Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1891-11-26


you In and you ascend Ivy sixty marble
steps the propylaa, which Epaminondas
wanted to transfer to Thebes, but permits
sion am glad to say, could not be grant
ed for the removal of this architectural
miracle. In the days when ten cents would
do more than a dollar now, the building
cost two million three hundred thou
sand dollars. See it's five ornamental
yates, the keys intrusted to an Off
Ter for only one day, lest the temp.
tation to 60 in and misappropriate the
treasures be too great for him; its ceiling
a minglng Of blue and scarlet and green,
and the walls abloom with pictures ut
most in thought and coloring. Yonder is
temple to "A goddess called "Victory
Without Wings" SO many Of the tri
umphs of the world had been followed by
defeat that the Greeks wished in marble to
indicate that victory for Athens had come
never again to fly away, and hence this
temple to "Victory Without Wings"-a
temple of marble, snow white aud glitter
ing Yonder behold the pedestal of Agrip
pa, twenty seven feet high and twelve feet
square
WONDERS OF THE PARTHENON.
But the overshadowing wonder of all
the hill is the Parthenon. In days when
money was ten times more valuable than
now it cost four million six hundred
thousand dollars. 1t is Dorc grand
eur, having forty-siX columns, each col
umn thirty-four feet high and six feet
two inches in diameter Wondrous inter-
communications! Painted porticos, archi-
traves tinged with ocher, shields of gold
hung up, lines of most delicate curve, fig
ures of horses and men and women and
gods, oxen on the way to sacrifice, statues
of the deities Dionysius, Prometheus,
Hermes, Demeter, Zeus, Hcra, Poseidon;
in one frieZe twelve divinities; centaurs in
battle; weaponry from Marathon; chariot
of night; chagiot of the morning; horses
of the sun. tie fates the furies; statue of
Jupiter holding in his right hand the
thunderbolt; silver footed chair in which
XerXes watched the battle of Salamis only
Il few miles away.
/ Here is the colossal statue of Minerva in
full armor, eyes Of gray colored stone, fig
ure Of a Sphinx on her head, griflins by
her side (Which are lions with eagles
beak), spear in one hand, statue of libel-
ty in the other, a shield carved with battle
scenes, and even the slippers sculptured
and tied on with thongs of gold. Far out
at sea the sailors saw this statue of Miner
va rising high above all the temples, gilt
terng in the sun Here are statues Of
equestrans, statue of a ionness, and there
are the Graces, and yonder horse in
bronze
There is a statue said in the time of
Augustus to have of it's own accord turned
around from east to west and spit blood;
statues made out of shields conquered in
battle; statue of Apollo, the eXpeller Of
locusts; statue of Anacreon, drunk and
singing, statue Of Olympodorus, a Greek,
memorable for the fact that lie was cheer
full when Others were cast down, a craft
worthy OF sculpture. But walk on and
around the Acropols and yondcr you see
II statue of Hygeia, and the statue of The
seu, fighting the Minotaur and the statue
Of Hercules staying serpents. No wonder
that Petronus said it was easier to find a
god than man in Athens. On, the Acrop-
oils! The most of its temples and statues
made from the marble qua~ries of Mount
Pentelcum, Il little way Il m the city.
| have here on my table Il block of the
Partheuon made out Of this marble, and
on it is the sculpture of Phdias. | brought
it from the Acropolis This specimen has
on it the dust of ages and the marks of
explosion and battle, but you can get from
it some idea of the delicate lVster of the
Acropolis when it was covered with a
mountain of this marble cut into all the
exquisite shapes that genius could con
triye and striped with silver and aname
with gold. the Acropoli- in the morning
light Of those ancents must have shone as
though it were an aerulitc cast oil from
the MONDAY sun. The temples must have
looked like petriiied foam. The whole
AcrOpOlis must have seemed like the white
breakers of the great ocean of time,
THE AREOPAGUS, OR MARS HILL.