Demetrios Bikelas at his writing desk.
"However, admirable even now its external appearance, the view from within is not less impressive; the setting is worthy of the jewel. No sight can surpass in reposeful grandeur the panorama one commands in skirting the edge of the rock. The mountains enclose the plain with its olive grove, the blue sea on the south shut in by the isles of Aegina and Salamis and by the distant mountains of the Morea, and, nearer, the columns of the Olympian Jupiter and of the Theseion, all arched by the transparent Attic sky, unite to form one harmonious picture, the natural features of which are heightened by the magic of the memories of old. In other countries, and elsewhere in Greece, maybe be seen landscapes that stir the admiration of the beholder; but nowhere are to be found more graceful lines or brighter coloring than one sees from the steps of the Parthenon, between the columns of the Propylaea, when the sun goes down:
Not, as in northern climes, obscurely bright,
But one unclouded blaze of living light!
Byron's verses come naturally to the mind on the spots which so well inspired him. The elegant choragic monument of Lysicrates stood within the courtyard of the now demolished convent of the Capuchins where the poet resided. Byron's statue, the gift of a Greek, the late M. Demetrius Schilizri, has recently been erected close by, near Hadrian's arch and the ruined temple of Jupiter." - Demetrios Bikelas