The Brookhaven leader. [volume] (Brookhaven, Miss.) 1883-1891, 1891-12-03

4
/ by the ancients, open to let you in, and
you ascend by sixty marble steps the
propylBa, which Epaminondas wanted
to transfer to Thebcs, but permission,
/ am glad to say, could not be granted
for the removal of this architectural
miracle. In the days when ten cents
would do more than one dollar now,
the building cost two million three hun
drcd Thousand dollars. See its five or
namented gates, the keys entrusted to
an officer for only one day lest the
temptation to go in and misappropriate
the treasures be too great for HIM, its
ceiling a mingling of blue and scarlet
and green, and the walls abloom with
pictures utmost in thought and color
! ing. Yonder is a temple to n goddess
called Victory Without Wings" So
many of the triumphs 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 tenn
pie to Victory Without Wings" a
temple OF marble, snow-white and gilt
tering. Yonder behold the pedestal of
Agrippa, twenty-seven feet high and
twelve feet square.
But the overshadowing wonder of all
the hill is the Parthenon. In days
when money was ten times more yalu-
| able than now, it cost four million and
six hundred thousand dollars. 1t is a
Doric grandeur, having fortysix col
umns. each column thirty-four feet high
az
Wondrous DETERMINATIONS. Painted
porticos, architraves tinged with ochre,
shields of gold hung up, lines of most
| delicate curve, figures of horses and
men and women and gods oxen on the
way to sacrifice, statues of the deities
Dionysius, Prometheus, IIermes, De-
meter, Zeus, Hera, Poseidon; in one
frieze twelve divinites; centaurs in
battle: weaponry from Marathon;
chariot of night; chariot of the morn
ing: horses of the sun, the fates, the
furies; statue of Jupiter holding in his
right hand the thunderbolt; silver
| footed chair in which Nerxes watched
| the battle of Salamis only few miles
away. Here is the colossal statue of
Minerva in full armor, eyes of gray
colored stone; figure of a sphinx on
her head, gritfins by her side (Which
are lions with eagles beak), spear in
one hand. statue of liberty in the other,
a shield carved with battle scenes, and
even the slippers sculptured and tied
on with thongs of gold Far ont at sea
the sailors saw this statue of Minerva
rising high above all the temples,
giittcring in the sun. Here arc stat
ues of equestrians, statue of a lion
ess, and there are the graces, and
| yorder horse in bronze. There is
statue, said in the time of Augustus
to have of its own accord turned around
| from east to west and spit blood; stat
ues made out of shields conquered in
battle; statue of Anacreon, drunk and
| singing; statue of Olympodorus, a
Greek, memorable for the fact that he
was cheerful when others were cast
down, trait worthy of sculpture. But,
walk on and around the Acropolis, and
yonder you see statue of Hygeia, and
the statue of Thescus Sghtingsthe Mi
notaur and the statue of Hercules STAY
ing serpents. No wonder that Petro-
MUS said it was easier to find god
than a man in Athens. Oh, the AcrOp-
oils! The most of its temples and statues
made from the marble quarries of
Mount Pentelicum, little way from
the city. have here on my table
| block of the Parthenon made out of
| this marble, and on it is the sculpture
of Phidias. l brought it from the
| Acropolis. This specimen has on it the
dust of ages, and the marks of eXplo-
sion and battle, but you can get from it
some idea of the delicate lustcr of the
Acropolis when it was covered with a
mountain OF this marble cut into all the
exquisite shapes that genius could con-
trive, and striped with silver and aflame
with gold. The Acropolis in the morn
ing light of those ancients must have
| shown as though it were an aerolite
cast off from the MONDAY sun. Ehe
| temples must have looked like petrified
foam. The whole Acropolis must have
seen like the white breakers of the
great ocean of time.
But we can not stop longer here, for
there is hill near by of more interest,
though it has not one chip of marble to
suggest a statue or q temple. We
hasten down the Acropolis to ascend
the Arcopagus, or Mars Hill, as it is
called. 1t took only about three min
utes to walk the distance, and the two
| hill tops are SO near that what / said in
religious discourse on Mars Hill was
heard distinctly by some English gen
tlemen on the Acropolis. This Mars
Hill is rough pile of rock fifty feet
high. 1t was famous long before New
| Testament times. The Persians easily
and terribly assaulted the Acropolis
from this hill top. Here assembled the
court to try criminals, 1t was held in
the night time, so that the faces of the
| Judges could not be seen, nor the faces
of the lawyers who made the plea. and
So instead of trial being one of emo
ton, it must have been one
of cool justice. But there vas
one occasion on this hill mem
orable above all others A little
man, physically weak, and his rhetoric
described by himself as contemplate,
had by his sermons rocked Athens with
commotion, and Re was summoned,
either by writ of law or hearty invita-
ton, to come upon that pulpit of rock
and give n specimen of his theology.
All the wiseacres of Athens turned out
and turned up to hear him. The more
venerable of them sat in the amphi-
theater. the granite seats of which are
| ctil1 visible INIT tho other naOnle