Fig. 38.
The restoration by Professor Dörpfeld ([Fig. 38]) is, it must clearly be understood, to a large extent conjectural. It must be consulted strictly in conjunction with the plan in [Fig. 35], where the actual remains of Greek date are clearly marked in solid black lines. So used it can be of great service in helping us mentally to reconstruct scattered fragments of masonry that would otherwise be unintelligible.
Some of the details of the restoration have been suggested by the water-works discovered at Megara, which are in some respects better preserved than those at Athens. At Megara are extant not only a great conduit to bring water from a distance but an elaborate arrangement for utilizing it consisting of a reservoir and a pillared draw-well besides a fountain house. It is very probable that the works of Theagenes served as a model to Peisistratos, and therefore before the draw-well and fountain house of Peisistratos are discussed a word must be said of the excavations at Megara.
Fig. 39.
Pausanias[273] begins his account of the city of Megara somewhat abruptly thus. ‘In the city there is a fountain. And Theagenes built it for them. About him I have already mentioned that he gave his daughter in marriage to Kylon the Athenian. This Theagenes, having possessed himself of the tyranny, built the fountain, and from its size, its decorations, and the number of its columns, it is worth looking at. Water flows into it called the water of the Sithnidian nymphs.’ After the excavations at Athens, the fountain or, as perhaps it is best called, the well-house of Theagenes at Megara was sought and found[274] at the bottom of the Eastern Acropolis of Megara, called Karia. The aqueduct leading to the reservoir was excavated for a considerable distance, and proved to be a structure closely resembling those found at Athens and Samos. Eupalinos it will be remembered was a native of Megara. The draw-well, the supporting walls of which are well preserved, was about 15 by 20 metres in size and built of Kara limestone, a material much used in the 6th century B.C. for the foundations and stylobates of buildings. All round the side whence water was drawn was a low parapet wall. This wall shows signs in many places of being worn away by the friction of ropes and dripping of water. The block shown in [Fig. 39] is closely paralleled by the block found in Athens and placed beneath it for comparison.
Not only, then, at Athens did a despot build a well-house and artificially increase a supply of holy water. The original spring at Megara was sacred to the Sithnidian nymphs; we do not know what nymphs guarded Kallirrhoë at Athens; there were plenty about, for to this day close at hand is the Hill of the Nymphs. Dionysos who dwelt so near was called Limnaios, He-of-the-Marshes, Phanodemos[275] says, because he invented the blending of must with water; hence, he adds, ‘the springs are called Nymphs and nurses of Dionysos, because water mixed with wine increases it.’
We return to the water-worn stone, the details of which are shown in [Fig. 40]. This stone is of great architectural importance. From it can be deduced not only the date of the building to which it belonged, but also something of its dimensions and general appearance. The date is fixed by the clamp mark at C. The clamp itself has disappeared, but its shape is proved by the mark of its insertion. Clamps of the
