DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.4264#0102
102
S'ustus: a
OF THE PROPYLAEA.
mode of flattery not unfregitently, and we may therefore suppose not unsuccessfully, prac-
tised by the Athenians, in
their state of humiliation under the Roman government.
On the right of the Propylaea was the Temple of Victory without wings \ whence is a prospect
of the sea: from this place it was said that ^Egeus threw himself down headlong, and died". On the
left of the Propyleea was an edifice adorned with paintings, the work of Polygnotus, of which, says
Pausanias, though some are effaced by time, there still remained Diomedes and Ulysses, the one
bearing off the bow and arrows of Philoctetes from Lemnos, the other the Palladium from Troy.
There were also Orestes slaying ZEgisthus, and Pylades encountering the sons of Nauplius, who come
to succour ^Egisthus ; Polyxena, at the sepulchre of Achilles, about to be sacrificed; and Ulysses
addressing himself to Nausicaa and her maidens, as described by Homer. Several other pictures
in the same place are described by Pausanias.
These three contiguous buildings originally formed one front, occupying the whole breadth of
the rock from side to side at its western end, so that the only admission into the Acropolis was
through the middle building, the five gates of which are still remaining, and prove it to have been
the Propylaja. Here we must suppose the Hermes Propyleeus was placed, and perhaps the Graces,
a piece of sculpture by the hand of Socrates, in which that celebrated philosopher, deviating from
the practice of the sculptors who preceded him, had represented them not naked, but clothed.
Other sculptures are also mentioned by Pausanias that seem to have decorated this stately entrance.
When the Turks seized on Athens, they added to the fortifications two batteries, which occupy
all the space between the piers above mentioned, and entirely conceal the ancient approach. They
moreover closed up, with walls very rudely wrought, the space between the six columns in front of
this building, which by that means was sufficiently secured, and became their principal magazine of
military stores. The ancient entrance into the Acropolis being thus shut up, the present entrance was
opened by demolishing the back part of the edifice decorated with the paintings just before men-
tioned : so that when Wheler and Spon entered the Acropolis, it was not by the way Pausanias has
note is a restoration from the following characters seen by Dr.
Chandler on the western front of the pedestal, which, with the
aid of a telescope, he was enabled to transcribe, but now scarcely
more than the word ArPinriA is to be identified.
M02
m.....ArpinnA
AE.....YION
TPIEY .... ONTONrAIOY
E . . LI. TETH
In the fourth line the amendment of TON EATTOT for TON
rAIOT has received the concurrent approval of subsequent litte-
rati; the inscription therefore is translated thus : " The People
[have erected] Marcus Agrippa the Son of Lucius thrice Consul
their Benefactor."
It is remarkable that though the pedestal in some respects
appears to be of the construction of Roman times, yet the place
of the inscription has been observed to be cut away in a mode
denoting a previous one to have been obliterated. Agrippa
doubtless conferred favours on the Athenians, and probably
built the theatre in the Ceramicus, called the ArPinnEION.
He was consul the third time u. c. 726. e. c. 27. at which
epoch this pedestal was inscribed. Chandler having introduced
in his transcript the word TAIOY, on the strength of that name
states that the pedestal was dedicated between the 1st of Janu-
ary and the 16th of the succeeding month in that year, when
Caius Caesar Octavianus received the title of Augustus, between
which event, and the antecedent assumption of the thrice con-
sular dignity by Agrippa, there would intervene only that incon-
siderable period of time ; but so nice a probability lends little sup-
port to the reading of TAIOT against the accustomed formula ;
and the title EYEPrETHX was conferred rather on persons be-
stowing benefactions on subjects or inferiors, than on those ren-
dering services in the relationship of equality or subordination.
If this pedestal were inscribed subsequent to the elevation of
Octavius Caesar to the empire, it is not probable that Athenian
adulation would have dedicated his statue at the entrance to the
Acropolis in any parallel situation of honour to that of any other
Roman whatever ; and there is now existing a colossal pedestal
beneath the soil, in front of the Parthenon, inscribed to Rome
and Augustus, which probably bore his statue. These consi-
derations contribute to the support of our belief that no corre-
spondent pedestal to that inscribed to Agrippa ever existed.
Chandler, Insc. Ant. Pars II. Ins. XIV. et Syl. p. 23. Corp.
Ins. GraecV.I. p. 408. Meursii Ceram. Gem. C. XV. Note e,
p. 36. [ed.]
a Tuv d= npoTTfAatwv £ii azt-icc, NIktjc ianv gc.7Ttecov vg&6<;.
Paus. Attic. C. XXII. p. 52.
' On the right of the Propylaja is the Temple of Victory without
wings.'
iEgeus, they say, cast himself down from hence, and expired
at the sight of the black sails, which his son Theseus forgot to
change, when, having slain the Minotaur, he returned victorious
from Crete. In memory of the event, a temple was after-
wards erected here, and a figure of Victory was placed in it: this
figure, contrary to the usual practice, was represented without
wings, because the fame of this exploit did not arrive at Athens
before Theseus himself, who had achieved it.
b Revett did not concur with either of his fellow-travellers,
Stuart or Chandler, respecting the position of the Temple of
Apteral Victory. In the edition of Chandler's Travels, recently
published with Revett's notes, we find that he adhered to the
now generally received opinion of Wheler and Spon, who de-
signated the Ionic temple, which was at their time in being, as
the Temple of Victory. Revett, for this passage of Chandler,
" The right wing of the Propylaea was a Temple of Victory ",
had substituted, " On the right hand entering the Propylaea was
a temple of Victory without wings, of the Ionic order, which
stood on the rampart before the wing of the Propylaea on the
same hand."
It should be taken into consideration that the position of the
northern wing of the Propylaea could not have afforded a view of
S'ustus: a
OF THE PROPYLAEA.
mode of flattery not unfregitently, and we may therefore suppose not unsuccessfully, prac-
tised by the Athenians, in
their state of humiliation under the Roman government.
On the right of the Propylaea was the Temple of Victory without wings \ whence is a prospect
of the sea: from this place it was said that ^Egeus threw himself down headlong, and died". On the
left of the Propyleea was an edifice adorned with paintings, the work of Polygnotus, of which, says
Pausanias, though some are effaced by time, there still remained Diomedes and Ulysses, the one
bearing off the bow and arrows of Philoctetes from Lemnos, the other the Palladium from Troy.
There were also Orestes slaying ZEgisthus, and Pylades encountering the sons of Nauplius, who come
to succour ^Egisthus ; Polyxena, at the sepulchre of Achilles, about to be sacrificed; and Ulysses
addressing himself to Nausicaa and her maidens, as described by Homer. Several other pictures
in the same place are described by Pausanias.
These three contiguous buildings originally formed one front, occupying the whole breadth of
the rock from side to side at its western end, so that the only admission into the Acropolis was
through the middle building, the five gates of which are still remaining, and prove it to have been
the Propylaja. Here we must suppose the Hermes Propyleeus was placed, and perhaps the Graces,
a piece of sculpture by the hand of Socrates, in which that celebrated philosopher, deviating from
the practice of the sculptors who preceded him, had represented them not naked, but clothed.
Other sculptures are also mentioned by Pausanias that seem to have decorated this stately entrance.
When the Turks seized on Athens, they added to the fortifications two batteries, which occupy
all the space between the piers above mentioned, and entirely conceal the ancient approach. They
moreover closed up, with walls very rudely wrought, the space between the six columns in front of
this building, which by that means was sufficiently secured, and became their principal magazine of
military stores. The ancient entrance into the Acropolis being thus shut up, the present entrance was
opened by demolishing the back part of the edifice decorated with the paintings just before men-
tioned : so that when Wheler and Spon entered the Acropolis, it was not by the way Pausanias has
note is a restoration from the following characters seen by Dr.
Chandler on the western front of the pedestal, which, with the
aid of a telescope, he was enabled to transcribe, but now scarcely
more than the word ArPinriA is to be identified.
M02
m.....ArpinnA
AE.....YION
TPIEY .... ONTONrAIOY
E . . LI. TETH
In the fourth line the amendment of TON EATTOT for TON
rAIOT has received the concurrent approval of subsequent litte-
rati; the inscription therefore is translated thus : " The People
[have erected] Marcus Agrippa the Son of Lucius thrice Consul
their Benefactor."
It is remarkable that though the pedestal in some respects
appears to be of the construction of Roman times, yet the place
of the inscription has been observed to be cut away in a mode
denoting a previous one to have been obliterated. Agrippa
doubtless conferred favours on the Athenians, and probably
built the theatre in the Ceramicus, called the ArPinnEION.
He was consul the third time u. c. 726. e. c. 27. at which
epoch this pedestal was inscribed. Chandler having introduced
in his transcript the word TAIOY, on the strength of that name
states that the pedestal was dedicated between the 1st of Janu-
ary and the 16th of the succeeding month in that year, when
Caius Caesar Octavianus received the title of Augustus, between
which event, and the antecedent assumption of the thrice con-
sular dignity by Agrippa, there would intervene only that incon-
siderable period of time ; but so nice a probability lends little sup-
port to the reading of TAIOT against the accustomed formula ;
and the title EYEPrETHX was conferred rather on persons be-
stowing benefactions on subjects or inferiors, than on those ren-
dering services in the relationship of equality or subordination.
If this pedestal were inscribed subsequent to the elevation of
Octavius Caesar to the empire, it is not probable that Athenian
adulation would have dedicated his statue at the entrance to the
Acropolis in any parallel situation of honour to that of any other
Roman whatever ; and there is now existing a colossal pedestal
beneath the soil, in front of the Parthenon, inscribed to Rome
and Augustus, which probably bore his statue. These consi-
derations contribute to the support of our belief that no corre-
spondent pedestal to that inscribed to Agrippa ever existed.
Chandler, Insc. Ant. Pars II. Ins. XIV. et Syl. p. 23. Corp.
Ins. GraecV.I. p. 408. Meursii Ceram. Gem. C. XV. Note e,
p. 36. [ed.]
a Tuv d= npoTTfAatwv £ii azt-icc, NIktjc ianv gc.7Ttecov vg&6<;.
Paus. Attic. C. XXII. p. 52.
' On the right of the Propylaja is the Temple of Victory without
wings.'
iEgeus, they say, cast himself down from hence, and expired
at the sight of the black sails, which his son Theseus forgot to
change, when, having slain the Minotaur, he returned victorious
from Crete. In memory of the event, a temple was after-
wards erected here, and a figure of Victory was placed in it: this
figure, contrary to the usual practice, was represented without
wings, because the fame of this exploit did not arrive at Athens
before Theseus himself, who had achieved it.
b Revett did not concur with either of his fellow-travellers,
Stuart or Chandler, respecting the position of the Temple of
Apteral Victory. In the edition of Chandler's Travels, recently
published with Revett's notes, we find that he adhered to the
now generally received opinion of Wheler and Spon, who de-
signated the Ionic temple, which was at their time in being, as
the Temple of Victory. Revett, for this passage of Chandler,
" The right wing of the Propylaea was a Temple of Victory ",
had substituted, " On the right hand entering the Propylaea was
a temple of Victory without wings, of the Ionic order, which
stood on the rampart before the wing of the Propylaea on the
same hand."
It should be taken into consideration that the position of the
northern wing of the Propylaea could not have afforded a view of