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

Of Ge Olympia we learn 130 that she had a precinct within the enclosure of the later Olympieum. Pausanias by his mention of the cleft in the earth through which the waters of the flood disappeared and of the yearly offerings of the honey-cake in connection with this, shows the high antiquity of certain rites here celebrated. It is indeed most probable that these ceremonies formed a part of the Chytri; for what seems the more ancient portion of this festival pertains also to the worship of those who perished in Deucalion's flood. The worship of Ge Kourotrophos goes back to times immemorial. Pausanias mentions 131 as the last shrines which he sees before entering the upper city, those of Ge Kourotrophos and Demeter Chloe, which must therefore have been situated on the southwest slope of the Acropolis. Here again near the entrance to the Pelasgic fortification, is where we should expect a priori to find the oldest religious foundations "outside the Polis."