DOI chapter:
Divison D: The Acropolis, from the Propylaea to the statue of Athene Lemnia
DOI chapter:Section XXI
DOI Page / Citation link:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.61302#0695
SEC. XXI
OF ANCIENT ATHENS
521
Of the old and grimy statues of Athene nothing certain is
known. Pausanias is now passing over the part of the Acropolis
which has been recently excavated (1888), and which has yielded
such numbers of archaic agalmata known to date from before the
Persian war. It is probably from these early figures that we can
form our clearest idea of those seen by Pausanias, but no closer
identification can be made out.
Of the representation of the boar-hunt and the fight of Herakles
with Kyknos, Pausanias does not even tell us whether they were
in relief or in the round. If the boar-hunt was in reality the
Calydonian hunt, tradition linked the name of Theseus with it ;
and though he played in it no more conspicuous part than many
another hero, it may have been in his honour that the hunt was
dedicated on the Acropolis. If Theseus went to the hunt, his
patron goddess Athene would go with him.
How the fight with Kyknos was conceived, we may conjecture
from vase-painting. If it was a group in the round, probably only
the two chief combatants appeared, and Kyknos (the swan hero)
was, we may be tolerably sure, in human form. If the composi-
tion was in relief, it may have been extended, something after the
fashion of a very interesting vase-painting155 in the museum at
Berlin. Here Kyknos has already fallen, and Herakles over his
body contends with the father Ares ; Athene is at hand to help
Herakles — Zeus on the side of Ares: to either side are the
chariots of Herakles and Kyknos, and sympathising deities of sea
and land. The legend of Kyknos is told variously, as Pausanias
notes ; it is usually involved with the cult of the god Apollo.
Herakles, on his way to Delphi, is waylaid by the giant Kyknos,
and slays him. Its connection with Attic legend is, of course,
due to the incorporation of Herakles into the heroic cycle of Athens.
Recent discoveries on the Acropolis have made it very probable
that Herakles had a shrine and cult there.
The mention of the two monuments relating to Theseus leads
Pausanias to a long digression on the Troezenian exploits of the
hero, which have been already noticed in detail. It is noticeable
that the onlyfour sculptured records of Theseus mentioned—?>., his
statue near Herakles, by the temple of Ares, and the three monu-
ments on the Acropolis (viz., the fight with the Minotaur, and the
two under consideration)—are. just those which appear on the coins
of Athens. “ This is an interesting fact, and shows that many
people at Athens were, like Pausanias, more impressed by separate
groups than by those (e.g., the metopes of the so-called Theseion)
OF ANCIENT ATHENS
521
Of the old and grimy statues of Athene nothing certain is
known. Pausanias is now passing over the part of the Acropolis
which has been recently excavated (1888), and which has yielded
such numbers of archaic agalmata known to date from before the
Persian war. It is probably from these early figures that we can
form our clearest idea of those seen by Pausanias, but no closer
identification can be made out.
Of the representation of the boar-hunt and the fight of Herakles
with Kyknos, Pausanias does not even tell us whether they were
in relief or in the round. If the boar-hunt was in reality the
Calydonian hunt, tradition linked the name of Theseus with it ;
and though he played in it no more conspicuous part than many
another hero, it may have been in his honour that the hunt was
dedicated on the Acropolis. If Theseus went to the hunt, his
patron goddess Athene would go with him.
How the fight with Kyknos was conceived, we may conjecture
from vase-painting. If it was a group in the round, probably only
the two chief combatants appeared, and Kyknos (the swan hero)
was, we may be tolerably sure, in human form. If the composi-
tion was in relief, it may have been extended, something after the
fashion of a very interesting vase-painting155 in the museum at
Berlin. Here Kyknos has already fallen, and Herakles over his
body contends with the father Ares ; Athene is at hand to help
Herakles — Zeus on the side of Ares: to either side are the
chariots of Herakles and Kyknos, and sympathising deities of sea
and land. The legend of Kyknos is told variously, as Pausanias
notes ; it is usually involved with the cult of the god Apollo.
Herakles, on his way to Delphi, is waylaid by the giant Kyknos,
and slays him. Its connection with Attic legend is, of course,
due to the incorporation of Herakles into the heroic cycle of Athens.
Recent discoveries on the Acropolis have made it very probable
that Herakles had a shrine and cult there.
The mention of the two monuments relating to Theseus leads
Pausanias to a long digression on the Troezenian exploits of the
hero, which have been already noticed in detail. It is noticeable
that the onlyfour sculptured records of Theseus mentioned—?>., his
statue near Herakles, by the temple of Ares, and the three monu-
ments on the Acropolis (viz., the fight with the Minotaur, and the
two under consideration)—are. just those which appear on the coins
of Athens. “ This is an interesting fact, and shows that many
people at Athens were, like Pausanias, more impressed by separate
groups than by those (e.g., the metopes of the so-called Theseion)