Near the N. margin of the Acropolis precincts, but in a slight depression, rises the **Eréchtheion, the temple of the tutelary goddess Athena Poliás and the other deities of the city. The building was probably begun soon after the Peace of Nikias (421), but only completed in 407 or after 400. It contained chambers for the cult of Athena and Poseidon Erechtheus, while the vestibule had an entrance to the salt-spring produced by Poseidon. But the temple is now sadly ruined, having served in the middle ages as a church and afterwards as a Turkish harem. Since 1902, however, the ancient fragments have been pieced together, and they now afford a fairly complete idea of the exterior of the building, which differed from that of the ordinary temples.
The nucleus of the edifice (24 by 12 yds.) rises on a threefold basement in steps, and the sanctuary was entered by three porticos (E., S., and N.) of charmingly varied type.
The E. Portico was formed by six Ionic columns in front, the northmost of which has been broken down. Their rich capitals bear the tripartite epistyle (p. [515]); above it are dark blocks of stone to which the relief figures of the frieze were attached.
Between the E. portico and the Acropolis Wall twelve broad steps, partly modern, descend to the terrace of rock, about 10 ft. lower, on which stands the N. Portico. Its six columns display a still greater wealth of sculpturing than those of the E. portico. The ceiling is relieved by lacunars. The great main doorway is specially rich and well preserved. The three holes in the rock below the N. side of the N. colonnade were pointed out in ancient times as the indentations made by Poseidon’s trident during his contest with Athena for possession of Athens. Above them the pavement and roof were left open.—The W. façade of the temple, in front of which lay the Pandroseion, or shrine of Pandrosos, daughter of Cecrops, was originally articulated by four columns, resting upon a high parapet. The existing arrangement, of pilasters engaged in a wall with windows, dates from the Roman period.
The *Colonnade of the Caryatides at the S.W. angle is particularly charming. Instead of columns, six statues of virgins, over life-size (7½ ft.), placed on a parapet, support the roof, the weight of which they bear with ease and grace. The ancient Athenians called them simply the Korai (maidens). The second figure from the W. is a copy in terracotta; the one standing back in the E. row has been restored.
To the S. of the Erechtheion are the foundations (37½ by 14½ yds.) of the so-called Hekatómpedon (early 6th cent.), on the site of the palace of Erechtheus. The name (‘100 ft. long’) is evidenced by an inscription. Peisistratos and his sons embellished it with a colonnade. After its destruction by the Persians it was probably restored without the colonnade. Opinions differ as to its object and as to its history after the completion of the Erechtheion. It had a front (E.) chamber of three aisles and a narrow chamber at the back (W.), with two small rooms between them.
To the Palace of Erechtheus, the ancient residence of the Attic kings, belonged the foundations to the E. of the Erechtheion. So also did the poros (Piræan stone) bases of columns, lying opposite the S.E. angle of the colonnade of the Caryatides, 5 ft. lower; their extremely archaic form, with the shaft of the column embedded in the base, points to the Mycenæan period.
We now return to the Parthenon. To the E. of it once stood a small round Temple of the Goddess Roma and the Emp. Augustus, round the foundations of which lie fragments of its architrave. Opposite the N.E. corner of the Parthenon are the remains of a sacrificial altar of Athena.—At the S.E. angle of the precincts the huge masonry of the Kimonian Wall (p. [512]) may be seen.
The Belvedere at the N.E. angle of the Acropolis affords the best survey of the city. To the S.E. are the columns of the Olympieion, with the distant Hymettos; nearer rises Hadrian’s Arch; in the foreground is the monument of Lysikrates; then the royal Palace and its gardens; beyond them are Lykabettos and the gable-shaped Pentelikon; in the town, a little to the left, shine the dazzling marble buildings of the Academy, the University, and the Library; to the N. of these runs the Patisia road; more to the left rises the lofty Metropolis Church, with the small Metropolis nestling beside it; in the centre of the N. slope of the Acropolis rises the Tower of the Winds; adjacent is the Bazaar with Hadrian’s Stoa; to the W. is the Theseion, and beyond it the Kephisos Valley with its olive-groves, and Mt. Parnes with its S. spur Mt. Ægaleos.
The *Acropolis Museum, erected in 1878, contains all the sculptures of the Acropolis, except those previously removed, and the yield of later excavations. Besides works of the golden age, it comprises valuable examples of the earlier periods of art. Adm., see p. [504].