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

Another important argument is furnished by the certain use of terracotta plates as acroteria. Pausanias 49 mentions such acroteria on the Stoa Basileios on the agora of Athens. Pliny 50 says that such works existed down to his day, and speaks of their great antiquity. Fortunately a notable example has been preserved in the acroterium of the gable of the Heraion at Olympia, 51 a great disk of clay over seven feet in diameter. It forms a part, says Dr. Dörpfeld, of the oldest artistic roof construction that has remained to us from Greek antiquity. That is, the original material of the acroteria was the same used in the whole covering of the roof, namely terracotta. The gargoyles also, which later were always of stone, were originally of terracotta. Further we find reliefs in terracotta pierced with nail-holes and evidently intended for the covering of various wooden objects; sometimes, it is safe to say, for wooden sarcophagi. Here appears clearly the connection that these works may have had with the later reliefs in marble.