The temple of _Niké Apteros_ (“wingless victory”) stands on the edge of the Acropolis to the south of the Propylæa. The term “wingless” has reference to the fact that Victory was generally represented as a winged woman, and Pausanias explains the want of wings on the statue of the goddess in this temple as expressing the faith of the Athenians that Victory would never desert their city. A more natural explanation is to be found in the fact that Victory is here represented under the guise of Athena, who was never depicted as having wings. The temple seems to have been erected some years before the Erechtheum, and about the same time as the Propylæa and the Parthenon. Its history is in some respects even more remarkable than that of either of the other temples. It was demolished by the Turks in 1687 in order to afford materials for the construction of a bastion. In 1835, after the Greeks had regained their independence, the bastion was taken down, the result being that nearly all the fragments of marble were recovered and the temple restored very much in its original form. When it is closely examined the joints and patches betray its second-hand character (as do also some terra-cotta figures in the frieze, the originals having been removed some time before the restoration to the British Museum), but when it is seen from a little distance it presents a charming appearance. It is a very small temple, consisting of a _cella_ sixteen feet long, with four Ionic columns in front and rear. Each of the column-shafts is made out of a single block of Pentelic marble, and has twenty-four flutes. There is a beautiful frieze with sculptures in high relief. On the eastern front is a representation of various divinities, while the subjects depicted on the three other sides are appropriate to the views seen in the several directions. The northern side looks towards Marathon, the southern towards Salamis, and on both these sides we see a representation of battles between Greeks and Persians; but on the western side, which looks towards Cithæron, there is a picture of a conflict between Greeks and Greeks, the Thebans having allied themselves with the [Illustration: THE EASTERN PORTICO OF THE ERECHTHEUM, VIEWED FROM THE NORTHERN PERISTYLE OF THE PARTHENON The column to the right, with its strong golden-brown local colour, warmed by the full morning summer sun, is the third column counting from the north-east corner of the Parthenon. The blocks of marble which conceal the lower part of the column form part of the _pronaos_ wall. The east portico of the Erechtheum is seen below to the left; behind are the mountains of Daphni.]