THE PARTHENON.

Drawn by W. Page.

"Heard some curious extracts from the life of Morosini, the blundering Venetian who blew up the Acropolis at Athens with a bomb, and be d-d to him."

Lord Byron's Diary, 1814.

IN addition to the other views of the Parthenon given in these Illustrations, this, taken from among its ruins, has been added, to convey a better idea of the destruction which " Goth, and Turk, and Time," have effected upon this magnificent temple. The portion of it here shewn is its eastern end. The ruins of the western extremity, of which some part of the cella also remains, are much more extensive.

In 1676, when Sir George Wheeler visited Athens, the Parthenon was nearly entire, the only dilapidation, at least that he noticed, was, that the statues had fallen from the eastern pediment; but, in 1687, the Venetian Morosini, having conquered the Morea, made a wanton expedition into Attica, and laid siege to the Acropolis; during its progress, the powder-magazine established by the Turks in the temple exploded; the

centre of the building was blown away and totally destroyed, leaving the insulated mass seen in this viewthe ruins of the eastern portico. The metopes and frieze of the cella which decorated the centre portion are probably buried beneath the ruins, and better preserved than those which have been removed from the ruins of the Parthenon. The Greeks have lately commenced the formation of museums of the antiquities of their nation, and they will perhaps find these ruins still rich in such objects of research.