DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.1031#0127
CHAP. XIV.] CHARACTER OP THE ACROPOLIS. 103
Art of the Athenian nation: thus a flat oblong rock,
the greatest length of which was a thousand feet,
and breadth five hundred, was made the most in-
teresting spot of ground on the face of the heathen
earth. From those four elements here blended to-
gether, the rock of the Acropolis at Athens might
have claimed to be considered as the representation
of the perfect Greek character, somewhat in the same
manner as the Ehren Breitstein of Coblentz has been
of the chivalrous and Christian.
The position of this rock has suggested some
ingenious fancies. It was the heart of Athens, as
Athens was the 3 heart of Greece: it was the centre
of the imaginary spiral in which all that was great
and beautiful in Greece was involved: again, from
its sanctity, its beauty and its form, it was like a
decorated Pedestal, or a massive Altar, one great
AvaQtjfia to the Gods. And thus the attainment of
a place here in the citadel, was a sort of apotheosis
for men and their works4.
Eighteen hundred years ago Strabo lamented the
multiplicity of objects claiming the notice of the topo-
Elmsley Review of Hermann's Suppl. v. 966. In MSS., "perpetuo con.
funduntur aut a se invicera perduntur tt. ti." Porson. Phceniss. 1277- and
' is equivalent to iv. Hence arose the corruption in the text of Dicaarchus.
8 Aristid. Panathen. «!s eir' dtririSos, kvkXuiv els aWtj'Xous l/n/3e-
priKoTwv ireftvros els 6n<pa\dv Trknpoi. I have no douht that it is
the Acropolis which is the dvreos dfitpaXds dvoets ev -rats lepaXs
ASdvais. in Pindar, (frag. Dith. iv. p. 225, Dissen.)
4 Cicero (at the end of his Prorem. Paradox.) Opus, tale ut in Arce
poni posset; quasi ilia Minerva Phidiae.
Art of the Athenian nation: thus a flat oblong rock,
the greatest length of which was a thousand feet,
and breadth five hundred, was made the most in-
teresting spot of ground on the face of the heathen
earth. From those four elements here blended to-
gether, the rock of the Acropolis at Athens might
have claimed to be considered as the representation
of the perfect Greek character, somewhat in the same
manner as the Ehren Breitstein of Coblentz has been
of the chivalrous and Christian.
The position of this rock has suggested some
ingenious fancies. It was the heart of Athens, as
Athens was the 3 heart of Greece: it was the centre
of the imaginary spiral in which all that was great
and beautiful in Greece was involved: again, from
its sanctity, its beauty and its form, it was like a
decorated Pedestal, or a massive Altar, one great
AvaQtjfia to the Gods. And thus the attainment of
a place here in the citadel, was a sort of apotheosis
for men and their works4.
Eighteen hundred years ago Strabo lamented the
multiplicity of objects claiming the notice of the topo-
Elmsley Review of Hermann's Suppl. v. 966. In MSS., "perpetuo con.
funduntur aut a se invicera perduntur tt. ti." Porson. Phceniss. 1277- and
' is equivalent to iv. Hence arose the corruption in the text of Dicaarchus.
8 Aristid. Panathen. «!s eir' dtririSos, kvkXuiv els aWtj'Xous l/n/3e-
priKoTwv ireftvros els 6n<pa\dv Trknpoi. I have no douht that it is
the Acropolis which is the dvreos dfitpaXds dvoets ev -rats lepaXs
ASdvais. in Pindar, (frag. Dith. iv. p. 225, Dissen.)
4 Cicero (at the end of his Prorem. Paradox.) Opus, tale ut in Arce
poni posset; quasi ilia Minerva Phidiae.