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

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1 b^ Paced >^
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fnes*e Athe^'t ^

h^oof over the c'l,nMl'r>

le figures termed CV ,, ^

^archltecturalstatues;ial
't"«emalefigureMvli.tra

ias been assigned.

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Jlfc.vamhonouroftM^

"^•mtGreece.imyl.Teattl^
o represented its votaries; kpH
lie gift of a ring by Clearchns.b^
atides. Pliny also speaks of fktfc
i, with the Thyades, and the Matt

dances (item et JI«nades,
idas), which were probable

flffil

group, and being mentioncdbytbt-
vith those of the Pantheon,vrhidiira
out any discrimination, we mwUt,
t may have been figures of i sUii
figures placed as columns, m«f,tW
need by artists accustomed to repra
t the festival of Diana Caryatis,«E
:i which they appeared, orsnebittt:
i honour of that goddess; andtleje
pplied to other temples and eM
.■males engaged in the religions*!
lountries. The adoption of tfe:
i of rare occurrence. At AtM
the Canephoree9, and the costameifi
athenaic frieze, is similar to tier*
rir of these is arranged so as to f«:
ks of them, and the arms are c
renter elegance of detached *m
aveno marks or characteristic--—
,„ and being appropriatedt»*»
XeeofMineWheapp**
r. or Arrepho^chJ
. 'central part of the b***®

omrt„J,a»*8l,S
ondeMhe Great was-P0fc..e^

,« statues, four of *h.*;

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iribeS a fragment ,

ihich I

ibesairagm- ■ h**[

:,e Caryafdes of the y,-
«fi.Hlitt>.useNpr-f

,t name, nor conseq Pa„tbeo»»
h evcr belonged «

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Ant. I1"*

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j Tempk- See

MINERVA POLIAS, AND PANDROSUS.

G3

Herceusd. Some have imagined that an olive tree grew in the temple of Minerva Polias ; but it is
quite improbable that any tree should grow in a place so unfavourable to vegetation ; for it appears to

between the divinities, could not have been deemed other than
honourable to the native KOPAI, or Athenian virgins'.

This portion of the edifice termed a portico, it is certain never
was erected for such a purpose, for there was no entrance at the
front, and the small one at the east side of the Podium near the
wall leading to some steps, was apparently only formed for the
convenience of private access to the back part of the temple.
It was therefore evidently raised as a canopy2, to give greater
appearance of sanctity to the sacred olive-tree which it shaded,
supported by representations of virgins attached to the service of
the Temple; and an existing inscription proves statues or me-
morials to have been occasionally dedicated to these persons, by
public authority3. These statues have some slight dissimilarity
in their execution. The hair falling on their shoulders is not
treated alike in each, and the arm of some of them appears to have
been more or less raised. The figure first removed, now said to
be at Rome, could not have been carried away at any very remote
date, from the temporary character of the rude masonry raised
to replace it, built probably during the Venetian occupation of
the Acropolis.

In the Caryatid recently brought away, which we have the
advantage of possessing in the British Museum, though the exe-
cution of it be not equal to the fragments of the pediments of the
Parthenon, yet we find in it an elegance of style, general in the
sculpture of Greece, and a monumental grandeur appropriate to
the columnar intention. On nearer examination, it offers no
variation of detail, unobserved by Stuart. The rude appearance
of the temporary pier raised by the parties who removed from
the front the last named statue4, to prevent the entire destruction
of the fabric, having impressed with disappointment the tra-
vellers who have subsequently visited Athens, Lord Guildford,
with a laudable zeal in the cause of antiquity, transmitted a fac
simile of the marble removed, as a reinstatement, in order to
lessen the injury done by the privation of the original. From our
last accounts from Athens, the substitute, however, had not yet
been erected, and the unfortunate Greeks are yet too much en-
gaged on the fabric of their own political existence, to devote
much thought on the ruined temples of their predecessors: from
the fatal catastrophe of Missolonghi, it even yet is far from impro-
bable that the extinction of their own hopes and name, may take
place simultaneously with the destruction of the monuments of
their ancestors. Wilkins on the Architectural Inscription in
Walpole's Memoires, Vol. I. p. 580. Lessing, Kleinere Antiqua-
rische Aufsatze, Vol. X. p. 369. Herodotus, Lib. VIII. Cap.
XXVI. Capacio. Hist. Neapol. 1605. I.Iazois, Les Ruines de
Pompeii, Vol. I. p. 24. Winkelmann, Histoire de lArt, Lib.
VI. Cap. V. Piranesi, Raccolta di Vasi Antichi, Tom. II. Tav.
LXVIII. Voyage de Spon, Lib. V. Dodwell's Travels, Vol. I.
p. 354. Williams's Travels, Vol. II. Visconti, Museo Pio Cle-
mentino, Vol. VII. Herodotus, Lib. IV. Cap. CLII. Descrip-
tion de l'Egypt. Belzoni's Travels. Daniel's Views in India.
Herod. Lib. II. Cap. CLIII. Paus. Lib. III. Cap. XI. Vitr.
Lib. I. Cap. I. Stuart, Vol. III. Cap. XI. PI. 45. Gwilt on
Caryatides. Plin. Lib. XXXVI. Cap. V. Millin. Diet, des
Beaux Arts, art. Caryatides. Plin. Lib. XXXVI. Cap. V. Pint,
in Artaxerxe. Hughes's Travels, Vol. I. p. 260. [En.]

a feTHjCEC OVV TTPUTOS llotTEtOWC E7Ti T^C 'ATTi'W XCCl lt7.r^O.C TV TPlCcUri

y.aTa. u,lariV TW ' Ay.POTroXiv txystpyye §uhu.o-o-u.v, hv yvy 'Eps^r/lSa xaA&Dcri."
Met<z SI TOVTOV, vkw 'A9'^va, y.al TrotrjO-a^zyT] rnq XffiT«^i|/EW^ KEf.pOTTGi
uccptvpo., l$VT-vo-a fAaiB>, >? tvt ey to TlaySpouiu SeUiivtcu. Apollo-

dorus, L. Ill- Cap. XIV.

* Then came Minerva, and, as a testimony to Cecrops of her
visit produced the olive-tree now shewn in the Pandrosium.'

t Hesychius, v.'Acrri. and v. Uayyvtpo;.

" Herodotus repeats a tradition, propagated by Athenian vanity,
that at an early period of Grecian history, the olive tree no where
existed but in Attica. There were, however, on record, other olive-
trees in Greece, as ancient as that of the Acropolis; for Strabo and

1 Visconti says, ' A la verite aucune Caryatide antique que je connaisse ne
represente une captive. Cependant comme les figures des prisonniers Perses

pportaient a Sparte le toit d'un portique, il n'est pas hors de toute vraisem.
blanee que des figures de femmes captives aient ete employees de meme dans
„nr,„mpnts de la Grece.' Memoires sur des Sculptures i'J

[ED.]

quelques monuments de la Grece.' Memoires sur des Sculptures d'Athenes,

Tacitus mention a sacred olive-tree still existing near Ephesus, be-
neath which it was reported that Latona gave birth to Apollo and
Diana, which, according to Callimachus and Catullus, took place
at Delos. Of the original rarity of the olive in Greece, there is
no doubt; the fable of the olive of Minerva at the Acropolis seems
to confirm it; and it may be collected from ancient authors, that
it was derived from Asia, and thence introduced and cultivated
throughout the iEgean islands, and the continent of Greece. The
soil of Attica, where irrigated by mountain-streams, is peculiarly
favourable to its cultivation. Sophocles lauds the superiority
and fruitfulness of the olive groves of the Academy. Here were
preserved, according to ancient report, scions transplanted from
the tree of the Acropolis, near which was the altar of Morian
Jove, the trees bearing fruit being called Moji'm. The olive-tree
grows to great bulk, and is of extreme longevity. On the site
of the Academy of Plato, there are at present olive-trees which
may be but a few degrees removed in descent from the original
stock, at the time of that great moralist. Vide Herod. Lib.
V. Cap. LXXXII. Strabo, Lib. XIV. p. 640. Tac. Ann.
Lib. III. Cap. LXI. Catull. Sec. Carm. in Dianam. Miiller de
Min. Pol. Templo. Soph. CEdip. in Colonos, V. 691. [ed.]

Kwt, ei? rov TVS TloXia.005 yaov E(V£A9&iVet, y.cci ovo-cc si; To Tlccv-
opoatov, e'tt* roii ^cjjj.ov ccyafieio-a tou E^keiou Aio$, toy vlto T>! i/\%'ia., xa-

texeito. Philochor. 'AtHISoc, L. IX. ap. Dionysius Hal. in Di-
narcho, p. 113. edit. Sylburgii.

' A bitch entering the temple of Minerva Polias, got down
into the Pandrosium,.where, leaping on the altar of Jupiter Her-
ceus, which is under the olive-tree, she lay down there.'

d The appellation Herceus, according to Festus, is from "ipy.oq,
'septum', can inelosure', and the altar of Jupiter Herceus was
generally within the ' Penetrale', of the sanctity of which he was
the supposed protector. Ovid alludes to the death of Priam
(who, according to ancient poets and grammarians, was slain at
the altar of Hercean Jove,) in the following distich:

' Ncc tibi subsidio sit prasens numen : ut illi,

Cui nihil Hercaii profuit ara Jovis. Ibin. v. 283.

It is remarkable that the altar of Jupiter Hercseus in the
Erechtheum, according to the previously quoted authority was
underneath the olive-tree, which could have existed in no other
part of this edifice than beneath the canopy supported by the
figures representing Canephora; it was therefore in a degree
' sub dio', or exposed to the external air; so in Virgil that altar
alluded to by Ovid was in an hypaethral atrium, and shaded by
a laurel tree:

' ./Edibus in mediis, nudoque sub rctheris axe,
Ingens ara fuit; juxtaque veterrinm laurus
Incumbens ara;, atque umbra complexa Penates.'

JEn. ii. v. 512.

Altars to Jupiter were usually placed in an hyprcthral tem-
ple or atrium, as appears from this passage of Athenaeus, as well
as bv other authorities, "Ofw^o; St iii aixnv uu t^ttei eVI t«» i-a-t-
Opwy rorwv* "Et9« w o ~ov EpzAov 7-yiyo; j3u[*os.

Diodorus Siculus speaks of a /3a^co; in-aifl^io.;, ' an hypaethral
altar', in the middle of a peristyle of a temple of Jupiter at
Thebes; and the artist who designed the celebrated stucco of
the Capitol, called the Iliac table, (found near Rome in the ruins
of a temple, whence the celebrated Greek bas-relief, now in the
British Museum, called the apotheosis of Homer, was also de-
rived,) represents Priam slain at an hypaethral altar in the midst
of an internal peristyle.

These combined authorities indicate that, both the olive-tree
and the altar of Hercaean Jove beneath it (which were undoubt-
edly within this edifice), must have been situated in that part of
it which was the most exposed to the atmosphere, and therefore
within that portion of the Temple which was decorated with the
figures of Canephoree. CE"-]

2 This seems to have been felt by the architect of the New Church of St.
Pancras who may be said to have embellished the sentiment of death in introduc-
ing representations of the fair sex as bearing a canopy over the tomb. [ed.]

3 See inscription at note a, page 55. [ed.]

4 The Canephora carried off for Lord Elgin was in front, and the second from
the western angle of the building. [ed.]