p with solid brickwork,
batteries were erected on the spot occupied by the Temple of 'Victory
without wings,' and on the square which answered to it on the opposite
side of the flight of marble steps; the whole of which were deeply
buried (not until they had severely suffered), beneath the ruins of the
fortification which crumbled away under the Venetian guns. These walls
have been removed, the batteries destroyed, and the material of which
they were composed taken away; the steps exhumed, and the five grand
entrances, by which the fortress was originally entered, opened,
although not yet rendered passable. It would be, I imagine, impossible
to conceive an approach more magnificent than this must have been. The
whole is on such a superb scale, the design, in its union of simplicity
and grandeur is so perfect, the material so exquisite, and the view
which one has from it of the Parthenon and the Erechtheum so beautiful,
that no interest less intense than that which belongs to these temples
would be sufficient to entice the stranger from its contemplation."

[Illustration: THE PARTHENON.]

On the right wing of the Propylaea stood the temple of Victory, and on
the left was a building decorated with paintings by the pencil of
Polygnotus, of which Pausanias has left us an account. In a part of the
wall still remaining there are fragments of excellent designs in
basso-relievo, representing the combat of the Athenians with the
Amazons; besides six columns, white as snow, and of the finest
architecture. Near the Propylaea stood the celebrated colossal statue of
Minerva, executed by Phidias after the battle of Marathon, the height of
which, including the pedestal, was sixty feet.

The chief glory of the Acropolis was the Parthenon, or temple of
Minerva. It was a peripteral octostyle, of the Doric order, with
seventeen columns on the sides, each six feet two inches in diameter at
the base, and thirty-four feet in height, elevated on three steps. Its
height, from the base of the pediments, was sixty-five feet, and the
dimensions of the area two hundred and thirty-three feet, by one hundred
and two. The eastern pediment was adorned with two groups of statues,
one of which represented the birth of Minerva, the other the contest of
Minerva with Neptune for the government of Athens. On the metopes was
sculptured the battle of the Centaurs with the Lapithae; and the frieze
contained a representation of the Panathenaic festivals. Icti