DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.2532#0050
DR. PENROSE ON THE DATE OF THE OED TEMPLE
29
" In answer to your questions, the most ancient temples as derived from the orientation are
(that is, according to the arbitrary constants I have used in the calculation, which, however, admit
of certain allowances which I will refer to afterwards) : —
B. C.
The Archaic Temple on the Acropolis ) -toon
The Heraeum of Argos )
3. The Athena Temple at Tegca....... 1580
4. The Heraeum at Olympia ....... 1445
5. The Asclepieum at Epidaurus ....... 1370
6. The Olympieum at Athens ; i. e. Deucalion's foundations . 1000
The later Arrive Heraeum is not connected in its orientation with the same star as the Old
Temple. The arbitrary constants, as I have called them — and especially one of them, namely,
the depression of the sun below the horizon when the star could be recognized, is a subjective
matter which would allow of a little variation. In my scheme I do not allow of any capricious
variation of this constant — and by so
doing I hold that I get a tolerably rigid ex- ^
pression for the relative dates of the foun-
dations; but there would be no great dis-
turbance of the principle if we allow a little
more depression of the sun than would be
absolutely necessary for a clear visioned observer to sight the star in average fine weather.
" By allowing an additional degree of solar depression in the case of your Heraeum before the
star's appearance was to be announced, the 1830 would become 1910. This arrangement would be
very easily managed in practice, for instance, by allowing it to rise to the height of some mark
[see cut] before it was said to be heliacal."
This, then, — B. c. 1910-1830,— is the date which we adopt for the Proetean
Heraeum, and Ave have indications at the Heraeum of long-continued habitation before
this date. We are thus driven back to dates much earlier than those hitherto assumed
for the beginnings of Hellenic civilization. The only fixed date connected with the
Argive region which we find is that assigned, according to Acusilaus, to Phoroneus, i. e.
1020 years before the first Olympiad, which brings us close to the year B. c. 1800. For
the present it is enough to say that this computation of Acusilaus seems to have been
made on some good grounds; but I should be inclined to place the period marked by
Phoroneus much earlier.
But evidently it is necessary to weigh critically the ancient genealogies of the Argive
riders handed down by tradition, preserved to us in greatest completeness by Pausanias;
and our main contention, of the existence of a Pre-Mycenaean period of Greek civiliza-
tion, towards which all our evidence converges, will be strongly supported by such
critical study. It will be finally confirmed, I believe, by the objects of earliest art and
craft which we have had the good fortune to discover on this site.
In taking serious accoimt of the local traditions of earliest Greek history handed
down in ancient literature, and in weighing and sifting them critically, we must feel a
general misgiving as to whether we are justified in attaching any weight to them for
the purposes of historical research. This doubt is caused by the intrusion of so many
myths and legends grouped round certain individual names which in themselves form a
rational and simple genealogical table. But these misgivings will be greatly allayed
when we consider the parallel instances within our well-authenticated historical ken to
some of which my friend Professor Ridgeway has drawn my attention. It will then he
seen that, by what might almost be called a mythogenetic law, popular legends have an
'•''
1
29
" In answer to your questions, the most ancient temples as derived from the orientation are
(that is, according to the arbitrary constants I have used in the calculation, which, however, admit
of certain allowances which I will refer to afterwards) : —
B. C.
The Archaic Temple on the Acropolis ) -toon
The Heraeum of Argos )
3. The Athena Temple at Tegca....... 1580
4. The Heraeum at Olympia ....... 1445
5. The Asclepieum at Epidaurus ....... 1370
6. The Olympieum at Athens ; i. e. Deucalion's foundations . 1000
The later Arrive Heraeum is not connected in its orientation with the same star as the Old
Temple. The arbitrary constants, as I have called them — and especially one of them, namely,
the depression of the sun below the horizon when the star could be recognized, is a subjective
matter which would allow of a little variation. In my scheme I do not allow of any capricious
variation of this constant — and by so
doing I hold that I get a tolerably rigid ex- ^
pression for the relative dates of the foun-
dations; but there would be no great dis-
turbance of the principle if we allow a little
more depression of the sun than would be
absolutely necessary for a clear visioned observer to sight the star in average fine weather.
" By allowing an additional degree of solar depression in the case of your Heraeum before the
star's appearance was to be announced, the 1830 would become 1910. This arrangement would be
very easily managed in practice, for instance, by allowing it to rise to the height of some mark
[see cut] before it was said to be heliacal."
This, then, — B. c. 1910-1830,— is the date which we adopt for the Proetean
Heraeum, and Ave have indications at the Heraeum of long-continued habitation before
this date. We are thus driven back to dates much earlier than those hitherto assumed
for the beginnings of Hellenic civilization. The only fixed date connected with the
Argive region which we find is that assigned, according to Acusilaus, to Phoroneus, i. e.
1020 years before the first Olympiad, which brings us close to the year B. c. 1800. For
the present it is enough to say that this computation of Acusilaus seems to have been
made on some good grounds; but I should be inclined to place the period marked by
Phoroneus much earlier.
But evidently it is necessary to weigh critically the ancient genealogies of the Argive
riders handed down by tradition, preserved to us in greatest completeness by Pausanias;
and our main contention, of the existence of a Pre-Mycenaean period of Greek civiliza-
tion, towards which all our evidence converges, will be strongly supported by such
critical study. It will be finally confirmed, I believe, by the objects of earliest art and
craft which we have had the good fortune to discover on this site.
In taking serious accoimt of the local traditions of earliest Greek history handed
down in ancient literature, and in weighing and sifting them critically, we must feel a
general misgiving as to whether we are justified in attaching any weight to them for
the purposes of historical research. This doubt is caused by the intrusion of so many
myths and legends grouped round certain individual names which in themselves form a
rational and simple genealogical table. But these misgivings will be greatly allayed
when we consider the parallel instances within our well-authenticated historical ken to
some of which my friend Professor Ridgeway has drawn my attention. It will then he
seen that, by what might almost be called a mythogenetic law, popular legends have an
'•''
1