DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.1031#0295
CHAP. XXXVI.] EASTERN TEMPLE. 269
The ground is diversified by grey rocks overhung
by tufted pines, and clusters of low shrubs, among
which goats are feeding, some of them placing their
fore feet on the boughs of the shrubs, and cropping
the leaves with their bearded mouths. It is such a
scene as this which proves that the religion of Greece
knew how to avail itself of two things most con-
ducive to a solemn and devotional effect, namely,
Silence and Solitude.
There was perhaps another reason why a site
at the distance of eight miles from the city of iEgina
was preferred to one in its immediate neighbourhood
for the position of this Temple.
It is probable that this building did not owe its
origin to the exertions of the iEginetans themselves.
It has, indeed, by many topographers, been con-
sidered as identical with the Temple of Jupiter Pan-
hellenius, and even as the same fabric which Macus,
the king of JSgina, erected to that deity.
But not merely does the position of this Temple,
standing not on a mountain, as that Temple did, but
on a gentle hill, as well as the character of its archi-
tecture, plainly indicate that it is not the 2 Temple
2 The only evidence in favour of this supposition is furnished by
the two words All PANEAAHNII2I, which are
said to have been inscribed on the portico of the temple. If this in-
scription ever existed there, the dialect alone proves it to have been
a forgery.
The ground is diversified by grey rocks overhung
by tufted pines, and clusters of low shrubs, among
which goats are feeding, some of them placing their
fore feet on the boughs of the shrubs, and cropping
the leaves with their bearded mouths. It is such a
scene as this which proves that the religion of Greece
knew how to avail itself of two things most con-
ducive to a solemn and devotional effect, namely,
Silence and Solitude.
There was perhaps another reason why a site
at the distance of eight miles from the city of iEgina
was preferred to one in its immediate neighbourhood
for the position of this Temple.
It is probable that this building did not owe its
origin to the exertions of the iEginetans themselves.
It has, indeed, by many topographers, been con-
sidered as identical with the Temple of Jupiter Pan-
hellenius, and even as the same fabric which Macus,
the king of JSgina, erected to that deity.
But not merely does the position of this Temple,
standing not on a mountain, as that Temple did, but
on a gentle hill, as well as the character of its archi-
tecture, plainly indicate that it is not the 2 Temple
2 The only evidence in favour of this supposition is furnished by
the two words All PANEAAHNII2I, which are
said to have been inscribed on the portico of the temple. If this in-
scription ever existed there, the dialect alone proves it to have been
a forgery.