Themis, a study of the social origins of Greek ... - Warburg Institute

170 The Dithyramb, Spring- Festival, etc. [ch.
' as each Year's Feast goes round.' It is a yearly sacrifice, a year-
sacrifice. For Athenian tcovpoi, he, Erechtheus, is their /i^yio-To?
icovpos.
The whole atmosphere of the passage is agricultural ; but,
when we ask what natural and social facts lie behind the figure
of Erechtheus, we find ourselves surrounded by sanctities more
primitive. The cult and character of Erechtheus must be sought,
if anywhere, in the Erechtheion, the sanctuary which stands on the
site of the old kings' palace of the Acropolis and which still bears
his name, The present temple is of course a building of the end
of the fifth century B.C. All we know certainly of its date is that
A. (Xivt'tree.
B- TricLerifmark
C • Grave of
Kekrojas
ZM^p lATHENATEW
Fig. 37.
it was unfinished in B.C. 408. What concerns us are the ancient
sanctities that the comparatively modern structure was built to
enshrine and safeguard 1 . Of these for our purpose we need only
consider three, the famous ar)/j.eia or tokens
A sacred olive tree,
A 'sea' or well called after Erechtheus ('Epe^^i''?),
' A trident ' mark.
The disposition of trident-mark and olive tree is seen in Fig. 37
The well must have been close to the hol} r tree.
1 A discussion of the topography of the Erechtheion will be found in my Ancient
Athens, 1890, p. 481, and my more recent views as to the disposition of the annua
: