trates, warriors, deities, &c., forming altogether a series of most
interesting figures in great variety of costume, armor, and attitude.

From the Opisthodomus of the Parthenon, Lord Elgin also procured some
valuable inscriptions, written in the manner called Kionedon or
columnar. The subjects of these monuments are public decrees of the
people, accounts of the riches contained in the treasury, and delivered
by the administrators to their successors in office, enumerations of the
statues, the silver, gold, and precious stones, deposited in the temple,
estimates for public works, &c.

ODEON, OR ODEUM.

The first Odeon, ([Greek: odeion], from [Greek: ode], a song), was built
by Pericles at Athens. It was constructed on different principles from
the theatre, being of an eliptical form, and roofed to preserve the
harmony and increase the force of musical sounds. The building was
devoted to poetical and musical contests and exhibitions. It was injured
in the siege of Sylla, but was subsequently repaired by Ariobarzanes
Philopator, king of Cappadocia. At a later period, two others were built
at Athens by Pausanias and Herodes Atticus, and other Greek cities
followed their example. The first Odeon at Rome was built in the time of
the emperors; Domitian erected one, and Trajan another. The Romans
likewise constructed them in several provincial cities, the ruins of one
of which are still seen at Catanea, in Sicily.

PERPETUAL LAMPS.

According to Pausanias, Callimachus made a golden lamp for the Temple of
Minerva at Athens, with a wick composed of asbestos, which burned day
and night for a year without trimming or replenishing with oil. If this
was true, the font of the lamp must have been large enough to have
contained a year's supply of oil; for, though some profess that the
economical inventions of the ancients have been forgotten, the least
knowledge in chemistry proves that oil in burning must be consumed. The
perpetual lamps, so much celebrated among the learned of former times,
said to have been found burning after many centuries, on opening tombs,
are nothing more than fables, arising perhaps from phosphorescent
appearances, caused by decomposition in confined places, which vanished
as soon as fresh air was admitted. Such phenomena have frequently been
observed in opening sepulchres.

THE SKULL OF RAFFAELLE.

Is preserved as an object of great veneration in the Academy of St.
Luke, which the students visit