The Mediterranean

by Karl Baedeker

Lanes and steps ascend here to the S. to a path skirting the N. slope of the Acropolis and leading to the right to its entrance (10 min.; p. [512]).

A large paved quadrangle to the W. of the Tower of the Winds is supposed to have been a Roman Macellum (Agora or market). It is entered from the W. by the Market Gate (Porte de l’Agora; Pl. C, 6). Four slender Doric columns, 26 ft. high, support a massive architrave with a frieze of triglyphs and metopes and a fairly well preserved pediment. According to the inscription on the architrave the gateway was erected about the time of the birth of Christ. In line with the N. central column is a tablet of Hadrian’s age, inscribed with regulations about the prices of oil, salt, etc.

From the Market Gate we follow the Poikile Street to the W. to the Stoōn Street and descend the latter to the right. The second crooked side-street on the right then leads to the entrance (red door on the right; keeper 20 l.) of the Stoa of Attalos (Pl. C, 5, 6). This grand, two-storied market-hall was erected, as the inscription on the architrave, pieced together in front of the colonnade, records, by king Attalos II. of Pergamon (B. C. 159–138). It was 123 yds. long and 22 yds. deep, and formed the E. boundary of the Kerameikos market (p. [522]). The groundfloor contained 21 closed chambers 16 ft. deep, in front of which ran a long colonnade. The traders probably had their stalls in the hall, while the closed rooms were used for storage.

We now descend to the N., across the railway cutting, to the Rue d’Adrien, follow the latter to the left for a hundred paces, and turn to the left (S.) into Eponymōn Street; here, on the left, sixty paces farther, is the Stoa of the Giants (Pl. G.; C, 5), a ruin so named from its three great Atlantes (beam-bearers).

A little farther to the W., on the ancient Kolonos Agoraeos (‘Hill of the Market’; see p. [522]), rises the **Theseion (Pl. B, 5), the best-preserved of all the ancient Greek buildings. The massive construction, the lifelike sculptures, and the dark golden hue of the Pentelic marble are singularly impressive. The temple, commonly called Theseion, and converted into the church of St. George in the Christian period, is now supposed to have been dedicated to Hephaestos and Athena. The style of the building and its sculptures have led different authorities to assign its erection to a date a little before or a little after that of the Parthenon. At all events it was completed by 421 B. C., as an inscription records the setting up in that year of the two sacred images.

The temple stands on a marble basement in two steps, 35 by 15 yds., and is enclosed by 34 Doric columns, 18 ft. high, 6 at each end and 13 on each side (the corner-columns being counted twice). They are rather more slender than those of the Parthenon, and like them lean slightly inwards. Above the architrave, which is undivided, runs a Doric frieze of triglyphs and metopes, encircling the whole building. The metopes, however, are adorned with sculpture only on the main (E.) façade and the immediately adjoining spaces on each side. In front are depicted the exploits of Hercules, on the sides those of Theseus. The building is crowned with a cornice and pediments. The statuary of the tympana has disappeared.

The nucleus of the temple consists of the cella, 13 yds. long, at each end of which is a vestibule, formed by the antæ and two columns between them, and opening on to the colonnade. The E. vestibule now has a modern wall with a built-up door instead of the columns. The coffered ceiling on this side has been preserved intact. The W. vestibule retains its original aspect, except that a door has been broken through the wall at the back. The upper part of the cella wall is embellished, as in the Parthenon, with a relief-frieze (in Parian marble), which here, however, is limited to the two façades and the eastmost part of the sides. The E. part of the frieze represents a battle (between the Athenians and the Pelasgians?), witnessed by the gods. The W. frieze portrays the struggle of the Lapithæ and Athenians against the Centaurs.—The interior of the temple contains nothing of special interest.

Many Englishmen were buried within this temple in the Turkish period.

To the E. and N. of the Theseion lay the Kerameikos, or potters’ quarter, to which, in the 6th cent., the Market was transferred from the S.W. slope of the Acropolis. This, like the Forum at Rome, was the centre of classical Athens.

The market was adorned with statues of great poets and orators, such as Pindar and Demosthenes. Around it rose the chief public buildings. Among them were the Stoa Basileios (Pl. B, 5; seat of the Archon Basileus), the foundations of which (6th cent.) are supposed to have been discovered at No. 14 Poseidon Street.; also the Metroon, or temple of the mother of the gods, the Buleuterion, or town-hall, etc.