DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.1755#0263
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STATUES OF HARMODIUS AND ARISTOGEITON. 211
lies, as has been said, the Agora. It is a circular or rather an elliptical area,
whose greatest length from south-east to north-west is about a third of a mile.
It is approached on the north-west from the city gate by an avenue lying
between two parallel Colonnades or Stoee, the one dedicated to JuriTER
Eledtherius, or the Liberator, the other containing the tribunal in which
the Second Archon, or Basileus, who takes cognizance of religious suits,
presides : from him it is called the Stoa Basileios. Near them, in the Agora,
is a third colonnade,—the Pcecile Stoa, or Painted Porch, so called from the
frescoes, representing the battle of Marathon, which adorn it. From this
porch, frequented by them, the Stoics derive their name.
All the buildings connected with the civil processes employed in the
enactment of laws at Athens are, from its neighbourhood to the Pnyx, fitly
grouped together in this place. Here is the Bouleuterion, or Council
Chamber, in which the Senate of Five Hundred meet to discuss measures
before they are submitted to the Assembly of the people in the Pynx. Here
are the statues of the ten Heroes of Athens,—Cecrops, Erectheus, Pandion,
jEgeus, Hippothoon, Acamas, Leon, CEneus, Ajax, Antiochus,—the Eponymi,
as they are called, because they give their names to the ten tribes of Athens. To
these statues the first draughts of laws are affixed, before they are discussed in the
Assembly. Here is the refectory of the Prytanes, or Presidents of the Assembly,
—a building which may be distinguished from the crowd of other fabrics in the
same place by its hemispherical dome, and in which the most distinguished
citizens of Athens are entertained at the public charge. In the centre of the area
which we are describing stands the altar of the Twelve Gods, being the point to
which all the roads of Attica converge, and from which distances are measured.
On the south-east verge of the Agora, and at the commencement of the
acclivity by which we ascended the Acropolis, stand the two figures of Har-
iiodius and Aristogeiton, the liberators of Athens from the tyranny of the
Pisistratidee, which are.treated with such respect by the Athenians, that in
their decrees of honorary statues to be erected to the great men of their own or
other countries, in memory of the benefits wdiich the State has received at their
hands, it is expressly specified that they may be placed in any part of the
Agora which may be most agreeable to the objects of their gratitude, except
m the neighbourhood of the statues of Harmodius and Aristogeiton. It is a
pleasing circumstance, and one honourable to the Athenian spirit, that in this
case the Past acts more powerfully upon them than the Present, and that they
£^
■4
STATUES OF HARMODIUS AND ARISTOGEITON. 211
lies, as has been said, the Agora. It is a circular or rather an elliptical area,
whose greatest length from south-east to north-west is about a third of a mile.
It is approached on the north-west from the city gate by an avenue lying
between two parallel Colonnades or Stoee, the one dedicated to JuriTER
Eledtherius, or the Liberator, the other containing the tribunal in which
the Second Archon, or Basileus, who takes cognizance of religious suits,
presides : from him it is called the Stoa Basileios. Near them, in the Agora,
is a third colonnade,—the Pcecile Stoa, or Painted Porch, so called from the
frescoes, representing the battle of Marathon, which adorn it. From this
porch, frequented by them, the Stoics derive their name.
All the buildings connected with the civil processes employed in the
enactment of laws at Athens are, from its neighbourhood to the Pnyx, fitly
grouped together in this place. Here is the Bouleuterion, or Council
Chamber, in which the Senate of Five Hundred meet to discuss measures
before they are submitted to the Assembly of the people in the Pynx. Here
are the statues of the ten Heroes of Athens,—Cecrops, Erectheus, Pandion,
jEgeus, Hippothoon, Acamas, Leon, CEneus, Ajax, Antiochus,—the Eponymi,
as they are called, because they give their names to the ten tribes of Athens. To
these statues the first draughts of laws are affixed, before they are discussed in the
Assembly. Here is the refectory of the Prytanes, or Presidents of the Assembly,
—a building which may be distinguished from the crowd of other fabrics in the
same place by its hemispherical dome, and in which the most distinguished
citizens of Athens are entertained at the public charge. In the centre of the area
which we are describing stands the altar of the Twelve Gods, being the point to
which all the roads of Attica converge, and from which distances are measured.
On the south-east verge of the Agora, and at the commencement of the
acclivity by which we ascended the Acropolis, stand the two figures of Har-
iiodius and Aristogeiton, the liberators of Athens from the tyranny of the
Pisistratidee, which are.treated with such respect by the Athenians, that in
their decrees of honorary statues to be erected to the great men of their own or
other countries, in memory of the benefits wdiich the State has received at their
hands, it is expressly specified that they may be placed in any part of the
Agora which may be most agreeable to the objects of their gratitude, except
m the neighbourhood of the statues of Harmodius and Aristogeiton. It is a
pleasing circumstance, and one honourable to the Athenian spirit, that in this
case the Past acts more powerfully upon them than the Present, and that they
£^