So those two, the, again a very important point
I believe about the quality of these works of art.
And we're also going to see works of architecture.
We're also going to see, that at least two of them, in
my opinion, are really distinctive structures
different than anything we've seen before.
And I think that you'll find they're quite innovative in their own way.
And we will look at, as I said, both of those today.
The city of Athens began to be excavated by archeologists in the 1930s.
And those excavations, which were
scientific, very careful scientific excavations.
Those excavations, combined with information that we have
from a writer of the Greco Roman past.
A man by the name of Pausanias. P-A-U-S-A-N-I-A-S.
Pausanias.
Who was a Greek of the second century
AD, who traveled around Greece and described everything that
he saw and he created in essence a
guide book to the creat Greek and Roman antiquities.
The combination of his descriptions from
the second century first-hand descriptions, of
the monuments that stood in the second century, along with the scientific
excavations of the 1930's and since allow us to get an excellent sense of what.
Not only what as we look at the remains today, not only
of what was there, is there now and was there once upon
a time, but what these buildings actually were their identities and what
their function was in Athens, either in Greek or in Roman times.
And we will
use the information provided by both of those today to
allow us to reconstruct the city, the Roman City in particular.
Now, the building as you could see from
the view of the Acropolis there are a number
of Greek structures on the top of the
Acropolis and I will show them to you later.
These include the great Greek entry way of
the fifth century BC, the so called Propilea.
The famous
Parthenon of course, the small temple of Athena Nike.
And also the Erechtheion which is the only building we've
really discussed in any detail in the course of this semester.
A fifth century BC building, you see it
here in an extraordinary view, now on the screen.
The Erechtheion, which we believe was built
some time between about 421 and 406 BC.
And the reason that it's important is not only because it's
an incredible example of fifth century Greek architecture, but
also because of the buildings up on the Acropolis.
It is the one that seems to have captured the imagination of, of Augustus
and also Hadrian when both of them when they visited the city of Athens.
But also of the Romans as a whole and you'll remember the reason for
that is essentially the' Porch of the Maidens which you can see so well in
this view.
The Porch of the Maidens that exerted
a very strong impact on Augustus and Hadrian.
Before I talk a little bit more about the
Porch of the Maidens though, just something about the rest
of the construction that you can see as you look
at the columns that they are of the ionic order.
A particularly attractive and elegant version of the ionic
order with the ionic capitals with their very attractive volutes.
You can also see the materials that are used here.
What you can't see is what's used for the foundations.
That material is called poros. Poros.
P-O-R-O-S.
Used for the foundations of the Erechtheion, and also
many other of the buildings that we'll look at today.
And then most most importantly, the, most of the building.
The walls and the columns are made out of pentelic marble.
P-E-N-T-E-L-I-C.
Pentelic marble, which is from Mount Pentilicon in Greece.
And is the marble that is used most often for for buildings in Athens
both in Greek times and also in Roman times as we shall see today.
And it's characterized by being gleaming white.
Really blindingly white as one looks at it in the very bright Greek
sun against the blue sky.
With regard to the Caryatid porch, the Porch of the Maidens, a very famous Porch
of the Maidens, you'll recall that both Augustus and Hadrian visited Athens.
They both saw this monument.
The Erechtheion had fallen into disrepair by the age of Augustus and
Augustus was so admiring of this porch that he made the decision to
have his own architects and artisans come to Athens to repair the porch.
And they not only repaired the maidens themselves but also replaced one.
One was in such bad shape I think it was the one in the back right.
It was in such bad shape that they restored that one entirely.
When they were there looking at those maidens, restoring them.
They were so taken by them
that they made plaster casts of those and they brought them back to Rome.
And you'll recall that they were used in Rome
as the models for maidens that were put up.
Here's, here's a view, of course, of those on the Acropolis from the front.
They made reduced-scale copies for the Forum of Augustus in Rome,
the second story of the Forum of Augustus, as you'll recall.
And then, down here, you'll be reminded of
the Cariotids also based on those of the Erechtheion.
In this case, to scale, same scale, as those in
Athens, used to line the Canopis of Hadrian's villa at Tivoli.
So, both emperors, again, Augustus and Hadrian very admiring of these works
of art and wanted copies of them for in Augustus's case a public structure
in Rome.
In Hadrian's case a private villa at Tivoli.
And we even believe that Herodes Atticus and the tomb that he made for
Annia Regilla in Rome, that brick tomb in second century AD on the Via Appia.
There were two female figures that were found, near, excavated near that tomb
and it has been suggested that they too, may belong to that tomb.
And while they are variations rather than copies, you can see that they
too owe their origins to the Caryatids. This building the cast a