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PENTELI (Mountain) ATTIKI
A mountain in Attica, celebrated for its marble; a branch of Mount Parnes, from which it runs in a southeasterly direction between Athens and Marathon to the coast. It was also called Brilessus
Mountain of Attica, image of Athena on, Pentelic quarries, Pentelic marble.
At the NE corner of the Athenian plain, between Parnes and Hymettos,
lies the mountain range of Pendeli, more commonly known in antiquity as Brilessos
(e.g. Thuc. 2.23.1). It was famous for its fine-grained white marble, which, although
at first used sparingly for sculpture in the early 6th c. B.C., later became a
major source of material for Athenian buildings, particularly on the Acropolis.
According to Pausanias (1.19.6) the quarries were largely exhausted in the 2d
c. A.D. by the construction of the Panathenaic Stadium, a fact which modern exploitation
has refuted.
The ancient quarries can still be seen on the mountain's SW face.
The most conspicuous, Spilia, with its large cavern behind, has a towering vertical
face covered with channelings made by the miners. From here the marble was taken
down hill along a steep, well-preserved road, with holes cut in the rock on either
side to receive posts for the ropes to control the sleds. A few minutes' climb
above Spilia is a small cave that served as a sanctuary of the nymphs. Among the
finds were two excellent reliefs of the nymphs with Pan and Hermes from the 4th
c. B.C. On the skyline directly above the quarries, 400 m SE of the summit, is
a manmade platform suitable for the statue of Athena mentioned by Pausanias (1.32.2).
C.W.J. Eliot, ed.
This text is from: The Princeton encyclopedia of classical sites,
Princeton University Press 1976. Cited Nov 2002 from
Perseus Project URL below, which contains bibliography & interesting hyperlinks.
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