, Jane Ellen [Editor]: Mythology & monuments of ancient Athens: being a translation of a portion of the 'Attica' of Pausanias by Margaret de G. Verrall (London , New York: Macmillan & Co., 1890)

SEC. XVI

OF ANCIENT A THENS

4°5

There are strong reasons for placing the Trojan horse within
the precinct of Artemis.
In the Birds of Aristophanes, when the new wall of the city of
Nephelokokkygia is built, the messenger reports it as so big and
wide that two hundred chariots could pass along it

“ with steeds
As big as the wooden one.”

The scholiast62 on the passage remarks that Aristophanes is
probably not alluding in a general way to the mythical Trojan


FIG. 28.—BLOCKS OF BASIS BY STRONGYLION.

horse, but that he refers to the actual bronze one on the
Acropolis, for a “ wooden horse ” was set up on the Acropolis with
this inscription — “ Charidemos, son of Evangelos of Koile,
dedicated it.”
The scholiast read one line of the inscription, what was in his
days the top one, and left out the lower one, the sculptor’s signa-
ture. Two blocks of the basis 63 of this very bronze horse have
been found ; they lie in the precinct of Artemis, a good deal to
the right as you go in; their position now (1888) is shown in
the view (fig. 28). They are not in situ, but it seems unlikely
such very heavy blocks should have been dragged far. Fate,