T he marble of Pentele was efteemed both by the ftatuary
and architect. Athens owed many of i t s . fplendid edifices to
the vicinity o f that mountain andof Hymettus, where alfo is a
quarry in view from the town. After its decline, the ruins
fur-nifhed plenty of materials for fuch buildings as were wanted.
The lpwgf quarry has, within the month, fome ruined chapels,
the walls painted with portraits of faints. Without it, high up,
is a fmall fquare building or room, with a window, proj edting
from the fteep fide of the rock, which has been cut down perpendicularly,
except a narrow ridge refembling a buttrefs* This
i&^cqyered with thick apd. antient ivy, and t^minaiga fôm# feet
bp]ow, lpjavlgg the p^ e ,ip^ ^ ffib le w^Agpt a ladder, whichi
it is likely, was placed there and Ôccauonalïy removed. I fliould,
fuppofe it the cell, of fome hermit, but it feem^ to have been
planned apd ereâef, when the quarry, was- worked. • It? was
dçfigned, perhaps feu, a centineh «p- look out and regulate by
lignais the approach of the men and teams employed in copyey-
fiîg marble to the city.
W e defeended by a very bad tfaek to the* monaftery?- o f
Pentele, a large( and: ordinary edifoe, with , the, church in the.
middle of the ^quadrangle. The monks here were fiimmoned to
prayers by a tpne, which is .p% « f opu'piece o f iron haop,'firife.
pended. They are numorotts,. but were, nowidilperfedy' having'
each his jîartiépJarj pynyiyiieoj opeupatiQB. Twjas'conrteoufly
re^ei|^ by£the fepfe who were residents andvènfhyed there; thé:
lqxpry pf lhade, updpr fome trees ,by aidlear ftream,. with good
vSpç-, ; water, apdi provifions, î%îQa^e^w:asfpreadi>in the area
o f l,t^ quadrangle^ near agaterway, unden which; we. flop#' at
night, I enquired for the manuferipts,. which: were Ihown to
Sir Geppge Wheler. in .1676, but found; no perfon who had
knowlegefpf them. The monaftery is '-.eùfin Oft the moft capital
i^IsF^Sli-ijp d’SaiMBft. a opnfiderable resttaue^ from j bees, j iheep,«
goats, and pattli?,. arable l^d>.vitteyard5,iaad-.oliveitrees. The ,
protection
l 7l
protedion of the Porte is purchased yearly, as the euftom is,
and at a price not inferior to its ability.
T he next evening we defeended from Pentele into the plain,
and pafled by Callandri, -a, village among olive-trees, to Angeles
kipos o r ' Angele-gardem.: This place is frequented in fummer
by the Greeks of Athens, who have their houfes fituated in a
wood^of olives, o f cyprelfes/and’' o f orange and lemon-trees,
with Tnravards intermixed. The old name *. *
it is related1, the people of Pallene would not intermarry with
fhe inhabitants becau.fe- of fome treachery, which they, had experienced
io the time o f Thefeus. We rode- on, leaving the
feid ‘to IliilltilBW.-gJt! BR B§P! SRPWt »
Anchefmus on our right, came near a monjfterv called Hagios.
A fomsftos, Handing among olive-trees’ not far from the junction
of the two rivers, the Eridanus and Iliflus. The place, where
water is co llected to be conveyed in chanels to the town, is at
From the monafiefy of Pentele to .Athens i |
reckoned a journey o f two hours.
• T h e 'old Athenians fanCtified even their mountains. Minerya
had a ftatue at Pentele j Jupiter, on Anchefmus, which is.
mentioned as not a large mountain j and alfo on Hymettus, and
on Parries/ The latter’ Was; 9 ^ W ^ iettus ^®re-
altars fikpwiife/ o f the 'Jupiter, and. of Apollo the frefa^
gen -, and on Parnes was an altar of* Juf**erjfMMW??.*
one oU which they facrificed to him under different titles, fityling
M B B B B P W I W M l i i w
^^ c/tizen kas equalled, i f 'not furpatfed, the piety of his heathen
predeceffor, and has fcattered churches and convents over the
whole1 country.' They occur in the fields, and olive-groves, in
the nooks and the recedes of the mountains.
i Whelerj p. 450»