NEW TREASURES?

Greymouth Evening Star, 11 July 1931, Page 11

NEW TREASURES?

HUNT ON ACROPOLIS. Recent discoveries of archaeologists working in the vicinity of the Acropolis of Athens raise the hope that other important ruins will soon be brought to light on that hill, the location of the Parthenon and other architectural masterpieces, says the New York ‘“Times.” A few weeks ago a mutilated statue was picked up, and was said to be one of the famous western pediment group of the Parthenon, missing since about 1749. More recently ruins were dug up on the northern slope of the Acropolis, believed to be those of the first Temple of Eros, god of love. The Acropolis, rocky plateau 886 feet long, 512 feet wide, and about 500 feet above sea level, ~has been the scene of many excavations. The surface of the hill itself has been dug down to bedrock, and it is thought unlikely that further discoveries will be made there. But the slopes present better opportunities. On the northern slope, for instance, debris thrown from the hill in past years has accumulated to a depth of 40 feet, houses have been built there, and trees have grown up. It is a newer and perhaps fertile field. STATUE OF ATHENA. But to tell in advance just what fragments of Grecian art, what shattered temples or altars lie on the slopes of the ancient citadel would, according to archaeologists, be quitfutile. Books have been written on suppositions; plans have been drawn on conjectures. Most of such guesses go back, in the last analysis, to the Greek historian Pausanias, who, in the second century A.D., travelled through Greece and wrote a description of the Acropolis as he saw it then. After painting glowing pictures of the Propylaea, Erechtheum, Parthenon, etc., his account has mainly to do with the statues there. At that time there must have been a very large number of images, most of which were broken up or carried away in the Middle Ages. On the Acropolis stood, according to Pausanias, as a trophy of the Persian Wars, the immense bronze statue of Athena, “made from the spoils of the Medes who landed at Marathon. It is the work of Phidias. The whole of the wall which runs around the Acropolis, except that part built by Cimon, son of Miltiades, is said to have been erected by the Pelasgians, who once dwelt at the foot of the Acropolis. “There is but one entrance to the *Acropolis,” he writes. “It admits of no other, being everywhere precipitous and fortified with a strong wall. The portal has a roof of white marble, and for the beauty and size of the blocks it has never been matched. On the right of the portal is a temple of Athena Nike. At the entrance are figures of Hermes and the Graces and a bronze lioness in memory of Leaena, tortured to death by Hippias. Near by is an image of Aphrodite, and a bronze statue of Dutrephes, pierced by arrows. There are images of gods,

of Health, the daughter of Aesculapius, and of Athena. “Among other things that I saw on the Acropolis at Athens was the bronze boy holding the sprinkler (by Lycius), and Perseur after he has done the deed on Medusa (by Myron). Also a sanctuary of Brauronian Artemis; the image is by Praxiteles, the bronze figure of the so-called Wooden Horse, and statues of Epicharmus, running in armour, of Heracles strangling the serpents, and of Athena rising from the head of Zeus.” On the Acropolis now are the ruins of a number of magnificent buildings. On its northern side is the Propylaea, praised by Pausanias. On the right of the Acropolis entrance is the little temple of Athena Nike, from which Aegeus is said to have thrown himself upon beholding the black sails of the ship of Theseus returning from having killed the Minotaur. Through the Propylaea, on the left, is the unique little temple called the Erechtheum. On the southern side is the Parthenon, or Temple of Maidens.

During the hearing in the Magistrate’s Court at Invercargill,' of an unusual case in which the question at issue was the ownership of a the greater part of which had during a heavy gale, been blown across the, boundary on to a neighbour’s property. Mr G. M. Broughton (who appeared for the plaintiff) in his opening remarks to the Court stated that the legal authorities on the point in dispute were somewhat rare. “However, your Worship,” counsel continued, “I have found a case in 1466 covering similar facts as occur in the present apt)* oll -” “When did you say?” queried his Worship (Mr E. C, Levvey) with a bewildered smile. “In 1466, sir,” was Mr Broughton’s reply. “I didn’t think they were printing then,” commented his Worship, smiling still more broadly. “At any rate sir, the case, though nearly 500 years old, has apparently never been overruled,” Mr Broughton remarked.