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

Let us now compare the nomenclature of the pre-Persian and Periclean temples. Both were temples of Athena and more especially of Athena as guardian of the city, Athena Polias; a pronaos or proneion formed part of each; one temple was called το Έκατόμεδον, and the main cella of the other was called ό Έκατομπεδοs νεως 26, and this name was extended to the whole building. An opisthodomos was a part of each building, and, if I was right in my observations above, the new one, like the old, was called simply ο οπισθόδομος. As soon as the great Periclean temple was completed, the temple burnt by the Persians was quietly removed as had been intended from the first, the treasure was deposited in the great new opisthodomos, the old ceremonies which might still cling to the temple of the sixth century were transferred, along with the old names, to the splendid new building; the greatest temple on the Acropolis was now as before the house of the patron goddess of the land, and contained her treasure and that of her faithful worshippers, but the two temples did not exist side by side. There was, then, no reason for differentiating between the two temples, as, for instance, by calling the one that had been removed ό αρχαίος veas, because the one that had been removed was no longer in existence. That the designation αρχαίος (παλαιός) νεώς is applicable to the Erechtheion has been accepted for many years and has been explained anew by Petersen. 27 If the temple burnt by the Persians had continued to exist alongside of the Parthenon, one might doubt whether it or the Erechtheion was meant by the expression ό αρχαίος νεώς, but if one of the two temples was no longer in existence, the name must belong to the other. It is just possible that in Hesychios, 'Εκατό μπεδος· νεώς ev τη άκροπόλεί τη Παρθενω κατασκευασθείς υπό Αθηναίων, μείζων του εμπρησθεντος υπό των Περσών ποσΐ πεντήκοντα, the expression του έμπρησθεντος υπό των Περσών (yea or possibly 'Εκατόμπέδου νεώ) was originally chosen because the expression αρχαίου νεώ (which would otherwise be very appropriate here) was regularly used to designate the Erechtheion. 28