Note 150 — THE TEMPLE ON THE ACROPOLIS BURNT BY THE PERSIANS.

Footnote 150: (return) I have translated ιερω by precinct. This is liable to the objection that ιερον may also mean temple; and ανοίγεται "is opened" of the passage may naturally be applied to the opening of a temple. But "hieron" often refers to a sacred precinct, and there is nothing to prevent the verb in question from being used of a "hieron" in this sense. If we consult the passages in which this particular precinct is mentioned we find, in those quoted from Photius and the Etymologicum Magnum, that the Lenaeum contains a hieron of the Lenaean Dionysus. This might be either temple or precinct. In the citation from Bekker's Anecdota the Lenaeum is the hieron at which were held the theatrical contests. This implies that the hieron was a precinct of some size. The Scholiast to Achar. 202 makes the Lenaeum the hieron of the Lenaean Dionysus. Here "hieron" is certainly a precinct. Hesych. (επi Ληναίω αγών) renders this still more distinct by saying that the Lenaeum contained the hieron of the Lenaean Dionysus, in which the theatrical contests were held. But Demosthenes in the Neaera declares that the decree was engraved on a stone stele. It was the custom to set up such inscriptions in the open air. This stele was also beside the altar. There were indeed often altars in the Greek temple, but the chief altar (βωμος of the passage) was in the open air. Furthermore, if the decree had been placed in the small temple, the designation "alongside the altar" would have been superfluous. But in the larger precinct such a particular location was necessary. Nor can it be urged, in view of the secret rites in connection with the marriage of the King Archon's wife to Dionysus on the 12th of Anthesterio, that hieron must mean temple; since the new Aristotle manuscript tells us that this ceremony took place in the Bucoleum.