The approach to this celebrated city by sea, presents a spectacle, which
was viewed by Dr. Clarke and his companions with great transports of
joy. It was no sooner descried, than its lofty edifices, catching the
sun’s rays, rendered the buildings in the Acropolis visible at the
distance of fifteen miles.
“The reflected light gave them a white appearance. The Parthenon
appeared first, above a long chain of hills in the front; presently we
saw the top of Mount Anchesmus, to the left of the temple; the whole
being backed by a lofty mountainous ridge, which we supposed to be
Parnes. As we drew near to the walls, we beheld the vast Cecropian
citadel, crowned with temples that originated in the veneration once
paid to the memory of the illustrious dead, surrounded by objects
telling the same theme of sepulchral grandeur, and now monuments of
departed greatness, gradually moldering in all the solemnity of ruin. So
paramount is this funeral character in the approach to Athens from the
Piræeus, that, as we passed the hill of the Museum, which was, in fact,
an ancient cemetery of the Athenians, we might have imagined ourselves
to be among the tombs of Telmessus, from the number of the sepulchers
hewn in the rock, and from the antiquity of the workmanship, evidently
not of later date than anything of the kind in Asia Minor. In other
respects the city exhibits nearly the appearance so briefly described by
Strabo eighteen centuries before our coming; and, perhaps, it wears a
more magnificent aspect, owing to the splendid remains of Adrian’s
temple of Olympian Jove, which did not exist when Athens was visited by
the disciple of Xenarchus. The prodigious columns belonging to this
temple appeared full in view between the citadel and the bed of the
Ilissus: high upon our left rose the Acropolis, in the most impressive
grandeur: an advanced part of the rock upon the western side of it is
the hill of the Areopagus, a view of which is given in the cut on the
next page, where St. Paul preached to the Athenians, and where their
most solemn tribunal was held. Beyond all, appeared the beautiful plain
of Athens, bounded by Mount Hymettus. We rode toward the craggy rock of
the citadel, passing some tiers of circular arches at the foot of it;
these are the remains of the Odeum of Herodes Atticus, built in memory
of his wife Regilla. Thence continuing to skirt the base of the
Acropolis, the road winding rather toward the north, we saw also, upon
our left, scooped in the solid rock, the circular sweep on which the
Athenians were wont to assemble to hear the plays of Eschylus, and where
the theater of Bacchus was afterward constructed.
[Illustration: THE AREOPAGUS.]
“We proceeded toward the east, to ascend Mount Anchesmus, and to enjoy
in one panoramic survey the glorious prospect presented from its summit,
of all the antiquities and natural beauties in the Athenian plain. We
ascended to the commanding eminence of the mount, once occupied by a
temple of Anchesmian Jupiter. The pagan shrine has, as usual, been
succeeded by a small Christian sanctuary: it is dedicated to St. George.
Of the view from this rock, even Wheeler could not write without
emotion. ‘Here,’ said he, ‘a Democritus might sit and laugh at the pomps
and vanities of the world, whose glories so soon vanish; or a Heraclitus
weep over its manifold misfortunes, telling sad stories of the various
changes and events of fate.’ The prospect embraces every object,
excepting only those upon the south-west side of the castle. The
situation of the observer is north-east of the city; and the reader may
suppose him to be looking, in a contrary direction, toward the
Acropolis, which is in the center of this fine picture; thence regarding
the whole circuit of the citadel, from its north-western side, toward
the south and cast, the different parts of it occur in the following
order, although to a spectator they all appear to be comprehended in one
view. The lofty rocks of the Acropolis, crowned with its majestic
temples, the Parthenon, Erectheum, &c., constitute the central object.
In the foreground is displayed the whole of the modern city of Athens,
with its gardens, ruins, mosques, and walls, spreading into the plain
beneath the citadel. On the right, or north-west wing, is the temple of
Theseus; and on the left, or south-west wing, the temple of Jupiter
Olympius. Proceeding from the west to the south and east, the view
beyond the citadel displays the Areopagus, the Pnyx, the Ilissus, the
site of the temple of Ceres in Agræ, the fountain Callirhoe, the Stadium
Panthenaium, the site of the Lyceum, &c. In a parallel circuit, with a
more extended radius, are seen the hills and defile of Daphne, or the
Via Sacra, the Piræeus, Munychia and Phalerum, Salmais, Ægina, the more
distant isles, and Hymettus. A similar circuit, but still more extended,
embraces Parnes, the mountains beyond Elusis and Megara, the Acropolis
of Corinth, the Peloponnesian mountains, and the Ægean and distant
islands. And lastly, immediately beneath the eye, lies the plain of
Athens.”
[Illustration: TEMPLE OF JUPITER OLYMPIUS.]
Of the many ruins without the city of Athens, the tourist notices with
peculiar interest those of the temple of Jupiter Olympius, as it was the
first conceived and the last executed of all the sacred monuments of
Athens. It was begun by Pisistratus, but was not finished till the time
of the Roman emperor Adrian, which was some seven hundred years
afterward. All that remains of this once magnificent building, is seen
in the cut on the previous page. Originally there were one hundred and
twenty columns supporting this noble temple; but of all these, only some
sixteen remain; standing in their silent and solitary grandeur to
testify of the triumphs of ancient art, and to the power of Time the
destroyer.