appearance: it is the most perfect remnant of Grecian architecture in existence. All the columns are standing, the interior is restored, and with the exception of the once beautiful sculpture, now decayed by time, may be considered entire and perfect. It possesses all the majesty and simplicity of the pure Doric; a portico of six columns at each front, and eleven on each side, resting upon the stone pavement, without base or pedestal. Each front of the building, and the frieze the whole way round, were covered with magnificent high and bas reliefs, now unfortunately much ruined and decayed. They have been copied in the valuable work of Stuart, and by other artists. The metopes in front of the temple, are said to relate to the labours of Hercules; those on the two flanks, to the labours of Theseus; and the spirited figures on the frieze, to represent the combat of Theseus with the Centaurs, divided into three unequal portions, by two parties of deities seated on Mount Olympus. The interior is small, dark, and unimposing, very dungeon-like in appearance; it was being prepared by workmen for the coronation of King Otho, which they told us was to take place inside. temple is considered to have been erected by Cimon, son of Miltiades, about eight centuries after the death of Theseus.

This

We passed on to the Areopagus, where Paul the

Apostle, declared unto the Athenians, "the Unknown God." "And they took him and brought him unto Areopagus, saying, May we know what this new doctrine whereof thou speakest is?"

"Then Paul stood in the midst of Mars hill, and said, Ye men of Athens," &c., &c.* Steps cut in the rock, lead from the Agora to the hill of the Areopagus above, on the eastern or highest summit of which, is an open space, where the rock has been planed down; affording a view of the majestic ruins of the Acropolis to the east, the Temple of Theseus to the north, and to the southward, the Piræus, the Saronic Gulph, with its beautiful islands, and Salamis, the theatre of Athenian glory. Here sat the celebrated court of justice, supposed to have been founded by Cecrops, which heard causes and passed sentence in the night, in order that they might not be prepossessed either in favour of the plaintiff or defendant by seeing them. Near this spot the Persians encamped, under the command of Xerxes +.

We descended into the plain, and passed on to the Pnyx, the entire form and shape of which is clearly distinguishable, it being an area, shaped out of the solid rock. There is still to be seen the ẞnμa, or stone pulpit, from which Demosthenes, and the *Acts xvii. 19. 22, &c. † Herod. viii. 52.

Athenian orators were wont to harangue the assemblies of the people. There are few spots in the world clothed with more interesting associations than this. From the little rostrum we may imagine Demosthenes uttering those words in one of his orations, "There survive to Athens, everlasting possessions; on the one hand the memory of her exploits, on the other the splendour of her monuments."

Προπύλαια ταὔτα, ὁ Παρθενών, Στοαὶ, &c., &c.

Demosthenes Androt. 618.

We may imagine him recounting to his countrymen the fable of the sheep and the wolves, on the occasion of Philip's demanding of the Athenians, that their orators should be given up to him; or disputing with his celebrated rival, Æschines.

Just beyond is the monument of Philopappus, a ruined circular building, seated on an eminence commanding a noble view of the principal ruins, and the majestic columns of Jupiter Olympus. It is constructed of large blocks of white marble, and adorned with Roman bas-reliefs. A figure in a large niche is supposed to be king Antiochus, and under him another in a chariot, drawn by four horses led by a youth, is supposed to be the emperor Trajan. In advance of the chariot, in the same compartment, are five other mutilated in

TEMPLE OF JUPITER.

45

dividuals, apparently conversing together. The monument derives its name from the inscriptions on it, which have been published, to the effect that "Caius Julius Philopappus attained unto distinguished honours at Rome," and is supposed to have been erected in the second century. Crossing the fields towards the column of the temple of Olympian Jove, I was struck with the miserably rude attempts of the peasantry at ploughing. In vain do other nations make improvements in husbandry and agricultural implements; they are here unprofited by; the land is merely scratched with a piece of wood headed by an iron spike, drawn by oxen at a snail's pace, and the ground is rolled by a man standing on a piece of timber, drawn by two oxen, backwards and forwards across the field, who are constantly jolting him off his log and giving him infinite trouble.

The sixteen columns of the temple of Jupiter Olympus, from their immense size, have a very imposing appearance; they are of the Corinthian order, of the most beautiful workmanship, six feet in diameter, and near sixty feet in height; the architraves, of enormous size, still rest upon some of the columns, and one which has been measured was found to be twenty-two feet six inches in length. In the plan of this building published by

Stuart, it appears to have been entirely surrounded by a double colonnade of 124 columns, twenty in each front, and forty-two at each side; the length of the front was 124 feet, and that of the side more than 400. Pisistratus is said to have laid the foundations of a temple on this spot between 630 and 640 years B. C.; subsequently, Antiochus Epiphanes, king of Syria, began to erect a magnificent temple to Jupiter Olympus, of the Corinthian order, upon these foundations, employing Cossutius, a Roman architect, for that purpose; at his death, 174 B. C., the work was discontinued for a long period, and then resumed at the joint expense of the Kings and States in alliance with Augustus. Seventy-eight years afterwards, the columns prepared for the building were carried away by Sylla, on his capture of Athens, and made to ornament the Temple of Jupiter Capitolinus at Rome; and it was only in the time of Hadrian that the temple was completed by that munificent benefactor of the city *.

A short distance onward, in the direction of the town, we arrived at the Arch of Hadrian, of white Pentelic marble, which led from the new Athens, embellished by Hadrian, to the old city Pausanias. Thucydides, lib. ii. c. 15. Plutarch in

Solon.