avation; the buried base of this
tripartite temple has been cleared; the walls, which had been built to
make it habitable, have been removed; the abducted Caryatid replaced by
a modern copy, the gift of Lord Guildford, and the whole prepared for a
projected restoration.

The Temple of Victory without wings, already mentioned is, with the
exception of the pavement, entirely a restoration; for nearly two
centuries all trace of it was lost, all mention omitted. In removing one
of the Turkish batteries, in order to clear the entrance to the
Propylaea, some fragments were found which led to a more minute
investigation; and, after a short time, the foundation, the pavement,
and even the bases of some of the columns were disinterred, making its
reconstruction not only very easy, but extremely satisfactory. It is
small, but of exquisite proportions, and now perfect, with the exception
of a portion of the frieze, which is in the British Museum. A
peculiarity of this temple is, that it stands at an angle slightly
differing from that of the Propylaea itself,--a fact for which, as it
clearly formed one of the chief ornaments to, and was certainly built
after, this noble portico, it is difficult to assign any very good
reason.

Such is an outline of the chief buildings of the Acropolis, which, in
its best days, had four distinct characters: being at once the fortress,
the sacred inclosure, the treasury, and the museum of art, of the
Athenian nation. It was an entire offering to the deity, unrivalled in
richness and splendor; it was the peerless gem of Greece, the glory and
the pride of genius, the wonder and envy of the world.

Beneath the southern wall of the Acropolis, near its extremity, was
situated the Athenian or Dionysiac theatre. Its seats, rising one above
another, were cut of the sloping rock. Of these, only the two highest
rows are now visible, the rest being concealed by an accumulation of
soil, the removal of which would probably bring to light the whole shell
of the theatre. Plato affirms it was capable of containing thirty
thousand persons. It contained statues of all the great tragic and comic
poets, the most conspicuous of which were naturally those of AEschylus,
Sophocles, and Euripides, among the former, and those of Aristophanes
and Menander among the latter. On the southwest side of the Acropolis is
the site of the Odeum, or musical theatre of Herodes Atticus, named by
him the theatre of Regilla, in honor of