A_THEENS.*

THERE are few, if any, cities in the world which combine equally with Athens the varied attraction of striking scenery, historical interest, and glorious architecture; and we are thankful to Dr. Cor- rigan for reviving the recollections of our earlier tour by his pleasant narrative of Ten Days in "New.

The terms in which he praises the beauty of the position of the city are not exaggerated. The view from the Acropolis is one that no one who has seen it can forget; but the chief interest of Athens undoubtedly centres in the ruins of the ancient temples. The view in passing through the Agora must have been most striking when Athens was in her glory. The valley winds in a gentle curve, and on the right, as we approach from the west, is the Fnyx, on the left the Temple of Theseus and the Areopagus ; and in front the abrupt rock of the Acropolis, crowned with its many temples.

In front stands the Propylcea, a porch with two projecting wings. The central porch has six columns in front, and is three columns deep. It is closed at the back by a wall pierced with five gates, the largest in the centre. It is now a complete ruin ; the pediment has been thrown down, and only two of the columns remain standuig of their original height. The wing on the left is still standing, and was originally filled with paintings by Polygnotus. The one on the right was of smaller dimensions ; but the proper balance Was • Ten Daps in Athens, with Notes by the Way, in the Summer of 1861. By Dr. Corrigan. Longman.

preserved by placing in front of it the beautiful little temple of Nike Apteros. This wing has been pulled down, and a huge Turkish tower, nearly as high as the Parthenon erected in its place. The great wall of the mediaeval fortification surrounds the Acropolis, and greatly injures the view. The Erectheum is nearly hidden by it, as one looks from below. A grand flight of steps, seventy feet across, leads up to the Propylaea. It is doubtful, however, whether the steps extended all the way across ; an inclined plane was, perhaps, left in the centre for dragging up the cars in the religious processions. The Propyleea was the building most admired by the Athenians them- selves, and excited most strongly the envy of their neighbours. When Epaminonidas would rouse the Thebans against Athens, he exclaimed "0, men of Thebes, you must uproot the Propylaea of the Athenian Acropolis, and plant them in front of the Cadmeian citadel.

On passing through the Propylaea, one comes upon a large open space, with the ruins of the Parthenon on the right, and further on, on the left, the rains of the Erectheum, an exquisite temple in the Ionic style. Attached to its southern side is the beautiful shrine with the Caryatides, made familiar and vulgar to English eyes by the hideous excrescences on St. Pancras Church.

As to the buildings themselves, we gladly accept the testimony of Dr. Corrigan to their wondrous beauty. "I used to think the Gothic the finest of all styles, but a few hours, almost a few moments, gazinc'" (spent in gazing we suppose) on "the Parthenon and the Temple of Theseus, have placed now in my mind the chaste sim- plicity and beautiful proportions of the Greek style above all others." Those who have seen only the modern imitations of the Greek Tem- ples, such as the Madeleine at Paris, must, we fancy, share the con- clusion we had ourselves come to before our visit to Athens, that the beauty of Greek architecture had been much exaggerated.

But it is not. The Greeks, it is true, attempted but little, but that little they did perfectly. The first glance at the Parthenon scatters all sceptical doubts and justifies all the praise bestowed upon the building. Unbelievers will suggest that the conversion is owing not to the beauty of the architecture, but to the influence of the place ; but the exquisite nicety of the work is a matter of demon- stration. English architects may well stand aghast when they hear Mr. Penrose speculating on a difference of .023 of an inch between the east and west end of the Parthenon, and accounting for it by the contraction of the wooden rule (such as he had observed in his own measurements) in the course of the day when the sett was marked out. It would be absurd in our Gothic buildings or in the Roman temples, which are but clumsy imitations of the Greek, to attempt measurements to the thousandth part of a foot ; but this can be done, and done satisfactorily, in temples built at the best period of Greek art.

The material in which they worked was one that admitted of this mar- vellous accuracy. Marble is well knownto be one of the least expansible of substances. The Royal Society of Edinburgh, in their experi- ments for the purpose of finding the best material for a pendulum fixed upon a kind of blank marble, which was found to expand only Tivr of its length between the freezing and boiling points, just + of the expansion of iron. The expansion of Carrara marble was found to be -isYlc. The marble of Pentelicus is not so soft as the Parian which was used principally for statues, but it is admirably suited for building purposes. When exposed to the action of the atmosphere, it assumes the most exquisite tints, and the hues of the Parthenon vary from the richest brown and almost orange to the purest white. The accuracy we have spoken of is visible throughout the building. The lines of the side and front are not straight but carefully graduated curves ; the rise is three inches in the end, and four in the side of the building. The reason of these curves is this : A long line in a build- ing, when viewed from a distance, if perfectly straight appears to sink ix the centre. Any one may notice this for himself in the western facade of St. Paul's. To remedy this optical illusion the Greeks raised the centre. Although the principle is indicated in Vitruvius, it was, we believe, unknown to modern architects until re-discovered by M. Penrose in 1837. (The learned author who has so lately com- pleted the history of Greece was in Paris when the discovery was made known to him ; and taking an architectural friend with him to the Madeleine, he endeavoured to persuade him that the sinking observable in the pediment had been caused by the shock of an earth- quake. The architect was not taken in by the supposed cause, but he acknowledged the fact. "That was what they called the settle- ment of the building.") On the same principle every column is curved that it may appear straight ; and not only so, but every column leans slightly inwards. The corner columns have to meet the slope of the two sides, and -every column has its own special direction, so that each block of each column had to be cut for its own place. Once more, the abacus varies in the different parts of the building. The largest are those at the east front, which are exactly -bs of the breadth of the entire building; the smallest are those on the south side and west front ; while those on the north flank are of various sizes, and decrease from east to west. It was the tendency of the Greek Doric to lessen the spread of the archaic capital; and as the capitals seem to project farther when one stands immediately beneath them, they were reduced to the smallest size on the south and west where the Parthenon approaches closely to the edge of the Acropolis. On the east, where there was a large open space, they were out of the normal size, and on the north they were varied so as to suit the inequalities of the ground.

Such accuracy and refinement as this is never attempted by our architects ; and whether the Greeks could have succeeded in apply- ing these principles to larger buildings is an open question. Their glorious climate spared them the necessity of erecting them. But they have succeeded in applying them to the temples they did erect. Their success is complete. The eye rests with perfect satisfactica on the outlines of the Parthenon, and acknowledges a perfection un- known to the more ambitious buildings of Rome, and the more glorious creations of our Gothic architecture.

The details of the Temple of Theseus are said by some who have had the opportunity of inspecting them narrowly to be even more exquisitely perfect than those of the Parthenon. The eye that can detect faults in the Parthenon must be wonderfully acute. It is a marvel, however, that such perfection should have been attained in so short a period, and under such disadvantages. The Parthenon was erected in about seven years, and the Propylma begun and finished in five; and at the same time other great works were going on in other parts of Greece: the temple of Eleuses was being built near Athens. Phidias himself was employed during the time of the erection of the Propylaea, at Elis, on his great statue of Zeus, and, during the whole period, Praxias, with a number of Athenian artists of the archaic school, were employed in decorating the temple at Delphi. That was a marvellous period of intellectual activity. Greece had just been freed from the terror of Persian invasion, and had not begun to waste her strength in internal strife. The rapidity with which churches have been multiplied within the last few years- in our own country can give but an inadequate idea of the manner in which sumptuous temples and statues of the gods were erected in the different cities of Greece.

Another suggestion will help to bear out what we have said as to the perfection of Greek art. The sculptural ornaments of the Parthenon are the parts best known, and on which its fame has been

made chiefly to rest. The broken sculptures from the pediment were brought to England by Lord Elgin, and placed by him in the British

Museum. The Greeks call him a thief and a robber; and many will, perhaps, think hardly of him till they go to Athens, and see what inevitable destruction (but for his robbery) awaited these precious remnants of ancient art.

We assent to the universal verdict as to the excellence of these sculptures, and claim them as ornaments worthy, but not wore than worthy, of the building on which they were placed. And let it be remembered that these most perfect specimens of the art of sculp- ture are the work of unknown artists. Phidias was the general overseer of all the public works at Athens in the time of Pericles, and had under his orders, as Plutarch informs us, rigroves rXatrrat, xaAnori.nroe LOovp-yol gaiiheir xpvanv paAaacriper elieparres ewypckfrog yrosraraz rope:mit. Under his direction were employed Ictinus and Callicrates, the architects of the Parthenon; Maiesicles, the architect of the Propylaea; Corarbus, who began the Temple of Eleusis, and others. He probably designed the sculptures of the Parthenon, but he could have done no more. While the Parthenon was building he was fully engaged on his great gold and ivory statue of Athene, besides other statues, such as the colossal bronze statue of Athene Promachus, which stood between the Propylaea and the Parthenon, whose crest and spear could be seen afar off from the ships as they rounded Sunaim. It was standing as late as

A.D. 395, when it was seen by Alaric. We have, in fact, no first- class specimens of Greek sculpture remaining. The best are, as we

have seen, figures placed upon the pediment of a lofty build*„ never intended for close inspection, and executed by unknown artists. There happen, indeed, to be gems of art, by Canova, on. the roof of Milan Cathedral, but that is hardly a parallel case. No one would take the figures on the pediment of the Royal Exchange as specimens of the finish of which English artists are capable. Besides, we have but such statues as the Venus de Medici, a work in the decline of Greek art by a third-rate artist, Cleomenes, in imitation of the famous Cnidian "Venus by Praxiteles. None of the statues have come down to us at which the ancients themselves wondered.

Before we quit the Acropolis we must remark that exquisite refinement has also been shown in the relative positions of the temples. No two buildings on the Acropolis are exactly parallel, except the Propylaea and the Parthenon, which are, as it were, parts of the same design. By this means the Greeks obtained a play of light and shade otherwise wanting to their simple architecture. Thus the temple of Nike Apteros remains in shade, after the Par- thenon has been lighted up by the glow of the setting sun. The works of nature are seldom absolutely symmetrical, and their great charm is produced by the union of the general symmetry with infinite variety of detail. A like charm has been achieved by the Greeks, in their architecture by an almost endless succession of varied but accurate proportions. Our author's tour embraces but little more of Greece than Athens itself. His work is very slight as to its materials, and shows even less classical information than might have been expected from au. educated man writing about Athens ; but it is Written in a kind/y, cheerful tone, and is marked by a habit of observation not uncommon. among members of the medical profession.

The summer is now fast approaching—the time of the annual migration of English tourists. People are already debating on the direction of their journey, trying to decide between the rival attrac- tions of the Alps and the Pyrenees—Norway and the Tyrol. Dr. Corrigan has shown that Athens is not out of the reach of the ordinary summer traveller; and his book will have done good if it induces some to attempt a bolder flight than they have perhaps before attempted, and to determine to stand this summer on the Acropolis of Athens, and judge for themselves of the beauty of the Parthenon,