Stuart, James; Revett, Nicholas: The antiquities of Athens (Band 1) (London, 1825)

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30

OF THE IONIC TEMPLE ON THE ILISSUS.

his readers to determine with more ease and greater accuracy, how far they could concur with him in
his sentiments on this subject3.

■The spot on which it is built, commands a very beautiful and extensive prospect; and in the
neighbourhood are still visible the ruins and foundations of many edifices, which formerly improved
this pleasing situation, and adorned the banks of the Ilissus. Among these were the Lyceum, the
Stadium, the Altar of the Muses Ilissiades, the Monument of Nisus, and the Temple of Diana Agro-
tera; all which Pausaniasb has enumerated: and of this number likewise was the Temple of Boreas,
mentioned by Herodotusc. But it is evident from many circumstances, that none of them can be the
temple here described: these circumstances however do not affect the conjecture of Mons. Spon,
which so far deserves credit, as it is certain, that the temple dedicated to Ceres Agrotera, was near
the city, and on the South side of the Ilissus.

It should not however be omitted, that there was a temple, a statue, and a fountain, which
were dedicated to an Athenian hero, named Panopsd, and they were all of them, probably, near this
place; since by a passage in Platoe the fountain appears to have been just without that gate of Athens
which was nearest the Lyceum and the Ilissus. So small a temple as this we have treated of, seems
not to correspond with the high veneration in which the Goddess Ceres was held at Athens; and it
could by no means be sufficient for the reception of that train and pomp, which doubtless accom-

compulsion by the Greeks in seventy-five days, as a barrier
against the incursions of the piratical Albanians, who had made
descents on Attica in unusual force, subsequent to a Rusian inva-
sion of the Morea. But vestiges still remain more than sufficient
to indicate, to the regret of the traveller, the site of the ancient
temple. See Chandler's Travels, Vol. II. Voyage Pitt, do la
Grece, Vol. I. Chap. IV. Clarke's Travels, Vol. III. C. X. [ed.]

" The following citations refer to the temple of Ceres Agrotera,
and there seem to be none which furnish a better support for
Mons. Spon's opinion.

"ArPAI. Xvg.ov 'Arrty-cv e|&> t^5 ttoAe&s. "epcv A>j//>?T£0f. Hesychius
on the v/orA' Aypa.

' Agra), a place in Attica without the city. A temple of
Ceres.'

"ArpA. Aityti)T£os 'U^w, e|w tvc 7toaewj ttpo<; to xxia-cra. Suidas,
on the word"Ay£a.

' Agra, a temple of Ceres out of the city near the Ilissus.'

'AFPA y.cct' ATV AT, &C. £cri teat o\ tvj; Attics ttpo tvc- ttoAew?, \v
w r/sc. p/w^iw] tb pty.pcX ^vo-typta. sTrmAerrai. Stephanus Byzantinus
on the word "Aypcc.

' Agra and Agra;, &c. There is likewise an Agra in Attica,
near the city, in which place the lesser mysteries are performed.'

--------- Atto Rupees TPpoq Tii) lAKTcrw, ij y.'hri>7tc Aypa, y.cct Aypcct3 ov

nrcc p.ty.pcc Trie Avjaxtpoc- r;yE-pu po-mia, cc EAjyETo ret ev Aypcctq. Eusta-

thius in his notes on the second Iliad.

------' From a place near the Ilissus, which is called Agra

and Agrae, where the lesser mysteries of Ceres are performed,
they are called, the Rites in Agree.'

But although these passages prove that the temple of Ceres
Agrotera was situated near the city of Athens, and the banks of
the Ilissus, they do by no means prove it so near the Fountain
Callirrhoe, or that it was on the spot where the church of the
Panagia eis ten Petran stands.

b Pausanias having visited and described the Temple of Jupiter
Olympius, passes, by the Delphinium to the place called Kepoi,
or the gardens, and from thence returns again to Athens, by the
Cynosarges, and the Temple of Diana Agrotera; where he
seems to have crossed the Ilissus, and to have followed its
course, descending on its Southern bank till he arrived at the
Stadium; with a description of which magnificent structure, he
terminates the chapter. In the account Pausanias gives of this
little excursion, and of those objects, on his way, which princi-
pally excited his attention, he takes particular notice of those
buildings which were on the banks of the Ilissus. But as he
seems to have returned home directly from the Stadium, without
proceeding on to the Fountain Callirrhoe, and the little Ionic

Temple here treated of, both which are about one third of a mile
lower down the Ilissus, he cannot therefore be supposed to have
described either of them in that chapter. See Pausanias, Book I.
Chap. XIX.

c Oi d uv Avyvcc'tot atyt XEyovcrt (Scyfao-avTa. rev Ropyv TrportpoVj xcc)
tote EKiXva, HXTEpyccffcccrOctt. y.cct tpov cctteXOovtei; Bopecj loaucavTO Trapcc

•Kaia.\wt 'iaio-ow. Herodotus. Polyhymnia. Sect. 189. ( But
the Athenians say, that both this and the former aid they re-
ceived, were from Boreas; and therefore, at their return, they
built him a temple upon the river Ilissus.' But this temple,
which Plato indeed calls an altar, was three stadia lower down
the river, than the Fountain Callirrhoe. See Plato's Phaidrus.
Ylccvo-^/y ypuc Arrty.oc-. Eo"T( oe ccurov y.cct vecjc- tcoci ccyccXucc y.a.)

y.piivr,. Hesychius on the word Panops.

( Panops, an Attic Hero. He has a temple, and statue, and
fountain, dedicated to him.'

e '^.'Ttopivo^yji/ [jUv e| Av-CcSriyctccc- Evdv Avke'iov Tw e£cj te^ou?, eVeJ
o tyai/ouv)!/ yccrcc TW wuAtca, rt ri UccvoTToq kpyivy), EvTccvQa. crvtiETvyov

'lvwo6dxst. Plato's Lysias.

' I was going out of the Academy, directly to the Lyceum, by
the way which lies out of the city walls—but when I got to the
gate, where the Fountain of Panops is, I there met with Hippo-
thales.'

There are still some foundations of a gate near the Ilissus,
the situation of which docs, in all appearance, exactly answer to
that of the gate here mentioned, and near them were two springs
of water, one of which is the Fountain Callirrhoe so often men-
tioned here; and the other was perhaps the Fountain of Panops:
this latter has been dried up by a drain which the Turks cut in
the year 1753. The following passages in Strabo do apparently
relate to these springs.

E(V( jjciv ovv cct TPfiycci xadapov y.cct iroTupou boccroc- cj$ <pcco-tv, ly.roc rcjv
Aio^ccpovc y.cchovyAvwu Truman, irXriu'tov rod Avy.Etov irpoTEpov Se y.cct
y.pYivr) y.ccTicry.Evao-TO Ttc- irXrio-'tov woAAo? y.cct xccXov vaccroc. Otrabo, p.
608, and again p. 613 and 614, 'Eoti <Sz tokwto; ^ccktcrra. o 'iAio--

<70£, EX BcCTEPOV fAEPOVt; TOV OdTTEOq CEQV £(£ TJJV CCVTW 71'CCpCtXtCCV, Ey. TCJy

V7TEP T»J£ "Aypccs y.cci rov Avy.s'tov pEpcjv, xcti TVS iryjyyc: m vpyyiy.Ev zv

Qa'tSpa nx&rcia- Strabo, Book IX.

' There are however springs without the gate of Diochares,
which they say, are of pure and potable water, and formerly a
fountain was built near it, abounding with good water,' &c.

' Of the same sort [that is, a torrent which is dry in the
summer time] is the Ilissus running by the other side of the city
to the same sea coast; from the country above Agra and the Ly-
ceum, and the springs which Plato has celebrated in his dialogue
called Phaedrus,' &c.



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