DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.4264#0035
tlienon,
and the pai
ms: see his <p
the*ork0fv 'H1-
? STrintende>ffc
The names of ftoseA7!'
*ry virtue, were 1 ^
Crated 55 ^
-Pendedasasaat;£
amorous and ^
micusandotlieri)
i the Ceran
■
:ircuit of the Aw
's;tli).
'■miitiIk
Parthenon, and there <
»t serve to clothe or en,tWt,
ig over it, is evident fi^
: nE'»Aoff J^ftip. nil 7i ^ 4
id the like, the use of it is ^
to cover something; that it &-
Lde from the Pepli of Jliitrs' |
to clothe the statue, or to hait
would not have used the wife
irefore it must have been kail;
to keep off the dust; ail ill
preserve it from the weather. I;
in the same sense, when Pie
his chariots at home covered i;
t it no where appears more et.
in from the Ion of Euripides, U
lsed to signify a covering, ii
l awning, spread over an opeaf
i better understanding of this k
•emise, that Xuthus, induced bri
owledgelonforhisson,prept
Parnassus, and there, grateftf
to Bacchus. Before his dej*.
tent, and therein feast, dnd#
at Delphi.
U(9', iM'o» <P^! .
?, oir: vpt ("'»« ^
s behest the pus youtj
::£--••-*
SwW the masons^
hundred fee >nb
thousandfee;- j
hepreparesthg ,het^
ithgratrfuls Itkskirt^
An)aZons, i JoT£j
omconques'jlo#sre^
1S,W1 ftlieM„
hip M tW
CALLED THE PARTHENON AND HECATOMPEDON. 35
Jupiter3 Olympius in Elis, mentioned by Pausanias in his description of that temple, were each of
them suspended in their respective situations, so as to afford the requisite shade or shelter to those
most celebrated statuesb.
Thus I have said what has occurred to me on the subject of temples without continued roofs,
and with only eight columns in front; of which kind both the Parthenon at Athens, and the Olym-
pieum at Elis, two of the most celebrated temples in Greece, seem to have beenc. And if I am right
in my conjectures concerning them, might not Vitruvius think himself obliged to acquaint his reader
with these exceptions to his general doctrine?
The name of this Temple (Hecatompedon) implying that it extended a 100 feet, led me to en-
quire into the measure of the attic foot. For which purpose I compared the length of the lower step
in front, with its length on the side, and found them incommensurable ; neither were the front and side
lengths of the step above it commensurable with each other. But the third step, on which the columns
of the portico stand, measured 101 feet l-J^ inch English in front, and 227 feet 7to inch on each side,
which are so nearly in the proportion of 100 to 225, that, had the greater measure been £ of an inch less,
it would have been deficient of it.
These measures were taken from a brass scale of three feet, divided by that eminent artist Mr.
John Bird, whose works are known all over Europe.
The num'rous hosts of stars collective shine ;
His coursers there, down to his western goal
The Sun has driven; his last expiring beams
Draw forth the radiant light of Hesperus ;
In sable stole Night urges on amain,
With slacken'd reins, her steeds and dusky car :
The Constellations on their swarthy queen
Attend: there, through the mid-hcav'ns, win their way
The Pleiades; his sword Orion grasps:
Above them shines the Bear, circling around
Heav'n's golden axis; while the full-orb'd Moon,
That halves the varying months, darts from on high
Her grateful splendour; there the Hyades,
To mariners unerring well known sign,
Appear ; and glowing in the east Aurora,
The harbinger of day, that from the sky
Chases night's glittering train.
Ion, Act IV. Scene I. Verse 1143.
Here we see, without a comment, the use to which this species
of the Peplus was applied, and the magnificence with which it
was supposed it might be sometimes adorned. I must neverthe-
less add, that although the description I have quoted may appear
to us at first sight, strangers as we are to this sumptuous kind
of apparatus, to be merely a licentious fiction of the poet, it must
have had a different effect, when recited to an Athenian au-
dience, accustomed to view with delight the decorations wrought
on the Peplus they consecrated to Minerva, and suspended in
the Parthenon.
* This * Parapctasma' Pausanias informs us (1. v. p. 405.)
was a magnificent purple veil, the offering of King Antiochus ;
it either hung down from the roof of the temple, and was spread
before the statue, or it covered the open space of the hypaethros.
The Romans had velaria stretched aloft over their theatres and
amphitheatres; they were extended over a much larger space
than the aperture of an hypasthros; and we find the purple ve-
larium, which Nero spread over the theatre, is called ' Parape-
tasmata ' by Xiphilin; on it, he says, Nero represented a heaven
6pangled with stars, and his own portrait in the middle, figured
like Apollo driving his chariot; taking the idea perhaps (as Eu-
ripides seems to have done before him) from tie Pepli, or the Pa-
rapetasmata, that were suspended in some of the Grecian temples.
i> In addition to what our author has here brought for-
ward, on the subject of the peplos and the parapetasma,we deem
it proper to produce some recent remarks from M. Quatremere's
work " Le Jupiter Olympien", on those sacred objects; at page
II, he observes, " Rien de plus ordinaire que de voir se perpetuer
des traces en quelque sorte ineffinjables d'usages perdus depuis
long-temps. Beaucoup de choscs vivent encore ainsi dans quelques
restes d'habitudes, bien des siecles apres qu'elles ont cesse d'etre.
Mais il appartient sur-tout a la puissance religieuse de maintenir
par la conservation des actes exterieurs, certaines formes dont le
fond, e'est-a-dire la raison, a disparu. Cela ne s'appelle plus alors
que des pratiques.
" C'est a quelque chose de semblable que s'etoit reduit en
Grece l'usage de consacrer des voiles brodes, aux idoles tutelaires
ou poliades, dont plusieurs n'avoient ete que de simples fetiches.
La Minerve Poliade d'Athenes etoit de ce nombre. La divinite
que toute l'Attique reunic honorait tons les cinq ans par des fetes
et des ceremonies si pompeuses, consistait en un chetif morceau
de hois que, dans les premiers siecles sans doute, on habilloit peri-
odiquerr.ent d'une etoffe nouvelle. Mais avec le temps la fabri-
cation et la ceremonie du peplos ne furent plus qu'une simple
commemoration de l'ancien usage. Car cettc etoffe brodee au
metier par de jeunes filles choisies pour ce travail, et qui dans la
procession panathenai'que, flottait comme une voile au-dessus de
ce vaisseau que des machines faisaient roulcr, etoit plutot une
grande tapisserie qu'un vetement. On y representait par des
figures diversement colorices le combat de la deesse ct de Jupiter
contre les Titans, avec les exploits des heros d'Athenes; et, la
ceremonie terminee, elle restait suspendue en forme de parape-
tasme dans l'interieur du temple."
It would appear from other researches of the same author, that
the Peplos and Parapetasma were similar objects differently
named, and nothing more than a curtain placed before the sta-
tue, giving it the appearance of greater sanctity, and protecting
it from dust and external air. It is not probable that the Peplos
was suspended horizontally over the hypaithrum, as an awning to
the statue; for such an expedient could not have preserved an
ivory and gold statue of multitudinous jiarts from the destruc-
tive effect of the heavy periodical rains of a meridianal climate.
It would seem that the chief temples of Greece had furniture of
this description. Nero is recorded to have presented to the
Temple of Juno, at Argos, a Peplos of purple. At the quin-
quennial celebration of the Herasan Games, at Olympia, matrons
were deputed to offer a veil to the goddess. The parapetasma
of Olympia was a descending curtain, as the peplos at Athens is
supposed to have been : at the Temple of Ephesus, the veil of
the temple is recorded by Pausanias to have been raised from
the pavement to the ceiling. CED-]
< See note b, p. 30, and f, p. 32. [ed.]
and the pai
ms: see his <p
the*ork0fv 'H1-
? STrintende>ffc
The names of ftoseA7!'
*ry virtue, were 1 ^
Crated 55 ^
-Pendedasasaat;£
amorous and ^
micusandotlieri)
i the Ceran
■
:ircuit of the Aw
's;tli).
'■miitiIk
Parthenon, and there <
»t serve to clothe or en,tWt,
ig over it, is evident fi^
: nE'»Aoff J^ftip. nil 7i ^ 4
id the like, the use of it is ^
to cover something; that it &-
Lde from the Pepli of Jliitrs' |
to clothe the statue, or to hait
would not have used the wife
irefore it must have been kail;
to keep off the dust; ail ill
preserve it from the weather. I;
in the same sense, when Pie
his chariots at home covered i;
t it no where appears more et.
in from the Ion of Euripides, U
lsed to signify a covering, ii
l awning, spread over an opeaf
i better understanding of this k
•emise, that Xuthus, induced bri
owledgelonforhisson,prept
Parnassus, and there, grateftf
to Bacchus. Before his dej*.
tent, and therein feast, dnd#
at Delphi.
U(9', iM'o» <P^! .
?, oir: vpt ("'»« ^
s behest the pus youtj
::£--••-*
SwW the masons^
hundred fee >nb
thousandfee;- j
hepreparesthg ,het^
ithgratrfuls Itkskirt^
An)aZons, i JoT£j
omconques'jlo#sre^
1S,W1 ftlieM„
hip M tW
CALLED THE PARTHENON AND HECATOMPEDON. 35
Jupiter3 Olympius in Elis, mentioned by Pausanias in his description of that temple, were each of
them suspended in their respective situations, so as to afford the requisite shade or shelter to those
most celebrated statuesb.
Thus I have said what has occurred to me on the subject of temples without continued roofs,
and with only eight columns in front; of which kind both the Parthenon at Athens, and the Olym-
pieum at Elis, two of the most celebrated temples in Greece, seem to have beenc. And if I am right
in my conjectures concerning them, might not Vitruvius think himself obliged to acquaint his reader
with these exceptions to his general doctrine?
The name of this Temple (Hecatompedon) implying that it extended a 100 feet, led me to en-
quire into the measure of the attic foot. For which purpose I compared the length of the lower step
in front, with its length on the side, and found them incommensurable ; neither were the front and side
lengths of the step above it commensurable with each other. But the third step, on which the columns
of the portico stand, measured 101 feet l-J^ inch English in front, and 227 feet 7to inch on each side,
which are so nearly in the proportion of 100 to 225, that, had the greater measure been £ of an inch less,
it would have been deficient of it.
These measures were taken from a brass scale of three feet, divided by that eminent artist Mr.
John Bird, whose works are known all over Europe.
The num'rous hosts of stars collective shine ;
His coursers there, down to his western goal
The Sun has driven; his last expiring beams
Draw forth the radiant light of Hesperus ;
In sable stole Night urges on amain,
With slacken'd reins, her steeds and dusky car :
The Constellations on their swarthy queen
Attend: there, through the mid-hcav'ns, win their way
The Pleiades; his sword Orion grasps:
Above them shines the Bear, circling around
Heav'n's golden axis; while the full-orb'd Moon,
That halves the varying months, darts from on high
Her grateful splendour; there the Hyades,
To mariners unerring well known sign,
Appear ; and glowing in the east Aurora,
The harbinger of day, that from the sky
Chases night's glittering train.
Ion, Act IV. Scene I. Verse 1143.
Here we see, without a comment, the use to which this species
of the Peplus was applied, and the magnificence with which it
was supposed it might be sometimes adorned. I must neverthe-
less add, that although the description I have quoted may appear
to us at first sight, strangers as we are to this sumptuous kind
of apparatus, to be merely a licentious fiction of the poet, it must
have had a different effect, when recited to an Athenian au-
dience, accustomed to view with delight the decorations wrought
on the Peplus they consecrated to Minerva, and suspended in
the Parthenon.
* This * Parapctasma' Pausanias informs us (1. v. p. 405.)
was a magnificent purple veil, the offering of King Antiochus ;
it either hung down from the roof of the temple, and was spread
before the statue, or it covered the open space of the hypaethros.
The Romans had velaria stretched aloft over their theatres and
amphitheatres; they were extended over a much larger space
than the aperture of an hypasthros; and we find the purple ve-
larium, which Nero spread over the theatre, is called ' Parape-
tasmata ' by Xiphilin; on it, he says, Nero represented a heaven
6pangled with stars, and his own portrait in the middle, figured
like Apollo driving his chariot; taking the idea perhaps (as Eu-
ripides seems to have done before him) from tie Pepli, or the Pa-
rapetasmata, that were suspended in some of the Grecian temples.
i> In addition to what our author has here brought for-
ward, on the subject of the peplos and the parapetasma,we deem
it proper to produce some recent remarks from M. Quatremere's
work " Le Jupiter Olympien", on those sacred objects; at page
II, he observes, " Rien de plus ordinaire que de voir se perpetuer
des traces en quelque sorte ineffinjables d'usages perdus depuis
long-temps. Beaucoup de choscs vivent encore ainsi dans quelques
restes d'habitudes, bien des siecles apres qu'elles ont cesse d'etre.
Mais il appartient sur-tout a la puissance religieuse de maintenir
par la conservation des actes exterieurs, certaines formes dont le
fond, e'est-a-dire la raison, a disparu. Cela ne s'appelle plus alors
que des pratiques.
" C'est a quelque chose de semblable que s'etoit reduit en
Grece l'usage de consacrer des voiles brodes, aux idoles tutelaires
ou poliades, dont plusieurs n'avoient ete que de simples fetiches.
La Minerve Poliade d'Athenes etoit de ce nombre. La divinite
que toute l'Attique reunic honorait tons les cinq ans par des fetes
et des ceremonies si pompeuses, consistait en un chetif morceau
de hois que, dans les premiers siecles sans doute, on habilloit peri-
odiquerr.ent d'une etoffe nouvelle. Mais avec le temps la fabri-
cation et la ceremonie du peplos ne furent plus qu'une simple
commemoration de l'ancien usage. Car cettc etoffe brodee au
metier par de jeunes filles choisies pour ce travail, et qui dans la
procession panathenai'que, flottait comme une voile au-dessus de
ce vaisseau que des machines faisaient roulcr, etoit plutot une
grande tapisserie qu'un vetement. On y representait par des
figures diversement colorices le combat de la deesse ct de Jupiter
contre les Titans, avec les exploits des heros d'Athenes; et, la
ceremonie terminee, elle restait suspendue en forme de parape-
tasme dans l'interieur du temple."
It would appear from other researches of the same author, that
the Peplos and Parapetasma were similar objects differently
named, and nothing more than a curtain placed before the sta-
tue, giving it the appearance of greater sanctity, and protecting
it from dust and external air. It is not probable that the Peplos
was suspended horizontally over the hypaithrum, as an awning to
the statue; for such an expedient could not have preserved an
ivory and gold statue of multitudinous jiarts from the destruc-
tive effect of the heavy periodical rains of a meridianal climate.
It would seem that the chief temples of Greece had furniture of
this description. Nero is recorded to have presented to the
Temple of Juno, at Argos, a Peplos of purple. At the quin-
quennial celebration of the Herasan Games, at Olympia, matrons
were deputed to offer a veil to the goddess. The parapetasma
of Olympia was a descending curtain, as the peplos at Athens is
supposed to have been : at the Temple of Ephesus, the veil of
the temple is recorded by Pausanias to have been raised from
the pavement to the ceiling. CED-]
< See note b, p. 30, and f, p. 32. [ed.]