{"id":873,"date":"2019-11-08T11:23:43","date_gmt":"2019-11-08T11:23:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/curiosi\/?p=873"},"modified":"2019-11-21T17:21:29","modified_gmt":"2019-11-21T17:21:29","slug":"allen-seaby-leon-of-massalia-chapter-8-on-the-acropolis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/curiosi\/allen-seaby-leon-of-massalia-chapter-8-on-the-acropolis\/","title":{"rendered":"Allen Seaby, Leon of Massalia, Chapter 8: On the Acropolis"},"content":{"rendered":"

I saw, one day, a-gathering flowers,
\nA dainty little maid.<\/p>\n

Sappho<\/p>\n

Later that day Thalia asked a favour of Leon. Everyone said she should go to the temple of Nik\u00e9 and offer thanks, but no one had time to go with her. Leon smiled, \u201cWell, I\u2019m not too busy. Let\u2019s go now while the sun is shining. I shall be glad to revisit the Akropolis.\u201d<\/p>\n

Thalia darted away and shortly returned with a fresh ribbon in her hair and carrying her offering \u2013 a basket of fruit. There was an array of purple figs, greyish olives, golden lemons and laurel leaves. \u201cI arranged them myself\u201d, she said.<\/p>\n

The two made their way to the Akropolis and climbed to the little temple, where Thalia laid her offering before the altar and knelt repeating the phrases her mother had taught her. The young priest appeared and greeted them warmly.<\/p>\n

After visiting the bench where Thalia had slept they talked about her walk with unseeing eyes through the thronged dark streets, and her climb at the end. \u201cThe gods\u201d, affirmed the priest, \u201ccan give strength to the weak and knowledge to the ignorant. Without doubt the child is in the direct care of Athene. Farewell, child and you my friend from overseas. The gods have you both in their keeping.\u201d He waved farewell and the two went through the Propylaia, Thalia saying she had seen the pictures in the left-hand chamber so often she knew them by heart.<\/p>\n

They then found themselves before the great bronze statue of Athene Champion, her shield, helmet, crest and spear-point gold-bedecked. Leon told Thalia that he had seen the glint of the spear-head while his vessel was still out at sea.<\/p>\n

Thalia took Leon\u2019s hand and taking charge of him, began to act as a guide: \u201cWe will now visit the groups of statuary, many of them famous, which line the path to the cella of the great goddess Athene\u201d, she said in a formal tone.<\/p>\n

She had her favourites, however, for she passed most of the groups without comment. She paused before Myron\u2019s heifer. The large bronze cow was swaying her head and stamping impatiently. \u201cMyron must have been thinking of Io, driven all over the world by the stinging gad-fly\u201d, she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cMyron is good at depicting action\u201d, Leon responded. \u201cI have already seen his Diskobolos bending over with his arm holding the disc outstretched, and looking back.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cLet\u2019s go on to the Parthenon,\u201d Thalia suggested. They walked round to the east porch, and knelt for a moment before Athene. The bronze gates had been thrown back and the two could see the great ivory and gold statue towering up in the dim light, ghost-like and shimmering.<\/p>\n

Then Thalia stood up and said briskly, \u201cNow for the frieze\u201d. She could remember the last Panathenaic procession nearly four years earlier and so knew exactly how the procession should go. She marched Leon back to the west end of the temple, facing the Propylaia. Here they could see depictions of the procession\u2019s start down in the Kerameikos, the pottery quarter, where the knights were getting ready to mount.<\/p>\n

Next they moved to the north side of the temple. \u201cHere go the horsemen. I like the gilded bronze bits and bridles.\u201d She pointed at the horses, \u201cI think the riders make their steeds prance on purpose to show how well they can manage them.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cNow we\u2019ve reached the chariots\u201d, said Leon.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re the most exciting part of the show\u201d, declared Thalia. \u201cThe soldiers jump in and out of the chariots all the time.\u201d Next they saw magistrates, and in front the musicians with their lyres and pipes. Then, youths carrying hydrias<\/em> containing water from the sacred spring. Before them were men with trays of offerings and in front the victims \u2013 sheep and cows. \u201cNow we come to the most sacred part, the frieze in front of Athene\u2019s cella. Here are the maidens with the jugs of wine and instruments for the sacrifice; there is the priest with the peplos or cloak for the xoanon<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd here, to right and left, are the gods and goddesses. They sit up here on thrones waiting to receive the peplos.\u201d Leon looked and identified Athene next to the peplos, her aegis<\/em> or breast plate in her lap. Next to her was Hephaestos, his crutch under his shoulder. Zeus was in the middle on a high-backed seat and next to him sat Ares holding his spear. Hermes had his broad-brimmed traveller\u2019s hat on his knees and in his right hand held his staff with its intertwined snakes.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe may as well see the other side,\u201d Thalia said, \u201calthough it\u2019s much the same as the first \u2013 mostly horsemen. And my neck begins to ache.\u201d<\/p>\n

As they moved away Thalia jumped to another topic. \u201cMother says that, although the men have things their own way down in the city, up on the Akropolis they bow down to female deities. All the shrines here are for goddesses. There\u2019s Mother Ge\u2019s altar in the very centre, three temples for Athene and no fewer than six statues of her if you count the Nik\u00e9. Then Artemis has a shrine by the gateway and Aphrodite\u2019s precinct is over there\u201d, she pointed to the north side. \u201cMy sister (she was married before you came), used to go there with other girls once a year with baskets of offerings which they threw down a cleft in the rock. Mother says I must go when I am older.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cBut you\u2019ve forgotten Erechtheus\u2019 triple temple\u201d, laughed Leon. \u201cIt\u2019s unfortunate that the Erechtheion is closed for rebuilding. I would have liked to have seen the print Poseidon made on the rock with his trident when he was contending with Athene for the lordship of the city. And the salt spring below. That\u2019s why the Erechtheion is a funny shape. So that all the sacred spots there could be enshrined in one building.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI saw them once,\u201d said Thalia, \u201cand the serpents too. The priestess showed them to me. They were in a box and she raised the lid a little so that I could peep in. They were wriggling. Ugh!\u201d she shuddered.<\/p>\n

Just before they reached the Propylaia on their way out, Thalia drew Leon towards the marble pavement of Artemis of the Bears, guardian of young animals, especially bears. Although there were no bears at present, the priestess had a cat with a family of playful kittens. Thalia nursed one on her lap, and was asked whether she would like it. \u201cOh! May I?\u201d she asked Leon.<\/p>\n

So Thalia walked back happy, with the kitten cuddled in her arms. She said: \u201cI don\u2019t want to say good-bye to Artemis. Mother says that soon I must bring my dolls and toys, lay them at the altar and dance before Artemis as a farewell to my childhood. I don\u2019t want to grow up, Leon. It means no more play and lots of work at the inn.\u201d She brightened up. \u201cI shall have a new dress for that dance, a saffron one, and a necklace and earrings.\u201d She became silent, overcome by those thoughts.<\/p>\n

\n

To read chapter nine click on this picture.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I saw, one day, a-gathering flowers, A dainty little maid. Sappho Later that day Thalia asked a favour of Leon. 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