Lolling (p. 637) says: "No one, I think, will doubt that το Έκατόμπεδον is the νεως ό Έκατόμπεδος often mentioned in the inscriptions of the ταμίαι and elsewhere." If this is correct, the eastern cella of the Parthenon cannot be the νεως ό Έκατόμπεδος. Lolling maintains that the eastern cella of the Parthenon was the Parthenon proper, that the western room of the Parthenon was the opisthodomos, and that the νεως ό Έκατόμπεδος was the pre-Persian temple. Besides the official name Έκατόμπεδον or νεως ό Έκατόμπεδος, Lolling thinks the pre-Persian temple was also called αρχαιος (παλαιος) νεώς. [18] Dörpfeld maintains that the western cella of the Parthenon was the Parthenon proper, the western part of the "old temple" was the opisthodomos, and the eastern cella of the Parthenon was the νεως ό Έκατόμπεδος, leaving the question undecided whether the "old temple" was still called το Έκατόμπεδον in the fifth century, but laying great stress upon the difference in the expressions το Έκατόμπεδον and ό νεως ό Έκατόμπεδος. [19] Both Lolling and Dörpfeld agree that the πρόνεως of the inscriptions of the fifth century is the porch of the Parthenon. [20]
Footnote 18:[ (return) ] LOLLING (p. 643) thinks the αρχαιος νεώς of the inscriptions of the ταμίαι CIA, II, 753, 758 (cf. 650, 672) is the old temple of Brauronian Artemis, because in the same inscriptions the ἐπιστάται of Brauronian Artemis are mentioned. This seems to me insufficient reason for assuming that αρχαιος νεώς means sometimes one temple and sometimes another.
Footnote 19:[ (return) ] Mitth., xv, p. 427 ff.
Footnote 20:[ (return) ] LOLLING (p. 644) thinks the expression εν τω νεω τω Έκατόμπεδον could not be used of a part of a building of which πρόνεως and Παρθενών were parts, i.e., that a part of a temple could not be called νεώς. Yet in the inscription published by Lolling the προνέιον and the νεώς are mentioned in apparent contradistinction to απαν το Έκατόμπεδον. It seems, as Dörpfeld says, only natural that the νεώς should belong to the same building as the πρόνεως.
Among the objects mentioned in the lists of treasure handed over by one board of ταμίαι to the next (Ueberyab-Urkunden or "transmission-lists") are parts of a statue of Athena with a base and a Νίκη and a, shield εν τω Έκατόμπεδω. The material of this statue is gold and ivory. The only gold and ivory statue of Athena on the Acropolis was, so far as is known, the so-called Parthenos of Pheidias. Those inscriptions therefore prove that the Parthenos stood in the Hekatompedos (or Hekatompedon); that is, that the eastern cella of the Parthenon was called Έκατόμπεδος (ον) in the fifth century. [21] Certainly, if there had been a second chryselephantine statue of Athena on the Acropolis, we should know of its existence.
Footnote 21:[ (return) ] This was shown by U. KÖHLER. Mitth., v, p. 89 ff., and again by DÖRPFELD, xv, 480 ff , who quote the inscriptions. LOLLING'S distinction between το αγαλμα and το χρυσουν αγαλμα cannot be maintained. cf. U. Köhler, Sitzungsber, d. Berlin. Akad., 1889, p. 223.
When the Athenians built the great western room of the Parthenon, they certainly did not intend it to serve merely as a store-room for the objects described in the transmission-lists as εν τω Παρθενωνι or εκ του Παρθενωνος, these being mostly of little value or broken. [22] Now the treasury of Athens was the opisthodomos, and the western room of the Parthenon was, from the moment of the completion of the building, the greatest opisthodomos in Athens. It is natural to regard this (with Lolling) as the opisthodomos where the treasure was kept. This room was doubtless divided into three parts by two partitions of some sort, probably of metal, [23] running from the eastern and western wall to the nearest columns and connecting the columns. This arrangement agrees with the provision (CIA, I, 32) that the monies of Athena be cared for έv τω έπι δεξια του όπισθοδόμου, those of the other gods έv τω eπ' άριοτερά. Until the completion of the Parthenon, the opisthodomos of the pre-Persian temple might properly be the opisthodomos κατ' εξοχήν, but so soon as the Parthenon was finished, the new treasure-house would naturally usurp the name as well as the functions of its predecessor.
Footnote 22:[ (return) ] A general view of these transmission-lists may be found at the back of MICHAELIS' der Parthenon: See also H. LEHNER, Ueber die attischen Schatzverzeichnisse des vierten Jahrhunderts (which Lolling cites. I have not seen it.)
Footnote 23:[ (return) ] See plans of the Parthenon, for instance, the one in the plan of the Acropolis accompanying Dörpfeld's article, Mitth., XII, Taf. 1.
But, if the western room of the Periclean temple was the opisthodomos, where was the Παρθενών proper? It cannot be identical with the νεώς ό Έκατόμπεδος nor with the opisthodomos, for the three appellations occur at the same date evidently designating three different places. It would be easier to tell where the Παρθενών proper was, if we knew why it was called Παρθενών. The name was in all probability not derived from the Parthenos, but rather the statue was named from the Parthenon after the latter appellation had been extended to the whole building, for there is no evidence that the great statue was called Parthenos from the first. Its official title was, so far as is known, never Parthenos. [24] The Parthenon was not so named because it contained the Parthenos, but why it was so named we do not know. The πρόνεως is certainly the front porch, the Έκατόμπεδος νεώς is certainly the cella, 100 feet long, the οπισθόδομος is the rear apartment (of some building, even if I have not made it seem probable that it is the rear apartment of the Parthenon). These names carry their explanation with them. But the name Παρθενών gives us no information. It was a part of the great Periclean temple, for the name was in later times applied to the whole building, and the only part of the building not named is the western porch. It is, however, incredible that the Athenians should use this porch, so prominently exposed to the eyes of every sight-seer, as a storehouse for festival apparatus, etc. It is more probable that the Παρθενών proper was within the walls of the building but separated from the other parts in some way. The middle division of the western room, separated by columns and metal partitions from the treasury of Athena on the right and that of the other gods on the left, was large enough and, being directly in front of the western door, prominent enough, to deserve a name of its own. If this room was the Παρθενών proper, it is evident that a fire in the opisthodomos would cause the Παρθενών to be emptied of its contents, which would then naturally be inventoried as εκ του Παρθενώνος, while another list could properly be headed εκ του οπισθοδομον referring to the treasure-chambers. [25] The name Parthenon might then be extended first to the entire western part of the building and then to the whole edifice. This is not a proof that the Παρθενών was the central part of the western room of the great temple. A complete proof is impossible. All I claim is that this hypothesis fulfils all the necessary conditions.