Hopkinsville Kentuckian. [volume] (Hopkinsville, Ky.) 1889-1918, 1897-11-23
THE pARTHENoN.
Prof Dorpfeld on the Preservation Of the
Historic Structure

non itdllN OOOUlcus Is lillS gen
among the monuments Of the world
irrcparably lost? Is it impossible tc
save III
AS student we'll acquainted with
the Parthenon. and as n member OF
the committee appointed BY tho
/ Greek government TO snperintcnd the
repairing Of it, ! think may assert
that the temple is by no means yet
! doomed. The condition Of the struc-
ture is certainly not satisfactory.
Earthquakes and fire. rain and sun,
frost and heat. several lombard
ments, and moro especially the un-
fortunate explosion Of the Turkish
powder magazine 10y the Venetians
under Morosini in 1851. have all CON
tributcd to annihilatc entirely large
portions Of the temple and severely
to injure those still preserved, and
even to destroy in many places the
beautiful white marble One has
only to read the reports Of the three
distinguished European architects
the Englishman, G.. +. Penrose; the
German, T. Dunn, and the French
man, I. Magnc--on the state Of the
temple in order to satisfy himself
that the structure has indeed suffered
severely and that the condition of
certain portions is even dangerous.
}ut. according TO the undeniablv au-
thoritative opinion Of those archi-
tects, the damage is not so serious as
your correspondent describes it, and,
on the contrary, the preservation Of
the existing structure for hundreds,
and perhaps thousands of years is
still possible One thing only is nee
essary-viz.: That the proposed re-
pairs shall he carefully and eXpedi-
tiously carried out The same con-
clusion has been arrived at by the
committee Of Greek and foreign arch
fleets and psychologists to whom the
Greek government has ntrusted the
task of experimenting them AS the
opinion of all these experts with re-
gard to the mode of restoration shows
few divergcnces, the work might be
taken in hand at once, those repairs
being undertaken first upon which all
the experts are agreed
Last winter solid scaffolding was
erected along the western portion of
the temple in order first of all TO re-
place the specially damaged episNli-
UNI beams of the opisthodomus by
new ones. The stones required for
this purpose had in part been already
brought from Pentelicon to the
Acropolis, and the machinery OBJ
tanned for raising these huge blocks,
and work was about to begin when
war unhappily broke out and arrest
ed the progress of operations. The
funds for the work of restoration were
granted by The Greek Archaeological
society, which derives its large rev
enucs from lottery sanctioned by
the state. This year, unhappily, ow-
ing to The disastrous war, the lottery
has hardly produced anything, and
the society has consequently no funds |
at its disposal to prosecute the works. |
The repairs have therefore been tenn
porarily interrupted, and who knows
when they may be resumed. For
the Parthenon this is deplorable |
matter, and the consequences may be
most serious should severe earth
quake shake the mountain rock on
which it stands.
Your correspondent then proceeds
to point out how excellcntly, since
the erection of the scafrolding, The
remaining portions Of the celebrated
frleze, the wonderful masterpiece of
Phidias, can be seen and admired,
and suggests in this connection
whether it would not be better to
place The frieze itself in museum,
and TO replace it on the temple by
a copy. That suggestion ! heartily
lndorse. Not only are the marvellous
works Of a Phidias exposed on the
temple to gradual process of dis
migration under the influence of
weather, but in their present position
they cannot be properly seen and APP
preelaied. Now for the first time,
from the scalfolding which enables
one to approach and study them at
leisure, their great artistic merit
stands fully revealed If modern
sculptor or architect could set them
up about IL meters from the ground,
In a gallery little more than three
Csic( meters broad, he might well af-
ford to disregard scotfers and critics.
And must we allow valuable Greek
originals, numbered among the finest
sculptures of the world, to perish
slowly in a place where they might