Note (return) — THE TEMPLE ON THE ACROPOLIS BURNT BY THE PERSIANS.

The question as to the subject of the relief was a sore puzzle to the early travellers. Père Babin finds "des dieux marins"; 79 Transfeldt, "varias gymnasticorum figuras," which he thought represented certain games held "in Aegena insula" in honor of Demosthenes. 80 Vernon (1676), who regarded the monument as a temple of Hercules, sees his labors depicted in the sculptures of the frieze. 51 Spon, while not accepting this view, admitted that some, at least, of the acts of Herakles were represented; so that the building, apart from its monumental purpose, might also have been sacred to that deity. 82 To Stuart and Revett 83 is due the credit of being the first to recognize in these reliefs the story of Dionysos and the pirates, which is told first in the Homeric Hymn to Dionysos. In the Homeric version, Dionysos, in the guise of a fair youth with dark locks and purple mantle, appears by the seashore, when he is espied by Tyrrhenian pirates, who seize him and hale him on board their ship, hoping to obtain a rich ransom. But when they proceed to bind him the fetters fall from his limbs, whereupon the pilot, recognizing his divinity, vainly endeavors to dissuade his comrades from their purpose. Soon the ship flows with wine; then a vine with hanging clusters stretches along the sail-top, and the mast is entwined with ivy. Too late the marauders perceive their error and try to head for the shore; but straightway the god assumes the form of a lion and drives them, all save the pious pilot, terror-stricken into the sea, where they become dolphins.