rtanéum. A large area, in which it:ftands, <was inclofed.with a
wall, having the fourth fide or-Front decorated with.columns.
O f *this a confiderable portion is entire, but much encumbered,
and .concealed by houfès, magazines, and ihops. I f is publifhed
in The Ruins o f Athens. The effeét, in its prefen t condition, is
fo ftriking, that it was long miftaken for the temple of Jupiter
Olympius ; but its magnificence, as has been: juftly.remarked,
; is pf d^fober. ftyle, ihowing the ceconomy of a republic rather
than the profufion of an Afiatic king or Roman emperor.
THE; confeerated ftruftures, which embellifhed the ftreet called
The Tripods, were probably noted for the offerings placed on
them even more than for their own beauty. A fabric defigned
only to diïplay a tripod did not admit of great dimenfions. The
choragic monument o f Lyficrates, which is yet extant, near the
eaftern end of . the hill o f the Acropolis^ is but a .fmall edifice,
though exquifitely elegant. It may be feen, as in its original
ftate, in The Ruins o f Athens. The number e^thefe Tibri|s
was confiderable, but that is the only one undemolifhed. $ During
our refidence at the French convent, it ferved as 'a dofet'for a
Greek, the fervant of the Capuchin, to deep in. The Tripods
; were of brafs and very valuable for their workmanfhip. There
was the Satyr, which Praxiteles efteemed his mafter-piece i and on
a cell or dome near it was a Satyr,' a boy, giving, a,cup. fo Bacchus.
It may appear no improbable conjedture that the monument
of Lyficrates was intended to fupport the feeoiid Tripod, for an
analogy may be difeovered between its fubjedt and thé fculpture
on the freeze ' j a s at the monument o f Thrafyllus|iabpfefethe
theatre of Bacchus, between ? the ftpry «tijg the Timed and * a
i flatue o f: Niobe.
T he deftrudtion of the ftreet called the Tripads may. juftly be
regretted, as the monuments it contained were eredted by eminent
perfons, and at an aera when arts and thé republic flou-»
? See Ruins of Athens, PI. X, XI, XXVI. PhiloftratUS ha3 'defcrihej' a
picture, in which the transformation of the Pirates was repréfented, p. 761.
rifhed.
rifhedjj I f ftill extant, even their antiquity would deferve
refpedt. The monument of Lyficrates, which remains, was
conftrudted three hundred an$ thirty years before Chrift. _ Thra-
•fyllus was vidtorióus onl'y *ten:years after. I copied the infcrip-
tion of one eredted before the introdudioq of the Ionic alphabet,
which confifted;of twenty four letters, from a marble m
the houfe of an Albanian woman near the ConVent. In „this the
common formulary is not completed, for thfe name of thearchon,
under whom the Tripod was‘obtained, fe - omitted^ though the
ftöne-is in1 good prefervation and room was n ó f wanting. is
circumftance enables us to afeertain the d^te the firft year of
thd-rcivth Olympiad1, which the Athenians ftyled the year of
ana rchyF tóV fe th‘e aTchonV'not' being duly eredted, Was dif-
ownedbythem. Euclid fucceededTn, f lo w in g year,- and
the Attic alphabet, which had only fixteerf letters, prevailed
until after his archonfhip.. The inscription o f another was
found on a« ftone atthe'mduth o f ad oyen. It is imperfedt, but
very olef, the letters in rows and ranging at equal diftances. On
a\E?oric architrave over the gate o f the Bazar or market, near
the ruin of the Prytanéum,~is the infeription of one eredted a
year or two before that of Thrafyllus ; and. at the Catholicon or
Cathedral is the infeription'of one more early than that of
Lyficrates by ten years. Another infeription, which We did not
feel is" publifhed by Spon, and refers to the firft year of the
c x in th 'Olympiad1. Themïfto'cles and! Ariftides dedicated
Tripods with fimilar inferiptions, cited,1 but impierfedtly, by
Plhtarch. Thefe were in Attic charadtërs. The choragic
monument of Ariftides, with the infcripti&i and Tripods,
remained, when Plutarch wrote j as did alfo that of the famous
Nicias. Another belonged to Lyfias, who, in an oration , ftill
extant, relates, that when Glaucjppus' was archotf 3! he provided
a chorus of men for the Dionyfia, and gained the vidlory*;
and that he expended on the chorus and the confecratipA of his
* Before Chrift, 402. 1 Before Chrift, 426.
O 2
3 Before Chrift, 408.
Tripod