Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume I Part 1.djvu/316

298 ATUENAE. be little doubt that this district was covered with houses, it is probable that the dry bed of the river was walled in, and may thus have escaped the notice of Pausanias.

It is evident that the temple of Demeter and of Core, and the one with the statue of Triptolemus, stood near one another, and apparently a little above the fountain. Here there is still a small chapel, and in the neighboorhood foundations of walls. Whether the Eleusininm was either of these temples, or was situated in this district at all, cannot be in the least determined from the words of Pausanias. In the same noghbourhood was a small Ionic building, which, in the time of Stuart, formed a church, called that of Panaghía on the Rock (Ucawfia irr^w v^rpoy). It has now totally disappeared, and is only known from the drawings of Stuart. This beautiful little temple was "an amphiprostyle, 42 fleet long, and 20 broad, on the upper step of the stylobate. There were four columns at either end, 1 foot 9 inches in diameter above the spreading base. Those at the eastern end stood before a pronaos of 10 feet in depth, leading by a door 7 feet wide into a ir^«ot of 15½ feet; the breadth of both 12 feet" (Leake, p. 250.) Leake supposes that this is the temple of the statue of Triptolemus; but Forchhammer imagines it to have been that of Eucleia. If the latter conjecture is correct, we have in this temple a building erected immediately after the battle of Marathon.

IONIC TEMPLE ON THE ILISSUS.

D. Third Part of the Route of Pausanias.—From the Stoa Basileius in the Agora to the Prytaneium. (Paus. i. 14. § 6–18. § 3.)

After speaking of the temple of Eucleia beyond the Ilissus, Pausanias returns to the point from which he had commenced his description of the Cerameicus and the Agora. Having previously described the monuments in the Agora to his right, he now turns to the left, and gives an account of the buildings on the opposite side of the Agora. "Above the Cerameicus and the Stoa, called Basileius," he continues, "is a temple of Hephaestus… Near it is a sanctuary of Aphrodite Urania (c. 14). . . . . In approaching the Stoa, which is called Poecilé (noueiAi}), from its pictures, is a bronze Hermes, surnamed Agoraeus, and near it a gate, upon which is a trophy of the Athenians, the victors in an ATHENAE. equestrian combat of Pleistarchus, who had been entrusted with the command of the cavalry and foreign troops of his brother Cassander." (c. 15. § 1.) Then follows a description of the paintings in the Stoa Poecilé after which he proceeds: "Before the Stoa stand brazen statues, Solon, who drew up laws for the Athenians, and a little further Seleucus (c. 16. § 1). … In the Agora of the Athenians is an Altar of Pity CEXcev 3»/«^r), to whom the Athenians alone of Greeks give divine honours" (c. 17 § 1).

It would appear that the three principal buildings, mentioned in this passage, the Temple of Hephaestus, the Sanctuary of Aphrodite Urania, and the Stoa Poecilé, stood above one another, the last, at all events, having the hill of Pnyx behind it, as we shall see presently. Of the celebrated statue of Hermes Agoraeus, and of the gate beside it, we have already spoken. [See p. 294.] Near the temple of Hephaestus was the Eurysaceium, or heroum of Eurysaces, which Pausanias has not mentioned. (Harpocrat. s. v. KoKmiras.) Eurysaces was the son of Ajax. According to an Athenian tradition he and his brother Philaeus had given up Salamis to the Athenians, and had removed to Attica, Philaeus taking up his residence in Brauron, and Eurysaces in Melite. (Plut. Sol 10.) It was in the latter district that the Eurysaceium was situated (Harpocrat. s. v. Eiffwrdxttotf), which proves that Melite must have extended as far as the side of the Agora next to the hill of Pnyx.

In the Agora, and close to the Eurysaceium and temple of Hephaestus, was the celebrated hill called Colonus, more usually Colonus Agoraeus, or Misthius {KoKttyhs iyopatoSj or ftUrBioi), which, from its central position, was a place of hire for labourers. It received its surname from this circumstance, to distinguish it from the demus Colonus beyond the Academy. (Pollux, vii. 133; Harpocrat. s. v. Ko-«Wros; Argum. iii. ad Soph. Oed. Colon. ed. Hermann.) This hill was a projecting spur of the hill of Pnyx. Here Meton appears to have lived, as may be inferred from a passage in Aristophanes (Av. 997), in which Meton says, "Meton am I, whom Hellas and Colonus know" (jUaru ff/i' iy^; Merwv, hy oI8cy 'EXA^ x^ KoKuySs). This is confirmed by the statement that the house of Meton was close to the Stoa Poecile. (Aelian, V. H. xiii. 12.) On the hill Colonus Meton placed some "astronomical dedication" (iiyaBrifjid ri kar(mKoyuc6y), the nature of which is not mentioned; and near it upon the wall of that part of the Pnyx where the assemblies of the people were held, he set up a ilXwrpi/wtov, which indicated the length of the solar year. (JiXunp&wioy iy rf yw olhri^ /irjrAt}(r/f , wp^j r^ T«lx« T# iy rg Tlyvxl^ Schol. ad Aristoph. Vesp. 997; Suid. s. v. Mcr«y.) The Scholiast also says, that the Colonus Agoraeus was behind the Macra Stoa (t) Meucpdi 2roi^; but as no other writer mentions a Stoa of this name in the Asty, it is probable that the Scholiast meant the Stoa Basileius.

The Stoa Poecile was the Stoa from which the Stoic philosophers obtained their name. (Diog. Laërt. vii. 5; Lucian, Demon. 14.) It was originally called "Xrod XluotoMdicTtos. (Put. Cim. 4; Diog. Laërt. l. c.; Suid. s. v. ^rod.) It had three walls covered with paintings; a middle wall with two large paintings, representing scenes from the mythical age, and one at each end, containing a painting of which the subject was taken from Athenian history. On the first wall was the battle of Oenoë in