greek hotels - other. A frieze of grey Eleusinian stone, to which sculptured figures are attached by metal cramps, surmounts the cella. This Temple has succeeded in name and site to one of the most ancient sanctuaries of Athens. On this account it bears the title of the ANCIENT TEMPLE of Minerva. The present building dates its commencement from the age of Pericles, although, in all probability, on account of the stop of that statesman, and the expense incurred by Athens in the Peloponnesian war, and of a fire which injured the fabric in the year B.c. 406, it was not completed till about thirty years after his decease. Four different objects of great national interest, contained within the walls of the Erectheum, give it a sanctity and an importance unequalled by that of any other temple at Athens. In its eastern chamber is the ancient Statue of Minerva Polias, made of olive-wood, which fell down from heaven. This was the Minerva who had contended with Neptune for the possession of the Athenian soil : she was the original protectress of the Acropolis and of Athens ; to her the embroidered Peplos at the festival of the Panathenea was dedicated ; it was to this her Temple that Urcstes came as a suppliant from Delphi, when he fled from the Eumenides ; before her statue burns the golden lamp both night and day, which is fed with oil only once a year : the Sacred Serpent, the guardian of the Acropolis, dwells here : here is the silver-footed throne on which Xcrxes sat when he viewed the battle of Salamis,-here the sword of Mardonius, the Persian general at Plataca. In the western chamber, that of Pandrosus, is the salt spring which Neptune fetched from the ground in his contest with Minerva : upon the rock there is the impression of the trident with which he struck it ; there,

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Travel in Greece: Page 144

ERECTHEUM.

other. A frieze of grey Eleusinian stone, to which sculptured figures are attached by metal cramps, surmounts the cella.
This Temple has succeeded in name and site to one of the most ancient sanctuaries of Athens. On this account it bears the title of the ANCIENT TEMPLE of Minerva.
The present building dates its commencement from the age of Pericles, although, in all probability, on account of the stop of that statesman, and the expense incurred by Athens in the Peloponnesian war, and of a fire which injured the fabric in the year B.c. 406, it was not completed till about thirty years after his decease.

Four different objects of great national interest, contained within the walls of the Erectheum, give it a sanctity and an importance unequalled by that of any other temple at Athens. In its eastern chamber is the ancient Statue of Minerva Polias, made of olive-wood, which fell down from heaven. This was the Minerva who had contended with Neptune for the possession of the Athenian soil : she was the original protectress of the Acropolis and of Athens ; to her the embroidered Peplos at the festival of the Panathenea was dedicated ; it was to this her Temple that Urcstes came as a suppliant from Delphi, when he fled from the Eumenides ; before her statue burns the golden lamp both night and day, which is fed with oil only once a year : the Sacred Serpent, the guardian of the Acropolis, dwells here : here is the silver-footed throne on which Xcrxes sat when he viewed the battle of Salamis,-here the sword of Mardonius, the Persian general at Plataca.
In the western chamber, that of Pandrosus, is the salt spring which Neptune fetched from the ground in his contest with Minerva : upon the rock there is the impression of the trident with which he struck it ; there,