Erechtheum

After the Persian invasion in 480/79 B.C.E. the west side of the Archaic Temple of Athena was probably reconstructed to receive the most holy image of the Goddess Athena, the wooden statue that had fallen from heaven and other cultual relics.

Pericles decided to rebuild the Temple but the Peloponnesian war started and the works didn't begin. When the fighting stopped with the peace of Nikias in 421 B.C.E., the works to build the Erechtheum to the Goddess Athena Polias (Athena, the city preserver) began. The Temple was finished in 406 B.C.E.

The Erechtheum is an Ionic temple with two chambers at different levels facing east and west respectively, the latter also have porches at the north and south.

The eastern part of the building has a cella (inner sanctum) and a pronaos (the antechamber) to the cella with windows on either side of the door which opens to the east porch, 38 ft. (11.63 m) long.

The western part of the building has another cella (inner sanctum) with a floor 9.8 ft. (3 m) lower than the eastern section but with identical ceiling height. This Western cella has 3 entrances. On the north of the western cella, a great door and step lead to the lower Ionic porch of 6 columns, 35 ft. (10.72 m) long. East of this north doorway, an underground opening leads to a crypt under the north porch with a den for snakes. On the south of the western cella, an L-shaped staircase leads to the higher Porch of the Maidens Caryatid Porch, a porch having 6 caryatids as roof supports, all facing south and standing on a low wall. Thus, the only entrance to the Porch of the Maidens is a stairway leading up from the western cella. On the west end of the western cella, a door and step lead to the walled open air Sanctuary of Pandrosus. At the 2nd story level, the outside west wall of the western cella has an engaged base molding with 4 engaged pilasters topped by Ionic columns, spaces between the columns were of open grillwork; thus, from the outside, the western facade gives the appearance of having a floor at the same level as the eastern cella.

It is uncertain which end, east or west, was dedicated to Athena Polias. Travlos believed that the altars of Poseidon-Erechtheus, Boutes, and Hephaestus were in the eastern end making the western end the Erechtheum and the Sanctuary of Athena Polias, containing adytons for the grave of Erechtheus and the xoanon (the most sacred statue) of Athena. As with the Parthenon, the whole building came to be known by the name of one of its cellas, the Erechtheum. Under the southwest corner was the Rock of Cecrops, the place where a mythical king of Athens, Cecrops, was buried.

This temple was designed to accommodate two ancient rites, the cleansing festival, the Plynteria, and the festival of the games, the annual Panathenaea, when omens were taken at the altar in the north porch. Later this festival includes sacrifice at other altars on the Acropolis, especially at the Great Altar.

Later, the western cella was altered and repaired to include cross walls, once in 377/76 B.C.E., and another repair in 27 B.C.E.

Pausanias visited the place in the 2nd century C.E. and reported: Both the city and the whole of the land are alike consecrated to Athena; for even those who in their parishes have an established worship of other Gods nevertheless hold Athena in honor. But the most holy symbol, that was so considered by all many years before the unification of the parishes, is the image of Athena which is on what is now called the Acropolis, but in early days the Polis (City). A legend concerning it says it fell from heaven(...). A golden lamp for the Goddess was made by Callimachus. Having filled the lamp with oil, they wait until the same day next year, and the oil is sufficient for the lamp during the interval, although it is alight both day and night. The wick in it is of Carpasian flax, the only kind of flax which is fire-proof, and a bronze palm above the lamp reaches to the roof and draws off the smoke.(...)

In the Temple of Athena Polias (Of the City) is a wooden Hermes, said to have been dedicated by Cecrops, but not visible because of myrtle boughs. The votive offerings worth noting are, of the old ones, a folding chair made by Daedalus, Persian spoils, namely the breastplate of Masistius, who commanded the cavalry at Plataea, and a scimitar said to have belonged to Mardonius. (1.26-27)

The Erechtheum was occupied by the Christian church in the 7th century C.E.

The Sanctuary of Pandrosus

A basket containing a marvelous child, Erichthonius, was given by the Goddess Athena into the care of the three daughters of Cecrops. The child was produced by the encounter between Athena and Hephaestus. The girls were told to guard the basket without looking into it. Two of them disobeyed, went mad and perished, Pandrosus was the only one of the sisters to be faithful to the trust.

The Sanctuary of Pandrosus is a walled, open air sanctuary; on the Acropolis, joining at the Erechtheum's west end. The East wall of the Sanctuary of Pandrosus is also the west wall of the Erechtheum. The Sanctuary was entered from a second, smaller doorway at the back of the north porch of the Erechtheum, or by a door from the west cella of the Erechtheum. In the northwest corner of the Sanctuary was the small Temple of Pandrosus, opening to the Sanctuary on the east and divided into a porch and cella. In the southeast corner was a stairway leading down to the Rock of Cecrops.

The Sanctuary of Pandrosus is also the proposed location for the sacred olive tree of Athena and an altar to Zeus Herkeios.

Pausanias visited the place and reports: Adjoining the Temple of Athena is the Temple of Pandrosus, the only one of the sisters to be faithful to the trust. (1.27.2)

The Sacred Olive Tree of Athena

The Erechtheum is one of the most astonishing buildings of Greek architecture. Its name means the "house of Erechtheus", the latter being one of the legendary heroes of Athens who was either the offspring of Hephaestus and Earth, or else of Pandion I and Xeuxippe, and hence one of the early Athenians kings. Subsequently he became identified with Poseidon: the God, who had decided to appropriate Athens for himself, was said to have created a saltwater spring on the Acropolis with a blow of his trident, and Athena planted an olive tree nearby. Both acts were carried out in the presence of the serpent-king Cecrops, who was appointed by Zeus to arbitrate between the two. Cecrops testified that the Goddess Athena had been the first to stake Her claim, and that the olive was more useful than a saltwater well - so Poseidon was obliged to share the shrine with Her. The north portico opens onto the Pandroseum, or Temenos (precinct) of Pandrosus (one of the daughters of Cecrops), wherein grows the sacred olive of Athena.

Pausanias visited it and reports: About the olive they have nothing to say except that it was testimony the Goddess produced when She contended for their land. Legend also says that when the Persians fired Athens the olive was burnt down, but on the very day it was burnt it grew again to the height of two cubits. (1.27.2)

The House of the Arrephoroi

Two to four Athenian maidens were chosen for the service of the Goddess and lived on the Acropolis for one year. Between the ages of seven and eleven, they were selected from among the noble families. All were called Arrephoroi.

The Athenians wore characteristic golden hair ornaments that became sacred only after the servants of the Goddess put them on.

It was this same Arrephoroi, who, imitating the daughters of Cecrops but less curious than they, carried the basket with the unknown contents out of the fortress into the Sanctuary on the north slope of the Acropolis.

Plutarch writes about a hand ball court on the Acropolis and G.P. Stevens has assigned this function to the court east of the House of the Arrephoroi. The building may have had a hipped roof.

It was a square building on the north side of the Acropolis, east and north of the Erechtheum, constructed in the Doric order ca. 500 - 400 B.C.E. Inside, a large room with a colonnade of 4 columns ca. 15.9 ft. (4.85 m) height in antis at the entrance which opened south. On the east side there was a large rectangular court. There was a concealed staircase northwest of the square building, in the court, leading down to the grotto of Aglaurus.

The Sanctuary of Aglaurus

Aglaurus (and Herse?) had a Sanctuary in a cave at the north slope of the Acropolis. It was the place where Aglaurus supposedly had jumped to, in self-sacrifice according to one version, or out of insanity at having glimpsed the forbidden content of the basket according to another. Herse shared the wrongdoing and the punishment with her.

There was a concealed staircase northwest of the square building of the House of the Arrephoroi, in the court, leading down to the grotto of Aglaurus.

Pausanias reports: Above the Sanctuary of the Dioscuri is a sacred enclosure of Aglaurus. It was to Aglaurus and her sisters, Herse and Pandrosus, that they say Athena gave Erichthonius, whom She had hidden in a chest, forbidding them to pry curiously into what was entrusted to their charge. Pandrosus, they say, obeyed, but the other two (for they opened the chest) went mad when they saw Erichthonius, and threw themselves down the steepest part of the Acropolis. (1.18.2)

The oaths' ceremony of the attic phratries (brotherhoods) was made at this place.

Present state

The restoration project completed in 1987 made use of new marble components, with a view to creating stability wherever the original stone was defective. During the work a number of errors committed by earlier restores were corrected, in particular regarding the ceiling of the north porch and the walls of the sides of the Sanctuary, where computer analysis of the stones made it possible to pinpoint their original locations. Basically the Porch of the Caryatids has now revealed to its original form; the crosspieces that held the statues at fixed distances apart have been removed, and the east facade is once again complete, the northeast corner having been reconstructed with copies of the column and epistyles removed by Lord Elgin (now in the British Museum).

Views

See also

Sources

Location

Home » Museum » Temples Gallery » The Erechtheum