and with marbles taken from the ruins. A confiderable fum had been recently expended on the fide next Hymetus, which was finished be. fore we arrived. The feaffolding had been removed to the end toward Pentele; but money was wanting, and the workmen were with drawn The garrifon confifts of a few Turks, who refide there with their families, and are called by the Greeks Caftriani, or the foldiers of the caftle. The rock is lofty, abrupt, and inacceffible, except the front, which is toward the Piraeus; and on that quarter is a mountainous ridge, within cannon-fhot. It is deftitute of water fit for drinking; and fupplies are daily carried up in earthen jars, on horfes and affes, from one of the conduits in the town. The acropolis furnished a very ample field to the ancient virtuof. It was filled with monuments of Athenian glory, and exhibited an amazing difplay of beauty, of opulence, and of art; each contending as it were for the fuperiority. It appeared as one entire offering to the Deity, furpafling in excellence and aftonishing in richnes Heliodorus, named Periegetes the guide, had employed on it 15 books. The curiofities of various kinds, with the pictures, atues, and pieces of feulpture, were so many and so remarkable as to Tupply Polemo Periegetes with matter for four volumes; and Strabo affirms, that as many would be required in treating of other portions of Athens and of Attica. In particular, the number of statues was prodigious. Tiberius Nero, who was fond of images, plundered the acropolis as well as Delphi and Olympia; yet Athens, and each of these places had not fewer than 3000'remaining in the time of Pliny. Even Paufanius feems here to be diftreffed by the multiplicity of his fubject. But this banquet, as it were, of the fenfes has long been withdrawn; and is now become like the tale of a vifion. The fpectator views with concern the marble ruins intermixed with mean flat-roofed cottages, and extant amid rubbish ; 'the fad memorials of a nobler people; which, however, as vifible from the fea, hould have introduced modern Athens to more early notice. They who reported it was only a fmall village, muft, it has been furmijed, have be held the acropolis through the wrong end of their telescopes. The acropolis has now, as formerly, only one entrance, which fronts the Piræus. The atent is by traverfes and rude fortifications furnished with cannon, but without carriages, and neglected. By the fecond gate is the ftation of the guard, who fits crofs-legged under cover, much at his cafe, fmoking his pipe, or drinking coffee with his companions about him in like at titudes. Over this gate-way is an infeription in large characters on a ftone turned upside down, and black from the fires made below. It records a prefent of a pair of gates. Going farther up, you come to the ruins of the propylea, an edifice which graced the entrance into the citadel. This was one of the structures of Pericles, who began it when Euthymenes was archon, 435 years before Chrift. It was completed in 5 years, at the expence of 2012 talents. It was of marble of the Doric order, and had five doors to afford an eafy paffage to the multitudes which reforted on bufinefs or devotion to the acropolis.

The right wing of the propyléa was a temple of Victory. They related that geus had stood there, viewing the fea, and anxious for the retum of his fon Thefeus from Crete.-The idol was named Victory without avings, because the news of the fuccefs of Thefeus did not arrive but with the conqueror. It had a pomegranate in the right hand, and an helmet in the left. As the ftatue was without pinions, it was hoped the goddes would remain for ever on the fpot. On the left wing of the propyléa, and fronting the temple of Victory, was a building decorated with paintings by Polygnotus, of which an account is given by Paufanias. This edifice, as well as the temple, was of the Doric order, the columns fluted, and without bases. Both contributed alike to the uniformity and grandeur of the defign; and the whole fabric, when finished, was deemed equally magnificent and ornamental. The interval between Pericles and Paufanius confifts of several centuries. The propylea remained entire in the time of this topographer; and continued nearly fo to a much later period. It had then a roof of white marble, which was unfurpalled either in the fize of the ftones or in the beauty of their arrangement; and before each wing was an equeftrian statue. The propylea have ceafed to be the entrance of the a cropolis. The pattage, which was between the columns in the centre, is walled up almoft to their capitals, and above is a battery of cannon. The way now winds before the front of the ancient ftructure; and turning to the left hand among rubbish and mean walls, you come to the back part, and to the door-ways. The foil without is rifen higher than the top of the two smaller. There, under the vault and cannon, lies an heap of large ftones, the ruin of the roof. The temple of Victory, ftanding on an abrupt rock, has its back and one fide encumbered with the modern ramparts. The columns in the front being walled up, you enter it by a breach in the fide, within the propylea. It was ufed by the Turks as a magazine for powder, untii 1656, when a sudden explofion, occafioned by lightning, carried away the roof, with a house erected on it, belonging to the officer who commanded in the acropolis, whote family, except a girl, perithed. The women of the Aga continued to inhabit in this quarter, but it is now abandoned and in ruins. The cell of the temple of Victory, which is of white marble, very thick, and ftrongly cemented, fufficiently witneffes the great violence it has undergone; the flones in many places being disjointed, as it were, and forced from their original pofition. Two of thefe making an acute angle, the exterior edges touching without a crevice; and the light abroad being much stronger than in the room, which has a modern roof and is dark; the portion in contact becoming pellucid, had illuminated the vacant space with a dim colour resembling that of amber. We were defired to examine this extraordinary appearance, which the Greeks regarded as a fanding miracle, and which the Turks, who could not confute them, beheld with equal attoniihment. We found in the gap fome coals, which had been brought on a bit of earthen ware for the purpose of burning incenfe, as we fuppofed, and alio a piece of wax taper, which pro

bably

bably had been lighted in honour of the faint and author of the wonder; but our Swifs unfortunately carrying his own candle too far in, the fmoke blackened the marble, and deftroyed the phenomenon. The building oppofite to the temple has ferved as a foundation for a fquare lofty tower of ordinary mafonry. The columns of the front are walled up, and the entrance is by a low iren gate in the fide. It is now ufed as a place of confinement for delinquents; but in 1676 was a powder magazine. In the wall of a rampart near it are fome fragments of exquifite fculpture, reprefenting the Athenians fighting with the Amazons. These belong to the freeze, which was then standing In the ad century, when Paufanias lived, much of the painting was impaired by age, but fome rcmained, and the fubjects were chiefly taken from the Trojan ftory. The traces are fince vanished. The pediment of the temple of Victory, with that of the oppofite wing, is defcribed as remaining in 1576; but on each building a quare tower had been erected. One of the fteps in the front of the propylea was entire, with the four columns, their entablature and the pediment. The portico, to which the five door-ways belonged, confifted of a large fquare room, roofed with flabs of marble, which were laid on two great marble beams, and fultained by four beautiful columns. These were lonic, the proportions of this order beft fuiting that purpofe, as taller than the Doric; the reafon it was likewife preferred in the pronaos of the temple of victory. The roof of the propylea, after ftanding above 2000 years, was probably detroyed, with all the pediments, by the Venetians in 1687, when they battered the caftie in front, firing red hot bullets, and took it, but were compelled to refign it again to the Turks in the following year. The exterior walls, and, in particular, a fide of the temple of Victory, retain many marks of their hoftilities."

OF.

(8.) ATHENS, REMAINS OF THE PARTHENON "The chief ornament, (fays Dr Chandler) of the Acropolis, was the PARTHENON or great temple of Minerva, a moft fuperb and magnificent fabric. The Perfians had burned the edifice, which before occupied the fite, and was called hecatomped on, from its being too feet fquare. The zeal of Pericles and of all the Athenians was exerted in providing a far more ample and glorious refidence for their favourite goddefs. The architeds were Callicrates and Ictinus; and a treatife on the building was written by the latter and Carpion. It was of white marble, of the Doric or der, the columns fluted and without bafes, the number in front eight; and adorned with admirable fculpture. The ftory of the birth of Minerva was carved in the front pediment; and in the hack, the conteft with Neptune for the country. The beafts of burden, which had conveyed up the materials, were regarded as facred, and recompened with paftures; and one, which had voluntarily headed the train, was maintained during life, without labour, at the public expence. The fatue of Minerva, made for this temple by Phidias, was of ivory, 26 cubits or 39 feet high. It was decked with pure gold to the amount of 44 talents, fo difpofed by the advice of Pericles as to be taken off and weighed, if required, This image

was placed in the temple in the first year of the 87th Olympiad, in which the Peloponnefian war began. The gold was ftripped off by the tyrant Lachares, when Demetrius Poliorcetes compelled him to fly. The fame plunderer plucked down the golden fhields in the acropolis, and carried a way the golden Victories, with the precious veffels and ornaments provided for the Panathenæan feftival. The Parthenon remained entire for many ages after it was deprived of the goddess. The Chriftians converted it into a church, and the Mahometans into a mofque. It is mentioned in the letters of Crufius, and mifcalled the Pantheon, and the temple of the unknown God. The Venetians under Koningsmark, when they befieged the acropolis in 1687, threw a bomb, which demolifhed the roof, and fetting fire to fome powder, did much damage to the fabric. The floor, which is indented, ftill witneffes the place of its fall. This was the fad forerunner of farther deftruction; the Turks breaking the ftones, and applying them to the building of a new mofque, which ftands within the ruin, or to the repairing of their houfes and the walls of the fortrefs. The vaft pile of ponderous materials, which lay ready, is greatly diminished; and the whole ftructure will gradually be confumed and difappear. The temple of Minerva in 1676 was, as Wheeler and Spon affert, the fineft mofque in the world, without comparifon. The Greeks had adapted the fabric to their ceremonial by conftructing at one end a femicircular recefs for the holy tables, with a window: for before it was enlightened only by the door, obfcurity being preferred under the heathen ritual, except on feftivals, when it yielded to fplendid illuminations; the reason, it has been furmifed, why temples are commonly found fimple and unadorned on the infides. In the wall beneath the window were inferted two pieces of the ftone called phengites, a species of marble difCovered in Cappadocia in the time of Nero; and fo transparent that he erected with it a temple to Fortune, which was luminous within, when the door was fhut. Thefe pieces were perforated, and the light which entered was tinged with a reddish or yellowish hue. The picture of the Panagia or Virgin Mary, in Mofaic, on the ceiling of the recefs, remained; with two jafper columns belonging to the fcreen, which had separated that part from the nave; and within, a canopy fupported by 4 pillars of porphyry, with Corinthian capitals of white marble, under which the table had been placed; and behind it, beneath the window, a marble chair for the archbishop; and also a pulpit, ftanding on 4 fmall pillars in the middle aile. The Turks had white-washed the walls, to obliterate the portraits of faints, and the other paintings with which the Greeks decorate their places of worship; and had erected a pulpit on the right hand for the iman or reader. The roof was difpofed in fquare compartments; the ftones maffive; and fome had fallen in. It had been fuftained in the Pronaos by fix columns; but the place of one was then fupplied by a large pile of rude mafonry, the Turks not having been able to fill up the gap more worthily. The roof of the naos was supported by colonnades ranging with the door, and on each fide; confifting of 22 pil

lars

an attempt to take down the principal group, haftened their ruin. In the other pediment is a head or two of fea-horfes finely executed, with fome mutilated figures; and on the architrave beneath them are marks of the fixtures of votive offerings, perhaps of the golden fhields, or of feftoons fufpended on folemn occafions, when the temple was drefied out to receive the votaries of the goddefs."

lars below, and of 23 above. The odd one was over the entrance, which by that difpofition was left wide and unembarraffed. In the portico were fufpended a few lamps, to be used in the mofque at the feafons when the muffelmans affemble before day-break, or to be lighted up round the minaret, as is the custom during the Ramazan or Lent. It is not eafy to conceive a more striking object than the Parthenon, though now a mere ruin. The columns within the naos have all been removed: but on the flour may be feen the circles which directed the workmen in placing them; and at the farther end is a groove acrofs it, as for one of the partitions of the cell. The recefs erected by the Chriftians is demolished; and from the rubbish of the ceiling, the Turkish boys collect bits of the Mosaic, of different colours, which compofed the picture. We are told at Smyrna, that this fubftance had taken a polith, and been fet in buckles. This cell is about half demolished; and in the columns which furround it, is a large gap near the middle. On the walls are fome traces of the paintings. Before the portico is a refervoir funk in the rock, to fupply the Turks with water for the purifications cuftomary on entering their mofques. In it, on the left hand, is the rubbish of the pile erected to fupply the place of a column; and on the right, a ftaircafe which leads out on the architrave, and has a marble or two with infcriptions, but worn fo as not to be legible. It belonged to the minaret, which has been deftroyed. The travellers, to whom we are indebted for an account of the mofque, have like, wife given a description of the sculpture then remaining in the front. In the middle of the pediment was feen a bearded Jupiter, with a majestic countenance, ftanding, and naked; the right arin broken. The thunderbolt, it has been fuppofed, was placed in that hand, and the eagle between his feet. On his right was a figure, it is conjectured, of Victory, clothed to the mid-leg; the head and arms gone. This was leading on the horses of a car, in which Minerva fat, young and unarmed; her head-drefs, inftead of a helmet, refembling that' of a Venus. The generous ardour and lively spirit visible in this pair of celeftial feeds, was fuch as bespoke the hand of a mafter, bold and delicate, of a Phidins or Praxiteles. Behind Minerva was a female figure, with out a head, fitting, with an infant in her lap; and in this angle of the pediment was the emperor Hadrian with his arm round Sabina, both reclining, and feeming to regard Minerva with plea. fare. On the left fide of Jupiter were five or lix other trunks to complete the aflembly of deities into which he received her. Thefe figures were all wonderfully carved, and appeared as big as life. Hadrian and his confort, it is likely, were complimented by the Athenians with places among the marble gods in the pediment, as bone. factors. Both of them may be confidered as intruders on the original company; and polibly their heads were placed on trunkt, which before had other owners. They ftill po Tefs their corner, and are easy to be recognised, though not unimpaired. The reft of the ftatues are defaced, removed, or fallen, Morofini was ambitious to enrich Venice with the spoils of Athens; and by

(9) ATHENS, RUINS OF THE ERECTHEUM, &c. AT. "Neptune and Minerva," (continues the Dr) "once rival deities, were joint and amicable tenants of the Ereatheum, in which was an altar of Oblivion. The building was double, a partition wall dividing it into two temples, which fronted different ways. One was the temple of Neptune Erectheus, the other of Minerva Polias. The latter was entered by a fquare portico connected with the marble fkreen, which fronts towards the Propylca. The door of the cell was on the left hand; and at the further end of the pailage was a door, leading down into the Pandrofeum, which was contiguous. Before the temple of Neptune Erectheus, was an altar of Jupiter the fupreme, on which no living thing was facrificed, but they offered cakes without wine. Within it was the altar of Neptune Erectheus; and two, belonging to Vulcan, and a hero named BUTES, who had tranfmitted the priesthood to his pofterity, which were called BUTADE. On the walls were paintings of this illuftrious family, from which the priefiefs of Minerva Polias was alfo taken. It was afferted, that Neptune had ordained the well of falt water, and the figure of a trident in the rock, to be memorials of his contending for the country. The former, Paufanias remarks, was no great wonder, for other wells, of a fimilar nature, were found inland; but this, when the fouth wind blew, afforded the found of waves. The temple of Minerva Polias was dedicated by all Attica, and poffeffed the most ancient ftatue of the goddefs. This temple was burned when Callias was archon, 24 years after the death of Pericles. Near it was the tomb of Se crops, and within it Erectheus was buried. The ruin of the Erectheum is of white marble; the architectural ornaments of very exquifite workmanfhip, and uncommonly curious. The columns of the front of the temple of Neptune are ftanding with the architrave; and alfo the fkreen and portico of Minerva Polias, with a portion of the cell, retaining traces of the partition wall. The order is lonic. An edifice revered by ancient Attica, as boly in the higheft degree, was, in 1676, the dwelling of a Turkifh family, and is now deferted and neglected; but many ponderous ftones and rubbish must be removed before the well and trident would appear. The former, at least, might probably be discovered. The porti co is ufed as a powder magazine; but we obtained permiflion to dig and to examine the outfide. The door-way of the veftibule is wailed up, and the foil rifen nearly to the top of the door way of the Pandrofeum. By the portico is a battery commanding the town, from which af fcends an amufing hum. The Turks fire from it, to give notice of the commencement of Ramazan or of their Lent, and of Bairam or the holy days,

and

many black points interfperfed; it has many teeth in the lips, but none in the tongue or jaws. It is found in the fresh waters of Carolina, and fpawns in April.

ATTHERLEY, or ADDERLEY, a village in the county of Salop, which has a fair, on the 29th of June.

(1.) * ATHEROMA. n. S. [adiowua, from aga, pap or pulfe.] A fpecies of wen, which neither caufes pain, difcolours the skin, nor yields eafily to the touch.-If the matter forming them, refembles milk curds, the tumour is called atheroma; if it be like honey, meliceris; and if compofed of fat, or a fuety fubftance, Reatoma. Sharp.

(2) ATHEROMA is defcribed by others, as containing, in a membranous bag, matter refembling pap, intermixed with hard and ftony particles. Thefe tumours are easily cured by inci

fion.

* ATHEROMATOUS. adj. [from atheroma.] Having the qualities of an atheroma, or curdy wen.-Feeling the matter fluctuating, I thought it atheromatous. Wifeman's Surgery.

(1.) ATHERSTÓN, a fmall town in Warwick fhire, feated on the Anker, 10 miles N. of Coventry.

(2.) ATHERSTON, or a town of Warwick(1.) ATHERTON, 5 fhire, fituated on the Stour, 3 miles from Stratford upon Avon, a little above the junction of the two rivers. It is a confiderable town, and had formerly a monaftery; but now is beft known by its fair, on the 19th of September, which is the greatest in England for cheese. It has other 3 fairs, on Dec. 4. April 7. and July 18, with a market on Tuesday. It lies on the borders of Liecestershire, 105 miles from London.

(2.) ATHERTON, John, D. D. bishop of Waterford, was born at Bawdrip in Somerfetfhire, took his degree of A. B at Oxford, and of A. M. at Lincoin, but reflected little honour on the cloth. He married an agreeable woman in England, but being accused of inceft with her fifter, went over to Ireland; where he became chaplain to the Lord Chancellor, Vifc. Lifle, and by his interest, parfon of St John's, Dublin. This kind patron, he ungratefully betrayed into difgrace with the E. of Strafford, then Lord Lieutenant, who appointed him prebend of Chrift-Church, and afterwards bifhop of Waterford and Lifmore, in 1636. His vices now increased in proportion to his clerical dignities. He collected his tythes with the most oppreflive extortion; kept 64 female concubines, betides feveral male ones, and at laft was accufed of beftiality! A bill of complaint being prefented against him in the Irish parliament, he was arraigned, condemned, and executed at Dublin, Dec. 5. 1640.

ATHESINI, a people of ancient Gaul, mentioned by Pliny, who dwelt on the banks of the ATHESIS.

ATHESIS, in ancient geography, a river of Cifalpine Gaul, which, ring in the Rhetian Alps, in Mount Brenna, in the county of Tirol, runs fouthward, and wathes Tridentum and Verona, which laft it divides; and afterwards bends its courfe eastward, in a parallel direction with

(1.) ATHIAS, Jofeph, a learned Jewish printer, in the 17th century He refided at Amflerdam, where, in 1667, he published a Hebrew Bible, which is held in great eftimation. He likewife printed the bible in Spanish, German, aud English. The ftates prefented him with a gold medal and chain, as a mark of the value they put upon his labours.

(2.) ATHIAS, Ifaac, a Spanish Jew, who wrote a curious explication of the law of Mofes; printed at Venice and Amfterdam.

ATHINI. See ATHINS, § 7.

ATHIRCO, the 29th king of Scots, according to Buchanan, fucceeded his father Ethodius 11. A D. 238. Like Nero, he is faid to have begun well; but having afterwards degenerated into a moniter of iuft and cruelty, Nathalocus, one of his chiefs, whom he had irritated, by ravishing two of his daughters, took arins against him; whereupon Athirca killed himself, and Nathalocus ufurped the crown, A. D. 249.

A THIRST, adv. [from a and thirft.] Thir ty; in want of drink.

With feanty measure then fupply their food; And, when athirst, restrain 'em from the flood. Dryden. ATHLEAGUE, a fmall town of Ireland, in the county of Rofcommon.

ATHLETE, [Apants, Gr. from 925, a combat,] in antiquity, perfons of ftrength and agility, difciplined to perform in the public games. Under Athleta were comprehended wreftlers, boxers, runners, leapears, throwers of the difk, and those practifed in other exercises exhibited in the Olympic and Pythian games, &c. for the conquerors in which, there were established prizee. See next article.

The

In the

(1.) ATHLETIC HABIT, a ftrong hale conftitution. (See § 2) Anciently it figuified a ful fleshy corpulent state, such as the athlete endeavoured to arrive at. The athletic habit is efteemed the highest pitch of health: yet it is dangerous, and the next door to difeafe; fince, when the body is no longer capable of being improved, the next alteration must be for the worse. chief object of the athletic diet, was to obtain a firm, bulky, weighty body; by force of which, more than art and agility, they frequently overpowered their antagonist: hence, they fed altogether on dry, folid and viscous meats. earlier days, their chief food was dry figs and cheefe, which was called arida jaginatio, kisa spen, and Asuncis diažngwv iepazon. Oribalius firft brought this in difufe, and substituted Beth inftead of theie. They had a peculiar bread, called one: They exercifed, eat, and drank, without ceafing: they were not allowed to leave off eating when fatiated, but were obliged to cram on till they could hold no more; by which means they at length acquired a degree of voracity, which to us feems incredible, and a strength proportional. Witness what Pautanias relates of the four celebrated athletæ, Po'ydamus the Theilalian, Milo the Croto nian, Theagenes the Thalian, and Euthymus the

Locrian: