the right wing is vifible. On the right hand, within the
gate, is the way into the area, which was fown with wheat j as
was alfo the circular fweep of the hill on which the feats once
ranged. In the wall of the profcenium on this fide is a fmah
niche or Cavity, with a low entrance. The Dervifhes have a
teckeb or place o f worlhip above, with a room, in which the
bow-firing^ when a Turk is fentenced t© he firangled, is commonly
adminiftcred. A way leads from that part, within the
out-work, to a door at the end next the theatre of Bacchus, and
in that line Paufanias appears to have afcended to the front of
the acropolis. Going on from the Odeum, without turning,
you defcend among Turkifli fepulchres, and by the burying-
grounds, into the vale at the foot of the hill.
C H A P. m i .
O f the areopagus tribunal when eK tin S l-.^ ^ piyx--~
I Account o f pnyx,
IN the preceding chapter we have mentioned the hill of the
areopagus, This place is deferibed by Paufanias as oppofite to
the cave o f Apollo and Pan. In Lucian, Mercury, arriving at
Athens with Juftice, who is feat by Jupiter*© hold a court on
areopagus, bids her fit down on the hill, looking toward pnyx,
While he mounts up to the acropolis and makes proclamation for
all perfons concerned to appear before her. Juftice defires to be
informed, before he goes, who it was ihe beheld approaching
them, with horns on his-head, hairy legs, and a paftoral pipe
in his hand. Mercury relates the ftory of Pan, arid ihowing
her the cave, his dwelling, tells her, that feeing them from it,
not far off, he was coming, it was likely, to receive them. The
hill before noted is proved to have been that Of the areopagus
b r ^ m tm ^ b oth^ ixh re^m to the caye and to'priyx, o f
•which place we fhall treat next. It is afcended byfieps cut in
■' * . v;i \ ■ > the
T R A V E L S ï n 6 R E È C É . 67
the rock, and by it, on the fide next to the temple of Thefeus,
is a imail church of St. Dionyfins, near one mined and a well
now choked up, in which, they tell you, St. Paul on feme
occafion was hid.' The upper council of Athens affembled in the
areopagus, and a writer of the Auguftan age has recorded the
clay-roof of the fenate-houfe there as very aptieét and ftill
edrifiingv Paoferiias informs us, that he law on'the fide next
the atööpölisv within the inélofiafê or wall, a monument and
altar of CEdipus, and, after much enquiry, found that his hones
had been removed thither from-Thebes.
T ub areopagus' was tong the feat Or a moft ferious, filenf,
felemu, and impartial tribunal. The eri# df this court Of
Judicature ais obfeure as its origin, which Was derived from
very rtnldtfe aTatiquity. It -exifted, with the other migifiracies,
in the time o f Paufanias. The term of, its fubfequent duration
is not afeertalned but a writer, who hived under the emperors
"Theodafius the elder and younger, mentions it as extinct. The
anions for murther were introduced by thè archon called the
king, who laying afide his crown, which was o f myrtle, voted
as # common member j and thefe caefes were ufiially tried in
the open ah?, that the criminal and his seeufer might not be under
the fame roof. It was the bufinefs o f a herald to deliver a
wand tfcf each of the judges*,
W e have taken notice more than once of a valley between
the hiM‘ of the acropolis and LycabettusL That region of the
antient city was called Ccele er T’he‘hollow. By the fide of the
mountain,- beyond the way formerly called through Ccele,
nearly oppofite to the rock o f the areopagus, is a large, naked,
femieireular area or terrace fiipported by fiones of a'-vaft fize, the
fades * cut into- fquares. A track leadsto* it Between the areopa*-
gus and the temple o f Thefeus. As you* afeend to the brow,
fopie fmall channels occur, „cut perhaps to receive libations.
The defcent into the area' rs by hewn fteps, and the rock within
is finoothed down perpendicularly in front, extending to the
K 2 : fides,