Let us recapitulate. Thucydides has made a statement as to the city before the days of Theseus.—Before this, what is now the citadel was the city, together with what is below it towards about South. In support of this statement he has adduced one argument. The sanctuaries are in the Citadel itself, those of other deities as well (as the Goddess). He now adduces a second, ‘And those that are outside are placed towards this part of the city more (than elsewhere). Such are the sanctuary of Zeus Olympios, and the Pythion, and the sanctuary of Ge, and that of Dionysos-in-the-Marshes (to whom is celebrated the more ancient Dionysiac Festival on the 12th day in the month Anthesterion, as is also the custom down to the present day with the Ionian descendants of the Athenians); and other ancient sanctuaries also are placed there.’
This second argument we have now to examine:—
By ‘this part of the city’ it is quite clear that Thucydides means that portion of the city of his own day which he has carefully marked out; i.e. the citadel plus something, plus ‘what is below it towards about South’; by this we have seen is meant the upper citadel plus the Pelargikon. This second piece of evidence is, like the first, adduced simply to prove the small limits of the ancient city. But Thucydides has expressed himself somewhat carelessly. Readers who did not know where the sanctuaries adduced as instances were, might and have taken ‘towards this part of the city’ to mean ‘towards about South.’ The proximity of the two phrases and the appearance of a relation between them, if in fact there be no relation is, as Dr Verrall[147] observes, ‘a flaw in composition which would not have been passed by a pupil of Isocrates.’ The carelessness of Thucydides is, however, excusable enough. He assumes that the position of the shrines he instances is known as it was by every Athenian of his day. He also assumes that the main gist of his argument is intelligently remembered, that his readers realize that he is concerned with the character and dimensions not the direction of his ancient city.
All that Thucydides tells us is that the sanctuaries outside the ancient city are ‘towards’ it[148]: strictly speaking he gives us absolutely no information as to whether they are North, South, East or West. But ‘towards’ implies approach, and, if we are told that sanctuaries are ‘towards’ a place, we naturally think of ourselves as going there and as finding these sanctuaries on and about the approach to that place.
As to the direction of the approach to the Acropolis there is happily no manner of doubt. In Thucydides’ own days it was where it now is, due West; in the days before the Persian War, the days when the old sanctuaries grew up towards the approach, it was South-West. We know then roughly where to look for our ‘outside’ sanctuaries; they will be about the entrance West and South-West. We must however remember that the whole ancient entrance with its fortifications, the Enneapylon, covered a far wider area than is occupied by the Propylaea now; it took in the whole West end of the hill and part of the North side, as well as part of the South. The area included to the South was, as we have already seen ([p. 34]), much larger than that to the North.
The Sanctuary of Zeus Olympios and the Pythion. The two sanctuaries first mentioned, those of Zeus Olympios and of Apollo Pythios, are linked together more closely than by mere topographical juxtaposition. In the Kerameikos Apollo Patroös[149] had a temple close to the Stoa of Zeus Eleutherios; down near the Ilissos, Zeus Olympios had his great sanctuary ([Fig. 49]), and near it Apollo Pythios had a temenos, and here, where Thucydides is speaking of the most ancient foundation of the two gods, father and son, they are manifestly in close conjunction. This is fortunate for our argument. For it happens that, whereas we know the exact site of the earliest Pythion, of this earliest Olympieion there are no certain remains. From the known site of the Pythion and from the close conjunction of the two we can deduce within narrow limits the unknown site of the Olympion.
Possibly at this point, if the reader knows modern Athens, the words ‘the unknown site’ of the Olympion will rouse an instinctive protest. Surely the site of the Olympieion, with its familiar cluster of Corinthian columns, is of all things most certain and familiar. It lies South-East of the Acropolis not far from the Ilissos (see [Fig. 49]). A moment’s consideration will however show that this Olympieion, though familiar, is irrelevant, nay impossible. It is too remote to be described as towards the ancient city, it is too recent to be accounted an ancient sanctuary. It was, as Thucydides quite well knew, begun by Peisistratos[150].
We begin by fixing the site of the Pythion, happily certain.
Literature alone enables us within narrow limits to do this. In the Ion of Euripides[151] Ion, learning that Creousa comes from Athens, presses her for particulars about that ‘glorious’ city. As a priestling he is naturally interested in all canonical legends, but what he is really eager about is the ancient sacred spot which linked Athens to Delphi. The nursling of Delphi eagerly asks
And is there there a place called the Long Rocks?