of the rising sun had just touched the heights, while the town below was
still hid in gloom. Rock, and rampart, and ruined fanes--all were
colored in uniform tints; the lights were of a deep rich orange, and the
shadows of dark crimson, with the deeper lines of purple. There was no
variety in color between what nature and what man had set there. No
whiteness shone from the marble, no smoothness showed upon the hewn and
polished blocks; but the whole mass of orange and crimson stood out
together into the pale, pure Attic air. There it stood, surrounded by
lanes and hovels, still perpetuating the great old contrast in Greek
history, of magnificence and meanness--of loftiness and lowness--as well
in outer life as in inward motive. And, as it were in illustration of
that art of which it was the most perfect bloom, and which lasted in
perfection but a day of history, I saw it again and again, in sunlight
and in shade, in daylight and at night, but never again in this perfect
and singular beauty....
I suppose there can be no doubt whatever that the ruins on the Acropolis
of Athens are the most remarkable in the world. There are ruins far
larger, such as the Pyramids, and the remains of Karnak. There are ruins
far more perfectly preserved, such as the great Temple at Paestum. There
are ruins more picturesque, such as the ivy-clad walls of medieval
abbeys beside the rivers in the rich valleys of England. But there is no
ruin all the world over which combines so much striking beauty, so
distinct a type, so vast a volume of history, so great a pageant of
immortal memories. There is, in fact, no building on earth which can
sustain the burden of such greatness, and so the first visit to the
Acropolis is and must be disappointing.
When the traveler reflects how all the Old World's culture culminated in
Greece--all Greece in Athens--all Athens in its Acropolis--all the
Acropolis in the Parthenon--so much crowds upon the mind confusedly that
we look for some enduring monument whereupon we can fasten our thoughts,
and from which we can pass as from a visible starting-point into all
this history and all this greatness. And at first we look in vain. The
shattered pillars and the torn pediments will not bear so great a
strain; and the traveler feels forced to admit a sense of
disappointment, sore against his will. He has come a long journey into
the remoter parts of Europe; he has reached at last what his soul had
longed for many years in vain; and as is wont to be the case with all
great human longings, the truth does not answer to his desire. The pang
of disappointment is all the greater when he sees that the tooth of time
and the shock of earthquake have done but little harm. It is the hand of
man--of reckless foe and ruthless lover--which has robbed him of his
hope....
Nothing is more vexatious than the reflection, how lately these splendid
remains have been reduced to their present state. The Parthenon, being
used as a Greek church, remained untouched and perfect all through the
Middle Ages. Then it became a mosque, and the Erechtheum a seraglio, and
in this way survived without damage till 1687, when, in the bombardment
by the Venetians under Morosini, a shell dropt into the Parthenon, where
the Turks had their powder stored, and blew out the whole center of the
building. Eight or nine pillars at each side have been thrown down, and
have left a large gap, which so severs the front and rear of the temple,
that from the city below they look like the remains of two different
buildings. The great drums of these pillars are yet lying there, in
their order, just as they fell, and some money and care might set them
all up again in their places; yet there is not in Greece the patriotism
or even the common sense to enrich the country by this restoration,
matchless in its certainty as well as in its splendor.
But the Venetians were not content with their exploit. They were, about
this time, when they held possession of most of Greece, emulating the
Pisan taste for Greek sculptures; and the four fine lions standing at
the gate of the arsenal in Venice still testify to their zeal in
carrying home Greek trophies to adorn their capital.
In its great day, and even as Pausanias saw it, the Acropolis was
covered with statues, as well as with shrines. It was not merely an Holy
of Holies in religion; it was also a palace and museum of art. At every
step and turn the traveler met new objects of interest. There were
archaic specimens, chiefly interesting to the antiquarian and the
devotee; there were the great masterpieces which were the joint
admiration of the artist and the vulgar. Even all the sides and slopes
of the great rock were honeycombed into sacred grottos, with their
altars and their gods, or studded with votive monuments. All these
lesser things are fallen away and gone; the sacred eaves are filled with
rubbish, and desecrated with worse than neglect. The grotto of Pan and
Apollo is difficult of access, and when reached, an object of disgust
rather than of interest. There are left but the remnants of the
surrounding wall, and the ruins of the three principal buildings, which
were the envy and wonder of all the civilized world.
The beautiful little temple of Athena Nike, tho outside the
Propylæa--thrust out as it were on a sort of great buttress high on the
right--must still be called a part, and a very striking part, of the
Acropolis. It is only of late years that it has been cleared of rubbish
and modern stone-work, thus destroying, no doubt, some precious traces
of Turkish occupation which the fastidious historian may regret, but
realizing to us a beautiful Greek temple of the Ionic Order in some
completeness. The peculiarity of this building, which is perched upon a
platform of stone, and commands a splendid prospect, is that its tiny
peribolus, or sacred enclosure, was surrounded by a parapet of stone
slabs covered with exquisite reliefs of winged Victories, in various
attitudes. Some of these slabs are now in the Museum of the Acropolis,
and are of great interest--apparently less severe than the school of
Phidias, and therefore later in date, but still of the best epoch, and
of marvelous grace. The position of this temple also is not parallel
with the Propylæa, but turned slightly outward, so that the light
strikes it at moments when the other building is not illuminated. At the
opposite side is a very well-preserved chamber, and a fine colonnade at
right angles with the gate, which looks like a guard-room. This is the
chamber commonly called the Pinacotheca, where Pausanias saw pictures or
frescoes by Polygnotus.
A WINTER IN ATHENS HALF A CENTURY AGO[43]
BY BAYARD TAYLOR
Our sitting-room fronted the south (with a view of the Acropolis and the
Areopagus), and could be kept warm without more labor or expense than
would be required for an entire dwelling at home. Our principal anxiety
was, that the supply of fuel, at any price, might become exhausted. We
burned the olive and the vine, the cypress and the pine, twigs of rose
trees and dead cabbage-stalks, for aught I know, to feed our one little
sheet-iron stove. For full two months we were obliged to keep up our
fire, from morning until night. Know ye the land of the cypress and
myrtle, where the flowers ever blossom, the beams ever shine? Here it
is, with almost snow enough in the streets for a sleighing party, with
the Ilissus frozen, and with a tolerable idea of Lapland, when you face
the gusts which drive across the Cephissian plain.
As the other guests were Greek, our mode of living was similar to that
of most Greek families. We had coffee in the morning, a substantial
breakfast about noon, and dinner at six in the evening. The dishes were
constructed after French and Italian models, but the meat is mostly
goat's flesh. Beef, when it appears, is a phenomenon of toughness.
Vegetables are rather scarce. Cow's milk, and butter or cheese
therefrom, are substances unknown in Greece. The milk is from goats or
sheep, and the butter generally from the latter. It is a white, cheesy
material, with a slight flavor of tallow. The wine, when you get it
unmixed with resin, is very palatable. We drank that of Santorin, with
the addition of a little water, and found it an excellent beverage....
Except during the severely cold weather, Athens is as lively a town as
may be. One-fourth of the inhabitants, I should say, are always in the
streets, and many of the mechanics work, as is common in the Orient, in
open shops. The coffee-houses are always thronged, and every afternoon
crowds may be seen on the Patissia Road--a continuation of Eolus
Street--where the King and Queen take their daily exercise on horseback.
The national costume, both male and female, is gradually falling into
disuse in the cities, altho it is still universal in the country. The
islanders adhere to their hideous dress with the greatest persistence.
With sunrise the country people begin to appear in the streets with
laden donkeys and donkey-carts, bringing wood, grain, vegetables, and
milk, which they sell from house to house....
Venders of bread and coffee-rolls go about with circular trays on their
heads, calling attention to their wares by loud and long-drawn cries.
Later in the day, peddlers make their appearance, with packages of cheap
cotton stuffs, cloth, handkerchiefs, and the like, or baskets of pins,
needles, buttons, and tape. They proclaim loudly the character and price
of their articles, the latter, of course, subject to negotiation. The
same custom prevails as in Turkey, of demanding much more than the
seller expects to get. Foreigners are generally fleeced a little in the
beginning, tho much less so, I believe, than in Italy....
The winter of 1857-58 was the severest in the memory of any inhabitant.
For nearly eight weeks, we had an alternation of icy north winds and
snow-storms. The thermometer went down to 20 degrees of Fahrenheit--a
degree of cold which seriously affected the orange-, if not the
olive-trees. Winter is never so dreary as in those southern lands, where
you see the palm trees rocking despairingly in the biting gale, and the
snow lying thick on the sunny fruit of the orange groves. As for the
pepper trees, with their hanging tresses and their loose, misty foliage,
which line the broad avenues radiating from the palace, they were
touched beyond recovery. The people, who could not afford to purchase
wood or charcoal, at treble the usual price, even tho they had hearths,
which they have not, suffered greatly. They crouched at home, in cellars
and basements, wrapt in rough capotes, or hovering around a mangal, or
brazier of coals, the usual substitute for a stove. From Constantinople
we had still worse accounts. The snow lay deep everywhere; charcoal sold
at twelve piastres the oka (twenty cents a pound), and the famished
wolves, descending from the hills, devoured people almost at the gates
of the city. In Smyrna, Beyrout, and Alexandria, the winter was equally
severe, while in Odessa it was mild and agreeable, and in St.
Petersburg there was scarcely snow enough for sleighing. All Northern
Europe enjoyed a winter as remarkable for warmth as that of the South
for its cold. The line of division seemed to be about the parallel of
latitude 45 degrees. Whether this singular climatic phenomenon extended
further eastward, into Asia, I was not able to ascertain. I was actually
less sensitive to the cold in Lapland, during the previous winter, with
the mercury frozen, than in Attica, within the belt of semi-tropical
productions.
THE ACROPOLIS AS IT WAS[44]
BY PAUSANIAS
To the Acropolis there is only one approach; it allows of no other,
being everywhere precipitous and walled off. The vestibules have a roof
of white marble, and even now are remarkable for both their beauty and
size. As to the statues of the horsemen, I can not say with precision
whether they are the sons of Xenophon, or merely put there for
decoration. On the right of the vestibules is the shrine of the Wingless
Victory. From it the sea is visible; and there Ægeus drowned himself, as
they say. For the ship which took his sons to Crete had black sails, but
Theseus told his father (for he knew there was some peril in attacking
the Minotaur) that he would have white sails if he should sail back a
conqueror. But he forgot this promise in his loss of Ariadne. And Ægeus,
seeing the ship with black sails, thinking his son was dead, threw
himself in and was drowned. And the Athenians have a hero-chapel to his
memory. And on the left of the vestibules is a building with paintings;
and among those that time has not destroyed are Diomedes and
Odysseus--the one taking away Philoctetes's bow in Lemnos, the other
taking the Palladium from Ilium. Among other paintings here is Ægisthus
being slain by Orestes; and Pylades slaying the sons of Nauplius that
came to Ægisthus's aid. And Polyxena about to have her throat cut near
the tomb of Achilles. Homer did well not to mention this savage act....
And there is a small stone such as a little man can sit on, on which
they say Silenus rested, when Dionysus came to the land. Silenus is the
name they give to all old Satyrs. About the Satyrs I have conversed with
many, wishing to know all about them. And Euphemus, a Carian, told me
that sailing once on a time to Italy he was driven out of his course by
the winds, and carried to a distant sea, where people no longer sail.
And he said that here were many desert islands, some inhabited by wild
men; and at these islands the sailors did not like to land, as they had
landed there before and had experience of the natives; but they were
obliged on that occasion. These islands he said were called by the
sailors Satyr-islands; the dwellers in them were red-haired, and had
tails at their loins not much smaller than horses....
And as regards the temple which they call the Parthenon, as you enter it
everything portrayed on the gables relates to the birth of Athene, and
behind is depicted the contest between Poseidon and Athene for the soil
of Attica. And this work of art is in ivory and gold. In the middle of
her helmet is an image of the Sphinx--about whom I shall give an account
when I come to Boeotia--and on each side of the helmet are griffins
worked. These griffins, says Aristus the Proconnesian, in his poems,
fought with the Arimaspians beyond the Issedones for the gold of the
soil which the griffins guarded. And the Arimaspians were all one-eyed
men from their birth; and the griffins were beasts like lions, with
wings and mouth like an eagle. Let so much suffice for these griffins.
But the statue of Athene is full length, with a tunic reaching to her
feet; and on her breast is the head of Medusa worked in ivory, and in
one hand she has a Victory four cubits high, in the other hand a spear,
and at her feet a shield; and near the spear a dragon which perhaps is
Erichthonius. And on the base of the statue is a representation of the
birth of Pandora--the first woman, according to Hesiod and other poets;
for before her there was no race of women. Here too I remember to have
seen the only statue here of the Emperor Adrian; and at the entrance one
of Iphicrates, the celebrated Athenian general.
And outside the temple is a brazen Apollo said to be by Phidias; and
they call it Apollo, Averter of Locusts, because when the locusts
destroyed the land the god said he would drive them out of the country.
And they know that he did so, but they don't say how. I myself know of
locusts having been thrice destroyed on Mount Sipylus, but not in the
same way; for some were driven away by a violent wind that fell on them,
and others by a strong light that came on them after showers, and others
were frozen to death by a sudden frost. All this came under my own
notice.
There is also a building called the Erechtheum, and in the vestibule is
an altar of Supreme Zeus, where they offer no living sacrifice, but
cakes without the usual libation of wine. And as you enter there are
three altars: one to Poseidon (on which they also sacrifice to
Erechtheus according to the oracle), one to the hero Butes, and the
third to Hephæstus. And on the walls are paintings of the family of
Butes. The building is a double one; and inside there is sea-water in a
well. And this is no great marvel; for even those who live in inland
parts have such wells, as notably Aphrodisienses in Caria. But this well
is represented as having a roar as of the sea when the south wind blows.
And in the rock is the figure of a trident. And this is said to have
been Poseidon's proof in regard to the territory Athene disputed with
him.
Sacred to Athene is all the rest of Athens, and similarly all Attica;
for altho they worship different gods in different townships, none the
less do they honor Athene generally. And the most sacred of all is the
statue of Athene in what is now called the Acropolis, but was then
called the Polis (city) which was universally worshiped many years
before the various townships formed one city; and the rumor about it is
that it fell from heaven. As to this I shall not give an opinion,
whether it was so or not. And Callimachus made a golden lamp for the
goddess. And when they fill this lamp with oil it lasts for a whole
year, altho it burns continually night and day. And the wick is of a
particular kind of cotton flax, the only kind indestructible by fire.
And above the lamp is a palm tree of brass reaching to the roof and
carrying off the smoke. And Callimachus, the maker of this lamp, altho
he comes behind the first artificers, yet was remarkable for ingenuity,
and was the first who perforated stone, and got the name of
"Art-Critic," whether his own appellation or given him by others.
In the temple of Athene Polias is a Hermes of wood (said to be a votive
offering of Cecrops), almost hidden by myrtle leaves. And of the antique
votive offerings worthy of record, is a folding-chair, the work of
Dædalus, and spoils taken from the Persians--as a coat of mail of
Masistius, who commanded the cavalry at Platæa, and a scimitar said to
have belonged to Mardonius. Masistius we know was killed by the Athenian
cavalry; but as Mardonius fought against the Lacedæmonians and was
killed by a Spartan, they could not have got it at first hand; nor is it
likely that the Lacedæmonians would have allowed the Athenians to carry
off such a trophy. And about the olive they have nothing else to tell
but that the goddess used it as a proof of her right to the country,
when it was contested by Poseidon. And they record also that this olive
was burnt when the Persians set fire to Athens; but tho burnt, it grew
the same day two cubits.
And next to the temple of Athene is the temple of Pandrosus; who was the
only one of the three sisters who didn't peep into the forbidden chest.
Now the things I most marveled at are not universally known. I will
therefore write of them as they occur to me. Two maidens live not far
from the temple of Athene Polias, and the Athenians call them the
"carriers of the holy things"; for a certain time they live with the
goddess, but when her festival comes they act in the following way, by
night: Putting upon their heads what the priestess of Athene gives them
to carry (neither she nor they know what these things are), these
maidens descend, by a natural underground passage, from an inclosure in
the city sacred to Aphrodite of the Gardens. In the sanctuary below they
deposit what they carry, and bring back something else closely wrapt up.
And these maidens they henceforth dismiss, and other two they elect
instead of them for the Acropolis.
THE ELGIN MARBLES[45]
BY J. P. MAHAFFY
Morosini[46] wished to take down the sculptures of Phidias from the
eastern pediment, but his workmen attempted it so clumsily that the
figures fell from their place and were dashed to pieces on the ground.
An observing traveler[47] was present when a far more determined and
systematic attack was made upon the remaining ruins of the Parthenon.
While he was traveling in the interior, Lord Elgin had obtained his
famous firman from the Sultan, to take down and remove any antiquities
or sculptured stones he might require, and the infuriated Dodwell saw a
set of ignorant workmen, under equally ignorant overseers, let loose
upon the splendid ruins of the age of Pericles. He speaks with much good
sense and feeling of this proceeding. He is fully aware that the world
would derive inestimable benefit from the transplanting of these
splendid fragments to a more accessible place, but he can not find
language strong enough to express his disgust at the way in which the
thing was done.
Incredible as it may appear, Lord Elgin himself seems not to have
superintended the work, but to have left it to paid contractors, who
undertook the job for a fixt sum. Little as either Turks or Greeks cared
for the ruins, he says that a pang of grief was felt through all Athens
at the desecration, and that the contractors were obliged to bribe
workmen with additional wages to undertake the ungrateful task. Dodwell
will not even mention Lord Elgin by name, but speaks of him with disgust
as "the person" who defaced the Parthenon. He believes that had this
person been at Athens himself, his underlings could hardly have behaved
in the reckless way they did, pulling down more than they wanted, and
taking no care to prop up and save the work from which they had taken
the support.
He especially notices their scandalous proceeding upon taking up one of
the great white marble blocks which form the floor or stylobate of the
temple. They wanted to see what was underneath, and Dodwell, who was
there, saw the foundation--a substructure of Peiræic sandstone. But when
they had finished their inspection they actually left the block they had
removed, without putting it back into its place. So this beautiful
pavement, made merely of closely-fitting blocks, without any artificial
or foreign joinings, was ripped up, and the work of its destruction
began. I am happy to add that, tho a considerable rent was then made,
most of it is still intact, and the traveler of to-day may still walk on
the very stones which bore the tread of every great Athenian.
The question has often been discust, whether Lord Elgin was justified in
carrying off this pediment, the metopes, and the friezes, from their
place; and the Greeks of to-day hope confidently that the day will come
when England will restore these treasures to their place. This is, of
course, absurd, and it may fairly be argued that people who would
bombard their antiquities in a revolution are not fit custodians of them
in the intervals of domestic quiet. This was my reply to an old Greek
gentleman who assailed the memory of Lord Elgin with reproaches.
I confess I approved of this removal until I came home from Greece, and
went again to see the spoil in its place in our great museum. Tho there
treated with every care--tho shown to the best advantage, and explained
by excellent models of the whole building, and clear descriptions of
their place on it--notwithstanding all this, it was plain that these
wonderful fragments lost so terribly by being separated from their
place--they looked so unmeaning in an English room, away from their
temple, their country and their lovely atmosphere--that one earnestly
wished they had never been taken from their place, even at the risk of
being made a target by the Greeks or the Turks. I am convinced, too,
that the few who would have seen them, as intelligent travelers, on
their famous rock, would have gained in quality the advantage now
diffused among many, but weakened and almost destroyed by the wrench in
associations, when the ornament is severed from its surface, and the
decoration of a temple exhibited apart from the temple itself. We may
admit, then, that it had been better if Lord Elgin had never taken away
these marbles. Nevertheless, it would be absurd to send them back. But I
do think that the museum on the Acropolis should be provided with a
better set of casts of the figures than those which are now to be seen
there. They look very wretched, and carelessly prepared....
THE THEATER OF DIONYSUS[48]
BY J. P. MAHAFFY