A source-book of ancient history - The Search For Mecca

Odeum and Propylsa 189
Pericles at that period used his influence to pass a decree
for establishing a musical competition at the Panathenaic
festival ;
and being himself chosen judge, he laid down rules
Th^e Propy-
as to how the candidates were to sing, and play the flute
or the harp. At that period and ever afterward all musical
contests took place in the Odeum.
The Propylaea, before the Acropolis, was finished in
five years, by Mnesicles the architect; and a miraculous
incident during the work seemed to show that the goddess
did not disapprove, but rather encouraged and assisted
the building. The most energetic and active of the workmen
fell from a great height, and lay in a dangerous condition,
given over by his doctors. Pericles grieved much
for him; but the goddess appeared to him in a dream, and
suggested a course of treatment by which Pericles quickly
healed the workman. In consequence of this, he set up
the brazen statue of Athena the healer, near the old altar
The golden statue of the goddess was
in the Acropolis.
made by Pheidias, and his name appears on the base in
an inscription. Almost everything was in his hands, and
he gave his orders to all the workmen—as we have said
before—because of his friendship with Pericles.
IV.
Selections from Sophocles
When a god sends harm, not even the strong man can
Orestes in
1 •
i i. i the Delphic
escape. For on another day, when chariots were to try chariot-race.
their speed at sunrise, he (Orestes) entered, with many
^ 11 1
charioteers. One was an Achaean, one from Sparta, two Sophocles,
T •! r-\ 1 • • Eleclra,
masters of yoked cars were Libyans; Orestes, driving 696 fi.
Thessalian mares, came fifth among them; the sixth from
iEtoha, with chestnut colts; a Magnesian was the seventh;
the eighth, with white horses, was of /Enian stock; the