DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.4264#0026
,H. OF THE TEMPLE OF MINERVA,
feet • therefore reckoning the diameters of the columns 5tVo such feet, the extent of the front be-
tween the outer surfaces of the angular columns, reduced to English measure, will be found nearly
102 feet two inches, that of the side 225 feet lOj inches. But measures obtained by girting the cir-
cumferences of columns are little to be depended ona.
In the year 1687 Athens was besieged by the Venetians, under the command of the Provedi-
tore Morosini and Count Koningsmark; when an unlucky bomb, falling on this admirable structure,
reduced it to the state in which we saw itb.
In our way to it from the city, we passed by the theatre of Bacchus % and came to the pro-
pyl, which are miserably ruined, and thence through a street of scattered houses to the western
front of the temple, the majestic appearance of which cannot easily be described.
On this front the walls with their antse, and all the columns of the portico, with their entabla-
ture and pediment, are standing; and the architecture has suffered little; but the sculptures in the
metopes, and the figures in the pediment, are defaced and ruined.
The columns of the portico stand on a pavement, raised three steps above the ground; and
there are two more from the portico to the pronaos (or rather posticum, for the pronaos was in reality
at the opposite front); from this there is another step, little more than an inch in height, into the
temple; so inconsiderable a rise has occasioned this step to remain hitherto unnoticed.
The inside of the temple was divided by a cross wall; and the lesser division, the pavement of
which is level with the top of the little step last mentioned, is the part into which you first enter;
Wheler and Spon have called it improperly the pronaos.
This was undoubtedly the opisthodomus, where the public treasure was kept". Here the
columns, mentioned by those travellers, are no longer remaining; but part of the rude mass, said to
have been erected by a Kislar-Aga, is still to be seene. Hence you pass into the greater division; at
the western end of which, and on both the sides, the pavement of the opisthodomus is continued on
the same level, to about 15 feet from the walls, enclosing an area sunk a little more than an inch be-
low it. Near the edge of the little step down into this area are still to be seen, distinctly traced, cer-
tain circles; on these doubtless the columns of the peristyle were placed, which supported the gal-
leries f mentioned by Wheler; at present not only those galleries are entirely destroyed, but the walls
of this part, with fourteen of the columns of the peripteros, are no longer standing; and the pave-
ment is strewed with pieces of sculpture, some of which are very large, and all of them of excellent
workmanship.
In this division stood the famous statue of Minerva, of ivory and gold, the work of Phidias.
Pausanias says, it was standing erect, her garment reaching to her feet; she had a helmet on, and a
Medusa's Head on her breast; in one hand she held a spear, and on the other stood a victory of
a Stuart gives the real dimensions of the plane of the upper
step 101. Ij'-g by 227- 7JB. We must view with indulgence
the measurements of these gentlemen who were not professed
architects, and who procured their information in one hurried
visit to the citadel, at that time giving great umbrage to the
Turks. j-BD.-|
b From Fanelli, Atene Attica 1707, we find that this de-
structive effect was produced by the explosion of a magazine
within the temple ignited by the shell. At this siege, the heavy
artillery appears from the same work to have been in a position
nearly opposite to the propylaea in the vicinity of the Pnyx. Two
mortars were in action from the northern side of the town, and
two others from the east, at the neighbourhood of the Choragic
Monument of Lysicrates, near to which were the quarters of the
regiment of the Prince of Brunswick. rED 1
c The Odeum of Regilla. [ED^
d Doubts have lately existed whether the treasury of the state
was not a distinct building separate from the opisthodomus or
treasury of the temple. See Wilkins' Atheniensia, p. 99. Note h,
p. 29. of this Vol. [ed.]
e The mass of rubbish seen by Stuart and Revett, and marked
on their plan, as the remains of the great pile of rude work
mentioned by Wheler, could never have been the place of the
column stated to have been deficient; for columns correspondently
placed to support the marble lacunaria of this division of the
temple, universally admitted to have been covered over, would
have required marble beams over the spaces between the ranges
of columns at least forty feet in length, far exceeding the dimen-
sions of any masses of stone used in the architecture of the
Greeks. The lintel at Mycenae is 27 feet long, the blocks of the
lacunaria and lintel of the propylasum were 22 feet in length. See
description of Plate V. of this chapter. [Jed.]
f It is singular that in the plan of the Acropolis given by Fa-
nelli from Vernada the engineer at the siege of Athens, though
the four columns bearing the canopy and the circular recess
at the east end are marked, the columns supporting the galleries
are not even indicated. CED-J
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feet • therefore reckoning the diameters of the columns 5tVo such feet, the extent of the front be-
tween the outer surfaces of the angular columns, reduced to English measure, will be found nearly
102 feet two inches, that of the side 225 feet lOj inches. But measures obtained by girting the cir-
cumferences of columns are little to be depended ona.
In the year 1687 Athens was besieged by the Venetians, under the command of the Provedi-
tore Morosini and Count Koningsmark; when an unlucky bomb, falling on this admirable structure,
reduced it to the state in which we saw itb.
In our way to it from the city, we passed by the theatre of Bacchus % and came to the pro-
pyl, which are miserably ruined, and thence through a street of scattered houses to the western
front of the temple, the majestic appearance of which cannot easily be described.
On this front the walls with their antse, and all the columns of the portico, with their entabla-
ture and pediment, are standing; and the architecture has suffered little; but the sculptures in the
metopes, and the figures in the pediment, are defaced and ruined.
The columns of the portico stand on a pavement, raised three steps above the ground; and
there are two more from the portico to the pronaos (or rather posticum, for the pronaos was in reality
at the opposite front); from this there is another step, little more than an inch in height, into the
temple; so inconsiderable a rise has occasioned this step to remain hitherto unnoticed.
The inside of the temple was divided by a cross wall; and the lesser division, the pavement of
which is level with the top of the little step last mentioned, is the part into which you first enter;
Wheler and Spon have called it improperly the pronaos.
This was undoubtedly the opisthodomus, where the public treasure was kept". Here the
columns, mentioned by those travellers, are no longer remaining; but part of the rude mass, said to
have been erected by a Kislar-Aga, is still to be seene. Hence you pass into the greater division; at
the western end of which, and on both the sides, the pavement of the opisthodomus is continued on
the same level, to about 15 feet from the walls, enclosing an area sunk a little more than an inch be-
low it. Near the edge of the little step down into this area are still to be seen, distinctly traced, cer-
tain circles; on these doubtless the columns of the peristyle were placed, which supported the gal-
leries f mentioned by Wheler; at present not only those galleries are entirely destroyed, but the walls
of this part, with fourteen of the columns of the peripteros, are no longer standing; and the pave-
ment is strewed with pieces of sculpture, some of which are very large, and all of them of excellent
workmanship.
In this division stood the famous statue of Minerva, of ivory and gold, the work of Phidias.
Pausanias says, it was standing erect, her garment reaching to her feet; she had a helmet on, and a
Medusa's Head on her breast; in one hand she held a spear, and on the other stood a victory of
a Stuart gives the real dimensions of the plane of the upper
step 101. Ij'-g by 227- 7JB. We must view with indulgence
the measurements of these gentlemen who were not professed
architects, and who procured their information in one hurried
visit to the citadel, at that time giving great umbrage to the
Turks. j-BD.-|
b From Fanelli, Atene Attica 1707, we find that this de-
structive effect was produced by the explosion of a magazine
within the temple ignited by the shell. At this siege, the heavy
artillery appears from the same work to have been in a position
nearly opposite to the propylaea in the vicinity of the Pnyx. Two
mortars were in action from the northern side of the town, and
two others from the east, at the neighbourhood of the Choragic
Monument of Lysicrates, near to which were the quarters of the
regiment of the Prince of Brunswick. rED 1
c The Odeum of Regilla. [ED^
d Doubts have lately existed whether the treasury of the state
was not a distinct building separate from the opisthodomus or
treasury of the temple. See Wilkins' Atheniensia, p. 99. Note h,
p. 29. of this Vol. [ed.]
e The mass of rubbish seen by Stuart and Revett, and marked
on their plan, as the remains of the great pile of rude work
mentioned by Wheler, could never have been the place of the
column stated to have been deficient; for columns correspondently
placed to support the marble lacunaria of this division of the
temple, universally admitted to have been covered over, would
have required marble beams over the spaces between the ranges
of columns at least forty feet in length, far exceeding the dimen-
sions of any masses of stone used in the architecture of the
Greeks. The lintel at Mycenae is 27 feet long, the blocks of the
lacunaria and lintel of the propylasum were 22 feet in length. See
description of Plate V. of this chapter. [Jed.]
f It is singular that in the plan of the Acropolis given by Fa-
nelli from Vernada the engineer at the siege of Athens, though
the four columns bearing the canopy and the circular recess
at the east end are marked, the columns supporting the galleries
are not even indicated. CED-J
>
|f IK
sift
■ikiW
it a
' -'Tit
'^■toifc
1 ""warns'