DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.4265#0104
CHAPTER VI.
OP THE BRIDGE OVER THE ILISSUS, AND THE STADIUM PANATHENAICUM.
Ahis bridge is very much ruined \ no part of the outer face remaining, except five or six stones at
the springing of the arch " in Plate XXXVL, Fig. 3," marked A. The arches are semicircular ; the
pier is about five-twelfths of the arch. The breadth of the bridge could not be measured to any cer-
inty> but it must have been at least above seventy feet. The situation accounts for its extraordinary
readth, which is directly fronting the Stadium Panathenai'cum, and over it passed those who attended
the games. There are at present no remains of any ornamental architecture either about the bridge
°r stadium.
PLATE XXXVL
'S« 1. A view of the channel of the Ilissus, and of the bridge, now partly ruined, but which
j ea to the Stadium Panathenai'cum, and to the country of Agrae. This channel is generally
water, except in the rainy season, when it imbibes sufficient moisture to produce some
n m the dog-days, during which season the air is so heated as to raise the mercury in Fah-
ermometer, though placed in the shade, to 96°, and sometimes to upwards of 99°. At
le open country is then entirely parched up, and all appearance of verdure for several
erv destroyed. The figures and animals are, I believe, part of the same family and flock
ced in the view of the Arch of Hadrian; the female visitors are relations to the men, and
them in gathering and conducting homeward the flock, which is lodged for the night under the
me roof with the rest of the family, the number of wolves in this country rendering such pre-
caution necessary. The music, with which these female visitors are entertained, is produced by a
kind of flagelet and a guitar, played on with a bow, as if it were a violin. Through the middle arch
°f the bridge is seen at a distance the little Ionic temple, given in the second chapter of Vol. I.
On the right hand appear some of the Columns of Hadrian. The channel of the Ilissus lies between
the two last-mentioned antiquities, and forms a kind of dell, in which the fountain Callirrhoe gushes
out from among some rocks. On the distant hill, formerly called the Museum, stands the Monu-
ment of Philopappus. Over the two goats on the left hand is the western extremity of the Stadium,
now entirely despoiled of the surprising quantity of marble with which it was so magnificently adorn-
ed by Herodes Atticus b.
" Fig. 2 and 3. Plan of the bridge, with the elevation of it next to the south-west." [r.J
* It was destroyed as low as the bed of the river " about the grouted rubble work, within a casing of wrought stone. Opposite
year 1770." [«■]] the Stadium, in continuation of the bridge, may yet be observed
b The ruined wall with an opening in it, seen on the right of the embankment of a causeway of about 200 yards in length,
this view above the bridge, has also disappeared, with the arches which led from a ridge that commences at the Olympieum and
below it. It was part of a monastery, which was abandoned extends in a north-easterly direction, with which a part of the
when Attica was first taken possession of by the Turks. Several ancient city wall may be supposed to have conformed ; it is pro-
courses of the embankment pier on the northern side of the bridge, bable that a city gate opened upon this causeway, and it is con-
«* yet to be traced, and the foundations of the others are also jectured that the district called The Gardens was on each side of
still visible. The masonry was of that class termed by Vitruvius it, between the city wall and the bank of the Ilissus. See Plan
»V*-X«xTt>» (emplectum), being composed of an indurated mass of of Athens, Plate I. page 28, note b. [>»•"]
OP THE BRIDGE OVER THE ILISSUS, AND THE STADIUM PANATHENAICUM.
Ahis bridge is very much ruined \ no part of the outer face remaining, except five or six stones at
the springing of the arch " in Plate XXXVL, Fig. 3," marked A. The arches are semicircular ; the
pier is about five-twelfths of the arch. The breadth of the bridge could not be measured to any cer-
inty> but it must have been at least above seventy feet. The situation accounts for its extraordinary
readth, which is directly fronting the Stadium Panathenai'cum, and over it passed those who attended
the games. There are at present no remains of any ornamental architecture either about the bridge
°r stadium.
PLATE XXXVL
'S« 1. A view of the channel of the Ilissus, and of the bridge, now partly ruined, but which
j ea to the Stadium Panathenai'cum, and to the country of Agrae. This channel is generally
water, except in the rainy season, when it imbibes sufficient moisture to produce some
n m the dog-days, during which season the air is so heated as to raise the mercury in Fah-
ermometer, though placed in the shade, to 96°, and sometimes to upwards of 99°. At
le open country is then entirely parched up, and all appearance of verdure for several
erv destroyed. The figures and animals are, I believe, part of the same family and flock
ced in the view of the Arch of Hadrian; the female visitors are relations to the men, and
them in gathering and conducting homeward the flock, which is lodged for the night under the
me roof with the rest of the family, the number of wolves in this country rendering such pre-
caution necessary. The music, with which these female visitors are entertained, is produced by a
kind of flagelet and a guitar, played on with a bow, as if it were a violin. Through the middle arch
°f the bridge is seen at a distance the little Ionic temple, given in the second chapter of Vol. I.
On the right hand appear some of the Columns of Hadrian. The channel of the Ilissus lies between
the two last-mentioned antiquities, and forms a kind of dell, in which the fountain Callirrhoe gushes
out from among some rocks. On the distant hill, formerly called the Museum, stands the Monu-
ment of Philopappus. Over the two goats on the left hand is the western extremity of the Stadium,
now entirely despoiled of the surprising quantity of marble with which it was so magnificently adorn-
ed by Herodes Atticus b.
" Fig. 2 and 3. Plan of the bridge, with the elevation of it next to the south-west." [r.J
* It was destroyed as low as the bed of the river " about the grouted rubble work, within a casing of wrought stone. Opposite
year 1770." [«■]] the Stadium, in continuation of the bridge, may yet be observed
b The ruined wall with an opening in it, seen on the right of the embankment of a causeway of about 200 yards in length,
this view above the bridge, has also disappeared, with the arches which led from a ridge that commences at the Olympieum and
below it. It was part of a monastery, which was abandoned extends in a north-easterly direction, with which a part of the
when Attica was first taken possession of by the Turks. Several ancient city wall may be supposed to have conformed ; it is pro-
courses of the embankment pier on the northern side of the bridge, bable that a city gate opened upon this causeway, and it is con-
«* yet to be traced, and the foundations of the others are also jectured that the district called The Gardens was on each side of
still visible. The masonry was of that class termed by Vitruvius it, between the city wall and the bank of the Ilissus. See Plan
»V*-X«xTt>» (emplectum), being composed of an indurated mass of of Athens, Plate I. page 28, note b. [>»•"]