t was not merely an Holy
of Holies in religion; it was also a palace and museum of art. At every
step and turn the traveler met new objects of interest. There were
archaic specimens, chiefly interesting to the antiquarian and the
devotee; there were the great masterpieces which were the joint
admiration of the artist and the vulgar. Even all the sides and slopes
of the great rock were honeycombed into sacred grottos, with their
altars and their gods, or studded with votive monuments. All these
lesser things are fallen away and gone; the sacred eaves are filled with
rubbish, and desecrated with worse than neglect. The grotto of Pan and
Apollo is difficult of access, and when reached, an object of disgust
rather than of interest. There are left but the remnants of the
surrounding wall, and the ruins of the three principal buildings, which
were the envy and wonder of all the civilized world.

The beautiful little temple of Athena Nike, tho outside the
Propylaea--thrust out as it were on a sort of great buttress high on the
right--must still be called a part, and a very striking part, of the
Acropolis. It is only of late years that it has been cleared of rubbish
and modern stone-work, thus destroying, no doubt, some precious traces
of Turkish occupation which the fastidious historian may regret, but
realizing to us a beautiful Greek temple of the Ionic Order in some
completeness. The peculiarity of this building, which is perched upon a
platform of stone, and commands a splendid prospect, is that its tiny
peribolus, or sacred enclosure, was surrounded by a parapet of stone
slabs covered with exquisite reliefs of winged Victories, in various
attitudes. Some of these slabs are now in the Museum of the Acropolis,
and are of great interest--apparently less severe than the school of
Phidias, and therefore later in date, but still of the best epoch, and
of marvelous grace. The position of this temple also is not parallel
with the Propylaea, but turned slightly outward, so that the light
strikes it at moments when the other building is not illuminated. At the
opposite side is a very well-preserved chamber, and a fine colonnade at
right angles with the gate, which looks like a guard-room. This is the
chamber commonly called the Pinacotheca, where Pausanias saw pictures or
frescoes by Polygnotus.

A WINTER IN ATHENS HALF A CENTURY AGO[43]

BY BAYARD TAYLOR

Our sitting-room fronted the south (with a view of the Acropolis