DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.4265#0070
OF THE TEMPLE OP THESEUS.
m
have written their names on the wall within this temple; their example has been followed by several
other travellers of distinction \
yet been at. The Temple of Minerva is as entire as the Rotunda.
I was three times in it, and took all the dimensions, with what
exactness I could; but it is difficult, because the castle of Athens,
in which it stands, is a garrison, and the Turks are jealous, and
brutishly barbarous, if they take notice that any measure it. The
length of the cella, or body of the temple withoutside, is 168
English feet; the breadth 71. These measures you may rely on
as exact to half a foot.
" The portico of the Dorique order, which runs round it, hath
eight pillars in front, and seventeen on the sides; the length of
the portico is 230 feet English. I have taken all the dimensions
within, with those of the wgonao? and porticos; but they are too
long for a letter. The fust or shaft of the pillars is nineteen and
a half feet in circumference. The intercolumnium one and a
quarter of the diameter of the pillars.
" The Temple of Theseus is likewise entire; but it is much
less, though built after the same model; the length of its cella
is but 73 feet, the breadth 26. The whole length of the portico
which goes round it, 123 feet. It is a Dorique building, as is
that of the Minerva. Both of them are of white marble. About
the cornice on the outside of the Temple of Minerva is a basso
relievo of men on horseback, others in chariots ; and a whole
procession of people going to a sacrifice, of a very curious sculp-
ture. On the front is a history of the birth of Minerva.
" In the Temple of Theseus on the front within side the por-
tico, at the west end, is the battle of the Centauri ; and at the
east end seems to be a continuation of that history; but there
are several figures of women, which seem to be Pirithous's bride,
and those other ladies which were at the wedding. On the out-
side the portico, in the spaces between the Triglyphi, arc se-
veral of the prowesses of Theseus, most in wrestling with
several persons, in which he excelled: all his postures and looks
are expressed with great art. Others are monsters, which he is
made encountering with, as the bull of Marathon, the boar of
Calydon, &c.
" There is a Temple of Hercules, a round fabric *; only six feet
diameter, but neat architecture. The pillars are of the Corin-
thian order, which supports an architrave and frize, wherein are
done in relievo the labours of Hercules. The top is but one
stone, wrought like a shield, with a flower on the outside, which
riseth like a plume of feathers.
" There is yet standing the tower of Andronicus Cyrrhestes,
which is an octogon, with the figures of eight winds, which are
large and of good workmanship, and the names of the winds
remain legible in fair Greek characters, (where a house, which is
built against it on one side, does not hinder) as 'AwhXwtd;, S.1^,
Bo?£a?, T,K'^u>,, Zi<pv?os, each wind placed against its quarter in
the heavens; and the roof is made of little planks of marble,
broad at bottom, and which all meet in a point at top, and make
an obtuse pyramid of some 32 or 36 sides *.
" There is a delicate temple of the Ionique order in the castle;
whether of Pandrosus, or of whom, I cannot tell; but the work
.was most fine, and all the ornaments most accurately engraven;
the length of this temple was 67 feet, the breadth 38.
"These pillars which remain of a portico of the Emperor
Adrian, are very stately and noble ; they are of the Corinthian
order, and above 52 feet in height, and 19^ in circumference;
they are canellate ; and there are now standing seventeen of them,
with part of their cornice on the top. The building to which
they belonged, I measured the area of, as near as I could con-
jecture, and found it near 1000 feet in length, and about 680 in
breadth.
" Without the town, the bridge over the Ilissus hath three
arches, of solid stonework ; the middlemost is near 20 feet broad.
There is the Stadium yet to be seen, whose length I measured
and found it 630 feet, near to what the precise measure of a
stadium ought to be, viz. 625.
" Towards the southern wall of the castle there are the remains
of the theatre of Bacchus, with the portico of Eumenes, which
is near it; the semi-diameter, which is the right sine of the demi-
circle, which makes the theatre, is about 150 feet. The whole
body of the scene, 256. Mons. De la Guillitiere, in that book
he hath written of Athens, hath made a cut of a theatre, which
he calls that of Bacchus, which is a mere fancy and invention of
his own, nothing like the natural one; which, by the plan he has
drawn of the town, I judge he did not know. I give you this
one point, that you may not be deceived by that book, which is
wide from truth; as will appear to any body who sees the reality,
though to one who hath not seen it, it seems plausibly written3.
I have dwelt long on Athens, but yet have said nothing. This
town deserves a whole book to discourse of it well, which now I
have neither time nor room to do; but I have memorials by me
of all I saw; which one day, if it please God, I may shew you.
" Thebes is a large town, but I found few antiquities in it,
excepting some inscriptions and fragments of an old wall, and
one gate, which they say was left by Alexander, when he de-
molished the rest. It is about some 50 miles distant from Athens,
as I judge.
" Corinth is two days' distant; the castle of 'Ax.^ox.6^i»Go; is
standing, which is very large. The main of the town is demo-
lished ; and the houses, which now are, scattered, and a great dis-
tance from one another.
" So is Argos, which to go round would be some four or five
miles, as the houses now stand; but if they stood together, they
would scarcely exceed a good village. Napolo della Rumilia is
a large town, and full of inhabitants, and the Basha of the
Morea resides there ; it is but very few leagues distant from
Argos.
" Sparta is quite forsaken; Mistra is the town which is inha-
bited, four miles distant from it. But one sees great ruins there-
abouts ; almost all the walls, several towers, and foundations of
temples, with pillars and chapitres demolished: a theatre pretty
entire. It might have been anciently some five miles in compass ;
and about a quarter of a mile distant from the river Eurotas. The
plain of Sparta and Laconia is very fruitful, and long, and well
watered. It will be about eighty * miles in length, as I judge.
The mountains on the west side of it are very high, the highest
I have yet seen in Greece; the Mainiots inhabit them. But the
plain of Calamata, which anciently was that of Messene, seems
rather richer. Corone is very abundant in olives. Navarino,
which is esteemed the ancient Pylos, hath a very strong castle,
fortified by the Turks, and is the best port in all the Morea-
Alpheus is much the best river, and the deepest, and with great
reason extolled by all the ancient poets, and chosen for the seat of
the Olympic games, for it is very pleasant. The plains of Elis
are very goodly and large, fit to breed horses in, and for hunting ;
but not so fruitful as Argos and Messene, winch are all riches.
The best woods I saw in Peloponnesus, are those of Achaia,
abounding with pines and wild pear, the ilex and esculus trees ;
and where there runs water, with plane trees.
" Arcadia is a very goodly champain, and full of cattle, but is
all encompassed with hills, which are very good and unhewn.
Lepanto is very pleasantly situated on the gulf, which runs up as
far as Corinth; and without the town is one of the finest foun-
tains I saw in Greece, very rich in veins of water, and shaded
with huge plane trees ; not inferior in any thing to the spring of
Castalia on Mount Parnassus, which runs through Delrmos, ex-
cepting this, that one was chosen by the Muses, and the other
not • and poetical fancies have given immortality to the one, and
never mentioned the other.
" Delphos itself is very strangely situated on a rugged hill, to
which you have an ascent of some two or three leagues ; and yet
that is not a quarter of the way to come up to the pique of Par-
nassus, on the side of which hill it stands. It seems very barren
1 TheChoragic Monument of Lysicrates. |™.] Gell's Itinerary of the Morea, to be nine hours twenty-one minutes, or about
S It has 24, sides, see note a, p. 44. V. I. [ed.] twenty-eight miles, being the greatest possible length of the Laconian plain; for
' See note on the Travels of La Guillitiere in Vol. II. p. 25. [„„.] Daphne is a village on a branch of Mount Taygetus, which, together with the
Such an extent given to the plain of Sparta exceeds possibility. The distance Derveni mountain, intercepts the view of the Gulf of Laconia from Sparta, and
from Kephalo-brysse, the source of the Eurotas, near the village of Perivolia, by the the Eurotas flows in a confined valley between them. [ed.]
ron e o tistra, to Daphne, gives its real length, which may be collected, from
VOL. III. S
m
have written their names on the wall within this temple; their example has been followed by several
other travellers of distinction \
yet been at. The Temple of Minerva is as entire as the Rotunda.
I was three times in it, and took all the dimensions, with what
exactness I could; but it is difficult, because the castle of Athens,
in which it stands, is a garrison, and the Turks are jealous, and
brutishly barbarous, if they take notice that any measure it. The
length of the cella, or body of the temple withoutside, is 168
English feet; the breadth 71. These measures you may rely on
as exact to half a foot.
" The portico of the Dorique order, which runs round it, hath
eight pillars in front, and seventeen on the sides; the length of
the portico is 230 feet English. I have taken all the dimensions
within, with those of the wgonao? and porticos; but they are too
long for a letter. The fust or shaft of the pillars is nineteen and
a half feet in circumference. The intercolumnium one and a
quarter of the diameter of the pillars.
" The Temple of Theseus is likewise entire; but it is much
less, though built after the same model; the length of its cella
is but 73 feet, the breadth 26. The whole length of the portico
which goes round it, 123 feet. It is a Dorique building, as is
that of the Minerva. Both of them are of white marble. About
the cornice on the outside of the Temple of Minerva is a basso
relievo of men on horseback, others in chariots ; and a whole
procession of people going to a sacrifice, of a very curious sculp-
ture. On the front is a history of the birth of Minerva.
" In the Temple of Theseus on the front within side the por-
tico, at the west end, is the battle of the Centauri ; and at the
east end seems to be a continuation of that history; but there
are several figures of women, which seem to be Pirithous's bride,
and those other ladies which were at the wedding. On the out-
side the portico, in the spaces between the Triglyphi, arc se-
veral of the prowesses of Theseus, most in wrestling with
several persons, in which he excelled: all his postures and looks
are expressed with great art. Others are monsters, which he is
made encountering with, as the bull of Marathon, the boar of
Calydon, &c.
" There is a Temple of Hercules, a round fabric *; only six feet
diameter, but neat architecture. The pillars are of the Corin-
thian order, which supports an architrave and frize, wherein are
done in relievo the labours of Hercules. The top is but one
stone, wrought like a shield, with a flower on the outside, which
riseth like a plume of feathers.
" There is yet standing the tower of Andronicus Cyrrhestes,
which is an octogon, with the figures of eight winds, which are
large and of good workmanship, and the names of the winds
remain legible in fair Greek characters, (where a house, which is
built against it on one side, does not hinder) as 'AwhXwtd;, S.1^,
Bo?£a?, T,K'^u>,, Zi<pv?os, each wind placed against its quarter in
the heavens; and the roof is made of little planks of marble,
broad at bottom, and which all meet in a point at top, and make
an obtuse pyramid of some 32 or 36 sides *.
" There is a delicate temple of the Ionique order in the castle;
whether of Pandrosus, or of whom, I cannot tell; but the work
.was most fine, and all the ornaments most accurately engraven;
the length of this temple was 67 feet, the breadth 38.
"These pillars which remain of a portico of the Emperor
Adrian, are very stately and noble ; they are of the Corinthian
order, and above 52 feet in height, and 19^ in circumference;
they are canellate ; and there are now standing seventeen of them,
with part of their cornice on the top. The building to which
they belonged, I measured the area of, as near as I could con-
jecture, and found it near 1000 feet in length, and about 680 in
breadth.
" Without the town, the bridge over the Ilissus hath three
arches, of solid stonework ; the middlemost is near 20 feet broad.
There is the Stadium yet to be seen, whose length I measured
and found it 630 feet, near to what the precise measure of a
stadium ought to be, viz. 625.
" Towards the southern wall of the castle there are the remains
of the theatre of Bacchus, with the portico of Eumenes, which
is near it; the semi-diameter, which is the right sine of the demi-
circle, which makes the theatre, is about 150 feet. The whole
body of the scene, 256. Mons. De la Guillitiere, in that book
he hath written of Athens, hath made a cut of a theatre, which
he calls that of Bacchus, which is a mere fancy and invention of
his own, nothing like the natural one; which, by the plan he has
drawn of the town, I judge he did not know. I give you this
one point, that you may not be deceived by that book, which is
wide from truth; as will appear to any body who sees the reality,
though to one who hath not seen it, it seems plausibly written3.
I have dwelt long on Athens, but yet have said nothing. This
town deserves a whole book to discourse of it well, which now I
have neither time nor room to do; but I have memorials by me
of all I saw; which one day, if it please God, I may shew you.
" Thebes is a large town, but I found few antiquities in it,
excepting some inscriptions and fragments of an old wall, and
one gate, which they say was left by Alexander, when he de-
molished the rest. It is about some 50 miles distant from Athens,
as I judge.
" Corinth is two days' distant; the castle of 'Ax.^ox.6^i»Go; is
standing, which is very large. The main of the town is demo-
lished ; and the houses, which now are, scattered, and a great dis-
tance from one another.
" So is Argos, which to go round would be some four or five
miles, as the houses now stand; but if they stood together, they
would scarcely exceed a good village. Napolo della Rumilia is
a large town, and full of inhabitants, and the Basha of the
Morea resides there ; it is but very few leagues distant from
Argos.
" Sparta is quite forsaken; Mistra is the town which is inha-
bited, four miles distant from it. But one sees great ruins there-
abouts ; almost all the walls, several towers, and foundations of
temples, with pillars and chapitres demolished: a theatre pretty
entire. It might have been anciently some five miles in compass ;
and about a quarter of a mile distant from the river Eurotas. The
plain of Sparta and Laconia is very fruitful, and long, and well
watered. It will be about eighty * miles in length, as I judge.
The mountains on the west side of it are very high, the highest
I have yet seen in Greece; the Mainiots inhabit them. But the
plain of Calamata, which anciently was that of Messene, seems
rather richer. Corone is very abundant in olives. Navarino,
which is esteemed the ancient Pylos, hath a very strong castle,
fortified by the Turks, and is the best port in all the Morea-
Alpheus is much the best river, and the deepest, and with great
reason extolled by all the ancient poets, and chosen for the seat of
the Olympic games, for it is very pleasant. The plains of Elis
are very goodly and large, fit to breed horses in, and for hunting ;
but not so fruitful as Argos and Messene, winch are all riches.
The best woods I saw in Peloponnesus, are those of Achaia,
abounding with pines and wild pear, the ilex and esculus trees ;
and where there runs water, with plane trees.
" Arcadia is a very goodly champain, and full of cattle, but is
all encompassed with hills, which are very good and unhewn.
Lepanto is very pleasantly situated on the gulf, which runs up as
far as Corinth; and without the town is one of the finest foun-
tains I saw in Greece, very rich in veins of water, and shaded
with huge plane trees ; not inferior in any thing to the spring of
Castalia on Mount Parnassus, which runs through Delrmos, ex-
cepting this, that one was chosen by the Muses, and the other
not • and poetical fancies have given immortality to the one, and
never mentioned the other.
" Delphos itself is very strangely situated on a rugged hill, to
which you have an ascent of some two or three leagues ; and yet
that is not a quarter of the way to come up to the pique of Par-
nassus, on the side of which hill it stands. It seems very barren
1 TheChoragic Monument of Lysicrates. |™.] Gell's Itinerary of the Morea, to be nine hours twenty-one minutes, or about
S It has 24, sides, see note a, p. 44. V. I. [ed.] twenty-eight miles, being the greatest possible length of the Laconian plain; for
' See note on the Travels of La Guillitiere in Vol. II. p. 25. [„„.] Daphne is a village on a branch of Mount Taygetus, which, together with the
Such an extent given to the plain of Sparta exceeds possibility. The distance Derveni mountain, intercepts the view of the Gulf of Laconia from Sparta, and
from Kephalo-brysse, the source of the Eurotas, near the village of Perivolia, by the the Eurotas flows in a confined valley between them. [ed.]
ron e o tistra, to Daphne, gives its real length, which may be collected, from
VOL. III. S