ropolis, each
consisting of a front of six fluted Doric columns. This central part
of the building was 58 feet in breadth, but the remaining breadth of
the rock at this point was covered by two wings, which projected 26
feet in front of the western portico. Each of these wings was in the
form of a Doric temple. The northern one, or that on the left of a
person ascending the Acropolis, was called the PINACOTHECA, from its
walls being covered with paintings. The southern wing consisted only
of a porch or open gallery. Immediately before its western front stood
the little temple of Nike Apteros already mentioned.

On passing through the Propylaea all the glories of the Acropolis
became visible. The chief building was the Parthenon (I.E. House of
the Virgin), the most perfect production of Grecian architecture. It
derived its name from its being the temple of Athena Parthenos, or
Athena the Virgin, the invincible goddess of war. It was also called
HECATOMPEDON, from its breadth of 100 feet. It was built under the
administration of Pericles, and was completed in B.C. 438. The
Parthenon stood on the highest part of the Acropolis near its centre,
and probably occupied the site of an earlier temple destroyed by the
Persians. It was entirely of Pentelic marble, on a rustic basement of
ordinary limestone, and its architecture, which was of the Doric order,
was of the purest kind. Its dimensions were about 228 feet in length,
101 feet in breadth, and 66 feet in height to the top of the pediment.
It consisted of a cella, surrounded by a peristyle. The cella was
divided into two chambers of unequal size, the eastern one of which was
about 98 feet long, and the western one about 43 feet. The ceiling of
both these chambers was supported by rows of columns. The whole
building was adorned with the most exquisite sculptures, executed by
various artists under the direction of Phidias. These consisted of,
1. The sculptures in the tympana of the pediments (I.E. the inner
portion of the triangular gable ends of the roof above the two
porticoes), each of which was filled with about 24 colossal figures.
The group in the eastern or principal front represented the birth of
Athena from the head of Zeus, and the western the contest between
Athena and Poseidon (Neptune) for the land of Attica. 2. The metopes
between the triglyphs in the frieze of the entablature (I.E. the upper
of the two portions into which the space between the co