DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.4264#0062
I
OF THE TEMPLES OF ERECHTHEUS,
62
Within the Pandrosium was the olive-tree % said to have been produced by Minerva in her
contest with Neptune above-mentioned, it was called Pankyphosb (incurvated) from its branches be-
in- bent downwards after it had grown up to the roof\ Under this tree stood the altar* of Jupiter
waldsden, but in a mode dissimilar to and regardless of those at
Athens, having a ' Modius' placed on the head of it.
Of the Persians, or male architectural figures, mentioned by
Vitruvius, called also by him Atlantes and Telamones, we have
proofs of their application to Grecian architecture, discovered at
the ruins of the Temple of Jupiter at Agrigentum, which were 25
feet high, and were built up in courses of stone1, like the attached
Colossi in the Memnonian Temples of Thebes, and probably sup-
ported the roof in the interior of the temple, in a position similar to
that of the smaller columns of the hypaethral temple of Piestum.
In the Museums also are tripodial antiquities2, and vases supported
by male figures, as in an altar now at Paris, borne up by Atlantes,
a vase sustained by a kneeling figure of a barbarian, in the Cle-
mentine Museum, and a fountain also at the Vatican, borne by
three Sileni. This last antiquity is supposed by Visconti, to have
been imitated from the brazen cratera, mentioned by Herodotus,
as dedicated within the Heraeum at Samos, which was supported
by three brazen Colossi kneeling, seven cubits (10 feet 6 inches)
high. This offering was made by a certain Colceus, a Samian,
who having been by contrary winds driven beyond the Columns
of Hercules, found a port at Tartessus, (supposed to be Cadiz,)
where beyond his hopes he disposed of his freight to great advan-
tage. At their return, he and his crew consecrated a tenth of
their profit, to erect this tripodial monument which perhaps was
the most ancient example on record, of human figures perform-
ing the office of architectural supports in Greece5 ; this event
being according to Larcher's Chronology of Herodotus, about
640 b. c.
The temples, however, in Egypt, Nubia, and India, convince
us that the usage of introducing the resemblance of the human
figure, in the place of columns is of the most remote antiquity ;
long prior to the epoch attributed to their introduction by Vitru-
vius, and antecedent even to the annals of Greece. Herodotus
says, that Psammetichus built a temple to Apis, with a peristyle
of Colossal figures 12 cubits (18 feet) high, instead of columns4.
Pausanias mentions the Persian portico at Sparta, which he
describes as in the Agora, and decorated with statues of Persians
(among which was the portrait of Mardonius) and placed on
columns, acri ^ iiri t^v amav Ylspo-u.1, which Vitruvius describes as
statues of captives supporting the roof. " Captivorum simulacra
...... sustinentia tectum collocaverunt." This celebrated portico
has been likened to the remains of an unknown edifice at Thes-
salonica, now called the ' Incantada'; but at the latter building,
the figures in alto-relievo introduced against the Attic pilasters,
or piers, over each front of the columns, do not perform or ap-
pear in the office of support, and as they represent fabulous per-
sonages, such as Ganymede, Leda, Telephus, Victory, &c. they
therefore cannot be considered as of Caryatic or Persian origin,
but as reliefs only, holding perhaps a correspondent situation
with Caryatic or Persian figures placed over columns at other
edifices known to the ancients. The Caryatides of the Pantheon
at Rome, by Diogenes the Athenian, described by Pliny5, as
statues placed at the roof over the columns of the temple, (in
columnis templi—sicut in fastigio posita signa,) were doubtless
situated in a similar relative position to the alto-relievos of Thes-
salonica, over the columns of the interior of that Temple 6.
Reverting to the figures termed Caryatides by Vitruvius, a
name which may have been assigned to them in Roman times,
to give to the female architectural statues a correspondence in
historic origin, with those male figures which incontestibly were
called and represented Persians and barbarians, another motive
for that appellation has been assigned.
At Carya, a small town in Laconia, was a temple of Diana
Caryatis ('ApT^iJt-; K«.paTi£o5?): here the Lacedaemonian virgins
danced at an annual festival in honour of the goddess, and were
termed Caryatides. The elegance of this dance, which perhaps
was circulated throughout Greece, may have caused the best artists
of antiquity to have represented its votaries; in proof of which,
Plutarch records the gift of a ring by Clearchus, having engraved
on it dancing Caryatides. Pliny also speaks of the Caryatides of
Praxiteles at Rome, with the Thyades, and the Mamades, both of
which represented dances (item et Mainades, et quas Thyadas
vocant, et Caryatidas), which were probably different names
given to the same group, and being mentioned by that author in
the same chapter with those of the Pantheon, which were purely
architectural, without any discrimination, we are induced to sup-
pose that these last may have been figures of a similar origin8.
Grecian feminine figures placed as columns, may, therefore, first
have been introduced by artists accustomed to represent the
dancing virgins at the festival of Diana Caryatis, or termed so,
from the costume in which they appeared, or such statues may have
been first raised in honour of that goddess ; and they may after-
wards have been applied to other temples and edifices of Greece,
representing the females engaged in the religious ceremonial of
their respective countries. The adoption of them, however,
seems to have been of rare occurrence. At Athens, the figures
before us resemble the Canephora0, and the costume of the Attic
virgins in the Panathenaic frieze, is similar to the Pandrosean
statues, but the hair of these is arranged so as to give greater
solidity to the necks of them, and the arms are entirely bare,
conducive to the greater elegance of detached statues.
These figures have no marks or characteristics of degradation
in their composition, and being appropriated to sustain a canopy
over the sacred olive-tree of Minerva, the application of the re-
semblance of Canephorae or Arrephorae, which had already been
introduced in the central part of the frieze of the Parthenon,
1 These figures were composed of twelve courses of stone, two feet one inch in
average height; they supported the roof with their head and uplifted elbows. We
have been favoured with the measurements by Mr. Evans,.from the papers of the
late Mr. Harris, known by the work on the Sculpture of Selinus. [ed.]
2 Pausanias mentions figures of Persians of Phrygian marble, supporting a
bronze Tripod at the Olympieum at Athens. Lib. I. c. XVIII. [ed.]
3 Homer speaks of golden figures of youths in the Palace of Alcinous holding
torches, and called K«ujo<, a correspondent term with the Kigm of the Marmor
Atheniense.
"Eirratruv, ulfop.Ua;
Od. H. 100.
Refulgent pedestals the walls surround,
Which boys of gold with flaming torches crown'd;
The polish'd ore, reflecting every ray,
Blaz'd on the banquets with a double day. pope.
The figures at the Erecbtheum are now called by the modern Greeks, Keflex,
(damsels) as staled.by Mr. Wilkins. [ED 1
4 The most daring conception of modern architects in the employment of
figures as columns, is thatof Inigo Jones, in his really magnificent design for a
Eoyal Palace (of which the Banqueting House at Whitehall, erected by command
of King Charles the First, formed a part). It is a circular area called the Persian
Court, which he surrounded with two orders of Persians and Caryatides attached
to arcades. This ' Cortile', if executed so as not to convey an impression of the
grotesque, would form as imposing a display of decorative architecture, as that in
any structure ancient or modern. See Inigo Jones's Designs, by Kent, Vol. I.
PI- «• [ed.]
6 The Tent of Alexander the Great was reported, according to Pliny, to have
been supported by bronze statues, four of which were in his time preserved at Rome.
" Alexandri quoque magni tabernaculum sustinere traduntur solitaj statuse, ex
quibus duse ante Martis Ultoris jEdem dicatie sunt, totidem ante resiam." Lib.
XXXIV. Cap. VIII. [ED.]
Winkelmaun describes a fragment which he conjectures from the proportion
to have been one of the Caryatides of the Pantheon. In the French version of
his Histoire de l'Art, we find it thus expressed—' Selon toutes les apparences il
nous reste une des Caryatides de Diogene d'Athenes, placees au Pantheon—
e'est la moitie superieure d'une figure d'bomme nue et sans bras ; portant sur la
tete une espece de corbeille—cette demi-figure a environ huit palmes de haut."
Though this learned antiquarian qualifies the term Caryatides here applied, as
being equally appropriate to male as female figures, we neither concur with him
that Pliny so used that name, nor consequently can we believe it possible that the
fragment he alludes to, ever belonged to the Pantheon of Agrippa. See His-
toire de l'Art, lib. VI. c. VI. and Monum. Ant. Ined. N. 205. [ed.]
7 Paus. lib. III. c. X. [ED.]
8 It is remarkable that one of the figures at the " Incantada" at Saloniea is a
dancing Bacchante playing on a flute, which figure is sculptured in profile, [ed.]
0 Visconti, from a drawing in the collection of Sir R. Worsley, described the
fragment of a colossal Ceres at Eleusis, (since deposited in the Public Library at
Cambridge, by Dr. E. D. Clarke), as a Canephora, which he improperly conjec-
tured must have supplied the place of a Caryatid (le vece di Cariatide), in some
part of the Eleusinian Temple. See Museum Worsleyanum, Vol. I. p. 95. [ed.]
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>4
OF THE TEMPLES OF ERECHTHEUS,
62
Within the Pandrosium was the olive-tree % said to have been produced by Minerva in her
contest with Neptune above-mentioned, it was called Pankyphosb (incurvated) from its branches be-
in- bent downwards after it had grown up to the roof\ Under this tree stood the altar* of Jupiter
waldsden, but in a mode dissimilar to and regardless of those at
Athens, having a ' Modius' placed on the head of it.
Of the Persians, or male architectural figures, mentioned by
Vitruvius, called also by him Atlantes and Telamones, we have
proofs of their application to Grecian architecture, discovered at
the ruins of the Temple of Jupiter at Agrigentum, which were 25
feet high, and were built up in courses of stone1, like the attached
Colossi in the Memnonian Temples of Thebes, and probably sup-
ported the roof in the interior of the temple, in a position similar to
that of the smaller columns of the hypaethral temple of Piestum.
In the Museums also are tripodial antiquities2, and vases supported
by male figures, as in an altar now at Paris, borne up by Atlantes,
a vase sustained by a kneeling figure of a barbarian, in the Cle-
mentine Museum, and a fountain also at the Vatican, borne by
three Sileni. This last antiquity is supposed by Visconti, to have
been imitated from the brazen cratera, mentioned by Herodotus,
as dedicated within the Heraeum at Samos, which was supported
by three brazen Colossi kneeling, seven cubits (10 feet 6 inches)
high. This offering was made by a certain Colceus, a Samian,
who having been by contrary winds driven beyond the Columns
of Hercules, found a port at Tartessus, (supposed to be Cadiz,)
where beyond his hopes he disposed of his freight to great advan-
tage. At their return, he and his crew consecrated a tenth of
their profit, to erect this tripodial monument which perhaps was
the most ancient example on record, of human figures perform-
ing the office of architectural supports in Greece5 ; this event
being according to Larcher's Chronology of Herodotus, about
640 b. c.
The temples, however, in Egypt, Nubia, and India, convince
us that the usage of introducing the resemblance of the human
figure, in the place of columns is of the most remote antiquity ;
long prior to the epoch attributed to their introduction by Vitru-
vius, and antecedent even to the annals of Greece. Herodotus
says, that Psammetichus built a temple to Apis, with a peristyle
of Colossal figures 12 cubits (18 feet) high, instead of columns4.
Pausanias mentions the Persian portico at Sparta, which he
describes as in the Agora, and decorated with statues of Persians
(among which was the portrait of Mardonius) and placed on
columns, acri ^ iiri t^v amav Ylspo-u.1, which Vitruvius describes as
statues of captives supporting the roof. " Captivorum simulacra
...... sustinentia tectum collocaverunt." This celebrated portico
has been likened to the remains of an unknown edifice at Thes-
salonica, now called the ' Incantada'; but at the latter building,
the figures in alto-relievo introduced against the Attic pilasters,
or piers, over each front of the columns, do not perform or ap-
pear in the office of support, and as they represent fabulous per-
sonages, such as Ganymede, Leda, Telephus, Victory, &c. they
therefore cannot be considered as of Caryatic or Persian origin,
but as reliefs only, holding perhaps a correspondent situation
with Caryatic or Persian figures placed over columns at other
edifices known to the ancients. The Caryatides of the Pantheon
at Rome, by Diogenes the Athenian, described by Pliny5, as
statues placed at the roof over the columns of the temple, (in
columnis templi—sicut in fastigio posita signa,) were doubtless
situated in a similar relative position to the alto-relievos of Thes-
salonica, over the columns of the interior of that Temple 6.
Reverting to the figures termed Caryatides by Vitruvius, a
name which may have been assigned to them in Roman times,
to give to the female architectural statues a correspondence in
historic origin, with those male figures which incontestibly were
called and represented Persians and barbarians, another motive
for that appellation has been assigned.
At Carya, a small town in Laconia, was a temple of Diana
Caryatis ('ApT^iJt-; K«.paTi£o5?): here the Lacedaemonian virgins
danced at an annual festival in honour of the goddess, and were
termed Caryatides. The elegance of this dance, which perhaps
was circulated throughout Greece, may have caused the best artists
of antiquity to have represented its votaries; in proof of which,
Plutarch records the gift of a ring by Clearchus, having engraved
on it dancing Caryatides. Pliny also speaks of the Caryatides of
Praxiteles at Rome, with the Thyades, and the Mamades, both of
which represented dances (item et Mainades, et quas Thyadas
vocant, et Caryatidas), which were probably different names
given to the same group, and being mentioned by that author in
the same chapter with those of the Pantheon, which were purely
architectural, without any discrimination, we are induced to sup-
pose that these last may have been figures of a similar origin8.
Grecian feminine figures placed as columns, may, therefore, first
have been introduced by artists accustomed to represent the
dancing virgins at the festival of Diana Caryatis, or termed so,
from the costume in which they appeared, or such statues may have
been first raised in honour of that goddess ; and they may after-
wards have been applied to other temples and edifices of Greece,
representing the females engaged in the religious ceremonial of
their respective countries. The adoption of them, however,
seems to have been of rare occurrence. At Athens, the figures
before us resemble the Canephora0, and the costume of the Attic
virgins in the Panathenaic frieze, is similar to the Pandrosean
statues, but the hair of these is arranged so as to give greater
solidity to the necks of them, and the arms are entirely bare,
conducive to the greater elegance of detached statues.
These figures have no marks or characteristics of degradation
in their composition, and being appropriated to sustain a canopy
over the sacred olive-tree of Minerva, the application of the re-
semblance of Canephorae or Arrephorae, which had already been
introduced in the central part of the frieze of the Parthenon,
1 These figures were composed of twelve courses of stone, two feet one inch in
average height; they supported the roof with their head and uplifted elbows. We
have been favoured with the measurements by Mr. Evans,.from the papers of the
late Mr. Harris, known by the work on the Sculpture of Selinus. [ed.]
2 Pausanias mentions figures of Persians of Phrygian marble, supporting a
bronze Tripod at the Olympieum at Athens. Lib. I. c. XVIII. [ed.]
3 Homer speaks of golden figures of youths in the Palace of Alcinous holding
torches, and called K«ujo<, a correspondent term with the Kigm of the Marmor
Atheniense.
"Eirratruv, ulfop.Ua;
Od. H. 100.
Refulgent pedestals the walls surround,
Which boys of gold with flaming torches crown'd;
The polish'd ore, reflecting every ray,
Blaz'd on the banquets with a double day. pope.
The figures at the Erecbtheum are now called by the modern Greeks, Keflex,
(damsels) as staled.by Mr. Wilkins. [ED 1
4 The most daring conception of modern architects in the employment of
figures as columns, is thatof Inigo Jones, in his really magnificent design for a
Eoyal Palace (of which the Banqueting House at Whitehall, erected by command
of King Charles the First, formed a part). It is a circular area called the Persian
Court, which he surrounded with two orders of Persians and Caryatides attached
to arcades. This ' Cortile', if executed so as not to convey an impression of the
grotesque, would form as imposing a display of decorative architecture, as that in
any structure ancient or modern. See Inigo Jones's Designs, by Kent, Vol. I.
PI- «• [ed.]
6 The Tent of Alexander the Great was reported, according to Pliny, to have
been supported by bronze statues, four of which were in his time preserved at Rome.
" Alexandri quoque magni tabernaculum sustinere traduntur solitaj statuse, ex
quibus duse ante Martis Ultoris jEdem dicatie sunt, totidem ante resiam." Lib.
XXXIV. Cap. VIII. [ED.]
Winkelmaun describes a fragment which he conjectures from the proportion
to have been one of the Caryatides of the Pantheon. In the French version of
his Histoire de l'Art, we find it thus expressed—' Selon toutes les apparences il
nous reste une des Caryatides de Diogene d'Athenes, placees au Pantheon—
e'est la moitie superieure d'une figure d'bomme nue et sans bras ; portant sur la
tete une espece de corbeille—cette demi-figure a environ huit palmes de haut."
Though this learned antiquarian qualifies the term Caryatides here applied, as
being equally appropriate to male as female figures, we neither concur with him
that Pliny so used that name, nor consequently can we believe it possible that the
fragment he alludes to, ever belonged to the Pantheon of Agrippa. See His-
toire de l'Art, lib. VI. c. VI. and Monum. Ant. Ined. N. 205. [ed.]
7 Paus. lib. III. c. X. [ED.]
8 It is remarkable that one of the figures at the " Incantada" at Saloniea is a
dancing Bacchante playing on a flute, which figure is sculptured in profile, [ed.]
0 Visconti, from a drawing in the collection of Sir R. Worsley, described the
fragment of a colossal Ceres at Eleusis, (since deposited in the Public Library at
Cambridge, by Dr. E. D. Clarke), as a Canephora, which he improperly conjec-
tured must have supplied the place of a Caryatid (le vece di Cariatide), in some
part of the Eleusinian Temple. See Museum Worsleyanum, Vol. I. p. 95. [ed.]
jj*:
as*
i-jp
;;iiinc
>4