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Friday, February 25, 2011

From the Propylaea to the Parthenon

As one passes straight through the east portico of the Propylaea and pauses for a occasion before the inner area of the Acropolis, one is overwhelmed by the paramount vision that meets one's eyes. The Parthenon with its imposing mass dominates this large esplanade. To the left is the Erechtheion, the very essence of grace and elegance, clothed in Pentelic marble.

How separate is the spectacle now from that in antiquity when, following the Sacred Way from the Propylaea to the Parthenon, one stood before a veritable forest of statues and other dedicatory monuments! Today only a few broken remnants remain as testimony to Athenian greatness.

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To the east of the semi-circular marble base of the sculpture to Athena Hygieia, already described as being situated at the south-east angle of the Propylaea, lies the quadrilateral sub-foundation of an altar. Farther on, a drain cut out of the rock, from south-east to north, carried rainwater to a cistern behind the Propylaea. Beyond this drain are a large whole of quadrilateral and oblong bases for the stelai on which official decisions were recorded, as in a news-sheet. By these means laws, decrees, treaties, etc. As well as sentences of punishment against defaulters, were made known to the public.

On the right a stairway carved in the rock led to the precinct of Artemis Brauronia (the Beargoddess), whose cult was followed primarily by women and girls. Here was a stoa and a temple to Artemis with her two statues; one, an old seated image of stone, the other, agreeing to Pausanias, an erect figure by Praxiteles.

Close to the entry of the Brauronion, perhaps in the sacred precinct itself, stood a bronze sculpture of the Wooden Horse of Troy. Two blocks of Pentelic marble, part of the six blocks which formed the front of the base, are still standing. Other statues, which Pausanias mentions as being in this place, represented Athena and Marsyas and Theseus and the Minotaur.

On a rock terrace approximately facing the Parthenon was the precinct of Athena Ergane (Patroness of Arts and Inventions). Here a stairway covered with votive stelai whose bases may still be seen led to the terrace of the Parthenon. In the middle of the precinct of Athena Ergane and Cimon's Wall on the south stood the Chalkotheke, a storehouse for bronze articles, arms and the armored rams of war-ships.

On the left of the Sacred Way In the middle of the Propylaea and the Erechtheion there is a large rectangular platform, leveled in the rock, which probably bore the astronomical bronze sculpture of Athena Promachos (Protectress of the City), fashioned by Pheidias in 449 Bc from the proceeds of the spoils taken at Marathon. The goddess was shown in full armor, with her lance held upright. The proportions of this sculpture were so heavy that the gleaming point of the lance and the crest of the helmet were descriptive to mariners approaching Peiraeus from Cape Sounion. The Acropolis was robbed of this unique sculpture when Justinian conveyable it with other masterpieces to Constantinople, where it was destroyed in a fire.

From the Propylaea to the Parthenon

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