DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.4263#0040
'ES.
T *"*■**.
p-westside!butt;
has so c°»^abl;
:cumulationofeaitl;
°f C°nSe(lUe«ee, k
,p°rti0ns- ^ is more
3U8e8n«*W
moulding within ^^
)rm.
ot, at its first appear
liately give him that
arkably dep^ ^
■ octogon, are noble,
>ress the characters of
. sun-dial j and as the
al, is a perpendicular
3 correspondent hour.
1 out these dials, sup.
f the horizon, and the
for on applying to its
2 meridian), a magne-
:urate Dr. Knight, it
be ascertained by re-
i at Athens.
ral considerable exa
>f about fourteen feet
The trench was then
:o continue if likewise
I by a wall which p»
ling; for not only the
are so wrought, as to
ill: on farther search,
1 to project from the
ext place that seed
e of Skiron, therere-
ine. Here on re^
atcrpartoftwo^
s. manyfrag^ts0
dng these reseai
which it is re]
1 on the spot, es
by it; these are ft
aderanrorepe'
relief
OF THE OCTOGON TOWER OF ANDRONICUS CYRRHESTES. 39
of great devotion, in which at stated times, certain Dervises perform the circular Mohammedan
dancea: but as the inside of the tower was filled to a considerable height, with dirt and rubbish, the
inequality of whose surface might prove some impediment to this religious exercise, the whole space
has been laid with a deal floor, at the distance of about seven feet from the ancient pavement: the
Sheih, or chief of the Dervises, was applied to, for permission to break up the floor, and carry away
the rubbish which lay under it; this with great civility he readily granted : upon removing about 2700
cubic feet of stones and dirt, the whole pavement appeared, entire, of white marble, and inwrought
with certain cavities and channels, which are accurately expressed in the plan and section. Plate XIII,
Fig. 2. and Plate XIV, Fig. 2.
It is difficult to ascertain the purpose which these channels were designed to answer; some rea-
sons however concur to make it probable, that they are the remains of a clepsydra or water-dial".
The principal channel is continued in a straight line from the south side of the octogon to the
centre of the pavement, where there is a circular hole which communicates with a subterraneous pas-
sage : here the reader will be pleased to recollect that a piece of building which projects from this
south side of the octogon, has been already described; and its plan was said to be about three fourths
of a circle. This may well have served for a castellum or reservoir, from whence a quantity of water
was continually supplied, sufficient to work the clepsydra ; the hole in the middle of the pavement
would conveniently serve to carry off the waste water, by means of the subterraneous passage with
which it communicates. No attempt will be made at present to retrieve the particular structure of this
machine: or to shew precisely the manner in which the traces now remaining were connected with the
parts that have been long since desfroyed: to give this indeed would be to produce a proof, whereas
no more is here intended than to propose a conjecture.
If it should be judged necessary for the support of this conjecture to point out some stream
or supply of water near this place, by which the supposed water-dial might have been regularly
re
it is at p
resent i
•place
* The dance of the Dervishes, the offspring of a humiliating
superstition, lias been assimilated to the dances of the Corybantes
and the Salii. Osmanlecs of all classes occasionally join in it
with the Mewleivi Dervishes. They pretend, that during the
stupor produced by its revolutions, they enjoy an abstraction in
the contemplation of the divinity not always otherways possessed.
It is commenced by the officiators sitting on the ground in a circle,
who to the sound of drums and ruder tambours begin to groan
and yell the words 'Alia. La ilia ill Alia'. 'God. There is no
other God, but God'. At the same time rocking their bodies to the
time of the harsh discord. Soon they rise, and hand in hand
commence their frantic dance, the howls increase, when suddenly
one as if possessed breaks from the rest and with extended arms
begins to revolve with a sickening celerity and is soon followed
by his comrades; the horrid din increases, till at length the per-
formers are compelled by exhaustion to relinquish their religi-
ous pastime, leaving on the mind of the astonished Frank spec-
tator, the impression of one of the most abject forms of artificial
human degradation. [Jed.]
b The ancients, besides the use of sun-dials, had various me-
thods for measuring time by means of water. That by which
the orators at Athens were obliged to regulate the length of their
pleadings, was indeed a very simple contrivance ; but there were
also machines of a complex and artificial construction, which,
being put in motion by water, served to shew the hours : Suidas
informs us that these instruments were called Clepsydra:
K.}.E-]/vdea. hpyxvov u.<7TpoKoyiy.(jv Ev w ecl upul {/.erpov'/ru-i, y_.T.A. *<*(
ayyu'ov t%ov fuy.poT«T7,v ottw tti^i toy 7rufi^Eya. oirip Iv tu ^i/caarflpiw
uecttov L'^aTo; eViSeto. ir$o$ o tteyov ol pjjTo^. Suidas on the word
Clepsydra.
' Clepsydra. An astronomical instrument, by which the hours
are measured, &c. Also a vessel having a very small hole towards
the bottom, which was set full of water in the place where causes
were tried; by which vessel the orators were used to plead.'
Vitruvius, for what reason is not certain, seems studiously to
avoid calling these instruments by the name of clepsydra j he has
however in the ninth chapter of his ninth book, described some of
them under the name of (horologia ex aqua) water-dials, and
(horologia hyberna) winter-dials. The many minute particulars
which are mentioned in these descriptions, must render them al-
most unintelligible, unless they are accompanied with figures of
the dials described; but, omitting such particulars, a general idea
of one of them will not perhaps be unacceptable to the reader.
' To convey the water to this machine, the following method',
says Vitruvius, ' must be observed: behind the dial let a castellum
or reservoir be made, to which the water is conveyed by a pipe.
In the bottom let there be a cavity, and in this fix a brazen tym-
panum, having a hole in it, by which the water may run out of
the reservoir,' &c. This water was conveyed into a receptacle or
basin which it gradually filled, in the basin was a piece of cork or
other buoyant substance, which floated on the surface of the wa-
ter, and gradually mounted with it, as the basin filled; to the
float was fixed one end of a small chain, the other end of the
chain, being carried over the axis of a wheel, had a weight fixed
to it, which counterpoised the float, and always kept the chain
stretched; so that, as the basin filled and the float mounted, the
counterpoise, of course, descended, and the axis of the wheel,
about which the chain was passed, necessarily turned round ; the
wheel also in which the axis was placed turned round with it and
shewed the hour ; the equability of the wheel's motion, and, of
consequence, the correctness of the dial, evidently depended on the
equal flow of the water out of the reservoir into the basin.
There were doubtless various other methods of constructing
these dials, some of which gave motion to little figures, or sounded
instruments, or performed other curious feats; and some of them
struck the hour by dropping little stones upon a tympanum. But
whatever the machinery might be, the castellum or reservoir of
water, with the channel or pipes for conducting it, so as to ope-
rate on the'instrument, and a place also for conveying away the
waste water, must have been essentially necessary to them all.
T *"*■**.
p-westside!butt;
has so c°»^abl;
:cumulationofeaitl;
°f C°nSe(lUe«ee, k
,p°rti0ns- ^ is more
3U8e8n«*W
moulding within ^^
)rm.
ot, at its first appear
liately give him that
arkably dep^ ^
■ octogon, are noble,
>ress the characters of
. sun-dial j and as the
al, is a perpendicular
3 correspondent hour.
1 out these dials, sup.
f the horizon, and the
for on applying to its
2 meridian), a magne-
:urate Dr. Knight, it
be ascertained by re-
i at Athens.
ral considerable exa
>f about fourteen feet
The trench was then
:o continue if likewise
I by a wall which p»
ling; for not only the
are so wrought, as to
ill: on farther search,
1 to project from the
ext place that seed
e of Skiron, therere-
ine. Here on re^
atcrpartoftwo^
s. manyfrag^ts0
dng these reseai
which it is re]
1 on the spot, es
by it; these are ft
aderanrorepe'
relief
OF THE OCTOGON TOWER OF ANDRONICUS CYRRHESTES. 39
of great devotion, in which at stated times, certain Dervises perform the circular Mohammedan
dancea: but as the inside of the tower was filled to a considerable height, with dirt and rubbish, the
inequality of whose surface might prove some impediment to this religious exercise, the whole space
has been laid with a deal floor, at the distance of about seven feet from the ancient pavement: the
Sheih, or chief of the Dervises, was applied to, for permission to break up the floor, and carry away
the rubbish which lay under it; this with great civility he readily granted : upon removing about 2700
cubic feet of stones and dirt, the whole pavement appeared, entire, of white marble, and inwrought
with certain cavities and channels, which are accurately expressed in the plan and section. Plate XIII,
Fig. 2. and Plate XIV, Fig. 2.
It is difficult to ascertain the purpose which these channels were designed to answer; some rea-
sons however concur to make it probable, that they are the remains of a clepsydra or water-dial".
The principal channel is continued in a straight line from the south side of the octogon to the
centre of the pavement, where there is a circular hole which communicates with a subterraneous pas-
sage : here the reader will be pleased to recollect that a piece of building which projects from this
south side of the octogon, has been already described; and its plan was said to be about three fourths
of a circle. This may well have served for a castellum or reservoir, from whence a quantity of water
was continually supplied, sufficient to work the clepsydra ; the hole in the middle of the pavement
would conveniently serve to carry off the waste water, by means of the subterraneous passage with
which it communicates. No attempt will be made at present to retrieve the particular structure of this
machine: or to shew precisely the manner in which the traces now remaining were connected with the
parts that have been long since desfroyed: to give this indeed would be to produce a proof, whereas
no more is here intended than to propose a conjecture.
If it should be judged necessary for the support of this conjecture to point out some stream
or supply of water near this place, by which the supposed water-dial might have been regularly
re
it is at p
resent i
•place
* The dance of the Dervishes, the offspring of a humiliating
superstition, lias been assimilated to the dances of the Corybantes
and the Salii. Osmanlecs of all classes occasionally join in it
with the Mewleivi Dervishes. They pretend, that during the
stupor produced by its revolutions, they enjoy an abstraction in
the contemplation of the divinity not always otherways possessed.
It is commenced by the officiators sitting on the ground in a circle,
who to the sound of drums and ruder tambours begin to groan
and yell the words 'Alia. La ilia ill Alia'. 'God. There is no
other God, but God'. At the same time rocking their bodies to the
time of the harsh discord. Soon they rise, and hand in hand
commence their frantic dance, the howls increase, when suddenly
one as if possessed breaks from the rest and with extended arms
begins to revolve with a sickening celerity and is soon followed
by his comrades; the horrid din increases, till at length the per-
formers are compelled by exhaustion to relinquish their religi-
ous pastime, leaving on the mind of the astonished Frank spec-
tator, the impression of one of the most abject forms of artificial
human degradation. [Jed.]
b The ancients, besides the use of sun-dials, had various me-
thods for measuring time by means of water. That by which
the orators at Athens were obliged to regulate the length of their
pleadings, was indeed a very simple contrivance ; but there were
also machines of a complex and artificial construction, which,
being put in motion by water, served to shew the hours : Suidas
informs us that these instruments were called Clepsydra:
K.}.E-]/vdea. hpyxvov u.<7TpoKoyiy.(jv Ev w ecl upul {/.erpov'/ru-i, y_.T.A. *<*(
ayyu'ov t%ov fuy.poT«T7,v ottw tti^i toy 7rufi^Eya. oirip Iv tu ^i/caarflpiw
uecttov L'^aTo; eViSeto. ir$o$ o tteyov ol pjjTo^. Suidas on the word
Clepsydra.
' Clepsydra. An astronomical instrument, by which the hours
are measured, &c. Also a vessel having a very small hole towards
the bottom, which was set full of water in the place where causes
were tried; by which vessel the orators were used to plead.'
Vitruvius, for what reason is not certain, seems studiously to
avoid calling these instruments by the name of clepsydra j he has
however in the ninth chapter of his ninth book, described some of
them under the name of (horologia ex aqua) water-dials, and
(horologia hyberna) winter-dials. The many minute particulars
which are mentioned in these descriptions, must render them al-
most unintelligible, unless they are accompanied with figures of
the dials described; but, omitting such particulars, a general idea
of one of them will not perhaps be unacceptable to the reader.
' To convey the water to this machine, the following method',
says Vitruvius, ' must be observed: behind the dial let a castellum
or reservoir be made, to which the water is conveyed by a pipe.
In the bottom let there be a cavity, and in this fix a brazen tym-
panum, having a hole in it, by which the water may run out of
the reservoir,' &c. This water was conveyed into a receptacle or
basin which it gradually filled, in the basin was a piece of cork or
other buoyant substance, which floated on the surface of the wa-
ter, and gradually mounted with it, as the basin filled; to the
float was fixed one end of a small chain, the other end of the
chain, being carried over the axis of a wheel, had a weight fixed
to it, which counterpoised the float, and always kept the chain
stretched; so that, as the basin filled and the float mounted, the
counterpoise, of course, descended, and the axis of the wheel,
about which the chain was passed, necessarily turned round ; the
wheel also in which the axis was placed turned round with it and
shewed the hour ; the equability of the wheel's motion, and, of
consequence, the correctness of the dial, evidently depended on the
equal flow of the water out of the reservoir into the basin.
There were doubtless various other methods of constructing
these dials, some of which gave motion to little figures, or sounded
instruments, or performed other curious feats; and some of them
struck the hour by dropping little stones upon a tympanum. But
whatever the machinery might be, the castellum or reservoir of
water, with the channel or pipes for conducting it, so as to ope-
rate on the'instrument, and a place also for conveying away the
waste water, must have been essentially necessary to them all.