Stuart, James; Revett, Nicholas: The antiquities of Athens (Band 2) (London, 1825)

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ly applied to this monumentx
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ion as well as that of tie JnpS;

their magnificence to have »
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ate Julian, it would appeartk:
;, having been eight kuitole

1 world, after which ftefatefc

2 splendid figures was tie fe*
s sages and heroes of his age,*
omans, the idea of him !«*»

thies of his country. Am»c
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portraits of the poets df
fthe Vatican, a Hemes**
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IS

CALLED THE PARTHENON AND HECATOMPEDON. 29

them; but this whiteness is no proof that they were more modern than the temple, for they might be
made of a whiter marble; and the heads of Hadrian and Sabina might be put on two of the ancient
figures, which was no uncommon practice among the Romans. And, if we may give credit to Plu-
tarch, the buildings of Pericles were not in the least impaired by age in his time", therefore thi
temple could not want any material repairs in the reign of Hadrian ; unless the damage the Opistho-
domus once suffered by fire, for which, Demosthenes tells us, not only the treasurers of the goddess,
but likewise those of the other gods, were imprisonedb, had remained so long unrepaired, which i
not probable.

I have said that the lesser division of the temple was called the Opisthodomus, where the
public treasure was kept. Thucydides tells us it was kept in the Acropolis; and having reckoned up
what it amounted to, he says, " the riches out of the other temples may likewise be used"0; which
implies, that the treasure he had been speaking of was kept in a temple, Aristophanes places Plutus,
the god of riches, in the opisthodomus of the Temple of Minerva". His scholiast, indeed, says, that
this was the Temple of Minerva Polias; which is a mistake, for that temple had only a single cell, as
will appear hereafter; nor could it be the temple meant by Thucydides, since it was not finished till
after the death of Pericles, as appears by the inscription brought from Athens at the expense of the
Society of Dilettanti*. Demosthenes calls the treasury opisthodomuse, which properly signified the
back of a templef; and Hesychius, Harpocration, Suidas, and the Etymologicumg, agree that the
Athenian treasury was in the opisthodomus of the Temple of Minerva, which could be no other than
this.

The third, fourth, and fifth marbles, in the second part of Dr. Chandler's Inscriptions, are
registers of the delivery of donations in this temple, by the treasurers to their successors in office.
The third and fourth were found among its ruins. It is called hecatompedon in both, and its opistho-
domus is expressly mentioned in the latter. The fifth calls it Parthenon \

a Plutarch in Pericle, p. 352. Edit. Bryani.

b Demosthenes c. Timocratem, p. 467- n. 210. Edit. Paris,
1570, where see the Scholiast.

c Thucydides, 1.11. c. 13. "En ^ xcci to ix t£» axxus Ugm, x. t. x.

d Arist. Plutus, v. 1194.

* See the inscription now in the British Museum, known by
the title of " Marmor Atheniensc", and inserted and described
in chapter the second of this volume, page 64. CEDH

e Demosthenes, ri£<>i tvnu&us, p. 98. n. 21. &c. Timocrat. p.
467,n.216.

f Jul. Pollux, 1. 1. c. 1. §. 6.

s In the word 'OmrQiSoitos.

h Whether the Opisthodomus of the Parthenon was the treasury
of the state, is still contested by writers on Athenian topogra-
phy. The Scholiast on Aristophanes describes it as having " a
double wall with a door behind the Temple of Minerva Polias,"
which Dr. Chandler supposes "to be a mistake, unless he intend-,
cd to mark the situation of the posticum of the Parthenon, as be-
hind the portico of Minerva Polias." On this passage Col. Leake is
of opinion, that " were it not for the mistake of Minerva Polias
for Parthenon, the expression of the Scholiast would contain a
very accurate description of the Opisthodomus: the words Atj-AoS;
t&'i'vo; amaflt toS mu, tyo" ^f^'i are exactly suited to the western
chamber of the cell of the Parthenon; the 0i!p<z being the great
door which opened into the western vestibule." But this is not
the case, for regarding the double wall, no traces of such exist;
and with respect to one door only, besides that from the posticum,
we have to observe that it is probable, from indications on the
pavement beneath the place of the internal wall, now destroyed,
that two others gave access to the naos; neither, recurring to the
above-recorded destruction by fire of the Opisthodomus, are to be
seen on the remaining walls of that part of the temple, any in-
dications of cremation resulting from such an event. Opisthodo-
mus, derived from 'ima-hv, was the opposite of pronaos and prodo-
mus: and from a passage of Diodorus Siculus, quoted in the new
work of M. Quatremere on the Pediments of the Parthenon, it
would appear that it was not always considered as an internal

VOL. II.

inclosure; but as in the early temples it frequently was so, and
the depository of the most costly offerings, thence edifices solely
raised as treasuries, likewise acquired the name of Opisthodomus.
Five inscribed marbles have been found, within or near the
■western chamber of the Parthenon, containing catalogues of the
donaria within the temple; from which there is no doubt that
a portion of the edifice possessed the name of Opisthodomus,
with regard to the temple itself. In the first, which is inscribed
on both sides, on each inscription the sacred offerings are re-
corded, as stated above, to have been within the Hecatompedon:
in the second, on registers also engraved on each side, the one
mentions them within the Hecatompedon, the other within the
Opisthodomus: on the third, the Parthenon is named as the de-
pository : on the fourth, among the inscribed Elgin Marbles,
recently edited by that distinguished scholar, Mr. H. J. Rose,
the offerings in each inscription on it appear to have been placed
h to wpcWw, c in the pronaos': a fifth, transcribed by Stuart,
and given in Plate III. Fig. 11. of this Volume, and described at
the end of this Chapter, which, until recently, has remained unin-
terpreted, names the entire Parthenon as the receptacle of the
offerings and trophies registered on it. Thus it appears that
these sacred and costly objects Qigu. xfV-aTa) were deposited in the
three parts of the temple, the pronaos, the naos or temple itself,
and the opisthodomus; all appertaining to the same building;
for, as Blr. Rose observes, it is not likely that on the same mar-
ble, offerings should be reckoned up, belonging to two distinct
edifices. The western chamber, therefore, of the Parthenon,
crowded as it must have been with the sacred offerings {mM^arcc.)
and furniture of the temple, as well with records of the piety as
with monuments of the glory of the Athenians, which were doubtless
much visited, could have scarcely been, also, capacious or secure
enough for the business of the treasurers, and the reception of the
money of the state: and, on the above cited inscriptions, Mr. Rose
supposes that probably in the public Opisthodomus were placed the
funds of the Temples of Minerva and of the other deities; for he re-
marks that nowhere is to be seen money mentioned on these marbles.
It would therefore appear probable, according to the Scholiast and

H

■eplaced.