The enterprise. [volume] (Wellington, Ohio) 188?-1899, 1891-11-25

The lurKs ArN af.I lg Aifg INTO
powder M ne. p v netian
guns drop al by explosion
sent the coIcmns fvSiy in the air and
falling cracked a d splintered. But
after all that time and storm and war
and iconoclaSm have effected, the Ac.
ropolis is the monarch of all ruins, and
before 1t bow the learning. the genius,
the poetry. tine art, the history of the
ages. saw It as it was thousands Of
years ago. had read SO much aboutit
needed no magician wand to restore
II. At one wave of my hand on thai
clear morning in 1889, 1t rose before me
in the glory 1t had when Pericles or
dered It, and Ictinus planned 1t, and
Phidias chiseled II and Protogines
painted it and Pausanias described
II. It's gates, which were carefully
guarded by the ancients, open To
let you in, and you ascend by sixty mar
BILE steps the propyl@a, which Epami
nondas 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 more than dollar
now, the building cost two million,
three hundred thousand dollars. See
its FIVE ornamented gates, the keys, en-
trusted to an officer for only one day,
lest the temptation to 60 in and misap-
propriate the treasures be too GREAT for
HIM; its ceiling mingling of blue and
scarlet and green and the walls abloom
with pictures ,tmOst in thought and
coloring. Yonder Is a temple to the
goddess called Victory without Wings"
So many of the triunphs of the world
had been followed by defeat that the
Greeks wished in marble to indicate
that victory for Athens had come never
to fly away, and hence this temple TO
"Victory without Wings,"-a temple OF
marble. snow-white and glittering
Yonder behold the pedestal of Agrippa
twenty-seven feet high and twelve feet
square. But the overshadowing won.
der of all the hill is the Pdrthenon. In
days when mon y was ten times more
valuable than now, it cost 81 600, 600 II
is Doric grandeur, having forty-six
columns, each column thirty-four feet
high and six feet two inches in diam
eter. Wondrous intercolumniations
Painted porticos, architraves tinged
with ochre, shields of gold hung up
lines Of the 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, Posedion; in one frieze twelve
divinities; centaurs in battle; weaponry
from Marathon, chariot of the night,
chariot of the morning, horses OF the
sun, the fates, the furies, the statue oi
Jupiter, holding in his right hand the
thunderbolt, silver.footcd chair In
which Xerxes watched the battle OF
Salamis only 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, grllins by
her side (which are lions with eagles
beak), spear in one hand. statue Of lib
erty in the other, shield carved with
battle scenes, and even the slippers
sculptured, and tied on with thongs Oi
gold. Far out at sea the sailors saw
this statue OF Minerva rising bigh above
all the temples glittering in the sun.
Here are statues Of equestrians, statue
Of lioness. and there are the Graces,
and yonder a statue in bronze There Is
a statue said in the time OF Augustus TO
have of its own accord turned around
from east TO west and spit blood; statues
made out Of shields conquered in bat
tie; statue of Apollo, the expeller Of To-
Gusts; statue OF Anacreon, drunk and
singing; statue Of Qlympodorus, 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 Theceus fighting the Min
otaur and the statue Of Hercules slay-
ing serpents. No wonder that Petro-
MUS said 1t was easier to find god than
man in Athens o. the Acrupolis
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 a
block of the Parthenon made ont OF
this marble, and on It the sculpture OF
Phidias. brought It is from the Acrop-
oils This specimen has on II the dust
Of ages, and the marks of explosion and
battle, but you can get from II some
idea OF the delicate luster OF the Acrop
oils when IL was covered with noun
tain OF this marble cut into all the ex-
quisite shapes that genius could con-
trive and striped with silver and aAame
with gold The Acropolis in the morn
ing light of those ancients must have
shone as though IL were an aerolite cast
on from the MONDAY sun. The tenn.
pies must have looked like petrifed
foam. The whole Acropolis must have
seemed like the white breakers Of the
great ocean Of time. r--4
But we can not stop longer here, for
there Is hill near by Of more interest,
though IL has not one chip OF marble 10
suggest statue or temple. We hasten
down the Acropolis 10 ascend the Areo-
pagus, or Mars Hill, as II Is called. IL
took only about three minutes 10 walk
the distance, and the two hill tops are
80 near that what said in religious
4 discourse on Mars Hill was heard dis
tinctly by some English gentlemen on
the Acropolis. This liars Hill is a rough