ATHENS. - Vue de la Lanterne de Demosthene a Athenes.

A copper engraved view the" Lantern of Demosthenes "or Lysicrates Monument, Athens from Le Roy's "Les Ruines des Plus Beaux Monuments de la Grece ." Black and white, verso blank.
The view shows the monument as part of the French Capuchin monastry, with a group of musicians and dancers in the street. The monastery founded in 1658, succeeded in purchasing the monument in 1669 when it was being called the "Lantern of Diogenes" after the famous Athenian cynic philosopher of the 4th century BC.
A reading of its inscription by Jacob Spon established its original purpose. and that it was was erected by the choregos Lysicrates, a wealthy patron of musical performances in the Theatre of Dionysus, to commemorate the award of first prize in 335/334 BC to one of the performances he had sponsored. [The choregos was the sponsor who paid for and supervised the training of the dramatic dance-chorus.]
It was erected in the Street of the Tripods an ancient road that led from the sanctuary of Dionysos around the east and northeast sides of the Acropolis and the monument is adorned with a frieze depicting episodes of the life of Dionysus, the god whose rites developed into Greek theatre.
(In the Middle Ages, the monument also acquired the nickname "Lantern of Demosthenes" from the erroneous belief that the 4h century orator composed his speeches there.)

Lord Byron stayed at the Capuchin monastery during his second visit to Greece. In 1818, friar Francis planted in its gardens the first tomato plants in Greece. In 1821 the convent, which had enclosed the monument, used as a storage for books, was burned during the Ottoman occupation of Athens, and subsequently demolished, and the monument was inadvertently exposed to the weather.
In 1829, the monks offered the structure to an Englishman on tour, but it proved to be too cumbersome to disassemble and ship. Lord Elgin negotiated unsuccessfully for the monument, by then an icon in the Greek Revival.
French archaeologists cleared the rubble from the half-buried monument and searched the area for missing architectural parts. In 1876–1887, the architects François Boulanger and E. Loviot supervised a restoration under the auspices of the French government.

Reference: Blackmer/ Navari :1009; Atabey 709;Cohen de-Ricci 627