Wordsworth, Christopher: Athens and Attica: journal of a residence (London, 1837)

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CHAP. X

•]

ATHENIAN ASSEMBLIES.



71

to face

with less

alarm the winds and storms

of

the

Athenian Assembly4.

We pass for a moment to a subject of a more
technical character, in which a consideration of the
objects before us may afford some interest. The scenes.
which are described as taking place on this spot gain
much in distinctness from local illustration. Placed
where we are now, we may imagine Dicseopolis in the
Aristophanic play of the Acharnians arriving here early
in the morning, taking his seat on one of these 5 lime-
stone steps, and speculating on the Agora beneath
him, where the logistae are chasing the stragglers with
their vermilion-coloured rope. The Prytanes appear
from the Agora; they ascend the slope of the Pnyx;
a contest takes place for the first seats, covered with
planks and perhaps with cushions at the base of the
stone rostrum, around which are ranged the bowmen
of the Scythian police. The citizens, equipped with
staff and cloak, are seated on this 6 elevated area

* See the comparison feelingly expressed by Demosthen. tt.it. 383. 7.
Quintil. x. 3. 30. Demosthenes in litore, in quod se maximo cum sono
fluctus illideret, meditans (jueXeTtoi/) consuescebat concionum fremitus
nan expavescere. Cic. Fin. v. 2. in Phalerico declamare solitum Demos-
thenem.

5 Which suggested the offer of the cushion to the Demus in the

Equites. 783__

eTri tcucti ireTpats ov <ppovTiX,eL tricXypios are Ka6tjp.evov ovtws'
oi>x wirire/> eyw pa\[/dp,evos trot, tovtl <pepay* dW eTTavaipov,
KaTa KaQ't^ov fiaXaKws...

* Hence the use of the word dvw for, "in the Pnyx." Demosth.
285. 2. 7ras 6 £i?/ios dvw Kadijo-To. cf. Plutarch. Nic. 7. Euripides,
in describing an Argive assembly, draws his picture of it from the

Athenian