Primitive Athens as described by Thucydides

by Jane Ellen Harrison

Fig. 21.

But the identification has never been felt to be quite satisfactory. The cave Α is really no cave at all; it is a very shallow niche. It is impossible to imagine it the scene of the story of Creousa. Moreover it bears no traces of any votive offerings having been attached to its wall, nor have any remains of such been found there.

Between cave Α and cave Β there is a connecting stairway α, α′, α″, but it should be carefully noted that Α has no direct communication with the upper part of the Acropolis nor with the Propylaea. The steep staircase that leads down now-a-days from near the monument of Agrippa to the little Church now built over the Klepsydra looks very rocky and primitive, but really only dates from mediaeval or at earliest late Roman times. It was made at the time that the so-called ‘Valerian’ wall was built, which starts from the Klepsydra and reaches to the Stoa of Attalos ([Fig. 46], dotted lines).

Fig. 22.

We pass to cave Β, which formerly was believed to belong to Pan. Recent excavations[158] leave no doubt that it was sacred to Apollo. The back wall and sides of this cave are thickly studded with niches for the most part of oblong shape, but a few are round. About in the middle of the cave is an extra large niche, which looks as if it had contained the image of a god. Many of the niches still show the holes which once held nails for the fixing of votive tablets. As the cave became unduly crowded with offerings they overflowed on to the rock at the left hand.

So far we are sure that cave Β was a sanctuary, but of whom? If Α did not belong to Apollo we should expect that Β, as next in order, was Apollo’s cave. The ground in front of Β has been cleared down to the living rock and the results of this clearance[159] were conclusive. Exactly in front of Β there came to light eleven tablets or pinakes all of similar type, and all bearing inscribed dedications to Apollo, either with the title ‘below the Heights,’ or ‘below the Long Rocks.’ Cave Β is clearly a sanctuary of Apollo.

The votive tablets are all of late Roman date; it is probable however that owing to the small space available, they superseded earlier offerings of the same kind. The type scarcely varies. Specimens are given in [Fig. 23]. The inscription is surrounded sometimes by an olive wreath and sometimes by a myrtle wreath with characteristic berries. Occasionally the wreath is tied by two snakes. Two inscriptions may serve as a sample of the rest. On No. 1[160] ([Fig. 23]) is inscribed ‘Good Fortune G(aios) Ioulios Metrodorus a Marathonian having borne the office of Thesmothetes dedicated (this) to Apollo Below-the-Long (Rocks).’ In the second[161] instance ([Fig. 23]) the dedicator states that he is ‘King’ (Archon), and the dedication is to Apollo ‘below the Heights.’ Clearly the two titles of the god were interchangeable.

These dedications are of capital importance. It is little likely that unless the custom had been of immemorial antiquity the archons would have sought out an obscure cave-sanctuary in which to place their commemorative tablets. Was there not the temple of Apollo Patroös in the Market Place and the splendid Pythion down near the Ilissos?