Dörpfeld (Mitth. Ath., XII, p. 25 ff.) arrives at the following conclusions: (1) The temple was restored after the departure of the Persians; (2) it was injured by fire B.C. 406; (3) it was repaired and continued in use; (4) it was seen and described by Pausanias I. 24.3 in a lost passage. Let us take up these points in inverse order. The passage of Pausanias reads in our texts:--Λέλκται δέ μοι καί πρότρον (17.1), ώς Άθηναίοις περισσότερόν τι ή τοις άλλοις ές τα θειά εστι σπουδης· πρώτοι μεν γαρ Άθηνάν έπωνόμασαν Έργάνην, πρωτοι δ' άκώλους Έρμάς ... όμού δέ σφισιν εν τω ναώ Σπουδαίων δαίμων εστίν. Dörpfeld marks a lacuna between Έρμάς and όμού, as do those editors who do not supply a recommendation. Dörpfeld, however, thinks the gap is far greater than has been supposed, including certainly the mention and probably the full description of the temple under discussion. His reasons are in substance about as follows: (1) Pausanias has reached a point in his periegesis where he would naturally mention this temple, because he is standing beside it, [5] and (2) the phrase όμου δέ σφισιν εν τω ναω Σπουδαίων δαίμων eστίν implies that a temple has just been mentioned. These are, at least, the main arguments, those deduced from the passage following the description of the Erechtheion being merely accessory.
Now, if Pausanias followed precisely the route laid down for him by Dörpfeld (i.e., if he described the two rows of statues between the Propylaia and the eastern front of the Parthenon, taking first the southern and then the northern row), he would come to stand where Dörpfeld suggests. If, however, he followed some other order (e.g., that suggested by Wernicke, Mitth., XII, p. 187), he would not be where Dörpfeld thinks. Pausanias does not say that the statues he mentions are set up in two rows. [6] It may be that the Acropolis was so thickly peopled with statues that each side of the path was bordered with a double or triple row, or that the statues were not arranged in rows at all, and that Pausanias merely picks out from his memory (or his Polemon) a few noticeable figures with only general reference to their relative positions. Be this as it may, the assumption that Pausanias, when he mentions the Σπουδαίων (or σπουδαιων?) δαίμων, is standing, or imagines that he stands, beside the old temple rests upon very slight foundations.
Footnote 5:[ (return) ] DÖRPFELD'S arguments for the continued existence of the temple, without which his theory that Pausanias mentioned it must of course fall to the ground, will be discussed below. It seemed to me advisable to discuss the Pausanias question first, because, if he mentioned the temple, it must have existed, if not to his time, at least to that of Polemon or of his other (unknown) authority.
Footnote 6:[ (return) ] The most than can be deduced from the use of πέραν (c. 24.1) is, that the statues were on both sides of the path.
Whether Pausanias, in what he says of Ergane, the legless Hermæ, etc., is, as Wernicke (Mitth., XII, p. 185) would have it, merely inserting a bit of misunderstood learning, is of little moment. I am not one of those who picture to themselves Pausanias going about copying inscriptions, asking questions, and forming his own judgments, referring only occasionally to books when he wished to refresh his memory or look up some matter of history. The labors of Kalkmann, Wilamowitz, and others have shown conclusively, that a large part of Pausanias' periegesis is adopted from the works of previous writers, and adopted in some cases with little care by a man of no very striking intellectual ability. It is convenient to speak as if Pausanias visited all the places and saw all the things he describes, but it is certain that he does not mention all he must in that case have seen, and perhaps possible that he describes things he never can have seen. Whether Pausanias travelled about Greece and then wrote his description with the aid (largely employed) of previous works, or wrote it without travelling, makes little difference except when it is important to know the exact topographical order of objects mentioned. In any case, however, his accuracy in detail is hardly to be accepted without question, especially in his description of the Acropolis, where he has to try his prentice hand upon a material far too great for him. A useless bit of lore stupidly applied may not be an impossibility for Pausanias, but, however low our opinion of his intellect may be, he is the best we have, [7] and must be treated accordingly. The passage about Ergane, etc., must not be simply cast aside as misunderstood lore, but neither should it be enriched by inserting the description of a temple together with the state-treasury. The passage must be explained without doing violence to the Ms. tradition. That this is possible has lately been shown by A.W. Verrall. [8] He says: 'What Pausanias actually says is this--: "The Athenians are specially distinguished by religious zeal. The name of Ergane was first given by them, and the name Hermæ; and in the temple along with them is a Good Fortune of the Zealous"--words which are quite as apt for the meaning above explained (i.e., a note on the piety of the Athenians) as those of the author often are in such cases.'
Footnote 7:[ (return) ] I think it is F.G. WELCKEK to whom the saying is attributed: Pausanias ist ein Schaf, aber ein Schaf mit goldenem Vliesse.
Footnote 8:[ (return) ] HARRISON and VERRALL, Mythology and Monuments of Athens, p. 610. I am not sure that a colorless verb has not fallen out after Έρμαs, though the assumption of a gap is not strictly necessary, as Prof. Verrall shows.
Whether we read Σπουδαίων δαίμων or σπουδαίων Δαίμων is, for our purposes immaterial. In either case, Verrall is right in calling attention to the connection between ες τα θεΐα σπουδή and the δαίμων Σπουδαίων (σπουδαίων), a connection which is now very striking, but which is utterly lost by inserting the description of a temple. At this point, then, the temple is not mentioned by Pausanias.
But, if not at this point, perhaps elsewhere, for this also has been tried. Miss Harrison [9] thinks the temple in question is mentioned by Pausanias, c. 27.1. He has been describing the Erechtheion, has just mentioned the old αγάλμα and the lamp of Kallimachos, which were certainly in the Erechtheion, [10] and continues: κειται δε εν τω ναω της πολιάδος Έρμης ξύλου, κτέ., giving a list of anathemata, followed by the story of the miraculous growth of the sacred olive after its destruction by the Persians, and passing to the description of the Pandroseion with the words, τω ναω δε της 'Αθηνάς Πανδρόσου ναός συνεχής εστι. Miss Harrison thinks that, since Athena is Polias, the ναός της πολιάδος and the ναός της 'Αθήνας are one and the same, an opinion in which I heartily concur. [11] It remains to be decided whether this temple is the newly discovered old temple or the eastern cella of the Erechtheion. The passages cited by Jahn-Michaelis [12] show that the old άγαλμα bore the special appellation πολιάς, and we know that the old άγαλμα was in the Erechtheion. That does not, to be sure, prove that the Erechtheion was also called, in whole or in part ναός της πολιάδος (or της 'Αθήνας), but it awakens suspicion to read of an ancient άγαλμα which we know was called Polias, and which was perhaps the Polias κατ' εξοχήν, and immediately after, with no introduction or explanation, to read of a temple of Polias in which that άγαλμα is not. Nothing is known of a statue in the newly discovered old temple. [13]