Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume I Part 1.djvu/303

ATHENAE.

spectators sat in the open air, but probably protected from the rays of the sun by an awning, and from their elevated seats they had a distinct view of the sea and of the peaked hills of Salamis in the horizon. Above them rose the Parthenon, and the other buildings of the Acropolis, so that they sat under the shadow of the ancestral gods of their country. The position of the spectators as sitting under the temple of Athena, and the statue of the Zeus of the Citadel (Zfii noifl)i, Paus. i. 24. § 4), is evidently alluded to by Aeschylus (Eumen. 997, seq.) to which passage Wordsworth has directed attention:—

(Greek characters) IWtiv V"" ^'i noflj'roii ^Ol ^lAoi noAAiiitDT f Arb irrr^T Oral ifirai

Above the upper seats of the theatre and Cimonian wall of the Acropolis is a grotto () which was converted into a small temple by Thrasyllus, a victorious choragus, to commemorate the victory of his chorus, B.C. 320, as we learn from an inscription upon it. Hence it is usually called the Choragic Monument of Thrasyllus. Within the cavern were statues of Apollo and Artemis destroying the children of Niobe; and upon the entablature of the temple was a colossal figure of Dionysus. This figure is now in the British Museum; but it has lost its headand arms. Pausanias (i. 21. § 3), in his description of the cavern, speaks of a tripod above it, without mentioning the statue of Dionysus; but there is a hole sunk in the lap of the statue, in which

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was probably inserted the tripod. The custom of supporting tripods by statues was not uncommon. (Leake, p. 186; Vaux, Antiq. in British Museum, p. 114.) This cavern was subsequently converted into the church of Panaghía Spiliótissa, or the Holy Virgin of the Grotto; and was used as such when Dodwell visited Athens. It is now, however, a simple cave; and the temple and the church are both in ruins. A large fragment of the architrave of the temple, with a part of the inscription upon it, is now lying upon the slope of the theatre: it has been hewn into a drinking trough. (Wordsworth, p. 90) The cave is about 34 feet in length, with an average breadth of 20 feet. The entire height of the monument of Thrasyllus is 29 feet 5 inches (Stuart)

Above the Monument are two columns, which evidently did not form part of the building. Their triangular summits supported tripods, dedicated by choragi who had gained prizes in the theatre below. A little to the west of the cave is a large rectangular niche, in which no doubt a statue once stood.

THEATRE OF DIONYSUS, FROM COIN.

A brass coin of Athens in the British Museum gives a representation of the Dionysiac theatre viewed from below. The seats for the spectators are distinctly seen, together with the Cimonian wall of the Acropolis; and above, the Parthenon in the centre, with the Propylaea on the left. The artist has also represented the cave between the theatre and the wall of the Acropolis, described above, together with other smaller excavations, of which traces still exist. The same subject is also represented on a vase found at Aulis, on which appear the theatre, the monument of Thrasyllus, the tripodial columns, and above them the polygonal walls of he Acropolis, crowned by the

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tion is not only unnecessary, but is exceedingly improbable, because Odea were very rare in Greece at the time when Dicaearchus wrote. The word may have been introduced by the excerptor to indicate that the theatre described by Dicaearchus was not in existence in his time; or it may have been used by Dicaearchus instead of according to a well-known use of the Attic writers (See Fuhr, ad loc.)