The propylon at Eleusis only became the “Lesser” propylon some two hundred years later in the second century C. E. , when Hadrian invigorated Athens and Eleusis with generous benefactions, new organizations, and started the construction of a handsome new “Greater” propylaia, a direct copy of the central building of Mnesikles’ fifth-century propylaia to the Acropolis. The new propylaia were part of a general refurbishing of the whole entrance area to the sanctuary at Eleusis: the courtyard was paved, and a small Doric temple was added (this is usually identified as the Temple of Artemis Propylaia but it could well be the Temple of Triptolemos). Hadrian was himself honored along with the Two Goddesses by two arches set up by members of a civic organization he founded, the Panhellenion, who took a special interest in Eleusinian matters.36 These arches were exact copies of the Arch of Hadrian near the Olympieion in Athens. They frame the entrance court in a manner similar to the omitted wings of Mnesikles’ Propylaia, in effect, bringing a contemporary Roman aspect into the overall design while paying homage to Classical Athens. This is specifically the import of the twin inscriptions on the arches that read “the Panhellenes [dedicate this] to the Two Goddesses and the emperor” (I. G. II2 2958).37
Recent studies by Demetrios Giraud have shown almost conclusively that the Greater Propylaia were started by Hadrian, even though the building was not completed until the reign of Marcus Aurelius, whose portrait was set within one of the tympana. 38 Construction had been interrupted, and delayed further by invasion of the Costobocs in 170. As a visual link between Eleusis and the Akropolis of Athens, the Propylaia of Eleusis are an impressive statement of classicism in the second century. A direct emulation of a fifth-century b. c.e. building would not be constructed again until the late eighteenth century.
World History
