The temple is an elegant edifice, supported by a beautiful colonnade, on a similar plan to the largest at Pestum. It was erected in the administration of Cimon, who, having discovered the bones of Theseus in the island of Shyros, where he was killed by a fall from a precipice, restored them to his native city. The metopes on the front, and part of the sides, are ornamented with basso relievo, representing the battle of the Centaurs. These, you may recollect, were nothing more than the cavalry of Thessaly, where the men were so perfect in the management of their horses, that, when mounted, they were supposed to be part of the same animal.
The east gateway, which was also erected to Theseus, remains tolerably perfect. It was repaired by Adrian, who added an inscription, importing that Athens was now become his city; and, indeed, by his liberality, he in some measure made amends for the depredations the Romans committed upon her ornaments, and earned the title of one of her founders. It was this Emperor who raised that superb pile the Pantheon, dedicated to all the Gods; which, by its grandeur, elegance and beauty, justly merited that exalted title. Out of an hundred and twenty columns, each eighteen feet in circumference, only nine are standing. They are of the finest marble, with very rich Corinthian capitals. Those of Theseus and Minerva are Doric.
The monument vulgarly called the Lanthorn of Demosthenes, being inhabited by a French Monk, and the octagonal Temple of the Winds, by a Turkish Dervise, are still entire. The former is light and elegant; the latter has nothing but its antiquity to recommend it; for the figures which represent the different winds, are so indifferently executed, that, were not their names inscribed below them, it would be impossible to know their qualities.
Some triumphal columns, and other monuments, are still left in tolerable preservation, besides a considerable part of the Theatre of Bacchus, and many other fragments and ruins, which I am less particular in describing, because we have taken exact plans of all of them.
The channel of the Ilyssus, whose banks were formerly so famous, is dry, even at this rainy season; and I have several times walked in its bed, as well as in the olive groves where Plato delivered his lectures. I have also been as far as the plains of Marathon, to pay my oblations at the shrine of Miltiades--an interesting scene to a Soldier, and of which my military friends may expect an exact description.