VIEWS  OF ATHENS  IN THE YEAR 1687.
 

  Since such works as Beule's L'Aeropole d'Ath&nes, the Count

De Laborde's Athines au xv.e, xvi.e, et xvii.e Sikchs, and Michaelis's

Parthenon have  appeared, the history of the Acropolis and its

buildings has been made widely known, or  at  least the  ascer¬

tainment  of exact information has been  made  easy for  all

interested in  these subjects.   The more complete the list of

records, the more importance do we attach to any new document

referring directly to the Acropolis or the Parthenon.   The two

drawings in  the library of the late Sir  Thomas  Phillipps at

Thirlstane House, Cheltenham, here published, give  views of

the Acropolis in 1687.

  The main points in the history  of the Parthenon  (for this

ever remains the centre of interest on the Acropolis of  Athens),

are the following: After its completion in 438 B.C. it appears to

have remained in its original  condition until it was turned into

a Christian  church about the middle of  the  fifth century  or the

middle of the sixth, and by peculiar persistency  of its original

dedication to the virgin goddess of wisdom, it  appears to have

been  at first converted into a church of St. Sophia and then

of the Virgin Mary.   The alterations made  chiefly affected the

interior of the  temple.  The  entrance  was transplanted from

the east to  the  west, and an  apse  was built at the east  end,

the roof was vaulted in the interior,  and two  niches were

placed in the tympanum of the  western pediment.   Other

modifications were made, though on the whole they did not

much  alter   the  outer  appearance  of the  building.  At the

beginning of the thirteenth  century it was converted from a

Greek Catholic  into a Roman Catholic  church, and in 1458 it

was turned  into a Turkish mosque.  The alterations in this

case were again  chiefly in the interior, while  in the  exterior

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