Hymettus marble, a material frequently used in the fourth century, though hardly at all in the fifth. This portico. may well have been one of the things finished by Lycurgus; not being necessary for the performance of plays, it might well be left to the last. It doubtless served the purpose assigned by Vitruvius to porticoes near a theatre, to give shelter to the audience in case of a sudden shower; the same purpose would be served also by the adjoining Stoa of Eumenes, when it was built. The Theatre was not used only for dramatic performances. So convenient a place of assembly, when ready for use, soon came to supersede the Pnyx as a place for the meetings of the Ecclesia, or general body of citizens; and ἐν Διονύσου or ἐν τῷ θεάτρῳ is sometimes added to the preamble of decrees in the fourth century and later. At first perhaps, as in recorded instances, these assemblies were to deal with matters concerning the state worship of Dionysus, but other matters of public interest soon came to be included; thus the crown given to Demosthenes, the subject of the two famous speeches of the orator and of his rival Æschines, was ordered to be presented to him in the Theatre at the time of the Great Dionysia. The precinct below the Theatre as well as the Theatre itself were thus places of resort, both at the Dionysiac festivals and at other times, and so became a favourite place for setting up the statues, not only of famous dramatic poets, but also of many poetasters, whose fame seemed even to the Greeks themselves inadequate It is probable that the to justify such an honour. statues which we possess of Sophocles, Euripides, and Menander are derived from the statues set up in the Theatre, though Pausanias himself remarks that the portrait of Eschylus was not a contemporary one. SCULPTURED FRIEZE, SUPPORTING LATER STAGE IN THEATRE. In fact, Lycurgus proposed the erection of statues to Eschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides in the Theatre. There were also in the Theatre statues of Miltiades and Themistocles, each with a Persian captive beside him. The most important works of art recorded by Pausanias in the precinct, besides the colossal gold and ivory statue. of the god by Alcamenes, consist of a series of pictures, probably frescoes, in the temple, and probably contemporary with it. The subjects of these were the return of Hephæstus to Olympus by the help of Dionysus, the punishment of Pentheus and Lycurgus for their violence to the god, and Dionysus approaching Ariadne after her desertion by Theseus,—all of them favourite subjects on vases or other works of ancient art. The small and ancient temple still continued to stand beside the later one, as is proved by the fact that the corner of the great portico behind the Theatre is cut away to fit into its steps. It contained the early wooden statue of Dionysus Eleuthereus, which was annually carried in solemn procession to the Academy. CHAPTER XI THE CERAMICUS1 τιθέασιν οὖν ἐς τὸ δημόσιον σῆμα, ὅ ἐστιν ἐπὶ τοῦ καλλίστου ὁ κεραμεικὸς δέξεται νώ. δημόσια γὰρ ἵνα ταφώμεν, φήσομεν προς τοὺς στρατηγοὺς THE Ceramicus was the chief though not the only burial-place of ancient Athens; but its name is so familiar to us in this connection, both from ancient literature and from modern impressions of the town, that it may be taken as typical of a Greek cemetery. The term "Ceramicus" had indeed no such exclusive application in ancient times. It was the old potters' field that provided the clay for the unrivalled Athenian vases; and it was divided into the inner Ceramicus, which in later times came to be synonymous with the Agora, and the outer Ceramicus, the most beautiful suburb of the city, stretching along the roads to the Academy and Eleusis. 1 For a fuller treatment of the whole subject, see P. Gardner, Sculptured Tombs of Hellas, and Conze, Die attischen Grabreliefs. From quite early times it was used for burial, as is sufficiently attested by the fact that the great majority of the Dipylon vases come from its tombs. But graves of this early period, as well as of that which succeeded, are found in considerable numbers elsewhere in Attica; and burial even within the city itself appears not to have been prohibited until the time of Solon. For the most part, the graves that are scattered over the surface of Attica appear in groups. Often they are in low mounds or tumuli; when such a tumulus is investigated, it sometimes proves to cover a small group of tombs, each with a built structure originally showing above ground. Then the principal tomb of the whole set seems to have been made beside these, and the tumulus heaped up over it; and, finally, many other graves, of various later periods, were made in the tumulus. We are, however, at present mainly concerned with the tombs immediately around Athens. These, as in the case of other Greek cities, seem to have been placed chiefly along the most frequented roads leading out of the town, so as to attract the attention of wayfarers; they naturally were thickest just outside the various gates, though, in the case of the most popular road of all, the Sacred Way to Eleusis, the foundations of many tombs may still be seen even on the ascent to the pass of Daphne. In many cases the tombs of families were grouped together; thus Miltiades, Cimon, and Thucydides were all buried just outside the Melitid gates not, probably, where the rock-cut tomb is now shown |