Ceredo advance. [volume] (Ceredo, W. Va.) 1885-1939, 1891-12-02

guarded oy the ancientS, open TO let
you in, and you ascend by sixty marble
steps the propyl1a, which Epaminon-
das wanted to transfer TO Thebes, 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 moro than q
dollar now, the building cost 81. 800. o00
SEQ its five ornamental gates, the keys
intrusted to an officer for only ono day
lest the temptation to go in and appropri-
ate the treasures be too great for him;
its ceiling mingling of blue and scar
let and green, and the walls abloom
with pictures utmost in thought and
coloring.
Yonder is a temple to goddess called
Victory without Wings" So many of
the triumphs OF the world had been fol-
lowed 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 "vic-
tory without Wings. "a temple of mar
BILE. snow-white and glimmering. Yon-
der behold the pedestal of Agrippa,
twenty-seven feet high and twelve feet
square. But the overshadowing won-
der of all the hill is the Parth -non. In
days when money was ten times more
valuable than now, it cost 800 900.
1t is Doric grandeur. having forty six
columns, each column thirty-four feet
high and six feet two inches in dame
ter. Wondrous INSTRUMENTATION.
Painted porticos, architraves tinged
with ocher. 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,
Hermes, Demeter, Zeus, Hera, Boseidon;
in one frieze twelve divinities centaurs
in battle; weaponary from Marathon;
chariot of night; chariot of the morn
ing; horses of the sun, the
fates, the furies; statue of Jupiter hold
ing in his right hand the thuuderbolt;
silver-footed chair in which Xerxes
watched the battle OF Salnnis, only q
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, griffins by her
side (Which are lions with eagles bealx),
spear in one hand, statue of Liberty in
the other. a shield carved with battle
scenes, and even the slippers sculp-
tured, and tied on with thongs of gold
Far out at sea the sailors saw this
statue of Minerva raising high above
all the temples, glittering in the sun.
Here are statues of equestrians, statue
of lioness, and there are the graccs,
and yonder a horse in bronze.
There is q statue said in the time OF
Augustus to have of it's own accord
turned around from cast to west and
spit hood; statues made out of shields
conquered in battle; statue of Apollo,
the expeller of locusts; statue of Amaze
reon, drunk and singing; statue of
OlympodoEus, Greek. memorable for
the fact that he was cheerful when
others were cast down. n trait worthy
OF sculpture. But walk on and around
the Acropolis, and yonder you see n
statue of Hygen, and the statue of
Theseus fighting the Minotaur, and the
statue of Hercules Staying serpents.
No wonder that Petronius said il was
easier to find god than a man in
Athens
Oh, the Acropolis! The most of IFS
temples and statues made from the
marble quarries of Mount Petroleum,
little way from the city. / have here
on my table block of the Pantheon
made out of this marble. and on it is
the sculpture of Phidias. I 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 luster
OF the Acropolis when it was covered
with mountain of this marble cut into
all the exquisite shapes that genius
could contrive and striped with silver
and aflame with gold. The Acropolis
in the morning light of those ancients
must have shone as though it
were an aerolite cast off from
the MONDAY sun. The temples must
have looked like petrified foam; the
whole Acropolis must have seemed 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 1T has not one chip of marble TO
suggest n statue or a temple We
hasten down the Acropolis to ascend
the hreogagus, or Mars Hill, as il 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 gem
tleman on the Acropolis.
This Mars Hill is q rough pile of rock
fifty feet high. 1t was famous long be-
fore New Testament times The Per-
slams easily and terribly assaulted the
Acropolis from this hilltop Here as
sembled the court to try criminals IL
was held in the nighttime, 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 a trial being
one OF emotion, il must have been one
OF cool Justice. But there was one oc-
casion on this hill memorable 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 he
was summoned either by writ of law or
by hearty invitation to come upon the
pulpit of rock and give a specimen OF
his theology.
All the wiseacres of Athens turned
out and turned up 20 hear him. The
more venerable of them sat in an ampbi.
theater, the granite seats of which are
still visible, but the other people
swarmed on all sides of the hill and NJ
40 Hae II a.. 4