Re FXO @velah sie | Re nd Archi —— Fi = ~ aN ithic Erato the Present JEFFREY M. HURWITPUBLISHED BY THE PRESS SYNDICATE OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE The Pitt Building, Trumpington Street, Cambridge ca2 irr, United Kingdom CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS The Edinburgh Building, Cambridge ce2 2xu, UK http: / / www.cup.cam.ac.uk 40 West 20th Street, New York, NY 10011-4211, USA http: / /www.cup.org 10 Stamford Road, Oakleigh, Melbourne 3166, Australia © Jeffrey M. Hurwit 1999 This book is in copyright. Subject to statutory exception and to the provisions of relevant collective licensing agreements, no reproduction of any part may take place without the written permission of Cambridge University Press. First published 1999 Printed in the United States of America Typeset in Palatino and Avant Garde in QuarkXPress [BA] A catalog record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Hurwit, jeffrey M., 1949- The Athenian Acropolis : history, mvthology, and archaeology from the Neolithic era to the present / Jeffrey M. Hurwit. p.cm, Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0-521-41786-4 (hb) 1. Acropolis (Athens, Greece) = Influence. 2. Athens (Greece) - Civilization, 3. Historic monuments - Greece - Athens - Conservation and restoration. 4. Excavations (Archaeology) - Greece - Athens. L Title DF287.A2H87 1998 98-3713 938.5 - de? cir ISBN 0-521 -41786-4 (hardback)CONTENTS List of Il . List of Plates Acknowledgments Abbreviati PROLOGUE Chapter One Chapter One The Rock Chapter Two The Goddess Chapter Three The Acropolis in Athenian Life and Literature THE NARRATIVE Chapter Four The Strong House of Erechtheus: The Acropolis in the Bronze Age Chapter Five Sanctuary and Citadel: The Character of the Acropolis, 1065-600 Chapter Six Tyranny, Democracy, and the Archaic Acropolis, 600-480 Chapter Seven The Early Classical Acropolis, 479-450 Chapter Eight A Guide to the High Classical Acropolis, 450-400 xiii xiv xv 67CONTENTS Chapter Nine The Parthenon Frieze, Nike, and Thematic Unity on the Classical Acropolis Chapter Ten Pandora and the Athena Parthenos: Myth, Gender, and Patriarchy on the Classical Acropolis Chapter Eleven Reflections Upon the Golden Age: The Late Classical Acropolis, 400-322 Chapter Twelve The Hellenistic and Roman Acropolis Chapter Thirteen The End of the Ancient Acropolis EPILOGUE Chapter Fourteen Restoration APPENDICES Appendix A Pausanias's Description of the Acropolis Appendix B Plutarch on the Periklean Building Program Appendix C Catalogue of the Major Monuments of the Classical Acropolis Appendix D Chronological Table Notes Works Cited Index viil 235 246 261 291 310 313 327 [3Fig. 1. Fig. 2. Fig. 3. Fig. 4. Fig. 5. Fig. 6. Fig. 7. Fig. 8. Fig. 9 Fig. 10. Fig. 11. Fig. 12, Fig. 13. Fig. 14. Fig. 15. Fig. 16 Fig. 17. Fig. 18. Fig. 19. Fig. 20. Fig. 21. Fig. 22. Fig. 23. Fig. 24. Fig. 25. Fig. 26. LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS Map of Attica. 5 Map of Athens. 6 Plan of the Acropolis. 7 View of Acropolis from southwest. 8 a. Section through the hills of Athens. b. Section through Acropolis. 9 View of Acropolis limestone, south slope. 9 Northwest slope of Acropolis. 10 Grotto on east slope (“Cave of Aglauros”?), 10 Monument of Thrasyllos (320/19), above Theater of Dionysos. 11 Gold Ring from Mycenae, c. 1500. 13 “Shield Goddess” on painted tablet from Mycenae. 13 Fresco fragment with helmeted goddess holding griffin, from Mycenae. 14 Relief, Athena receives offering from crafts- man (Acropolis 577). 16 Red-figure cup by Euergides Painter (Acrop- olis 166). 16 Athena fashioning horse (Berlin F 2415). 17 a. Eleusis Amphora by Polyphemos Painter. b. Drawing of Athena on Eleusis amphora. 19 Terracotta plaque (Athena Ergane ?) (Acropo- lis 13055). 20 Terracotta seated figurine of Athena (Acropo- lis 10895), 21 Euthydikos kore (Acropolis 686). 22 Bronze Palladion from Acropolis (NM 6457). 22 Pre-Periklean naiskos (little temple) preserved in north flank of Parthenon. 23 Athena Promakhos, dedicated by Meleso (NM 6447). 24 Burgon amphora (BM B 130), 24 Reconstruction of the Bronze Athena (Pro- makhos). 25 Varvakeion Athena (NM 129). 26 Lenormant Athena (NM 128). 26 Fig, 27. Fig. 28. Fig. 29. Fig. 30. Fig. 31. Fig. 32. Fig, 33. Fig. 34. Fig. 35. Fig. 36. Fig. 37. Fig. 38. Fig. 39. Fig. 40. Fig. 41. Fig. 42. Fig. 43. Fig. 44. Fig. 45. Fig. 46. Fig. 47, Peiraieus relief (Roman) excerpting scene from shield of Athena Parthenos. 27 Cast of “Athena Lemnia” in Oxford. 28 Angelitos’s Athena (Acropolis 140). 28 Handling of peplos, and Athena and Hephais- tos, east frieze of Parthenon, 29 Reconstructions of portion of Gigantomachy on fragmentary Black-figure dinos by Lydos (Acropolis 607). 31 Telesinos base (Acropolis 6505). 36 Remains of Temple of Aphrodite Pandemos. 41 Sanctuary of Aphrodite and Eros, north slope. 42 View of Acropolis, north slope. 43 Inventory of the Treasurers of Parthenon (EM 6788). 49 Cuttings in Acropolis bedrock for placement of stelai 51 So-called Hekatompedon Decree (EM 6794). 52 Document relief from Acropolis recording accounts of Treasurers of Athena in 410/9 (Louvre MA 831) 53 a. Proxeny decree honoring Philiskos of Ses- tos for services rendered to Athens (NM 1474). b. Detail showing horseman, Athena Parthenos, Philiskos. 53 Inventory of the treasures of Athena and the Other Gods for 398/7 (NM 1479). 54 Family sacrifice relief (Acropolis 581). 58 Scribe or treasurer (Acropolis 629). 59 Portrait of Perikles (Roman copy). 59 Small votive shield dedicated by Phrygia the Breadseller (NM 6837). 61 Potter's Relief (Acropolis 1332) by Endoios. 61 Neolithic figurine from area of Eleusinion, 5000-4000. (Agora Museum S$ 1097). 68Fig. 48. Fig. 49. Fig. 50. Fig. 51. Fig. 52. Fig. 53. Fig. 54. Fig. 55, Fig. 56, Fig. 57. Fig. 58. Fig. 59. Fig. 60. Fig, 61. Fig. 62. Fig. 63. Fig. 64. Fig. 65. Fig, 66, Fig. 67 Fig. 68. Fig.. 69. Fig. 70. Fig. 71. Fig. 72. LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS Plan of the Late Bronze Age (Mycenaean) Acropolis. 69 Fragment of stone vase carved in relief with scene of bull-jumping. 72 Ivory pyxis from Agora, 73 Blocks from retaining wall of Mycenaean palatial terrace. 74 Limestone column base, probably from Mycenaean palace. 745 Red-figure skyphos by Penelope Painter (Louvre G 372). 75 Stretch of Cyclopean fortification wall adja- cent to Classical Propylaia. 76 West elevation of early Nike bastion, with Mycenaean remains. 77 Tentative reconstruction of entrance to Myce- naean Acropolis. 77 Section of Mycenaean Fountain, north slope. 78 Mycenaean pictorial pottery from Acropolis. 80 Fragments of Late Geometric pottery from Acropolis. 86 Funerary amphora by Dipylon Master (Athens NM 804). 86 Protogeometric amphora (Kerameikos 1073). 89 Late 8th- and 7th-century potsherds and fragmentary plaque from Acropolis. 90 Stone inscription from Acropolis (EM 5365). 91 Bronze figurine from tripod dedicated on Acropolis (NM 6616). 92 Bronze minotaur from Acropolis (Athens NM 6678). 93 Bronze horse from Acropolis (Athens NM 6543). 93 Bronze sheet from wooden chest (7) (Athens NM 6963). 96 Marble lamp with the heads of women and rams (Acropolis 190). 97 Foot of vase by Nettos Painter (NM 16384). 97 Bronze disk with cut-out figure of Gorgon from early Temple of Athena Polias (7) (NM 13050). 98 Moschophoros (Acropolis 624). 103 Frontal four-horse chariot from votive or architectural eelief (Acropolis 575-80). 104 Fig. 73. Fig. 74. Fig. 75. Fig. 76. Fig. 77. Fig. 78. Fig. 7%. Fig, 80. Fig. 81, Fig. 82. Fig. 83. Fig. 84. Fig. 85. Fig. 86. Fig. 87. Fig. 88. Fig. 89. Fig. 90. Fig. 91. Fig. 92. Fig. 93. Fig. 94. Marble perirrhanterion (Acropolis 592). 104 Pomegranate kore (Acropolis 593). 105 Block from early 6th-century altar of Athena Nike. 106 Capitals from early 6th-century monumental temple (the so-called “Hekatompedon” or “Bluebeard temple”). 107 Reconstruction of corner of “Heka- tompedon.” 107 Gorgon relief (Acropolis 701). 108 Sculptures from angles of “Hekatompedon” pediment: Herakles and Sea-god (left) and “Bluebeard.” 108 Pedimental group of lioness savaging bull, “Hekatompedon” pediment. 109 Snake from angle of "Hekatompedon” pedi- ment. 110 Dérpfeld Foundations. 110 a. Reconstruction of mid-6th-century Acropolis, with “Bluebeard temple” on north site. b. Reconstruction of mid-6th century Acropo- lis, with “Bluebeard temple” on south (Parthenon) site. 111 Small-scale architecture from so-called Build- ing A. 112 Introduction Pediment (Acropolis 9). 113 A. Reconstruction of “east” pediment of Bluebeard temple according to W.-H. Schuchhardt. B. Reconstruction of “west” pediment of Bluebeard temple according to |. Beyer. 114 Olive-tree pediment (Acropolis 52). 114 The Lyons kore (Acropolis 269). 115 Hound, possibly from Sanctuary of Artemis (Acropolis 143), 118 The Rampin Rider (Acropolis 590). 118 The Peplos kore (Acropolis 679). 119 Sketch plan of area of Classical Agora, 500, 120 Plan of the Archaios Neos, last decade of 6th century. 122 Marble lion’s-head waterspout from Archatos Neos. 122 Relief of charioteer, possibly from lonic frieze of the Arciads Neos. 123 Athena and giant, from west pediment of Archaias Neos. 124 Restoration of Gigantomachy Pediment, 124Fig. 98. Fig. 99. Fig. 100. Fig. 101. Fig. 102. Fig. 103. Fig. 104. Fig. 105. Fig. 106, Fig. 107. Fig. 108, Fig. 109, Fig. 110. Fig. 111. Fig. 112. Fig. 113. Fig. 114. Fig. 115. Fig. Fig. Fig. Fig. 116. 117. 118. 9. Fig. 120. Fig. Fig. Fig. Fig. 124. Fig. 125. Fig. 126. Fig. 127. Fig. 128. Fig. 129, 123. LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS Reconstruction of entrance forecourt, built c.500. 125 Endoios’s Athena (Acropolis 625). Kore (Acropolis 675). 126 Kore (Athena? Acropolis 681), dedicated by Nearchos and made by Antenor. 126 Kouros (Acropolis 665), c.540. 127 Rider (Acropolis 700), c. 500. 127 Theseus grappling with villain (Prokrustes?) (Acropolis 145). 127 Reconstruction of Monument of Kallimachos, c. 490, 131 Foundations of Periklean Parthenon, built originally for Older Parthenon. 132 Pian, Older Parthenon, 489-480. 132 Plan, Older Propylon, 489-480. 133 Plan of the Acropolis in 480, 134 Unfinished column-capital from Older Parthenon. 135 The state of the Older Parthenon in 480, before Persian sack. 135 125 Youth (Acropolis 692). 137 Portion of first Athenian Tribute List, 454/3 (EM 13444). 140 Plan of Klepsydra fountain house. 143 Tentative sketch plan of Erechtheion area in the Early Classical period (the “Pre- Erechtheion”), 145 The Propylaia kore (Acropolis 688). 146 The Kritios Boy (Acropolis 698). 146 The Blond Boy (Acropolis 689). 148 Bronze statuette of diskos-thrower (NM 6615}. 149 Bronze head of youth (NM 6590). 149 The “Mourning Athena” relief (Acropolis 695). 150 Area of bronze- And on the south ancient architects, having shaved smooth the bulging face of the limestone, collaborated with the caves nature provided to create such structures as the Monument of Thrasyllos [Fig. 9]. The effects of natural erosion are everywhere palpable, and the action of earthquakes, taken together with the seepage of water channeled through widening fractures in the lime- stone - in places the Acropolis has split or has been in danger of splitting apart — have at various times sent great pieces of the rock to the ground below (an inscrip- tion marking the extent of the peripatos, the roadway that encircles the Acropolis, is carved on such a fallen boul- der, for example [Fig. 208], and in the first century aD another large chunk smashed into the center of the paved court of one of Classical Athens’s most splendid fountainhouses, the Klepsydra, on the northwest slope). The interior mass of the Acropolis now appears to be LIDRART Of HAPRIAN 2 a) vores 7” oe ] of / Nam yo Dee & My ANE = Sono INTEL ON ge _— hn) y/ stable, and the citadel seems in no danger of splitting deep at its core. The limestone that caps the Acropolis, though hard, is porous and water-soluble. The schist-sandstone foun- dation of the rock, though soft, is neither. Thus, water percolates down through the limestone only to be stopped by the impermeable layer below. It collects atop the seam, and as a result, it could be tapped at relatively shallow depths on the periphery of the Acropolis, where the limestone meets the schist-sandstone layer, where the forces of erosion have hollowed out caves or rock- shelters, and where the water naturally emerges again in springs.’ In essence, then, the lower slopes of the Acropolis were full of natural reservoirs, and it was this ready supply of water that early on made it an attractive site for human occupation. At the northwest corner of Opposite: Fig. 3. Plan of the Acropolis by I. Gelbrich (after Travlos 1971, fig. 91, and Korres 1994b, 43).Propylaia Sanctuary of Athena Nike Monument of Eumenes IT (later, Agrippa) Northwest Sanctuary of Artemis Brauronia Chalkotheke Bronze Athena Building III (House of the Arrhephoroi) Erechtheion 10 Pandroseion 11 Opisthodomos? 12 Altar of Athena 13 Parthenon 4 of Zeus Policus 15 Temple of Roma and Augustus 16 Building IV (Heroon of Pandion?) 17 Klepsydra Fountain 18 Shrine of Aphrodite and Eros 19 Cave of Aglauros? 20 Odeion of Perikles 21 Theater of Dionysos 22 Temple of Dionysos 23 Monument of Thrasyllos 24 Monument of Nikias 25 Asklepieion 26 Tonic Stoa 27 Stoa of Eumenes II 28 Boundary of the Spring 29 Temples of Isis and Themis 30 Odeion of Herodes Atticus 31 Sanctuary of Aphrodite Pandemos 32 Beuld GateTHE ATHENIAN ACROPOLIS Fig, 4. View of Acropolis from southwest. Photo: author, the rock shallow artesian wells tapped the supply virtu- ally as early as habitation can be documented at Athens, in the Neolithic period, and this is the area that became the location of the Klepsydra. Midway along the north side of the rock, Late Bronze Age Athenians dug a well at the bottom of a deep, hidden fissure, and built a remarkable stairway of wood and stone to reach it [Fig. 57]. On the south side, natural springs were thought sacred and played important roles in Classical cult (for example, in the sanctuary of Asklepios, Figs. 192, 193).° This, then, was the easily defensible, relatively water-rich rock that would dominate the political, mili- tary, religious, and cultural history of Athens — the hub of what the oracle of Delphi knew as “the wheel-shaped city.”’ Historical Athenians called it the “Acropolis” or even just “polis.”* What the prehistoric inhabitants of Athens called it (and what divinities they first wor- shipped upon it), we do not know. There was a Classi- cal memory of a distant time when the Athenians themselves were known as the Kekropidai or Kranaoi, after their prehistoric kings Kekrops and Kranaos, though there is no memory of what they called the Acropolis.” But it is entirely plausible that they called it {and the small clusters of houses they eventually planted atop it and its slopes) Athene or, in the plural, Athenai, words that seem, etymologically, pre-Greek. If that is so, the rock lent its name to the patron deity who would be so particularly and strongly associated with it, the city goddess who was, in effect, imminent in the rock and whose three principal sacred emblems or symbols = the owl, the snake, and the olive tree - dwelled or grew upon it. Some small trace of that primeval identity may, in fact, be preserved in the seventh book of Homer's Odyssey when Athene (an epic form of Athena) is said to travel to Atviene (the city, in the singular): the words are the same and so, linguistically, the goddess visits her- self. In short, it seems that Athena was in the beginning named after the rock. No matter what later myths, mythographers, and tragedians suggest, the city was not named after her.”mse Arcopagos | Hall of the Nymps 2m Bm (b) Alluvium Noah — oe ‘Schist-Sandstone Maris Athens Schists Fig. 5. a. Section through the hills of Athens (after Judeich 1931, fig. 7) b. Section through Acropolis (after Higgins and Higgins 1996, fig. 3.4). Drawings by I. Gelbrich. Fig. 6. View of Acropolis limestone, south slope. Photo: author.Fig. 7. Northwest slope of Acropolis. The caves marking the slope were sacred to Apollo Pythios/Hypoakraios (Under the Long Rocks), Zeus Olym- pios, and Pan, Photo: author. Fig. 8. Grotto on east slope (Cave of Aglauros?). Photo: author.THE ROCK Fig. 9. Monument of Thrasyllos (320/19), above Theater of Dionysos. Photo: author. And yet, in the end, who was named for what did not matter much. What mattered was the special relation- ship the city forged with the goddess and how com- pletely Athena came to be regarded as Athens itself. The Athenians virtually spoke her name (Athena or Athenaia) every time they named their city (Athenai) and them- selves (Athenaioi).* And although Athena was, of course, a goddess for all Greeks, the Athenians claimed her as their own, identifying themselves with her, and claimed for themselves many of the very qualities Athena herself embodied: military valor, boldness, love of the beautiful, love of reason and moderation, and knowledge." Athena was their guide and their security. She was the Athenian ideal and in the Athenian mind, where religious belief and secular patriotism dwelled so easily, so inextricably, together, the goddess and the city were one.®CHAPTER TWO THE GODDESS Of Pallas Athena, glorious goddess, | start to sing, goddess of the flashing eyes, resourceful, implacable of heart, modest virgin, guardian of cities, warlike, Tritogeneia, whom Zeus himself, all-wise, bore from his august head, with warlike armor, golden and flashing bright, and awe held all the gods as they watched. And she swiftly rushed before Zeus who holds the aigis, leaping from his immortal head, shaking her sharp spear. Great Olympos quaked fearfully under the might of the flashing-eyed one, and the earth shrieked terribly all around, and the sea was moved, confounded with purple waves. But the sea suddenly calmed, when the shining son of Hyperion stayed his swift-footed horses so long until the maiden, Pallas Athena, took her godlike armor from her immortal shoulders. And Zeus, all-wise, rejoiced. And so hail to you, child of Zeus who holds the aigis! I shall remember you and another song, too. Homeric Hymm XXVILE To Athena The Origins of Athena We do not know where the Greek gods came from, but the conventional view is that most of them came from some- where else. It is widely believed, for example, that when the Indo-European people who would in time become “the Greeks” arrived on the mainland early in the Bronze Age, they superimposed their own system of “sky-gods” (mostly male) upon a stratum of chthonic, or earthly, pow- ers (mostly female) worshipped by the peoples they found 12 in place - above all, fertility and earth-mother goddesses (such as Gaia, or Earth, herself} of Neolithic and even Palaeolithic origin, the very embodiments of fecundity [cf. Fig. 47].' Now, it was indeed typical of most ancient peo- ples to respect and absorb, or else co-opt, the gods of others rather than reject them (why take chances, and why fight holy wars?). And so the Greek pantheon has often been considered the result of a Bronze Age mixture of more orTHE GODDESS Fig. 10. Gold Ring from Mycenae, c. 1500. Courtesy Hirmer Verlag Miinchen. Fig. 11. “Shield Goddess” on painted tablet from Cult Center, Mycenae (NM 2666). Late 13th century. Drawing after Rehak 1984, 537. less indigenous nature divinities, broadly responsible for the welfare and fertility of human beings, plants, and ani- mals, and newly arrived Olympians, with their own more specific functions and limited spheres of action — “special department gods,” as they have been called Things are not likely to have been that simple. Although the distinction between “earth gods” and “sky gods” was taken for granted even in antiquity,’ the notion that one set of divinities (the chthonic ones) was “native” and the other (the Olympians) consisted of “Indo-European invaders” is hard to prove. It is remark- able, for example, that only one of the canonical twelve Olympian gods can confidently be said to have an impec- cable Indo-European pedigree, and that is Zeus, god of the shining sky and thunderbolt. Yet some gods outside the canon (the sun-god Helios, for example) are almost certainly Indo-European, too. On the other hand, Deme- ter, the principal goddess of the cultivated earth, is also an Olympian, while the canonical Aphrodite is probably a post-Bronze Age eastern immigrant to Olympus from Cyprus (she is not nicknamed “the Cyprian” for nothing). As for Athena, who is firmly entrenched as one of the Olympian twelve, her name at least probably predates the arrival of the people who would worship her. The formation of Greek religion was clearly a long and complex process, and the origins of some divinities cannot be precisely identified. In fact, Greek religion had already undergone many centuries of combination, assimilation, and transformation by the time Athena (or her prototype) first enters the archaeological record. Interestingly, she first appears not in Athens or on its Acropolis,‘ but on the acropolis of Mycenae, the heavily fortified citadel that was the leading cultural and politi- cal center of Late Bronze Age Greece. And she appears ina cluster of images that present her very much as later Greeks knew her: as an armed, warrior-goddess. On a gold ring that may date as early as 1500 [Fig. 10], two bare-bodiced, flounced-skirted women present lilies and poppies to another woman seated on rocks beneath a lush tree, while two small girls raise their arms in adora- tion; it is a good guess that the seated woman is a goddess or priestess. In the center of the field there is a double-axe, a symbol of ritual; six disembodied lion heads form a row along the edge of the bezel; and above the two standing women hovers a small figure with a head, two arms, a spear in her right hand, and a body covered by (or possibly in the form of) a figure-eight shield (a common Bronze Age sort). No one pays this curious interloper any attention: it is as if it has floated in from another scene. Over two cen- turies later, however, on a small painted stucco tablet from the area of Mycenae’s Cult Center, this shield-figure (now with a sword in its right hand) has moved from the mar- gins to the center: there is an altar beside her, and two sym- metrical women, arms outstretched, pay homage on either side [Fig. 11]. The paint has largely flaked off, but enough