DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.4265#0071
70
OF THE TEMPLE OF THESEUS.
PLATE V.
Fig. 1. A view of the Temple of Theseus. On the foreground are Albanian husbandmen winnow-
ing corn, which is done by lightly tossing up the grain, when the Etesian wind blows away the chaff.
A Turkish servant, accompanied by his master's son, is giving orders to them. The kind of tempo-
to the eye, but the fruits are very good where there are any. The
wines are excellent, and the plants and simples which are found
there, very fragrant, and of great efficacy.
" About Lebadia, and all through Boeotia, the plains are very
fertile, and make amends for the barrenness of the hills which
encompass them ; but in winter they are apt to be overflown for
that reason, and to be turned into lakes; which renders the
Boeotian air very thick, and so were their skulls too, if the an-
cients may be believed concerning them ; though Pindar, who
was one that sublimated poetry to its highest exaltation, and is
much fancied and imitated in our age, as he was admired in his
own, was born there: and Amphion, who was said to be so divine
in his music that he ravished the very stones, had skill enough to
entice them to make up the walls of Thebes; so that not every
thing that is born in a dull air is dull.
" These vales I found much planted with cotton, and sesamum,
and cummin, of which they make a great profit and a great trade
at Thebes and Lebadia. I went from Thebes into the island of
Eubcea, or Negroponte, and saw the Euripus, which ebbs and
flows much after the nature of our tides; only the moon, and
sometimes the winds, make it irregular. The channel, which
runs between the town and a castle, which stands in an island
over against it, is some fifty feet broad ; and there are three mills
on it, which shew all the changes and varieties that happen in the
current. Near the Euripus, and opposite to the town, they shew
a port which they say was Aulis, and it is not improbable, for it
must be thereabouts. Between Negroponte and Athens is a high
hill called'Ayio/xatto^i, formerly very dangerous, but now guarded
by Albaneses ; it is part of Mount Panics, and near it on the left
hand lies Mount Pentelicus, from whence the Athenians an-
ciently fetched their stone, and now there is a convent of Caloieris *
there, one of the richest in all Greece.
" In going from Athens by sea, I embarked in a port which
lies just by Munychia; that which they call Porto Piroeo lies
behind it a mile distant, which is a large port, able to contain
500 vessels. There are the ruins of the town yet remaining, and
of the walls, which joined it to the city of Athens. I sailed by
Porto Phalero, the ancient haven of Athens, which is rather a
road than a port. I saw an island called OAe^e; *, where the
Athenians had anciently mines. I went ashore on the promontory
of Sunium to view the remains of the Temple of Minerva, which
is on it. Hence I sailed among the isles of the Archipelago,
Macronisia, Thermia, Serphanto, Syphanto, till I came to Milo.
From Milo I sailed through the Cyclades to come hither. I
passed by Andros, Tenos, Mycone, Delos ; Naxia and Paros I
saw at a distance. We sailed near the northern cape of Scio,
and the southern of Mytelene or Lesbos, and so came into the
gulj)h of Smyrna. Within this gulph stands Burla, near some
small islands, which is judged to be the ancient Clazomense;
Foja, which is the same with the ancient Phocaea: near this the
river Hermus discharges itself into this gulph.
" In this my journey I had some misadventures. My com-
panion, Sir Giles Eastcourt, died by the way. At sea I was
plundered by the Serphiotes, where I lost all my letters, and yours
among the rest, which you sent to my Lord Ambassador at Con-
stantinople, and Consul Rycaut 3, whom I find here a very civil
and knowing gentleman; and I am much obliged to him for his
favours. I have been as curious as I could in taking the latitudes
of some remarkable places; as I find them I shall give them
you:—
"Athens . . . 38° 5' Patras .... 38°40'
Corinth ... 38 14 Dclphos .... 38 50
Sparta . . . 37 10 Thebes .... 38 22
Corone ... 37 2 Negroponte or Chalcis 38 314
" I desire you to present my humble services to the gentlemen
of the Royal Society. I am, &c.
" Francis Vehnon."
Vide Phil. Trans. V. XI. p. 575.
a The present state of this temple is as follows :—The cell is
enclosed at the eastern end by a modern wall, as expressed by the
dotted lines, within which is the altar. The west door is walled
up, and the present entrance is through a very small modern door.
(See the plan, letter H, on the south side of the cell.) The roof
is a semicircular vault, in which small openings are left for light;
this is probably of the same date as the enclosure of the eastern
end. The site of the wall c c is very apparent, and some stones
project from the side walls, which formed part of it.
Mr. Stuart has, in a memorandum, alluded to the above state
of the temple, (as follows,) in a description of the column, with
inscriptions, in the Temple of Theseus, now the church of St.
George, in Athens. The inscriptions may be seen in the second
part of the work published by Dr. Chandler, p. 60-63.
The door belonging to the posticum, or west end of the ancient
temple, is stopped up with dirt and fragments of marble;
among them was the column on which the above-referred-to in-
scriptions are engraved, one only was then visible; but, about
ten years ago, a Turk broke through this door in order to rob the
church ; among other stones which he displaced, was the marble
in question, all the inscriptions of which are now accessible; by
Wheler's account, it seems, in his time, to have supported the
trapezon, or altar, situated in the tribune at the east end of the
aforesaid church. There are four inscriptions on this column,
one of which is so ruined as not to be legible. The column
here mentioned is excavated, and Mr. Revett thinks it may
possibly have been a standard measure, perhaps that called
medimnus. rR.l
1 Now generally written Caloyers, probably derived from xaXos iipus-, mean-
ing ' good priest.' [ED,J
s Probably Phlega, an island off Cape Zoster, near the district of Laurium.
[ED.]
3 The Ambassador here alluded to was the Earl of Winchelsea, third of that
title, who was sent on an extraordinary mission to Sidtan Mustapha IV. by King
Charles II. The above-mentioned consul Rycaut accompanied him as secretary
to Constantinople, and he afterwards was appointed consul at Smyrna. At his
return home, he was knighted by James II., and appointed judge of the Court of
Admiralty ; he died in 1700. Sir Paul Kicaut distinguished himself in a work
entitled, " The Present State of the Ottoman Empire, in three Books, containing
the Maxims of the Turkish Policy, their Religion and Military Discipline, Fol.
] 670 ;" and also by some other productions relating to the Levant, among which
is a work composed by command of King Charles II. on " The Present State of
the Greek and Armenian Churches, 1678." [ed.]
4 We have been favoured by Captain Smyth, R. N., K.S.F., with the positions
of the undermentioned places named above, as recently settled by his operations
at the instance of the Board of Admiralty: —
LATITUDE.
NORTH.
S7° 58' 02"
88 14 05
37 53 20
38 30 36
30 46 40
LONGITUDE.
EAST.
23° 43' 37"
21 46 50
22 54 15
22 34 10
21 59 48 "
" Athens, Parthenon .
Patras, Castle . . .
Corinth, Citadel . .
Dclphos, Mount over .
Coron, Citadel . •
M. Barbie du Bocage, in his Atlas to Anacharsis, questioned the correctness of
Mr. Vernon's latitudes. The superior precision, however, of the observations
of Captain Smyth have been a valuable accession to Grecian geography, the
result of a portion of whose labours is already known to the public in the charts
of the Ionian Islands. [in.]
OF THE TEMPLE OF THESEUS.
PLATE V.
Fig. 1. A view of the Temple of Theseus. On the foreground are Albanian husbandmen winnow-
ing corn, which is done by lightly tossing up the grain, when the Etesian wind blows away the chaff.
A Turkish servant, accompanied by his master's son, is giving orders to them. The kind of tempo-
to the eye, but the fruits are very good where there are any. The
wines are excellent, and the plants and simples which are found
there, very fragrant, and of great efficacy.
" About Lebadia, and all through Boeotia, the plains are very
fertile, and make amends for the barrenness of the hills which
encompass them ; but in winter they are apt to be overflown for
that reason, and to be turned into lakes; which renders the
Boeotian air very thick, and so were their skulls too, if the an-
cients may be believed concerning them ; though Pindar, who
was one that sublimated poetry to its highest exaltation, and is
much fancied and imitated in our age, as he was admired in his
own, was born there: and Amphion, who was said to be so divine
in his music that he ravished the very stones, had skill enough to
entice them to make up the walls of Thebes; so that not every
thing that is born in a dull air is dull.
" These vales I found much planted with cotton, and sesamum,
and cummin, of which they make a great profit and a great trade
at Thebes and Lebadia. I went from Thebes into the island of
Eubcea, or Negroponte, and saw the Euripus, which ebbs and
flows much after the nature of our tides; only the moon, and
sometimes the winds, make it irregular. The channel, which
runs between the town and a castle, which stands in an island
over against it, is some fifty feet broad ; and there are three mills
on it, which shew all the changes and varieties that happen in the
current. Near the Euripus, and opposite to the town, they shew
a port which they say was Aulis, and it is not improbable, for it
must be thereabouts. Between Negroponte and Athens is a high
hill called'Ayio/xatto^i, formerly very dangerous, but now guarded
by Albaneses ; it is part of Mount Panics, and near it on the left
hand lies Mount Pentelicus, from whence the Athenians an-
ciently fetched their stone, and now there is a convent of Caloieris *
there, one of the richest in all Greece.
" In going from Athens by sea, I embarked in a port which
lies just by Munychia; that which they call Porto Piroeo lies
behind it a mile distant, which is a large port, able to contain
500 vessels. There are the ruins of the town yet remaining, and
of the walls, which joined it to the city of Athens. I sailed by
Porto Phalero, the ancient haven of Athens, which is rather a
road than a port. I saw an island called OAe^e; *, where the
Athenians had anciently mines. I went ashore on the promontory
of Sunium to view the remains of the Temple of Minerva, which
is on it. Hence I sailed among the isles of the Archipelago,
Macronisia, Thermia, Serphanto, Syphanto, till I came to Milo.
From Milo I sailed through the Cyclades to come hither. I
passed by Andros, Tenos, Mycone, Delos ; Naxia and Paros I
saw at a distance. We sailed near the northern cape of Scio,
and the southern of Mytelene or Lesbos, and so came into the
gulj)h of Smyrna. Within this gulph stands Burla, near some
small islands, which is judged to be the ancient Clazomense;
Foja, which is the same with the ancient Phocaea: near this the
river Hermus discharges itself into this gulph.
" In this my journey I had some misadventures. My com-
panion, Sir Giles Eastcourt, died by the way. At sea I was
plundered by the Serphiotes, where I lost all my letters, and yours
among the rest, which you sent to my Lord Ambassador at Con-
stantinople, and Consul Rycaut 3, whom I find here a very civil
and knowing gentleman; and I am much obliged to him for his
favours. I have been as curious as I could in taking the latitudes
of some remarkable places; as I find them I shall give them
you:—
"Athens . . . 38° 5' Patras .... 38°40'
Corinth ... 38 14 Dclphos .... 38 50
Sparta . . . 37 10 Thebes .... 38 22
Corone ... 37 2 Negroponte or Chalcis 38 314
" I desire you to present my humble services to the gentlemen
of the Royal Society. I am, &c.
" Francis Vehnon."
Vide Phil. Trans. V. XI. p. 575.
a The present state of this temple is as follows :—The cell is
enclosed at the eastern end by a modern wall, as expressed by the
dotted lines, within which is the altar. The west door is walled
up, and the present entrance is through a very small modern door.
(See the plan, letter H, on the south side of the cell.) The roof
is a semicircular vault, in which small openings are left for light;
this is probably of the same date as the enclosure of the eastern
end. The site of the wall c c is very apparent, and some stones
project from the side walls, which formed part of it.
Mr. Stuart has, in a memorandum, alluded to the above state
of the temple, (as follows,) in a description of the column, with
inscriptions, in the Temple of Theseus, now the church of St.
George, in Athens. The inscriptions may be seen in the second
part of the work published by Dr. Chandler, p. 60-63.
The door belonging to the posticum, or west end of the ancient
temple, is stopped up with dirt and fragments of marble;
among them was the column on which the above-referred-to in-
scriptions are engraved, one only was then visible; but, about
ten years ago, a Turk broke through this door in order to rob the
church ; among other stones which he displaced, was the marble
in question, all the inscriptions of which are now accessible; by
Wheler's account, it seems, in his time, to have supported the
trapezon, or altar, situated in the tribune at the east end of the
aforesaid church. There are four inscriptions on this column,
one of which is so ruined as not to be legible. The column
here mentioned is excavated, and Mr. Revett thinks it may
possibly have been a standard measure, perhaps that called
medimnus. rR.l
1 Now generally written Caloyers, probably derived from xaXos iipus-, mean-
ing ' good priest.' [ED,J
s Probably Phlega, an island off Cape Zoster, near the district of Laurium.
[ED.]
3 The Ambassador here alluded to was the Earl of Winchelsea, third of that
title, who was sent on an extraordinary mission to Sidtan Mustapha IV. by King
Charles II. The above-mentioned consul Rycaut accompanied him as secretary
to Constantinople, and he afterwards was appointed consul at Smyrna. At his
return home, he was knighted by James II., and appointed judge of the Court of
Admiralty ; he died in 1700. Sir Paul Kicaut distinguished himself in a work
entitled, " The Present State of the Ottoman Empire, in three Books, containing
the Maxims of the Turkish Policy, their Religion and Military Discipline, Fol.
] 670 ;" and also by some other productions relating to the Levant, among which
is a work composed by command of King Charles II. on " The Present State of
the Greek and Armenian Churches, 1678." [ed.]
4 We have been favoured by Captain Smyth, R. N., K.S.F., with the positions
of the undermentioned places named above, as recently settled by his operations
at the instance of the Board of Admiralty: —
LATITUDE.
NORTH.
S7° 58' 02"
88 14 05
37 53 20
38 30 36
30 46 40
LONGITUDE.
EAST.
23° 43' 37"
21 46 50
22 54 15
22 34 10
21 59 48 "
" Athens, Parthenon .
Patras, Castle . . .
Corinth, Citadel . .
Dclphos, Mount over .
Coron, Citadel . •
M. Barbie du Bocage, in his Atlas to Anacharsis, questioned the correctness of
Mr. Vernon's latitudes. The superior precision, however, of the observations
of Captain Smyth have been a valuable accession to Grecian geography, the
result of a portion of whose labours is already known to the public in the charts
of the Ionian Islands. [in.]