Height, 2 feet 3 inches. Greek inscriptions in Brit. Mus., I., p. 98, § 14, b. Wilkins, Prolusiones, pls. 13, 14. Journ. of Hellen. Studies, XII., pl. 1.
420. Necking of Ionic column, copied from the columns of the east portico of the Erechtheion.—Elgin Coll.
Height, 11¼ inches; diameter, 2 feet 2½ inches. Synopsis, No. 120 (306*); Elgin Room Guide, II., No. A. 2.
TEMPLE OF NIKÈ APTEROS.
The temple of Nikè Apteros (Victory without wings), or more correctly of Athenè Nikè, stood on the projecting eminence to the south of the approach to the Propylaea at Athens (Paus., i. 22, 4).
The building had remained uninjured till the close of the seventeenth century, and was seen in 1676 by the travellers Spon and Wheler. But not long after, probably about the year 1685, the temple was demolished by the Turks, and the materials were used to build a bastion on the spot where the temple had stood.
In 1835 Ludwig Ross, and the architects Schaubert and Hansen took down the bastion and reconstructed the temple as it now stands. A sufficient amount of the lower part had remained undisturbed to enable them to proceed with certainty.
The temple consists only of a single cella, opening to the east, but has four columns at each end (tetrastyle amphiprostyle). It stood on a podium of three steps. The exterior was surrounded by a small frieze, 1 ft. 5½ in. high, and measuring 26 ft. on its long sides, and 17 ft. 2 in. at the ends. The annexed cut (fig. 20) shows the plan of the temple. The arrangement of the slabs of the frieze has been most fully discussed by Ross, but is still uncertain in parts. The west frieze, according to Ross, consisted of the two slabs, Nos. 421, 422, in the Elgin Collection, and the return faces of two slabs of the north and south sides. Each return measures 1 ft. 7 in. The slabs, Nos. 421, 422, measure respectively 6 ft. 8½ in., and 6 ft. 7¾ in. The total length, 16 ft. 6¼ in., is thus nearly equal to the estimated length of the side. The distribution of the slabs belonging to the long sides is doubtful. No. 425, cast from a corner stone, certainly belongs to the south side. Ross assigns No. 423 to the south side, No. 424 to the north side, on the hypothesis that the mounted horsemen on the same side proceed in the same direction. Kekulé (Die Balustrade, ed. 1869, p. 17) places them both on the south side, in an order more probable than that suggested by Hawkins (Mus. Marbles, ix., p. 29). The east side consisted of two slabs and two returns arranged similarly to those of the west.