William Page

Watercolour over traces of graphite

35.8 x 51.5 cm

This is drawn from the same vantage point as that used by James ‘Athenian’ Stuart in the 1750s and Dodwell and Pomardi in 1805. Dodwell wrote that the cave which Pausanias mentions in the rock above the theatre of Bacchus, is probably the same as that which is dedicated to the Holy Virgin of the Grotto [Panagia Spelaiotissa],
and which is enclosed by a modern wall, built between the pillars of the choragic monument of Thrasyllos the Decleian... It is a structure of Pentelic marble, simple, elegant, and highly finished. Its entire height is twenty-nine feet five inches ... it receives a dim and mysterious light, through two small apertures in the modern wall, by which a singular and picturesque effect is produced.

The monument was built in 320–319 BC to display a bronze tripod won in a victory for the men’s chorus, and was later converted into a Christian chapel. Standing on the southern slopes of the Acropolis above the theatre of Dionysos, it was still almost intact at the time of Page’s visit. The façade was badly damaged during the Greek War of Independence in the second siege of the Acropolis from August 1826 to June 1827.

Pausanias records that the interior showed Apollo and Artemis killing the children of Niobe. A marble sundial can be seen to the east of the building.