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On the Ancient Hecatompedon which occupied the site of the Parthenon on the Acropolis of Athens
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 23 December 2013
Extract
Amongst the many interesting discoveries made in the excavations carried on chiefly during the year 1889 between the Parthenon and the citadel wall were two inscriptions which were put together by Herr Lolling and published in the Athena for 1890. These show that a temple named the Hecatompedon existed at Athens previous to the Persian invasion. It is the object of this article to show that this Hecatompedon occupied the same site as the present Parthenon.
Previous to the discovery by Dr. Dörpfeld of the site of the great archaic temple between the Erechtheum and the Parthenon, and the views which he has propounded with respect to its theoretical restoration, every archaeologist was disposed to agree with Col. Leake that an earlier Parthenon had existed—and must have supposed that the sub-basement on the south side of the Parthenon and the entablatures which are so well known to visitors to Athens, which have been built into the north wall of the Acropolis, originally belonged to each other; and I propose in the first instance to endeavour to show what a high probability there is for the correctness of this view, and afterwards to discuss the newer theory both in its bearings on the substructure of the Parthenon and on such of the extant remains as undoubtedly belonged to the archaic temple itself.
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- Copyright © The Society for the Promotion of Hellenic Studies 1891
References
page 276 note 1 As respects the 
of the inscription published in the Δελτίον, 1890, p. 97, I conclude that these were store chambers built subsequently to its first foundation within the Naos of the Hecatompedon.
page 276 note 2 As it bears a certain resemblance to a step it may have been taken from one of the lower steps of the temple which preceded the Parthenon, but the position I should assign to it would be the coping of the sub-basement wall on which it may have carried some kind of parapet.
page 278 note 1 N is omitted from the list as between M and O about 5·8—6·0 from the former there is a defect in the stone, so it is possible that a mark may have been there but there is no sign of it.
page 278 note 2 TX if measured to the face of the panel instead of along the channel would be 57·775.
page 280 note 1 It was not necessary to work the courses for the north-west extension with such exactness because the rock was immediately below them, but here the angle of the temple had to be supported on a very deep artificial foundation so that it was necessary to bond the new and old together more carefully.
page 284 note 1 Whenever Aegina is mentioned, I always mean, unless otherwise stated, the temple of Jupiter Panhellenius.
page 284 note 2 That is, taken on the lower step of the cella in each case.
page 285 note 1 The sequence of growth in these three temples is remarkable, the cella of the Hecatompedon being approximately equal to the whole length of the archaic temple 144·844 at the bottom of the step compared with 142·273. The Parthenon cella again, as shown above, is fifty feet longer than that of the Hecatompedon, but also if reckoned on its upper step almost exactly equal to the total length of the Hecatompedon, viz. 193·733 compared with 193·125, and the interior length of the Parthenon within the walls from pronaos to posticum 144·950 to compare with the total exterior length of the cella of the Hecatompedon 144·844.
page 286 note 1 Mr. W. W. Lloyd has shown that in the Parthenon the Hccatompedon measure is to be looked for between the same points.
page 287 note 1 The excavations at the temple referred to have been conducted by the American School under the superintendence of Mr. Washington, It promises to be a very interesting discovery in many ways.
page 288 note 1 It has been objected that so costly a wall as this would never have been built merely for the purpose of upholding a terrace, but must have been intended for the direct support of the peristyle of a magnificent temple, but the ancient wall-builders—witness the costly substructions at Sunium, the Heraeum near Argos and other places—were not penetrated with the economic ideas of the present day. This terrace around the temple, answering to the peribolus in places where there, was more space available, would have had an important function of its own.
page 291 note 1 See the observations on this head in a previous page.
page 292 note 1 The measurements given by Stuart of this temple seem to give the only record where we can feel any confidence that the two diameters are measured from the same column. Blouet, who seems to have had access by ladder to the top, fails to record the measurements required. Stuart's measurements are generally trustworthy and in his measure of the height he agrees with Blouet—and also with my own taken trigonometrically.
page 294 note 1 The hole may of course have been formed subsequently to the removal of the columns, but the leading probability is that of its coexistence with them, especially as the wall of which the traces are visible against the caryatid porch must probably have been built over it at an early date.
page 296 note 1 Mr. Lockyer (as he informs us, in Nature), after he had commenced the investigations alluded to, found he had been anticipated by Herr H. Nissen in Germany. Mr. Lockyer however has carried the enquiry much further (vid. articles in Nature, Nos. for April 16, May 7 and 21, and June 4 of this year, on The Early History of Astronomy. He has also expounded his views on Orientation in a lecture to the Society of Antiquaries in May last). See also the contributions to this subject by Nissen, H. in the Rheinisches Museum f. Philologie, particularly the 1885 and 1887 volumesGoogle Scholar. M. Émile Bernouf also in his Légende Athénisnne seems to have approached very near to the point without however reaching it.