shape only appear at Athens in buildings of about the date of Peisistratos, e.g. on the earlier temple of Dionysos Eleuthereus. Our stone belonged to a building of the date of Peisistratos. As regards the character of the building, it is clear from the curve at e which is a segment of a circle, that the stone was at this point cut away to receive a pillar. The unworn condition of the stucco at b leads Professor Dörpfeld to conclude that the stone was a corner stone, the angle protecting the stucco from friction. The distance between these two points, e and b, gives the measurement of the intercolumniations. From this one stone it is certain that a draw-well of the date of Peisistratos existed and that it was surmounted by a colonnade. Its appearance must have been somewhat that of the draw-well (Schoepf-brunnen) restored in [Fig. 38]. We pass to the consideration of the fountain house Nine-Spouts.
Fig. 40.
The great open square marked ‘place of the Enneakrounos’ ([Fig. 38]) is really the site of Nine-Spouts. This is clear from many considerations. 1. Nine-Spouts must have stood over or in front of Fair-Fount which it superseded. Over it would be an impossible situation, because of the Pnyx rock, so we may securely place it in front. 2. Nine-Founts must have stood about two metres below the level of the basin, from which it was fed, in order that the water might flow easily in. 3. At K 2 and K 3 are the beginnings of two ancient subterranean canals which must have been intended to carry off the superfluous water from Nine-Spouts. 4. Straight down to this open place comes the footway from the Acropolis and thither also all the rest of the roads ultimately converge. 5. The place must have been in Greek times an open place, as no foundations of Greek buildings have been found, only the remains of a great Roman house, and under it countless wells.
This Roman house consisted of a large atrium with a peristyle of twelve columns and several small chambers surrounding it. The walls are a patchwork of materials of all kinds, and even the bases of the columns are made up of fragments from other buildings. One of these fragments belonging to the draw-well we have already discussed, another, we shall immediately see, belongs to Nine-Spouts itself.
Fig. 41.
Can we form any mental picture of Nine-Spouts? Fortunately vase-paintings come to our aid. It is not a little remarkable that in the decoration of black-figured water-vases (hydriae) of the 6th century B.C., there appears a sudden fashion in fountain-houses. Of hydriae so decorated the British Museum contains no less than ten. One of these[276] is reproduced in [Fig. 41]. The Fountain-House depicted is of the usual shape, a tetrastyle Doric portico. The architectural details are very clear, the triglyphs and guttae standing out in white. In actual architecture they would both be painted blue. Four maidens are water-drawing. Two of them are hanging up wreaths. Over three of them their names are inscribed Iope, Rhodopis, Kleo. But what at once arrests our attention is the arrangement of the water-spouts. Facing us are three, a lion’s head and two horsemen, to either side of these is a lion’s head spout; that makes not a Nine-Spouts but a Five-Spouts. But, drawn in perspective as they must be, do not the side spouts each represent three? It is at least probable that we have an arrangement like that restored in [Fig. 38], three spouts facing, and three at each side. Lion-spouts are of course frequent in Fountain-Houses. The horsemen of our vase are unique; they give the Fountain-House a dashing despotic air.
Fig. 42.