ATHENS, the capital of the ancient Attica, is said to have been founded by Cecrops, about 1550 B.C., and staled Cecropia; but even the ancients themselves doubted this tradition. Equally uncertain is the story that it was first styled A., in honor of Athene, during the reign of Erichthonius. The ancient citadel was situated on the top of a square craggy rock, 150 ft. high, with a flat summit, 1000 ft. long, and 500 broad. Gradually, as population increased, A. extended itself over the wide and beautiful plain below. This increase is said to have been occasioned by the organization of the 12 Attic tribes into a political confederacy or union by Theseus, the brightest figure that shines through the " dark ages" of Attic history. The position of A. near the gulf of Saronica, opposite the eastern coast of the Peloponnesus, was favorable to the acquire ment of naval power. The city, which was distant 4 or 5 m. from the sea, pos sessed three harbors, all situated on the s.w., and connected with it by walls. The oldest of these harbors was Phalerum. It was also the nearest to the city, and accessible at all times by a dry road. The Peirieus was first used as a harbor by Themistocles. Munychia, was the acropolis of the whole rocky peninsula termed the Peirtens, and of immense importance strategically. The two last harbors were connected with the city by the famous "long walls," of which we read so much in Athenian history. They were 40 stadia, or nearly 5 m., in length. Two streams flowed in the vicinity of A.; on the e. side, the Ilissus, which also washed the southern part of the city; and on the w., the Cephisus, about a mile and a half' beyond the walls. To the w. lay Salamis, with Eleusis on the n.w., Phylie and Decelea on the n., 31ara1hon on the n.e., and Hymettus on the s. All along the coast rose splendid buildings.
The whole of the magnificent prospect was crowned by the acropolis, where all the most glorious monuments of A. were assembled. First rose the parthenon (q.v.), or temple of Minerva, a pile which even now, after the lapse of centuries, remains among the wonders of the world. The propyhea, all built of white marble, formed the entrance to the parthenon. Close to it, on the n. side of the acropolis, rose the erechtheium, the most venerated of all Athenian sanctuaries, and connected with the oldest religious history of the city. The whole of it destroyed by the Persians, but was restored during the Peloponnesian war. Its ruins still exist, and allow us to form a very comet idea of its external form and structure. In some points, it differed from all other
examples of Greek temples. But it would be tedious and unprofitable to mention in detail all those magnificent buildings which were the glory of ancient Athens. It is sufficient to say that gods were never more superbly honored in any land. That enthusiastic love of the beautiful which animated the Athenians, turning their religion into an art, and making worship an education in testhetics, is nowhere so clearly visible as in their religious architecture. Their mythological faith stood daily before their eyes in monumental splendor, for almost every deity had his temple or shrine in the city. Two of the finest buildins—the temple of Theseus, and that of Jupiter Olympus —were on the outside of the city; the first to the n.w., the second to the s. The former was both a temple and a tomb, inasmuch as it held the remains of Theseus himself. It was built about 465 n.c., and was therefore older than the parthenon. It had the privilege of an asylum for slaves, and the large space of ground which it inclosed was frequently used as a muster-ground for the Athenian soldiery. It was built of the favorite Pentelic marble, in the dorie style of architecture, and is the best preserved of all the monuments of ancient Athens. For centuries it was a Christian church, appropriately enough dedicated to St. George, the chivalrous hero of the " dark ages" of Christianity. as Theseus had been of the "dark ages" of Attic history; but is now the national museum of the city. The temple of Jupiter, of which 16 grand Corinthian columns are still extant, to the s.e. of the acropolis, and near the right bank of the Ilissus, in size, splendor, and beauty excelled all other Athenian structures. Immense sums of money were expended upon it from the time when it was commenced by Peisistratus, until it was completed by Hadrian, a period of 700 years. The build ing of it was frequently suspended, so that Philostratus calls it " a struggle with time." At the time the Persians sacked the city, it was fortunately only beginning to be built, and so escaped destruction. Aristotle speaks of it as a work of despotid grandeur, and equal to the pyramids of Egypt. The exterior was decorated by about 120 fluted col umns, 61 ft. in height, and more than 6 ft. in diameter. It was 354 ft. long, and 171 broad, and contained the celebrated statue of the Olympian Jupiter in ivory and gold, the work of Phidias.