UC-NRLF ^C lEfl El? c »»r '^ >\ 5:t 1^ yfAt2 ^.j^^^' ■'^?y M :3^-- --- '\N>-Vv ^^^>-v )).^,l«'r^AS ^>* C^- -0 77 }^ ^(V^REESE LIBRARY VERSITY OF CALIFORNIA. Received _ '88/- I Accessions No. _ ^'^:^^.4i. . ^/^^ iV^ ^ y^SSfc f"*/*: ,^/ :^r: <%. ^1^ ' ^€^i 4%VkA'^^ ,&:'^sl ^:>^ V^ OF THB ' NIVEHSITY •< y\, :if^s '- y^/!^nriy 'jyj/(f/l^y /ny /Mc-n^ ^^^-eayiy^ya^^A/^,ay: ^^Ai.^/A/^.a' 1i)iKS€MllFTit^'K, knu iilS'fOiliCA v^\, . ^m\sX^^\)tx ttbrii^liMMtb.B/irL NrP' COL 1,EGK , PUBLIC OHAIXUIIN THE UNIVKKSITY OK CAMBRIDOi. i- HiAl. •..(',. :.H Of llfUH'-.v/ .r.HIjOl. A KEW E]D)IT:^t])^^ LO]V BO]?«r: FlTiSlUlSIlEli:) BY W« S. i^M.E. .% f ? AMEW COKWEl rATERWOSTEH BMW ^^ OF TllF '^ ^ UHIVEESITY GREECE: PICTORIAL, DESCRIPTIVE, HISTORICAL. BY CHRISTOPHER WORDSWORTH, D.D., LATB FKLLOW OF TRINITY COLLEGE, AND PUBLIC ORATOR IN THE UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE ; HEAD MASTER OF HARROW school; MEMBER OF THE ARCHJSOLOaiCAL INSTITUTE AT ROME; AND AUTHOR OF "A JOURNAL OK A RESIDENCE IN ATHENS AND ATTICA." WITH UPWARDS OF THREE HUNDRED AND FIFTY ENGRAVINGS ON WOOD AND TWENTY-EIGHT ON STEEL, ILLUSTRATIVE OF THE SCENERY, ARCHITECTURE, AND COSTUME OF THAT COUNTRY. BY COPLEY FIELDING, F. CRESWICK. D. COX, Jun., HARVEY, PAUL HUET, MEISSONIER, SARGENT, DAUBIGNY, JAQUES, AND OTHER ARTISTS. ^ttonts a^itian. LONDON: W^- S. ORR AND CO., PATERNOSTER ROW. MDCCCXLIV. 1 ^ Vv I>0NOON : BAAOBURV AND KTAN», PRINTKMB, MTHITKrilUUUt. >k >/ % o TO THE BIGHT HONORABLB GEORGE, EARL OF ABERDEEN, K.T., M.A., F.R.S., PRRStDBNT OF THR SOCIETY OP ANTIQUAXIES ; CHANCELLOR OF KINO'S COLLEOE, ABKRDEBN ; AND A OOVRRNOR OF HARROW SCHOOL; TO WHOSE EXAMPLE AND ENCOCKAOEMEMT THE PRESENT AGE IS INDEBTED FOR MUCH OF THE LIGHT WHICH HAS BE£N THROWN CPON THE ARTS, ANTIQUITIES, AND GEOGRAPHY OF GREECE, WRITTEN WITH A HOPE OF CHERISHING THE LOVE POR THEM IN THE SCHOOL OF WHICH HE IS A GOVERNOR, 18, WITH FEELINGS OK PRIVATE GRATITUDE AND PUBLIC RESPECT, INSCRIBED. PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION. The Emperor Hadrian possessed a magnificent Villa, at Tivoli, of which the ruins still remain. In it he endeavoured to perpetuate his own Recollections of Greece. He there erected buildings, to which he gave the names of Poecile and Lyceum ; by their side he planted the Grove of an Academy, and he carried the stream of an ideal Peneus through the pleasant Vale of an imitative Tempe. The Traveller in Greece constructs in his own mind such a villa as this. He furnishes it with the beautiful scenes which he once visited in that country; he refreshes it with the clear waters and cool shades of a Tempe ; he decorates it with the fair porticoes of a Poecile, a Lyceum, and an Academy. But his recollections of Greece, like the buildings of Hadrian, are liable to fall into decay ; the Author of the following pages has, therefore, attempted to give a permanence to his own reminiscences by constructing a humbler Tivoli, in which he hopes that others may perhaps enjoy some share of that pleasure, which was felt of old by the Greek Traveller in the Villa of Hadrian. Harrow, Nov. 27, 1839, i*\*Gi<--~'" "^^'''^^■i ^^T0 i£E8f I WORKS ILLUSTRATIVE OF GREEK GEOGRAPHY. tt3- It being inconsistent with the plan of the present Work that reference should he made in it to any collateral authorities on the subjects mentioned in the text, the Author has deemed it expedient to prefix a general list of Books which may be considered, either as illustrative of its contents, or supplementary to them. ScYiAx, Periplus. — See Philological Museum, i. p. 245 ; Hudson's Geog. Graec., vol. i. DiciEABCHUs, scholar of Aristotle, Status Grasciae. — Hud- son, Geog. Grasc, vol. ii. ScvMNUs Chil's, Orbis Descriptio.— Hudson, Geog. Gr., vol. ii. DioNYsius Pebikgetks. — Bemhardy.Geog. Gr., vol. i. Strabo of Amasia in Capx)adocia, in the Augustan Age, boolis viii. ix. x. PoMPONius Mela, book ii, cap. 3. Caius Plinius Skcundus, book iv. cap. 1 to 13. Pausanias of Cappadocia, Ten Books. Travelled in Greece in the time of the Antonines. Ptolem^us Pelusiotes. About a.d. 160. Cybiacus of Ancona. Travelled in Greece about 1430, principally with a view to collect ancient inscrip- tions. Mabtin Kraus, or Krusius, Professor at Tubingen. His Turco-Graecia, 1573. Sandys, Relation of a Journey in the Turkish Empire, 1628. Meubsius, his geographical and antiquarian Treatises in Gronovii Antiquitates Graces. Babin, Relation de I'Etat Present de la ViUe d'Athfenes, 1674. Cabbey's Drawings of the Parthenon, made about 1674, for the French Ambassador the Marquis of Nointel, now in the Royal Library, Paris : copies in the British Museum. Guillet de la Guilletiere, Athenes ancieune et mo- deme. Paris, 1675. An apocryphal work. — See Quar- terly Review, No. 127. Palmebii Graeciae Descriptio, 1673. Jacob Spon of Lyons, Voyage, &c.,1676. Lyon, 1678, 2 vols. 12mo. AVheleb, Rev. Sir Gkobge, Journey into Greece. London, 1682, folio ; with an excellent Map for those times. CoBONELLi, Description G^ographique de la Morie. Venise, 1688. Meletius, Bishop of Arta and Naupactus, 1682. His Geography, first published 1728. Venice, folio. TotmNEFOET, Voyage du Levant, 1718, 3 vols. 8vo. FouRMONT, travelled in 1729. His letters (of very doubtful faith). — Voyage, Mem. del'Acadfcmie des Inscriptions, t. vii. p. 357. Guys' Voyage Litt^raire de la Grfece, 2 vols. 1771. Stuabt and Bevett, travelled for the Society of Dilet- tanti, 1751. — Tlie Antiquities of Athens, by Jas. Stuart and Nicolas Revett, Painters and Architects, vol. i. 1762, vol. ii. 1787, vol. iu. 1794, vol. iv. 1816. , new edition ; with many additions, 4 vols. 1825. Chandleb's Travels in Greece. Oxf. 1776. — French, with notes, by Barbie du Bocage. Paris, 1806, 3 vols. — Chandler, Revett, and Pars, sent by the Society of DUettanti, 1764. Inscriptiones Antiquae. Oxon: 1771. The Unedited Antiquities of Attica. By the Society of Dilettanti. London, 1819. Babthelemi, Voyage du jeune Anacharsis en Grfece, 7 vols. 8vo, 1700. Choiseul-Gouffier, Voyage Pittoresque de la Grfece, torn. i. fol. 1782, torn. ii. 1809, torn. iii. 1820. SiBTHORP and Hawkins, travelled in 1785 and 1794. Their Journal in Walpole's Medloirs. Loud. 1820. Fauvel and Fouchebot, travelled in Attica, iSic, 1780. Their papers in the Paris Library. Oberlin, Orbis Antiqui Monumentia suis illustrati primae linear. Argent. 1790. LoBo Elgin in Greece, 1797. Elgin Marbles transported to England, 1812. Hamilton's Remarks on several Parts of Turkey, 1809. Memorandum on the Earl of Elgin's Pursuits iu Greece, 1815. vm WORKS ILLUSTRATIVK OF GREEK GEOGRAPHY. LusiEBi's Plans, drawn for Lord Elgin, 1800, and following years. Now in the British Museum. Dr. E. D. Clarke's TraveU, 1810—24, 6 vols. 4to. Dodwell's Classical and Topographical Tour, 2 vols. 4to. London, 1819. Sib W. Gbll's Ithaca, 1807, 4to. ArgoliB, 1814, 4to. Itinerary of the Morea, 1817. Itinerary of Greece, 1819. Colonel Lkake'b Researches in Greece, 1814. . Topography of Athens, 1821. Trans- lated into German by Reinacker, with notes by Mailer. HaUe, 1829. disputed Positions in the Topography of Athens, 1835. Outlines of Greek Revolution, 1826. WiLKiNs' Atheniensia, 1816. Pou«iUEViLLK, Voyage dans la GrAce. Paris, 1820. Barbie du Bocaob, Carte de la Morhy of the Oropto and Diacria. Athens, 1838. on the Battle of Marathon, and position of Aphidna>, dec, in Transactions of Royal Society of Literature, vol. iU. ANALYTICAL TABLE OF CONTENTS. Bronze Tablet of Aristagoras — Hecatseus ....... 1 Sketch of the Geography of Continental Greece . . , . . . 2 First Station, Zygo, the ancient Lacmos, on Mount Pindus : Panoramic View thence ; its Peculiarities ; the Five Rivers which take their rise there . . . .3 Virgil — Milton . . . . . . . . . . 4 Communication by these Rivers to every Part of Greece ..... 4 The Aous : Apollonia ; Corinthian Colonies ; Augustus ; his Connection with ApoUonia ; Actium — the Gulf of Ambracia — the Aracthus . . . . . . 5 Northern Frontier of Free Greece ....... 6 Haliacmon — Macedonia — Berrhoea — Thessalonica — St. Paul . . . . 7 Peneus — Olympus — Ossa — Tempe ....... 9 Mountain Boundaries to the Basin of Thessaly : Cambunian Hills ; Pindus ; Othrys . 10 The History of Thessaly the Result of its Geography . . . . .10 Level Surface of the Soil ; Fertility — Centaui's ; Cavalry ; Thessaly the Theatre of Wars — Pharsalia, Scotussae, Cynoscephalse . . . . . . . 10 Historical Sense of its Ancient Traditions — Neptune ; War of the Giants — Peleus . 11 AcHELous ; why the Synonyme for Water ; its Course . . . . . 12 Second Station, on Mount Tymphrestus, at Beluchi — Divergence of Mountains from this Point, as of i2«»er5 from Zygo . . . , . . .12 Othrys to the Sea, (Eta to the South-east, and the Agraean Hills to the West of the Pindus — The Pindus Chain continued in Parnassus, Helicon, Cithaeron, Parnes, Brilessus, Pentelicus, Hymettus, Laureium, Sunium ; thence to the Cyclades, and to the Asiatic Coast . . . . . . . . . 13 River Spercheius .......... 14 Lamia, Demosthenes, Lamian Wars — Trachis ; Hercules and Deianeira — Trachiniae of Sophocles . . . . . . . . . . 16 b X ANALYTICAL TABLE OF CONTENTS. Trachinian Province and History of Hercules : his Apotheosis on Monnt CEta — Pilgrimage thither .....,,. Leonidas at Thermopylse — Influence of Hercules on the Spartans at Thermopylffi Defence of the Pass at different Periods ...... Alterations in the Coast— Thermopylae sur^'ives only in Herodotus . Amphictyonic Council House — at Anthele — Why 1 — Reflections on this Epicnemidian Locrians — 'Ajax Oileus — Talanta, Puntzomadi ; Names whence derived Third Station, on Mount Parnassus ...... Panoramic Views — Doris; Elatea, Ahae, Daulis ; their early History — The Triple Way — CEdipus — Ancient Roads and Carriages Delphi : Site ; Buidings — Ion of Euripides ..... Theatre, Temple, Oracle, Omphalus, Stadium .... Castalia . . . . ..... Crissa — Cirrha ; Milton — Corycian Cave ..... Fourth Station : Helicon ....... Aganippe, Hippocrene — the Grove of the Muses .... Helicon and Cithaeron compared . . . . . ... Names of Objects on Helicon (Libethra, Pimplea, Pierides) — Why of Macedonian Origin Lebadea : Stream, Ravine, Sources — Oracular Cave of Trophonius . . . Lake Copais — Chaeronea, Battle of — Treasury of Minyas .... Leb THE MUSEUM > Designer. R. Brandard T. Creswich J. Dower Major Irton J. Dower D. Cox, Jan. W. Purser D. Cox, Jim. Copley Fielding Major Irton Copley Fielding J. Wrightson F. Arundale Major Irton W. Purser Enj^raver. R. Brandard. E. Radclyfe. J. Dower. E. Radchjffe. J. Dower. E. Rodclyffe. J. Appleton, E. Rodclyffe. J. C. Bcntley. E.*Raddyffe. R. Miller. J. Wrightson. J. Wrightson. J. C. BenUey. H. AdUard. XX ENGRAVINGS ON STEEL. page Subject. 139 NORTH FRONT OF THE PARTHENON— from a Sketch \ by Chkvytz . . ....■' 148 TEMPLE OF THESEUS, FROM THE PNVX . . . 212 MOUNTS OLYMPUS AND OSSA, FROM THE PLAINS •y OF TIIESSALY •• 262 THE ISLAND AND CASTLE OF CORFU . 271 THE ISLAND OF SANTA MAURA, (THE ANCIENT \ LEUCADIA) ' 309 THE PLAINS OF OLYMPIA 319 TEMPLE OF APOLLO AT BASSiE .... 334 MISTRA, FROM THE THEATRE OF SPARTA . . . .338 PLAINS OF ARG08— from a Sketch by Hervb . 344 SCENE ON THE INACHU8, NEAR PLANITZA— fiwm a\ Sketch by Hkrvk . . . . . . . ' 346 SCENERY ON THE ROAD FROM NAUPLIA TO CO- » RINTH— from a Sketch by Hkrvb . . . > 360 RUINS OF AN ANCIENT TEMPLE AT CORINTH . . 363 THE CITY OF CORINTH . . . . . Detigner. Engnrer. SarffoU E. Roberts. Sargent E.RoberU. W. Puner J. C. BenUey. W. Purser J. C. Bentiep. W. Purter J. Woods. lloUani R Brandard. C. RadclKfe E. Radclufe. C. Radclufe E. Radeluffe. R. Drandard J. C. Bentley. D. Cox, Jun. W. Radilufft. J. C. BentUi R. Brandard. W. Purser Flopd. F. ArundaU J. C. BenUep. LIST OF ENGRAVINGS ON WOOD,- BY THE FOLLOWING DISTINGUISHED ARTISTS. DKSIGNS BY : — ENGRAVINGS BY :— ARUNDALE. HBRVE. BASTIN. SLADER. BAOG. HUBT. BONNER. SLY. b;,unt. IRTON. RRANSTON. SMITH. BLUNT (FELIX). JAQIIES. EVANS. SMITH (ORRIN). CHKVYTZ. MEIS&ONIER. GRAY. THOMPSON. COCKERELL. PINELLI. GREEN. WILLIAMS. (F.) DANIEL. PITTS. JACKSON. WILLIAMS. (M. A DAUBIGNY. PURSER. KIRCHNER. WILLIAMS (MISS) DICKBS. SARGENT. HART. WHEELER. FBANCAIS. STANLEY (MONTAGU). LANDELLS. WHIMPER. HABVKY. TAYLOR (F.) HASLOCK. SOBJSCT. PAOK Jason — from a Statue in the British Museum . . x Death of Socrates it Ana.xagoras at the door of the Palace of Pericles . xviii Island of Santorin xix Monument of Philopappus — from a Drawing by Major Irton xx Theramenes dragged from the Altar, by order of Critias xxi Ruined Aqueduct at Mitylene .... xxiv Pass of Phyle 1 Town of Metzovo 2 Albanians, Costume, Scenery, &c 3 Initials 4 The Coast of Epirus, near the Mouth of the Aous . 5 The Acroceraunian Promontory 6 Ruined Temple at Apollonia 7 Mouth of the Haliacmon 7 Thermaic Gulf 8 SUBJECT. PAO* The River Peneus and Mount Pindus . . . 10 Scene in the Vale of Tempe 11 Gulf of Corinth, near the Mouth of the Achelous . 12 Phocis ... 13 Grotto of Antiparos 14 Initial T 15 „ A 16 Mount Parnassus 19 Village of Castri, near Delphi ... .22 Cave of Trophonius and Citadel of Lebadea . . 24 Town and Acropolis of Orchomenus . . . . 25 City of Thebes 26 Coast Scene on the jEgaean 27 Megara by Moonlight 28 Groves of the Academy 29 The Gulf and Island of Salamis 30 Cape Sunium from the Sea 32 Source of the River Styx 33 XXll ENGRAVINGS ON WOOD. >UIU>CT. FAOB Mountains of Arcadia near Pbeneos . . 34 Mgscan Sea, from Epidaurus 35 Taenarian Promontory, from the Sea . . . 36 Nonacris and Valley of the Styx .... 37 Bridge over the Alpheus 88 Mount Ithome, from the Walls of Messene . 39 Monastery of Megaspelion 40 Town of ^'^gium in Achaia 41 Uuins of Megalopolis in Arcadia 42 Valley of Nemea in Argolis 43 City of PatrsB in Achaia 44 Sacrifice to Jupiter at Olympia 4,5 Initial T 48 Valley of the Alpheus in Elis 47 City of nrenthe . . 48 Pastoral Scene 60 Scene near Phigaleia 61 Island of Cj-thera 52 Valley of the Eurotas from Mistra 63 Mount Taygetus 54 Taygetus from the Walls of Messenia ... 56 Gate of Lions at Mycens 57 Treasury of Atreus 58 Ancient Olive Grove 5tf Modem Oreeic Costume 01 Temple of Minerva in JRgttOL factored ... 64 Vignette— Attica 66 Map of Attica 06 Fancy SIcetch of a Ruined Temple, Ste. . . 08 Ancient Shipping olT Cape Sunium .... 00 Interior of the Quarries of Pentelicus . . 70 Plain of Athens fh>m the Areopagus — fh>in a, Drawing by AairNOALX 71 Modem Oreeli PrieeU 73 View from the Quarria* of Pentelien* ... 74 Tomb of Ajax in the Troad 76 The Athenians taking Refuge In their Ships, after PlNBLLI 77 View on the Road ftom Eleusis to Athens — firom a SIcetch by TIrrvk 78 View on the Saronic Gulf — from a Sketch by Chkvytx 79 Coast of Attica, from the Day of Eleusis — flrom a Sketch by II ERVB 81 Initial O 82 The Pass of Phyle 84 Athens from the Roadto thePeirarus — fh>m a Sketch by IIrrvr 86 Saxifragn rotundifolia. Aloe vulgaris, and Campanula persicifolia 86 Rural Scene near Athens — from a Sketch by IIervk 87 Mountain Scener}' on the Road from Megara to Athens — from a Sketch by IIbrvb . . 89 Defile near Drymus in Mount Pames — from a Sketch by IIervb 90 Temple of Theseus 91 Modem Greek Soldier— ftom a Sketch by Chkvytx . 92 Fancy Group — Birds, Plants, &c 92 Initial C 93 Coins of Attica 93 The Acropolis, from the Fountain of the Areopagus — from a Drawing by Aruni>ai.x . . 94 Flowers, &c 96 Fancy Sketch — Ariadne 97 Group of Elgin Marbles 98 BayofTrcezen 100 tvmJMCT. tAom Aigus building the ship Argo— from Mru.tK'8 OalMe Mpthologique 101 Channel of the Euripus 102 Small Temple at Rhamnus restored . .103 Ground Plans of Ancient Temples . . 104 Fancy Sketch 105 Initial F . . • 106 Eleusii— from a Sketch by Aruitdalb .107 Fountain near Marathon — from a Sketch by Hbrvb 108 Plain of Marathon 109 Tumulus of Marathon 113 Themistodes receiving the Trophy of Victory — re- duced flrom Pinblli 114 Convent of Pentelicus 116 .£gKan Gulf, from the Pnyx 117 Fancy Group of Architecture and Sculpture . 118 Interior of Jigiiia 119 Grotto at the Source of the Cepbissus .120 Scene near Cephissia— from a Sketch by Hbrvb 121 Statue of the Lion on Mount llymettus 122 Cave of Barl on Hymettua 123 Port Raphto, and Statue 124 Ruins of a Theatre at Thorieus 125 View in the Interior of jEgln»— fh>m a Sketch by Hbrvb 127 Tonpto of MliMnrm at Sonium 198 RestorattonoftheWMtEndoftha AeropoUs . . 120 The EraeUMum— The Propyl— Gate of Hadrian— OaUoftba New Agon 130 RestoratioaofUMNoittiSldaoftlMAetopolis . 131 Plan of AndtBt Athaaa 133 Valley of the niaaaa 134 Restoration of the East End of the Parthioon . . 135 North-east Side of the Parthenon— fhnn a Sketch by C. R. COCKKRBLL, R.A 136 Friexe of Temple of Victory 137 Athens, from the Gardens of the Academy, near Colonus 138 Ruins of the Parthenon— from a Sketch by C. R. COCKJCRBLL, R.A. 139 North-east End of the Parthenon— ditto ... 140 Ruins of the Parthenon, ditto— Sepulchral Vases . 141 Portico of the Propylsea— from a Sketch by C. R. COCKCRBI.L, R.A 142 The Parthenon and the Erectheum . .143 The Pandroeeum— fromaSketchby C. R. CocKBRBi.1., R.A 144 GrottoofPanag^ia over the Theatre . . 146 Temple of the Winds restored— from a Design by C. R. COCXBRBLL, R.A 146 Portico of the Temple of Tbeseos— from a Sketch by C. R. CoCKKRBLL, R.A 147 Temple of Theseus— ditto 148 Convent at Mount Anchesmua— ditto . . . 149 The Stone Bema of the Pnyx, seen ttota the West — ditto 150 Tomb of Themistodes- from a Sketch by Arundalb 151 Gate of the New Agora 153 Temple of Jupiter Olympius, from the Ilissus — from aSketchby C. R. CocKBRBix, R.A. . . . 154 Athens from the Ilissus— ditto 155 Athens from the North-west— ditto . . . . 156 Tomb of Euripides— ditto 158 Ruins of the Temple of Jupiter Olympius . . . 159 ENGRAVINGS ON WOOD. XXllI SUBJECT. WAQB Resen-oir of the llissus— from a Sketch by C. R. COCKERELL, R.A. 160 Fountain near Athens— from a Sketch by Hbrva . 161 Houses in Athens — from a Sketch by C. R. Cockxrkll, R.A 162 Vessels at the Peiraeus 162 Exile of Themistocles 163 Peasants of Attica 164 Channel of the Euripus, from the South— firom a Sketch by Daniel 165 Lake Copais, and Katabothra 166 Mount Parnassus, from the Walls of Panopeus . . 167 The same, from Delphi— from a Sketch by Daniel . 168 Mosque at Lebadea 16!) Shore of Bceotia 171 Battle of Chicronea 172 Offering at the Temple of Delphi 173 Bridge of the Euripus, from the North . . . 174 Scene on Mount Parnassus— from a Drawing by Aritndalb 175 Mount Citharon, and Tombs at Plataea . . . 176 Olive Trees 177 The Muses— from a Bas-relief 178 Ruins of Thespiae — from a Sketch by Daniel . , 179 Pentheus attacked by Bacchantes— from an Antique 181 Plains of Chteronea 182 Reception of the .\nibassadors of Mardonius . . 183 Entrance to the Corinthian Gulf .... 188 City of Orchomenus 189 Plain and City of Thebes 192 Scene on Mount Helicon 193 Valley of the Pleistus, in Phocis .... 194 Vignette, Thessalia ... ... 196 Plains of Thessaly . 196 Bridge at Larissa 198 Pharsalia— from a Sketch by Daniel . . . 199 The Pagassan Gulf and Mount Othrys, from Mount Pelion 201 View on the Pagasxan Gulf 202 General View of Metscra 206 Convents at Meteora 207 Bridge over the Peneus, at Larissa . . . . 210 Mosques at Larissa 211 Mount Olj-mpus, from the Plains of Thessaly , . 213 Vale of Tempe 215 Scene in the Vale of Tempe 216 The Peneus, and Range of the Pindus . . . 217 Mount Ossa, from the Plains of Thessaly . . 218 View on the Pagasaean Gulf 222 Castle and Town of Trikeri 224 Vignette— Coast from Santa Maura . . . . 225 Plan of the Battle of Actium— from Colonel Leake's " Northern Greece" 226 Initial I 227 Initial T 228 Plan of the City of Nicopolis 229 Turkish Horsemen 231 Cyclopean Walls at Leucadia 232 Exit of the Acheron 233 Coast of Epirus, &c., from Patras . . . . 234 Ancient Greek AV^alls restored 235 Head of Minerva, from an ancient Coin . . . 235 Figs, &c 236 Argyro-Castro 237 Church at Arta 238 •uuiCT. rioa Mountains from Corinth 239 Mount Chaonia, from the Gulf of Aviona . . . 240 Arbutus, &c 241 Mountains of Epirus 242 Coast of Epirus from the Sea 244 Albanians 246 Town of Tepeleni 246 Town of Amphipolis 247 Plan of Lake and Neighbourhood of Janina . . . 248 Source of the Delvino 249 Doric Pillar at Apollonia 251 Island and Convent of Janinu 252 Course of the Acheron 263 Castles of Suli 254 Valley of the Acheron 255 Ancient Sarcophagus 257 Castle of Suli 257 Plan of the Course of the Acheron and Castles of Suli 258 Fancy Sketch of a Battle Piece . . . .259 Castle of Kako-Suli 259 Coins and Medals of Epirus 260 Fancy Vignette, and Distant View of the Citadel of Korfou 261 Bridge at Korfou 262 Distant View of the Island 263 Greek Priests in Costume 263 Initial I 264 Citadel of Korfou 265 Fancy Sketch, Destruction of a Greek City by Fire . 266 Convent in the Interior of the Island— from a Sketch by Purser 267 Ulysses and Nausicaa 268 Coast Scene in the Ionian Islands . . . . 269 Santa Maura, with the opposite Coast of Epirus . 270 Initial T 271 Harbour of Phorcys 272 Port of Ithaca 273 Santa Maura 274 Lovers' Leap 276 Cyclopean Walls in Ithaca 278 Ditto 279 Medals and Coins of the Ionian Islands . . . 281 Cyclopean Walls at Cephallonia 282 Town of Zacynthus 284 Scene in Zacynthus 28(i Missolonghi ggy Coins and Medals 288 Emblematical Headpiece to " The Peloponnesus" . 289 Mountains of ^tolia, near Naupactus . . . 290 Entrance to the Gulf of Corinth 292 Convent of Megaspelion 294 Ruined Aqueduct near Patras 295 Plain of Ionia, and Course of the Ma;ander . . 296 Ruins at Ephesus 297 Coin of Corinth 279 Sicyon 298 Mountains on the Borders of Achaia . . . 299 Pharse 300 Corinth 302 Church at Patras . 303 Orestes before the Altar of Minerva Polias, from an ancient bas-relief 305 View on the Alpheius 306 The Coast of EUs 307 Map of Olympia 309 XXIV ENGRAVINGS ON WOOD. SUBJECT. 9AaM Plain of Olympia 310 Plain of Argos from the Gate of Lions . . . 313 Bridge over the Gortyniug 314 View on the Alpheius 316 Arcadia 317 Temple of Apollo at Bassae-from a Design by F. Taylor 318 Ruins of Ditto 319 View on the Coast near Coron 320 Source of the Neda 321 Valley of Messenia . 322 Convent on the site of the Temple of Jupiter, Ithome 322 Mounts Ithome and Evan 323 Dolous, in the Gulf of Coron 321 Walls of Messene 325 Stadium at Messene 326 Tower of San Nicolas, Rhodes 327 Pylos 328 Navarino, from the Sea 328 Spbacteria and Pyloi, from Navarino . ... 329 School of Homer 330 Castle of Modon 331 Isle of Sapienza and Cartle of Modon . . 832 Cardamyle 332 Coast of Laconia— from a Slcetch by HsavjE . 333 Bridge over the Eurotas 334 Village of Mistra 335 ■UBJKr. TAO* Pass of Thermopylae 336 Old Port at iEgina .337 The Isle of Scio . . 338 Plain of Argos 338 Artemisian Mountains, fh>m CEnoe, Atgos— from a Sketch by F. Hkrvb 339 Scene on the River Planitza— lh>m a Sketch by Herve 340 Postern of Mycente 341 Nauplia, from the Sea 342 TripoUtza 343 Mount Chaon, and Lake Stympbalus . 344 Lema^n Marsh 3I4 Bay of Nauplia 3i5 Walls of Tiryns 346 Pass on the Road from Atgos and Corinth— from a Sketch by IIekvr 347 Ruins of the Temple of Jupiter at Nemea . . 348 Part of the City of Corinth 349 Gulf of Corinth, from the Acrocorinthiu . . 350 Uouse in Corinth 351 Fountain at Corinth 352 Bridge between Damala and Troien .... 353 Villas of Marathonisi 353 The Castle of Tronen 354 Town and Isle of Byra 355 Parnassus ... .... 350 SEESf \YHEN Aristagoras, governor of Miletus, came to Sparta to request assistance from Cleomenes, the king of that city, he brought ' with him a tablet of bronze, on which was engraved an outline of the earth, and whereon the circuits of seas and courses of rivers were traced. This map was probably the work of Hecatseus, the historian of the Asiatic city. It is the earliest effort of geographical delineation which we read of in the annals of Greece. Although rude and imperfect, it served the purpose of conveying to the mind of the spectator a general idea of the leading features of the V OF TliE 2 MOUNT LACMOS, OR ZYGO, THE CENTRE. countries which it portrayed, and was therefore thought worthy of being brought from Asia into Greece, and of being exliibited by an ambassador to a king. In our introduction to the present work, we shall endeavour to present to the reader a rapid sketch of the geography of Greece, similiir in execution to the bronze tablet which Aristagoras put into the hands of Cleomenes. We shall attempt to exhibit to him, in a comprehensive and general outline, the forms of its land, and seas, and rivers. This difference, however, we will aim to observe : we design to construct a map from a view of the country itself, rather than to communicate an idea of the country from the contem- plation of a map. For this purpose, we will take our station on one of the most command- ing heights of that long range of mountains which, running from north to south in an uninterrupted line, nearly bisects the continent of Greece. This cliain, formerly known by the name of Pindl's, is, as it were, the spine or back-bone of that country. Its successive vertebrae are distinguished by different appellations. That wliich we have chosen as the point to which we shall now particularly refer, is at present termed Zygo, resembling, in name, the Helvetian Joch, which separates the valley of Engelberg from that TUWK or HKTIO%'0. of Meyringen. It was formerly called Lacmos ; and stands in 39° SCV north latitude, and 21' 20' east longitude. It hangs over the town of Metzovo, OF THE RIVERS OF GREECE. ^?*-v'\| V.'^^ which is familiar to all travellers who have passed from lannina over Mount Pindus, in an eastward course, on their road either to Larissa or to Thes- salonica. The height of Zygo we will venture to call the most remarkable in the geography of Continental Greece. It is the very centre and focus, as it were, to which different radii converge from all the shores by which, on three sides, that country is bounded. What the Milliarium Aureum, or milestone of gold, which stood in the Forum of Rome, and from which all the roads of Italy were measured — what the Altar of the Twelve Gods, which was erected in the centre of the Agora of Athens, and at which those of Attica commenced — were to the routes of those two countries re- spectively, that this eminence is to the rivers — the liquid roads — of Greece. It is what the glacier of the Rhone is to Switzerland. At its foot, five rivers, the largest in the terra-firaaa of Greece, take their rise, and connect it with the Adriatic ^^; and Ionian Sea on one side, and with the Ther- MAic Gulf and the Mgmas on the other, and with the mouth of the Corinthian Gulf, between these two, on the third. The rivers of which we speak, are, respectively, the Aous, the Arac- THus, the Haliacmon, the Peneus, and the ACHELOUS. I can hardly refrain from supposing, that, when Virgil conceived in his mind that noble and original picture, which he has presented to his 4 RIVER AOUS, OR VOIOUSSA. readers at the close of his last Georgic, of the subterranean grotto, in which all the rivers of the earth were bom, and from which they issued, by hidden channels and silent courses, into every quarter of the globe, that he made some reference, more or less direct, to this particular spot, in which, with respect to the continent of Greece, his poetical vision may be said to be realized ; and this conjecture will derive some support from the consideration, that the scene which he is then describing is laid in Thessaly, and indeed at the source of the Peneus itself, one of the very rivers which rises from this mountain reservoir, if we may so call it, at our feet. The reader will remember the use which our own poet, the author of Paradise Regained, makes of the roads of Italy in his description of the city of Rome, from which they all start, and to which they all return. He will have noticed how Milton from that spot sends, as it were, his thoughts to travel by those routes to the most distant points of the Roman Empire — how, for instance, by the TEmilian Way, he penetrates, in imagination, into the forests of Germany, and traverses the British West ; how he thence crosses to the Sarmatians, and beyond the Danube to the Tauric Pool : and how again, by the southeni communication of the Appian Way, he migrates downward to Syene, and wanders eastward even to India, and the golden Chersonese. o it is with the Grecian traveller who stands on the point of which we have been speaking. By means of these five rivers wliich we have named, all starting from this spot, he holds converse, if we may so say, with noble cities, and thick forests, and rich valleys, and fields of battle, which crowd, in his mind, upon their banks ; and lastly, with the seas themselves into which they fall, and with the islands which hang upon their coasta. Let him therefore rest for a while, after the toil of his ascent, on some clear day of summer, on one of those limestone rocks which rise in this place, and beneath the shade of the beeches and the pines which here wave over his head, let him indulge in such reflections as these. First of all, let him turn his thoughts in the direction by which he him- self has probably come. The river Aous, (as it was probably called by a Doric or ^olic form, because it flows from the East,) now the Voioussa, >-yln\ <'xc«'|tt in the pftges of Herodotus. There it will never cea«o to be so. The choice of ThemiopyUe as the seat of the Congress of the Anii>hi- ctyonic Council is remarkable. Its meetings were held near the Temple of Ceres on the plain of Anthele, which extends itself at a small distance within the pass. The session of a deliberative assembly composed of the chosen representatives of the confederate powers of Greece, convoked to such a place as Thermopylae, presents to the imagination a picture of much interest. This spot was the Vestibule of Greece. And as in the patriarchal times the grave Councillors of a state or city took their seats before the towers and gate which led into their town, and there held their deliberations on matters which concerned the weal or woe of their own country, so these august Councillors of the great Commonwealth of Greece might thus be regarded as sitting in the front of the confederate Metropolis of which they were all citizens, and for whose interests they were providing by their deliberations in the spot where it might be most necessary to defend them with their arms. The country to the south of Thermopylae, as far as the town of Daphnus on the coast, belonged to the tribe of Locrians Called Epicnemidian, from their neighbourhood to Mount Cnemis, a ridge thrown out by Mount (Eta : separated from them by a small interval of Phocis were the Locrians who were termed Opuntian, from their capital city Opus, which was the residence of Ajax Oileus. The modem name of this district is Talanta : it is derived from the little VALLEY OF THE CEPHISSUS. 19 island of Atalaiita, which lies at a short distance from the shore, and was once united to it. The town of Opus itself was placed in an open and level country of a few miles in circumference, which from its fertility was called the Happy Plain. As Ajax was regarded as an object of national pride by this small city, so were the productions of its prolific soil. It therefore exhibited on its coins a record of both : while on one side of them is a cluster of grapes, the other exhibits the athletic form of the Opuntian hero. ^ The 13a>otian frontier was at Larymna, a town on the coast a few miles to the south of Opus : the modern village of Puntzomadi, which is near the site of Larymna, seems to contain in its name a vestige of the former extension of the Opuntian power to this point. Following the course which we have hitherto pursued, we pass from Tym- PHUESTus along the ridge of Pindus in a southerly direction : at a distance of sixty miles to the south-east of Tymphrestus is the summit of Parnassus. M'HJNT PARNAS NEAR Ufcl^III flows along the valley at the foot. of the city. It passes, in a westerly direction, through groves of olives, by the side of the Delphian Hippodrome, MOUNT HELICON. 23 and at tlic base of tho lofty crags where the Crissa of Homer stood, whicli preserves, in its modern name of Crisso, and in the huge poly- gonal walls of its Acropolis, tho memorials of its ancient greatness. It then receives a tributary stream coming from the north, and flowing beneath tho city of Amphissa. Their united waters glide together through a wide and beautiful plain, known and reverenced with a feeling of religious awe in ancient times as the hallowed Plain of Cirbha, till they fall into the Gulf of Corinth, in the Criss.ean Bay, which is at the distance of five miles from the site of Delphi, of which city it was formerly the harbour. Of the beauty of this scene, and of the peculiar features which distinguish it, no better or more accurate description can be given than that which is contained in the following lines of Milton, to whose imagination, when he composed them, a landscape presented itself similar to that which the traveller beholds from the ruins of the citadel of Crisso : — " It was a mountain at whose verdant feet A spacious plain, outstretch 'd in circuit wide, Lay pleasant ; from his side two rivers flow'd, The one winding, the other straight, and left between Fair champaign with less rivers intervein'd, Then meeting, join'd their tribute to the sea. Fertile of corn the glebe, of oil and wine ; With herds the pastures throng 'd, with flocks the hills ; Huge cities, and high-tower'd, that well might seem The seats of mightiest monarchs ." Mount Helicon is to Bceotia what Parnassus is to Phocis, The prin- cipal cities of that country are grouped about its sides, as the Phocian towns are connected with those of their own mountain ; and as the mountain of Phocis could show upon its summit the Corycian Cave, which was dedi- cated to the Parnassian nymphs, so upon the heights of the Boeotian hill were the favourite haunts of its own deities. Here flourished the grove of the Muses, whose statues stood beneath the shady recesses of these mountain glades ; here flowed the sacred spring of Aganippe, round which the Muses danced ; here was the clear source of Hippocrene, in which they bathed. The whole mountain was celebrated for its fresh rills, and cool groves, and flowery slopes ; and while the legends connected with the other mountains of Greece were sometimes of a terrific and often of a stem and savage character, those which were produced, as it were, by the soil and scenery of Helicon, 24 LEBADEA AND TROPHONIUS. partook of the softness and amenity which distinguish the natural character of the mountain from which they sprung. Helicon had no CEdipus nor Pentheus. It is remarkable that many of the names which characterize the natural objects of this mountain are of Macedonian origin. They afford historical evidence of the extraction of its ancient colonists. The regard which the early settlers upon the ridges of Helicon still cherished for the land from which they came, is expressed in the appellations of Libethra, Pimplea, across the rich pasture-lands and corn-fields which, unbroken by any divisions 28 ROADS INTO ATTICA. of hedges, and diversified with very few variations of wood, stretch to the east, along the banks of the Asopus, in a wide and fertile valley, from the north- eastern foot of CiTH^RON, by the sites of Tanagra and Oropls, to the shore of the -iEgsean Sea. Notwithstanding the successful enmity with which the citizens of the Boeo- tian capital exerted their power against their rival and dependent city Plataea, in the treatment which it has received from the hand of Time it has been more favoured than its more powerful neighbour. While scarcely a fragment remains of the city which wielded the sway of the whole province of Bceotia, the walls of Plataea remain in nearly the same state as they were two thou- sand years ago. At that time it had indeed lost all its political power, and, in the language of the comic poet Posidippus, all that it could then boast were " two temples, a portico, and its glouy." The passage from Plataea into Attica lies over the heights of Cithseron, which, together with the ridges on Pabnes, a continuation of that mountain, serves as a lino of demarcation between that country and Boeotia. The road from Platsca passed by QSnok and Eleutukrjs, and then fell into the Sacred Way, which led from Eleusis to Athens, and waa also the road to Mboara. r UmtAikk MV M1IOM.IUJIT. It then skirted the northern coast of the bay of Eleusis, and brought the traveller in sight of the full beauty of the Acropolis of Athens as he stood in the gap of the pass which climbs over the hill of .^galeos. Another route from the Vale of the Asopus, to the east of that which has been just noticed, passed through the gorge of Phyle, between Mount Cithaeron and Parnes, and descended into the Athenian plain near the largest of the one hundred and seventy- three boroughs of Attica, Acharn^. , A third, still further to the east, commenced at the frontier town of Oropus, and traversing the ridges of Parnes, touched, in its course towards Athens, the important fortress of Decelea and the ancient city of Aphidn^. ATHENS AND ATTICA. 29 The other mountain pass which deserves particular notice was that which led from the bay and temples of Rhamnus, on the north-eastern coast of Attica, crossed the plain of Marathon, mounted the height of Pentelicus, and, having visited the marble quarries of that mountain, fell into the plain near the towns of Cephissia and Pallene. In order to obtain a general view of the country of Attica, the traveller will pass from the eminences of Cithseron to those of Parnes ; he will then ascend the summit of Pentelicus, whence he will pass southward to that of Hymettus. From the other points he will enjoy magni- ficent prospects of hill and plain, and beyond them of the waters of the seas which gird the shores and penetrate the creeks of the Athenian peninsula. But from the eminence of Hymettus he will obtain the noblest view of the immortal City itself. Thence he will behold it placed on tlie central rock of its Acropolis, whose form and colour are both exquisitely beautiful, lying under a clear sky, and still surmounted by the marble temples of its ancient Gods ; he 30 VIEW FROM HYMETTUS. will see the city lying at its feet ; he will follow with his eye the long line of the Sacred Way to Eleusis ; on this, the eastern, side of the City he will trace the winding course of the Ilissus ; and beyond the walls, to the west, the olive groves of the Academy, through which the Cephissus flows into the harbour of the Pm^us, from which his eye will pass over that glorious gulf to the hills of Salamis on the right, and on the left to the peaked summit of Oros in the island of ^Egina, and, in the distance beyond them both, to the lofty crest of the Acrocorinthian Citadel. ''^^^ THB OUUr A»D ULAHO OW (AtUIIt. No one who has stood on the summit of Hymettus, and has looked upon the view which it commands, and which we have now endeavoured to delineate, will think that the following description of it, tint made by an eye- witness, can be ever too frequently cited or too highly praised. Here, where -^c VIEW FROM HYMETTUS. 31 wo are sketching an outline of the prominent features of this interesting scene, it would be unjust both to Milton and to Athens to omit it. It suggests to the mind but one cause of regret, namely, that its Author, instead of being called back, as he was, by the civil calamities of his country, from Italy into England, had not been prevailed upon by the more peaceful appeals of Nature to retain and execute his original intention of passing onward into Greece. " Look once more, ere we leave this specular mount, Westward, much nearer by south-west behold ; Where on the iEgsean shore a City stands, Built nobly ; pure the air, and light the soil ; Athens, the eye of Greece, mother of arts And eloquence, native to famous wits, Or hospitable, in her sweet recess, City or suburban, studious walks and shades. See there the olive gi'ove of Academe, Plato's retirement, where the Attic bii'd Trills, her thick- warbled notes the summer long ; There flowery hill Hymettus, with the sound Of bees' industrious murmur, oft invites To studious musing ; there Ilissus rolls His whispering stream : within the walls then view The schools of ancient sages ; his who bred Great Alexander to subdue the world, Lyceum there, and painted Stoa next." Remaining in the same position on the heights of Hymettus, let him now cast a glance eastward : immediately beneath him extends the Mesog^a or Interior of Attica, sprinkled over with numerous villages : to the north-east he will see the cape Cynosura, which projects into the sea from the northern extremity of the plain of Marathon : further to the south-east are the lofty summits of Carystus, concealing in their recesses their rich streaked veins of cipoUino, and the Ger^stian promontory, in the island of Euboea : beyond it to the south-east are the rocky cliffs of Andros and Tenos, and the cluster of the Cyclades grouped around their central islet of Delos ; and in a line between that spot and himself, he will pursue with his eye the range of hills which proceed onward from the mountain on which he stands, and run in a southerly direction over the silver mines of Laureum, sinking into the sea at the SuNiAN promontory. Where Rivers discharge themselves into the Ocean, there Cities are built, 32 PINDUS AND SUNIUM. harbours are formed, and commerce flourishes. Here^ at Sunium, where this Stream of Hills^ which we have now followed for three hundred miles, falls into the sea, stands an object not unworthy to mark the close of its career. The solitary and beautiful Temple, once dedicated to Minerva, which cro\vns the summit of the Sunian Cape, is the goal of their long and continuous course, which connects the central heights of Pindus with the last promontory of Attica. r I^ Lucian, in his dialogue which derives its title from their Contemplations, had desired to direct the attention of Mercury and Charon to the portion of Greece which is called the Peloponnesus, he would probably have adopted an expedient similar to that which he has employed in order to give them a more extensive prospect than this of which we now speak. The wish of one of those two personages whom we have mentioned was not merely to be presented with a view, as he expresses it, of cities and of mountains, but to behold the inhabitants of the former, and to learn what were their occupations and their conversation. For this purpose he chose an eminence to which he and his companion ascended, and which commanded a sight of all the objects which he desired to contemplate. Our present design is not of so extensive a nature as that which was entertained by the philosopher of Samosata. From the imaginary summit where they stood he exhibited to his two spectators a comprehensive 34 PANORAMIC STATION panorama, which embraced Ionia and Lydia on the east, Sicily and Italy on the west, and stretched from the Danube, southward, to the shores of Crete, Our view is limited to the district which lies nearly in the centre of these points. He showed to Mercury and Charon a prospect, from an ideal summit, of the known world : we would exhibit to the spectator, from a real mount, a view of the Peninsula of Greece. The spot which Lucian would probably have selected for this purpose is the summit of a mountain on the western frontier of Arcadia. Its peaked and isolated summit is crowned with a ruined castle ; its slopes are sprinkled over with groups of cottages and sheepfolds, and thinly clad with low forests of oaks and of mountain pines. It rises on the west side of Mount Lyc^us, the hill sacred of old to Pan and the King of the Gods, It is now called Zakkouka, From this point the spectator beholds the map of the Peloponnesus unrolled, as it were, before his eyes. Looking northward, he sees the lofty range of the Arcadian hills, which, commencing with the heights of the woody Ertmanthus, I run in an easterly direction to the central » ON MOUNT LYCiEUS. 35 eminence of Cyllene, and thus divide the coast-land of Achaia from the territory of Arcadia. From the rocky pile of Cyllene his eye moves southward, and traces the continuation of the same ridges in that direction till they arrive at the hill of M^NALus, whose pine-tree groves have been celebrated in the pastoral poetry of Greece and Italy. This rocky barrier separates Arcadia on the west from the Argolic peninsula on the east. Mount Msenalus, at the south-east angle of Arcadia, connects itself with a long chain of hills, which stretch from that point further to the south-east, ^:^ till they terminate in the ^gean Sea. They form the eastern boundary of the plain of Sparta : ^?^N=c: their most remarkable mountain is Parnon. The snow-capped summits of this ridge are visible from the point where we now suppose ourselves placed, namely, the summit of Lyca3us. A line drawn from Mount Maenalus towards the west, and terminating in this point, forms the southern limit of Arcadia: from this summit, the magnificent range of Mount Taygetus, which runs in a parallel line to that 36 PHYSICAL FORM of Parnon, and bounds the Spartan Valley on the west, as Pamon does on the east, branches off to the south-east, and goes on in an uninterrupted course till it at last arrives at the southern coast of Laconia, where it ends in TMMAHui MwaoirroB the T^NARiAN promontory, which is the most southern point of the Grecian Peninsula. This noble chain of Alpine hills is seen from our station on Mount Zakkouka. Nearer to us are the verdant and cultivated declivities of the Lycsean mountains of Arcadia. On the west of that chain, the spectator from this eminence beholds the rugged and irregular surface of the Messenian territory, which is separated from Laconia by the long and lofty range of Taygetus. Further to the south he will per- ceive the coast of Corone, and the neighbouring waters of the Messenian Gulf. Turning his eyes to the north-west, he will see the fruitful plains of Elis stretching themselves along the western shore of the Peloponnesus; and, being fatigued by the view of rude and rugged mountains, some bare and uncultivated, some capped with snow, others thinly clad with the meagre produce of a stunted vegetation, and seeming to refuse all recompense to the industry of the husbandman, his eye will rest with delight on the wide and luxuriant plain of 01}Tnpia, refreshed and beautified by the waters of the Alpheus, winding through it to the sea. OF THE PELOPONNESUS. 37 From the rapid survey which this single eminence, from which our view has been taken, enables us to make of the Greek peninsula, we may derive some general inferences both with respect to its physical conformation and local peculiarities, and also to the moral, social, and political consequences which were the result of these characteristics. It is impossible to avoid the reflection, which such a view as the present suggests, that the Peloponnesus was intended by Nature to be the seat of different tribes of inhabitants, varying in their extraction, manners, and government. The Alps have formed the Cantons of Switzerland; and in the Peloponnesus, whose greatest length is one hundred and fifty miles, and the greatest breadth one hundred and thirty, the same causes were in operation to produce a similar result. We have seen in the view which we have just taken that the central province of Arcadia bears a resemblance in position and in form to a large natural Camp, fortified by a lofty and impregnable circumvallation of mountains. KONACail^y AND Around this circular bulwark lie the other provinces of the Peninsula : they all abut, as it were, upon this central wall, which serves as a defence to them from the interior, while their external frontier is formed by the sea, which supplied them both with an outlet and a protection. Each of 38 POLITICAL RESULTS these provinces is separated from its neighbours by mountain radii thrown out toward the sea from the mural circle of Arcadia. If we may be allowed to illustrate its local peculiarities by such a com- parison, we may regard the entire Peloponnesus as a vast natural Colosseum, ^^_ .-^_ - „ ^ .^ of which Arcadia is the Arena, surrounded by its Podium, or parapet of high mountains. The other provinces, separated from each other by mountain Viae, which diverge from this podium, are the Cunei, bounded externally by a wall of sea. We shall have occasion to remark hereafter the singular fact, that the Arcadian Arena of which we speak possesses but one outlet, or Vomitorium, namely, that through which Ionian Sea. In like KIOOS OTMt THI Al.ra*U>- manner there exists but one entrance or Corridor, which leads to the interior of the whole. This is the Isthmus of Corinth. If we were to form our opinion from a view of the stem and austere features which characterize the external appearance of this arena and these cunei of which we have spoken, we should suppose that there was little probability of their offering any of the charms and allurements of a refined and pleasurable existence ; and this would certainly have been the case if they had depended for their principal recommendations on their physical basis and structure. . But while these were, it is true, of such a character as has been described, the air and climate which were combined with them sened to mitigate the asperities of their other attributes. If the arena and cunei of the Pelopon- nesus were formed of rugged and bleak mountains, a clear and brilliant sky, such as hung over few other countries in the world, was their Velarium. OF NATURAL CAUSES. 39 The description then of physical elements which is applicable to Greece in general, is especially appropriate to that part of it which we are now describing. The great kingdoms of Europe are not more distinctly severed from each other by their natural boundaries, than the small provinces of the Morea are by theirs. Each of these possesses, as it were, its own Alps and Pyrenees. Hence there is no bond of union among them. Each of them is self-sufficient and independent. Hence, too, their history is rather that of separate countries, than of one ; and not merely so, but of countries opposed to, as well as divided from, each other. In looking down as we have just done from the heights of Lycseus on the two southern provinces of the Peninsula, we mean Messenia and Laconia, separated from each other by the long Apennine of Mount Taygetus, we cannot but remember the protracted and bitter enmity which exasperated the ancient inhabitants of these two districts against each other, and which raged the more fiercely in consequence of the opportunities for military aggressions which their contiguity afforded, and which was only terminated by the national extinction of one of the belligerent parties. It would have been fortunate for Messenia if no barrier had existed between itself and its more powerful neighbour. It then might have been incorporated in Laconia as a part of that country, instead of being subju- gated by it : its inhabitants might have become citizens instead of being slaves of Sparta. They might have risen to Lacedaemonians, instead of being depressed into Helots. Thus locally isolated and divided from each other, the provinces of the Peninsula never organized among themselves a national confederacy for 40 RESULTS OF the sake of mutual protection, or the attainment of any great political object. The battles of Greece would never have been fought against a national foe within the limits of the Peloponnesus. In the pass of Thermopylae, upon the plain of Marathon, on the field of Platsea, in the Straits of Salamis, the cause of the Hellenic Nation was nobly defended : but not on the Isthmus of Corinth. It could not have been so. The Peloponnesus indeed has, by the Greek Geographer Strabo, been styled the Acropolis of Greece : and as such it might seem to offer within itself the best means for the defence of the national cause. The character which he has assigned to it might reasonably appear to arise from its position and local advantages: but, in fact, — from its possession of numerous mountain passes and isolated piles of rock, — such as those, for instance, which overhang the castellated monastery of Megaspelion, — this Acropolis contained within itself too many minor and independent citadels, and these citadels were too well fortified in themselves, to render their inhabitants very solicitous about the general welfare and security of the great national fortress, whose legitimate defenders were too THE ACHiEAN LEAGUE. 41 often engaged in besieging the castles of each other to regard the defence and safety of the whole as an object of much interest or importance to any of them in their individual character. Hence it arose, that all the attempts to unite and concentrate the nations of the Peloponnesus in one federal body, however prudently devised, and with whatever zeal, integrity, and sagacity they were prosecuted, did not meet with the success which under different circumstances would have attended them. The AcH^AN League, framed by the deliberate wisdom of a people who were distinguished by the excellence of their civil institutions, consolidated as it was by the political and military prudence and energy of Aratus, and animated by the vigour of Philopoemen, was not able to overcome the insurmountable difficulties which Nature herself seemed to have thrown in its way to impede and thwart its ]3rogress. riF JEOIVM IN It was permitted to stretch itself along the level coasts, and over the exten- sive lowland of Achaia : it reached the walls of JEgium, of Sicyon, and the Isthmus of Corinth ; and thence descended to embrace within its grasp the City of Argos and some other towns of the Argolic Peninsula : it was enabled 42 NUMISMATIC HISTORY OF to conquer the geographical obstructions which then embarrassed its progress : it passed with difficulty over the mountain chains of Erymanthus and Cyllcne, and reached the walls of the Arcadian Megalopolis ; but it met with a hostile aom av uaaAVotovm id Aaumi. power which arrested its career, on the frontier of Laconia, and though it succeeded for a time, by measures of vigorous coercion, in reducing the capital of that country, and in attaching it by force to itself, yet this very union produced so much of national antipathy among the parties thus cemented together, that it proved the very circumstance which ultimately led to the dissolution of the whole, and ended the national struggle by combining the antagonists, not indeed in a confederacy among themselves, but by reducing them to the common condition of subjects to the foreign despotism of Rome. An illustration of this national disaffection of these provinces among themselves, and of their subsequent amalgamation under the levelling domi- nation of the Roman power, is supplied by the numismatic history of the Peloponnesus. While each of these possessed in its coinage its peculiar symbol, derived from its own history or mythology, or from its various productions either of nature or of art, — while, for instance, Achaia exhibited on her medals the type and effigy of her own deities, Ceres and Jupiter, — while Argolis THE PELOPONNESUS. 43 VALLBT OP NKMBA. referred to the temple of Juno and the games of Nemea as the pecuHar glories and ornaments of her own soil, — while the forms of the tutelary Dioscuri appeared on the coins of Laconia, and Elis displayed her national cognizance and insignia by appealing to her popular solemnity in honour of the Olympian Jove, these several states never united together in any such expression of their common sympathy among themselves, or of their social attachment either to the soil of Peloponnesus as their common country, or to one another as joint members of the same national family. They never emblazoned their union in any such device, as long as they were enabled to do so from the spontaneous dictates of civil freedom and unfettered affection. It was left for Rome to unite the States of Greece. The first coin which expressed the feelings of amity and relationship which a community of soil, sea, and sky seemed likely to inspire in the minds of those who shared them, was struck under the auspices of the Roman Consul, Titus Quintus Flaminus, This absence of union, to which we have alluded, was the main cause which led to a result of which otherwise it would have appeared difficult to assign any adequate reason. Placed in a central position between Asia and Italy, admirably adapted for facilitating the communication between them, washed on three sides by a frequented sea, not ill supplied with harbours for the reception of shipping, and with timber for the building of vessels, the Peloponnesus 44 PORTS AND SHIPPING. ITT or PATRA IK JJ|>^, waters of nearly all the rivers of the J \ west of the Peloponnesus, namely, the 1 1 \\ Alph^us. But on the eastern side of Ar- cadia exists no such vent for the discharge of its streams, as is found in the valley at the roots VALIXT OF THE ALFH.'GUS IN SLI& 48 NATURAL ORIGIN OF of Mount Lycasus. The waters there are left either to stagnate in the hollows of the valley, and to expand themselves into lakes, or to force their way by subterranean chasms through the rocky barrier of the hills. By a benevolent provision of Nature, it so happens that the geological formation of these mountains is such as to admit of the latter alternative. The limestone strata of which they consist are not difficult of perforation by the agency which these rivers employ. Thence it arises, that these streams, which seemed destined to be pent up within their rocky prisons, have opened for themselves valves and emissaries, by which the inland country has been rescued from inundation, and the ulterior provinces have been fertilized as if by a process of artificial irrigation. To cite one of the most remarkable instances, which we shall have occa- sion hereafter to specify. The lake, or rather the river of Stymphalus, at the southern foot of the Arcadian mountain of Cyllene, discharges itself from its channel at the bottom of a limestone precipice, where it enters the earth, and passes by a hidden course under a range of mountains to the south-east side ; till at last it emerges from its dark bed in the recesses of Mount Chaon, and flows in a rapid stream, which bears the name of Erasinus, into the Argolic territory, whence it passes on into the sea in the Gulf of Nauplia. To the lively imagination of a Greek, these struggles of nature presented something more than the phenomena of physical causes producing the effect which, by the regular operation of known laws, was due to them. To him, these appearances were not the results of general laws, but the acts of indi- vidual Powers. It was not the river which, by the impetuosity and pressure of its waters, mined its way through the opposing strata of calcareous rock, till it found an issue on the opposite side of the mountain precipice, but, it was the arm of some living and powerful agent, who grappled with the force of his antagonist, and achieved this conquest, which was alike glorious to himself and beneficent in its consequences to man. The mythology of Greece was the creature of its climate, of its soil, and its physical phenomena ; it varied with their diversities in each particular province. The legendary religion of Arcadia was of a remarkable character, in proportion as that country was distinguished from the others by the number and strangeness of its natural wonders. The agent by whose power these aqueous revolutions, which abounded there, were effected, was f V GRECIAN MYTHOLOGY. 49 Hercules; and the establishment of his worship in Arcadia was thus produced by the subterranean passage of the Stympha- lian lake into the passage of the Erasinus. We may refer to the influence of similar causes on the social and moral character, " -~ on the pursuits and tastes, of the inhabitants of the same country. The soil of this division of the Peloponnesus was such as to afford little encouragement to the agriculturist. Its mountain tops are covered with snow for the greater part of the year, and its plains themselves, such as those of Tegea, Mantinea, and Megalopolis, are rather flat surfaces on the elevations of hills, than warm and fruitful lowlands, where a rich alluvial soil is deposited by the contributions of fertilising streams, or which are sheltered by the protection of umbrageous forests, or refreshed by the mild breezes of the sea. The temperature and soil of such provinces as Boeotia and Thessaly, in the continent of Greece, were almost without a parallel in the Peloponnesus; much less could they be rivalled within the limits of Arcadia. From the circumstances which have been detailed, it arose that the life of the inha- bitants of that country was necessarily pastoral. The same leisure and free- dom, and familiarity with grand and beautiful scenes, which such an existence in a fine country supplies in abundance, and which has produced the mountain 50 CHARACTER OF melodies of Switzerland and the Tyrol, made, in earlier times, the land of Arcadia the cradle of the pastoral Music of Hellas. On the summit of Cyllene, Mercury found the lyre ; and it was Pan, the deity of Arcadia, who invented the favourite instrument of the swains of Greece. The social character of the Arcadians was beneficially affected by these influences. They were beguiled, by their means, of the rudeness which they would otherwise have derived from the ruggedness of their soil, and from the inclemency of their climate ; and thus, by a happy compensation, the very same causes which gave them impulses towards a rigid and savage mode of existence, supplied the most efficient means for reclaiming them from those same tendencies, to habits of a more refined nature. It is said, by an authority which cannot be questioned on such a matter, namely, by the native historian Polybius, that the inhabitants of the village Cyn^tha, who alone, of the people of Arcadia, resisted the influences which were supplied by the national music, owed to that circumstance the sternness and inhospitality of character by which they were distinguished from their compatriots. Such, then, were some of the results produced by the soil and climate of this country. It is not unworthy of remark, as a demonstration of the fact, that all which was connected with the occupations and enjoyments of a country life, was produced and cherished in Arcadia, that even the pastoral Poet of Italy, when he is commencing his didactic poem upon the affairs of rural life, is carried away from his own country into Greece, and led to derive his inspira- tion, not from the rivers and mountains, from the meadows and the vineyards, of his own beautiful land, — not even from those which adorned the fairest part of it, in which he was then ^^Titing, — but from the rude hills and barren ■■ACTORAL 8CKM. THE ARCADIANS. 51 sheep-walks of Arcadia. Not the majestic steeps of the Apennines, nor the vine-clad slopes of Vesuvius, but the Arcadian mountains of Msenalus and Lycseus, were the pastoral Helicon and Parnassus of Virgil. There is another result, derived from a source similar to that of which we have just spoken, and which is not to be neglected in an attempt to form an estimate of the social character of the inhabitants of this country, and of the natural causes which led to its development. The life of shepherds is necessarily of a migratory kind. The selection of new pastures, and the temporary abandonment of the old, are the familiar and constant duties of their existence : but the habitual performance of them has a strong tendency to weaken their attachment to any particular spot, and to produce a restlessness of character and an impatience of the same objects, which renders a change from one scene to another, not merely agreeable to them, but necessary. Hence was produced a feature in the character of the Arcadians, which 62 POLICY OF THE obtained for them less respect than they derived from their probity and hospitality, and from the exercise of those other virtues which are generally associated with the idea of a pastoral life. The Arcadians were not reluctant to serve as mercenary troops, in what- ever country, and under whatever commander, there seemed to be the prospect of the greatest personal advantage to themselves ; and instances are not want- ing of contests, in which some of them were ranged on a diflTerent side from others of their fellow-countrymen. Thus, as Arcadia was the Switzerland of Greece, so were the Arcadians the Switzers of antiquity. To pass from Arcadia to the province which bounded it on the south. It was a part of the policy of the legislator of Laconia, to dissuade his com- patriots from surrounding their capital with walls. He did this, no doubt, from the conviction, that as men, and not walls, make a city, so the best way to secure for a city the best walls, namely, the bravest men, was to leave it unfortified. Thus it happened in fact. Sparta was most secure, when she had no walls ; and she then began to bo unsafe, when she erected them. But the physical characteristics of his country alone might well have suggested to Lycurgus the same thing. Nature herself had, in truth, already surrounded, not, indeed, the capital city, but the whole country of Laconia, with impregnable bulwarks. The real walls of Sparta were her mountains. From them she gained the appropriate title of unassailable. On the west, she was fenced in by the lofty and continuous range of Mount Taygetus : all entrance within her limits was blocked up on the north by the huge hills of the Arcadian frontier ; on the east, her territory was protected by the sea. ISLAXD or CTTRERA. SPARTAN LEGISLATOR. 53 and within its coast line, and parallel to it, it was fenced off by the long bank of Mount Parnon, which runs from the heights of Mount M^nalub to the Malean promontory, and terminates in the insular cliffs of Cytheha. We have spoken above of the whole peninsula of the Peloponnesus as bearing a resemblance in fonn to an Amphitheatre ; and from what has been just stated, it will appear that the country of Sparta, — the hollow Lace- dremon, as it is called in the Iliad and the Odyssey, — being flanked on the east and on the west by two long parallel ridges of mountains, which were connected together by a similar but much shorter barrier at the northern extremity, may well be compared in shape to an ancient Stadium, of which Mount Parnon and Mount Taygetus are the two sides, and of which the end is formed by the northern abutment, already described, of the Arcadian hills. The bed of this natural stadium was the valley of Sparta. The entrance __^^^- -^'-ti '^ '^ ♦jra^jjt-i-gc". to it was from the Bay of Laconia at the south. Along v*L.^ or T„. K.ROT.S. PKOM «,STH*. J^ floWCd tho T\\QV EuROTAS, which has its source above the northern termination of the valley, and was believed to run in the same channel as the Alpheus, till these rivers separated themselves in the bowels of a mountain not far from that point, — the one diverging northward toward the centre of Arcadia, while the Eurotas issued from the same chasm into the territory of Laconia. The city of Sparta stood in the middle of this valley, on the right bank of the stream. The vale of Sparta was justly celebrated for its picturesque character. 54 TAYGETUS. Being also sheltered on three sides from the severity of cold winds, and open on the south to the soft and refreshing breezes which were wafted upon it from the southern sea, and being watered by the copious flood of the Eurotas, which vied in size, — to adopt the ancient belief with respect to their common origin, — with its twin stream, the Alpheus, the largest river of the Peninsula, it enjoyed natural advantages, which, if its soil had corresponded in excellence with its other qualifications, would have rendered the Laconian valley the most productive province of the Peloponnesus, Its low grounds, indeed, are remarkable for their fertility, and for the variety of their productions, and exhibit a beautiful luxuriance of shrubs and fruit trees. Here are figs and oranges, pomegranates and myrtles. The acclivities which rise above the plains are clad with olives, for the cultivation of which the soil of the Taygetus is so favourable, that it may justly seem to demand an apology from the Athenian bard, who rejects all the pretensions of the " Dorian Isle " to a share in the production of that tree. These olive plantations are succeeded by forests of firs, which cover the loftier heights of the mountains, whose sides are ploughed into deep gullies by torrents which flow from the summit of Taygetus into the vale, where they mix their waters with the Eurotas. At this stage of the ascent, the mountain assumes a different character. It becomes bleak and savage : it is broken into deep gorges and abrupt precipices. It then shoots up its lofty and jagged peaks, which are covered with snow during the greater portion of the year. The long and majestic range of these mountain piles, contrasted with the green banks and the flowing stream, the blooming gardens and the rich corn- fields, which fringe the river, and adorn the vale beneath them, present a beautiful picture, which might well have excited the admiration and (■ i»'' i PALLANTIUM. 55 inspired the love of the ancient inhabitants of Laconia, deHghting as they did in all the bodily exercises for which a beautiful country and a fine climate produce an enthusiastic devotion. To impart additional beauty to this scene, we may imagine it, as in ancient days, peopled with living objects, — chorusses, for instance, such as Theocritus describes in it, of the countrywomen of Helen dancing on the slopes of the mountain, along the banks of the stream, or beneath the shadows of the grove : we may listen, in fancy, to the echoes with which the mountain rung of old at early dawn, when the fellow-countrymen of her twin Brothers followed the dogs of Sparta to the chase, through the glades and glens of Taygetus. he Msenalian summits are a central point to which the mountain chains of Arcadia, Laconia, and Argolis converge. Beneath them, on the south-west, is the modern town of Tripolitza, which stands on the site formerly occupied by one of the oldest and most venerable cities of Arcadia. This was Pallantium, the city of Pallas and Evander. It is interesting to trace, as it were, the first footsteps of Rome, the Mis- tress of the World, on this rude mountain of Arcadia ; and to pass, in imagi- nation, from the sylvan scene before us, while we look upon the pine-tree groves of Maenalus, and on the castle-hill of Pallantium, to the gorgeous pile of imperial splendour which glittered on the top of the Roman Palatine. We are pleased, also, with the reflection, that one of the best of Roman 66 THE ARGOLIC PLAIN. Emperors, Antoninus Pius, did not scorn the tradition which deduced the primaeval colony of Rome from the soil of the Msenalian mount ; and that he showed to the humble Pallantium the respect and gratitude that was due to the old city, from which the friend of iEneas and father of Pallas was believed to have come to that Roman hill, which derived its name from Pallantium, and on which the Emperor himself dwelt. The road from Tripolitza to Argos passed along a narrow defile betv;een the hills of Artemisium on the north, and Parthenium on the south. It was near this spot, that the Athenian Courier, Pheidippides, in his way between Athens and Sparta, whither he went to implore her succour before the battle of Marathon, was accosted, as he said, by the Arcadian deity Pan, who desired him, on his arrival at home, to assure the Athenians of his good will towards them, of his regret that his favourable dispositions had not been acknowledged by them with due honour and gratitude, and of his intention to be present and to assist them in the great conflict in which they were about to engage ; a promise which, having been duly fulfilled by the pastoral deity, obtained for him a shrine in the grotto consecrated to his honour at the north-west comer of the Athenian Acropolis. The best view of the Aroolic plain, to which we now pass, is that which is obtained from the citadel, anciently called Larissa, of Argos its capital city. This Acropolis stands on the summit of a lofty and insulated hill, about four miles distant from the northern shore of the Argolic Gulf. Here the spec- tator may contemplate the sites which have rendered the soil of Argolis illustrious for thousands of years in the history and poetry of Greece. To the south of him, is the bay in which Danaus landed with his daughters from Egypt — the subject of one of the earliest dramas of the Athenian stage. On the western edge of the same bay, is the Lernjjan pool ; at a point nearer the city, the river Erasinus falls into the sea, having passed through a subterraneous chasm from the north of Arcadia, and thus connects the lake of Stymphalus, in which it rises there, and which was the scene of one of the Labours of Hercules, with the site of the Argolic Lema, which was also the witness of a similar feat of the same hero. Nearer still to the city from which our view is taken, flows the famous stream of Inachus, connected with Argolic history from the earliest times. It descends, in fact, from the frontier of Arcadia; but, according to the mythical accounts of Greek poets, who delighted in uniting distant lands MYCEN^. 67 with each other by means of rivers, and who, therefore, scrupled not to give them the course which was most convenient for such a purpose, — it was no other than a stream of the same name, which flowed in the country of the Amphilochians, on the eastern shore of the Ambracian gulf, and which, having mingled its waters with those of the ^tolian Achelous, passed under the earth, and emerged from a cavern at the roots of Mount Chaon, near the southern foot of the citadel of Argos. In this fiction, we recognize the trace of a very natural and not unpleasing attempt to connect the inhabitants of a colony with those of their mother city, by such sympathies as would arise notwithstanding their distance from one another, from the circumstance of their dwelling on the banks of the same river. The Amphilochian Argos was peopled and named from the Argos of the Peloponnesus ; and by the supposition above mentioned the two kindred Cities were kept in perpetual alliance and communion with each other ; their hearts were tied, as it were, to each other by the silver chord of the same stream. On the northern margin of the Argolic plain, stands the city of Mycen^. Its site is visible from the Acropolis of Argos. It remains nearly in the same state as it appeared in the days of the Athenian historian, who deduced from the extent and condition of its remains, as they then were, an argument with respect to the magnitude of the power of the house of its sovereigns, the Atrid^, compared with that of more recent dynasties. We look with a feeling of awe on a city which was in ruins in the time of Thucydides. Nor is it without a sensation of delight, that we contemplate the same venerable monument of antique sculpture which was seen here in later times by the traveller Pausanias, to whose taste and diligence all persons who feel an interest in the geography and antiquities of Greece are deeply indebted, and which still stands in our days, as he describes it standing in his own, over the principal, and, indeed, the only gate, with the exception of a small postern, of the city of My cense. OATK OF LIONS AT MV 58 TREASURY OF ATREUS. In exploring the site of this town, and in contemplating the structure and ornaments of this, the Gate of Lions, at the north-west angle of the city, we seem to become the companions of these two Authors, who saw what we now sec. Nay, more,— carried on, as it were, do\vn the stream of their faith, and resigning ourselves to the current of feelings by which they were impelled, we appear to recognize here the same objects with which, in their imagination, this place was peopled in earlier times. Thus, for instance, while halting before the principal portal, to which we have just alluded, of the city of Mycenae, and which is still flanked by the walls and tower of its massive and heroic masonry, and is surmounted by the architectural and sculptural ornaments of its earliest days, we picture to ourselves Agamemnon, the King of men, arriving before it in his car, on his return from his expedition to Troy ; wo behold him resigning the reins to his attendant, and descending from his chariot, and planting his foot on the tapestried road, which, in the description of the dramatic poet, conducts him to the palace of his ancestors, in the citadel, which he is now about to revisit, after an absence of ten years. Or again, wo seem to behold Orestes, the son of Agamemnon, arriving at day-break with his friend Pylades, and visiting the tomb of his dead father, which was seen here by the Grecian traveller of whom we have just spoken ; we have then a vision of the procession of the Virgins, passing from the street of the city through the same gate, and bearing their libations and garlands to the same tomb; we hear the lamentations of the sorrovN^ul Electra, and are present at her recognition of her brother, Orestes, which changes her sadness into joy. In the subterranean chamber, or Treasury, which is outside the city, and not far from the same gate, whose doorway is supported by columns of green basalt, with fantastic zig-zag or- naments, and whose remarkable struc- ture and symmetry attracted the atten. tion of the same Topographer, and is described by him, we see the depository of the wealth of its early kings whicn TRK-ISUKV rr ^TKIIOa. gained for this city the title of the Golden Mycen;e. TEMPLE OF JUNO. 69 We imagine this vaulted apartment as it probably appeared in tiio fancy of Pausanias to have existed in the times of Atreus, to whom he assigns it. We see cars of excellent workmanship, whose sides are era- bossed with figures in curious relief, hanging on the walls, which were then sheathed with metallic plates ; wo behold vases and tripods of bronze and gold, the gifts of Greek or Asiatic sovereigns, piled upon the floor : hel- mets and bucklers, swords and lances, the insignia and weapons of ancient heroes, — some of them believed, it may be, to be the works of Vulcan, or the gifts of Minerva, — suspended upon nails, or ranged along the walls: there are bits and bridles, trappings of horses, and ivory frontlets dyed by women of Mseonia ; and in the chests placed beneath them, lie embroidered tunics and cloaks, bright with purple and with gold; webs woven by honourable women, and noble princesses of the house of Pelops, of Perseus, and of Atreus. Such are some of the pictm-es which will exhibit themselves to the imagination of the traveller, as he treads the soil and contemplates the monuments of Mycenae. To complete the panorama which is presented to the eye of the spectator, on the summit of the citadel of Argos : Looking to the north-east, he sees, at a distance of four miles, and on the slope of the hills which gradually sink from the east into the Argolic plain, the site of the Her^um, or temple of Juno, the tutelary goddess of Argos. The hewn masses of its substructions still remain. It is worthy of observation, that a spot so distant from the capital city itself should have been selected for the position of the edifice consecrated to its patron deity. Thus removed, however, as the temple of Juno was from the ANCIKNT OLIVB UROVB 60 TEMPLE OF JUNO. haunts of men, placed upon a quiet and solitary hill, visited by shepherds and their flocks, surrounded by groves of trees, watered on each side by a moun- tain stream, with a long ridge of lofty hills rising at its back, and with the wide Argolic plain stretching itself at its feet, this sacred building inspired more of that particular feeling of awe and veneration which was specially due to the stately dignity of the Dorian goddess, the wife of Jove, and the queen of the Gods, than if it had stood on a less sequestered spot, or had been exposed to the daily gaze of man amid the noise of streets, or in the crowd of the agora of the Argolic capital itself. The road which leads from Argos to this temple, and which we can trace with the eye, from the spot where we suppose ourselves now placed, has gained a lasting interest, — similar to that possessed by the Plain of the Pious, on the sides of Mount ^Etna, — from the act of filial affection of the two brothers, who drew along it with their own hands, from the gates of Argos to the door of the temple, a distance of forty-five stadia, — the car of their mother, who had no other means of going in due state on the festal day, to join the joyful concourse of her countrywomen, who had then assembled in that place. Having been cro>vned as victors in the gymnastic contests, the two youths were welcomed on their arrival at the Heraeum, by the congregated people, who congratulated the mother on her sons, and the sons on their strength and virtue. The mother, rejoicing in her own happiness, and in her children's deeds, repaired to the shrine of Juno, and, standing before the statue, prayed for her sons the greatest blessing which the goddess could give, and they receive. It happened, after their mother's prayer, and when they had offered their own sacrifices, that the two brothers, overcome with fatigue, reclined in the temple, and fell together into a sound sleep, from which they never awoke. Their statues were erected at Delphi, by the hands of their admiring country- men ; and their lot was declared, by the wise Solon to the wealthy Croesus, to be only inferior in happiness to that of the Athenian Tellus. South of the Herseum, or Temple of Juno, and at the north-east comer of the Argolic gulf, placed on a low oblong rock, is the remarkable city of TiRYNs. Exhibiting, as it does, the most ancient remains of the military architecture of Greece, and exciting the wonder of the beholder, by the hugeness of the rude blocks %vith which its walls and galleries are con- structed, and which called forth an epithet expressive of admiration, even from the mouth of Homer himself — it survives as a striking monument of the 1 ^' ^ \^ TIRYNS— NAUPLIA. CI power of men concerning whom all written history is silent. It arose, and flourished, in times antecedent to history, and seems to exist to make mythology credible. We are acquainted with Tiryns only as built by the Cyclopes, and as the early residence of Hercules. Further to the south, and commanding the entrance of the bay of Argos, on the east side of it, and rendered conspicuous by the lofty eminence of its citadel, is the town of Nauplia. The rank which was held by Argos in the heroic times, that Nauplia occupied in the middle ages, and the natural advantages of its position will preserve to it an importance which will long render the name of Nauplia, — which is derived from that of a son of Neptune — a familiar word to the merchants and sailors of the Archipelago. At the conclusion of this preliminary sketch — before we quit our position on the heights of the Acropolis of Argos, — we may be allowed to indulge in some speculations of a more general character, on the geography and natural peculiarities of the country which we are describing. These reflections are not ill suited to the spot ^hich exercised so powerful an influence, from the earliest times, over the condition and fortunes of the continent and peninsula of Greece, and, indeed, are naturally suggested to the mind by the localities of this their heroic metropolis. The geographical position of Greece, properly so called, is evidently such as to favour the developement of the physical and intellectual faculties of man. Under the temperate influence of its seasons and its climate, they acquired strength without stiffness, and softness without effeminacy. Its situation, again, with respect to other countries, — to Asia and ^Egypt, to Italy and Sicily, — was such as to afford it every facility for receiving the arts and civilities of life, while it furnished the best opportunities for communi- cating to others what it so accepted itself. MODERN GREEK cosTUMB. j^g j^Qg coast-lino, indciited by numerous bays 62 RESULTS FROM THE and harbours, conduced to the same end. Nor was it possible for the inhabitant of Greece to forget the world beyond him, which the sea, ever presenting itself to his view as he crossed the lofty hills even in the inmost heart of his own land, brought perpetually to his mind. Thus, the spirit of enterprise and of ambition which distinguished his character, was the natural produce of his soil. Again : if we turn our eyes to the interior of the country, we are struck with the remarkable manner in which it is divided by the hand of nature into distinct provinces. The long ridges of mountains, by which it is intersected in various directions, have traced upon its soil the lines of a natural map, which no hand of man will ever erase. Hence that distinction of tribes, differing from each other in extraction, dialect, and civil and religious institutions, with which the soil of Greece was peopled. That the spirit of emulation and rivalry which naturally arose among these different tribes produced very important results, both for good and evil, it is not necessary to obser>'e. While the cause of the nation, as a whole, suffered from the disunion consequent upon it, yet a love of glory and distinction waa thus excited among the individual members of which the nation consisted, which led to no ignoble effects, either in arts or anns. The productions, too, of the poet and historian, gained life and vigour from the variety of dialects which were spoken by these different nations, and each of which was appropriated and consecrated, as it were, to the service of its own peculiar subject: and the political philosopher of Greece was enabled to confirm and illustrate his own speculations, by reference to the various forms of civil polity adopted by the numerous states, among which his country was divided. It would be long to inquire what facilities and encouragements were given to the cultivation of the arts by the physical properties which characterized the land of Greece. That the imaginative faculties of its inhabitants were awakened and kept alive by the remarkable phaenomena which presented themselves to their view, cannot be doubted. The volcanic fires which agitated its soil, the earthquakes which overthrew the walls of its cities, and convulsed the inmost recesses of its hills, the lakes whose inundations engulfed its plains, the rivers which forced their way by subterranean chasms through the barriers of rocky hills — to omit all reference to the majestic forms of nature in repose which daily met his j-i-..- , < i f NATURE OF GREECE. 63 eye, namely, a sky without clouds, a sea studded with numerous islands, and a land clad with thick forests — and not to mention the creations of art which so happily adorned these natural objects as to seem to be united and identified with them, as, for instance, the stately mass and the well- marshalled columns of the Doric temple rising on the hill, or the breathing statue in the grove — all these objects were to the imagination of the Greek like so many trophies of Miltiades to the mind of Themistocles ; they haunted him like a passion by day, and disturbed his sleep by night ; they carried him away from the region of blank abstractions, and from the contemplation of mere objects of sense, to dwell in the presence of living Powers, by whom, in his creed, all the motions of the universe were impelled and controlled. To descend from contemplating the conceptions of genius to consider the mechanical operations of art : It was to the geological formation of its moun- tains, to the durable limestone rock of which they consist, that Greece was indebted for those magnificent works of military architecture — for the massy wall and lofty tower of polygonal masonry by which she defended the cities which still stand upon her hills, and which seem to rival, in permanence and strength, the mountains themselves from which their materials were hewn. Again, it is to the rich and varied veins of marble, which streamed, in exhaustless abundance, through the quarries of Paros, of Pentelicus, of Hymettus, and of Carystus, that she owed the noblest works of her sculptors and her architects, — ^her Parthenons and her Theseums, her friezes of Phigaleia and of j9Egina. And, as it was the wealth of her soil to which she was indebted for the existence of these beautiful creations, so it was the purity of her air which preserved them : this latter element allowed her to attract the popular eye, to inform the national taste, to inspire the faith, and evoke the gratitude of her sons, by the statues and pictures of her Gods and her heroes, of her good and great men, which she placed, not only beneath roofs or within walls, not merely in the enclosures of her halls and of her fanes, but on the lofty pediments of her Temples, in the open spaces of her Agoras, at the doors of her houses, and in the crowded avenues of her streets. This permitted her also to decorate her buildings with the brilliant and 64 AIR OF GREECE. varied hues which Painting lent to her Sister-Art, and to imitate the clearness of her own sky and the freshness of her own sea, by those architectural embellishments which Art would not venture to adopt, except in a country alone where Nature has eclipsed, in brightness and vivacity of execution, every thing that Art can conceive. TmurtM or aimBrA iif jaoiiri, amniiito. j^LCIBIADES one day, as ^Han says, was taken by Socrates to a building in the city of Athens, in which maps of different countries were collected. Among them was a chart of the habitable World, as far as it was then known to the geographers of Greece. To this the philosopher directed the attention of his young friend. He did so with the intention of diminishing the pride in which the latter appeared to indulge in consequence of the extent of his territorial possessions on the Athenian soil. He f desired him to point out the position of Attica on the map. Alcibiades did so. Now show rae there, said Socrates, the situation of your own estate, " How is it possible ? " replied the other ; " can you expect that my domains should appear there, where even Attica itself occupies so small a space ? " Whatever effect this comparison of the extent of his own possessions with that of the country in which they were contained, might have produced J\ f) 66 EXTENT AND upon the mind of Alcibiades, a contemplation of Attica itself, and of its geographical dimensions, as contrasted with those of other countries of which the World, as then known, consisted, will not fail to suggest reflections of no uninteresting kind, to an observer of the parts which Nations have played as well as Men, — of the achievements which they have performed, of the influence which they have exercised, and of the position which they occupy in the history of the universe. The superficial extent of Attica is estimated at seven himdred square miles : its greatest length is fifty, and its breadth thirty miles. If it is compared in size with some of the provinces of Europe, and much more ^^^th the wilds of Africa or the forests of America, it sinks into the insignificance of some baronial estate, or of a private allotment in a colonial dependency. This, it is evident, >UF OF ATTICA. INFLUENCE OF ATTICA. 67 is the case if we look at its physical dimensions. But from a consideration of these we pass to another view of the subject. While, strictly speaking, it occupies a space in the Map which is hardly perceptible, to how many square miles, or rather thousands of square miles, in the social and political geography of the World, does Attica extend ! This is, in truth, a contemplation which fills the mind of man with a feeling of triumph and exultation, and with an ennobling sense of its own dignity, as compared with that of the accidents and qualities of all the ma- terial objects of the world ; which inspires him with a sublime sense of the energies of the intellectual and moral, and may we not add, of the divine and spiritual part of his own nature : for it presents to his sight a small Province, confined within those narrow bounds which have been specified, yet stretching itself, like a living Agent, from its contracted limits, by the vigorous growth and expansive activity of those powers, to a comprehensive vastness, nay even to a kind of intellectual Omnipresence, upon the surface of the earth. There exists not a corner in the civilized world which is not, as it were, breathed on by the air of Attica. Its influence makes itself felt in the thoughts, and shows itself in the speech of men; and it will never cease to do so: it is not enough to say that it lives in the inspirations of the Poet, in the eloquence of the Orator, and in the speculations of the Philosopher. Besides this, it exhibits itself in visible shapes ; it is the soul which animates and informs the most beautiful creations of Art. The works of the Architect and of the Sculptor, in every quarter of the globe, speak of Attica ; of Attica the galleries of Princes and Nations are full; of Attica the temples and palaces and libraries and council-rooms of Capital Cities give sensible witness, and will do for ever. But above all, it is due to the intellectual results produced by the inhabi- tants of this small Canton of Europe, that the language in which they spoke and in which they wrote, became the vernacular tongue of the whole world. The genius of Athenians made their speech universal : the treasures which they deposited in it rendered its acquisition essential to all : and thus the sway, unlimited in extent and invincible in power, which was wielded over the universe by the arms of Rome, was exercised over Rome itself by the arts of Athens. To Attica, therefore, it is to be attributed that, first, precisely at the season when such a channel of general communication was most needed, there existed a common language in the world ; and secondly, 68 POSITION AND CLIMATE that this language was Greek : or, in other words, that there was, at the time of the first propagation of the Gospel, a tongue in which it could be •UOBD nUrUi ■!«• — tAMCt (SaiCB. preached to the whole earth, and that Greek, the most worthy of such a distinction, was the language of Inspiration, — the tongue of the earliest preachers and writers of Christianity. Therefore we may regard Attica, viewed in this light, as engaged in the same cause, and leagued in a holy confederacy with Palestine ; we may consider the Philosophers and Orators and Poets of this country as preparing the way, by a special dispensation of God's providence, for the Apostles and Fathers and Apologists of the Church of Christ. Such, then, is a rapid sketch of the influence which was exercised on the destinies of the world, and of the manner and degree in which the highest interests of mankind have been, still are, and will for ever be, affected, by a small province whose physical dimensions may be said to bear the same ratio to those of Greece, which the estate of Alcibiades did to the entire territory of Attica itself. OF ATTICA. 69 This is a fact well worthy of attention ; nor is it a matter of vain or idle speculation to examine the causes which led to so remarkable a result. The land of Attica is a Peninsula; from this circumstance it derived its name : in form it is an irregular triangle, of which the base or northern side is applied to the Continent of Greece ; with its eastern face it looks towards Asia ; from its apex on the south it contemplates ^gypt ; and on the west it directs its view to the Peloponnesus, and to the countries of Italy and Sicily lying beyond it. By this combination of the advantages of inland communication with those of an extensive and various intercourse with all the civilized countries of the world, it was distinguished from all the other States both of the Peninsula and Continent of Greece. It should not be omitted, that on the coasts of which we speak, and by which Attica was bounded on the east and west, it was furnished with commodious harbours for the reception of shipping : and this will appear more clearly to have been the fact, if we consider the nature and require- ments of vessels of antiquity. When, also, we bear in mind the peculiar practice by which the navigation of the ancients was distinguished from that of modern times, and which gave to their voyages the character of cruising and coasting expeditions, rather than that of adventurous passages from one continent to another, the islands which hang in a continuous chain from the promontory of Sunium, and connect it with the Asiatic shore, will then assume the character of ports or emporiums of Attica. ijJi-V^ - _ «CIBNT SHIPPING OPF ( As Greece was the centre of the civilized world of antiquity, so was --^ 70 RIVERS AND PLAINS Attica the centre of Greece ; and as the climate and temperature of Hella« was considered to be more favourable than that of any other country of Europe or of Asia for the healthy and vigorous development of the physical and intellectual faculties of man, so did every Hellenic province yield in these respects to the superior claims of the Athenian territory. Again; it was not merely aided by these natural advantages, which arose from its form, its position, and its climate : the very defects, also, under which this country laboured, the very difficulties with which it was compelled to struggle, supplied to Attica the inducements, and afforded it the means, for availing itself in the most effectual manner of those benefits and privileges with which Nature had so liberally endowed it. One of these apparent deficiencies was the barrenness of its soil. The geological formation of Attica is primi- tive limestone : on it« northern frontier, a long ridge of mountains, consisting of such a strati- fication, stretches from east to west : a range of similar character bounds it on the west, and in the interior of the country it is intersected with hills, from north to south, which belong to the same class. Thus it will appear, that the geographical dimensions of Attica, limited as they are, must be reduced by us within a still narrower range, when we consider it as far as it is available for the purposes of cultivation. In this respect, its superficial extent cannot be rated at more than one half the value which has been assigned to the whole country. These mountains of which we have above spoken, are either bare and rugged, or thinly clad with scanty vegetation and low shrubs. The mountain- pine is found on the slopes of Laureum : the steeps of Pabnes and Pente- Licus are sprinkled over with the dwarf oak, the lentisk, the arbutus, and the bay. But the hills of this country can boast few timber- trees ; they serve to afford pasture to numerous Hocks of sheep and goats, which browse upon «UAUun or nnTiu i OF ATTICA. 71 their meagre herbage, and climb among their steep rocks, and to furnish fuel to the inhabitants of the plain. While such is the character of the mountainous districts of the province, its plains and lowlands cannot lay a much better claim to the merit of fertility. In many parts of them, as in the city of Athens itself, the calca- reous rock projects above the surface, or is scarcely concealed beneath a light covering of soil : in no instance do they possess any considerable deposit of alluvial earth. FLAIN OF ATHENS. FBUM The plains of this country are irrigated by few streams, which are rather to be called torrents than rivers ; and on none of them can it depend for a perennial supply of water. There is no lake within its limits. It is unnecessary to suggest the reason, when such was the nature of the soil, that the Olive was the most common, and also the most valuable, production of Attica. Such, then, were some of the physical defects of this land. But these disadvantages, for such in fact they were when considered in themselves, were abundantly compensated by the beneficial effects which they produced. The sterility of Attica drove its inhabitants from their own country. It carried them abroad. It filled them with a spirit of activity, which loved to grapple with difl&culty, and to face danger : it did for them, what the wise 72 NORTHERN BOUNDARY Poet Bays was done for the early inhabitants of the World by its Supreme Ruler, who, in his figurative language, first agitated the sea with storms, and hid fire, and checked the streams of wine which flowed abroad in the golden age, and shook the honey from the bough, in order that men might learn the arts in the stern School of Necessity ; it told them, that if they would maintain themselves in the dignity which became them, they must regard the resources of their own land as nothing, and those of other countries as their own. The same cause, also, while it inspired them with an ardent desire for bold and adventurous enterprise, and thus detached them, as it were, from the tranquil and limited objects of their own homes ; yet, by another influence which it possessed, it called them back with a feeling of patriotic devotion to the scenes and recollections of the country of their birth. For it arose from the barrenness of her soil, aa her greatest historian observes, that Attica had always been exempt from the revolutions which in early times agitated the other countries of Greece, which poured over their frontiers the changeful floods of migratory populations, which disturbed the foundations of their national history, and confounded the civil institutions of the former occupants of the soil. But Attica, secure in her sterility, boasted that her land had never been inundated by those tides of immigration. She had enjoyed a perpetual calm. She had experienced no such change : the race of her inhabitants had been ever the same ; nor could she tell whence they had spnnig ; no foreign land had sent them ; they had not forced their way within her confines by a violent irruption. She traced the stream of her population in a backward course, through many generations, till at last it hid itself, like one of her own brooks, in the recesses of her ovm soil. This belief, that her people was indigenous, she expressed in different ways. She intimated it in the figure which she assigned to Cecrops, the heroic Prince and Progenitor of her primaeval inhabitants. She represented him as combining in his person a double character : while the higher parts of his body were those of a man and a king, the serpentine folds in which it was terminated, declared his extraction from the earth. The Cicadae of gold, which she braided in her hair, were intended to denote the same thing: they signified, that the natives of Attica sprang from the soil upon which they sung, and which was believed to feed them with its dew. The attachment of the inhabitants of this country to their own land was OF ATTICA. 73 cherished and strengthened by this creed ; they gloried in being natives of hills and plains which no one had ever occupied but themselves, and in which they had dwelt from a period of the remotest antiquity: and thus the barrenness of their soil, while it urged them to foreign lands on adventures of commerce or of conquest, brought them back to their own home with emotions of patriotic enthusiasm ; it led them to regard themselves as citizens of all the civilized countries of the globe ; but it also made them consider those countries as only colonies of Attica, Such, then, were some of the circumstances which gave to this small pro- vince the dignity and importance which it enjoyed among the nations of the world : occasions will arise hereafter of noticing some other particulars which conduced to the same end, in the course of the observations which will be made on the principal sites and geographical features which distinguish it. For this purpose we will turn our attention to that mountain which we have already described as the northern frontier of Attica. This is Mount Parnes, It separates the Athenian plain from the valley of Boeotia bv a rocky barrier, which extends from the eastern termination of Cithaeron to the coast of the Euripus. On the west this plain is bounded by a ridge of which the principal summit is Mount ^Egaleos, and which stretches southward from Mount Parnes to the Bay of Salamis : its eastern limit is formed by the two mountains, Pentelicus on the north and Hymettus on MUDERN GKKEK PRIESTS. 74 MOUNTAIN WALLS the south ; the latter of which sinkg into the sea on the east, in the same manner as Mount ^galeos does on the west. Thus, as the City of Athens was both protected from external aggression, and also connected with the sea by means of its Long Walls, — ^as they were called — which stretched from the town to it« harbours, so was the Plain of Athens defended from invasion and maintained in communication with the coast by its own Long Walls — that is, by its mountain bulwarks, — namely, by Fames and iEgaloos on the west, and by Pentelicus and Hymettus on the UtAHMlt^ Ur rtCMtLLl' east ; and thus the hand of Nature had effected for the Plain what was done for the Capital of Attica by the genius of Cimon and of Pericles. In our survey of the geography of Attica, we propose to pursue this mountain range from its south-western extremity on the coast, and to trace its course in a northerly direction till we arrive at the point from which it begins to descend to the south. AVo shall then follow the eastern ridge in a contrary direction till we reach the sea again, at the south-east comer of the Athenian plain. In other words, we shall ascend from the sea by the western, and descend to it again by the eastern of these two Long Walls of Hills which have been described. With this view, we shall take our station at the southern declivity of Mount -^ffaleos. '^M-P'l'^:.^!^-^','' ' 1 • I- OF ATTICA. 75 From this point we overlook the Gulf and Island of Salamis, which lie beneath us on the south. The hill, on which we stand, is now bare and desolate; the gulf is vacant and still; the island presents no objects to attract the eye, except a few cottages, and one or two small churches which are scattered among the vineyards of Ambelakia, the village which now occupies the site of the ancient city of Salamis. But it was on this spot where we now are, in the month of September of the year b.c. 480, on a day of momentous importance to the fortunes of Greece and of the old civilized world, that the great King of Persia, Xerxes, sat and looked down upon the island and upon the gulf, and all the natural objects which we now see. It was here that he viewed the battle of Salamis. In the Straits below him, on the eastern side, or that nearest to himself, of the Gulf, was drawn up in three lines, and in all the pageantry of Oriental splendour, with all their variety of national equipment, and in all the pride of anticipated victory, that immense Armada of vessels which he had brought together from every quarter of his vast dominions ; which he had collected from the shores of the Persian Gulf and of Ionia, from Cyprus and Caria, from Phoenicia and from Egypt. The whole maritime force of the East was there, lying at the feet of their sovereign, and about to engage in his cause. Opposite to them, on the western side of the Strait, and lining the eastern coast of the Island of Salamis, lay the combined navy of Athens, ^gina, and Sparta. It consisted of three hundred and ten ships, while those of their opponents amounted to more than one thousand vessels. But the Greeks had amongst them men second to none, in wisdom, genius, and valour. While Xerxes sat and encouraged his Persians, Themistocles fought and commanded the Greeks. On the islet of Psyttalea, at the southern entrance of the Straits, was Aristides : mixed in the battle were men such as Ameinias and his brother the poet ^scliylus, who afterwards celebrated in verse the deeds of his country at Salamis : and besides all these, the majestic forms of TOMB or 4JAX. 76 BATTLE OF the old ^acidae, the divinized heroes of ^gina and of Salamis, — of Ajax and Teucer and Achilles, — who had been implored with solemn entreaties to assist their descendants, were seen coming to the conflict, dressed in the armour with which they fought at Troy, animating their own countrymen, and striking terror into the hearts of the Barbarians. The Sea, too, the Wind, and the Place itself, in which, on account of its narrow and confined limits, the vast numbers of the Persian army embarrassed and crippled themselves, — all these were powerful allies which fought for Athens and for Greece. These, then, were the objects which Xerxes saw from the station which he occupied on the southern slope of Mount ^galeos. He himself was sitting there, attired in his royal robes, on a throne of gold supported by silver feet : around him, while he viewed the battle, were his princes and courtiers from Susa and Babylon and Ecbatana ; on each side stood the Secretaries of the King, with tablets in their hands, on which they noted down the names of those Persian combatants who were observed to distinguish themselves by any act of remarkable courage in the conflict. From this spot, on the morning of the battle, Xerxes heard the war-song of the Greeks proceeding to the fight, and the echo of the island rocks which responded to the martial paean. This sound was followed by the splash of their oars beating the wave in regular order, and by the unanimous voice of the whole navy moving onward in a compact body, and cheering the Sons of Greece, with one heart and tongue, to go to the battle and free their country, their children, their wives, the temples of their gods and the tombs of their ancestors ; for all these were now at stake. In the evening of the same day, he saw the surface of the Gulf covered with the >vreck of his vessels and with the corpses of his men ; he beheld the flower of his army falling before his eyes in the little island of Psyttalea, at the southern extremity of the channel, where he had placed them for the purpose of preventing the escape of the Greeks. This sight he could not endure : he groaned deeply, rent his clothes, and rushed from his throne of gold in an agony of grief. Such was the conclusion of the battle of Salamis. The throne of the Persian King, having become the spoil of the conquerors, was afterwards dedicated to Minerva, and preserved in the Acropolis of Athens, with a sword which was taken from Mardonius the Persian General at the battle of Plataea, SALAMIS. 77 We proceed from this point, about five miles northward, along the same ridge, till we fall into the road which crosses the mountain of iEgaleos in its way westward to Eleusis, which lies on the coast, and is situated at a distance from Athens of about eleven miles. At a short space before its arrival at Eleusis, it pursues the southern edge of the Thriasian plain. A few days before the battle of Salamis, when Attica was deserted by its inhabitants, who had taken refuge in their ships, and on the shores of Salamis and of Tr(ezen, and when their country was occupied by the forces -^ *i Ihil^nTi^''' ATHENLAN8 TAKING RUrUGB IN THEIR of Xerxes, a cloud of dust was seen coming from Eleusis by two persons in the Persian army, who were then standing in this plain. It appeared to them to be issuing from that city, and to arise from a procession which they supposed might amount in numbers to thirty thousand men. Presently they heard a sound, as if uttered by a chorus of voices, and proceeding from the same quarter. One of them who was acquainted with the strains used on such occasions, declared to his companion that the sound which they then heard was no other than the hymn which was sung in honour of the mystic Bacchus, when his statue was carried — as it was on his anni- 78 SACRED WAY versary — from Athens to Eleusis, and again from Eleusis to Athens, at the time of the celebration of the Eleusinian mysteries ; and that this procession, whose dust now floated along the coast, and filled the air before them, and whoso united voices rose to the sky, was coming from the city of Ceres, on its return to Athens, after the celebration of that ceremony. As Attica was now abandoned by the Greeks, this appearance seemed more than human. He foretold, at the same time, that if the dust and sound moved toward Salamis, the Gods themselves were coming to fight against the Great King, and that the destruction of his host was inevitable. The road on which this procession then seemed to move, and to wliich wo shall digress from our mountain position for a short time in our way to Eleusis, the place from which it appeared to come, is in some respects the most remarkable in Greece. It witnessed, year by year, in the autumnal season, the solemnity to which wo have just alluded. Along it at that time, on the sixth day of the Eleusinian mysteries, the figure of Bacchus, — not the Theban deity, but the youthful son of Ceres and the giver of the vine to man, — crowned with a chaplet of myrtle, and holding a torch in his hand, was :^y^^imc3':f^' -' - .:gi*i> S^. - ON THB ROAD >Roai ELRl^SIS TV ATllKXfr. TO ELEUSIS. 79 carried in procession ; he was followed over hill and plain by thousands of worshippers, clad in festal attire, and wearing garlands of the same leaves as those which were woven around the head of the object of their devotion, and chanting his praises in strains of solemn and harmonious adoration. he stone pavement of the ancient road which this procession followed, still remains entire in some parts of the plain near the sea-coast ; on its surface the tracks of the wheels which passed over it in former days are yet visible. They remind us of the slow trains of Eleusinian cars in which the women of Athens went along it from their own city to that of Eleusis, at which we are now arriving by the same route. But not merely the women of Athens, — the mothers of Miltiades, of Cimon, of Themistocles, and of Pericles — nor only the youth and men of that city have passed over this paved way, to visit and participate in the most august ceremony of the whole heathen world ; for these stones have also been trodden by the feet of her poets, her statesmen, and her philosophers, all tending to the same place, and on the same errand; and, again not merely by them, but also by Kings and Princes, by Satraps of Asia and by Monarchs of Egypt, by Consuls and Praetors of Rome, and by her wise, and eloquent, and learned men, — by her Augustus Caesars, her Ciceros, her Horaces, and her Virgils, — going on their way to Eleusis to pay their homage to the awful Deities of that place, and to receive, as they believed, by initiation into the mysteries of their worship, both a clearer knowledge of the most abstruse and perplexing questions which could be presented to the intellectual contemplation of Man, and also a fuller assurance of their own personal felicity both in the present and in the future world. 80 SACRED WAYS OF To this road on which we are now travelling, a remarkable contrast is pre- sented in character, scenery, and circumstances, by that of the Capital of Italy which bore the same name as this which leads from Athens to Eleusis. The Sacred Way of Rome, we mean to say, affords a remarkable parallel to the Sacred Way of Athens, These two roads, it is worthy of observation, are, as it were, the representations of the peculiar character, genius, and influence of the people to which they respectively belong. Each of them exhibits to the eye and mind of the traveller along them the very objects which would be selected as the most appropriate characteristics of the pursuits and tastes, the qualifications and the achievements, by which each of the two nations in question was peculiarly distinguished. The Via Sacra of Rome starts from the Colosseum; it passes under Arches of Triumph ; it traverses the Roman Forum, and terminates in the Capitol. Thus it begins its course with pointing to the scene of the gladia- torial shows which afforded a savage pleasure to the assembled thousands of the imperial city in that vast Amphitheatre, that splendid disgrace of Rome. By the triumphal arches which span it, it refers to the military conquests which gained for Rome the title of Mistress of the World ; it speaks of the cars of the conqueror, of the captives in chains which passed over it, of the triumphal processions of victorious armies which moved along it, laden with spoil and decorated with trophies won from the most distant regions of the earth. Again, the Rostra and Senate House of the Forum through which it passes, supply a memorial of the grave and dignified eloquence and wisdom which controlled the people and guided the senate of Rome ; of that eloquence and wisdom which governed provinces, and ratified peace, and made laws, and returned answers to foreign kings and nations; and, lastly from the summit of the Capitol, whither all these triumphal processions tended, as to the goal and limit of their course, to offer prayers and spoils and thanks after their victories to the Capitoline Jove, it seems, as it were, audibly to declare that the consummation of the hopes and aspirations of Rome was military glory ; that conquest and empire were her Mysteries ; that they were the Temple to which she marched along her Sacred Way ; that this was the initiation by which she raised herself above the nations of the earth, — this the Apotheosis by which she became partaker of the immortal dignity of her own Deities. But the Sacred Way which led from Athens to Eleusis was of a very ROME AND OF ATHENS. 81 different character. It issued from the western and principal gate of the Athenian city into the most beautiful of her suburbs : here, in the Ceramicus, as it was called, were the monuments of her great men, monuments decorated with the ornaments of poetry and of sculpture ; and among them the orations were spoken over the graves of those who had fallen in their country*'s cause, which made their fate an object to their survivors and friends rather of congratulation than of grief. It then pursued its course through the olive groves of Plato and of the Academy ; it crossed the stream of the Cephissus ; it mounted the hill of yEgaleos ; it passed by the temples of Apollo and of Venus, and descended into the Sacred Plain ; it ran through a long avenue of tombs of priests, and poets, and philosophers ; it coasted the Bay of Eleusis, which, girt as it is on all sides (with the exception of CUAST OF ATTICA KItOM THE BAY OK EF.KU8IS. two narrow channels) by majestic mountains, presents the appearance of a beautiful lake; and at length, as the termination of its course, it arrived at the foot of the ample hill of Eleusis, crowned with marble porticoes and spacious courts, and with the stupendous pile of the temple of Ceres, celebrated as the work of the most skilful architects, and venerable for its sanctity and its mysteries, which claimed for Eleusis the title of the religious Capital of Greece. In its course it had passed within sight of Colonus on the right, and of Salamis on the left, one the birth-place of Sophocles, and the other that of Euripides ; and it ended at Eleusis, which was the native city of ^Eschylus. Thus did the Sacred Way, in its commencement, its career, and its con- 82 TEMPLE OF CERES. elusion, make an appeal to those peculiar objects both of nature and of art which obtained for Athens a moral, intellectual, and religious supremacy over the nations of the world, of greater extent and permanence than that military sway which was exercised over them by the invincible arm of Rome, F the temple of Ceres at Eleusis, few vestiges ' vc : now remain. It stood on an elevated platform at the eastern extremity of the rock on which the city was built. It was approached by a portico similar to that at the western side of the Acropolis of Athens. Thus these two PROPYLiEA, which were both the works of Pericles, looked towards each other. The entrance through this vestibule led to another of smaller dimensions, which opened into a vast enclosure, in which the temple itself stood, which was the largest in Greece. It was faced on the south by a portico of twelve columns, and the interior of the cella was divided by four rows of pillars parallel to each other and to the portico, and on which the roof of the fabric was supported. iEschylus was summoned before the religious tribunal of the Areopagus at Athens, on a charge of having divulged, in one of his dramas, the secrets which were revealed to the initiated in this place ; and the traveller Pausanias was forbidden in a dream to communicate the information he received here with respect to the mystical signification of some of the objects of adoration at Eleusis ; nor are the expressions of Horace on the same subject an in- significant indication of the awe with which men shrunk from the sacrilege, of which ho who made such a revelation was supposed to be guilty. It would, therefore, be a vain and presumptuous enterprise to attempt to describe at this time what they who alone could tell were least willing to express. But some of the external circumstances which attended the celebration of the Eleusinian Mysteries are not involved in the same obscurity. We are still enabled, while standing within the sacred enclosure, and on the marble pavement of the temple of Ceres, to revive in our minds some of the scenes which gave to this place, in ancient times, a solemnity and a splendour, the impression of which was never erased from the memory of those who had once felt its effects. The fifth day of the Sacred Festival was distinguished by a magnificent ELEUSINIAN MYSTERIES. a3 procession of the initiated, who were clad in purple robes, and bore on their heads crowns of myrtle : the Priests led the way into the interior of the temple through the southern portico which has been described. The Wor- shippers followed in pairs, each bearing a torch, and in solemn silence. But the evening of the tenth day of this august pageant was the most remarkable : it brought with it the consummation of the mystic ceremonies. On it the initiated were admitted for the first time to a full enjoyment of the privileges which the Mysteries conferred. Having gone through the previous rites of fasting and of purification, they were clad in the sacred fawn-skin, and led at eventide into the vestibule of the Temple. The doors of the building itself were as yet closed. Then the profane were commanded by the priests, with a loud voice, to retire. The worshippers remained alone. Presently strange sounds were heard ; dreadful apparitions, as of dying men, were seen ; lightnings flashed through the thick darkness in which they were enveloped, and thunders rolled around them ; light and gloom succeeded each other with rapid interchange. After these preliminaries, at length the doors of the Temple were thrown open. Its interior shone with one blaze of light. The votaries were then led to the feet of the Statue of the Goddess, who was clad in the most gorgeous attire ; in her presence their temples were encircled by the hands of the priests with the sacred wreath of myrtle, which was intended to direct their thoughts to the myrtle groves of the blessed in those happy isles to which they would be carried after death : their eyes were dazzled with the most vivid and beautiful colours, and their ears charmed with the most melodious sounds, both rendered more enchanting by their contrast with those fearful and ghastly objects which had just before been offered to their senses. They were now admitted to behold visions of the Creation of the Universe, to see the workings of that divine agency by which the machine of the world was regulated and controlled, to contemplate the state of society which prevailed upon the earth before the visit of Ceres to Attica, and to witness the introduction of agriculture, of sound laws, and of gentle manners, which followed the steps of that goddess ; to recognize the immortality of the soul, as typified by the concealment of corn sown in the earth, by its revival in the green blade, and by its full ripeness in the golden harvest ; or, as the same idea was otherwise expressed, by the abduction of Proserpine, the daughter of Ceres, to the region of darkness, in order that she might pass six months beneath the earth, and then arise again to spend 84 PHYLE AND THRASYBULUS. an equal time in the realms of light and joy. Above all, they were invited to view the Bpectacle of that happy state in vv^hich they themselves, the initiated, were to exist hereafter. These revelations contained the greatest happiness to which man could aspire in this life, and assured him of such bliss as nothing could exceed or diminish, in the next. We retrace our steps eastward to our station on Mount iEgaleos, and pursuing its range in a northerly direction, we arrive at the north-west angle of the plain of Athens, and at the road which leads from it into Boeotia through a narrow defile formed by Mount ^galeos on the south, and Parnes on the north The fortress of Phyle, which guarded this pass, still presenes its ancient name. Its walls and towers remain in nearly the same state as when it received, in the month of September, b. c. 404, the future deliverer of Athens, Thrasybulus, who was here besieged by his opponents, and who sallied forth frcm its gates with his small force to eject the Thirty Tyrants from the city, and to raise Athens from the state of degradation to which it had been reduced by the Lacedaemonians at the close of the Peloponnesian war. From the lofty eminence on which this castle stands, the eye enjoys a magnificent prospect of the Plain and Citadel of Athens, — from which Phyle is distant ACHARNIANS OF ARISTOPHANES. 85 about ten miles — objects which, thus presented to their gaze, doubtless inspired Thrasybulus and his followers, when they were stationed here, with fresh patriotism and courage, and stimulated them with an enthusiastic desire to liberate their country from the unworthy bondage in which it was enthralled. From Phyle, Thrasybulus descended into the Athenian Plain, with a band of seven hundred men. His first aim was the town of Acharnae, which lies at the south-east of that fortress. It is six miles from Athens, and was the largest and most important of the one hundred and seventy-four Demi or Boroughs of Attica. Here he defeated his antagonists ; this victory enabled him to proceed without interruption to the harbour of Athens, the Peirseus, from which ATHENS FBO.M ; ROAD TO THE TUtRJRlS. he expelled the forces of the Tyrants, and was thus furnished with the means of effecting an entrance into the city itself, and of rescuing it from their hands. The name of Acharnse is connected with one of the earliest and most agreeable of the surviving productions of the great comic poet of Athens. Its size and its situation, — the former placing it, as has been said, at the head of the municipal towns of Attica, the latter exposing it to aggression from all the routes which led the Lacedaemonians across the Athenian 86 COMPARISON OF frontier, and which converged, as it were, at the walls of Achamae, — were no doubt the reasons which suggested to Aristophanes the choice of inhabitants of Acharnse as fit representatives of the sufferings which were undergone by the agricultural population of his country at the commencement of the Peloponnesian war, and which the citizens of this place were so eager to avenge. The view which is presented to us from our position at Phyle, reminds us very significantly of the particular privations which were sustained by them, when compelled, as they then were, to quit their farms and homes, and to take up their abode in a confined lodging within the walls of the city. It shows us, beneath this hill, the * * * ... vineyards which they cultivateti, which supplied them both with occupation and refreshment, and which were rudely laid waste by the violence of the inva- der : it exhibits to us the estates which supplied them with all the necessaries of life ; it shows us the site of the ru- ral shrines and altars before which, at the season of the vintage or of hanest, they paid their grateful homage to the protecting Deities of the soil ; while, above us, wo look upon the mountain which they often ascended, to collect among its thickets the freight of holm- oak, of lentisk, and other shrubs and brushwood, which served, when con- verted into charcoal, as an important object to the Achamians both of traffic and of use. Resuming our position on Mount Fames, we pursue our course along the ridge of that mountain in an easterly direction. We are now following the line of the northern frontier of Attica. To compare smaller things with great, Mount Fames was to this country what the Alps are to Italy. But not merely was this mountain range a line of natural demarcation, which severed the land of Attica on the south from the vale of Boeotia on the north — so that in all the political revolutions which this country underwent during the period of its independence, this distinction was never erased — but also, what is more remarkable, it served, if we may so say, >AliU, A>ol> CAMrAM' rUL»44,4VUl'l ATTICA AND BCEOTIA. 87 as one of the degrees or parallels of latitude which were drawn on the surface of the intellectual Map of Greece. It was like a long and lofty Wall built in a beautiful garden, and stretching from east to west, along and up the south side of which fruit-trees and flowering plants are trained, which deck it with their bright blossoms of white, red, and purple, with their luxuriant foliage, and their golden produce, all of which are rendered more beautiful by the cheerfulness of the sun beaming upon them in full lustre ; while the north side of the same wall is cold and blank. So, while in Attica — the south side of Mount Parnes — every thing flowered and ripened which is fair and excellent BURAL SCKNK NEAR ATHENS. in the intellect of man, — while there a Phaeacian garden, teeming with mental produce, flourished in a perpetual spring, — on the other side of the same hill the picture was reversed. Boeotia, the country on the north of Mount Parnes, was as remarkable for its intellectual barrenness, as Attica was for its fertility : it was the bare side of the mountain wall. It seemed as if Nature, which made Attica a country of sterile hills and cliff's, and gave rich fields and pastures to Boeotia, had desired to adjust the balance, by denying intellectual wealth in the one case, where she had conferred physical, and by compensating for the absence of physical, by the abundance of intellectual, in the other. 88 CLOUDS OF ARISTOPHANES. Aristophanes, in his Play of the Nephel^, brings his goddesses, the Clouds, from the heights of Mount Parnes, when, in compliance with the invocation of Socrates, they descend to visit the earth. Quitting their aerial station on this lofty mountain, they soar over the Athenian Plain, and float- ing across the peaked hill of Lycabettits, at the north-east extremity of the city, and above the town itself, and the rock of the Acropolis, they fly over the Parthenon, and at last alight on the stage of the Theatre on the south side of the citadel. Before they commence their flight, they join their voices in a choral strain, replete with poetical beauty, which furnishes conclusive evidence that the poet who composed it might have been as distinguished for lyrical as he was for his dramatic excellence ; that, in a word, he might have been a Pindar, if he had not been an Aristophanes. While listening to the beautiful language and melodious harmony of this song, the audience might almost imagine itself to be placed in the same elevated position as was occupied by those who united in giving it utterance ; and thence it might seem to contemplate all the noble and fair spectacles which they there see and describe. Together with the Chorus of Clouds, it might appear to look down upon the objects of which they speak as then visible to themselves — to see the land of Pallas stretched out before them, and the lofty Temples and Statues of Athens at their feet ; to trace the long trains of worshippers in festal array going over the hills to the Sacred Mysteries of Eleusis ; to follow the sacred processions winding through the streets to the Acropolis of the Athenian city ; to witness the banquets and sacrifices on solemn holidays ; to behold the crowds seated in the Theatre at the beginning of spring, and viewing the dances and listening to the melodies which there gave an additional charm to that season of festivity and joy. Mount Parnes was the natural barrier which protected the Athenian terri- tory from foreign invasion on the north. But, as a military fortress, when it falls into the hands of an enemy, becomes then the cause of danger to those whom it was before accustomed to defend, so this mountain, when the foes of Attica had obtained possession of a stronghold upon it, proved as much fraught with peril to the Athenians, as it had before been productive of advantage. For, pursuing our course eastward along its heights, we arrive at a point, about ten miles distant from the fortress of Phyle, above described, and discover the ruins of some ancient walls on a circular and isolated hill, near the little village of Tatoi, and which projects from the mountain where RUINS OF DECELEA. 89 we now are. It stands at a distance of twelve miles to the north-east of Athens, and is clearly visible from it. It also commands a view of the whole Athenian plain. These ruined walls of which we speak are the remains of the celebrated fortress of Decelea. In the year b. c. 413, the nineteenth of the Pelopon- nesian war, this hill was fortified by the Lacedaemonians, at the instigation of Alcibiades, and under the command of their general, Agis. From that time forth to the conclusion of the war, they remained during the winter months within the Athenian frontier, instead of retiring from it at that season, as they had formerly done, with the intention of returning to invade it again at the commencement of spring. -} UKUARA TO ATHENS. The particular position also which they occupied on this eminence of Mount Fames, furnished them with the opportunity of laying waste the most pro- ductive parts of the Athenian plain, and of maintaining themselves with its resources : it enabled them also to intercept the supplies which were conveyed from Euboea to Athens, and to reduce their enemies to the necessity of aban- doning the direct and expeditious route across the mountain passes of Parnes, for the dangerous and circuitous passage round the Sunian promontory. From these circumstances it arose that, nine years after its occupation by the Lacedaemonians, this small hill proved fatal to the liberty of Athens. 90 PHYLE AND DECELEA. Decelea was a Spartan camp in Attica ; and a stationary one in the most important part of that country. A year only before its erection, the comic poet of Athens had exhibited to an audience of his fellow-citizens a city built in the air by two Athenian emigrants, for the purpose of intercepting, in its passage from earth to heaven, the sacrificial steam which arose from the altars of men to the mansions of the Gods. When the inhabitants of Athens enjoyed the spectacle of this aerial town, presented to their eyes in that drama, they little thought that they were about to suffer in the same way from the erection of a similar barrier in their own territory. The Decelea of Agis and the Lacedaemonians proved to Athens itself in reality, what the Nephelococcygia of Peisthetserus and EuelpidoK wjis in the fiction of the Aristophanic comedy to its Deities. DKjriLB KSAJl OAVMIS IM MJITKT rAMfS It is worthy of remark, that the two principal passes from Attica to Boeotia over Mount Parnes were guarded by two forts, one at the north-west and the other at the north-eastern angle of the Athenian plain, and nearly equidistant from Athens and from each other. These are Phyle and Decelea. The remains of both are still distinctly visible. They are both distinguished THESEUS AT APHIDNiE. 01 by the very important figure which they make in Athenian history. Both have been noticed above. The latter, as was observed, was one of the main causes of the decline and fall of Athens at the close of the Peloponnesian war : by means of the former she was raised again from the degradation into which she had then sunk. What she lost by Dccolca and the treachery of Alcibiades, she recovered by Phyle and the patriotism of Thrasybulus. Not far from Decelea was the important town of Aphidn^, one of the twelve independent and confederate cities of which the Athenian Republic was composed before the age of Theseus, who united them in one body, of which Athens was the head. It is not unworthy of observation, that, while Decelea was connected with the calamities and subjugation of Athens, and with the misfortunes and indignities which she suffered at the hands of her rival Sparta, it was from the neighbouring town of Aphidnae that three indi- viduals issued, who liberated from a state of bondage both Athens and Sparta herself. The same city, which gave Tyrt^us to Lacedaemon, sent Harmodius and Aristogeiton to Athens. They were all citizens of Aphidnae. It was at Aphidnae that Helen was concealed, when she was brought by Theseus into Attica. Here she was discovered by her brothers Castor and Pollux, who were guided to the spot by the inhabitants of Decelea. Thus these two places are connected with each other, and with the earliest history of Attica. Standing on a spot which derives from this circumstance an interest of no ordinary nature, and looking upon the soil and surrounding objects of a place which has been honoured by the presence of persons whom Time has invested with a kind of mysterious dignity, whose names have been famous in the mouths of men for three thousand years, a scene which has been visited by Theseus, by the Dioscuri, and by Helen, — and at the same time surveying the view which from this lofty eminence we command of the HI.R OF TIIRSKtlS. 92 HISTORY OF ATTICA, Plain of Athens, stretching from the hills of Fames to the harbour of the Peiraeus, we are naturally led to indulge in speculations on the aspect which this country wore at that distant epoch to which we allude, and on some of the most important vicissitudes, subsequent to that time, which it has undergone. Fabulous as the narratives of that period confess- edly are, and prone as the inhabitants of Attica were to enhance their national glory by adorning its annals with fictitious embellishments, yet it is not difficult to trace some footsteps of truth in those legendary records, which they have handed down to us, of the most distant ages of their own history. The earliest monarch of this country, whose name is presen'ed, is Cecbops. Backward, be- ^ond him, historical tradition did not go. He Wild, therefore, an Autochthon or Indigenous, — the offspring of the earth. The form under which ho was on that account represented has been above noticed. In his days, it is said, the Gods began to choose favourite spots among the dwellings of men for their own residence, or, as the expression seems to mean, particular Deities were worshipped with especial homage in particular cities. It was at this time, then, that Minerva and Neptune strove for the possession of Attica. The question was to be determined by the natural principle of priority of occupation. Cecrops, the King of the country at that period, was called upon to arbitrate between them in this controversy. It was asserted by Neptune, that he had appropriated the territory to himself by planting his Trident on the rock of the Acropolis at Athens, before the land had been claimed by Minerva. He pointed to it there standing erect, and to the salt spring which had then issued and was flowing from the fissure of the cliff which had opened for the reception of the trident. ltOMl«N KkMK tULDIBII. FROM CECROPS TO THESEUS. 93 On the other hand, Minerva alleged that she had taken posession of the country at a still earlier period than had been done by the rival Deity. She appealed, in support of her claim, to the Olive, which had sprung at her command from the soil, and which was growing near the fountain produced by the hand of Neptune from the same place. ECROPs was required to attest the truth of her assertion. He had been witness of the act : and he therefore decided in favour of Minerva, who then became the tutelary Deity of Athens. It is not difficult to perceive that in this tra- dition a record is preserved of the rivalry — which may be considered as the natural production of the soil, the form and the situation of Attica itself — between the two classes of its population, the one devoted to maritime pursuits, and aiming at commercial eminence, the other contented with its own domestic resources, and preferring the tranquil occupations of agricul- tural and pastoral life, which were typified by the emblematical symbol of peace. The victory of Minerva, which it commemorates, is a true and signifi- cant expression of the condition of this country, and of the habits of its people, from the days of Cecrops to those of Themistocles. Again, as a settled form of religious Worship may be inferred from this tradition to have commenced at the period to which it relates, so we may reasonably conclude that the influence of Law was then felt, and that the sanctions of Justice were recognised, by a people whose king was called upon to decide a suit in which the parties at issue were two rival Deities, and who founded his decision upon the great principle of equity, on which COINS OF ATTICA. 94 HISTORICAL SENSE OF the safe tenure of all property depends. The same inference is supplied by the mythological narration, that when, during the reign of Cecrops, another Deity, Mars, was accused of homicide, the court, before which he was brought to be tried upon that charge, was the Athenian tribunal of the Areopagus, TH* ACKorout tanm mit rou>rTAiN or tub Amtontav* We do not here mean to assert that the legends to which we are alluding are the productions of the periods, or contemporary with the persons, to which they particularly refer ; far from it : but granting, as we readily do, that they first made their appearance in a later age, still if we trace them in the chronological order in which they are presented to our notice by Athenians themselves, we may fairly regard them as the expressions of the popular belief, entertained by those who had the best opportunities of forming an opinion upon the subject, concerning the different stages of their own history. Proceeding further in our Mythical inquiries, we seem to recognise the ANCIENT TRADITIONS. 95 trace of an attempt to unite the inhabitants of the Hills with those of the Plains of Attica, — who before this period had probably been at variance with each other, — in the tradition which records that Cranaus, the suc- cessor of Cecrops, married Pedias, and that the issue of their wedlock was Atthis : — in other words, that Attica was then formed by the union of the two districts which are aptly signified by the particular names, — the one signifying rugged^ the other, belonging to the plain, — which are there assigned to Cranaus and his wife. This state of prosperity does not appear to have been of long duration ; for Atthis is said to have died in early youth ; and the flood of Deucalion — whether a physical or political revolution, who shall venture to determine 1 — is related to have inundated the country during the reign of Cranaus, who was himself driven from the throne by the king next in succession, whose name, Amphictyon, — a collector of neighbouring people in one community, — appears to indicate an attempt made in this, the next age, to organize afresh the social elements which had been disturbed by the convulsions of the previous generation, and to combine them together in one federal body. This design seems to have been attended with success, and to have produced results favourable to the cultivation of the arts of civilised life. For the im- mediate successor of Amphictyon, and the representative of the state of the Athenian nation, as it existed in that period, was Ericthonius. It seems reasonable to consider these Attic kings, not as individuals, but rather as personifications, if we may so call them, of the Athenian people, in the different eras of their early history. Ericthonius was, in the language of mythology, the son of Vulcan and Minerva ; or, as that tradition may be interpreted, it was in this age and under its auspices that the manual labours which enjoyed the especial patronage of those two Deities, began to attract the attention, and to assume the importance, which afterwards rendered them the source of affluence and of glory to the possessors of the Athenian soil. Not inconsistent with this account is the other tradition, which ascribes to Ericthonius the honour of being the first to yoke four horses to a car ; a remarkable circumstance in the barren land of Attica, where the horse was reared with difficulty, and maintained at considerable expense, and which was therefore the most expressive indication that could have been adopted, of the greater diffusion of wealth consequent on the successful cultivation of those arts and manufactures which began to flourish at this period. 96 THESEUS. The tranquillity which then prevailed, — expressed, we believe, by the asser- tion that Eriethonius was succeeded by his son, and neither expelled from his throne, as his predecessors Cranaus and Amphictyon had been by the persons who immediately succeeded them, nor followed, as Cecrops, by another indige- nous Monarch, — not only conduced to the progress and successful development of the Arts, but also led, as might have been anticipated, to the adoption of new modes of tillage, which enriched the Athenian husbandman with a greater variety and abundance of agricultural produce derived from his own soil. Therefore it is that the visits of Ceres and of Bacchus, the givers of Com and Wine, are said to have been paid to Attica at this time. Perhaps, too, we may be allowed to assume, as another result from the peaceful character of this period, that greater attention was then given to the appearances of Nature, to the vicissitudes of the element*, and to the forms and character of the other objects of Creation, than had hitherto been the caae ; and that the legends in which the Monarch of tliat time, Eriethonius, is raised after his death to a place among the celestial constellations, as the Heniociius, or Charioteer, and in which his contemporary IcAnus, the entertainer of Bacchus on the occasion of his visit to Attica, and his daughter Ehigonb, are admitted to participate in the same honour, are proofs of the observation with which the phasnomena of the heavens were supposed then to have been regarded ; while the story of Tereus and^rocne and her sister Philomela, which belongs to the same period, suggests the belief that the more humble objects of the lower world were not treated with neglect. A new and important era of Athenian history conmiences with the reign of Theseus, whose name gave rise to the above remarks, and to whom we will now direct our thoughts. THESEUS AND ATHENS. 97 PisisTRATus, tyrant of Athens, in his revision of the Homeric Poems, is said to have interpolated a verse which characterized Theseus and his friend Pirithous as sons of the immortal Gods ; and he is alleged by the same historian v^^ho makes this assertion to have expunged a line from the works of Hesiod, which mentioned a fact not very creditable to the memory of the Athenian hero, namely, the reason by which he was induced, in his return from Crete to Athens, to abandon Ariadne on the desert island of Naxos. '>o- VANCV 8KBTCH — ARIADNB. That the Athenians themselves felt a personal interest in all that concerned the history and character of Theseus, is clear from these circumstances, as well as from other evidence. The incidents of his story which reflected honour upon him were subjects of national pride to them : they strove with him, as it were, in his struggles, fought by his side in his battles, and tri- umphed in his conquests. He was, in a word, the ancient People of Athens personified by itself. This being the case, the narrative of his adventures and exploits becomes an object of peculiar interest, not so much as presenting facts of historical value in themselves, — for they rest upon evidence of too partial a kind to allow them to claim this character, — ^but as exhibiting to our eyes a picture of the ancient population of Attica, as drawn originally by their own hands, and retouched and embellished by those of their posterity. It is not hereby intimated that all belief in the incidents of the biography of Theseus, as detailed in the popular records of Athenian tradition, is vain and groundless : it is, on the contrary, more rational to suppose, that a 98 ATHENS REPRESENTED people eminently distinguiBhed for its critical perception of propriety in all the imitative arts, would not have failed, in this national portrait, to adopt a real model, and to sketch from it an outline not inconsistent with the truth ; and that subsequently it would have studiously endeavoured to fill up the lineaments thus correctly drawTi with lights and shadows harmoniously adapted to them, and have been careful to introduce nothing that was not in due keeping with the tone and character of the age to which the subject of the design belonged. As a proof of this assertion, we may refer to those particular circum- stances in the life of Theseus, which exhibit him and his countrymen in an unfavourable light. His biography is not a mere panegyric. It records both his ingratitude to Ariadne, and the ingratitude of his country to him. In it, the Athenian hero leaves his benefactress on a desolate shore ; and he himself is driven by the Athenians from his kingdom into exile on the barren rock of ScYROs. The heroine, indeed, is soon rescued from her distress by the appearance of Bacchus, the deity of Naxos ; but Theseus is left to die in his banishment ; and it was not until many centuries had elapsed, that his bones were dug up and brought with triumphal honours to his own city, and deposited there in that magnificent building which still survives in its pristine beauty to this day, and thus unites the age of Theseus with our own, and was both his Temple and his Tomb. We are, therefore, inclined to believe that the character of Theseus, as exhibited to us in the surviving remains of Athenian tradition, may be justly considered as a representation partly historical and partly ideal of the condition of the Athenian people, when the age of Mythology was drawing to a close, and is founded upon a real basis of the life and exploits of an individual. anoip ov SLG jl \,\U>\8y^. BY THESEUS. 99 Viewed in this light, it becomes, as it were, the Athenian theory of the state in which they were wont to contemplate themselves as existing at that early period of their history : and thus the fabulous legends of his heroic acts assume a practical character. They become assertions of national power exerted for great and useful purposes in that age. His legislative enactments are expressions of their own civil policy at that time. In these accounts, Theseus is called the founder of the Athenian form of popular government. To him the statesmen and orators of later days ascribed the origin of the political privileges enjoyed by those whom they addressed. He was said to have organized the federal body of which the communities of Attica were members. He united them in a civil society, of which the old Cecropian town was the head. He gave to that city, which thenceforth became the capital of Attica, the name of Athens. He insti- tuted the Pana.thenaic festival, to commemorate this act of union. All these works attributed to Theseus seem to have been so ascribed to him, as the personified representative of the State. And not merely his public acts may be identified, as it seems, \vith those of the national body, but even his private relations appear to have been so modified as to express the con- nection of the Athenian people with objects analogous to those which were contemplated by those relations. Thus the inviolable friendship which united Theseus and Pirithous seems to have represented the ancient national amity which subsisted between the two countries to which these two heroes belonged, namely, Athens and Thessaly. Again, in the rivalries of the Athenian king was shadowed out the history of popular jealousies. The object of his ambition is represented as a desire to emulate the deeds of his contemporary and relative, Hercules. If the latter destroyed the monsters which devastated the land of Greece, Theseus did the same. If Hercules sailed in the Argo, Theseus belonged to the same crew. If he joined the hunters of the Calydonian boar, Theseus was there also ; if Hercules is clad in the skin of the lion of Nemea, Theseus wears the hide of the Maratho- nian bull ; if Hercules bears a club, so does Theseus ; if the Olympian Games are founded by him, Theseus institutes the Isthmian ; if Hercules erects columns at Gades, Theseus does the same at the isthmus of Corinth. In all these particulars, the real competitors, whose emulation is expressed by them, are not so much Hercules and Theseus, as the nations of which these two heroes are the representatives. They are either Thebes and 100 BCEOTIA REPRESENTED Athens, or Argos and Athens ; and thus these legends are of value, as indi- cating the political relation which subsisted between these nations respect- ively at the period when the traditions in question originated. The antiquity of a similar feeling of jealousy which estranged Athens from Sparta, is proved by the story which represents the Spartan Helen detained as a prisoner at Aphidnae in Attica, and committed by Theseus to the custody of iEthra, his mother, till his country is invaded by her two brothers, Castor and Pollux, who rescue her from her captivity. A different feeling was entertained by Athens towards the people of Troezen ; and this is expressed by the tradition which leaves Theseus to pass his early youth under the tuition of his father-in-law Pittheus, the wise and virtuous monarch, as he is described, of that country ; wliich sends him to TrcEzen as a place |C.i'..i\ of refuge during his temporary exile from Attica ; and which consigns Hip- polytus, the son of Theseus and the Amazon Hippolyta, for his education to the same place. In connection with these accounts, it will be remembered, that Troezen was the principal asylum of a part of the population of Attica, when driven from their country by the Persians before the battle of Salamis : and, perhaps, these Athenian traditions themselves are allusive to that fact, and are grateful memorials of it. It may be added, as a further indication BY HERCULES. 101 of this intimacy, that Sphettus and Anaphlystus, two important cities on the western coast of Attica, are said, in mythological language, to be the sons of Troezon. Several particulars have been referred to in which the superiority of Theseus over his rival Hercules is evinced. Hercules indeed remained without a competitor in deeds of physical force. The palm of greater ex- cellence in athletic exercises was willingly conceded by Athens to Thebes ; and indeed, the eminence of the latter in this respect was regarded by its more intellectual neighbour and rival as one of the causes that conduced to give it a savage character, which was neither to be envied nor admired. But Hercules was no statesman ; he framed no laws, settled no form of government, organized no religious or civil societies : but all these things Theseus did. Above all, Hercules gave no encouragement to the arts: but Theseus, on the other hand, was the friend — he is called the cousin and brother — of Daedalus, who formed the Cretan labyrinth for Minos, and first endued statues with the powers of motion and of sight : he was the favourite, the son, of Neptune ; he built ships and encouraged commerce : he also worked mines and coined money. In all these respects the balance is greatly in favour of the Athenian hero ; or, as it may be expressed in other words, in all the arts and sciences which elevate the thoughts and promote the welfare of man in social and civil life, the merits of Attica are asserted by these traditions to have far eclipsed the pretensions of her Boeotian neighbour. AnaVB RI'ILDINO TIIS SHIP AROr). 102 APHIDN^ TO RHAMNUS. To return from these excursions in the regions of the early history of this country to a survey of the scenery which suggested them — We pursue our course from Aphidnse (which will be found in the sketch of Attica, inserted above in the 66th page) in an easterly direction over the high land of Mount Fames till we arrive at the sea-coast, which is distant about ten miles from the ruins of that place. The cliffs above the shore present magnificent views of ca^inrai. «» rm ki the channel of the Euripus, and of the bold and rocky coast of Euboea, sweep- ing in a varied line, and terminating at the south on the bay of Carystus, and in the noble summit of Mount Ocha. The country over which we pass in our way to the sea, and at a little distance from it, is covered with thick clusters of heath, arbutus, and lentisk : there are scarcely any trees, with the exception of the mountain-pine and the wild pear ; and no human dwelling is visible. In this solitary scene, at about half a mile from the sea, and three hundred feet above it, is a rectangular terrace, of which two sides, namely those on the north and east, are faced with massive blocks of white Pentelic marble, fitted to each other mth the nicest symmetry. The eastern wall is one hun- dred and fifty feet in length : it rises eight feet above the soil below it, which slopes gently to the sea. This terrace was a Sacred Enclosure. On it two temples formerly stood ; they belonged to the city of Rhamnus, which lay below them on a circular knoll upon the sea-shore. The direction in which they were placed was from north to south ; the remains of both are considerable. Whether they ever existed contemporaneously in a perfect state, is a matter of much uncertainty. Had this been the case, the buildings, as is TWO TEMPLES AT RHAMNUS. 103 clear from their actual foundations, would have been almost contiguous without being parallel to each other, and would thus have presented a very irregular and unsymmetrical appearance, for which there was no reason, on account of the ample dimensions of the area around them. Of these two fabrics, that to the west was a simple cella, built in antls, as it is called ; that is, with but one portico, and that formed by two columns placed between two pilasters, in which the walls of the cella terminate. This temple was only thirty-five feet long, and twenty-one broad : it was constructed of polygonal masses of marble ; of the four walls which formed the cella, some portions are still standing. The entrance to the temple was on the south ; on each side of it, under the portico supported by the two columns and antse above mentioned, was a marble throne, each having an inscription on the plinth, from which it appears, that the chair on the ri^ht hand of the door was dedicated to Nemesis, and that on the left to Themis. Within the temple was a marble statue of very ancient workmanship, which repre- sented the Goddess to whom the temple was dedicated. Adjacent to this temple, on the east, stood a second building of the same kind, but of a much more magnificent style and larger dimensions. It was 104 BOTH THE TEMPLES a peripteral hexastyle^ that is, it was surrounded on all sides with columns, having six at either end ; namely, at the pronaos, or front, on the south, and at the posticum, or hinder porch, on the north : there were twelve columns on :l_J: Tample In Antl*. w^^^^ • • • •• • •• T- A "TT- • •• • •• • • •• • • • • • • • •• • • •• '*'* ■••'1 Dipteral UcUMtyl*. PrtMiyle A. CelU. B. Pwtlcam. C. Prauot. Amphiprottylf. Ptripteral Uexutyl*. each flank ; in both the temples, these were of the Doric order. This latter temple measured seventy-five feet in length and thirty-seven in breadth. Within it, some fragments of a colof sal statue are still visible. From the testimonies of ancient authors, especially Pausanias, and from the fact, that the town of lihamnus, to which these temples belonged, was under the special patronage of the Goddess Nemesis, and also from the language of an ancient inscription still extant in this larger temple, which speaks of an honorary statue of a young Athenian there dedicated to her^ it is clear that this latter building was consecrated to that Deity. This large and splendid building was, we say, the Temple of Nemesis. The smaller fabric first noticed has generally been supposed to have been the Temple of Themis ; but there is no ground for this opinion, except the circumstance that one of the marble chairs, noticed above as standing in its vestibule, is inscribed to her : but it should be observed, that the chair on the leji of the entrance is dedicated to Themis, while that on the riffkt of it was sacred to Nemesis. In addition to this, since the awkward position of the build- ings with respect to each other suggests the belief, that they never both existed in a state of integrity at the same time^ and as it is just to conclude that the patron Goddess of Rhamnus was never without a temple in this place from the time when the spot itself was first dedicated to her, we are inclined to believe that the older and smaller temple was also consecrated to the same Goddess. It appears, then, probable, that when this building fell into decay, — whether from lapse of time, or, as is more likely, from hostile violence, — and when DEDICATED TO NExMESIS. 105 the inhabitants of Rhamnus had advanced both in wealth and architectural skill, that then they thought fit to erect another temple o£ a more magnifi- cent and spacious kind in honour of their own Deity, while their respect for antiquity, and their veneration for the consecrated building, in which she had been worshipped by their forefathers, caused them to retain, in its actual state, the smaller and simpler fabric which stood by its side. The ruins, too, of this ancient temple, if it had been laid waste by human force, were perhaps preserved in their dismantled condition, for a particular purpose, by the inhabitants of Rhamnus : for they were of service, on the one hand, as stimulating their indignation and courage against those who had thus treated them ; and on the other, as conjuring Nemesis, the Goddess of Retribution, by a silent and perpetual prayer, that she would aid them in repelling and chastising those enemies who had thus violated her dignity and profaned her worship. It is impossible to contemplate the ruins of these temples, and the peculiar features of their site, without being impressed with a deep feeling of admira- tion for the spirit and intelligence which set apart this spot for purposes of religious devotion. Let us imagine this scene as it existed in former days. Then, these buildings were standing — the larger of them, at least, in its full beauty — on an enclosed terrace, supported by long and high walls of pure marble. This was their pedestal. They were surrounded by a sacred grove of green and fragrant shrubs, among which were statues and altars. One of these two buildings reminded the spectator of the simplicity of earlier days by its chaste and severe style : the other charmed him by the size and beauty of its structure, by its long lines of columns, its lofty pediments, the richness of its sculptural decorations, and by the brilliancy of the colouring with which they were adorned. Beneath them, at some distance, was the Sea : on its shore, was the city of Rhamnus, one of the strongest and most important ffS-Xij^ftt OrC- ' " iiti ^1^^^^^ ■■■■■HiiHiii , ^irtmtmJiyf 106 CONTRAST OF CITY AND TEMPLES. fortresses of Attica, to which these temples belonged. The town stood on a peninsula knoll ; it was surrounded with lofty walls of massive stone, and was entered, on the west by a gate flanked with towers ; on the southern side was its port. ROM contemplating the picture which these latter objects suggest to the imagination, — from ideal visions of the military or naval preparations which the town of Rhamnus, now lying in ruins before us, was wont to witness in early days, — from sights, such as it then presented, of seamen hastening down to its port, and invited to embark there by a favourable gale; or of Athenian merchants unlading their ships, and transporting their freight to warehouses on the quay ; or of travellers entering the gate of the city, or issuing from it, — we turn again to a more quiet scene, — to the view of these beautiful temples, standing alone on their lofty platfonn amid the shadows and the silence of their consecrated grove. However mistaken its object, we cannot bear to condemn, nay, rather, we cannot but fervently approve and admire, the temper of that devotion which raised these two buildings, — one of grave simplicity, the other of sumptuous splendour, — in such a scene as this. We reverence the feeling which removed them from the turmoil of the city, sequestered them by a local con- secration from all buildings devoted to traffic and to toil, and placed them in this tranquil spot, which invited the worshipper to come here from the stir of the streets below, and to taste the pleasure and enjoy the fruits, if not of devotion, at least of meditation and repose ; we venerate the principle — a principle, not of Paganism, but one of a purer spirit speaking in a Pagan age — which in the dignified structure and in the hallowed and peaceful precincts of these temples at Rhamnus seems to have conceived and realized the idea of what we may be allowed to call an architectural Sabbath, such as a heathen could enjoy, and no Christian can despise. We recognize, therefore, in this place one of the most interesting specimens to be found on the soil of Greece of those Sacred Enclosures, which, from their elevation and retirement, gave additional beauty, dignity, and sanctity, to the Temples contained within them. We find, indeed, the same idea, which suggested such an aiTangement, developed in other places on a grander SACRED ENCLOSURES. 107 scale, and with greater magnificence. In a certain sense the AcropoHs of Athens was itself a hallowed Temenos, as such an enclosure was called in the language of ancient Greece. The spacious grove of the Olympian Jove at Elis was another of the same kind. Another example is found in the walled platform at Eleusis, on which the Propylsea and Temple stood. We are presented with another at Epidaurus in Argolis, where not merely the Temple of yEsculapius and other consecrated buildings, but also the unrivalled Theatre of Polycletus, were all grouped together within the same precincts. At Sunium the fane of Minerva ; at Patrse that of Diana ; at Corinth, that of Palsemon ; at Megara, that of Jove ; at Sicyon, that of Hercules, — were combined with other fabrics in the same way. Nor was this practice limited to Greece. We discover it on the shores of Asia and of Sicily. At Priene, it was seen in the sacred buildings dedicated to Minerva Polias : it exhibits itself at Selinus, where four temples stand side by side on a raised terrace enclosed by walls : and no one can view the line of magnificent fanes still standing at Girgenti on their elevated platform, looking over the sea on one side, and the site of the ancient city, from which they are removed, on the other, without feeling a share of the pleasure and veneration with which they were contemplated by spectators and worshippers of ancient days, and which they inspired by their position. 108 MARATHON. It is six miles from Rhamnus to Marathon. The road descends from the heights of Mount Fames in a south-westerly direction. The plain of Marathon lies from north-east to south-west. It is nearly in the form of a ruVUfAUl MSAM MAKAIHI crescent, the horns of which consist of two promontories, wliich project into the sea, and form its semicircular bay, which is of the same length as the plain, namely six miles : the breadth of the latter, in the widest or central part of the crescent, is two miles. A line dravsii from the middle of the arc of the bay, so as to cut the centre of the arc of the plain, will, if produced, pass upward along a valley in which is the modem Village of Marathona, and down which a stream flows, which nearly divides the plain into two equal parts, and then falls into the bay : on all other sides towards the land the crescent of the plain is bounded by rugged limestone mountains, covered with pines, olives, and cedars, and low shrubs, such as lentisks, cypresses, and myrtles. Near each of the horns or capes at the northern and southern extremity of the plain are two marshes, overgrown with reeds and rushes: between the southern of these, and the central stream above mentioned, is a Tumulus — called Soro, or the Mound — of red sandy earth, and ten yards in height, two hundred in circumference, and a thousand from the shore. i\U6'f .%. ^/^ H' ^'^ BATTLE OF MARATHON. 109 The plain is dry and bare, consisting, chiefly, of arable land, and quite flat : there are no hedges nor houses upon it ; here and there is a small white chapel, with a low door and narrow window, and in a ruinous condition ; some oxen are seen feeding in the southern marsh, and others ploughing on the plain ; rarely a vessel is discovered at anchor in the bay, which is entirely exposed on the east and south-east ; its best anchorage is at the centre and at the north-west, where the depth is seven and eight fathoms, gradually decreasing to the shore. Such, now, is the aspect of the plain of Marathon, Its distance from Athens is twenty-two miles. PLAIN OF MARATHON. The battle of Marathon, which preserved the liberties of Greece, and perhaps of Europe, from the dominion of Persia, was fought in the month of September, b. c, 490. The numbers of the combatants on each side cannot be accurately determined ; but the calculation seems most probable which estimates the force of Athens at eleven thousand heavy-armed men, while that of Persia amounted to two hundred thousand. The Athenians possessed neither bowmen nor cavalry, but the Persians abounded in both. The Athenian force was drawn up so as to extend from one side of the plain to the other, in order that the mountains on each flank of them might prevent the cavalry of the enemy from passing round to charge them in the rear. |n 110 THE BATTLE ILLUSTRATED The right wing of the Greeks was commanded by Callistratus of Aphidnae, who was the polemarch, or third of the nine Archons of Athens in that year : ho was at the head of the troops of the tribe jEantis. The whole Athenian force was so disposed that the members of the same tribe might fight near each other, — a circumstance worthy of notice, and which conduced much to stimulate the exertions, and to increase the valour of all, by the honourable rivalry among the different tribes, and by the encouragement given by the members of the same tribe to each other, which were the results aimed at and naturally produced by such an arrangement. The tribe CEneis was led by Miltiades ; Aristides was at the head of his own, Antiochis: Themistocles at that of Loontis : these two latter composed the Athenian centre. Its left wing was formed of Platseans, amounting to one thousand men. The Athenian line was two miles in length, and about that distance from the sea- shore. That of the Persians coincided in extent with it, and was drawn up at an equal distance from it and from the sea. The battle was commenced by the Athenians, who marched with a rapid step over the mile of ground which separated them from the enemy. They were the first among the Greeks who dared to attack the Persians, or even to endure the sight of their armour, or to look them in the face on the field of battle : for until that day, the very name of Medes had struck a panic into the hearts of the dwellers in Greece. Both the wings of the Greek army were successful. The centre, which was the weakest part of the line, being necessarily stretched beyond the usual length for the purpose above mentioned, was broken by the Sacse and the Persians, who held the corresponding place of the enemy ''s force. The battle lasted for many hours. Towards evening, the Greek wings returned from the pursuit of their opponents, and closed to intercept and attack the Persian centre in the rear. This they effected. In the meantime, their own centre rallied, and having formed itself again, it joins with the two wings in a charge upon the Persians, from different directions, at one and the same time. They drive the right wing of their opponents into the marsh, and their left and centre into the sea. They attempt to set fire to the Persian vessels in the bay, and succeed in seizing seven of them. The greatest slaughter of the Persians took place in the two marshes ; that of the Athenians in the plain between them : of the former, six thousand four hundred fell ; the latter lost only one hundred and ninety-two men. Thus ended the battle of Marathon. BY LOCAL CONSIDERATIONS. Ill The plain on which we now are is described by Herodotus as one of the most favourable in Attica for the operations of cavalry ; and for this reason, he alleges, it was recommended to the Persian generals by Ilippias, the exiled Tyrant of Athens, who was then in their army, both as the most con- venient spot for the landing of their troops, and also the most advantageous for an engagement with the Athenians, whose force, at that time, as has been before noticed, consisted of infantry alone. It is clear that this character of the place must be qualified by certain restrictions ; for, as was evinced by the result of the battle, the marshes at either extremity of the plain render it not merely not favourable, but, on the contrary, very inconvenient for that purpose which he is said to have had particularly in view when he advised such a selection. It seems most probable that the Persians, whose course hitherto, on their way to Greece, had been little else than a succession of victories, little dreamt that they should experience any check or opposition worthy of the name, in landing on any point of the Athenian soil. They thought, as the same historian says, that those whom they saw marching rapidly against them, were impelled by a spirit of infatuation which drove them to certain destruc- tion. They therefore directed their course to Marathon, as the nearest place of any importance after their conquest of Euboea, not without some reference indeed to the character of the spot, but imagining that, whatever this might be, there was but little chance of their meeting with any resistance from its inhabitants, and none whatever of defeat. This confidence in their own strength, and their contempt of that of their adversaries, was as beneficial to their enemies as it was destructive to themselves. Another disadvantage under which the Persians sufiered, when compared with their antagonists, and which much contributed to their defeat, was the circumstance that they had a place of refuge, and one easy of access in case of their receiving a check from the Athenians : whereas, their opponents, on the contrary, had all the benefit of despair : if the Athenians were not conquerors at Marathon, from that time they themselves were lost, and their country enslaved. Had the Persian leaders, Datis and Artaphemes, landed all their troops, and then set fire to their ships, the issue might have been different. As it was, their vessels were almost a temptation to defeat. In the other case, Attica, and with it the Peninsula of Greece, might have become theirs, as the greater part of the Greek continent already was. The arrangement of the Athenian forces on the field of battle, according 112 ATHENIAN ADVANTAGES to their respective tribes, has been already noticed. It was the same as that recommended by Nestor to Agamemnon on the plains of Troy. If we com- pare with this the fortuitous disposition of the Persian force, and the heterogeneous elements of which it was composed, varying in origin, habits, costume, language, and interests, not one among them fighting for liberty, but for an absent monarch, who had, perhaps, their country reduced to bondage, we recognize another cause of moral power in the Greek force, with which the numerical majority of the Persian army in vain attempted to strive. The season of the year, also, at which the battle was fought, and the time of day to which it was prolonged, were both in favour of the Athenians. In the month of September, the marshes at the two extremities of the plain in which the greatest carnage of the Persians took phico, had probably been filled with rain ; whereas, in the summer months they are nearly dry ; and had the battle been fought at that period of the year, they would have been as serviceable to the Persians, in giving, by their flat area, a greater extension to the plain, and by affording more room for their cavalry, and greater faciH- ties for passing round and taking the enemy in the rear, as they now proved pernicious to them. From the direction, also, of the plain, it happened that at the crisis of the conflict, which was in the evening, the Greeks had the sun behind them, while it streamed in full radiance on the faces of their opponents. We have specified some of the moral and physical advantages which the Athenians enjoyed on the field of Marathon : they had also on their side certain religious ones, which are not to be forgotten. The place in which they fought was consecrated ground : it was dedicated to Hercules. As the Greeks at Thermopylae fought beneath the mountain, so at Marathon they contended on the plain, of that hero. Mount (Eta was, as it were, a natural Altar, and Marathon a Temple of Hercules. It was here, too, that his daughter Macaria offered herself up to death, as a victim for the liberty of her people. The fountain which supplied the marsh that was so destructive to the Persians, bore her name. Her example could not have been absent from the minds of the Gieeks who were about to engage near it in a similar cause. It was near this stream that the sons of Hercules, by the assistance of the Athenian King of that time, routed the army of their enemy, Eurystheus. Again, it was at Marathon that Theseus, the prince and guardian hero of Athens, destroyed the monster which ravaged the country, and had been brought by Hercules from Crete. AT MARATHON. 113 It is evident that these local recollections were not lost upon those who welcomed with great gladness the promise of the pastoral Deity Pan, — to whom a grotto on the rocks above the Plain of Marathon was subsequently dedicated, — that he would come from Arcadia to assist them in the battle in which they were now about to engage. In fact, these very traditions were blended in after-times with the historical features, and became a part of the real scenery, of the battle of Marathon. The fresco in which it was repre- sented by Pan;enus, the cousin of Phidias, on the walls of the P(ecile, or Painted-porch, at Athens, — while in the back-ground were the Phoenician ships riding in the bay, and, nearer to the spectator, the Athenians were driving the Persians into the marshes and the sea — exhibited in the front of the picture, near Miltiades, Callimachus, and Cynaegeirus, the forms of Minerva and of Hercules, and that of Theseus like one rising from the earth. To the traveller who visits the Plain of Marathon at this day, the two most attractive and interesting objects are the Tumulus, or Mound, which has been described as standing between the two Marshes, and about half- a-mile from the sea ; and at a distance of a thousand yards to the north of this, the substructions of a square building, formed of large blocks of white marble, which now bears the name of Pyrgos, or the Tower. Beneath the former, lie the remains of the one hundred and ninety- two Athenians who fell in the battle : the latter is the trophy of Miltiades. 114 TUMULUS AND TROPHY. To bury these heroes on the spot where they fell, was wise and noble. The body of CalHmachus, the leader of the right wing, was interred among them ; and as they fought, arranged by tribes, in the field, so they now lie in the same order in this tomb. Even the spectator of these days, who comes from a distant land, will feel an emotion of awe when looking upon this grand and simple monument, with which he seems, as it were, to be left alone on this wide and solitary plain ; nor will he wonder that the ancient inhabitants of this place revered those who lie beneath it as Beings more than human, — that they heard the sound of arms and the neighing of horses around it in the gloom of the night, and that the greatest Orator of the Antient World swore by those who lay buried at Marathon as if they were Gods. Not only was Miltiades the leader of the Athenians on this plain, but it was through his means that they fought there at all. To him, therefore, they erected the honorary monument of which the remains have just been noticed. This trophy of Miltiades, which is now before us, would not suffer Themis- tocles to sleep. Such, as he said himself, was the effect of this fabric on his mind. Such were the fruits of public rewards at that time. By honouring greatness, they created it. The trophy of Miltiades on the plain of Marathon produced that of Thcmistocles on the promontory of Salamis. THSUICTOCUB KECBTlKO THE TKOPHT Of rlCTOaT. SALAMIS AND MARATHON. 115 Of both these great battles, there existed visible memorials on the spots where they were fought. But with respect to the manner in which their memory has been preserved by other records, their fate has been very differ- ent. It is remarkable, that while the battle of Marathon was represented both in painting and in sculpture, — on the walls of the Poecile in the Agora of Athens, and in the Temple of Victory on the Acropolis, on the frieze of which we still see the figures of the Persian combatants with their lunar shields, their bows and quivers, their curved scimitars, their loose trousers and Phrygian tiaras, — this was not the case with the battle of Salamis. This difference arose, we conceive, not from any pre-eminence of glory which the former enjoyed, — for in this respect Salamis did not yield to Marathon, but rather, as it seems, from the dissimilar nature of the two battles themselves. While the variety of attitudes and movements of the combatants engaged in a conflict by land afforded ample scope to the artist for a display of his powers of conception and of execution, especially in his treatment of the human form, — the features and scenery of a sea-Jight, such as the long ships, their erect beaks, and their parallel lines of oars, were less tractable materials for his chisel and his pencil : their forms were too rigid, and too little susceptible of that ideal grace which was the soul of his art, to permit him to attempt a representation which would fail to enhance the glory of that memorable deed, and perhaps would even expose it to the ridicule of his critical and fastidious countrymen. The same refinement of taste and love of imaginative beauty, — the same impatience of reality when inconsistent with his own conceptions of symmetry, which induced him, at the sacrifice of strict truth, to exhibit, in the frieze of which we have spoken, the Athenians at Marathon with no other armour than their shields, and with no other covering or protection than a loose and flowing drapery, compelled him to abstain altogether from any representation of the sea-fight of Salamis, which would, if executed, have either been true without being picturesque, or picturesque without being possible. But, what Sculpture and Painting could not attempt, another Art has accom- plished. Among the combatants, both at Marathon and Salamis, was the tragic poet -^schylus. He left the former battle to be celebrated in the frescoes of the Porch, and on the frieze of the Temple ; the latter the dramatist himself immortalized in verses which retain their original freshness, while the painting of the one has vanished, and the sculpture of the other has been mutilated by decay. While the colours of the Painter have faded, and the 116 MARBLE QUARRIES marble of the Sculptor is broken and banished to a distant land, the work of the Poet lives everywhere; ^schylus, in his drama of The Persians, has painted, in honour of Salamis, a Portico which will never fade, and erected a Temple of Victory which will never fall. It is a walk of five hours from the Plain of Marathon to the heights of Mount Pentelicus, where the marble quarries are seen which have obtained for this mountain so much renown in the annals of ancient Art. The road ascends from the plain toward the south-west, and passes over elevated steeps clad with pines and olives, and through glens refreshed with clear brooks, and overhung with oleanders and myrtles. The quarries, of which there are two, are to the north, — the one at a mile's distance, the other a little more than two, — of the Monastery which derives its name from the mountain under whose summit it lies. -.* ootivaiiT or rsHTBUcu*. The larger quarry is open to the light ; on the south it is bounded by the rock, hewn to a lofty and perpendicular wall. At the base of it is a wide cavern, which penetrates into the recesses of the cliff, and is hung with stalactites of white marble glittering with the brilliance of alabaster : the incrustations, tinged with various hues, which shoot like branches from the rock, present the appearance, when seen at a distance, of trees and groves of stone. The mouth of the grotto is fringed over with tufts of ivy. OF MOUNT PENTELICUS. 117 The marble of the PenteHc quarries resembles that of Paros in white- ness and splendour ; in fineness of grain it eclipses it ; in this respect it is very similar to that of Carrara, while it is exempt from the metal- lic stains with which this latter is frequently sullied. Let us contrast for a moment the present appearance of this vast quarry before us, with its former condition. About two thousand two hundred and ninety years ago, OULK, FROM THK PNYX. its sides, which are now deserted and silent, resounded with the din of busy workmen hewing its cliffs, and heaving with ropes and pulleys the huge masses which they had quarried from them, and letting them sink upon the sledges which bore them down the steep mountain-track into the plain and through the gates of the city of Athens, or carried them to the harbour of the Peirseus, whence they were transported to the shores of distant lands. We look with feelings of respect on the spots where great men were bom : the palace where a king or a conqueror first saw the light is an object of veneration ; we make a pilgrimage to the native place of the philosopher, and tablets are placed on the walls of the dwelling where a great poet first breathed the air : and we should here be guilty of strange insensibility, if we could regard with indifference, — nay, without a feeling of veneration, — this, the native place of so many buildings and statues, which have inspired the admiration, refined the taste, influenced the acts, humanized the manners and 118 PRODUCE OF PENTELICUS. elevated the thoughts, and even added dignity to the religion of men, — nay, of whole cities and kingdoms, for hundreds and thousands of years : he would, we say, be little to be envied, who could look upon the quarries of Pentelicus without enthusiasm, — who could behold this vast and silent chamber of rock in which those immortal fabrics, the Parthenon, the PaoPYLiEA, and the Temple .n;^!' sX..' OP Theseub were born^ from whose recesses came forth that long train of beau- tiful forms, which, sculptured in marble, have made the Panathenaic solemnity, which they represent, no longer a quinquennial festival, but an eternal jubilee, and the possession of which alone, — although marred, as they now are, torn from their proper soil, deposited, like dead objects, in a foreign Museum, and no longer breathing in their native freshness on their o^ti Temple, — a thing, perhaps, just and expedient, but still to be deplored — has made England richer in the productions of sculpture than any other nation of the world. Here, at least, on the spot itself, and with this object before us, we may be permitted to indulge in such an emotion, and also to express the sentiment, that, — to compare human things with divine, — we, in this marble mine of Pentelicus, when we thus consider it together with the structures and forms which have emanated thence, are presented with a picture of the operations of that creative and vivifying Power by which the great fabric of the Universe was reared, and all the forms and imagery, with which it is furnished, were produced from the void and lifeless quarry of Chaos. Nor should we forget here the names of those who have employed their art in fashioning the materials which they derived from this place. The ^.^ \^ ^ ROMAN AND ATTIC MARBLE. 119 marble which was drawn from the spot before us was worked by the hands of the greatest Architects and Sculptors of antiquity. It was hewn and chiseled by Ictinus and Phidias ; it was carved by Scopas and by Praxiteles ; it exercised their skill, and has made their names immortal. Cicero, in one of his letters to Atticus, expresses his desire to receive some statues of Pentelic marble which his friend had promised to send him from this country ; and the architraves hewn from the neighbouring mountain of Hymettus were used to decorate the palaces of Rome in the Augustan age. She therefore borrowed her marble from Athens ; and nothing indicates more forcibly the pre-eminence over the capital of Italy, which the latter enjoyed as the mistress of the world in arts, than a comparison of the materials for plastic and architectural purposes which Nature supplied respectively to each. While those of Rome were limited to the dark Peperine stone of Alba and of Gabii, to the Tufo of the Campagna, and to the porous and encrusted Tra- vertine of the Anio — materials not very favourable for architecture of a deco- rative kind, and less serviceable for sculpture, — the resources of Athens, for both purposes, were inexhaustible. On one side of the City lay the quarries of the snow-white Megarian and of the grey stone of Eleusis ; on the other, 120 HERODES ATTICUS. the blue Hymettian, the veined Carystian, and the lucid Pentelie. In short, her stone was marble ; and in her language she gave the same word to both. Returning to the Monastery of which we have spoken, and descending towards oaarro at tub •oiiui ir THii oruiMU the plains of Athens, on the south-west, wo croi^- ono of the sources of the river Ccphissus. Another is seen at Cophissia, a small village in the plain, on the right of the road from Pentelicus to Athens, at about eight miles distant to the north-east of the latter. The stream there rises from the earth beneath a wide plane-tree, and spreads itself into a broad and quiet pool of clear water, which in the summer season is overhung with the loaves and fruit of various trees. The houses of the village are sprinkled among gardens, vine-yards, and olive-yards. Cephissia still preserves its ancient name. It was the country of the comic poet Menander, and the summer retreat of the learned and liberal philosopher of Athens, Herodes Atticus. This was his Tusculum. To this spot he retired for health and study : hither he invited his friends and the lovers of pursuits similar to his own. His villa at Cephissia, as we are informed by one who enjoyed his hospitality here in the sultry season, was refreshed by streams and shaded by a grove. On one side of it were long porticoes, or arcades, beneath which he and his friends used to walk and converse, and at its back were copious baths of cool and transparent water : the gardens about it resounded with the murmuring of brooks and the warbling of birds. This was the resi- dence, and such were the recreations, of one who, notwithstanding the charges which have been made against him of literary vanity and idle display, was. PLATO'S FARM. 121 from his erudition, his pubHc spirit, and his munificence, well worthy to have passed his days, as he did, at Athens, at Cephissia, and at Marathon, in the peaceful age of Trajan, Hadrian, and the Antonines. We are carried from our mountain track still further into the plain, and in the direction of Athens, to visit a place which was connected in former times with the private life of another Philosopher. Between the two villages of Cephissia and Mauousi, is that of HARACLi. Near this spot, among these olive groves and vineyards, was the country-seat of Plato. He speaks of it in his will, — where he bequeaths it to his son Adeimantus, — as lying near the road to Cephissia, which was on the north, and reaching on the south to the Heracleum, or Temple of Hercules. From this notice of it its position is easily ascertained ; for the names of both of these places are preserved to this day ; that of the former in the modern Cephissia, while that of the latter survives in the village just mentioned of Haracl^. Perhaps it was from his orchard on this spot that the Philosopher sent the large present of figs to Diogenes, who had asked only for three, which drew from the cynic the sarcastic answer, instead of thanks : " Thus it is, that when you are asked a plain question in philosophy, which might be answered in three words, you reply to the inquirer in ten thousand." We have spoken above of the village of Marousi. As those of Cephissia and Haracle preserve in their names a record of their ancient inhabitants, their language, and their religious worship, so that of Marousi recals to the 122 MAROUSI, PALLENE, LYCABETTUS. recollection the title of a heathen Deity who was the object of devotion, to the ancestors of the villagers who dwell here, more than two thousand years ago. Cased in the plaster wall of a small Greek chapel, near to this place, is a marble slab, which, as the ancient Greek inscription upon it commemo- rates, served once as a limit to mark the termination of the sacred enclosure of the Temple of the Amarusian Diana, of whose appellation a vestige remains in the name of the village of Mauousi. At the birth of Ericthonius, the ancient King of Attica, Pallas Minerva is said to have come frgm her Temple at Pallene to Athens, and to have borne, as a natal gift, through the air, that remarkable conical hill which stands at the north-east of Athens, and which was first named Lycabe'itus, then Anchesmus, and, at present, the mountain of St. George. The Goddess, it is said, dropped it from her arms on the spot where it now is, in order that it might serve as a bulwark to defend Athens on that side. The Temple at Pallene, from which she came, stood, we believe, not far from Marousi. It was a spot famed in history as the scene of the contests between the sons of Peisistratus and their rivals the Alcmaeonida), and in earlier days, for the pursuit, by lolaus, of the Argive Eurystheus, from the Plain of Marathon to the Scironian rocks. Between the southern foot of Pentelicus and the northern slope of Hymettus is a level interval, two miles broad. This is the communication between the two principal plains of Attica, namely, that of Athens on iho west, and that of Mesog.%:a, or Interior of Attica, on the south-east. It is superfluous to repeat what has already been said (in the 29th and STATUS or THK UON ON HOLNT HYHirrrUS. HYMETTIAN BEES. 123 following pages), of the extent, variety, and beauty of the view from the summit of Mount Hymettus. It will long live in the memory of Iiim who has behold it, presenting, as it does, to the eye objects and creations both of nature and of art, distinguished by such surpassing loveliness both of synmictry and of colour, and of such interest in themselves, and in the thoughts which they suggest, that neither the lapse of time, nor the business of life, nor weariness of body or of mind, will ever be able to deprive him of the pleasure which he felt when contemplating the scenery beneath him, as he stood upon this spot. The produce of the neighbouring mountain of Pentelicus has been spoken of above. To compare with it that of Hymettus. While the vast quarries of the former, — having once been worked with laborious energy by genera- tions of men, who have left no posterity in their own land, — have remained untouched for many centuries, there has been no cessation of industry, and no interruption in the succession of labourers in the humbler hives of Hymet- tus, from the most glorious days of Athens to the present hour. The Cecro- pian Bees have survived all the revolutions which have changed the features and uprooted the population of Attica : according to the poetical prophecy, Their race remains immortal, ever stands Their house unmoved, and sires of sires are born. On the southern slope of Hymettus, a little above the village of Bari, is a subterranean grotto, which well deserves to be seen. We descend a few steps hewn in the rock, and enter the cave, which is lighted from the narrow adit : it is hung with sta- lactites, and bends itself so as to form two apartments, the one nearly parallel CAVB or BARI, OM 124 to the other. CAVE OF THE NYMPHS. This place was a natural Temple, dedicated to Pan and the pasJ,oral Nymphs. It would have been a fit scene for an Idyl of Theocritus, and was worthy, from its beauty, to have been graced with inscrip- tions from the pen of Nossis and Meleager. In ancient days, the pipes and reeds of shepherds were suspended, as votive offerings, on its rocky walls; basins of stone, and cups of wood carved with figures and flowers, were here dedicated to the Deities of the place : here, images of the Nymphs stood in their small niches ; hither, the first flowers of their gardens, the first ripe ears of their harvests, the first grapes of their vineyards, the first apples of their orchards, were brought as oblations by the shepherds and peasants of Attica. And now, at this day, there remain visible traces of their devotion, as well m memorials of the person who dedicated this grotto to the worship of their rural Deities. Engraved on the rock, at the entrance, is an inscription in verse, which announces that Archedemus, a native of Pherae, in Thessaly, formed this cave, by the counsel of the Njinphs: other records of the same kind inform us, that it was sacred to the Graces, to Apollo, and to Pan. Two verses, inscribed on a slab of marble, speak of a garden planted here in honour of the Nymphs. In another part of the cave is the figure of Archedemus himself, rudely sculptured on the rock, dressed in his shepherd's coat, and with a hammer and a chisel in his hands, cutting the sides of the cave. Plato, in early youth, was led by his parents to a grotto on Mount MIBT RAPBTK, AND STATUS. THORICUS. 126 Hymettus, that he might present an offering to Pan, the Nymphs, and the Pastoral Apollo, to whom it was dedicated. There is good reason to believe that this cave, which, as the above inscriptions still existing on its walls assure us, was consecrated to those very Deities, has been trodden by the feet of the great philosopher of Athens ; and that his eye has rested upon the same objects that we now see in this simple pastoral temple, which has sustained but little injury from the lapse of years, while the magnificent fanes of the Athenian capital have crumbled to decay. It is a distance of ten miles, in an easterly direction, from this spot to the bay of Prasi^, one of the best harbours of the coast of Attica. At the centre of its entrance, which is a mile broad, is a small island, on which, at an elevation of tliree hundred feet from the level of the sea, is a sitting statue of white marble, from the attitude of which, resembling that of a tailor at his work, the harbour derives its modern name of Port Raphte, — an appellation not very complimentary to its sculptor, who is supposed to have intended to represent by it a Roman Emperor, About nine miles south of this place is another harbour, more celebrated in ancient times, that of Thoricus : it is a semicircular bay, a mile and a half in breadth : to the north of it, on a rugged hill, are the remains of the Acropolis of the city, of rude and massive masonry : at its foot is a Theatre, and near it . OF A lUKArRfl AT Tt)ORICU3< a covered Gallery of very antique style. In the plain, to the west, are the ruins of a large and magnificent Building, which was adorned with a marble 126 MINES OF LAUREUM. peristyle. Another vestige of the ancient Thoricus survives in the modern name of the place, Thkrico. If a line be drawn due west from the site of the ancient Thoricus, it will, after a distance of eight miles, meet the western coast of Attica, in a place formerly called Anaphlystus, and now, by a slight change, Anaphyso : if again, from these points, Thoricus and Anaphlystus, lines be drawn to Capo Colonni, the ancient Sunium, we shall then have a triangle nearly equilateral, at the three angles of which are three places all of considerable importance in the history of Attica, and whose sides enclose a space from which she derived the means of her former affluence and glory. The coined treasure of Athens was preserved in the Opisthodomus, or hinder apartment of the Parthenon, or Temple of Minerva, in the Acropolis of that city. This country, which we are now describing, at the southern extremity of Attica, was, as it were, a natural Opisthodomus to the Temple of Minerva, on the promontory of Sunium. In it lay the uncoined wealth of Athens. In it were the mines of Attica, that " fountain of silver, the treasure of the land.'*" The district was called Ladkeum, a name probably derived from the shafts and passages sunk and pierced beneath its surface, many of which are still visible on the road between Sunium and Thoricus. The path here, near the sea-shore, is strewn with heaps of scoria, from which the silver ore was smelted in ancient times. These mines were the property of the Athenian State, and were trans- ferred by it to individuals for payments made partly as purchase-money and partly as reserved rent, the amount of the former being regulated by the extent and supposed value of the mine, that of the latter by its actual pro- ductiveness. They were worked at a period of very early antiquity : in the days of Themistocles the supply from them was very abundant ; when Xeno- phon >vrote, they were beginning to fail ; in Strabo's age they were exhausted ; Pausanias speaks of them only as a monument of the past. They con- sisted of large vaults, supported by columns, aired and lighted by veilts, and divided into compartments. Many thousand slaves were employed in working them. From these dark cavities, now shaded with pines and over- grown with junipers and lentisks, was derived the wealth which enabled Athens to create and maintain the navy by which she first coped with iEgina and afterwards freed Greece. Hence too issued the coin of Athens, which circulated in every part of the civilised world, and was nowhere ATHENIAN COINAGE. 127 surpassed in purity. For a long time she had no other term in her lan- guage for money than that which signified silver : whether she ever coined gold is doubtful, but before she used it in her currency, her liberties were lost. JStM^* It was the boast of Athens that her coinage was so excellent that it was everywhere exchanged with profit by its possessor: and it is worthy of remark, that, in order to preserve its credit in foreign lands, she studiously retained upon it the original archaic type of the head of Minerva, which looked rather as if it had proceeded from ^gypt than from the most polished capital of Greece : thus, while in all the other arts of design, she advanced from the rude outline to consummate symmetry, in Numismatics she remained stationary, and while all her other productions were unrivalled in elegance, her money was as inferior in beauty, as it claimed to be superior in value, to that of nearly all the other states of Greece. The Temple of Minerva, at Sunium, stands upon a raised terrace at the highest point of the cape ; its direction is from east to west ; it had six columns at each front ; the number of those on the north and south cannot clearly be ascertained : nine are still standing on the south, three on the north, two and one of the anfcB at the east. It was surrounded by a sacred 128 TEMPLE AT SUNIUM. temenos or enclosure, entered by a portico or Propylaea at its north-east comer. The walls of the fortress of Suniura descend from the temple toward the north ; they are still traceable for their complete circuit, which is half a mile. This temple, elevated on high above the ^gaean Sea, at the extremity of this promontory, stood like the Portico or Vestibule of Attica. Constructed of white marble, placed on this noble site, and visible at a great distance from the sea, it reminded the stranger who approached it in his vessel from the south, by the fair proportions of its architecture, and by the decorations of sculpture and of painting with which it was adorned, that he was coming to a land illustrious for its skill in the most graceful Arts ; a land set apart, as it were, from all others for their cultivation, and appropriated to their use ; and that as this fabric, dedicated to Minerva, was approached by a portico, and surrounded by a consecrated enclosure, so the whole land of Attica itself was a sacred Temenos, whose boundaries were Seas and Mountains, and whose pROPYLiEA was the Temple of Minena on the promontory of Suniuni. TBMpu or aiiiniTA *y ki»iuh. RBSTORATION OF THB WEST END OF TUB ACHOPOU8 TO describe Athens, a man should be an Athenian, and speak the Athenian language. He should have long looked upon its soil with a feeling of almost religious reverence. He should have regarded it as ennobled by the deeds of illustrious men, and have recognized in them his own progenitors. The records of its early history should not be to him a science ; they should not have been the objects of laborious research, but should have been familiar to him from his infancy, — have sprung up, as it were, spontaneously in his mind, and have grown with his growth. Nor should the period of its remote antiquity be to him a land of shadows, — a Platonic cave in which unsubstantial forms move before his eyes as if he were entranced in a di-eam. To him, the language of its Mythology should have been the voice of Truth. The Temples of Athens should not have been to him mere Schools of Art. He should not have considered them as existing, in order that he might examine their details, measure their dimensions, 130 ATHENS NOT ONLY delineate their forms, copy their mouldings, and trace the vestiges of colouring V l-f iy, still visible upon them. They should not have afforded materials^ merely for his compass or his pencil, but for his affections and for his religion. This, we gladly confess, is not our case. Wo commence our description of this City with avow- ing the fact, that it is impossible, at this time, to convey, or entertain, an idea of Athens such as it appeared of old to the eyes of one of its in- habitants. But there is another point of view from which we love to contemplate it, — one which supplies us with reflections of deeper interest, and raises in the heart sublimer emotions than could have been ever suggested in ancient days by the sight of Athens to an Athenian. We see Athens in ruins. On the central rock of its AcHOPOLis, e.xistthe remains, in a nuitilated state, of three temples, — ^tho Temple of Victory, the Pakthenon, and the Ebectheum. Of the Pro- PYL^A, in the same place, at it« western entrance, some walls and a few columns are still standing. Of the Theatre on the south side of the Acropo- lis, in which the dramas of iEschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides were represented, some stone steps remain. Not a vestige survives of the Courts in which Demosthenes pleaded. There is no trace of the Academic porches of Plato, or of the Lyceum of Aristotle. The Pcecile of the Stoics has vanished. Only a few fragments of the Long Walls which ran along the plain, and united Athens with it« harbours, are yet visible. Even Nature herself appears to have undergone a change. The source of the fountain Callirhoe has almost failed; the bed of the Ilissus is nearly dry; the harbour of the Peir^us is narrowed and made shallow by mud. ^^ I' s^ AT ATHENS. 131 But while this is so, — while we are forcibly and mournfully reminded by this spectacle, of the perishable nature of the most beautiful objects which the world has seen, — while we read in the ruin of these Temples of Athens, and in the total extinction of the Religion to which they were dedicated, an Apology in behalf of Christianity and a Refutation of Paganism, more forcible and eloquent than any of those which were composed and presented to the Roman Emperor by Aristides and Quadratus in this place, we are naturally led by it to contrast the permanence and vitality of the spirit and intelligence which produced these works, of which the vestiges either exist in a condition of ruinous decay, or have entirely disappeared, with the fragility of the material elements of which they are composed. Not at Atliens alone are we to look for Athens, The epitaph, — Here is the heai't : the spirit is everywhere^ — may be applied to it. From the gates of its Acropolis, as from a mother city, issued intellectual colonies into every region KKSrOHATION OF THR NORTH 81 DK OF THB ACRUP0I.I8. of the world. These buildings now before us, ruined as they are at present, have served for two thousand years as models for the most admired fabrics in every civilised country of the world. Having perished here, they survive there. They live in them, as in their legitimate offspring. Thus the genius which conceived and executed these magnificent works, while the materials on which it laboured are dissolved, has itself proved immortal. We, therefore, at the present time, having witnessed this fact, have more cogent reasons for admiring the consummate skill which created them, than were possessed by those who saw these structures in their original glory and beauty. Again, not merely in her material productions, existing here or elsewhere, does the spirit of Athens survive. Not in her Buildings and her Statues, nor in the imitations of them which are the ornaments of other nations, but also 132 ITS ANCIENT AND MODERN SPECTATOR. in the purely intellectual creations of her great Minds, is it to be found : it is to be traced in those writings of her Poets, Historians, Philosophers, and Orators, which remain unimpaired by time, and not merely live themselves, but have served as the source of life to others ; whose worth could never bo estimated till many centuries had elapsed, and who, having now been judged by posterity to be worthy of immortality, have given an interest to the soil from which they sprung, to the ground which they trod, and to the temples in which they worshipped, which these objects did not, and could not, possess, as long as the memory of those was recent from whom they derived it. The city of Miltiades, Themistocles, and Pericles, of ^schylus, Thucydides, Plato, and Demosthenes, could not have been regarded, as such, by their contempo- raries or immediate successors, with those feelings of veneration which we experience, who know what influence they have exorcised, and will never cease to maintain, over the thoughts and deeds of men. In this respect, — and it is a very important one, — the modem spectator of Athens enjoys advantages for a contemplation of this city, which wore never known to its ancient inhabitants. We feel, therefore, a lively sensation of pleasure in tracing, step by step, the vestiges of this place, in examining its topographical details, in exploring the sites of ita former buildings, and in studying the character of those which remain ; for thus we seem to be brought into the society of men, whose names will never perish ; thus we appear ourselves to imbibe a portion of that spirit which animated them, and produced the works which have raised their authors from the level of common minds to a loftier elevation of their own. The Orator Demades, when he was on a visit at the court of Philip of Macedon, and was desired one day, at a banquet, by the King, to give him an idea of the dimensions, form, and peculiar features of Athens, is said to have sketched a Map of the city upon the table at which he was sitting. We propose now to attempt an outline of the same kind as far as the existing remains and the intimations of ancient authors enable us to do so. In order to obtain a distinct notion of the natural characteristics of the spot to which we refer, let us consider it, in the Jlrst place, as abstracted from all artificial modifications ; — let us imagine ourselves as existing in the days of Cecrops, and looking upon the site of Athens. In a wide plain, which is enclosed by mountains, except on the south, where it is bounded by the sea, rises a flat, oblong rock, lying from east to west, about fifty yards high, rather more than one hundred and sixty broad, and than tliree hundred PHYSICAL SKETCH OF ATHENS. 133 in length. It is inaccessible on all sides but the west, on which it is approached by a steep slope. This is the future Acuopolis, or Citadel of Athens. We place ourselves upon this eminence, and cast our eyes about us. Immediately on the west is a second hill, of irregular form, lower than that PLAN or ANCIENT ATHBN8. on which we stand, and opposite to it. This is the Areopagus. Beneath it, on the south-west, is a valley, neither deep nor narrow, open both at the north-west and south-east. Here was the Agora, or public place of Athens. Above it, to the south-west, rises another hill, formed, like the two others already mentioned, of hard and rugged limestone, clothed here and there with a scanty covering of herbage. On this hill the popular assemblies of the future citizens of Athens will be held. It will be called the Pnyx. To the south of it is a fourth hill, of similar kind, known in after-ages as the Museum. Thus, a group of four hills is presented to our view, which nearly enclose the space wherein the Athenian Agora existed, as the Forum of Rome lay between the hills of the Capitol and the Palatine. Beyond the plain, to the south-west, the sea is visible, distant about four miles from this central rock. On the coast are three bays, — the future Har- bours of Athens, — the Phalerum, Munychia, and Peir^us ; the first being 134 LIMITS OF ATHENS. the nearest to us, the last the most distant from our pi-esent position. Toward the coast, and in the direction of these Ports, run two small streams, both coming from the north-east ; the one on the south side of us, passing us at a distance of half a mile, the other on the north, and at the distance of two : they do not roach the shore, but are lost in the intermediate plain. The former is the Ilissus, the latter the Cephissus. To the north of the former, VALunr or ra* iumd^ and at a mile's distance to the north-east of the Acropolis, is a rocky conical hill, of considerabro height, and one of the most striking features of the scenery of Athens. This is Mount Lycabettus. Regarding then the hill of the Acro- polis as the centre of the future city of Athens, we have, as its natural frontiers to the north and south, two rivers^ while on the east and west it is bounded by hills ; its limit on the east being the mountain of Lycabettus, and on the west the lower range which consists of the Pnyx and the Museum. Such is a brief sketch of the physical features which distinguish the site of the Athenian City. We now quit this period of remote antiquity, when the soil of the future Athens was either untenanted, or occupied only by a few rude and irregular buildings, and pass at once to the time when it had attained that splendour which made it, in Literature and in Art, the Metropolitan City of the World. RESTORATION OF ATHENS, 135 A more striking contrast than that which is presented by the appearance of this same spot at these two different epochs, cannot well be imagined. No longer, therefore, as contemporaries of the ancient king of Attica, but existing, in imagination, in the age of Pericles and of his immediate successors, we now contemplate this city as it then exhibited itself to the eye. First, we direct our attention to the central rock of the Acropolis. And let us here suppose ourselves as joining at this period that splendid pro- cession of Minstrels, Priests, and Victims, of Horsemen and of Chariots, which ascended to that place at the quinquennial solemnity of the Great Panathenaea. Aloft above the heads of the train, the sacred Peplos, raised and stretched like a sail upon a mast, waves in the air: it is variegated with an embroidered tissue of battles, of giants, and of Gods : it will be carried to the Temple of the Minerva Polias in the Citadel, whose statue RUTORATION OIT THB BAST BKD OF THB VAKTIIIUIOH. it is intended to adorn. In the bright season of summer, on the twenty- eighth day of the Athenian month Hecatombseon, let us mount with this procession to the western slope of the Acropolis. Toward the termination 136 PROPYLiEA OF THE CITADEL. of its course, we are brought in face of a colossal fabric of white marble, which crowns the brow of the steep, and stretches itself from north to south across the whole western front of the Citadel, which is about one hundred and seventy feet in breadth. The centre of this fabric consists of a portico sixty feet broad, and formed of six fluted columns of the Doric order, raised upon four steps, and inter- sected by a road passing through the midst of the columns, which are thirty feet in height, and support a noble pediment. From this portico two wings project about thirty feet to the west, each having three colunms on the side nearest the portico in the centre. The architectural mouldings of the fabric glitter in the sun with brilliant tints of red and blue : in the centre, the coffers of its soffits are spangled with stars, and the antae of the wings are fringed with an azure embroidery of ivy leaf. Wo pass along the avenue lying between the two central columns of the portico, and through a corridor leading from it, and formed by three Ionic columns on each hand, and are brought in front of five doors of bronze ; the central one, which is the loftiest and broadest, being immediately before us. The structure which we are describing is the PaoPYLiEA, or Vestibule of the Athenian citadel. It is built of Pentelic marble. In the year n. c. 437 NOATH-KA8T aiI>B OF THX PARTHKNOH. TEMPLE OF VICTORY. ipifijr m: it was commenced, and was completed by the architect Mnesicles in five years from that time. Its termination, therefore, coincides very nearly with the commencement of the Peloponncsian war. After a short pause, in order to contemplate the objects around us, to explore the Gallery, adorned with the paintings of Polygnotus, in the left wing of the Propylsea, and to visit the Temple of Victory on our right, which possesses four Ionic columns on its western and four at its eastern end, thus being approached by two facades, and whose frieze is sculptured with figures of Persians and of Greeks fighting on the plain of Marathon, we return to the marble corridor of the Propylsea. 138 INTERIOR OF THE ACROPOLIS. We will now imagine that the great bronze doors of which we have spoken as standing at the termination of this gallery are thrown back upon their hinges, to admit the Riders, and Charioteers, and all that long and magnificent array of the Panathenaic procession, which stretches back from this spot to the area of the Agora at the western foot of the Citadel. We behold througli this vista the Interioii of the Athenian Acropolis. We pass under the gateway before us, and enter its precincts, surrounded on all sides by massive walls: we tread the soil on which the greatest men of the ancient World have walked, and behold build- ings over admired and imitated, and never equalled in beauty. We stand on the platform which is at once the Temple, the Fortress, and the Museum of Athens. ATiUDn, nuiu To speak, in the first instance, and very briefly, of minor objects here pre- sented to our notice, which it is impossible to specify in detail. We behold before and around us almost a City of statues, raised upon marble pedestals, the works of noble sculptors — Phiflias and Polycletus, of Alcamenes, and Praxi- teles, and Myron, — and commemorating the virtues of benefactors of Athens, or representing the objects of her worship : we see innumerable altars dedicated to heroes and Gods ; we perceive large slabs of white marble inscribed with the records of Athenian history, with civil contracts and articles of peace, with memorials of honours awarded to patriotic citizens or munificent strangers. o ^ STATUE OF PROMACHUS— PARTHENON. 139 ,^«Lv Proceeding a little further, we have, on our left, raised on a high base, a huge statue of bronze, the labour of Phidias. It is seventy feet in height, and looks towards the west, upon the Areopagus, the Agora, and the Pnyx, and far away over the ^Egsean Sea. It is armed with a long spear and oval shield, and bears a helmet on its head ; the point of the lance, and the crest of the casque, appearing above the loftiest building of the Acropolis, are visible to the sailor who approaches Athens from Sunium. This is Minerva Promachus, the Champion of , Athens, who looking down from her lofty eminence in the citadel, seems by her attitude and her accoutrements to promise protection to the city beneath her, and to bid defiance to its enemies. Passing onward to the right, we arrive in front of the great marble Temple, which stands on the most elevated ground of the A cropolis. We see eight Doric columns of huge dimensions elevated on a platform, ascended by three steps at its western front. It has the same number on the east, and seven- teen on each side. At either end, above the eight columns, is a lofty pediment extending to a length of eighty feet, and furnished with nearly twenty figures of superhuman size. The group which we see before us, at the western end, represents the con- test of Minerva with Neptune, for the soil of Athens ; the other, above the eastern front, exhibits the birth of the Athenian Goddess, Beneath the cornice which ranges on all sides of the Temple, is the frieze, divided into compartments by an alternating series of triglyphs and of metopes, the latter of which are ninety-two in number, — fourteen on either front, and thirty-two on each flank : 140 SCULPTURE AND PAINTING they are a little more than four feet square, and are occupied by one or more figures in high relief; they represent the actions of the Goddess to whom the Temple is dedicated, and of the Heroes, especially those who were natives of Athens, who fought under her protection, and conquered by her assistance. They are the works of Phidias and liis scholars ; and, together with the pediments at the two fronts, may be regarded as offering a history in sculpture of the most remarkable subjects contained in the Mythology of Athens. KTHKArr cm or tiii rAnrnKKuK. Attached to the temple, beneath each of the metopes on the eastern front, hang round shields covered with gold ; below them are inscribed the names of those who dedicated them as offerings to Minerx'a, in testimony of their gratitude for the victories they had won ; the spoils of which they shared with her, as she partook in the labours which achieved them. The members of the building above specified are enriched with a pro- fusion of vivid colours, which throw around the fabric a joyful and festive beauty, admirably hannonizing with the brightness and transparency of the atmosphere which encircles it. The cornice of the pediments is decorated OF THE PARTHENON. 141 with painted ovoli and arrows ; coloured mseandors twine along its annulets and beads ; and honeysuckle ornaments wind beneath them : the pediments themselves are studded with disks of various hues; the triglyphs of the frieze are streaked with tints which terminate in platc-bandos and guttaj of azure dye ; gilded festoons hang on the architraves below them. It would, therefore, be a very erroneous idea to regard this Temple which we are describing, merely as the best School of Architecture in the world. It is also the noblest Museum of Sculpture and the richest Gallery of Painting. RUINS OF THR PAHTHF.AUM. We ascend by three steps, which lead to the door of the Temple at the posticum or west end, and stand beneath the roof of the peristyle. Hero, before the end of the cella, and also at the pronaos or eastern front, is a range of six columns, standing upon a level raised above that of the peristyle by two steps. The cella itself is entered by one door at the west and another at the east : it is divided into two apartments of unequal size, by a wall running from north to south ; of which the western, or smaller chamber, is called the Opisthodomus, and serves as the Treasury of Athens ; the eastern, is the Temple properly so called : it contains the colossal statue of Minerva, SSrULCBKAL TASO. 142 PANATHENAIC FRIEZE OF PARTHENON. the work of Phidias, composed of ivory and gold, and is peculiarly termed, from that circumstance, the Parthenon, or Residence of the Virgin Goddess, a name by which the whole building is frequently described. At the summit of the exterior walls of the cella, and ex- ^ tending along the four sides of it, is a frieze in low relief, representing the Panathenaic Procession ; it is moving from west to east, and may be ima- gined to have just entered the Acropolis by the gate of the Propylsea, to have advanced to the south-west angle of the Temple, and then to have divided itself into two lines, one of which proceeds first along the western end, and then round the north-west comer and along the northern flank of the build- ing ; the other by the southern flank, so that when they arrive at the eastern front, they face each other. Here they are separated by twelve seated figures, of size superior to the rest, and of whom six face the north, and six the south. They form a striking contrast, by their sedate atti- tudes, to the rapidity of the procession, composed of cars and horsemen chasing each other in quick succession, and in- creasing in speed as they approach the eastern front of the Temple. The twelve figiu'es which have been mentioned are Deities. To appear in their presence was the object of the Panathenaic Procession, and by the juxta-position of their dignified calmness as the goal of its eager rapidity, the train itself seems, as it were, to pass insensibly from the restlessness of earth to the tranquillity of heaven. Such, then, is the Parthenon of Athens; the work of Ictinus and Cal- listratus, adorned with sculptures from the hand of Phidias and his scholars, completed under the administration of Pericles, in the year b. c. 439. The Peplos borne in the Panathenaic solemnity is destined to adorn the statue of Minerva Polias, which stands in the beautifnl and singular ronTioo 0* ma ntorvi. ERECTHEUM. 143 Temple to the north of the Parthenon. The direction of this fabric is from east to west, its cella is seventy-three feet long and thirty-seven broad, and, like that of the Parthenon, is divided into two apartments ; but these two i "'i'.<'''^,-^''-r.'--^C^ chambers, unlike those of that temple, are de- dicated not to one, but to two different deities. This structure, when considered as a whole, is called the Erectheum, from the ancient King of Attica, who was buried within it. Its eastern division is consecrated to Minerva Polias ; the western to Pan - DROS^s : the eastern is faced by an Ionic hexastyle portico, and the level of its floor is eight feet higher than that of the rest of the building. At the north- west angle is another portico, which consists of six Ionic columns, — of which four are in front, namely, to the north, and one on each side, — and leads into the western chamber. A third portico, at the south-west angle of the Temple, conducting also into the western chamber, is formed, not of columns, but of Caryatides, or rather, as they should be described, of Athenian Virgins dressed in their Panathenaic costume. They are six in number : four of them standing in front towards the south, and one on each side ; they are raised on a podium, or dwarf wall, about four feet high from the ground. 144 ERECTHEUM. J^^ii^ The western wall of the cella is pierced by three windows, the apertures of which are narrower at the top than they are at the bottom, and by their interposition four Ionic columns engaged in the wall are separated from each other. A frieze of grey Elcusinian stone, to which sculptured figures are attached by metal cramps, surmounts the cella. This Temple has succeeded in name and site to one of the most ancient sanctuaries of Athens. On this account it boars the title of the Ancient Temple of Minerva. The present building dates its commencement from the ago of Pericles, although in all probability on account of the death of that statesman, and the ex- pense incurred by Athens in the Peloponncsian war, anVBKT AT MOUNT AN Another reminiscence of the same amity is preserved in the tradition, that Hercules espoused Melite, from whom the district of Athens in which the Temple of Theseus stands derived its name. Thus the two heroes are locally connected ; nor are we surprised to find a temple to Melanippus, the son of the Athenian hero, in the same neighbourhood. If the eye passes to the south-west from the Theseum, over the small mound of Colonus, not that without the walls, but the tumulus which stands at the 150 THE PNYX, OR PARLIAMENT OF ATHENS. northern entrance of the Agora, it will rest on a low hill sloping down to the north at the western verge of the city, and at a quarter of a mile to the west of the Acropolis. Here is a large semicircular area, of which the southern side, or diameter, is formed by a long line of limestone rock, hewn so as to present the appearance of a vertical wall, in the centre of which, and projecting from it, is a solid pedestal carved out of the living rock, ascended by steps, and based upon seats of the same material. The lowest or most northern part of the semicircular curve is supported by a terrace wall of polygonal blocks. 0* THK ruts. This area is the Pnyx, the place of public assembly for the People of Athens. They do not meet beneath the roof, or within the walls of a closed building, but in this open space, for which Art has done nothing except by hewing the native rock at the south, and raising the wall at the north, which has just been mentioned. To form an idea of an Athenian assembly in the flourishing times of the Republic, we must imagine this open space, consisting of about twelve thousand square yards, occupied by nearly six thousand citizens seated in groups within it. In the presence of this vast multitude, one Man arises and ascends the stone steps, and takes his station on the pedestal, which is called the Bema, at the centre of the perpendicular rock. He has before him not merely these six thousand Athenians, but the whole of the city of Athens. Lying at a little distance beneath him he beholds the Agora, filled with statues and altars and temples, and he is thus brought into the presence of the Great SCENERY OF THE PNYX. 161 Men of old, the Heroes and the Gods of Athens. Beyond it he sees the Areopagus, the most ancient and venerable tribunal of Greece : above it, on the right, is the Acropolis, presenting to his eyes the wings, the portico, and the pediment of the Propylsea ; towering above them in the air, and looking towards him, is the bronze colossus of Minerva Promachus, armed with helmet, spear, and shield, appearing from her proud eminence to challenge the world in defence of Athens; rising in severe and stately splendour to the right, is the Parthenon, exhibiting its front of eight huge marble columns, surmounted with sculptured metopes and pediment filled with marble figures of horses, men, and gods, and both dazzling the eye with painting and with gold. Visible to the north, beyond the city and its walls, are the plains and villages of Attica, its corn-fields, and olive-grounds, and vine-yards, lying in quietness made more peaceful by its contrast with this stirring scene : further in the distance, are the castellated passes of Phyle and Decelea, and in the horizon of the scene, the high mountain ridges of Parnes, Brilessus, and Pentelicus. Such are the objects which the Athenian orator sees before him from this pedestal of stone. To the left of him is the road to Eleusis, the Sacred Way, which, passing through the beautiful suburb of the Cerameicus, and by the groves of the Academy, and crossing the stream of the Cephissus, climbs over the western heights of Mount ^galeos ; visible in the rear are the two long lines of wall, which, running along the plain for nearly five miles, unite the city with the Peirseus : there are the masts of vessels riding in the harbour, — merchantmen bound for Pontus, ^Egypt, or for Sicily ; fleets which have TUMU ur TJIKM I SI OCLKB. 152 ATHENIAN ELOQUENCE— THE AREOPAGUS. gained for Athens empire and glory in distant lands, — in the islands of the jiEgaean, in the peninsula of Thrace, and on the coast of the Euxine. Further to the left, is the glorious Gulf of Salamis ; on one side of it is the hill on which Xerxes sat to view the battle fought beneath him ; and on the other is the Cape, where stands the trophy of Themistocles. This, then, is the scenery of the Pnyx : such are the objects which sur- round the Athenian orator as he stands on its Bema. In their presence he speaks. In dread, therefore, mixed with delight, inspired by such a spectacle, he proceeds to address his vast audience like a General going to a field of battle, where he sees all the flags and banners of his country''s glory unfurled and streaming before his eyes. These objects are to the Athenian Statesman and Orator standing on the rostra of the Pnyx, what his brave Epirots were, in after-ages, to Pyrrhus upon the plains of Italy. They are the wings upon which he flies to glory. They are also, if we may so say, the levers by which he uplifts his audience, — for they stir their hearts as well as his own. Let no one, therefore, wonder, that in such a soil as this, Eloquence has flourished with a vigour yet unknown. Not to their natural genius alone, though in that they stood pre-eminent, — nor to rules of Art, though ingeniously contrived and elaborately studied, — ^nor to frequency of rhetorical exercises, nor to the skill of their teachers, though they were well disciplined by both, — nor yet to the sagacity of their audience, though in that they enjoyed a high privilege, was Athens indebted for the piercing eloquence of Pericles, and the resistless impetuosity of Demosthenes, but also, and especially to these objects, which elevated their thoughts, moved their affections, and fired their imagination as they stood upon this spot. The school of Athenian oratory was the Pnyx. On the north-east side of the Agora, and between the Pnyx and the Acropolis, is the hill of the Areopagus, The ascent to it is by a flight of steps he^vn in the limestone rock of which it consists, covered with thin herbage. Above the steps, on the rocky pavement of the hill, are the Stone Seats on which the Court of the Areopagus sits. In this spot, distinguished by a rude simplicity, is assembled the Council by whose predecessors Heroes and Gods are said to have been judged, and whose authority commands respect and enforces obedience when all other means fail, and whose wisdom has saved their country in times of difficulty and danger when there appeared to be no longer any opportunity for deliberation. THE AREOPAGUS AND TEMPLE OF THE FURIES. 153 Beneath it, at its north-east angle, and visible from our position on the Acropolis, encircled with a sacred Enclosure, fenced with a thick grove, and placed in a dark chasm of high rocks, is the sacred shrine of the Venerable Goddesses, the Eumenides, whose name is not uttered by the mouth of an Athenian without a feeling of dread, and who by the order of Minerva were conducted to this spot from the Areopagus after the trial of Orestes there, in which they were the accusers. By this local and religious connexion of the Tribunal of the Areopagus with the Temple of the Furies, the one partakes in the sanctity and inviolability of the other : and it has thus become not merely a political delinquency, but also an act of sacrilege, to impair the dignity or encroach on the privileges of the Areopagus. The appearance of this consecrated spot, rendered more awful by antique traditions and by the peculiar features of its scenery, placed as it is near the Agora, in the very heart of the city, is very striking, from the contrast it presents by its sacred seclusion to the busy stir by which it is surrounded ; nor can it fail to impress a feeling of sober gravity on the minds of many, whose thoughts would otherwise be carried round in the whirl of the city and its concerns which eddies about it. Between the hills of the Pnyx on the south and the Acropolis on the north GATB or THR fiRW AGORA. 154 RESTORATION OF THE AGORA. lies, as has been said, the Agora. It is a circular, or rather an elliptical area, whose greatest length from south-east to north-west is about a third of a mile. It is approached on the north-west from the city gate by an avenue lying between two parallel Colonnades or Stoae, the one dedicated to Jupiter Eleutherius, or the Liberator, the other containing the tribunal in which the Second Arclion, or Basileus, who takes cognizance of religious suits, presides : from him it is called the Stoa Basileios. Near them, in the Agora, is a third colonnade^ — the P(ecile Stoa, or Painted Porch, so called from the frescoes, representing the battle of Marathon, which adorn it. From this porch, frequented by them, the Stoics derive their name. All the buildings connected with the civil processes employed in the enactment of laws at Athens are, from its neighbourhood to the Pnyx, fitly grouped together in this place. Here is the Boulecterion, or Council Chamber, in which the Senate of Five Hundred meet to discuss measures before they are submitted to the Assembly of the people in the Pnyx. Here TRMrm lit Jupim ni.TMno<, vaoM rni itnsv*. are the statues of the ten Heroes of Athens, — Cecrops, Erectheus, Pandion, iEgeus, Hippothoon, Acamas, Leon, (Eneus, Ajax, Antiochus, — the Eponjnni, as they are called, because they give their names to the ten tribes of Athens. To these statues the first draughts of laws are affixed, before they are discussed in the Assembly. Here is the refectory of the Prytanes, or Presidents of the Assembly, — a building which may be distinguished from the crowd of other fabrics in the same place by its hemispherical dome, and in which the RESTORATION OF THE AGORA. 165 most distinguished citizens of Athens are entertained at the public charge. In the centre of the area which we are describing stands the altar of the Twelve Gods, being the point to which all the roads of Attica converge, and from which all distances upon them are measured. ;fe-.^vui. f^m^ ATBBNS, ntOM THB 1USSU8. On the south-east verge of the Agora, and at the commencement of the acclivity by which we ascended the Acropolis, stand the two figures of Hakmodius and Aristogeiton, the liberators of Athens from the tyranny of the Pisistratidse, which are treated with such respect by the Athenians, that in their decrees of honorary statues to be erected to the great men of their own or other countries, in memory of the benefits which the State has received at their hands, it is expressly specified that they may be placed in any part of the Agora which may be most agreeable to the objects of their gratitude, except in the particular neighbourhood of the statues of Harmodius and Aristogeiton. It is a pleasing circumstance, and one honourable to the Athenian spirit, that in this case the Past acts more powerfully upon them than the Present, and that they cherish the memory of the Dead with warmer affection than they court the favour of the Living. Such are the most remarkable objects contained in the Agora of Athens. We speak, be it remembered, as beholding it in the times of its glory. 166 OBJECTS OF THE AGORA. Taking then a general survey of the whole, from the south-west angle of the Acropolis, we observe at its farthest extremity a vista formed by the two parallel colonnades, which lead those who come from the north-west gate of the city into the curved area of which the Agora consists. We behold this area itself, lying between two hills, which sink gradually into it ; we see it encircled with a zone of stately edifices, shaded by rows of Oriental Plane-trees planted by the hand of Cimon son of Miltiades : in its centre is an altar, the geographical focus of Attica : visible beneath the trees and in front of the Temples, are statues of marble, bronze, and gold, giving to this spot the appearance not merely of a great national Atrium or Hall, whither the People of Athens resort as to their common home, but also of a civic Museum of Architecture, Sculpture, and of Painting, where they learn to admire and love those Arts which give a perpetual presence to the past ; and by exhibiting Men and Things, noble in themselves, as invested with greater nobleness, and enduing them with an imaginary grace, borrowed from the ideal world, — and this, too, in an Agora, a place formed for traffic and mechanical toil, — raise the thoughts of those who frequent it from a consideration of what is, to reflect upon what has been, what ought to be, and what will be hereafter. Therefore we are not surprised, that even among its warehouses and shops, which are separated into compartments and arranged according to their different character, we see men of a peculiar dress and aspect, who seem to be engaged in deep thought or serious reasoning, who find food for speculation there, and who have come from the walks of the Lyceum or the groves of the Academy, to muse or converse at will in the porches of the Agora. If we pass to the southern wall of the Acropolis, which is called the CiMONiAN, from the liberal and courageous Athenian above mentioned who erected it, and stand at a little distance from the south-east angle of the Parthenon, and look towards the south, we have a view of the seats, the orchestra, and the stage of the great Theatre of Athens, lying immediately at ATHPIC9, VHOM TBS KORTH-WBST. NATURAL SCENERY OF THE THEATRE. 157 our feet. The seats are hewn in the living rock of the Acropolis, and descend gradually to the level of the plain, like the marks which are left by a retiring tide on the shelving sand of a semicircular bay. The flat area, half girt by the lowest semicircle, is the Orchestra. Beyond it rises the Stage, which is terminated by a fa9ade fronting the spectator, adorned with statues and supported by tiers of columns. Beyond this, again, he beholds a natural landscape of great variety and beauty : on his left the purple hills of Hymettus ; in front of him the sea, the harbour of Athens, and the distant hills of ^Egina ; and to the right the clifi« of Salamis, Sitting on these semicircular seats of stone, — the steps, as it were, of the great national Temple, the Acropolis, — beneath the Parthenon of Minerva, and the majestic statue of Jupiter ; — with such objects before them, at the commencement of the most beautiful season of the year, when the sea is calm and the sky clear, and their dependents come from the Islands of the Mgean to pay them their annual tribute, the Athenians listen to those dramatic compositions, which derive much of their freshness and beauty from the place itself in which they are performed, and can only be duly appreciated when maintained in their natural association with the earth and sea, the air and the light of Athens. From the combination of artificial and natural scenery which the Athenian Theatre supplied, both the imaginary elements of its Drama became real, and the real were idealized. For, if the subject treated by the Poet was the story of the House of Atreus, the spectator saw in the distance the hills of the Peloponnesus, beneath which the Hero of the Tragedy dwelt, and whither the audience could transport itself by an easy effort of imagination ; if the adventures of Hippolytus invited their attention, the city and shore of Troezen, where he abode, were still nearer to their eyes; if the acts of Medea, the lofty summit of the Acrocorinth, beneath which they were per- formed, gave them a local and historical character ; if the exploits of their own ancestors at Salamis, the bay itself was before them in which those deeds were achieved ; if, again, the Deities of Heaven or Earth or Sea took part in the action of the Drama, the Elements themselves were at hand from which They had stepped to visit the dwellings of men. From the south-east angle of the Theatre, a road winds round the eastern base of the Acropolis. It is called the Street of Tkipods, from the row of small temples which form it, and which bear on their summits the tripods that have been dedicated to Bacchus, the patron Deity of the Athenian 158 ODEUM OF PERICLES. drama, by those persons who have defrayed the expense of a chorus to which a prize has been adjudged in the neighbouring theatre for • the poetic and musical excellence of the drama to which it belonged. On the architraves of these temples are inscribed the names of the Victor associated with those of the Poet and the Flute-player of the successful drama, and with tliat of the Archon in whose year it was performed. From these inscriptions, the Didascaliae, or annals of the Athenian theatre, are compiled. Its history is written in these fabrics composing the street which conducts to it. The martial trophies of Miltiades and Themistocles stand upon the plain of Marathon and the promontory of Salamis, but those of iEschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides are ranged side by side on this spot, -^=i^^^ and present themselves daily to the eyes of their countrjinen, as they pass to and from that place where those peaceful victories were won which these monuments commemorate. Near the spot where this street communicates with the Theatre, is a building surmounted by a circular roof, and erected by Pebicles: it is designed for musical performances, and is thence called the Odeum. It was built in imitation of the dome-like pavilion of Xerxes, and its roof is con- stnicted with the yards and masts of the Persian ships which were captm*ed at Salamis. The vault is supported on a circle of columns, which surround the interior of the fabric. TEMPLE OF JUPITER OLYMPIUS. 159 HREE hundred yards to the south-east of this spot is the vast and elevated platform in the centre of which stands the gigantic Temple of the Olympian Jupiter, being the largest in the world which was ever erected in honour of that Deity. From the cast end of the Acropolis we see its western front, consisting of ten Corinthian columns of Pentelic marble, surmounted by a high pediment adorned with sculpture. This temple was commenced by Peisistratus, and remained unfinished for more than six hundred years. It thus became a by-word for great intellectual efforts in general, which have experienced a similar fate : it has been employed to describe the pro- ductions of literature which have been left in an incomplete condition by their original authors. Thus the portico and peristyle, which, in the lively and fanciful language of Plutarch, were erected by Plato of his great philosophical work, the Atlantis, and to which the cella and roof were never added by that philosopher, are compared by the Chseronean moralist to the structure of the vast and unfinished Olympeium which is now before our eyes. Beyond the Temple of Jupiter is the small stream of the Tlissus. It descends from the slopes of Hymettus, bounds the Lyceum, which is BBOima TBB lUMOt. adorned with porticoes and groves, famed as the school of Aristotle and his successors, and passing between a small Ionic temple dedicated to the Ilissian Muses on the right, and the Panathenaic Stadium on the left, it skirts the southern wall of the city : near the Temple of Jupiter Olympius it flows in a cascade through several ducts channelled in its rocky bed, and is there joined by the fountain Callirrhoe, the only fresh-water spring at Athens. Having irrigated the gardens in the southern suburb of the city, the Ilissus loses itself beneath the rocky soil in the plain, and in the direction of the most southern, the most ancient, and the nearest harbour of Athens, — the Phalerum. The mountains -^galeos, Pames, Brilessus, Pentelicus, Hymettus and Lycabettus, the stream of the Ilissus, and the harbours of the Peiraeus and Phalerum, were daily in the eyes of the inhabitants of Athens : they are connected with the most remarkable events of Athenian story ; they are the sources whence they derive many of the necessaries and ornaments of life, and a considerable part of their affluence and power. It will, therefore, appear a very surprising circumstance, that the name of not one of them is to be found in the extensive remains of the Tragic Poets of Athens. If our knowledge of the geography of Attica were to be gathered only from the extant works of yEschylus, Sophocles and Euripides, we should not be acquainted with the name of a single mountain on the Athenian soil. That this is not the result of chance is clear, not only from the nature of the case, but also from the fact, that in the less copious ^^Titings of the comic Poet of Athens, ATTIC TRAGEDY SILENT ABOUT ATTICA. 161 Aristophanes, nearly all of them occur, and that with considerable frequenoy. This difference, observable in the practice of these two classes of poets, with respect to the great natural features of Attica, may, we think, be thus explained. The objects to which we refer were too familiar to the ear and the eye, and too nearly associated with the common details of daily life, to be susceptible of that ideal grace with which Athenian Tragedy required that its materials should be invested. For this reason, it seems, the authors to whom we allude did not venture to introduce into their poems names which would have excited in the minds of their audience a train of ideas very different from those thoughts and recollections which it was the design of the Tragic Muse to produce. It is unfortunate that we possess none of the dramas which were exhibited in the Theatres, of which the vestiges still remain, of Argos or of Tanagra. For, as in the tragedies of the Athenian stage, we meet with frequent men- tion of the natural objects in the neighbourhood of those places, — so that, while we learn nothing with respect to Athens from Athenian Tragedy, we derive from it much topographical information about them, — and as we there read of the river Inachus and the Arachnaian hill, in the neighbour- NBAR ATHENS. hood of Argos, and of the stream of the Asopus and of Mount Cithseron in the Tanagrsean region, so we might expect to have found in the productions of the Argive or the Boeotian Muse, some reference to the waters of the Athenian Ilissus, and to the mountain- ridges of Parnes and Hymettus. We are compelled, in the absence of all early Greek epic, tragic, or lyrical authorities on the subject, to resort to the songs of Italian bards, who 162 ITALIAN NOTICES OF ATTICA. have not been sparing in their allusions to the objects which we have specified above as forming the most prominent features in the landscape of Athens. It is to be regretted, however, that with very few exceptions, their de- scriptions are as little valuable, from their Want of familiarity with the subject, as those of Athenian poets would have been objectionable to Athenian readers from their excess of it. It was the policy of that great States- man, who saw that the glory and power of Attica must be buoyed up on the surface of the sea, rather than rest on a fixed and solid foundation of terra firma^ to endea- vour, if we may so say, to make Athens an island. This was the object to which he directed all his exertions. In the language of the Comic writers of the time, he took the shield and spear from the hands of the Republic, and put into them the rower's cushion and the oar. Having succeeded in rebuilding the walls of the City, notwithstanding the opposition of the Spartans, Themistocles, of whom we speak, turned his eyes to the Peiraeus. He observed the natural beauty and excellence of that harbour, and devoted his energies to make it worthy of the first maritime people of Greece. He surrounded it with military fortifications, and consti- tuted it, as it were, the stronghold and AcropoHs of Athens itself. But it was not in his power to execute his own plans to their full extent. ..T:>*^. ■ufin m ATHiKi. THEMISTOCLES AND THE PEIRiEUS. 163 Themistocles was banished in n.c. 472, six years after he had rebuilt the walls, which he was now forbidden to enter. His father, one day walking with him on the shore of the Peiraeus, had pointed to an old battered trireme, no longer seaworthy, whose gaping planks were left to fall in pieces upon the sea sand, and — There, said he, my son, in that vessel you behold the fate of the statesmen of Athens. He might have added — There you see the end of the great founder of the Peiraeus itself. Cimon and Pericles carried on the design which Themistocles had begun. About the year b.c. 465, the former commenced the building of the two walls which, starting from the south-west side of the city, ran down, the one to the northern horn of the harbour of Peiraeus — the most northern of the three ports of Athens — the other to the southern side of the port of Phalerum, the most southern of the same. Thus the Athenian city assumed the form of an insular triangle, secured by two broad, long, and lofty bulwarks from external assault, and enjoying, by means of two outlets at its base, an easy communica- tion with the sea. Another step still remained to be taken, in order to give full effect to the designs of Themistocles. The Peiraeus had now become the principal, and 164 LONG WALLS OF ATHENS. indeed tlic only harbour of much importance; Phalerum was sinking into neglect. But if the southern line of fortification, which connected the city with the latter, were surprised and stormed by an invading enemy, hotk the harbours became his, and the approach to the city itself was uninterrupted by any further barrier. Besides this, from the largeness of the angle of divergence of these two walls fiom the city, the defensive force of Athens was distracted, and did not easily admit of internal centralization. For this reason, Pericles, about the year b.c. 444, proposed to the Athenians in the assembly, that aihird wall should be erected, which should connect the city of Athens with the southern horn of the harbour of the Peiraeus. Socrates was present in the Pnyx on the occasion ; and the speech which Pericles then made, recommending that measure to his audience, seems to have made a deep impression upon the mind of the future phi- losopher, who was at that time little more than twenty years of age. The advantages arising both from this restriction of the fortified triangle, and from the more complete consequent insulation of Athens, and also from its closer union with its principal harbour, are too obvious to require any comment or illustration. The city of Athens was now like a largo vessel moored by two cables, each of which dropped its anchor in the Peiraeus. or AltlCA. k JJOMER commences his catalogue of the Grecian forces in the second book of the IHad with a description of the vessels sup- plied by BcEOTiA. He enumerates thirty cities in that country ^ > which furnished men and ships to Agamemnon. ^ It is a remarkable circumstance, that while he refers to so 1 many towns as already existing in his age in the Boeotian territory, he 166 MARITIME FORCE OF ATTICA AND BCEOTIA. specifies only a single city in the neighbouring district of Attica. The sole place in the latter province which he mentions as having augmented the numbers of the Greek army, is Athens. But it is observable, that the contribution of this single city amounted to precisely the same sum as that which was supplied by the thirty towns of Boeotia. Each of these two parties furnished fifty ships. We hence conclude, that while Boeotia was much more thickly peopled than Attica in the Homeric age, the latter had already attained a degree of maritime skill which placed it as far above its rival in that respect, as it was inferior to it in numerical strength. Both these circumstances are in strict accordance with the physical qualities and features of the two countries to which they relate. Of the causes which tended to produce the nautical and commercial celebrity and affluence of Attica, we have already spoken. Both negatively and positively they existed there in the highest degree. The same may be said of the natural endowments which conduced to give BcEotia a superiority over its neighbour in the number of cities which covered its soil, and in the aggregate amount of its population. If we take our station on the summit of the lofty citadel of Ohchomenus, at the north-west angle of the Cephissian or Copaic lake, and cast our eyes westward, we have below us the principal river of Boeotia, — the Cephissus. 1^^^- <.;.• LAKX COPAia, IKD KATAmiTHBA. VALE OB^ CEPPIISSUS. 167 It takes its rise at Lil^a in the mountain district of Doris, at a distance of thirty miles to the north-west of this point, and flows down a rich and beautiful valley near the walls of ancient towns of great importance and renown in the early days of Greek history. It leaves Amphiclea, Tithorea, Daulis, and Panopeus, on its right bank, and Elatea, Hyampolis, and Abae PAKNASStIS, FROM THB on its left. It then crosses the boundary of Phocis, and soon after discharges itst'lf into the lake at the south-eastern foot of the Acropolis of Orchomenus. This valley is the avenue by which the inhabitants of Douis, Malis, and Thessaly communicate with those of Boeotia, and with the south-eastern parts of the continent and peninsula of Greece. A little before its arrival at Orchomenus, it expands itself into a wide plain, on the eastern side of which is the Copaic Lake, while the western is bounded by the cliffs of Parnassus, and the southern by the slopes of Helicon. This plain is the largest in Boeotiai ; situated as it is on the margin of an extensive lake, and watered by a river which is fed by numerous tributary streams flowing into it from Mount Cnemis on the left bank, and Parnassus on the right, and intersected by various other brooks which descend from the glens of Helicon on the south ; placed also at the termination of the defile which n leads from the north-eastern provinces of Greece into the rich pastures of Boeotia, it became naturally the seat of affluent and powerful cities, which derived their principal revenues from the productions of its soil. Of these towns, five must be mentioned as the most eminent. They lie in a semicircular curve, and at nearly equal intervals from each other. The series of mountain-heights on which they stand, taken together with the western boundary of the lake, girds the plain of which we have been speaking. NOllTIIERN BASIN OF BCEOTIA. 169 S'J./^r^/^-^bJ^l.._r-~^^4 The first of these five cities, which stands at the north-eastern verge of the plain, is Orchomenus : to the west of it, at the distance of five miles, separated from it by the river Cephissus, and placed upon a steep rock of grey granite, is the elevated fortress of Ch^ronea. To the south of Chaeronea, at a similar distance on a northern declivity of Helicon, and on the left bank of the river Hercyna, is the citadel of Lebadea, rising from a precipitous cliff, on the eastern foot of which lies the town. Passing from this place to the south-east for the same number of miles, and along the roots of Helicon, one of which bears the name of the Laphystian hill, we arrive at the base of the crested summit of Coronea. If we pursue our course to the east of this spot, we cross several rills which flow from the heights of Helicon on our right, one of which bears the name, sacred to the Muses, of the Libethrian Hill, and which enter the Copaic Lake on our left, at some distance from the road. After a journey of a little more than five miles in the same direction, we find ourselves at the western gate of Haliartus. As we commenced at Orchomenus, with the shore of the Copaic Lake at its north-west angle, so here at Haliartus we are brought once more upon its brink at its south- eastern extremity. Those who treat of the geographical divisions of particular countries on the face of the terrestrial globe, feel, we apprehend, sometimes tempted to 170 ASTRONOMY AND GEOGRAPHY, envy the privilege which is conceded to the topographer of the Iieavens^ who is permitted to group the objects of his science into certain forms and combinations ; thus increasing the facility with which his speculations are comprehended by those to whom they are presented, and enduing the objects themselves with the qualities of a living and social existence. But to earthly topography such license is rarely and reluctantly allowed. In geography, properly so called, are no comtdlatiom. Each object is con- templated individually and in detail. This circumstance is partly a mis- fortune, arising from the nature of the subject itself, and partly a defect proceeding from the traditional practice of Geographers, who are wont to look rather at the natural and artificial features of the object immediately before their eyes, than to regard the relations which may subsist between it and others united with it by physical and local connexion. We are inclined, however, to suppose, that without being guilty of any violation of the laws of strict and literal accuracy, and without running the risk of degrading the particular objects described, either in importance or in interest, the Geographer may safely claim to himself more liberty in this respect than he has usually enjoyed. We confess, that we not only envy the Astronomer the possession of his Orion, his Lyra, his Pleiads, and his Bootes ; but we are inclined to demand for ourselves, in fit proportion, and with duo deference to his sublimer occu- pation, a share in that privilege which allows him to associate the particular objects of his science in such animate or inanimate combinations. This remark has been suggested by a consideration of the form presented by the five difierent cities of which we have spoken, when contemplated both with respect to each other, and to the principal features of nature with which they are placed in immediate juxtaposition. Situated, as they are, in a semicircular curve, at equal distances from each other, and mounted on the crests of a range of hills which slope down into the plain between them and the Copaic Lake, they suggest the name of a natural Theatjre, as the most appropriate designation by which they may be described. The semicircular line which connects these cities together, may be regarded, in technical language, as its Pkecinction, or semizone : the sloping lines which descend from the heights on which they are, into the level area between them and the lake, form the Cavea, or shell of this Theatre ; the roads which lead in the same direction from their summits, and NATURAL THEATRE OF BCEOTIA. 171 converge, as it were, to the centre of the circle, are its Vi^e ; the semi- circular area itself may be considered as the Orchestra of the Theatre : nor is it unworthy of observation, that this is the precise title which was given to it by ancient geographers, who, on account of its having been the field of so many battles, called it, — in the Greek though not in the more modern acceptation of the term, — the Orchestra of Mars. In the same manner, the western line of the Copaic Lake may be called its Pulpitum, or Stage. On the grounds, therefore, which we have stated, we speak of this district, which from its great importance in the annals of Greek history deserves especial regard, as the natural Theatre of Boeotia. 8H0RR OV We have referred in general terms to the conflicts which gave celebrity, and communicated a peculiar appellation, to the plain which lies at the feet of these five cities. From its position at the mouth of the valley of the Cephissus, and from its other local advantages, as well as from the richness of its soil, the plain of Orchomenus was frequently, from the earliest ages of Greek history, the scene of military operations, especially in the struggles of that city with its neighbour and rival Thebes. The name of Chj^ronea is connected with that last and fatal effort which ■trru uc caABuHUk. the City of Athens, at the instigation of Demosthenes, made in conjunction with Thebes, in the summer of the year n.c. 338, to defend the Hberties of Greece against the aggressions of Philip of Macedon ; and with the brilliant and decisive victory which was achieved in the same place by the Roman army under Sylla, over Archelaus and Taxilles, the generals of Mithridates. At the foot of the hill of Cokonea, the gallant and courageous leader of the Athenians Tolmides fell in a skirmish in the year b.c. 447, when he was on his way homeward, after the bold attempt which he had made with the aid of only a thousand volunteers to strengthen the Athenian party, which the victory of Myronides, ten years before at (Enophyta, had established in all the cities of Boeotia, but whose power was destroyed by the disaster, above referred to, at Coronea. In the year b.c. 392, the same place was distinguished by the victory which was gained there by the Spartan leader Agesilaus and the inhabitants of Orchomenus, over the combined forces of Argos and Thebes ; on which occasion the victor spared the fugitives who took shelter in the neighbouring HALIARTUS. 173 Temple of the Itonian Minkrva, and after which he proceeded on a religious pilgrimage to the Oracle of Delphi, in order to offer a tithe of the spoil that he had taken in his Asiatic campaigns, — an oblation which amounted VFVURinO AT THE TBHCLE OK DKLPIII to one hundred talents. The neighbouring city of Haliartus was as fatal to another general of Sparta, as Coronea was honourable to Agesilaus. In the year b.c. 395, Lysander, marching from Lebadea to Haliartus, where he hoped to be joined by the army of Pausanias — who, (from the interception of the letter of Lysander by the Thebans, in which that hope was expressed,) was unacquainted with his movements, and unable to appear in his support — found himself suddenly closed in, near the fountain Cissussa, which flows into the lake by the western wall of Haliartus, on the one hand by the main body of the Theban troops coming from Thebes, and on the other by a detach- ment of the garrison which sallied forth from Haliartus itself. The Spartan General fell in the skirmish ; and the Thebans, strengthened by a powerful re- inforcement of Athenians, eager to avenge themselves on the destroyers of their city, and to regain their own preeminence in Greece, and aided by the military force of Haliartus, pursued the Spartans, who fled to the high grounds of Helicon which rise to the south of the city, and made much havoc among them. They themselves lost two hundred men by rashly venturing upon the steeps of the mountain, from which the fugitives assailed them with missiles and 174 MOUNTAIN CIRCLE fragments of rock, and thus repulsed them into the plain. This battle was fatal to the Spartan influence in Boeotia : Pausanias was compelled to evacuate that country under circumstances of great ignominy and loss. We have spoken of the mountain cliffs which rise on every side, except the eastern, of the basin of Orchomenus, and of the neighbouring cities specified above. The same description may also be correctly applied to the whole country of which this district forms a part. The whole of Bceotia is girt with a belt of mountains : they form an elliptical ring, whose length extends from the south-east to the north-west. Beginning at the point where the eastern coast approaches and almost touches the island of Euboea, namely, at the bay of Aulis, innnediately to the north of which it is connected with that island by a bridge, we have the grey limestone summits of Mycales- sus, and the precipitous rooks of Messapius, which leave between them BBiiKiB or TUB aaaini*, ttam nm KOBin. OF BCEOTIA. 176 and tlie sea a narrow slip, in which stand tho remains of Salganeus, and of the fishing town of Anthedon. Proceeding further to the north-west, we observe the bare ridges of Mount Ptoum, which rears three lofty peaks into the air, whose sides were formerly covered with thick woods frequented by wild boars, and through whose hard and rugged calcareous rock the waters of the Copaic Lake have pierced for themselves a subterranean channel into the sea. The Cnemidian hills, which stretch along the coast above the pass of Thermopylse and the waves of the Malian Gulf, take their rise from the slopes of Mount Ptoum, and unite it with the long ridge of (Eta, which falls into the chain of Pindus at the hill of Tymphrestus, a point noticed above (in the twelfth page) as the centre to which the mountain radii of the southern part of the Greek continent converge. On the western side of Mount Ptoum rises the hill of Acontium, which is the eastern barrier of the vale of Cephissus. On it are the remains of the ancient cities of Abae and Hyampoi,is. Beneath its western foot the river Cephissus runs through rich and beautiful pastures, corn-fields, and olive-yards, into the Cephissian Lake. Over the other, or western side of the stream, hang the steep eminences of Lycoreia, consisting of dark marble cliffs capped with snow, which are the eastern projections of Mount Parnassus. Beneath them is the •CRNK ON MOUNT 176 HELICON, CITH^ERON, PARNES. craggy hill of Daulis, lying in the fork between two streams which water the vine-clad slopes of the valley below it, and then, having united their waters at its eastern foot, flow together into the channel of the Cephissiis. From this point commences the long range of Helicon, which stretches onwards till it sinks down in a declivity near the city of Thespi,*: and the Plain of Leuctra. Through this valley a river flows to the south-west into the Corin- thian Gulf, being the only stream of lioeotia which discharges its waters there. After the interval of this plain, the ground again rises in the stem and rugged clifis of Cithseron, which are separated from Mount Parncs on the east by the gorge of Phyle. A series of low undulating hills, stretching along the coast and interrupted by narrow plains, — such as that of Oropus, through which the river Asopus flows into the Euboic Sea, and the clay level of Delium, famed for the battle in which Socrates saved the life of his young pupil, and for its Temple of Apollo, — connect the north-east extremity of Pames with the heights of Aulis and Mycalessus at the narrowest part of the channel of the Euripus, and thus conclude the circuit which we have traced of the natural frontiers of Boeotia. The greater axis of the elliptical cur\'e which has been just described measures a little more than sixty miles, — the lesser nearly amounts to forty. HELICON AND CITH^ERON. 177 '«\>i^\i- i The curve itself contains an area of more than one thousand square miles, being more than three hundred above the number of which Attica consists. Plutarch, in his Treatise of Rivers and Mountains, cites from Hermesianax, the historian of Cyprus, the following legend descriptive of the character of the two principal mountains which belong to the chain which encircles Boeotia : — " Helicon and Cith^ron were two brothers ; but very different from each other in temper and character. The former was mild and courteous, and dutiful to his parents, whom he supported in their old age. Cithseron, on the other hand, was covetous and avaricious. He wished to obtain all the property of the family for himself. To gain this object, he destroyed his father, and afterwards threw his brother by treachery down a precipice : but he himself, also, was carried over the cliff at the same time from the thrust with which he impelled his brother. After their death, by the will of the Gods, these two brothers were changed into the two Mountains which bore their name. Cithseron, by reason of his impiety, became the abode of the Furies ; the Muses, on account of his gentle and affectionate disposition, chose Helicon as their favourite haunt." The natural features of these two mountains are, as might be expected, in harmony with this mythological narrative. The dales and slopes of Helicon are clothed with groves of olive, walnut, and almond trees ; clusters of ilex and arbutus deck its higher plains ; and the oleander and myrtle fringe the banks of the numerous rills which gush from its soil, and stream in shining cascades down its declivities into the ^- plain between it and the Copaic Lake. One of the heights of Helicon is the Libe- thrian hill, where stood, in ancient times, a consecrated grove intersected by two fountains ; beneath its shade were the statues of the God- desses to whom it was dedicated. Here also oL.vKTB.i^s. ^^g ^j^g hallowed grotto of the Libethrian Nymphs. The site is now occupied by a Monastery about three miles to the 178 THE MUSES. south-west of Mazi, the modern village, which stands very nearly upon the site of the ancient Haliartus. On Helicon, according to the ancient belief, no noxious herb was found. Here, also, the first narcissus bloomed. The ground is luxuriantly decked with flowers, which difftise around a delightful fragrance. It resounds with the industrious murmur of bees, and with the music of pastoral flutes and the noise of waterfalls. Two of the sources which rise from its soil have acquired a celebrity unequalled by that of vast rivers. Not far from the site of the village of Ascra, the residence of Hesiod, which is five miles to the south of Haliartus, rises the spring of Aganippe ; the river of Permkssus takes its rise at the same spot. Still further to the south is the fountain of HippocRENE, which springs from the earth above the valley of Marandali, shaded by pine trees, planes, and hazels. Near this fountain Pausanias saw a very ancient copy of the Works and Days of the Bard of Ascra, written upon lead, which the inhabitants of Helicon, who shewed it, maintained to be the only genuine production of that author. At a Monastery of St. Nicolas, a little to the north-east of Marandali, was recently found an inscription containing a catalogue of the Victors in the MusEA, or Games in honour of the Muses, which proves that the grove conse- crated to them, in which these games were celebrated, stood near that spot. Pausanias enumerates the works of Art existing in the place at the time in which he visited it, namely, in the age of the Antonines. Here, at that period, were the statues of the nine Muses sculptured by three different lUi-BSLnr or thb num. artists: here stood a group consisting of Apollo, Mercury, and Bacchus, contending for the lyre ; near them was an erect figure of Bacchus, one of the finest works of Myron ; here was a portrait of Eupheme, the nurse of THESPIiE. 179 the Muses. The statues of great Poets adorned the same place : here stood the ancient minstrel Linus ; near him was Thamyris, already blind, striking a broken lyre ; Arion riding his dolphin ; Hesiod with his harp upon his knees; Orpheus surrounded with animals attracted by the melody of his song, at that time stood under the shade of these trees : but they have all now disappeared ; while the trees wave, the flowers bloom, and the streams flow as they did of yore. Connected with Mount Helicon, and hanging upon its eastern slopes, is ^c^r^^iKf.:: RUINS or THSSPIA. the ancient city of Thespi^. The character of its early inhabitants forms an agreeable and an appropriate feature in the natural scenery which has just been described. The Thespians were regarded as the most refined and intellectual among the ancient tenants of Boeotia. Here stood the famous statue of Love, from the chisel of Praxiteles, which induced so many strangers to visit Thespise, as his Venus attracted them to the island of Cnidos. At the present day a broken inscription remaining on the spot 180 LEGENDS OF exhibits the name of Praxiteles, which was probably attached to one of the productions of that sculptor. Here also were works of Lysippus and other masters of renown. The Erotidia, or Games in honour of the Deity of Love, drew also a large concourse of foreigners to Thespiae. The story of Amphion and Zethus, who were natives of this place, is of Thespian origin, though they are both intimately connected with the history of Thebes. The character of Amphion, indeed, as contrasted with that of his brother Zethus, — ^the yielding and humane disposition of the one, and his intellectual refinements, compared with the inflexible austerity and the illiterate rudeness of the other, — might well be considered as fit representatives of the two different tempers which distinguished the inhabitants of this city from those of its rival Thebes. It redounds much to the honour of the Thespiana that their successful cultivation and patronage of the imitative arts seems to have given them purity of taste without fastidiousness, and delicacy without feebleness. Seven hundred Thespians alone were found among all the inhabitants of Continental Greece to join the army of Leonidas at the pass of Thermo- pylae. At the conflict on the neighbouring plain of Plataea, this city sent eighteen hundred men, who contributed their energies to win the glory of that day, while the soldiers of Thebes fought against them in the ranks of the Barbarians. A little before the battle fought on the field of Leuctra, which lies on the way between this place and Platsea, the walls of Thespiae were destroyed by the hostile Thebans. But it is probable that, when at a subsequent period their city had been restored, it owed its preservation to this very hatred and revenge of the Thebans, which won for the Thespians the favour of the Romans, who were exasperated with their Theban foes, and were on that account more amicable toward the inhabitants of Thespiae. In the time of Strabo, — that is, in the Augustan age, — there remained but two Boeotian towns which had not then fallen into a condition of ruinous decay. One of these was Thespi^, the other Tanagra. There is a road which leads tlu*ough the gap of Helicon and Cithaeron from Thespiae to the Bay of Creusis in the Corinthian Gulf, which was the Epineion, or maritime station, of that city, and the only Boeotian port upon that sea. From Creusis a road conducts to ^gosthen^ by the coast round the western foot of Cithaeron, which leaves a narrow ledge between it and the MOUNT CITH^RON. 181 shore. This is the route by which the armies of the Peloponnesus usually penetrated into Boeotia. The aspect of Cithseron is, as has been observed, the reverse of that of Helicon ; it is savage, cold, gloomy, and inhospitable. Helicon was con- secrated to the Muses ; but Cithseron was the mountain of the Erinnyes, and rang with the frantic yells of the wildest nocturnal orgies of Bacchanalian revelry. All the mythological traditions which are connected with it partake of the physical sternness which characterizes the mountain itself. The dark forests of pine trees and silver firs which crown the precipitous cliffs, and the caves which are hollowed in their craggy sides, were, according to the songs of Greek poets, the witnesses of inhuman and sanguinary deeds. Here Pentheus, the Theban King, was pursued by the infuriate troop of women led on by his mother and sisters, and torn in pieces by their hands. '.'" ' oO— v---i«rA-- _ ANTIQUE 8CULPTUKE OS PBNTHBUS ATTACKED BY BACCHA Here Actseon, the son of Aristaeus and of Autonoe, the daughter of Cadmus, having, on a sultry day when he was hunting, ascended from the Gargra- phian fount in the plain below, where -Diana, when bathing, was seen by him, was mangled by his own dogs, which were set upon him by that Goddess. Here the luckless (Edipus was exposed by order of his father. Here, a little more than a mile to the south of the loftiest summits of the mountain, which is upwards of four thousand feet in height, and overhangs the site of the ancient Platsea, was the altar of the Cithseronian Jupiter, to which the fourteen cities composing the Boeotian Confederacy brought, at the feast of the Dsedalia, every sixty years, fourteen statues of oak, and burnt them upon an altar of wood on the summit of the mountain. Here is a grotto formerly dedicated to the Sphragitiax Nymphs, who inspired men with 182 THE ASOPUS. the frenzy known to the Greeks of old by the name of Nympholepsy. The whole mountain was identified with the wildest and most painful passions which distract and agonize the human heart. It was dedicated to Tragedy, while the mountain on the western side of the valley was sacred to the genius of Pastoral Poetry. Citliaeron and Helicon were, if we may use the com- parison, the Mount Ebal and the Mount Gerizim of Greek geography. From Thespiae to Plataea is a distance of seven miles : the road lies to the south-east, across the valley which we have described as severing Helicon from Cithacron, and as the only outlet leading from the interior of Bceotia to the Corinthian Gulf. The ruins of the city of Platjea are on the steep and rugged slopes which fall from the heights of Citliaeron into the valley on the north. In this lower ground, and near the walls of the city, two small rivers take their rise, and flow in opposite directions. They are both fed by small brooks falling from the sides of Cithseron. The one is the ancient Oeroe, which rises to ^'' riaiK« l^ caJKIUUtBA. the east of Plataea, runs along the valley in a westerly course, and discharges itself into the harbour of Creusis*. The other is the Asopus, which, in the language of Boeotian mythology, was described as the Father of Oeroe. It PLAT^A. 183 springs from the plain between Leuctra and Platfea, and flows on the north of the latter towards the east. It passes by the sites of Hysi^ and Erythii^. on its right bank, leaves Tanagra on its left, and falls into the Euboic Sea a little to the north-east of the town of Oropus. The tract of country watered by these two streams is the great southern vale of Bceotia ; it measures in length nearly forty miles. Between the sources of these two rivers the road from Thebes to Plataea passes, and then, after entering the latter city, it climbs the heights of Cithaeron, and, at a spot formerly known by the name of the Oakheads, or Dryoscephal^e, divides itself into two branches. That to the south-east passes by the defile of CEnoe and the city of Eleutheras, to Megara on the right, and to Eleusis and Athens on the left. The other leads to the south-west, by the mountains of Geraneia, to the isthmus of Corinth and the Peloponnesus. or MARDOMI In the autumn of the year b. c. 479, Mardonius, the Persian General, who had been left in Greece by Xerxes, with three hundred thousand of his best men, marched from Athens, which he had utterly destroyed, over the heights of Pames, by the pass of Decelea. He proceeded by Oropus, and having crossed the river Asopus there, marched along its left bank till he came to 184 TOPOGRAPHY OF THE BATTLE. the city of Tanagra. Here he halted for one night. He then proceeded in the same direction till he arrived, on the next day, at Soolus, the frontier town of the Theban territory. There he laid waste a part of the meadow land, not for the sake of injuring the Thebans, who were his friends, but in order to form an encampment for his large force, and to provide himself with a place of refuge in case of emergency. With this view, he surrounded with military fortifications of planks and palisades an area of a square mile. This fort was on the left bank of the stream ; its southern face was parallel to, and nearly coincided with, the interval between the cities of Erythne and Hysiae on the other side of the stream. The line of the army not only exceeded this interval, but also extended westward, so as to face a part of the Platsean territory. Such was the position of Mardonius and hie army before the battle of Platsea. His force consisted not merely of Persians and Medes, Bactrians, Indians, and Sacte, but was reinforced by auxiliaries from the Greek cities which had espoused the cause of the invader. Macedonia, Thessaly, Phocis, and the greater part of Boeotia, were now in his power, and augmented his military force. Besides these, a mixed multitude of different nations, Phrygians, Mysians, Thracians, Paeonians, and ^Egyptians, swelled the ranks of Mardonius. His army is said to have amounted to three hundred and fifty thousand men, exclusive of cavalry. It nearly doubled the number of that which had fought eleven years before in the same cause on the field of Marathon. In order to understand clearly the circumstances of the battle of Plataca, we must remember that the Greek force occupied three wholly distinct positions, at three different periods ; while, with the exception of temporary advances for the purpose of attacking their antagonists, the Persians, remained, during the whole interval, from the time of their first appearance in the Plataean territory to the day upon which they left it, in the same square encampment which has been described above. The Athenians, having joined the Lacedaemonians at Eleusis, marched over Mount Cithseron at the pass of Dryoscephalae, and took up their station on the rugged declivities of the mountain, at Erythrae, on the south side of the Asopus. This was their first position. Here they stood in face of the Persian encampment, which was on the other side of the river. While occupying this post, they were attacked by a detachment of the Persian cavalry, commanded by Masistius, the next in dignity to Mardonius THE THREE POSITIONS OF THE GREEK FORCES. 185 in the hostile army. It was met by the Megarians and Athenians, who formed the Greek van. Masistius himself fell in the encounter, and the Persians fled to their camp. The result of this skirmish encom'aged the Greeks ; being also in want of water, they determined to descend lower into the plain, and advanced a little to the westward, towards Platsea : they then encamped near the fountain Gargaphia, not far from the sacred enclosure of the hero Andocrates, on the right of the road from Platsea to Thebes, and about a mile to the east of the former. This spot was well supplied with water, being irrigated by several streamlets flowing from Cithseron into the Asopus. Such was the second position of the Greeks. The Lacedaemonians held the right wing, or that nearest to the mountain, according to the received practice in such cases at that time. But a ques- tion arose, who should occupy the left. There were two competitors for this honour, — ^the Athenians and the Tegeseans of Arcadia. The matter was referred by common consent to the Lacedaemonians, who decided in favour of the Athenians. The latter accordingly posted themselves in a lower part of the valley, near the banks of the river, and almost at right angles to it. The Greek force, beginning from the right wing, consisted of Tegeseans, Corinthians, Potidseans, Orchomenians of Arcadia, Sicyonians, and of troops from different cities of Argolis, Euboea, and Epirus, from Leucas, Cephal- lenia, and ^gina, and towards the left wing from Megara, Platsea, and Athens. The greatest number from any one city was ten thousand : this was furnished by Sparta : the next was eight thousand, and was supplied by Athens. The entire force amounted to one hundred and ten thousand men ; it possessed no cavalry. The Lacedaemonian King, Pausanias, had the command of the whole. The right wing of the Greeks was confronted by the Persians : next in order in the Barbarian force stood the Medians, Bactrians, Indians, and Sacse : the Boeotians, Locrians, Malians, Thessalians, and Phocians were stationed in the right wing, opposite to the Athenians in the Greek left. In this state, the armies remained in sight of each other for ten days. Both parties were indisposed to commence the attack. The Greek sooth- sayers who were retained in the camp of Mardonius, promised him the victory, provided he remained on the defensive ; and Tisamenus, the son of Antiochus, a native of Elis, who was the most reno^vned among the augurs 186 MARDONIUS. of that age, predicted to the Lacedaemonians, that if they abstained from crossing the Asopus, their cause would be successful. A change in the disposition of the Greek force, by which the Lacedaemonians were trans- ferred to the left wing and the Athenians to the right, — although it was a mere temporary manceuvre, and the two parties resumed in a short time their former positions, — induced Mardonius to believe that a panic had seized the camp of his antagonists, and inspired him with that confidence which at last proved the cause of destruction to him, and of success to the enemy. He despatched a herald to insult the Lacedaemonians in consequence of this supposed confession of their inferiority and fear, and to challenge them to send a detachment into the plain to meet an equal number of Persians, in order that the fate of the two armies might be decided by the issue of that contest. Pausanias, unmoved by this contumelious treatment, and having held a council of the other generals, gave orders for a retreat further to the west. The point to which the troops were commanded to retire was called the Island, — more correctly speaking, it was a peninsula^ — formed by the confluence of some small tributary streams, falling from the slopes of Cithaeron into the river Oeroe. The Greek centre, not content with this retrograde movement, fell behind the city of Platsea, two miles in the rear of their former position. The decision of the generals was but partially executed by the rest of the army. The right wing retreated only for a mile, and took up its station about a thousand yards to the east of Plataea, upon the rugged declivities of the mountain, by which it was protected from the incursions of the enemy's cavalry. The Athenians on the left wing fell back from their former position in the direction of the Island, and posted themselves in the plain, between some low hills and the city of Platsea. Such was the third and last position of the Greeks. By the reluctance which they had shown to obey the orders of their com- mander, and by the consequent separation of its different members, the destruc- tion of the Greek army would have been inevitable, had not the presumption of the Barbarians been greater than the insubordination of the Greeks. Mardonius, having observed the movements of the enemy, and relying upon the persuasion which he had before felt that they were attempting to escape from him, led forth the Persians from his encampment, and rapidly PAUSANIAS. 187 crossed the Asopus, as if in pursuit of the Lacedaemonians. He did not perceive the Athenians in the plain, on account of the low hills which inter- cepted his view. The rest of his army, perceiving the advance of their general, rushed with one accord, in great confusion, with loud shouts, and at their utmost speed, from the same place, in full confidence of making their foe an easy prey. Pausanias, in great distress, sent to the Athenians for aid. As they were advancing to the right in order to relieve him, they were themselves met by the auxiliaries on the Persian right, and checked in their progress. Thus the Lacedaemonian king was left alone to face with only fifty-three thousand men the main body of the host of Mardonius. The victims were unfavourable, his army unwilling to move, and exposed to a shower of missiles shot by the Persians from behind a breastwork of shields. At this moment the presence of mind of Pausanias rescued his army, and saved Greece. He turned his eyes to the Temple of Juno behind him in the city of Platsea, and in the midst of the conflict invoked the com- passion and aid of that Goddess. Immediately the sacrifices became pro- pitious. The courage of his troops was restored : they burst through the breastwork of the Persians, who flung away their bows and grappled with their adversaries in close fight. The Persians displayed great courage : they seized the javelins of the Greeks, while the latter were in the act of dis- charging them, and snapped them asunder. Mardonius, mounted on a white horse, and having around him his chosen cavalry, consisting of a thousand men, appeared where the conflict was hottest, and turned the tide of battle by his presence. But, having exposed himself by his bravery, he receives a wound from a noble Spartan, Aeimnestus, and falls. The flower of his army, — his chosen cavalry, die near him ; and the rest of the force being unprotected, on account of the looseness of their garments, and fighting, as it were, unarmed, against heavy-armed men, betake themselves to flight, and rush to their encampment on the other side of the Asopus. This, having been assaulted in vain for some time by the Lacedaemonians, was at last stormed by the Athenians, who arrived soon after the former had commenced the attack. The Persians made no longer any resistance : they stood still, stupefied by fear, and were mowed down by the enemy. Of three hundred thousand men, only forty-three thousand survived the battle of Plataea. Having traced the outline of mountains by which Bceotia is surrounded, 188 VARIOUS RESULTS FROM THE we proceed to consider some of the physical, political, moral, and social conse- quences arising from the particular position and natural qualities of the country. We observe, in the first place, that this mountain circle touches three different seas : on the north-east side it is bounded by the north Eubcean channel, by which Boeotia is brought into connexion with Thessaly, and Macedonia, and the Euxine Sea. On the east, the south Euboean Gulf opened to it a way to the Archipelago, and to the Asiatic shore ; and on the west side, the Crissaean and Corinthian bays afforded it the means of com- S*«fc>^i«>.UI|^«.. KKTAAJtCS TO THC aimi>TULJU( UVl^. municating with Africa, Italy and Sicily, and the other parts of the west of Europe. The advantage of thus possessing a triple sea was enjoyed by no other country in Greece ; and though this privilege was in some degree impaired by the mediocrity of i\\e harbours and the difficulties which obstructed the access to them, on account of the mountain barriers which intercepted them from the interior, yet, if the character of its inhabitants had been such as to profit by the benefits conferred upon them by Nature, Boeotia would have become one of the first among the commercial nations of ancient Europe, Another result of the physical formation of this country exhibited iteelf within the horizon of mountains of which we have spoken. PHYSICAL PROPERTIES OF THE COUNTRY. 189 The numerous Rivers which flow down from the rocky sides of Mounts Messapius, Ptoum, Parnassus, HeHcon, Cithseron, and Parnes into the circular basin which they form, have, with only one exception, no natural outlet by any defile or valley into the sea. The Asopus alone, of all the Boeotian streams, pursues its course along its channel, and discharges itself into a small bay in the Euripus without any interruption. To compare great things with small, the Basin of Boeotia resembles the Atrium of an ancient house, such as we see at Pompeii or Herculaneum, into the centre of which the water falls from the roofs, sloping inward, of its four sides. To adopt the technical term, applied to the reservoir formed by this confluence of water, — the impluvium of Boeotia is the Copaic Lake. This collection of streams is the largest inland sea in Greece. Its circum- ference was estimated by Strabo at forty miles ; since his time it has in- creased to sixty. This lake has exerted great influence both upon the fortunes of Boeotia and on the character of its inhabitants. Much of the fertility of the sur- rounding country is due to it. It was to that part of Boeotia which bordered upon it, what the Nile is to ^Egypt. The wealth and splendour of the ancient Orchomenus were mainly derived from it. On the other hand, the encroachment of its waters has deprived the 190 EMISSARIES OF THE COPAIC LAKE. Boeotian agriculturist of some of his richest soil. The cold and humid fogs, which added to the inclemency of the climate of this country, and were prejudicial to the health and intelligence of its inhabitants, proceeded from the same source. Nature has exerted herself to diminish those evils. The formation of the mountain interval which divides the eastern end of the lake from the sea is calcareous. The fissures which gape in its strata admitted the water of the lake, whidi gradually wore itself a passage through the rock. It mined a subterranean passage through a mountain barrier of four miles in length. By this communication the streams of the Copaic Lake discharge themselves into the sea. At the north-cast comer of the lake are three of these channels : they are called Katabothra, or Subterranean Gorges, in the language of the country. By these chasmB the water passes from the lake, and pursues its course in a north-eastern direction, till it issues from the ground in the vale of Larmes, the Larymna of Strabo, and flows down into the bay which ser\'ed as the harbour of that ancient city. Having, as the river Alpheus was said to havo done, dived under the water, the Cephissus reappears, at the mouth of the sluice, in this stream, which bore its name. These subterranean emissaries were in ancient times not unfrequently closed by an accumulation of alluvial soil, which caused the lake to inundate the neighbouring country. To obviate this evil, numerous vertical shafts have been sunk tlu*ough the rock into the channel of the river, by means of which it was freed from the obstructions that impeded it. These shafts exhibit some of the most interesting and wonderful specimens which exist in Greece of the skill and power of the engineers of antiquity. They were probably the means by which the princes of Orchomenus, Agamedes and Trophonius, who were famed for their mechanical genius, obtained from their fellow-countrymen the honour of an apotheosis. In later times, these pits were repaired and cleared by Crates of Chalcis, who presented to his employer, Alexander the Great, a report, which was subsequently seen by Strabo, of the success he had met with in draining by their means the sur- rounding plain, and bringing again to light some ancient cities, which had been submerged by the deluges consequent upon this obstruction. In considering the different ways in which the Copaic Lake exercised an influence over the population of Boeotia, we must not forget one of its THE AULETIC REED. 191 natural productions, which, though humble in appearance, was by no means unimportant in the effects which it produced. This is the reed which shoots from the loam of the lake, and whose tufted top waves in the wind over the surface of the water. It did much to affect the natural character of Boeotia. It has been said, and not unjustly, that what the marble of Pentelicus was to Athens, that the Reed of the Copaic Lake was to Boeotia. Both, through the exercise of very different arts, supplied the natural means of expressing their thoughts and feelings to the inhabitants of these two countries. The reed furnished instruments for the periodical contests of flute-players in the Games in honour of the Graces at Orchomenus, where it grew in the great- est perfection, in the musical festivals of Love at Thespise, and in those of the Muses at Libethra ; it produced a class of minstrels peculiar to Boeotia ; it aided the muse of Hesiod, of Pindar, and of Corinna ; it gave a melodious charm to the songs of the shepherds in the pastures of Helicon and on the banks of the Asopus ; and it was welcomed even to the Theatre of Athens, where it gave life to the songs and the dance of the tragic chorus. It indeed excited the jealousy of the Athenian, who loved to disparage and ridicule, especially on the comic stage, the minstrelsy of Boeotia, and who feigned that his own national Goddess Minerva had been the first to play upon the flute, but that having observed, while so doing, the reflection of her face in a brook, she threw away in disdain the instrument which distorted her divine countenance. It has been above observed, that a great part of the ancient affluence of Orchomenus, under its Princes of the house of Minyas, was due to its con- tiguity to the lake of Copae. That city stood at the confluence of the Melas and Cephissus ; the former flowing beneath its northern, the latter by its southern wall ; and between Mount Acontium on the west, and the Copaic Lake on its eastern side. It was, therefore, admirably fortified by natural defences. It occupied the north-east angle of the plain, the largest in Boeotia, which was under its sway, and from which it drew much of its power. It exhibited a perfect specimen of an ancient city. Its walls en- closed an irregular triangle, of which the apex and highest part was at the west, whence the two sides diverged, so as to follow the lines of two mountain ridges, commencing from that point, and sloping down toward the plain and the lake. Below the eastern side, which subtended the angle at the vertex, are the huge remains of the Treasury, and of the Temple of 192 ORCHOMENUS AND THEBES. the Graces, which carry back the thoughts of the beholder from the present day to times which preceded the siege of Troy. On this steep was the citadel ; it is approached by two flights of nearly one hmidred steps cut in the rock. It commands a magnificent view of the lake and the plain. The basin of Orchomenus is separated from that of Thebes by a moun- tain ridge at the south-east angle of the Copaic Lake. It resulted from the natural formation of the country, that the poUtical government of BcBotia was vested in the two principal cities of these two plains. In the earliest times, indeed, of Greek History, Orchomenus was not a part of BcBotia, which, strictly speaking, was confined to the Theban region, while that of Orchomenus formed an independent province. It seems also to have arisen from similar causes, that, after a long struggle for the pre-eminence, Thebes eclipsed her rival in affluence and power. Her soil was celebrated for its produce of com and wine ; its fertility is further shown by the crops of tobacco, cotton, and Indian com, which cover it. Thebes had also tlie advantage of a ready export for her productions, by her convenient position in the vicinity of three seas. The character of her inhabitants appears to have been affected in a remark- able manner by the physical properties of the place. The seven-gated citadel PLAIN 4^D C1TT OT THKBIM. THEBES. 193 of Thebes stood on a small circular hill, about one hundred and fifty feet above the level of the surrounding plain. The base of the hill on the eastern and western sides is bounded by two small streams, which take their rise in SCKNn ON MOUNT HELICON the plain on the south, and flow in parallel courses to the north : further to the east, and running in a similar direction, is a third stream : this is the IsMENus ; that to the east is Dirce ; between them is the Cnopus. Though at present the aspect of the place is bare and dreary, the suburbs of the city are described by ancient writers as verdant and picturesque, and delighting the eye by the luxuriance of the gardens which were blended with the houses there. The coolness of the climate, and the freshness of perennial streams, rendered it a delicious abode in the heat of summer. On the other hand, a Tlieban winter was a fearful thing. There were no woods in the neighbourhood, either to supply fuel, or to afford a shelter to the town from the keen winds and the drifting snow, which often blocked up the roads and 194 THEBES AND ATHENS. streets of the city. Frequent hurricanes swept down from the cliffs of Cithajron, and the water torrents deluged the plain. A proud, stubborn, presumptuous, and savage temper, and an insolent confidence in their own bodily strength and physical resources, were the peculiar characteristics of the inhabitants of Thebes ; and these national peculiarities seem to have been engendered and strengthened, in a considerable degree, by exposure to the inclemency of such seasons; as the elegance and the refinement of the Athenians was partly due to the light air, the dry soil, and the genial climato of Attica. tAtxMX or THS pucinn*) ih raoci*. it ERXES, in his way from Asia to Greece, visited in a Sidonian ^ vessel the spot where the river Peneus discharges itself into the sea. He is said to have expressed much surprise when he contemplated the termination of its course, and to have inquired whether it were possible to divert it by any other channel into the Thermaic Gulf, The guides who ' '^ conducted him to the place informed him that there was no other practicable issue for the stream, because the whole of Thessaly, within whose limits it takes its rise, was girted by a belt of mountains. The historian Herodotus, who records this fact, adds, that there existed an ancient tradition that Thessaly was formerly a Lake, enclosed on all sides by lofty hills. It is confined on the east by Pelion and Ossa ; on the north Olympus, and Pindus on the west, form a natural frontier ; while on the south, the range of Othrys closes the outlet to the lower provinces of Conti- nental Greece. The basin of Thessaly lies within these boundaries. 196 TOPOGRAPHICAL CHARACTER It is observed by the same author, that five rivers of importance descend from the sides of these mountains; the Peneus, Apidanus, Onochonus, Enipeub, and Pamisus ; that the four latter discharge their streams in the first, and that they all flow in a single channel, that of the Peneus, through one narrow outlet into the sea. In the earlier ages of Greek Mythology, when this defile, through which the Peneus passes into the ocean, did not exist, the confluence of these streams, together with contributions from the Boebean Lake, inundated the country with a deluge of stagnant water, which first found a free egress when Neptune with the stroke of his trident severed Olympus from Ossa, and made a channel for the river through the beautiful vale of Tkmpe. The legends of Thessaly all speak of the peculiar character of the country with which they are connected. They refer to the two physical elements which constituted the most remarkable features of this region. Wo have either extensive views or distant glimpses of Sea and Mountains in them all. •^ We have noticed the origin assigned to the long and narrow ravine which affords the only means of communication between the plains of northern Thessaly and the sea. We have also contrasted with this tradition, which OF THESSALIAN LEGENDS. 197 derives its origin from a time when the country was agitated by some groat natural convulsion, the picture which has been drawn by ancient Poets of the more quiet and joyful scene exhibited in the palace of the old city of Pharsalia, when the hero of the land, Peleus, espoused Thetis, the goddess of the sea. In that hymeneal festivity, to which the Gods brought gifts, at which the Muses sang, the Nereids danced, and Ganymede poured forth nectar, we seem to recognize an imaginative expression of the calmer and happier state of Nature that succeeded the violent shock which had disturbed the foundations and altered the aspect of the wide district of Thessaly. The pleasure which the inhabitants of this country experienced, — which the Shepherd or the Huntsman felt, — when from the lofty cliffs of Olympus or of Ossa, or from the more cultivated declivities of Pelion, he looked down upon the wide expanse of sea below him, and beheld its swelling waves subside after a storm, and the hills of numerous islands in the distance gradually re-appearing as the dark clouds broke, and the white sails of many small vessels which now had ventured forth upon the sunny sea, received a form and expression in the fable of Ceyx and Halcyone, the Thessalian princess. The former was wrecked on his return from a voyage to consult the oracle at Claros. The latter, on finding her husband''s corpse upon the shore, was about to throw herself into the sea. Both were then changed into birds, which give their name to those seven halcyon days of winter, during which the female sits upon her eggs on the smooth surface of the waves, and which succeed the tempestuous weather of that season, and are themselves undisturbed by storms. It is not a matter of surprise, in the particular circumstances of the case, that Thessaly among all the nations of Greece was the first distinguished in the history of maritime enterprise. To the city of Iolcus, when its prince, Jason, had proclaimed the preparations v/hich he had made for the voyage he was about to undertake, flocked princes and heroes from the different capitals of the Grecian soil, eager to join in the first attempt to cross the solitary sea, and to explore a land which no vessel had ever visited before. In the woods of Mount Pelion, which hangs over Iolcus, the pine-tree was felled which furnished timber for the ship in which the hero sailed, and a town in the Magnesian peninsula beneath the south-western roots of that movmtain was called Aphet^, or the launching-place^ as being the spot from which their vessel, the Argo, commenced its voyage to the shores of the Euxine. 198 HISTORICAL SENSE OF The contrast between Plain and Mountain, which is strikingly exhibited in the landscapes of Thessalian scenery, appears to have assumed a sensible shape in the mythological narratives of the struggles for superiority which occurred between the two tribes into which the population of Thessaly was anciently divided. One of these stands forth, if wo may so speak, as the representative of the plain and of the manners and interests of its inhabitants, while the other displays all the characteristics, both natural and social, which distinguish the dwellers in the wild forests and on the steep rocks of the mountainous districts of Thessaly. It is worthy of remark that to the former of these, namely the LapithvK, is attributed the honour of having first tamed the horse, and taught him, by the use of the rein, to perform all the evolutions of the stadium and of the field, and of having thus lai«l the foundation of that glory which was afterwards the peculiar distinction of the Thessalian cavalry. At the present day the traveller is reminded of the physical proiMjrties of this region, which conduced to the superiority of its earliest occupants in this respect, by the sight of the wide and level road in the neighbourhood of Larissa, upon which HK.IIVK AT t^BinA. THE CENTAURS AND LAPITH^. 109 the carriages of the modern Scopadse and Aleuada? of the country arc some- times seen to roll, and by the appearance of those large wooden wains, supported by solid wheels, which are drawn by slow teams of oxen across the broad fields undivided by hedges that stretch from the southern side of the Peneus to the hills of Pharsalia. PHARSALIA. The wilder character of the Centaurs, who dwelt on the lofty regions of the mountains which surrounded the lowlands of Thessaly, was expressed in the very origin from which they were said to have been derived. In the mythological traditions of their birth, their ancestor, Centaurus, was reported to have sprung from a cloud which left him on the earth in its course over the summit of Mount Pelion. The semi-ferine form, under which the Cen- taurs were represented by the poets and sculptors of Greece, is comparatively of recent date. Nor, indeed, is it consistent with the hypothesis which regards them as the original inhabitants of the hills, in contradistinction to the Lapithae, the dwellers in the plain. To Homer the Centaurs were nothing 200 NUMISMATIC HISTORY OF THESSALY. but Men of a rude and savage character. Of their equine form he knew nothing. It has been well observed that by Hesiod, or rather by the unknown Author of the " Shield of Hercules," they are distinguished from the Lapitliae only by the greater rudeness of their warlike weapons. The measure of their relative civilization is supplied by the circumstance recorded by him, that while the latter attack their antagonists with javelins, the Centaurs repel them with pine-trees uprooted from their native mountains. In the lyric verses of Pindar, and on the marble walls of the Temple of Theseus, they first appear in the horse-like shape which was generally assigned to them by subsequent poets and sculptors ; a fact which may be attributed partly to their extraction from Thessaly, the land, among all the countries of Greece, in which the horse seems to have been first used, and which was distinguished from the rest by the equestrian superiority of its inhabitants. But in the plastic representations of the Centaurs to which we refer, the same character of wild ferocity is preserved ; they are exhibited as hurling on their foes huge fragments of rock torn from the hills on which they dwell, while the Lapithse are equipped with the usual weapons of Greek warfare. The Hellenic Heroes, Theseus and Pirithous, appear also in the ranks of the latter. The conflict, therefore, may be regarded as a general representation of the struggle, which was of so common occurrence in the earlier ages of Greek history, of rude physical force against courage disciplined by intelligence. So much for the evidence with respect to the natural properties of the soil of Thessaly and the character of its earliest inhabitants, which is supplied by the mythological traditions of the country. We turn to a cabinet of ancient medals, and in the compartment assigned to the numismatic productions of this region, we recognize similar expressions of the same thing. In some of the members of that collection we observe a figure of a horse reined ; in others, of one ranging at will and grazing in his pasture; in those of Larissa the fertility of the arable land as well as the richness of its meadows is indicated by an ear of corn combined with the form of the same animal, while the ancient pre-eminence of Thessaly in the naval history of Greece is announced by the representation of the ship Argo bearing the figure of Apollo on its prow, and accompanied by the maritime emblems of a Dolphin and a Star, the harbingers of a prosperous voyage, which appear on the coins of the Magnesian Peninsula. The circumstance to which the stamped symbols last specified refer, namely NAME OF THESSALY. 201 the ancient distinction which this country obtained from its connexion with the Sea, and perhaps also the fact of its having once been, as is supposed with great show of probability, covered by that element, seems to receive some illustration from the denomination which it bears. The name of Thessaly, as assigned to the region bounded on the north by the Cambunian hills, by Mount Pindus on the west, the ^gean on the east, TUB PAOAS^AN OVlJf AND MOUNT OTHKVS, FHOM HOUCTr PELIUN. and Mount Othrys on the south, is not of high antiquity. It does not occur in Homer. The Thessalians, as a confederate body, were unknown to him, while he speaks of the different individual tribes who occupied that district to which this title was subsequently applied. The Thessalians themselves, indeed, did not hesitate to derive their origin from a king of the heroic age who bore the name of Thessalus : but the practice of creating from their own imagination not merely one, but a series of ancestors, in order to account for their own national designations by means of such flattering etymologies, was too prevalent among the Greeks to allow of our placing any reliance on such genealogical deductions, unless supported by authentic and independent evidence. With respect to the princely person mentioned above, those who claimed to be his descendants were not agreed 202 ORIGIN OF THESSALY. among themselves concerning his origin. At one time Thessalus was the son of Jason : at another he became the son of Haemon, from whom this country had before been called Haemonia; while another tradition made him a member of the family of Pelasgus. The historical account of the fact is this ; that a party of Pelasgians from Thesprotia, in Epirus, crossed the Pindus and descended into the plain then called ^olia, to which they gave the name of Thessaly. The invaders are said to have derived their origin from the Pelasgians, who had been themselves expelled by the Hellenes from the same region, and had carried with them the worship of the Dodon^an Jupiter, and the sanctity of his Oracle, from the banks of the Peneus to the foot of Mount Tomarus on the Molossian and Thesprotian frontier. Their descent upon Thessaly was therefore rather a return to an old than an occupation of a new settlement. The appellation by which they designated the coimtry to wliich they came, was, we are inclined to conjecture from its early maritime character VIBW OM THE rAOAMMXK OVVW. and history, originally termed Thalassia, or the land of the Sea : this name by a very common transposition of letters became Thassalia, and for the sake of greater harmony, to avoid the repetition of the same letter, Thessalia. We commence our sur\'ey of the topographical details of Thessaly from PASS OF MOUNT PINDUS. 203 that point whieli is a starting-place to most European travellers in their excursions thither. Let us imagine ourselves as issuing forth from the gates of Jannina on the eastern frontier of Epirus. A good road conveys us along the western brink of the lake of that city, whence we wind round its southern extremity, and pursue our course to the north-east. At about twelve miles from the town we stand on the summit of the hill of Drisko, where is a kiosk, a fountain shaded by a plane-tree, and a magnificent view. From one of its slopes, if we cast our eyes back, the city of Jannina is seen, shining with its domes and minarets and white castle rising out of the bosom of the placid lake : in front of us is a grand ridge of mountains, running parallel to the great Pindus chain. At the eastern foot of the hill of Drisko is the valley of Balduma, where is a bridge over the stream which winds along it : it is the work of the renowned Ali Pasha, as indeed are most of the bridges and the khans upon this route to Thessaly ; but now the grass grows over the paved road, the bridges are broken down, and the khans deserted. The most melancholy objects in this country are the improvements which were once made in it. They are effected, and then fall into decay, for there is no continuity of action in the governing power. The redeeming element of most other despotisms — hereditary succession — is here wanting. An Ali Pasha dies, and the roads made by him in his Pashalic become impassable. It is well for the traveller who pursues his journey in the summer, when the pebbly bed of the Aracthus and the Peneus, which in the winter season are swollen into formidable streams, serves him as a road. In a few miles from the valley above mentioned the ascent becomes steep. The scenery is wild. Wood grows in abundance, but there are no marks of cultivation except a few starved vines, and some patches of Indian corn. Now the valley becomes a ravine, and the river a torrent. Soon we leave the latter, and ascend a steep to the left : this brings us on one of the crests of Mount Zygo, which falls down to the right in an abrupt and deep chasm, parallel to the road. To one who walks along the edge of this chasm, in the gloom of a dark evening, the effect of the gulf beneath is very grand. Having passed onward, he is surprised by the sight of many lights far beneath him on the right, closely glittering together on the opposite side of this deep valley. There is the town of Mezzovo. Let not the traveller who enters at night the khan of this place, — and we 204 KHANS— ETYMOLOGY OF MEZZO VO. may consider it as a fair specimen of those which occur in his road through this part of the Turkish empire, — dream of enjoying the comforts of an European inn. He mounts the external stone staircase, which leads up to the open wooden gallery, or balcony of the building, from which doors open into dark and bare cells, the planks of whose floors gape into crevices, through which ho sees and hears what takes place in the stable below. Their walls are begrimed with smoke, and a wooden window admits the light and wind The rooms possess no ceiling ; but the common roof of the khan serves equally, for all. An attendant appears, and sweeps the dusty floor with a fan-like brush, which serves also to ventilate a wood fire when it is kindled. He then brings in and strews on the floor a mat or two, and leaves the pilgrim to his own resources. It is no doubt agreeable to reflect that, as the invention of alphabetical characters enfeebled the memories of men, and as the discovery of printing has impaired the art of writing, and the excellence and frequency of inns have checked the domestic welcome and entertainment of strangers, so the amount of private hospitality must needs be great in a country where the public accommodations are restricted now, as they seem to have been in ancient times, to a roof, a mat, and a fire. In the ancient language of Greece, the term Mesavo was applied to the central part of the yoke which is placed on the necks of oxen, and thus unites the pair together. We are inclined to believe that this town derived the name which it now bears from its position in the centre of the mountain range which, let it be observed, is kno\vn at the present day by the appel- lation of Zygo, a term which signifies a yoke both in the ancient and modem dialect of this country. We would go further, and hazard a conjecture that the Mesapian chain, on the gulf of the Euripus, received its name from a similar circumstance ; and perhaps Messapus, the yoker of horses, in the work of the Latin Bard, may have borrowed his name from that of the instrument of his art. Mezzovo contains about seven thousand inhabitants. It is one of the principal stations for merchants engaged in the carrying trade from western Greece to Salonica and Constantinople. A proof of its prosperity is seen in its large school, supported by the town, on the walls of which are hung the maps of the famous Riga, which show how little is now known of Greek geography by Greeks. Near the school is a church and a churchyard. On the graves in the latter a small square wooden box is placed, which opens at VIEW FROM PINDUS. 208 the top, and contains a skull and a small funeral lamp. Tliroo times a year these lamps are lighted, and incense burnt on the spot. At a funeral the body is brought into the church on a bier, and loaves are distributed to the congregation. The marriage ceremony is called by the ancient Greek term, Stephmios, or the crowning. The chaplet is carried in a basket, the sacred canistrum of old ; and the kinsmen of the bridegroom still faithfully preserve their primitive appellation of sympentheri^ slightly modified. The road over the Pindus dips down into the vale of Mezzovo, and then rises upwards towards the east. From this point to the summit of Zygo the ascent is steep and difficult. The rocky soil is sprinkled with trees and shrubs, of which the most numerous are the pine and box. Near the summit is a noble grove of beeches. This spot is about two hours distant from Mezzovo. The prospect from this point is bounded on the east by the snowy peaks of Olympus, distant from it about fifty miles. The sight of the plain of Thessaly is intercepted by the projections of the eastern ridges of the mountain : on these we behold the villages of Mokass and Malacass. This position is the most important . and remarkable in the geography of Continental Greece. As such it has been selected above (in the third page) as the first central station from which a general survey should be taken of the most prominent features of that country. Near it the five principal rivers of Greece take their rise, and by their means we communicate from this place with all the Hellenic provinces and seas. By the Achelous we send our thoughts into jiEtolia ; with the stream of the Aracthus we seem to visit the pleasant plains of Ambracia ; the channel of the Aous conducts us back to the shores of the Adriatic and of Italy ; while the Peneus wafts us on to the plains of Thessaly and through the vale of Tempo; and the Haliacmon, rising from the same hill, bears us to the same coast, that of the Thermaic Gulf. Our course lies from the source of the Peneus almost entirely upon the broad stony bed of that stream. On the right and left are parallel ranges of woody hills, rising from the river''s edge, which is shaded by the thick foliage of plane-trees hanging over it. In the dusk of a summer''s evening the traveller who has started from Mezzovo at early dawn, will perceive in the distance the dark and lofty rocks of Meteora, standing before him like massive obelisks in the plain. Simeon Stylites placed himself on the capital of his Syrian pillar, where 206 VIEWS OF THE 11. rinr o» ii«TS>iaA. he led the life of a hermit in soUtude and self-mortification. We pass on till we come beneath the abode " Of the monastic brotherhood upon rock Aerial,"— who dwell, like Stylitse, some hundreds of feet from the plain below, on the summit of the cliffs of Meteora. The road leads from the khan of Kastraki through a plain covered with fields of cotton and groves of mulberries, and bears to the left through the straits made in the vale by the huge islands of rock, upon which these monasteries stand, flung in confusion over the soil. A mythologist might imagine that these piles had been raised here by the ancient Giants, when they blockaded heaven with Olympus and Ossa, and the other mountains of MONASTERIES OF METEORA. 207 Thessaly, and that they were abandoned as part of their artillery when the Belligerents of earth were discomfited and routed by the Powers of heaven. While the traveller is standing beneath the principal Monastery of Meteora, he sees a rope appear from the cornice of the lofty rock above him ; he beholds it descend gradually, and at last drop at his feet. Attached to the rope by an iron hook is a small net. The hook is unclasped, the net CONVKNTS AT METhOUA. spread upon the ground, and he takes his seat within it. The net is then closed around him and fastened again to the rope by the hook, and he begins his aerial ascent. He passes about four minutes and a half in the air, and then reaches the landing-place of the Monastery. In this singular manner do the Monks of Meteora communicate with the earth three hundred feet beneath them. They cast their net into the world below ; sometimes they enclose and draw up in it an inquisitive traveller, some- 208 METEORA. times a brother Coenobite from Mount Athos, sometimes a Neophyte yearning for solitude and religious meditation : once they received in this manner an Emperor who came here, as is said, to exchange the purple of Constantino for the cowl of St. Basil. The Monks show in their cloisters a tomb which they assert to contain the ashes of that Emperor, John Cantacuzene. If their information is correct, the name of their Monastery, commemorative of the transfiguration on Mount Tabor, and that dedicated to Barlaam which stands on the rock opposite, are curious mementos of the religious controversy concerning the nature of the divine light upon the Galilean Mountain, in which the Emperor, who abdicated his royal dignities to assume the character of Monk and Historian, took so active a part against the Calabrian Monk to whom the opposite Monastery is inscribed. The interior of the church is as handsome as painting and decoration can make it. Having passed through the narthex, or ante-chapel, we enter the body of the building, which is pannelled with stalls; on the right is the episcopal throne and the Prior'^s crosier. On a horizontal tablet in the nave is a picture of the Virgin, inviting the devotion of her worshippers. In the library of the Convent is a large collection of ecclesiastical authors, among which are manuscripts of St. Chrysostom and St. Basil; the Codex of Sophocles, which is said to have existed there, has now disappeared. It is remarkable that no other notice of the singular rocks upon which these monasteries stand, should have survived from times of remote anti- quity, beside the Hellenic name which they bear in the present language of the country. Still there is an ancient town, described by a Roman His- torian as impregnable, which seems to have derived that character from its vicinity to these towering rocks. The city to which we refer is ^^ginium. This supposition is confirmed by an ancient inscription which exists on the eastern wall of the Church of St. John the Baptist at Kalabaka, a large village at the southern foot of the cliffs of Meteora. The purport of this marble is to commemorate certain honorary distinctions paid by that city to the Emperor Lucius Septimius Severus, and his son Marcus Aurelius Anto- ninus Caracalla. This stone furnishes an instance of the illustration afforded by ancient inscriptions to early geography. From it alone are we enabled to determine the site of ^Eginium, a place of nearly the same importance to those who entered Thessaly on the west, as the defile of Tempe to an army marching into it from the east. From a knowledge of the position of AID OF INSCRIPTIONS TO TOPOGRAPHY. 209 ^giniiim, that of other places before unknown may bo determined. The river Ion flowed by ^ginium ; it is therefore the stream of Meteora. That river was also the eastern boundary of the Tymphsean territory ; hence the limits of that district are ascertained. The city of Oxyni^, again, stood on the banks of the Ion ; its position therefore may be defined with a very near approximation to the truth. Thus a fragment of stone inscribed with only a few words may serve the same purpose as a chapter of Strabo or Pausanias. Julius Caesar, when he marched into Thessaly to meet Pompey, thought it indispensable to possess the fortresses of ^ginium and Gomphi. By the first he kept open the communication with Dyrrachium and Italy, through the second he corresponded with Athamania and the Ambracian Gulf. The former was the first object which he sought to gain on entering Thessaly, the latter was his next conquest when he penetrated further into that country, ^'Eginium, we have seen, corresponds with the modern Kalabaka. The site of the latter was on one of the mountain ridges on the opposite or south side of the Peneus. The ancient towns in this district are so numerous that the traveller has neither time nor strength to explore them all. He is tempted much to envy the lot of the Athenian General, for whom, while he was sleeping. Fortune, according to the picture, caught cities in a net. Passing along the left bank of the Peneus, and leaving on the right the castle of Tricca and the cemetery, which contains many ancient columns now used as tomb-stones, some of which perhaps once adorned the far-famed temple of ^sculapius in that city, we arrive at the small village of Glokoto. On the hill to the east of it are the walls of an Hellenic fortress in good preservation, and of four different eras, presenting specimens of the rough unhewn style of masonry, of the polygonal, the horizontal, and, lastly, of Roman brick-work. It is an agreeable surprise on mounting to the summit of this hill to find, not merely the ruins of one Greek citadel, but also to descry from them the walls of two others, on two eminences called Kortiki and Bloco, upon the opposite side of the stream. There exists another ruined fortress at Gritzano, about six miles to the north of our present situation. The' ancient walls of Bioko are seen from the plain, running up the hill in a zigzag line like a mountain road. The reader of modern Greek will recognize in its name the Eulochus of the royal Byzantine Historian to whom we have alluded above, and it has perhaps succeeded the ancient city 210 CITIES IN THE VALE OF THE PENEUS. of Metropolis, which was formerly so important a station in this district of Thessaly, as leading from it into -^tolia. The same reason which induced the Athamanian King Amynander to aim at the conquest of Gomphi, led his -^tolian confederates to wish for the possession of Metropolis. Hence arose their dissensions. These places were the keys which unlocked the granaries of Thessaly to their respective countries, Gomphi to Athamania, Metropolis to ^Etolia. From a consideration of their positions, the reason is evident why Csesar in his Thessalian campaign passed immediately from the conquest of the one to the siege of the other. In about four miles from Glokoto we leave the town of Zabcx) on a hill nearly two miles to our left. This place is supposed, with much show of probability, to coincide with the ancient Pharcado.v. Here ends the district of Thessaly, formerly called Histiaeotis. We cross by a ford in the river Peneus to the right bank, and shortly after come in sight of the white minarets of the town of Larissa. ^.f &*'?= ' ^^5^'i" -' ^..-<*'-* RRinuB OVmtL THE PE^BU», AT LAHI^SA. The walls of this place exhibit that singular combination of fading antiquity and tawdry novelty, which is generally seen in the productions of Turkish LARISSA. 211 art. They consist of fragments of old columns and architectural mouldings, stuck together in a coarse crust of mud. The city gates are formed of gaping planlcs; above their clumsy wooden cornice stands a marble slab, bedizened with a lunar crescent shining from a dark cloud of straw and mortar. The Mosques are very remarkable for their number and magnifi- cence : there are said to be twenty-four, while there exists at Larissa but one Christian Church. The character of the population corresponds with uosiivna at larissa. these appearances. Nowhere will the traveller, who has come from the west or the south of Greece, have seen so many grave figures, attired in rich dresses, sitting quietly before their doors, as here. Nowhere will he have met so many of those spectral forms stealing along the streets in their long white stoles, whose only visual communication with the world is by means of the two orifices for their eyes, cut in their linen shrouds. Such is the appearance of these Turkish Women, who recall to the memory the funeral processions of the members of those melancholy Fraternities of Rome and Florence, when engaged in their solemn functions of chanting a dirge, and following the bier of one of their brethren to the grave. 212 CHARACTERISTICS OF THE THESSALIANS. It is a peculiarity of the city of Larissa that carriages are occasionally seen passing to and fro through its gates; but the heavy creaking carts, which swing slowly over the wide plains around it on the opaque disks of their spokeless wheels, are more agreeable memorials of the past, and supply more significant expressions of the natural qualities which rendered the political and social character of the Thessalians what, in ancient times, they actually were. This wide, fruitful, and level region, was, as it were, the base on which that character was reared ; it produced most of the excellences which distin- guished it, and was abused to foster most of its vices. As upon it we see, for the first time, these tardy wains which, in the other parts of Greece, with few exceptions, would be useless; so in early times equestrian figures were first descried by the Greeks in the same plain, and grew here in their fancy into Centaurs. In war, the Bow would prove a weapon of the meet service in an open country similar to the present, and therefore Thessaly was famed in the military history of Greece for the skill and efficiency of its archers. Con- trasting the bleak limestone cliffs, on the crests of which the to^vns of the other provinces of Greece are generally placed, with these level areas shaded by branching plane-trees, and watered by copious streams, you seem to perceive a reason why the inhabitants of Thessaly were distinguished from those of the other Hellenic tribes by their luxury and refinement, and especially by their passion for the dance. From the same cause it arose that this country was the arena of so many military struggles, and the theatre of so many campaigns, from the earliest period of Greek history to the days of Caesar ; and such being the case, it is not to be wondered that there was little of independence or integrity in the Thessalian character, which resembled that of men who proffered the loan of an Amphitheatre to any two rival families of gladiators who applied to them for its use, and after the contest had terminated, professed a devoted attachment to the cause of the victors. Some of the more generous and enthusiastic spirit of the former inhabitants of this country seems to have descended to their posterity. " What have we done," said a primate of Larissa, at a window of his mansion looking over the waters of the Peneus, to a European traveller, " of what have we been guilty, that we should be excluded by the last general treaty from the limits of free r^ \K "^5 1 ^s ^5i«j?:> ji,^ MOUNT OLYMPUS FROM TUB PtAIKS OF THFSSAI.Y. Greece? Have we not striven side by side with our fellow-countrymen for the liberty which they now enjoy ? Have we not resisted year by year the cruel violence of our present masters, and struggled to shake their yoke from off our necks? We^ the inhabitants of the ancient Hellas, — the cradle of Greece, — are banished from our own country ! Olympus is excluded, and with it the Gods of Greece are exiled from Greece by your treaties ! Look," — pointing from the window as he spoke, at the stream which flows beneath it, which was then very low, and at the mountains capped with snow beyond it, — " the Peneus has wept itself almost dry for gi'ief, and Mount Olympus has grown old and hoary, for they are both exiles from their own land !" The remains of the ancient city of Larissa are very inconsiderable; some fragments of the walls of the Hellenic citadel are said to be inclosed by the buildings of the Turkish bazaar. The modern name of the town is identical with the ancient. In the walls of the palace of the Greek Archbishop are inserted many early inscriptions, which principally refer to contracts for the manumission of slaves, and call the attention to the well-known fact, which reflects little honour upon the ThessaUan character, 214 TURKISH CEMETERY. that the traffic in slaves was here carried on with great activity, and that a considerable portion of the wealth of its former inhabitants was derived from this source. Other ancient inscriptions are supplied by the tomb- stones, which have been perverted from their original purpose, and now stand over the graves in the Turkish cemeteries of Larissa. One or two of them which we find there are not unworthy of a place in the Greek Antho- logy. The burying-grounds in which they exist present a singular appear- ance. They cover a considerable space ; their columnar grave-stones of white marble, which are thickly crowded together, generally terminate in a crest or head-dress, which indicates the rank or profession of the person whose monument it is; the Bey, the MoUah, the Cadhi, and the Imam, each has his own badge in this funereal heraldry ; the rank of one is expressed by the device of a mural crown, that of another by a conical apex, and of a thinl by a spherical tiara. The aid of colours is also called in to lend their eloquence to these silent epitaphs. " Passing from Italy to Greece, the tales Which Poets of an elder time have feigned To glorify their Tempe, bred in me Desire of visiting that Paradise. To Thessaly I came, and, living private, I, day by day, frequented silent groves And solitary walks." The character of the celebrated place thus referred to by Ford in his Lover''8 Melancholy, is best illustrated by a reference to the inscription cut in the rock on the right side of the vale, — " Lucius Cassius Longinus, the Pro- consul, made the road through Tempr."" Tempe is a strong and very important military pass. To compare a small work with a great one, Longinus did for it what the Conqueror of Italy has done for the Simplon. It is a narrow rocky defile five miles long, in which there is often room only for the Peneus and a caravan to travel side by side. The ledge of rock between the inscription specified above, and the level of the stream, is only four feet in breadth, and the steps hewn in its surface, which is furrowed by the wheels of military waggons, are the result of the pioneering labour which that inscription is meant to commemorate. It was a suitable work for a general of Julius Caesar to facilitate the communication from Thessaly to Macedonia, — from Greece to the world beyond it. The vale is, as its name indicates, a cleft or chasm ; a deep natural canal, as its 216 SCENERY OF TEMPE. may so say, in the walls of this natural Corridor, but in its pavement. Let us pursue this comparison : it cannot boast of possessing any mural arabesques or frescoes, but it is inlaid with fair flowers and adorned with a tesselated floor. In this mosaic, more beautiful than that which we ■0 representing the Nile and both its living and inanimate scenery in the Temple of Fortune at Prajneste, the river Peneus runs in a gentle stream, stimulated here :: and there by eager springs, bubbling from the earth by its side. Here is one, close to the inscription which we have spoken of above, of the brightest and clearest green. Growing in the river itself, and hanging their broad branches and thick foliage over its waters, are shady plane-trees, around whose boughs twine clusters of ivy and tendrils of the wild vine. The banks are fringed with the low lentisk, the pliant Agnus Castus, and the sacred Bay from which Apollo culled the shoot wliich he transplanted to the borders of the Castalian rill. The stream is said to abound with fish. The solitary wood-pigeon haunts the trees. Such are the beauties of Tempo itself ; but it possesses other charms from its proximity to objects contrasted with it. The traveller who has toiled through long and sultry days across the dusty plains of Thessaly, without a tree to shade or a breeze to refresh him, and with little variety of hill or dale to relieve the dull monotony of the landscape, will gladly and gratefully turn his steps into this valley, and will pace with ease and delight on the green turf by the water side, beneath the shadow of these branching plane-trees, and of the grand and picturesque cliffs above him ; and he will not then inquire too POMPEY AND PHARSALIA. 217 scrupulously what portion of the pleasure which he enjoys is derived from the presence of eome agreeable (lualities of the scene, and how much of it is due to the absence of others of a different and contrary description. Pompey, after his defeat at Pharsalia, rode rapidly from the field of battle to Larissa, and thence hastened to Tempo. That valley was the only outlet by which he could escape from Thessaly. He checked his horse upon the banks of the river in this glen, and quenched his thirst with some of the fresh JHU FKMl-tS, AND RAA(iE water of the Peneus. It was then the height of summer, and he had ridden more than forty miles. He never drank again of the rivers of Greece. We are now tracing his course in an inverted direction. There are few objects of interest between Tempo and Pharsalia ; the road lies over a wide vacant plain, with a few groups of huts here and there scattered about it, swelling occasionally in low undulations, but without trees or hedgerows to vary and cheer its interminable expanse. The traveller here seems to make no progress ; he appears as it were to be becalmed in a wide sea of solitary plain. At about twenty-five miles^ distance from Larissa, and a little more than one before entering Pharsalia, or, as it is now called, Phersala, we cross 218 PHARSALIA. a bridge over the wide bed of a river which in the summer Beason is nearly dry. Here is a fine view of Phersala ; above the town, to the south-west of it, rises a craggy limestone hill, the site of the ancient Acropolis. With it commences the brink of the great basin of Thessaly. Beneath its declivity is a long range of white houses, irregularly built, and set off to much advantage by the contrast of the dark groups of cypresses spiring upward among them, and seeming to multiply, by their natural tall minarets, those of the mosques which are near them. At the entrance of the town are fields of tobacco flowering in the summer with their tall stalks; on the rugged hill above the town we trace along line of wall climbing upwards, which, from its massive rudeness, seems to have been contemporary with the heroic ages of Greece. Above these enormous masses are occasionally courses of the later polygonal style : at the crest of the hill this range of fortification abuts on a keep, from which another wall descends into the plain, so that the area of the Acropolis, con- tained by these two diverging lines and a third at their base, resembled that of a spherical triangle, which indeed was the usual form of ancient Greek citadels. From the Acropolis we have a view of the plain, lying at our feet, on which Caesar gained the decisive victory which made him the master of the BATTLE OF PHARSALIA. 219 Roman world. Tho field where the battle of Pharsalia was fought ia situated between this hill and the river of which we have above spoken, formerly known by the name of Enipeus. Pompey drew up his forces so that his right wing might be protected by tho rugged banks of that stream. The battle took place in August, and whatever defence was afforded by them, little could then have been derived from the river itself. This part of his army consisted of the Cilician legion and the cohorts of Spain, which Pompey considered as his best troops. In the centre was Scipio, at the head of the legions from Syria. Pompey himself commanded the left wing, formed of the first and third legions, which had been transferred by the Senate from Csesar to him at the commencement of the war. His camp was in the rear, on the south-east. Opposite to Pompey was Csesar, at the head of the tenth legion, which he placed, as was his usual custom, in the right wing. As Pompey had strengthened his left with the whole force of his cavalry, amounting to about seven thousand men, and also with a numerous body of slingers and archers, Caesar drew off from his own rear six cohorts, and posted them in opposition to these on his own right. His centre was led by Cneius Domitius Calvinus, and his left, which was the nearest to the Enipeus, by Mark Antony. The force of Pompey is said to have amounted to forty-five thousand, and that of Caesar to about half the number. Pompey gave orders to his troops not to move from their position, in order that their enemies might be exhausted by a rapid charge through the whole interval which separated the contending armies. Caesar^s men having perceived this, slackened their pace of their own accord till they came within a short distance of their antagonists, who received them with firmness and intrepidity. After the first onset, when both parties had discharged their javelins, and betaken themselves to their swords, the Pompeian cavalry upon the left wing, together with the slingers and archers, succeeded in turning their opponents, and were driving them from the field, when the six cohorts which Caesar had purposely stationed against them in anticipation of such an event, made an attack upon them with so much vigour that they completely routed and drove them immediately, as Caesar himself relates, to the loftiest mountains in their rear. Pompey, seeing that the day was now lost, rode to his camp, whither he was soon followed by the victor. It was now noon-day, and the weather was very sultry, but the spirit of the pursuers was not to be abated by heat or by fatigue. The camp, after a 220 C^SAR AND LUCAN, strenuous defence on the part of the cohorts, and especially of the Thracian auxiliaries who had been left to guard it, was at last taken : in it were found bowers twined with ivy, and furnished with tables loaded with plate and all the apparatus of a splendid banquet. Such was the assurance with which the adherents of Pompoy looked forward to the result of the battle of Pharsalia ! He himself having entered the camp by the Praetorian Gate, or that nearest the enemy, escaped from it by the Decuman, on the opposite side, and did not check his horse till ho arrived at the gates of Larissa. It is a singular circumstance that the Conqueror on the plain of Pharsalia, in the brief and modest narrative of a battle by which he became the master of the civilised world, has omitted to mention the name of the place on which that exploit was achieved. In the Commentaries of Julius Cesar we search in vain for the word Pharsalia. One would be almost tempted to believe that his relation of that great victory was designed by him to be rather a private memorial to himself, than the means, as it has proved, of extending the fame of his military courage and skill to all countries and through all the ages of the world. How different from this is the treatment of the same subject by the Poet, who has made the campaign of Pharsalia the theme of an Epic Decad, and has put an eloquent speech, framed to deter Pompey from the engagement, into the mouth of the greatest Philosopher, Statesman, and Orator of that time, but who was at the period of which Lucan speaks at a distance of more than two hundred miles from the Pharsalian field ! After crossing on our way ejistward toward Pher.e the bridge of the Enipeus, we arrive at the small hamlet of Magoula. The remains of ancient Thessalian cities are said to exist at Diril^, Kaslar, Zangl^, and Inile, all of which in the above order are on the right side of the road from Pharsalia to Pherse. Hills low and broken now begin to rise on both sides of us, and the road to wind among the fibres of the roots of Mount Othrys ; amid those on the loft the armies of Philip and Flamininus were entangled, till at length the former found his adversary and conqueror at Cynoscephal^. The natural beauty of Pherae, the modem Belestina, was probably one of the reasons why that city was chosen as the scene of the history in which a wife is represented as consenting to die for her husband. The sacrifice of herself made by Alcestis, singular and marvellous to one who considers the notions generally entertained in Greece of the female character and the con- jugal relations, derives fresh interest from the features of the place with ALCESTIS AND PHERiE. 221 which it is connected. The Thessalian Queen resigned all the pleasures and bade adieu to all the charms with which human life is adorned in a beautiful country ; and even, now when that country is as it were itself extinct, and there is no Alcides at hand to restore it as he did her, " Rescued from death by force, tho' pale and faint, — " to its former life and grace, yet Pherse is still remarkable for its fairness among the cities of Greece. The old walls of the city skirt the lower town on the south ; on the outside of them in the southern valley is a cemetery glittering with white tombstones ; within the walls are houses scattered without method or connexion, and intermingled with groups of trees, — elms, planes, poplars, and cypresses, — almost concealing the city from itself, so that the place presents tho appearance rather of houses in a woody glen than of trees in a spacious town. Proceeding a little further to the north, we cross a limpid stream expanding itself into a wide basin of clear water overhung by the boughs of Oriental planes. The white kiosks which stand upon its brink prove the pleasantness of a place to which we may be allowed to imagine that Alcestis addressed the words of her tenderest and most affectionate farewell. This lake was to her what the flowers of Paradise were to Eve : " Farewell, Pheraean land ! and thou, my own Fount Hyperea, most beloved by Gods !" The site of the ancient Acropolis is still further to the north, on a ridge of hills in shape like large tumuli running from east to west. Here the lake of BoEBE is distinctly seen lying a few miles to the north, on the right of the road to Larissa. To the west of the Acropolis are the foundations of a temple on which a church now stands, and with which walls of polygonal masonry, — perhaps those of the sacred inclosure, — are connected. The approach from Pherse to Volo from the north is remarkable for its beauty. The road slopes gradually down a gentle declivity between two ranges of undulating hills ; in front is the wide plain, and beyond it the Gulf of Volo. The town stands at the centre of the bay. On the left is Mount Pelion rising aloft, and stretching down the length of the Magne- siAN peninsula; its crest even in the summer is capped with snow, and its shelving sides are starred with a rich profusion of white villages, which are blended together, and grow into each other with no mark of separation, hanging, one above the other, on the sides of the grassy mountain. Within 222 MOUNT PELION. them are luxuriant gardens, in which the vines weave themselves into trellis- work, or cluster round the branches of trees. Beneath the plane-trees which abound there, glistens the bright leaf of the pomegranate bursting with its red fruit. By the garden hedges numerous springs gush from the earth, and run downwards into the vale of Volo. The traveller who walks from Volo to the south will arrive in an hour's time at the summit of an isolated hill, which is as it were one of the last struggles of Mount Pelion before it loses itself in the Paoas^an Gulf. It is tlW on THE rAOASJKAK ODV. called GoRiTZA. On it are considerable remains of an ancient city : it juts into the sea so as almost to form a peninsula, a circumstance which added much to the strength of the place. The masonry is for the most part of the style called emplecton, being composed of loose stones thrown into the interval between the two external faces of the wall, and is not therefore of a very early age. The city whose area we are now treading was one of much importance. If we regard its general position, it is on the brink of the Gulf of Pagasre ; if the peculiarity of its site, it stands on a strong peninsula. In extent it occupies a wide space ; in form it is elevated on a rugged hill, and, in its external relations, it is far superior to any other site in its neighbourhood. DEMETRIAS. 223 These circumstances afford strong evidence that this city was one of the three Fetters of Greece^ — that these walls are, in a word, the remains of the ancient Demetrias. This conviction is strengthened by a visit to a conical hill about a mile to the north-west of the present. We pass through vineyards and across a brook in our way thither. On its summit is a venerable Church of the mediasval style, called Panaghia Episcopi : in it are many marbles, fragments of a more early structure ; and in its walls is inserted a slab inscribed with the name of Demetrias, which is the title now given by the villagers in the neighbourhood to the whole district, and which it undoubtedly derived from the city whose ruins we have just visited, which was the capital of the circumjacent province. Having determined the position of Demetrias, we are furnished with a clew for the discovery of some of its lost dependencies. We know from Livy and Strabo that the city of Jason was about a mile to the north of Demetrias: is, therefore, this conical hill, with its venerable church, the site of the citadel of lolcus ? The mountain stream of the Anaurus flowed between lolcus and Demetrias : is the clear rivulet which we crossed in our way hither, and are the vineyards through which we passed, the same as those of which Simonides sang when he recited the praises of the hero who conquered all the youth of Thessaly, by hurling his spear from the vineyards of lolcus over the eddying stream of the Anaurus ? On the summit of Mount Pelion was the cave of Cheiron. With him, the justest of Centaurs^ was associated the idea entertained by the Greeks of early Hellenic education. This grotto was the School from which their national heroes went forth into the world. The hero of Pharsalia, for instance, was brought from the plains of Thessaly to the summit of Mount Pelion. Here, as in a natural observatory, he was taught to contemplate, by night, the motions of the stars ; by day he was led over the mountain sides, and instructed in the nature and properties of the plants with which they abound ; or he learnt, within the cave, to touch the lyre. The form of Cheiron, the ideal instructor of the heroic age, presents an evi- dence that the animal and intellectual were blended together in the instruction of that period ; the intellectual element, however, bearing the same ratio to the animal, that the human head of the instructor did to his equine body. His name seems to be derived from his manual accomplishments, and furnishes proof of the value attached, in the earliest times, — a fact well 224 HEROIC SCHOOL OF GREECE. known from the special testimony of Homer, — to skill in the medical and surgical arts. Indeed, it is not improbable that the botanical fertility by which Mount Pelion is distinguished among the mountains of Greece, may have recommended it for the site of the Greek heroic School, in whose course of instruction a knowledge of Pharmacy, to which those sciences were then chiefly restricted, held so prominent a part, and which was peculiarly necessary to the warriors of that age. It is sufficient to refer to the iiame of Jason, who wa« educated here, and who sailed from Aphetae, on which now stands the castle of Trikeri, at the south-western foot of this hill, as a confirmation of this. It is a singular fact, that at the present day the country of Cheiron has produced nearly all the medical practitioners of Greece. CAtTLS AJID TOWN OF TUKmU. "'^^'^ W"'^ ^^^* anchor at the mouth of * '','tii-^^- the Ambracian Bay, or, as it is now QM3 called, the Gulf of Arta, On the right of us is a low headland, on the left the modem town of Prevyza. The Roman Poet Propertius calls upon the traveller to be mindful of Augustus ' Csesar in his voyages over the whole of the Ionian % Here, upon this coast, stood that Emperor when he had just conquered the world. , ,p, Look at the appearance which this spot now presents. * ' '* the entrance of the Bay of Actium are two mud-built forts, < one on each side of it ; on their battlements are mounted some rusty cannon, in whose mouths are fixed certain dingy implements employed to sweep the cobwebs from these crazy pieces of Turkish artillery ; above them are gilded stars, and a tinsel crescent. You may see some children playing in the rotten hulk of a ship of war, and the waters themselves seem tired and languid, and as if wishing to sink into a sleepy lethargy on the shallow shore. 226 BATTLE On the southern promontory of which we have spoken, stood the Temple of the AcTiAN Apollo. On the second of September, the famous fourth of the Nones of that month, in the year b. c. 31, the whole of the strait between this point and the opposite coast, as well as the basin to which they form the entrance, and which is as it were the outer court of the large area of the Arabracian Gulf, was filled with the vessels of Mark Antony, distinguished by their enormous size and the variety of their equipments. Bactria, India, and Armenia, furnished contributions to that vast armament. In the rear was Cleopatra in her gilded ship spreading to the wind its purple sail, and attended by an Egyptian fleet bearing the Gods of that country. At the sight of this spectacle the Galatian troops of Antony, consisting of two thousand horse, deserted to Ctesar, and some of his vessels retreated witli their stems foremost to the harbour on their left upon the Acarnanian coast. ~---^-- /v ? 4- <1L I H - n 1 M>t loea «»•# y YARDS. /^ rtJLK or THI RATTia or actium. A. Cape Skali. P. Fort Pandokmon. O. Cape Akri or Panu. K. Port Vathy. B. The Camp of Antony. K. Fort Si. George. U Rulni I.. Ruini. C. Fort Panu. F. New Fortrefs. I. AkrI. MH. OlireTrer*. The fleet of Augustus stretched from north to south, facing the entrance of the Bay. He at first attempted to draw out Antony into the open sea from his position in the straits, and having failed in this endeavour he advanced forward to the east, with the view of enclosing the enemy by the expansion and subsequent contraction of his own wings. Upon this, Antony moved OF ACTIUM. 227 forward, and the engagement commenced. The latter was superior in the magnitude of his vessels, which bore a resemblance to moving castles or fortresses, and which not merely the Poet compares to Cyclades riven from their foundations, but which, in the sober language of history, are described as groups of islands, and as resisting the assault of the foe like Cities under a siege. The fleet of Augustus was composed mainly of triremes, whose excellence consisted in their lightness and celerity. Several of them at once surrounded the large ships of Antony, which defended themselves by hurling missiles from the wooden towers which they bore. The battle lasted for several hours, and, in the language of Shakspeare^s Soldier of Antony, " — Vantage like a pair of twins appeai'd Both as the same, or rather ours the elder ;" when, unfortunately for his cause, a breeze from the land sprung up, as is not unusual upon this coast in the daytime, and Cleopatra, as represented by Virgil on the shield of ^Eneas, taking advantage of the favourable gale, was seen unfurling her canvas, and sweeping along with her sixty ships at full sail through the forces of the enemy into the main sea, and thence along the western coast of the Peloponnesus. Antony forthwith left his fleet and army, and followed her. But notwithstanding his absence the battle lasted till evening, when the wind changed, and a heavy surf from the sea broke upon the large vessels, and rendered it impossible for them to resist any longer the attack of their assailants, who set them on fire by torches, flaming javelins, and combustibles discharged from their five thousand men were slain, and three hundred ships taken by the victorious army. N the angle at the southern side of the entrance of the Bay is a promontory now called Punta, and formerly Actium. Here, as we have before noticed, stood the temple of the Actian Apollo. 228 PREVYZA. From this point that Deity was imagined by the Poet as aiming his shafts against the foes of Augustus ; and here games were celebrated in honour of the god, and in gratitude for the victory obtained by his aid. We proceed across the straits to the town of Prevyza, on the opposite coast. The streets are narrow and roughly paved; no carriages and few women are to be seen there. In the summer season the shops exhibit supplies of tobacco, peaches, and figs, and other natural produce, but very little of manufactured goods. A wooden awning projects over their windows, under which their tenants sit in cross-legged indolence. HE Pasha"*s Serail is on the north side of the entrance of the gulf. If the traveller should wish to pay his respects to his Highness, he will enter a court-yard, where he may see his horses ranged side by side, and will thence ascend by a staircase to the apartment of the Vizier. The floor is matted : a divan or sofa, covered with red embroidered Albanian cloth, runs round the walls. 'IIkic is a whitewashed fire-place, and the pannels of the room are unpainted. He will probably find the Pasha reclining on the divan near the window which looks towards the ruins of Actium and the Temple of Apollo. Several Turks stand before him with shoeless feet, and among them a dragoman wearing a dark red tunic and light-coloured sandals, who, when the Pasha, or Most Sublime Vizier, as ho is called, has finished a sentence, puts his right hand to his heart and then to his lips, in order to intimate that the words of his lord and master have entered the one and will soon issue from the other. He then trans- lates them to the party for whom they are intended. The visitors are invited to sit on the divan, and are presented with long cherry-stick pipes with amber mouth-pieces and brown clay bowls by the attendants, who then kneel and put small brass basins on the floor under the pipes for the reception of their ashes. This practice, devised for the sake of cleanliness and for the protection of his carpet, indicates that the Turk is not destitute of prudential principles in household economy, and that he has not carried his doctrine of fatalism (as what fatalist ever did?) into the smaUest details, — into the pipe-bowls and brass basins of daily life. NICOPOLIS. 229 At the close of day, the traveller returns to his night's lodging in the town of Prevyza. The mistress of the house is lighting tlie small lamps which hang before the pictures of the saints upon her wall ; the voice of the Muezzin has ceased to call from the Minaret to evening prayer, and nothing is heard but the dismal howl of the jackal, which becomes more distinct as the darkness steals on. On our route to Nicopolis, we pass through the northern gate of Prevyza. A few muskets of different fashions are ranged under its archway ; some Albanian guards in motley attire doze or smoke on the drawbridge. Im- mediately beyond is the Turkish cemetery. The white tombs are overgrown with thistles, and the sentences of the Koran inscribed upon them are be- coming illegible. The road crosses a wide sandy plain covered with low clumps of myrtle, fern, and bramble. In three quarters of an hour we arrive at the remains of Nicopolis. PLAN or THB CITY OF NICOPOLIS* A A. The City. B. The Citadel. C. The Citadel Gate. D. A Church in ruins. E. Remains of a Water Conduit. F. Walls much ruined. G. An openinj^, supposed to have been the place of a Gate. H. Sources of water. I. Road to Prevyza. O O. The Suburbs. K. The Odeum or Small Theatre, li. The Great Gate. M M M. Piers of Aqueducts in the City Walls. N N. The Walls of the City. 230 THEATRE The words of Maraertinus, addressed to the Emperor JuHan, which refer to this city, are very descriptive of its present appearance. " The town of NicopoHs," he says, " which the deified Augustus erected as a Trophy in memorial of his victory at Actium, has almost all fallen into lamentable decay. The palaces of the Nobles are rent ; the Forums are roofless; the Aqueducts crushed; everything is smothered with dust and rubbish."'' The grandeur of the impression produced by these ruins arises from their solitude and extent. A long lofty wall spans a desolate plain. To the north of it rises on a distant hill the shattered Scena of a Theatre, and to the west the extended though broken line of an aqueduct connects the distant mountains from which it tends with the main subject of the picture, the city itself. The very spacious area bounded by these objects is filled by an irregular group of mouldering red-coloured ruins of houses, baths, tombs, and temples. The external appearance of these remains does not, we conceive, give an incorrect idea of the ancient city in its political, social, and moral character. It was built principally of Roman brickwork ; and the details of its architecture indicate but little skill, strength, or refinement in their execution. It was erected to com- memorate a victory gained on a Grecian sea by a Roman conqueror; and was intended by him both to prove and to consolidate his power over the inhabitants of the Hellenic soil ; being, if we may be allowed the com- parison, a great Zoological Garden, into which Greeks of the different tribes of Epirus, Acarnania, and ^tolia, were brought from their native hills, in order to be trained in the arts of civilization and humble dependance on the sway of Rome. We cannot forbear sympathizing ^vith these wild mountaineers when they were uprooted from their own free villages, — when they quitted the massive walls and castellated gates by which those villages were defended, and came to live under the protection of the red brick ramparts which surrounded this City of Victory, — when they descended from their healthy hills into this low and swampy plain, and exchanged the clear native fountain which gushed from beneath the rocks of their own citadels, for water drawn from lead pipes and a stuccoed aqueduct, — when they sacrificed all the natural pleasures of the field and of the chase, in order to come and sit through their long days under an awning on the seats AT NICOPOLIS. 231 TURKISH HURSEHBN. of one of these Theatres, filled with courtly gentlemen and Romans. It is asserted that the festival of St. Peter ad Vincula has superseded that which commemorated the battle of Actium ; and we would fain indulge the hope that, in lieu of all these enjoyments and blessings, of which they were then deprived, the Greek colonists of Nicopolis were consoled with one greater than them all ; in a word, that they saw, heard, and talked with the Apostle who was debtor to the Greeks, when he spent the winter at Nicopolis. We have here imagined the Spectators in this Theatre as sitting under a Velarium ; and this we do on the authority of the stone grooves which still remain inserted in the external wall of the Cavea, and in which the vertical props for this awning were fixed. When the awning was outstretched, the Theatre wovdd not have been darkened by its expansion, for there are windows in the wall of the Cavea. Between them are niches, in which statues were placed. There do not appear to have been more than two Prsecinctions : the Vise were ten. The Pulpitum is raised to a considerable height above the area of the Orchestra. In the provisions for its Velarium, as well as in its general arrangement, the larger Theatre at Nicopolis, of which we are speaking, bore a strong resemblance to the greater one at Pompeii, and to that of Taurominium in Sicily. Augustus does not seem to have so far Romanized the character of his subjects in this city, as to invite them to the sanguinary exhibitions in which his own countrymen sought relaxation and delight. There is no Amphitheatre at Nicopolis : but the pleasures of the 232 REMAINS Circus were more congenial to the taste of its inhabitants, — and witli good reason; for their country, Epirus, was celebrated for its breed of horses. We have therefore a Stadium here, a little to the west of the Theatre. It measures two hundred and sixty paces in length, and twenty-five in level breadth. The wall of the city, along which we pass from the Stadium to the minor Theatre or Odeum, is of very varied masonry. On tliree horizontal courses of stone rise six of brick, surmounted by a large stage of opm incertum^ which is again overlaid by a heavy pile of brick, and the whole crowned with a coping of rubble. A fit emblem this of the miscellaneous popu- lation with which the city was filled ! The Greek stone at the foun- dation, then the Roman brick, then the opus incertum of the Barbarian and Oriental elements, all conglomerated together ! — how different from the one solid mass into which the heavy blocks of Greek masonry are wedged by their own pressure, and from that regular and systematic network into which a genuine Roman wall is woven with equal symmetry and strength ! rvCLOPXAK WALU XT IJtVCAIIIA Toward the southern extremity of this wall and to the north-west of the Odeum, is a large oblong building whose sides are indented with niches, in each of which are the outlets of small pipes, which commimicate by canals along the wall of the fabric with two stuccoed castella^ or reservoirs of water, one at each end, which are still encrusted with a calcareous deposit, OF NICOPOLIS. 233 and were fed by the aqueduct of the city. We are to conceive now, that each of these niches was adorned with a marble statue of a Naiad or a Nereid, holding before them lavers or shells of marble ; we are to imagine liquid streams spouting from every outlet into these lavers, and then flowing over their brims into a large clear Frigidarium of the same material. Such a picture, especially in the heat of a summer's day, will give us an idea of the arts by which the wild inhabitants of the neighbouring hills were seduced into civility and servitude by the Conqueror upon the waters of Actium. The road from Nicopolis to Arta follows the direction of the Aqueduct mentioned above along the eastern inclination of Mount Zalongo, till it arrives at the village of Luro, which consists of twenty-five huts ; it passes in its way by gardens of melons and gourds, and through hedges shaded with 234 ARTA. plum-trees hung with the tendrils and clusters of the wild vine. At a little distance from Luro we arrive at the river of the same name, which is crossed in a ferry-boat. No remarkable object occurs in the road, which passes over a series of low hills, till it comes to the brink of a second river, that of Arta. "It rXTBAk Arta stands upon the site of the ancient Ambracia. The proof of this, derived from classical authorities, is much strengthened by a personal inspection of the place. The general character of the site corresponds with that which is ascribed to Ambracia. It liesln a wide fertile plain surrounded by hills ; which circumstance, a remarkable one in this region, seems to have suggested the name of the city, and to have attracted the attention of the Corinthians, who selected it as a desirable place for planting a colony, and in after-times induced the enterprising Pyrrhus to make Ambracia the seat of the government of Epirus. The river of Arta, flowing from the north-east, bends itself into a bow, in the interior of which, on the eastern side of it, the city stands. Just within AMBRACIA. 2:iL ANCIENT ORBBK WALLS RESTORKD. the north-eastern horn of this curve stands a castle of the Greek empire, dis- tinguishable by the painted minaret of its mosque. It is on a gentle declivity about a mile in circuit, and built upon ancient foundations formed of massive blocks in horizontal courses. This is not the oldest remnant of Ambracia. To the south of it, separated by a narrow valley, in which is the church of St. Theodore, rises a craggy hill, more than two miles round, surmounted by walls of polygonal style, the vestiges of the ancient Acropolis. On the north-east of this hill one of the gates of the citadel is still visible, now called Megale Porta, or the Great Gate. Near it is the church of the Madonna Phaneroraene, so called from a miraculous image formerly hidden and then suddenly brought to light, which is built on ancient foundations, perhaps those of the Temple of Minerva, which seems to have stood on an eminence like this. The hill itself appears to have been called Perrhanthe. In the beautiful plain beneath it the town of Ambracia extended northward and HBAD or HIMSKVA, rRUH AN AKCIB.tTCOIK 236 PRESENT STATE westward from its roots to the curve of the river. The modem city occupies part of the same space, and presents a pleasing sight to the spectator from this hill, with its domed churches and tall black cypresses and white mosques grouped together amid fruitful gardens of great luxuriance. Looking in the opposite direction from the highest point of this hill, we have a view of the gulf to which Arta gives a name now as Ambracia did of old. These analogies, and other coincidences, are sufficient to occasion in our minds some distrust in the accuracy of the largo and magnificent map of Greece, delineated by the Chevalier Lapie, in which Arta is made to cor- respond, not with Ambracia, but with Aruitiiea. But M. Pouqueville, after whose observations and memoirs that map is laid down, has shown powers of transposition, especially with respect to the cities of Epirus, greater even than those of Augustus himself, who removed, not its towns, as the French Consul has done, but only their inhabitants, according to his own pleasure. The population of Arta is now estimated at six thousand. The town suffered severely in the plague of 1815, as its buildings did in the campaign of 1821, which decided the fate of Ali Pasha. It is a place of considerable importance, as being the key of the commerce between the towns of the Epirot provinces, such as Argyro-Kastro and Berat, and those of Acamania and jEtolia. The principal articles of this trade are exhibited to the eyes of the traveller as he passes down the bazaar, a long street covered over with an awning of fern and reeds, which fence off the heat and sun, and admit a dim light. The shops which line this avenue are of wood ; the windows are unglazed ; from them projects a low wooden platform covered with a mat, upon which the occupant of the shop sits, with his rich stuffs and other wares hanging behind him. On some of these wooden platforms are piled large broNMi heaps, almost like haycocks, of tobacco ; others present an array of red sandals ; here hang OF AllTA. 237 AROYRO'CASTRO* embroidered belts ; there, lie pistols and dirks with silver chased handles ; here, sit money-changers with wire cases before them, containing varieties of coinage from every quarter of the world ; silk shawls of the gayest hues, vests richly braided with gold, sparkling phials of rosolio, and, at the further extremity of the vista, a profusion of melons and grapes : these objects together present a beautiful picture of the resources of Arta, even under its present governors. It is, indeed, very agreeable to pass from the open sky and the glare of the hot sun into this shaded avenue, whose gloom is enlivened by many cheerful colours, while its tranquillity is not disturbed by the sound of wheels or the noise of its inhabitants, who sit in grave postures, and generally in profound silence. The churches of Arta are remarkable for their size and beauty ; that of the Madonna Paregoritza, or of Consolation, is one of the oldest and most magnificent among them : the interior of its principal dome is inlaid with gilded and painted mosaic in the Byzantine style, from the centre 238 CHURCHES OF ARTA. of which hangs a tall branching candelabrum. In its pavement is an inscription of the early times of Am- bracia, too mutilated to be transcribed, and containing only a few syllables of proper names, which like those of greater men, who have been deprived of immortality by some evil chance, have been broken off from after ages only by a few inches. Another church of some interest is that of St. Theodora : it contains the tomb of that saint, who is described as one of the Comnenian family, and foundress of a monastery dedicated to the Virgin. On the panneling be- tween the nave and the chancel, and above the three doors which lead to the latter, are whole- length portraits inlaid with gilding in a gaudy style, as is usually the case in Greek churches BGB AT AST A. of largo dimensions : the figures are thirteen in number, and placed as follows. At each of the two extremities are two apostles ; nearer to the centre, on each side, are two Evangelists ; corresponding to each other, are St. Peter and St. Paul ; next to the former is the Virgin, and to the latter, St. John the Baptist; and in the centre of them all, is the person of their Lord. The order in which they are arranged is that which is usually adopted in such paintings by the Greek church. On the walls of the Triforium are portraits of male and female saints. It is remarkable, that while the former face the spectator, the latter are seen only in profile. This method of repre- sentation seems to have derived its origin from the opinion, that while the faith of a Christian man should exhibit itself in bold and intrepid bearing, the religion which best becomes the female character, is of a retiring and unostentatious nature. Perseus was detained for several days on the banks of the Arethon or Aracthus, the river which flows by the town of Arta, and from which it derives its name; and the traveller who remembers this circumstance will COINS OF AMBRACIA. 239 bo thankful for the facility now provided for crossing it by a handsome stone bridge, over the stream. On the other, or western side of this bridge, the paved road lies through a rich and well-cultivated plain, which received from its ancient Monarchs a pleasing acknowledgment of its fertility, in the em- blems engraved upon the coins which recorded their own honours. Thus on those of Pyrrhus, the Epirot king, Ceres appears holding ears of corn in her right hand. Ancient money, in this respect, possessed an advantage over modern, that in presenting to the eye the principal characteristics of the soil and country to which it belonged, it both indicated and inspired a feeling of patriotism which was thus made, as it were, a part of the national currency. Passing the small village of Roca, perhaps so called from the large quan- tity of Indian corn, known here by that name, which is cultivated near it, we arrive in an hour and a quarter from Arta, at the river of Luro, which is the western limit of the Ambracian plain. The stream is crossed in a canoe, and in a quarter of an hour, going westward, we arrive at the foot of the hill on which stand the Hellenic ruins, now called Rogus. 240 RUINS AT ROGUS. The site of this ancient city is a very fortunate one. It commands the western entrance to the basin of Ambracia, and is defended on three sides by a navigable river. The ruins themselves are not of a very early date ; the plan of the Acropolis is regular, and proves that, at the time of its erection, the science of military architecture was far advanced. In the surrounding wall, rectangular towers occur at regular intervals, and built in horizontal courses of masonry. The sti'ucture of the wall itself is beautifully symmetrical, and partakes almost of the precision and compactness of mosaic. This city is rendered very interesting by the excellent preservation of its remains. In a few weeks it might be made ready for the reception of a colony from Corinth or Ambracia, and put in a condition to stand a siege. The restorations of its walls, both of Roman and Gothic times, prove that it was considered of importance in both. In the centre of the citadel arc the ruins of a monastic church, containing some frescoes which might have furnished materials to Dante for sketches in his Inferno. At the southern angle of the Acropolis is a pleasing view of the river winding at X- .trr,:- w %•• RH ISaiM l» JLTtMXA. RUINS AT KASTRI. 241 the foot of the city, and of the broad expanse of the Ambracian Gulf in the distance. Proceeding among the woods on the right or western bank of the river, we bear to the north-west, among the low hills which lead into the plain of Lelovo. At a few miles to the north-east of that village is the woody, steep, and conical hill of KastrI, on which are the ruins of an ancient Greek citadel. Beneath the hill, on the east, is seen a beautiful valley, with a lake. The remains of Kastri appear to be of the same date as those before described of Rogus ; but there is this difference in the character of the two places, that the former seems to have been built almost exclusively for the purposes of attack and defence, and not for habitation ; while the latter was well adapted for both. The one was a citadel, the other a city. But, in the mean time, who were the inhabitants of these two places, which we have just visited ? — by what achievements were they distinguished ? — to what nations did they belong? — what were the fortunes, what were even the names of the cities themselves? The evidence which is afforded for replying to these questions is very scanty, and can only conduct to a conjectm^al result. Philip, the son of Demetrius King of Macedon, was induced by the urgent entreaties of the Epirots to besiege Ambracus, which was favourably situated for furthering the designs of an enemy desirous, as the Epirots were, of hovering over the territory of Ambracia. Ambracus is described by the historian Polybius, in his narrative of Philip's campaign, as situated among marshes, and having only one approach from the Ambracian country by a narrow artificial causeway through the morass. Supposing, as seems most natural, that Ambracus was on the frontier line between Epirus and Ambracia, this marsh must have lain between Ambracus, and the plain of Ambracia, that is, on the south-east of the former. It was of no great extent, but was well fortified by a wall and towers. After a siege Philip took it, and delivered it to the Epirots. He then marched <^^ '^2", i>/ 242 CHARADRA IDENTIFIED WITH ROGUS, rapidly by a city called Charadba, aiming at the narrowest part, that is, the mouth of the Ambracian Gulf, which he was eager to cross in his route into Acarnania. It appears from this circumstance, that Charadra was in a direct line between Ambracus and Actium, These details are, we think, sufficient to warrant the surmise, that Ambracus coincided in site with Kastri. The Epirots, from their situation and from their want of strength, would neither have desired, nor have been able, to maintain a fortress hanging over the Ambracian frontier, had it not been in their own neighbourhood, and there- fore on the north-west side of the enemy's country. Again, we hear of no opposition made by the city of Ambracia to the besiegers of Ambracus ; which, had Ambracus been on the Gulf of Ambracia, and thus the door of the commerce of that city, would surely have been the case. The site of the lake and morals on the south-ea^it of the hill of Kastri, confirms the above conclusion. Allowing its correctness, we have little difficulty in ascertaining the ancient name of the city above described, which stood upon the site of Rogus. Philip, after the siege of Ambracus, hastened towards Actium, and passed Charadra in his way, which was therefore in a direct line between these two points. The only site wliich satisfies this condition, and where there are any remains MOUNTAINS or £l>iKI;t. AND AMBRACUS WITH KASTRI. 243 of an Hellenic age, is Rogus. The name, too, of Charadra, supposes a river in its vicinity, which is there the case. The term Charadrus, by which the river of Charadra was known, indicates a soil broken into ravines and gullies ; and, in a similar manner, the word Rogus seems to be derived from the appel- lation given to abrupt chasms and gorges in the ancient language of Greece. The lake of Xero-Limne bears some resemblance to that of UUeswater in Westmoreland. It lies among high limestone rocks, which are covered by many varieties of dark-green shrubs and trees hanging over the water, and deepening the shade cast on it by its steep banks. Here and there some water-flowers bloom upon the surface, and throw a little light upon its gloomy colour. The only sounds near it are those of the wild-fowl startled from its weeds by the footsteps of the traveller. The road lies on its eastern brink ; it is skirted by a forest of oak, beech and maple, which thickens on both sides as we proceed. The river is heard dashing along its rocky bed, at no great distance to our right, but is not seen from the route till we cross a path which passes over it by the bridge of the " Pasha's Lady." The views here are magnificent, such as Salvator Rosa would have exulted in. The river tosses itself in cascades ; shattered plane-trees torn up by its violence are lying over the stream ; along their trunks some speckled goats may be seen climbing, while on the other side of the water the goatherd appears with his scarlet cap shining through the trees. We continue our track on the right bank of the stream. The traveller who diverges from his course here will probably be driven back to it by the wolves, which are not uncommonly met with in this solitary wood. Ascending to the right over some grand castellated rocks of grey limestone, we enter a more open country, but there is no appearance in it of living creature or human habitation. After proceeding a little further to the north, we again approach the river, and enter a small village by its side. In the summer and autumnal months, Charadzo, — ^for that is its name, — is deserted; the inhabitants close their windows, lock up their doors, and quit their houses, which they surrender at this season to the mosquitoes that infest the place, and drive them from their homes. The luxuriant fields of rice, as well as an abundance of marshy plants in the neighbourhood, present infallible indications of the prevalence of malaria, which operates as another cause for their emigration. The road from Charadzo lies along the wide and pebbly bed of the ancient Charadrus, a name which seems to be connected with that of the village above mentioned : it leads through long thickets of thorny paliurus, and 244 ANCIENT FORTRESSES. occasionally deviates into swampy fields of Indian com. The valley con- tracts itself into a defile, on both sides of which are very lofty rocks : those on the left are clothed to their summit with trees ; the shrubs which wave in the wind at the top are scarcely visible, on account of their height ; the cultivated patches of the valley are filled with granone, and the soil is every- where irrigated with limpid streams. An ancient fortress rises on the rocks to the right, to guard the entrance of the gorge ; it is called Teravo : a second, named Mesotitza, is at two miW distance from it on the left ; in the valley beneath is a water-mill, pleasantly sheltered by trees. The ridge of mountains to the north is called Tomauitza, that to the north- west Olitza. Following the valley, we leave on our right the narrow pass of Zagatoro, where, it is asserted by the peasantry, are ruins of an ancient citadel on the north side of the defile. Similar remains are said to exist between Mules and Kopani, at Therak^. The present route oflTers a proapect of many geographical and anticjuarian discoveries to the traveller ; and, even should his success in these respects be below his anticipations, it will more than repay him for his labour by the singular beauty of its natural scenery. After a ride <»f twelve hours from Charadzo wo arrive at the gates of Janina. COAST OT Sn>Ot V«OM Tiir kBA. JANINA. 246 Of Janina much has been said and written. Its site and surrounding objects are as famihar to all as descriptions and sketches can make them. Its history, society, and government have all received due notice ; antiquities it has none. The city certainly, perhaps even its lake, is but a few centuries old. The place now possesses less interest than was recently the case, and has fallen into comparative decay with the fortunes of Ali Pasha, its late extraordinary master. TOWN AND LAKE OF JANIKA. A few steps lead us from the palace of Ali to his grave. It is a simple tomb of white stone, shrouded over with some wild plants growing above it. It affords a striking evidence of the vanity and emptiness of all the eulogies which have been lavished upon the political prudence and sagacity of this Napoleon of Greece. They would indeed have been worth something, could he, while domineering far and wide from this his citadel, have foreseen this one event, which most concerned himself, — that the result and end of the system he was then pursuing with all his ingenuity and power would be, that his headless body would in a few years lie under a plain plastered slab, in his own courtyard ! 246 ALI PASHA— MOSQUES. There is a Mosque near the tomb, which commands a fine view of the lake over which it stands. The traveller is permitted to enter it when he has taken off his shoes. It is a plain square room, daubed over with paint. Sentences — from the Koran we suppose — ^are inscribed in vermilion upon the walls. A narrow pulpit is attached to the oast end. Inserted in the wall near this rostrum is what may bo called the cynosure of a Turkish mosque, namely, the Kebla, or window through which the eye of the ^v >-y Faithful is directed toward the holy city. In the centre of the interior is a lustre of glass lamps, from which some ears of com are hanging. Above the passage at the entrance is a gallery. Not far from the mosque is a Tomb, which now attracts more attention than that of the late Pasha. It is carefully enclosed with palisades, through which the by-standers look, some in attitudes of devotion. It contains the body of a Turkish saint of high reputation, and has therefore the privilege of being painted green, which is, as is well known, the sacred colour of the Turks, and suggests the question here, whether this may not be one of the many indications discoverable in that religion, that Mahometanisra is equally partial in its origin and application ; that as it was born in, so it was adapted particularly to, a parched, sandy, and hrown country, where verdure woidd be WHERE WAS DODONA? 247 most refreshing to the eye, and a green surface would bo looked upon with a feeling of pleasure, approaching to devotion. To ascertain the site of Dodona would seem now to require a response from the Oracle itself. The former dwelling of the spirit, which once guided half the world, is lost. The kings, generals, and statesmen, who came from the extreme coasts of Greece, from all the countries stretching between Amphipolis on the east, and Apollonia on the west, and from the shores of Asia and Italy, to consult it, would have been spared much trouble, and many long and weary journeys, could they have foreseen this ; but, for us, even the uncertainty of its site is not without its interest. Still, we do not believe that the search for Dodona is hopeless. There must be something peculiar and distinct in the remains of so remarkable a place. The ruins of a large capital are easily distinguished from those of a dependent city ; the ruins of a city again from those of a mere fortress ; but the ruins of an oracular city will have something very different from both. What has perplexed the investigation of this question is, as it appears to us, not the paucity of identifying data, but their multitude and variety. There are so many conditions to be satisfied, that to satisfy them all is impossible. A lake, a high mountain, a hundred springs, a miraculous fountain which extinguishes lights and then rekindles them; a forest of oaks and beeches, a wide plain of excellent pasturage : these characteristics are all put together, as in the hue-and-cry description of a military deserter; these are the attributes and features by which Dodona is first to be recognised, 248 THE SEARCH- FOR DODONA. and then brought back to the post which it has deserted in the maps of Greece. But has not this varied description been sketched without due discrimi- nation ? Regarding Dodona as a city only, and not as a country, we observe that it was the most remarkable in this district ; indeed, it was the only one rt-An or L4SB AKo aawBBOvmaooe or tunnA. of any consideration within a circuit of many miles. Its importance also, from its sacred character, is not to be neglected. Now, supposing a traveller in this part of Greece, but not in the immediate neighbourhood of the oracle itself, to have met with a phosphoric fountain, for instance, which he found to extinguish and then to ignite any inflammable substance, if he were asked on his return home where this spring was to be found, what answer would he have made but this, — " he had seen it near Dodona !"" and thus a cluster of wonders would soon group themselves about that place, as the best and almost the only point for their adhesion and support ; and so these pheno- mena, though really detached, but connected with it by association, would soon be assumed to be the features of the oracle itself. But Dodona was not a city merely ; it was, we believe, a country also. Its dimensions may be presumed to have been of sufficient extent to comprise within their general range, all those characteristic features which are now crowded into the immediate neighbourhood, and almost into the sacred pre- cincts of the oracular shrine. It has been alleged that, because some authors place Dodona in Molossia and RUINS AT DRAMISUS. 249 others in Thesprotia, it must, therefore, have been upon the borders of both. But this inference must be received with certain limitations. In earlier times Dodona was in Thesprotia ; in later ages it was in Molossia ; simply because the greater part of Thesprotia itself became Molossian by the southward encroach- ments of the latter power, which, in the Peloponnesian war, reached nearly to the shores of the Ambracian gulf. Again, in that important datum for deter- mining the position of Dodona, namely, its distance of four days'* journey from BuTHROTUM, at the mouth of the river of the modern Delvino, and of two from Ambracia, the present Arta, it must be remembered that the latter journey would be with^ and the former against, the grain of the hard mountain ranges which stretch from north to south, between the Pindus and the Ionian sea. These considerations are suggested by the sight of an ancient city, whose ruins have deservedly attracted much attention. In our way towards them we proceed from Janina in a south-westerly direction, and in an hour's time from that place pass by the village of Grapsista on our left, then turn to the right up a mountain pass, whence we descend, having a church called EccLEsiA BoDisTA on the left, into an extensive plain, which lies below the eastern slopes of Mount Olitza. The ruins, which are situated in the middle of this plain, are about eleven miles to the south-west of Janina. They are known by the name of the Kastro, or ancient citadel, of Dramisus. 250 SITE AND EXTENT OF THE RUINS. The first thing which strikes the spectator in looking at these remains, is their situation. They stand in a plain. The selection of such a spot, shows a remarkable confidence in the inherent resources of the city ; for if there is one particular attribute of an ordinary Hellenic town, it is this — that its citadel is placed upon a hiU. A Greek city was always full of suspicions : the exception furnished by the example of Nicopolis, a Roman Greek city, which is placed in the middle of the plain, is an argument in favour of this general rule. These ruins, which we are now viewing, are exclusively Greek, and in a similar situation ; and that, too, in the heart of one of the most mountainous districts of Greece. There was no want of localities admirably suited for the erection of a fortress upon them, in a country where there are pointed hills shooting up their heads on every side, vying, as it were, with one another to be encircled with the nuiral crown of an Hellenic city. The choice, therefore, of a level site in such a region as this, was, we conceive, made deliberately, and for some especial reason. This peculiarity is made more remarkable by the smallness of the city itself. The strength of its population could never have compensated for the weakness of its position. The whole circuit of the walls of its upper and lower divisions does not amount to two English miles. The consideration of these two facts, the lowness of the situation, and the small extent of the city, seem conclusive objections against the opinion which has ascribed these ruins to Passaron, the metropolitan seat of the house of Pyrrhus. But, though the place which we are now viewing could have possessed no military power, still, in a social respect, it seems to have been of considerable importance. Attached to the Acropolis, on the south-east, is the shell of a magnificent Theatre, one of the largest now existing in Greece. It is scooped in the declivity of the hill, with a southern aspect. Now, the existence of a theatre at all, especially in this district, is a very singular circumstance ; but the existence of so grand a theatre, in so insignificant a place, is without a parallel in the whole of Greece. Proceeding eastward from the theatre, we observe another object, very unusual in the remains of Epirot cities. On the north of the theatre, between it and the gate of the lower city, are vestiges of two temples ; of the most distant of the two, fourteen columns, or at least the fragments of them, are still standing. There are not, we believe, fourteen other columns remain- ing together in the whole of Epirus. THEATRE AND TEMPLE THERE. 251 DOKIC PILLAR AT APOLLONIA. Considering these circumstances, and the inferences to be deduced from them, we feel disposed to inquire whether, when contemplating these ruins, we are not treading the soil once hallowed by the presence of Dodona? Does not this supposition explain the peculiarities above noticed ? The oracular city needed no extrinsic defence of a strong natural position ; it was protected by its own sanctity. Being situated in a plain, it was easy of access for the inquirers who came to it from every side. Hence, too, we may account for the disproportion between the city and the buildings with which it was adorned. The theatre was not designed for the entertainment of citizens only ; it served as an attraction for strangers, and provided gratifi- cation for those who were brought there by the celebrity of the oracle. Whether the temples of which we have spoken were connected with the worship of the Dodonsean Jupiter, and whether they were contained in a Temenos, or sacred enclosure, in which the theatre probably stood, as was the case with that at Epidaurus, will be better determined by those who may be enabled to make excavations among their ruins. For the reasons adduced above, it is not wonderful that we do not discover here all the natural phenomena usually associated with Dodona. In order 252 WAS DODONA AT DRAMISUS ? to reconcile the modern picture with the ancient original, the other features of Dodona must be collected by the topographer from various places in the neighbourhood, as the limbs of his son, scattered about the country, were by JEetcs. We may be compelled to go eight miles to Janina for the •d^ia-lt.-, r«^. Dodonsean lake; its phosphoric spring may, perhaps, be found near the sulphuric mines worked by Ali Pasha, near Djerovini: the mountain of Tomarus will be represented by Olitzka, with its hundred sources in its glens, and this fertile plain at its roots. Another vestgie of the oracle deserves notice. There are records of a Bishop of Dodona existing in the fifth century, and the name which the place bears in the imperial documents of that period, is Bonditza. This appellation is perhaps to be recognised in that of the small church of Bodista, which we passed, as above noticed, at a short distance from this spot. It seems worth an inquiry, whether the same name, in an ab- breviated form, is not preserved in the com- pound Xero Boutza, a village a little to the north-west of these ruins. We leave the remains of Dramisus, and take the road towards Suli. In about two hours'* time we arrive at a spring, and a little further, on an eminence, there is a noble view of the valley which lies between the Suliot mountains on the west, and those of Olitzka on the east. At twelve miles to the south-west of Dramisus we enter the solitary hamlet of Bourrellesha, consisting of ten cottages and a church. We now follow the course of a branch of the Acheron, and then, as we proceed to the westward, at a turn in the road the long and wide plain of Paramythia bursts upon our view. The appearance of the place from this eminence is «Kl«i5y 254 CITY AND PLAIN OF PARAMYTHIA. very picturesque. A castle stands on the rocky hill to the left of the town, the site of an ancient citadel. The town itself is beautiful at a distance. Cypresses and plane-trees grouped with mosques and houses, give it a pleasant and refreshing aspect, which, however, almost vanishes when you enter its narrow street. We pass onward along the plain to the south, and mount one of the summits of its eastern barrier of mountains. This eminence is called Kastro Logeious, from the fortress upon it. The view here is very exten- sive : the island of Santa Maura, the ancient Leucas, and the grand outline of the Acarnanian hills, form the southern horizon. At our feet lies the whole plain of Paramythia : rising from its western edge, the range of the mountains of Parga, scattered over with white villages, are seen standing in array against those of Suli, on one of which we are. A river, the ancient Cocytus, flows from Paramythia along the plain into the Acheron. Pausanias expresses his belief that Homer drew his description of the fii ^" 1 . V: CA5TIJU OV >OU. HOMERIC INFERNO. 255 Lower World from this part of Thesprotia. The character of the Homeric Inferno is very simple. Two rivers, a rock, some tall poplars and barren willows, were all its scenery. Very different indeed from subsequent repre- ▼ILLKX or THE ACBBBOIf. sentations of the same regions. This rocky glen, through which the Acheron tumbles, over steep and dark cliffs, into the Paramythian plain, what a contrast does it present to those later, and especially Roman, representations of the subterranean world ! in which a splendid vestibule leads through massive walls and a peristyle of adamant into lengthening corridors, and thence into groves of myrtle and fragrant laurels, — into the Inferno, in short, of an age and nation which introduced a Baian luxury even into its dreariest abodes, and dressed up the gloomy mansion of Pluto with the pomp of a palace of the Caesars. Very different, too, the principles which suggested these later descriptions, from the melancholy language in which the Achilles of Homer declares upon this spot that he had rather cultivate these swampy fields as a day-labourer, than enjoy the honours of the royal state among the dead : and 256 DEFILE OF ACHERON. very different the influence of this diversity of belief on the character of the respective nations by which it was entertained ! Three or four cottages, a ruined church, and a paltry fortress, are all the artificial adjuncts of this spot. They stand on the verge of the "plain, on the right bank of the Acheron. The place is called Aia Glyky. Above them, to the north-east, rise the lofty mountains of Suli, one crowning the other, and some bearing on their summits those proud castles which nothing but famine and avarice could storm. The Acheron falls from these hills through a deep and rocky gorge : leaving these cottages to the right, it expands into a turbid and eddying stream, and then winds quietly through a flat, marshy country, (in which it forms the Acherusian Lake, and unites itself with the Cocytus), into the Ionian Sea. The port of Glykv, into which the Acheron di^harges itself, seems to have communicated its name to the place where we now are. Its adoption may also have been suggested by a desire to merge all the former sadness of the spot in such an agreeable euphemism. The feeling which in other cases appeased the most awful Deities, and beguiled the most painful diseases, by the charm of a Name, might also hope to sweeten the river of woe : the name, too, it is evident, was conferred at a time when Christi- anity gave an additional reason for the choice, as well as another meaning to it when made. The ruined church at Aia Glyky stands on the site of an ancient temple. The fragments of eight or nine granite columns of the former structure still remain. Wo are inclined to believe that this was the oracular shrine where the spirits of the dead were consulted. It was natural to inquire of the departed in the place where they were supposed to have passed into another state of being. The banks of the Acheron, therefore, were the favourite resort of Necromancy. There was also high authority for this practice : Homer no sooner places here the souls of his Seers and Heroes, than he begins to consult them on the spot. We see no willows at present, such as are placed by him on the banks of the Acheron. There are, indeed, few trees of any kind in the plain, and none of any size : we see a few Oriental plane-trees, some low tamarisks by the water''s edge, two or three wild fig- trees, and some bright -leaved pomegranates ; a somewhat melancholy group, but not inappropriate. A plucked fruit of the latter tree, bursting with the crimson grains which give it its name, and placed, as it was in ancient SCENERY OF THE ACHERON. 267 8hon«lo> Descending eastward from this hill, we arrive at the junction of the Acheron and a river falling from the left, which we cross by a bridge at a ruined mill. The valley is clothed with a luxuriant profusion of shrubs, among which we observe the myrtle, the lentisk, the prinari, the arbutus, and the broom. How little have the appellations of the most lowly natural objects been changed in Greece ! These humble plants are known by the same words KAKO-SULI. 2,'59 which they bore of old, while the ancient titles of her Cities and Nations are heard no more. The name of Epirus has vanished : the names of its shrubs and herbs are still in the mouth of every shepherd. Mounting along this woody glen, we pass between the Suliot castles of Kunghi and Kiaffa, seated, as it were, on their rocky thrones, from which they once domineered over the plain below. At Samoniba, in the inter- mediate valley, are some ragged uninhabited huts, shaded by wild fig-trees ; but the most desolate object is the village of Kako-Suli, lying a little beyond, once the capital of the mountain Republic. The skeletons of the houses are still standing ; the hearths are yet black with their former fires ; the staircases still lead to the upper chambers; but no one now dwells in CUrLB OF KAKo-aou 260 KAKO-SULI. the house, or sits by the hearth, or mounts the staircase. Over the doors hang the boughs of figs and pear-trees, which seem to have grown wild. Once, it is said, there were three hundred houses in this village ; and there are still more than a hundred cisterns lying close together in the rocky soil. One hut upon the spot still lodges a few goatherds. The former inhabitants of Suli have in their misfortunes one consolation ; their courage and their fate have raised them in the eyes of the world from bandits into heroes, and have given to their country an interest and a name equal to that of an ancient republic of Greece. •am* AMD lurAu o* Kfiiia*. E take leave, for the present, of the continent, and pass from the coast of Epirus to the Islands of the Ionian ~-^~" Sea. We commence with the principal and most northern of them, that of Korfou, the ancient Corcyra. The modern town of Korfou, which lies in the centre of the eastern coast of the island, is, in its appearance, neither Greek nor Italian, but partakes 262 ANCIENT AND MODERN CORCYRA. of both characters. On entering its low gateway, from the interior of the island, we are reminded a little of the ancient dwellings of Pompeii by the uniform smallness of the houses, and the narrowness and regularity of the streets. It may be called a geographical mosaic, to which many countries of Europe have contributed a stone and a colour. Thus the streets are Italian, at least in tlieir stylo and names : the arcades by which they are flanked, might have come from Padua, or Bologna ; the winged lion of St. IDOB AT KORrtiV- Mark is seen marching, in stone, along the Venetian walls of its fortress ; beneath them you find rusty pieces of cannon stamped with the words Libert^ and Egalite, which carry you back to the time when the island was held under French rule ; and if you walk to the other end of the Strada Reale, you will there hear, in the market, more than one Ionian vendor debating with an Irish or English soldier, how much he is to receive for his wares in 1 f COINS— NAME— ESPLANADE. sea OKTAIIT VIBW OF TBS MLAMS certain Greek oboli, which bear the Venetian Lion on one side, and a Britannia with her Mgis on the other, and which are no bad epitome of the modern history of the island, making, as they do, a curious addition to the series of brass and silver records of the same kind which tell what Korfou was in former ages. A Triton striking with his trident ; a prow of a ship, a galley in full sail, the gardens of Alcinous, and a Bacchus crowned with ivy ; these are some of the monetary memorials of the former power, commerce, and productions of Corcyra. On the east of the same street is the Spianata, or esplanade, one side of which is bounded by the palace of the Lord High Commissioner, a handsome building of Maltese stone ; on the east is the citadel and the two conical hills, or crests, the airy Phseacian castles of Virgil, from which the Island is said to derive its name ; though the word Gurfo, by which it is designated in Boccaccio, as well as the modern Greek term Korfo, would lead us to seek its origin in a Romaic corruption of the ancient word for Kolpo, Gulf, or Bay, which might well be applied to the harbour beneath the summits above-mentioned. The esplanade is enli- vened by reviews of three or four thousand English troops, and, toward even- ing, is the resort of the Greek Priests of the neigh- bouring university. There is something very pictur- esque in the appearance of these persons, with their black caps, resembling the modius seen on the heads of the ancient statues of oKSBS minn w corumb. 264 CORCYRiEAN TRADITIONS AND CUSTOMS. Serapis and Osiris, their long beards and pale complexions, and their black flowing cloak — a relic, no doubt, of the old ecclesiastical garment of which Tertullian wrote — as they sit upon the benches, or pace beneath the acacias and lime-trees of the place. There is a work on Korfou, written by one of its patricians, which gives some interesting details with respect to the island and its inhabitants : the author asserts that, among other superstitions, the common people have a strong objection to go on the left side of a mill-stream, or near the house of a dead miser, to be married on a Wednesday, or in the month of February. Some of these antipathies are, probably, as old as the time of Hesiod, who prescribes certain days for marriage and other ceremonies. The wind which sighs through the leaves of a forest in a dark winter's night, is said by them to bo made up of the souls of bad men. At Leucimna, the modem Capo Bianco, where the Corcyrseans erected a trophy after their naval struggle with the Corinthians, at the southern extremity of the island, is an eminence which is the favourite resort of the Nereids, who are supposed to have great influence over the health and fortunes of their neighbours, and which is called from them Nereido Kastro. T is worth while to observe how these mytho- logical playthings are thrown away on more trying and solemn occasions. At the death- bed, when the nearest relative hafl closed the ' eyes of the deceased, and when the windows of ^ his chamber have been thrown open to give his soul a free passage to heaven ; when the Moero- logists, or professional mourners, have ceased their doleful exclamations, the simple words are uttered by those present, " He is now before his Maker, who judges, — and may He pardon him !" The corpse is then washed, dressed in its best attire, wrapped in the winding-sheet, and laid out for twenty-four hours. The last embrace is concluded with a chant of the solemn and melodious hymn attributed to Damascene : — " Seeing me speechless and breathless, oh ! weep over me, all my brothers, friends, kindred, and acquaintance; for yesterday I was talking to you. Give me the last embrace, for I shall not walk or speak with you again. I go away to the Judge, with whom there is no respect of persons ; I go where servants and masters stand together; kings and soldiers, rich and poor, in equal HOMERIC PHiEACIA. 266 dignity, for every one will be either glorified or condemned according to his own works." It is not easy to draw a map of the Homeric Phajacia which shall coincide in its details with the localities of Korfou. Nor will the topographer find it a simple task to discover the natural objects connected in the Odyssey with the city of Alcinous. Where are the two fountains which flowed near it ? — where is the stream of the River-God whom Ulysses conciliates with his prayers? Is it to be found at the beautiful village of Potamo, or not far from Cape Sideri, to suit the hypothesis, the most prevalent one among the Phseacian antiquaries of the present day, which lands Ulysses in the north- west extremity of the island, because he is brought to it by a northerly wind, and which places the city of Alcinous at Aphiona in that district ? It is to be regretted that proofs are wanting to show the identity of the Phseacian town with that of the Liburnians who were dispossessed by the Corinthian colony, which settled in the island; for we have conclusive - -'ir^:% CITAOBL or KURTUU. 266 CORCYRA OF THUCYDIDES. evidence in the name of Palaeopolis, in its existing remains, and in the general correspondence of its features with the descriptions of the ancient capital of Corcyra, that the hill to the south of the modern town is the site of the colonized city. Wherever the Phaeacian town of Homer may have been, there can be no doubt that this was the Corcyra of Thucydides. We may refer to an ancient inscription, now at Corfou, found at Palaeopolis, and recording an act of the Corcyrseans, which proves that their city stood in that spot. On visiting that place we feel some compensation in reflecting, that although we may not be permitted confidently to indulge the belief that the hero of Ithaca ran and wrestled with the flower of the Phaeacian youth beneath this woody hill, yet that we are beholding a scene clothed with a painful interest by the memorable contests of Corcyra with Corinth, her mother country. This hill was the Corcyrsean Acropolis ; but which of the two harbours that lie, one on the north, the other on the south of it, was the Hyllaic ? That, as well as the Acropolis, was in the hands of the popular party, while their antagonists were in posses- sion of the Agora, and of the harbour near it. We find in the narrative of Thucydides that the nobles set fire to the Agora in self- defence, and that the whole town would have been con- sumed had not the wind been contrary. Which way was the wind? This question we are enabled to answer by the arrival, the next morning, of the Athenian fleet from a point to the south as far distant as Naupactus. Thence we may infer that the Hyllaic harbour was to the south of the site of the Acropolis, and that it is to be identified with the lagune of Calichiopoulo, and that the Agora and its adjacent harbour lie to the north of the peninsula of Palaeopolis, and toward DmBOCTioii or a oasuc cmr bt ma. TEMPLE OF NEPTUNE. 267 the modern Kastrades. It also follows, that the temple of Juno to which the nobles fled, stood near the place now occupied by an English cannon, — thence called the One-gun Battery ; that they were carried to the rocky islet opposite the temple in the mouth, now called Perama, or The Ferry of the Hyllaic harbour ; and these olive-trees remind us of the voluntary death by which, on their being brought back to the temple here, they rescued themselves from the hands of their fellow-citizens. Of one of the temples which adorned the ancient town the remains are still visible. They are prettily situated among trees on the high clifi's upon the coast at the north-east side of the Acropolis. From its neighbourhood to the sea, and from the circumstance of the small chapel which once stood upon its ruins having been dedicated to Saint Nicholas, the sailor saint of the Greek Church, we might conjecture that these remains belonged to some modern form of the temple of Neptune, the " beautiful Posideium " of Nausicaa. Of Nausicaa herself we should be very glad to find here some trace or reminiscence. There Is no character in the whole history of this island of so much interest as hers. We turn away from the savage scenes of the Peloponnesian war, when this land was the victim of civil feuds, to the peaceful occupations of the Homeric time, with feelings of enjoyment and 268 NAUSICAA. repose ; and among all the objects which the contemplation of that period brings before us in this place, none is so attractive as the daughter of Alcinous. In the absence of any special things with which her memory may be connected, we look at the natural features of the island as the remaining witnesses of the age and state of society in which she passed her days. These are remarkable for their beauty. In every part of Korfou we have glimpses of the sea, which is so interlaced with the land as to give it the appearance of a group of islands. From the absence of all hedges, and of almost all show of division of property in the island, through which the road seems to wind with the freedom of a river, there is a unity in it which is very pleasing to the eye. The surface is broken into hill and valley, and sprinkled over with olives, the principal produce of the soil, which would fatigue the sight with their monotony, were not their pale and quivering foliage agreeably relieved by dark groups of tall and tufted cypresses, looking in the distance like the spires of some architectural pile. By the side of one of the clear streams which flow from the rocks be- neath their shade, the pencil of Poussin or of Claude would have placed, aa in an appropriate spot, the nymph-like Nausicaa and her maidens, to enhance the beauty of the scene. ^''i•W^^ ULVSSSa AND NAVftICAA> PAXO. 269 COAST 8CBNS IN THB IONIAN ISLANDS. In our voyage from Korfou southward we sail near the Syrota Islets, and the deserted harbour which is described in Thucydides as the roadstead of the Corinthian fleet. The island of Paxo, near which we next arrive, has been made an object of much interest, of which every one who passes by it in the night-time will be sensible. " Here," in the words of the old anno- tator on Spenser's Pastoral in May, " about the time that our Lord suffered his most bitter passion, cortayne persons sailing from Italic to Cyprus at night heard a voyce calling aloud, Thamus, Thamus ! who giving eare to the cry, was bidden (for he was the pilot of the ship,) when he came near to Pa- lodas, to tell that the great God Pan was dead ; which he doubting to do yet, for that when he came to Palodas there was such a calme of wind that the ship stood still in the sea unmoored, he was forced to cry aloud that Pan was dead ; wherewithal there was such piteous outcries and dreadful shrieking as hath 270 SANTA MAURA, OR LEUCAS. not been the like. By which Pan of some is understood the great Sathanas, whose kingdom was at that time by Christ conquered, and the gates of hell broken up ; for at that time all Oracles surceased, and enchanted Spirits that were wont to delude the people henceforth held their peace."" The words in which Milton refers to this incident in his Ode on the Nativity, — " The lonely mountains o'er, And the resounding shore, A voice of weeping heard, and loud lament," — will recur to the memory of the English traveller, as he sails over this spot, particularly if it be in the darkness of night, by the island of Paxo. Passing along the west coast of Santa Maura, the ancient Leucas, we are WITH THB OPPOSITB COA8T OF KPIRtS. 1 ^ LEUCADIAN APOLLO— LOVERS' LEAP. 271 brought to the southern extremity of the island, on which the temple of the Leucadian Apollo formerly stood. The promontory was then called Leucates, and now by a common change corrupted into Ducato, and is known to the modern Greek sailor as the Lady's Cape. The latter appel- lation may be derived from its connexion with the history of Sappho, who is said to have thrown herself from its summit into the sea. Since her time it has been generally called the Lovers' Leap. Whether she was the first who made trial of it is doubtful. Ovid indeed tells us that the virtues of a plunge into the waters beneath it were known at a much earlier time, in the age of Deucalion : while Menander distinctly says, that no one had preceded the iEolian maid in the experiment. owARD the extremity of the cape the cliffs decrease in height, gently shelving into the sea, till at the low white promontory itself the surface of the rock coincides with that of the water. It was, probably, the tendency of this rocky point to run into a reef that rendered it proverbially dangerous to ships. Above it stood, visible from afar, the Apollo dreaded by sailors, who was regarded with peculiar devotion by the voyager on the Ionian Sea. It is remarkable, that the uses for which this rock was originally employed were religious and judicial. In critical times, slaves and criminals were thrown from its summit as an expiatory sacrifice: it seems also to have served as an ordeal by which the guilt or innocence of an accused party might be determined. In some instances, the priests of Apollo's temple above it offered themselves as voluntary victims ; though upon these occasions it is said that care was taken to buoy them up by live bu-ds and artificial pinions in their descent, which was thus broken and made easy, and that so they were enabled to repeat the experiment at different times, to increase the number of similar attempts by their own example. They assured those who had fruitlessly wandered in search of their parents, that they would find them after a dive in this vision-clearing sea; and they persuaded others whose cases admitted of such advice, that Apollo the God of Medicine had pre- scribed a leap from his own rock as a cure for ill-requited love. 272 ITHACA. On the slope above the base of the promontory we observe the fragments of an ancient building, among which lie the frusta of a colunm, which perhaps belonged to the Temple of Apollo. The soil above it is overgrown with myrtles and other aromatic plants. From this point, at the calm which precedes the dawn of a summer's day, the traveller may behold the smoke mounting from the hills of Ithaca, the sight which Ulysses longed so much to see. But here arises a question. Is the modern Thiaki, in which we will now suppose ourselves, the Ithaca of the Odyssey or not? On the one hand we are assured that we need not be under any anxiety on this point ; that it is perfectly easy for us to see to-day the view which Minerva showed to Ulysses, when he landed here from the island of Alcinous on his return home some three thousand years ago ; that in our rambles through the island we may visit the harbour of the venerable Phorcys, and see the UAKROUIt I'r FIIORCT! votive niches in the Grotto of the Nymphs ; that when oppressed by the heat of a mid-day sun, after having quenched our thirst under the shade of the " Raven's Rock," with the "black water '^ of the fountain of Arethuse, we may regale our appetites with fruits gathered in the gardens once tilled by the hand of Laertes, and refresh ourselves by the coolness of the sea-breeze MODERN THEORIES ABOUT ITHACA. 273 playing over the rocks and among the broken walls of the loft}' palace of the Hero of the Odyssey himself. There is something, it is true, very fascinating in thus being brought into immediate contact with Homeric scenery and characters, and in reading with our own eyes the original of which his poem is a transcript. POUT OK ITHACA. But we are not allowed to migrate, unmolested, to this Island of the Happy ^ or to remain in the peace- ful enjoyment of this Heroic society. We are pre- sented, by a German topographer, with a map of this and the neighbouring islands as they are thought by him to have existed in the mind of the Poet, and we are warned that, without availing ourselves of any licence for the purpose of reconciling the geography of Homer with that of actual observation, we must confine ourselves simply to the latitudes and longitudes which are drawn by the hand of the bard on the surface of his own poem. The result of this investigation, we regret to say, is no other than that the author of the Odyssey has been at the pains of composing more than twelve thousand lines, more or less concerning the history and geography of a place which he not only could have never seen^ but of which not even a sailor who had^ tracing for him with his finger a map of it upon the sea-shore, could have ever given him an idea. In order, therefore, to delineate for ourselves the Homeric chart of the kingdom of Ulysses, we are called upon to treat the 274 IS THE MODERN ITHACA modem Ithaca with the same contemptuous usage with which it is said the Sublime Porte once menaced some refractory islanders, when he told them that, if they did not obey the edict he had sent them, they and their country should be shovelled into the sea ; or, if Thiaki is permitted to survive any longer at all, it is ordered to float away from its present position, and, after a short ci*uise in the Ionian sea, to cast anchor on the xccstern^ instead of the eastern, side of the island of Cepiiallonia. We are assured, that, however we may lament the fact, the sentence of transportation has been passed upon the island of Ithaca, in the lines of the Odyssey in which Ulysses gives a history of himself to Alcinous. They occur near the commencement of the ninth book. " I dwell in sunny Ithaca, where waves With woods the hill of Neritos ; around, Close to each other, many Islands lie, Dulichium, Same, woody Zacynthus — It stedfa&t stands, highest above the wave, Westward : the rest apart, to eastern sun. Rugged, but kindly, nurse of youth ; and I A land more dear than this shall never see." THE ITHACA OF HOMER? 275 It is alleged that, in these verses, Ithaca is placed to the west of the other islands, whereas, in fact, it is to the east of them ; nor can it be denied that we are here met by a difficulty, in our attempt to identify the geography of Homer with that of our own maps. But neither, in the first place, can it be asserted that one stubborn passage in a long poem is sufficient ground for a theory which contradicts the universal principles and practice of human nature. It is clear that the author of the Odyssey was a traveller, not so much from the geographical knowledge of countries far removed from one another which he displays, but from the leading idea and moral of his poem, namely, the paramount attachment and love which a man feels for his own country, be it but a barren and rugged rock ; a love which neither Lsestrygons nor Anthro- pophagi, nor even the witcheries of fairy islands, can eradicate from his breast. This is a feeling of which no one would be deeply sensible, much less is it a principle which any one would work into a poem, who had not himself been a wanderer. Granting, then, what it seems impossible' to doubt, that the Poet had personal acquaintance with different parts of the globe, is it probable that he would lay the scene of a long poem in a country of which he had no distinct information, in preference to fixing it in one which he had himself visited ? Was there anything in the country, thus selected, to justify that preference? And, not only who would care to write, but who, it may be asked, would care to hear, a long tale about a country with which the Poet was wholly unacquainted ? When the recital is one which enters into the minute details of real life, and, as is the case with that part of the Odyssey which refers to Ithaca, is not embellished by fabulous imagery, the existence of an audience at all seems to suppose some pre-existing sympathy, in their minds, with the physical and social relations of the country described. But with what incredulity and derision would they have turned from the narrative of a Prince who begins his account of himself with a geographical blunder about his own dominions? Were it, therefore, necessary to reject the passage, above cited, as inter- polated or corrupt, we should have no difficulty in doing so ; but the truth seems to be, that it does not require so much to be expunged as to be ex- plained. In it, we may observe, the islands are grouped about Ithaca. Ithaca, therefore, itself, is not placed at the western extremity of them all. 276 GEOGRAPHICAL LIMITS OF HOMERIC FABLES. It seems, also, very natural that, after enumerating the islands collectively, the narrator should digress to particularize their individual positions, that he should assume Zacynthus^ the last mentioned, as the point to which the rest should be referred, and that he should add, in conclusion, that Zacynthus (and not Ithaca) lay to the west, and the other islands in an easterly direc- tion from it. To Zacynthus, therefore, and not to Ithaca, we refer the lines " It stedfast stands, highest above the wave Westward ; the rest apart, to eastern Sun ;" And so, we believe, did Virgil long ago, when he wrote — " Woody Zacynthus o'er mid wave appears." Thus the geography of Homer becomes true. One more remark on the general question. In the Odyssey, the Region of Fable begins at the Leucadian rock, and stretches from that point in a ' »»u \t-' .;£-•- -E... ■%^ v^^ ' uur. northerly direction. That rock's position, on the road by which the Shades of the Suitors are conducted by Mercury from Ithaca to Hades, is an indication of this. No one can pass from the description of Phaeacia to that of Ithaca, without feeling that he has exchanged "the meadow of asphodel," and the " land of dreams," for real and practical life. And whence can this difference proceed? Not from any objective dissimilarity, as we OBJECT OF THE ODYSSEY. 277 believe, in the things described, but in their relations to the describer and his hearers. Plutarch tells us that, in his time, the framers of geographical charts proved their ignorance of portions of the countries which they under- took to delineate, by the sort of vague compensation which they offered for them. In the unexplored outskirts of their maps they placed sandy deserts destitute of water, peopled with beasts and monsters, — what Swift calls " elephants instead of towns :" — in other parts, of which they also knew nothing, they laid down insuperable bogs, Scythian snows, or a frozen ocean. Their comparative knowledge, however, of the more central districts, was proved by well-marked coasts, distinct headlands, capes, and rivers, cities and villages, specified with minute accuracy. Such a chart the Odyssey of Homer seems to us to be ; and the same inference may be drawn from the different manner in which its central and extreme regions are treated. The Cyclops and Lotophagi are its bogs and deserts, but the meridian, to which all the other lines in it are referred, passes through Ithaca. It seems highly probable that the Poet has sketched his own character in that of the minstrel Phemius ; and that one of his objects was to recover, for the house of Ulysses, the political influence which it appears to have lost by the destruction of the suitors, and to regain for it the royal prerogative and precedence among the rival families of the island. But what is to be said of the reputed Palace and City of Ulysses ? We leave Bathy, the modern capital, for a walk thither. We pass along the barren and rocky shore, by patches of corn, groups of olives, and under hills topped with windmills, and, after a walk of more than three miles, arrive at the foot of the mountain on which the ruins stand. It is called Aeto, and is the narrow central isthmus which connects the northern with the southern half of the island. As we climb the rough and rugged paths, and follow the line of these huge unshapen walls, which stretch down from the summit of the hill, we might imagine them to belong rather to a city whose walls have been stratified by nature, than to a work fashioned and elaborated by the hand of man. With these gigantic masses before us, indicative of great physical force simultaneously applied, we feel it easier to pronounce an opinion as to what age they can not, than to what age they can, be attributed. That they do not belong to that of the Odyssey seems clear. They could not have been produced in the state of society portrayed in that poem. The Ulysses of Homer, it is true, is a prince of some power and name, but he is 278 ARE THE RUINS ON AETO cTCLormui walu m itsaca. also represented by the Poet as a mechanic, who shows his ingenuity in the construction of his own bed, and builds his chamber with his princely hands ; his good father, Laertes, is found in his orchard, among his olives and pear- trees, with a pruning-knifo in his hand, and wearing thick gloves to defend himself from the briars and thorns. Although the existence of a public assembly, convoked for national purposes, may be thought to evince some concert among the inhabitants of Ithaca for general purposes, yet the personal influence of those Princes could not be great who were thus left by their subjects to perform menial duties for themselves. Of the public itself exe- cuting any national work for its o^^•n good, we remember no example in the whole poem. The Fountain of the village (for such the capital of Ulysses seems to have been,) required the successive exertions of three heroes, Ithacus, Neritus, and Polyctor, for its construction. The walls of the city are never once mentioned, though we hear a good deal about the wooden palisades which protected the stalls of Eumaeus. Thi-oughout the Odyssey we look in vain for a hewn stone in the whole of Ithaca. Half an hour's very laborious ascent brings us to the top of this rocky THE REMAINS OF THE HOUSE OF ULYSSES? 279 hill, which is, as we have mentioned, called Aeto, or the Eagle, because from this point, as a centre, the two wings of the island appear extended from north to south like those of an eagle, somewhat in the same manner as the appearance of the spread pinions of that bird gave the same name, among the ancient Greeks, to the tympanum or pediment of a temple. Here, on the narrow level of the summit, is the Acropolis of the city. The peculiarity of its form, and the loftiness of its situation, seem to have been the causes which procured for it the title of the palace of Ulysses, — a title which it has retained longer, from the well-merited celebrity of the English geographer who first conferred it. We consult the plan founded on his observations of this so-called palace, and endeavour to compare it with the original. On the ^ CYCLOPEAN WA bed of these ruins, by a sort of Procrustean topography, the Odyssean palace as described in Homer has been stretched and fitted. Here, in this ruined bulwark, is a curved projection : the plan converts it into an heroic tliolus. We pass by a fragment of wall, and we find, to our great surprise, that we 280 THE HOMERIC CAVE OF THE NYMPHS. have intruded into the Gynoicexim of Penelope ; the apartment to the right is the hyperoum ; an orsothure^ or secret door, conveys us from the vestibule to the street, where we come directly upon the corn-mills of Ulysses ! There is a reflection which suggests itself to every one who contrasts the two opposite theories of the geography of Ithaca which we have noticed above, — that the one has produced the other. The traveller who discovers everything^ leads all the world to suspect that he has, in reality, found nothing. And by such a process as this, the modern Ithaca, from being proposed as too accurate a resemblance of the Ithaca of the Odyssey, has ceased, in the minds of some, to be any resemblance at all. But a distinction must be dra^vn between the identification of existing remains with monuments of a perishable character, and that of those which are more permanent : in a word, between the identification of works of art, and that of those of nature. We hope therefore that we may be pardoned for having seen what there seems little doubt was the Homeric Gbotto of THB Nymphs. In this cave, — thanks to the permanence of Nature, — we believe the Author of the Odyssey to have been. A mountain, a valley, a harbour, or a lake, may exist anywhere, and can hardly furnish any characteristic by which one country may be discriminated from another; but a grotto such as this to which we refer is so remarkable and unique an object, that if Ithaca were set afloat like a second Delos in the sea, or exposed to be tossed upon the ocean like the Perseus of Danae, with such a cognizance as this about its neck, the description of the Grotto of tho Nymphs, as it exists in the Odyssey, would be the best advertisement to secure its being discovered and brought again to its own home. Of the cave itself, after Homer''s description of it, there remains little to be said. It is situated on Mount Saint Stephen, and is called the cave of Trou- pus. Its only entrance is at the north-west. At the southern extremity there is a natural ledge descending into the cave, but more practicable for Nymphs than for Men. The northern entrance is narrow, and admits but little day : the interior, and particularly the vault of the subterranean crj'pt, is lighted up by delicate gleams of a bluish hue, and though of a paler tinge, yet not unlike that blue sky of stone which hangs over the Grotta d"" Azzurro in the island of Capreae. The vault itself is hung with stalactites, some of which expand into what Homer calls webs of stone, where the Nymphs might be supposed to have woven their threads whose colour was like the sea. ASTERIS. 281 We are tempted by the name of a village on the north-west coast of the island to pay it a visit. Tt is called Polis. Opposite to it is the islet of Dascaglio. This is the only rock in the channel of Cephallonia, and ought therefore to be the Asteris, where the Suitors lay in ambush for Telemachus on his return from Pylos to Ithaca. That Dascaglio contains no harbours, which Homer attributes to Asteris, seems no valid objection to this suppo- sition ; for, every one knows what Homer"'s vessels were, — that anchors were no part of their equipment, — and that harbours, therefore, were simply places to disembark in. Besides, the name of Asteris sufficiently proves that the Homeric island was a mere starlike rock, which Dascaglio is ; and lastly, we would observe here, what is applicable to the poem in general, that it is not the part of sound criticism to fetter the imagination of the poet with rigid material restrictions. The Odyssey is to be regarded as an ideal structure, erected upon geographical and historical foundations. If, now, Dascaglio be Asteris, the Homeric city should be near, and cannot be to the south of it. Was it therefore at Polis 2 Thus much may be said in its favour : the ruins on the woody hill rising to the north of Polis are of much ruder and more ancient style, though considerably less in extent than those of Aeto. The stones are rough and unhewn, and not closely fitted to each other. The principal remains are on the western side of the summit, and are piled on a very steep rock. A harbour generally supposes the existence of ancient remains in its neighbourhood. Hence, on our arrival at the port of Santa Euphemia, on the eastern coast of Cephallonia, we are not surprised to hear that there COINS OF TUB lONIAK ULANPS. 282 CEPHALLONIA. %B ■■1'' ts AT cnrnALLoKiA. arc vestiges of Hellenic buildings at no groat distance from the water. A quarter of an hour's walk to the west brings us to the Palatia, or Palace, as these ruins are called. Here is an ancient fort, consisting of two apartments, and built of polygonal masonry. The south wall remains entire, and is pierced with three embrasures for observation and the discharge of missiles. Coasting the island in a southerly direction, we arrive at Poros, probably so called as being the passage into the fertile vale of Rakl£, a corruption of the ancient Heraclea. The valley of Poros, which runs from north to south, is walled in on all sides but the north by high mountains : on the east it is hidden from the sea by Atros ; on the west it is divided from the interior by the .^nesian range ; the southern extremity is blocked up by the gable of Mount Koronus, on the cliffs of which stood the strong fortress of Proni, whose ruins still remain. We enter at the north, and proceed down this romantic valley : the torrent-bed along which we pass is overhung with gay oleanders : in the freshness of a summer evening, after confinement on the sea in a small vessel, the transition to this valley is delicious. Goats are browsing on the lentisk and arbutus upon the woody cliffs above us ; and some, more bold, are climbing on the branches of the taller shrubs ; the shepherd's flute PRONI, SAMfi. 2a3 is heard fFom the mountains, and the peasants are gathering in their harvest of uva passa. Wo proceed on till we arrive at a cottage, pleasantly situated near a stream and a mill ; it is sheltered by walnuts and carroubas of luxuriant foliage ; behind it is a small garden, in which are almonds, gourds, asparagus, and lavender. Here is a noble view of the Black Mountain, the ancient Mkvs^ the outline of which is boldly marked against the golden hues of the sun setting behind it. The ruins of Proni stretch from north to south on a high rocky ridge, which hangs over the ravine of Poros. The fall of the rock into this gulley is almost perpendicular. At this eminence stood the northern Acropolis : at the southern extremity of the ridge is another citadel, connected with the northern by parallel walls. The coins of Proni bear upon them the club of Herakles or Hercules ; and the name of Rakl£, by which the vale beneath it is known, is another indication of the Hero's connexion with this place. Perhaps this connexion arose from a belief that Herakles had opened with his club — for such actions were usually ascribed to him — the passage of Poros, that the waters which before inundated it might empty themselves into the sea, and had thus bestowed the fruitful valley of Rakle upon the grateful cultivator. The Sampans were probably right in thinking that the site of their town was too favourable a one not to be an object of ambition and envy to the Romans, who regarded the command of the channel of Cephallonia as essential to the conquest of Greece. These Roman ruins on the margin of the Bay of Same, in the central point of the eastern coast of Cephallonia, prove that the city was inhabited by its conquerors. Nor does Strabo appear to have been altogether correct in saying, that its site was deserted in his day ; for we find here an inscription of his age, or rather later, which somewhat qualifies his assertion. In making toward the valley which divides the two citadels of Same, so well described by Livy in his account of the siege conducted by the Roman Consul, we are reminded by the successive terraces of wall, which were perhaps erected on that occasion, of the device by which the besiegers for a long time bafiled the enemy. In the intermediate valley mentioned above, are many tombs dug in the rock. These must have been contained within the range of the city walls. A Greek city, when besieged, supplied to the inhabitants an incentive to 284 CRANII. courage, from which, by a law of the Ten Tables, the Roman citizen was de- barred. They had, within the walls of their cities, the tombs of their ancestors. We have several specimens before us, at Sara^, of these graves, which are hollowed in the living stone. Proceeding upwards to the Northern Acropolis, we meet with a magnificent specimen of ancient masonry. On the highest of these courses of massive stone is a block of fourteen feet in length hanging obliquely, and, as it were, s£ill quivering from the shock of the Roman engines. The Acropolis is remarkable for the varieties of architectural style which it exhibits : there are specimens in it of the polygonal and the horizontal, of emplecton, and of Roman brick-work. Wo observe a sally-port in the eastern wall, and a subterranean mine in the centre of the citadel, apparently com- municating with the western. The Southern Acropolis was the point first gained by the Romans; it was called Cyathis, probably from its cup-like form. We cross the island to Abgostoli, on the western coast, the principal town and harbour of Cephallonia. It is a walk of forty minutes from this place to the foot of the hill upon which the ancient city of Cranii stood. Its ruins are similar, in character, to those of the other cities of the island. Its acropolis, like theirs, is not fortified with towers ; but in the plain to the westward of the citadel is a long series of rectangular turrets, built with TOWH or ZACYKTHUS. ZACYNTHUS. 285 horizontal courses. Following the valley to the south-east, wo arrive at a line of rocks which have been excavated for tombs. Wo enter a sepulchral chamber containing a sarcophagus, near which is an inscription cut in the living stone. The last of the four ancient cities of Cephallonia is Pale, which lies to the north-west of Cranii, separated from it by the gulf of Lixuri. The town of Zante, the ancient Zacynthus, is beautifully situated on the margin of its semicircular bay. It is flanked by two high hills ; on one is the castle ; that to the south is called, from its extensive view. Mount Scopo ; probably it is the same as the ancient Elatus, or, mountain of silver firs, which, formerly, as may be presumed from its name, gave a reason, no longer existing, for the woody Zacynthus of Homer. Much has been said concerning the origin of the name of Zacynthus itself, and, as is usually the case, heroes have been created at will, from whom that appellation has been derived. But names of places are generally assigned in consequence of some peculiarity existing in the sites themselves. It may be shown from numerous examples, — such as Mount Cynthus in Delos, and Ara-cynthus the mountain of ^Etolia, and Bere-cynthia the name of the Earth, — that Cynthus in the early Greek language was a general term for a hill. Looking, therefore, at these two mountains before us, and the town placed between them, we prefer to go no further than the immediate neighbourhood of Za- cynthus for what it so well supplies, namely, the reason for its own designation, which we may compare with that of Za-longus, a woody mountain of Epirus, crossed by us in our road from Nicopolis to Arta, of which word the latter part is the general term for a forest. The interior of the town does not possess much to recommend it. The streets have Venetian names, and dark, dwarfish arcades ; in the houses are latticed windows, and in the shops none at all. We pass through pretty lanes and hedges of pomegranates, quinces, smilax, and aloes, toward the south-west district : in the distance are long lines of cypresses. We observe on the left of the road a wine-vat similar to those in which Bacchus is represented treading out the grapes in ancient monuments. It consists of two compartments, about three feet deep, and covered over with stucco : after the fruit is trodden out with the feet in these receptacles, the grape-juice is drained off by funnels in the side of the vat. It is certainly a curious sight to see pitch and rushes produced together, as is the case at the tar-wells of Kieri, which are the end and object of our 286 PITCH WELLS. ■a lAc mwi *. present excursion. It is pleasant to watch the great bituminous bubbles floating on their clear water, and to extract a mjTtle branch, dripping with genuine pitch, from the viscous slime beneath ; but we confess that it is more interesting to us to picture to ourselves the feelings with which, more than two thousand years ago, a party of Greek emigrants looked upon this very spot in their way from the old capital of Greece to a new settlement in Italy : we are delighted to remember the interest which this same well excited in the mind of the most eminent of that party ; we seem here to behold him inquiring into the nature of the phenomenon, measuring, as he did, its dimensions, sounding its depth, and registering in his note-book all its par- ticularities with the greatest equanimity and cheerfulness, although he was then an exile from his own country, and did not possess a foot of land in any other. Such a mind was that of Herodotus, to whom we here allude. CAMPAIGN OF PHILIP III. IN iETOLIA. 287 It must have been quite as profitable a source to its possessor as this singular well, which we believe sells its pitch for ten shillings a barrel. In the year b. c. 211, Philip of Macedon, the son of Demetrius, raised the siege of Palo in Cephallonia, and sailed to Leucadia, whence he commenced an expedition through Acamania into the heart of -^tolia. He was invited to do so by the inhabitants at that particular season, because half of the -■llltolian army was then absent in Thessaly, under its general Dorimachus. Philip, as we are told by Polybius, proceeded from Limnsea, which appears to have been on the south-eastern shore of the Ambracian Gulf, and thence marched to the river Achelous, which he crossed near Stratus, the Acar- nanian capital, and thus passed into iEtolia. He directed his course with all speed to Thermus, the principal city. In his way thither he had Stratus, Agrinium, and Thestienses on the left hand ; and on the right Conope, Trichonium, and Phoeteum. He then arrived at a city called Metapa, which lay at the entrance of the defile on the borders of the Trichonian Lake, and about six miles from Thermus. Having taken the necessary precautions to render the route secure, he entered this defile. His right wing was protected by Thracian auxiliaries and light-armed troops, and his left by the lake, along the side of which he marched for about three miles. The road from Pamphia, at the termination of the defile, to the walls of Thermus, was a steep ascent, having rugged precipices on both sides for the same distance of three miles. On his arrival there he met with no opposition; such had been the rapidity of his march, and such was the confidence of the -^tolians in the natural strength of the place. HUaOLONOBI. 288 CAMPAIGN OF PHILIP III. IN ^TOLIA. Thermus was the Acropolis of iEtolia. It was the spot in which the national assemblies were held, — the citadel where arms and provisions were stored, — the treasury which contained the wealth both of individuals and of the state, — the Sacred Enclosure in which the great national Temple stood, — and the Museum which comprised within it the most beautiful objects of art which yEtolia could boast. All these fell into the hands of Philip, who used his victory in a manner which has drawn forth an expression of well- merited censure from the grave and philosophic historian. ancient geogra of the interior of ^tolia on the discovery of Thermus. ^J JP For the attainment of this ob- ^^~^^' ject we possess but very Hmited means. The above passage of p Polybius is here our only guide, and we confess that, after an examination of it, and a comparison of its details with the features of the country itself, we have been led by it to no satisfactory result. 290 ANCIENT GEOGRAPHY OF ^TOLIA. Let us trace the march of Philip in our modem maps of Acamania and ^toHa. We follow his course from Cephallonia to Santa Maura, thence by the lagune at the north-east of the island to the Gulf of Arta ; passing by the sites of Actium and Anactobium, we arrive at Limnaea, near Argos Amphilochicum, at the south-east angle of the gulf; we accompany him through the Agraean territory till we reach the banks of the Aspropotamo, the ancient Achelous, which we cross at the ford of Lepbnu, near the ruins of Stratus, the ancient Acamanian capital, and enter the district now called Bloko, the northern division of iCtolia, which consists of a wide and fruitful lowland, and was called the " Great <^tolian plain "" by early geographers. On the south of it are two lakes separated from each other by a narrow causeway : one of them, perhaps hoth^ — for their waters are frequently united, — was formerly called the Trichonian. Philip, we are told by Polybius, had thb lake upon his left during three miles of his march MOOKTAIKS or StOUA, IISAJI BAUVACTVr THERMUS— PLEURON— CALYDON. 291 towards Thermus, to which he was advancing in a direct line from the point where he had passed the Achelous, and at full speed. We know not therefore, how to avoid the conclusion that the capital of ^Etolia stood on one of the northern crests of Aracynthus, the modern Zygo, at a distance of three miles to the south of the lakes above mentioned. The ancient road-book of central ^Etolia is reduced to a single passage of one historian, and our geographical conclusions with respect to that province must stand or fall with the position which we assign to Thermus. Under these circumstances we feel indisposed to pronounce, with any degree of confidence, on a point concerning which the evidence is so scanty and inconclusive, especially as an error, committed in this particular, would affect the whole of our topographical results in this district. We therefore content ourselves with commending the subject to the investigation of future geographers, in the belief that a spot of so much interest and importance as Thermus cannot but preserve some still-surviving vestiges of that splendour by which it was formerly distinguished, and that it will thus furnish encouragement to their researches before they are commenced, and incontrovertible evidence of their success when those researches are completed. The other two cities in iEtolia of the greatest celebrity in ancient times were Pleuron and Calydon. The older town of Pleuron stood at the south- east foot of Aracynthus, on a site now called Gyphto Kastro : the newer was on a hill farther to the west, on a summit which bears the name of the Kastro of Irene, about three miles to the north of the modern town of Missolonghi. The remains here are considerable ; they consist of walls, gates, and an ancient theatre. Calydon, the city of Meleager, and distinguished by the description given in the Iliad of Homer, of its siege by the Curetes, stood on a gentle declivity sloping down to the banks of the river Evenus, which flows by its foot into the sea. Some of the walls contemporary with the great Epic Poet still remain. In the plain below them were the vineyards and cornfields which the -^tolian inhabitants of Calydon offered to Meleager as an inducement for him to join them in repelling their assailants. The spot is now known by the name of Kurt Aga. A little above it to the north is the point in the river Evenus at which the Centaur Nessus bore Deianira from the western to the eastern shore, when she was accompanying her husband Hercules for the first time on his expedition from ^Etolia. The stream is now called Fidaro, probably from its 292 BATTLE OF LEPANTO. winding course : the word seems to be formed from the modern Greek terms Fidi and Fidari, a snake, and may properly be rendered Serpentine. On the morning of Sunday the seventh of October, a. d. 1571, the Armadas of the Sultan of Constantinople, and of the Christian States of Europe which were opposed to hiin, found themselves in sight of each other on the waters at the entrance of the Gulf of Corinth, to the west of the town of Naupactus. The King of Spain, Philip the Second, had dispatched thither his fleet, of more than a hundred sail, under the command of his brother John of Austria. John Andrew Doria, the descendant of the great admiral of that name, led on the galleys of Genoa to the battle ; they were joined by twelve vessels of the Pope, Pius the Fifth, and more than a hundred from Venice. The Princes of Parma and Urbino were present. Twelve thousand Italians, five thousand Spaniards, and more than six thousand of other nations, took part in the engagement. The Turkish fleet, which was much superior in number to that of the Christians, had set sail from Naupactus, where it had been stationed, and came in front of the enemy at the small islands — now before us as we sail BNTKAKCS TO THE OCLV Of OORIKm. PASSAGE FROM iETOLIA TO ACHAIA. 293 from ^toUa — of Kurzolari, on the south-eastern side of the mouths of the Achelous. Each of the armaments formed itself on the spot into three ranks, drawn up in the form of a crescent. It is said that John of Austria, the admiral of the allied forces, embarked in his frigate and went along the lines exhorting each individual to combat boldly for the defence and honour of the Christian Faith, assuring them all of the protection of God, in whose cause they were about to fight. It is added, that the soldiers were so much affected by his words that they shed tears of joy, and replied only with loud acclama- tions of Victory ! Victory ! In the meantime, as they well knew would be the case, all Christian nations, both far and near, were offering up prayers with one heart for the success of the arms which they were wielding. The conflict lasted four hours without producing any decisive result ; but when the wind veered to the southward, the attack of the Christians became more impetuous, and their foes, who were not able to resist the force of the wind and sea, began to give way : the death of their admiral added to their consternation ; their rout soon became general. Upwards of fifteen thousand Turks fell in the battle. More than twelve thousand Christian slaves who were found in the Turkish vessels were set at liberty. Sixty -two Ottoman ships were sunk, and more than a hundred and twenty were taken. The arrival at Rome of the news of this great victory revived the memory of her ancient triumphs. Such was the splendour with which the General of the Papal arms was received by the Senate and Magistrates of that city, and escorted to the Capitol into the presence of the Pope, at the church which stands on the lofty site of the Temple of Jupiter Capitolinus. So ended the battle of Naupactus, or Lepanto. We pass over the waters on which this engagement took place, and cross the narrow strait at the entrance of the Corinthian Gulf. The passage is a little more than a mile broad, and lies between two promontories, that to the south being the Rhium, and the northern the Antirrhium, of ancient geography. On each of these capes stands a castle, where formerly was a Temple of Neptune. The depth of the water between them is about thirty fathoms. The land which stretches along the southern coast of the Corinthian Gulf, from this point to the citadel of Corinth, is about sixty miles in length and ten in breadth, and is backed to the south by a chain of mountains from six to seven thousand feet in height, decreasing in altitude towards the eastern termination of their range. The principal of these, commencing at the west. 294 CONTRAST BETWEEN ooiimtT or MKifnuuir. are Olonos, Erymanthus, and Cyllene: they separate this strip of land, formerly called Achaia, from the inland province of Arcadia. Nothing can be more marked than the contrast presented by the aspect of these two neighbouring countries : the latter, surrounded as it were, by a circular wall of lofty mountains, four of which, namely, Erymanthus and Cyllene at the north, and Lycaeus and Maenalus at the south, stand aloft like the castellated Towers of this mural circumvallation, and having no outlet but one on its western verge, seems as it were imprisoned within itself. Numerous streams fall down into its vales from the mountains around it, but are unable to find any exit for their pent-up waters except by mining for themselves a channel through the limestone rock of which these mountains are composed. The whole country may be compared to an isolated being ; for hundreds of years its population underwent little change ; it had no commerce with nations without, and little with strangers within. Such was the constancy of its inhabitants and the permanence of their society, that ARCADIA AND ACHAIA. 296 they compared the duration of their national existence, not with that of any objects of Earthy but elevated their State, if we may so say, to the rank of a heavenly being, and claimed for it an antiquity equal to that of the first- created Powers of the Universe. The Arcadians, according to their own mythology, existed before the creation of the moon. Turn we now to the northern side of the mountain chain which we have above noticed. Every thing here bears the appearance of openness and liberty. Numerous rills flow down its declivities, all running parallel to each other in a northerly direction, and, after a short and uninterrupted course over the plain or along hollow valleys, fall into the waters of the Corinthian Gulf. Unfortunately for the maritime qualifications of the country to which we allude, the distance traversed by them is so insignificant, that they have not time to swell into navigable rivers, nor force to form in the coast line any projections which might have supplied a want very remarkable in so extensive a shore, — that of a commodious harbour. No good port exists in the whole of Achaia. What might have been the result if the contrary had been the case, is evident from the commercial importance attained by the cities of Patrae and Sicyon in ancient times, although possessed of very inconsiderable advantages in this respect. RUINKD AQUBnUCT We feel a pleasure In considering some of the moral, social, and political results, which arose from the exposed and accessible character of the terri- tory of Achaia, especially when contemplated in juxtaposition with that of its neighbour on the south. In the earliest times of Greek history it bore the name of tEgialus, or the Coast-land, a designation derived from its position : it was then inhabited by the lonians of Attica, who built twelve cities upon its soil. The facility of communication between one part of this district and another seems to have favoured the organisation of that federal system of state policy which existed at a very early period in this province, 296 ACHAIA AND IONIA. and which made its institutions the model of popular legislation, not merely in Greece, but among the Asiatic and Italian colonies from that country. Eighty years after the Trojan war, the Achaeans, who derived their origin from the land of Thessaly, were driven by the descendants of Hercules from the territory of Laconia and Argolis, in which they had settled. They emigrated in a northerly direction, and at last fixed their abode in vEgialus, whence they expelled the Ionian population, which, having returned to Attica, and there put itself under the direction of the sons of Codrus, crossed the ^Egean Sea, and established themselves on that beautiful strip of land which extends along the western coast of Asia, and was called from the name of its new colonists Ionia. Between this country and that which they had left, many points of resemblance may be noticed. Ionia is the rtAiM urn numtA, AUtt coviiu or tub mMAmnuL. Asiatic Achaia. There was much in the country they had quitted to prepare the lonians for their new habitation, and much in Ionia to remind them of, and to console them for, the home which they had lost. While it is both interesting and agreeable to trace their love and regret for their ancient seats, which shows itself in the similarity of names between the towns, rivers, and promontories of .^Egialus and Ionia, it is also not less pleasing to reflect that some part of the commercial and maritime distinction of the latter might have been derived from the habits and feelings which its colonists brought with them from the coasts of Greece : and as, in the federal union of the twelve cities of Ionia, we recognize the vestiges of that which combined the twelve cities of iEgialus,— as in the Panionian NAME OF ACHAIA. 297 assembly held in the Temple of the Heliconian Neptune, upon the Asiatic promontory of Mycale, we perceive the revival of that which had been con- vened in former times in a temple of the same Deity upon the cape of the Greek HeHce ; so, in the wealth and splendour of Smyrna, of Ephosuf, and of Miletus, upon the shores of the iEgsean, we see the development of that spirit which received its first impulse in the humbler cities of Patrae, Pellene, and -^gium, on the shores of the Corin- thian Gulf. The Achaeans, having dispossessed the lonians, changed the name of the country which they had invaded from iEgialus to Achaia. This latter desig- nation too, has, we are inclined to think, some reference as well as the former to its position and character. The names of Acheron and Achelous assigned to rivers suggest the conjecture that the title of Achaia was conferred upon that country, as Apulia was upon a district similarly situated in Italy, on account of its aqueous character, as peculiarly the land of icaters among the different provinces of the Greek peninsula. COIN OF CORINTH. 298 HISTORY OF In the Homeric catalogue of the Grecian fleet at Troy, the ship^ of Pellene, ^gium, and Helice, and of the rest of ^Egialus, are ranged wi4h tliope of Mycenae, Corinth, and Sicyon, under the command of Agapiemn^ii. Atjthat period the Achseans were in possession of Lace- dsBinon and Argos, and exerted the greatest in- fluence over the rest of the Peloponnesus. After that time for many centuries the inhabitants of the cities first named took little part in the general concerns of Greece. During the Persian invasion, the Achseans, says Pausanias, neither joined Leonidas at Thermopylae, nor aided Themistocles at Salamis : they were absent from the engagement at Plataea, being unwilling to submit to the authority of the Laccda'monian General, to whom as a Dorian they felt a strong national antipathy, looking back with pride, as they did, to the pre- eminence which they had themselves enjoyed in the heroic times of Greece, when they possessed the territory now governed by Lacedaemon. The state of neutrality and inactivity in which the Achaeans remained during the most stirring part of Greek history may reasonably be explained from the consider- ation, that they entertained no feelings of attachment to either of the two great rival parties of that period. With the Athenians, the representatives of the Ionian family, the Achaeans were not connected by the bonds of friend- ship and sympathy, as being at that time in possession of the soil from which lonians had been driven by their ancestors ; much less did they look on the Lacedaemonians, the leaders of the Doric race, with a friendly eye, having ACIIAIA. 2i>'J been themselves expelled from their hereditary seats in Argos and Laconia, by the progenitors of those who now dwelt at Sparta. It thonco arose, that while their neighbours were engaged in long and violent contests, the Achseans enjoyed a state of tranquillity and repose, which harmonised well and fitly with the natural character of their open and even soil, compared with the stern and savage features of those lands which bordered upon theirs. In this condition they remained for a considerable time, and it was not till the glories of other Greek states had faded that Achaia began to display that power which afterwards gained for it such distinguished renown. It seems almost as if it had deliberately delayed its own progress until the other nations of Hellas were wearied with their exertions in the pursuit of fame, in order that it might now advance and claim the prize which they had resigned. It then stepped forward as the last in the Lampadephoria of Greek Nations, to receive the torch which had been transmitted in succession from the hand of one City to another. The splendour of Athens had been some time on the wane ; Sparta was sinking by the weight of pressure from without and the undermining of corruptions from within; Thebes — having shown what she was capable of effecting, when guided by the counsels, and animated by the example, of wise and intrepid leaders — had fallen with them, never more to 300 DOMESTIC AND FOREIGN rise : when, therefore, these cities were reduced to this condition, there occurred a favourable opportunity for Achaia to prove what results could be attained by the arts and virtues of rare growth in Grecian soil, namely, those of civil harmony and concord. The twelve cities of Achaia, whose names are preserved by Herodotus and Strabo, being united in a compact body among themselves, and enjoying a form of civil polity wisely tempered by an admixture of popular and aristocratic elements, subsisted, as has been said, during a long period in a state of happy and undisturbed prosperity. The political storm which broke upon Greece from Macedonia shattered for a time the league which bound them together; but when that had passed, some of the fragments again coalesced, and the effects soon began to disappear of tluir former dissolution. In the year n. c. 280, when the attention of the Macedonian princes was engaged at home by domestic discords, four of the Achsean cities, Dyme, Patrse, Tritaea, and Pharse, took advantage of the opportunity thus afforded them for reviving the independence of their country ; when five years had elapsed, they were joined by JEgium, Cerynea, and Bura, which had ejected their tyrants, or expelled their Macedonian garrisons. To these, four others shortly afterwards attached themselves ; the twelfth, Helice, had been swallowed up by an inundation of the sea. Annually in the spring and POLICY OF ACHAIA. 301 summer, assemblies were convoked of deputies from these states, for the purpose of consulting concerning war and peace, the framing of alliances, the creation of magistrates, and the enactment of laws. The place of their convention was the sacred grove of Jupiter Homagyrius, near the temple of the Panachsean Ceres at iEgium. Every citizen from any of the confederate states who had passed his thirtieth year was at liberty to be present, and to propose measures to the Assembly for their adoption. The session was limited by law to throe days. It is a pleasing proof of the unanimity prevalent among them, that a common system of weights and measures was employed by the cities of Achaia ; so that they were all, as it were, members of the same state. The cities of this province, having combined themselves together in a federal union, proceeded to increase their power by foreign conquest. They wrested Corinth from the hands of the Macedonians, and attached that city to their own body. On this occasion they had Rome for their ally, and thus, for a temporary gain, they authorised the adoption of a principle which after- wards proved the cause of their own dissolution. They discovered too late that the real victory thus gained was not a triumph of one Greek over another, but of Rome over the whole of Greece. Still, however, they pursued the same course : they joined the Romans in their expeditions into Macedonia against Philip, and fought under their standard against their own neighbours in iEtolia : their resources, thus increased, tempted them to gratify their ancient enmity against Lacedsemon, which they succeeded in reducing to dependence upon themselves for a time, and in alienating from them for ever ; but by so doing they paved the way for their own degradation, and for the ultimate loss of the liberties of their common country. The appeal of the Lacedaemonians against the overbearing conduct of the Achseans towards themselves, was joyfully welcomed by Rome as affording an occasion for her own interference in the internal affairs of Greece. The exiles of Sparta were recalled by her orders, and its walls, which had been thrown down by the Achseans, were rebuilt. On the false accusation of the traitor Callicrates, more than a thousand of the principal citizens of Achaia were summoned to Italy under suspicion of collusion with Perseus, when he was at war with Rome ; and it was only when seventeen years had elapsed, that having been detained as prisoners in different parts of Etruria, three hundred of the number, among whom was the historian Polybius, returned to their own 302 PATRiE. country. Instructed and exasperated by this treatment, the Achseans resorted to defensive measures against the encroachments of Rome ; but it was too late. They had been the means of reducing to the bondage, which they were now about to endure in their own persons, those who might with their aid have been able to preserve from it both themselves and them. They now survived alone : the rest of Greece was extinct. It was but a poor consolation, that when Greece was politically defunct, the Romans inscribed upon its tomb the name of Achaia. At the north-west extremity of Achaia stands the town of Patras, the ancient Patr^:. It overlooks a fertile plain, which is principally devoted to the cultivation of the small grape which flourishes here in much greater -^ abundance than at Corinth, whence it derives its name. The city enjoys great advantages, arising from its posi- tion at the southern entrance of the Corinthian Gulf, and from thus possessing ready means of communication with western Greece, the Islands of the Ionian Sea, and the shores of Italy and Sicily. After the battle of Actium, Patrse was to the Peloponnesus what Nicopolis was to the continent of Greece ; for on account of the qualifications of its site, it was chosen by Augustus as the spot to which he might transplant colonists from different cities which were not so favourably placed for the purposes of commerce. Here in later times were seen some of the ancient statues of the iEGIUM. 303 Deities, brought from those dismantled towns ; here was an Odeum, the second in beauty and magnificence to be found in Greece, where the in- habitants of those old mountain towns learnt to forget their rustic habits ; here, near the seaside, was a grove containing temples of Apollo arid Venus, and intersected with walks which served as a delightful place of resort in the summer season. There are now but few remains of this ancient maritime capital of Achaia. The spring which is described as gushing from the earth near the two temples above-mentioned, is still visible on the seashore, about a mile's distance from the town. Some vestiges of the walls of the ancient acropolis may be traced in the substructions of the modern castle, which stands on an eminence at the northern extremity of Patras ; some remains of an aqueduct of Roman brick, like that of Nicopolis, which brought water from the hills on the east of the citadel, are still visible ; but the most interesting memorial which survives of the former history of Patrse is the tradition which here prevails, that this was the spot which witnessed the evidence given to the cause of Christian truth by the apostle and martyr, Saint Andrew. Passing by Rhium, the port of the ancient Panormus, and proceeding onward in an easterly direction, we arrive, after a journey of rather more than twenty miles along the sea-coast, at the foot of a hill, beneath which are plentiful sources of water shaded by an umbrageous plane-tree. This is the site of the ancient -^gium, which, after the destruction of Helice by an inundation of the sea, was chosen as the place of assembly for the members of the Achaean league. It is now called Vostitza, and from the goodness of its harbour, compared at least with any other upon this coast, from the excellence of its water, and from its position at the centre of the southern shore of the Corinthian gulf, it still preserves some of its ancient importance. 304 SICYON. being the only town of any note which occurs in the voyage from the port of Patrae to that of Corinth. At a little more than the same distance to the east of ^gium, that -^gium is to the east of Patrse, stands a circular hill with a tabular summit, about two miles from the sea-shore, and between two rivers which flow past it into the Corinthian Gulf. Towards the northern extremity of the hill is the modem village of Basilica : this was the site of the ancient city of Sicyon, the date of whose foundation is prior to all the records of Greek history. The situation combines all the advantages which were generally looked for as the requisite qualifications for the erection of a Greek city. The acropolis stood upon the spot now occupied by the modem village. The walls of the town followed the crest of the tabular hill mentioned above, and communicated with the harbour by means of lines of fortification stretching from their circuit to the sea-shore. The principal remains of Sicyon which now survive, are found on the south-west portion of the mountain platforai. We there find a theatre facing the sea, of which the foundations and some of the seats are hewn in the living rock. By its side, and running parallel to it, is a stadium, of which the southern end is excavated in the soil, while its two northern extremities are formed of massive walls in the polygonal style. The theatre is the only one of the numerous buildings existing at Sicyon in the time of Pausanias, and described by that topographer. It is a melancholy thing to read on this spot the catalogues which he has loft of the many temples, statues, and pictures, which once adorned this now desolate place. Here stood a painted portico, which vied with the Pcecile at Athens ; here was the Senate-house erected by the hand of Cleisthenes ; here bronze statues of Hercules and Jupiter, the works of the illustrious Lysippus, who was a native of this place ; here, a figure of Pan in ivory and gold, the production of Calamis ; near it was a marble statue of Hercules, from the chisel of Scopas ; here were numberless compositions by Crato, Telephanes, Cleoetas, and Canachus, and by other artists of Sicyon, who made this place the most famous among the ancient schools of painting and of sculpture from the earliest times to the days of Alexander the Great, and of that dis- tinguished Sicyon ian citizen Aratus, who to his endowments and distinctions as a statesman and a warrior, added the graceful accomplishments of a skilful judge and a liberal patron of the arts. His statue adorned the theatre ARATUS— PHILOPCEMEN— POLYBIUS. 305 whose ruins we see before us: his ashes repose upon this hill, where his obsequies were celebrated with great pomp, and where a monument, sur- passing in magnificence all that the age could boast, was erected to his memory by his grateful countrymen. He died, not without suspicion of having been poisoned by Philip the Third of Macedon, in the year b. c. 213. His country did not long survive him : for a few years the gallant Philopoemen sustained the cause of the Achaean league ; he, when seventy years of age, having reduced the city of Lacedsemon, and fighting before the walls of Messene, was, in b. c. 183, taken prisoner and put to death. His funeral urn was borne by the son of Lycortas, his successor in the dignity of chief magistrate of the Achaean confederacy, the youthful Polybius, the future historian of the war. Thirty-seven years afterwards, the city of Corinth was taken by Mummius, the Roman consul, and with the fall of that city fell the fortunes and glories of its neighbour Sicyon. ORBSTBS BEFORE THS ALTAR OV UINSRVA POLIAS, FROM AN ANCIENT BA8-RELIB7> Greece triumphed over her victors by the influence of her arts. Exiled, as it were, from her own soil, she took refuge in the asylum afforded to her by them ; as Orestes, banished from Argos, did in the temple of Pallas at Athens. The destruction of Corinth was, in a certain sense, the source of glory and victory to a conquered nation. The soldiers of Mummius robbed, indeed, the temples of Corinth of their statues and pictures ; they even tore from its theatre the bronze vessels which made it more sonorous ; they were guilty of 306 SOIL AND RIVERS acts of rapine and excess in a manner to extort from Polybius, the Greek panegyrist of Rome, the strongest expressions of reprobation ; but, neverthe- less, these hardy warriors soon gave way to the gentle influences exercised by the objects which they carried in triumph to their own country; and the spirit of Greece, when the body was extinct, was worshipped in the palaces and forums of the Roman capital, like a divinised being which had passed from earth to heaven. *^«^ OR TKs ti.rimtn. If we retrace our steps from Sicyon to the west, and mount along the side of one of the streams which fall into the gulf of Corinth near the site of the ancient JEgium, pursuing the upward track in a southerly direction, we shall arrive on one of the woody summits of Er}Tnanthus, from which, if we look westward, we command a view of the territory of Elis Ij'ing beneath us. Two rivers, which water that plain, take their rise here. The one is the OF ELIS. 307 river Peneius, which leaves the site of the ancient city of Elis on its left, and waters the country, once called The Hollow Elis from its form, and in- habited in the Homeric age by the Epeians ; the other stream bears the same name as the mountain from which it descends : having flowed to the south for a considerable distance, it falls into the river Alpheius, which, continuing its course to the west, passes to the left of the spots occupied formerly by the magnificent buildings of Pisa and Olympia. This country was anciently called the Pisatis. In the time of Homer it was possessed by the Pylians, whose dominions extended from the slopes of Taygetus over the country subsequently called Messenia, and reached to the Epeian frontier, on the southern side of the Peneius. The proportion of the power of the Epeians to that of the Pylians is expressed in Homer, by the contributions made by each to the fleet of Agamemnon. Ninety ships were furnished by the Epeians, whereas the Pylians supplied forty only. There are many points of resemblance in the geography and history of Elis and Achaia. Looking merely in a cursory manner at their great physical characteristics, we observe that they both TIlK COAST tt9 BMf 308 FEW ANTIQUITIES IN ELIS. consist of flat lowlands stretching along the sea, broken, indeed, occasionally, by declivities of mountains waving down from the lofty ridges in the interior, and by mountain streams running in deep woody ravines from the same rocky eminences, which thus dispense fertility to the plains beneath them. Both these provinces present a favourable appearance in variety and richness of produce when contrasted with the other divisions of the peninsula. It is a consequence of those natural properties which conduced to its fertility that so few remains at present survive of the former splendour of Elis. The soil consists of a rich alluvial loam, deposited, in the lower grounds, by the rivers of which we have spoken ; and both the stone of the country is of a more porous description than the limestone and marble supplied by the quarries in the other parts of Greece, and the remains of the buildings have disappeared the sooner beneath the covering of soil which was brought down by the streams from the mountain slopes. The same observation may be applied generally to the other provinces of the Grecian continent and penin- sula, upon which nature has bestowed a larger share of her endowments. The remains of antiquity are generally in the inverse ratio of the fertility of their soil. We believe that scarcely a sculptured group or fragment of a frieze is to be seen at the present time within the limits of the districts of Hellas most distinguished for their prolific character : namely, Thessaly and Boeotia on the continent, and Achaia and Elis in the Peloponnesus. We have observed the pacific character of Achaia as compared with that of other states in the peninsula. A similar remark may be applied to Ems. The possession within their frontier of the national sanctuary of the Olympian Jove invested it with a hallowed dignity, which was a more powerful pro- tection to them than the force of arms. We accordingly hear of many of the Eleans passing their time in the quiet enjoyments of a country life on their o\^ti estates, which they rarely quitted, to visit the larger towns even in their own neighbourhood ; and thus the security, which they derived from their peculiar national privilege, rendered the works of fortification, and military architecture in general, matters of less necessity than they would otherwise have been. The search, therefore, for the vestiges of walled towns will here be attended with little success. Many objects, says Pausanias, may a man see in Greece, and many things may he hear that are worthy of admiration, but above them all, the doings at Eleusis, and the sights at Olympia, have somewhat in them of a soul divine. OLYMPIA. 309 MAP OF OLTMPIA. In descending the slopes, which fall to the south-west of mount Erymanthus, we come in sight of a valley, about three miles in length, and one in breadth, lying from east to west below the hill on which we stand, and bounded on the south by a broad river, running over a gravelly bed, and studded with small islands. Its banks are shaded with plane-trees, and rich fields of pasture and arable land are watered by its stream. The valley is Olympia, the hill is Mount Cronius, the river the Alpheius, The eastern and western boundaries of the plain are formed by two other streams, both flowing into the Alpheius. Beginning at Mount Cronius, and following the western of these two brooks, formerly called the Clabeus, among clusters of pines and olives, to the point where it falls into the Alpheius, and tracing our course eastward along the Alpheius for about a mile, till we arrive at a ridge which falls downward to the east, and pursuing this ridge, which runs to the north, till we come to Mount Cronius, from which it descends, we have made the circuit or traced the limits of the peribolus of the ancient Altis, or sacred grove of Jupiter, which was formerly the seat of the most glorious and holy objects of Olympia. On the south and east it was bounded by a wall, on the north by the moun- tain which we have mentioned, and on the west by the Cladeus. Looking downward towards the river Alpheius from the southern slopes 310 STADIUM AND HIPPODROME. of Mount Cronius, we have immediately on our right the positions of the ancient Gymnasium and Prytaneura. Beneath us stood the row of ten TRRASURIES from west to east, which were raised by different Greek States, and contained statues and other offerings of great value and exquisite work- manship. Below them, on a basement of stone steps, were six statues of Jupiter, called Zanes, made from the fines levied upon atliletes who had trans- gressed the laws by which the Olympic contests were regulated. Further to the left, in a wood of wild olives in a declivity of Mount Cronius, and running from north to south, was the Stadium. It was approached by the Hella- nodicae, or judges of the course, by a secret entrance, as it was called. The starting-place, or aphesis, was at the northern extremity, near which was the tomb of Endymion. M/ rL41H or OLVUPl' TEMPLE OF OLYMPIAN JUPITER. 311 Beyond the Stadium and the eastern limit of the Altis, still further to the left, was the Hippodrome, which stretched from west to east : its western facade was formed by a portico built by the architect Agnaptus. Passing through it, the spectator arrived at a triangular area, of which the base coincided with the back of the portico ; in each of the two sides, which were more than four hundred feet in length, was a series of stalls or barriers, in which the chariots and horses stood, parallel to each other ; all looking straight towards the course. A rope was stretched in front of these barriers. At the apex of the triangle, or the point nearest the course, stood a bronze dolphin raised upon a style. In the middle of the triangle was an altar of unbaked brick, which was whitened at every successive Olympiad ; raised above it was a bronze eagle, stretching its wings at full length. When the proper time had arrived, the officer of the course touched the spring concealed within the altar, and the eagle began to soar aloft, an impulse being thus given to it, so that it became visible to all the spectators. At the same time the bronze dolphin fell to the ground. Then the rope was withdrawn, first from the barriers on each side nearest to the base of the triangle, so as to allow the horses in them to start : when they had arrived in a line with those in the second barriers, these latter were let out, and thus the next in order, till, gradually, they were all liberated, so that at the moment when the last pair were released, they were all side by side in a line drawn through the apex, parallel to the base. An isolated longitudinal ridge, or spine, commencing at some distance from the apex, divided the hippodrome into two parts ; around this the course lay, beginning on the right or southern side of it. Nearly in the centre of the Altis, or consecrated ground, stood the temple of the Olympian Jove. It was erected from the spoils taken by the Eleans, in their contests with the inhabitants of Pisa. It was a Doric edifice, hypsethral and peripteral, ninety-five feet in breadth, two hundred and thirty in length, and sixty-eight to the summit of the pediment in height. The interior was divided into three compartments, by two rows of columns, each in double tiers. The stone of which it was constructed was the poros of the country ; its architect, Libon of Elis. A golden vase adorned both ends of the roof. In the centre of both the pediments was a golden statue of Victory, and under the Victory a shield of gold, having a figure of Medusa upon it. In later times, one-and-twenty 312 STATUE OF OLYMPIAN JUPITER. gilded bucklers hung upon the architrave over the columns, the offering of Mummius after the destruction of Corinth. In both the pediments were groups of sculpture : the eastern exhibited the contest between Pelops and CEnomaus ; this was the work of Paeonius, a native of Menda in Thrace : that on the western front represented the contest of the Centaurs and Lapithae, and was the work of Alcamenes, a contemporary of Phidias, In the metopes were scenes from the history of Hercules. But the most glorious ornament of this magnificent fabric, and one which, in the language of the ancient critic, added dignity to religion, was the statue of Jupiter within the temple ; it was the work of Phidias, and formed of ivory and gold. This combination, as a great English sculptor expresses it, "equally splendid and harmonious, in such a colossal form, produced a dazzling glory, like electric fluid, running, over the surface of the figure, and thus gave it the appearance of an immortal vision in the eyes of the votary." No wonder, therefore, if it was commonly believed that Jupiter himself had lighted up the statue, and had kindled in its aspect a blaze of divinity by a flash of lightning from heaven. The ivory, with which the greater part of the figure was over- laid, had a tint of flesh, which communicated to it the appearance of a real living and intelligent object, while the gold, the precious stones, and painting with which it and its accessories were decorated, and the stupendous size of the whole work, sixty feet in height, produced a brilliant and astounding effect, which awed the beholder into a belief that he was looking at the form and face of Jupiter himself. Nor let it be forgotten, that the whole work was informed by a spirit within, breathed into it from the mouth of Homer ; for it was his description of the King of Gods and Men which filled the mind of Phidias, as he himself confessed, when he executed this statue. The god sat upon his throne, wearing a crown like an olive wreath upon his head. In his right hand he supported a statue of Victory, which he seemed to ofifer to the combatants who came hither to adore him ; it was made of ivory and gold, and bore a chaplet. In his left hand was his staff* or sceptre, inlaid with metals of every description, and having an eagle perched upon its summit. The sandals of the deity were of gold, as also was his robe, which was embroidered with figures and lilies. The throne on which he sat was adorned with gold and precious stones, with ebony and with ivory, with painted figures and others in relief. Embossed on each of the four feet of the throne were four dancing Victories, and beside them two statues of OLYMPIADS. 313 Victory standing near each foot. In addition to this, on the two front feet were represented the children of the Thebans seized by the Sphinges ; and below the Sphinges, Apollo and Diana were transfixing with their arrows the sons of Niobe. Between the feet were single horizontal bars : on that towards the entrance were seven figures in relief, and on the others the contests of Hercules and his comrades with the Amazons. Each of the bars was bisected by an upright column, which, together with the feet, served to support the statue. Other decorations of a minuter character were scattered near it in rich profusion. Such was the appearance which the Olympian Jupiter presented to the view when the purple embroidered veil which hung before him descended to the ground and exhibited the Father of Gods and Men in all the glories of which the greatest spirits of antiquity could conceive and execute the idea. The Olympic Games were celebrated once in four years. They lasted for five days, and terminated on the full moon which succeeded the summer solstice. Contrasted with the particular seras which served for the chrono- ff.9^*smr/*i' logical arrangement of events in distinct provinces of Greece, the epoch supplied by their celebration to all the inhabitants of the Hellenic soil deserves 314 NATIONAL BENEFITS FROM THE OLYMPIC GAMES. peculiar attention. While the succession of Priestesses of Juno at Argos, — while the Ephors at Sparta, and the Archons at Athens, furnished to those States respectively the bases of their chronological systems, it wa« not a Personage invested with a civil or sacerdotal character who gave his name not merely to the single years, but to the quinquennial periods of the whole of Greece ; it was he who was proclaimed Victor, not in the chariot-race of the Hippodrome, but as having outrun his rivals in the Stadium at Olympia. A reflection on the rapid course of Time (the great Racer in the Stadium of the World) might well be suggested by such a practice ; but it is more remark- able, as illustrating the regard paid, by the unanimous consent of all the hV«_nt —-.I^St% RlnOB OVKII TBI OOITVMU*- THE OLYMPIC STADIUM THE NATIONAL MEASURE OF TIME. 316 States of Greece, to those exercises of physical force which preserved them so long from the corruptions of luxury and effeminacy, into which, through their growing opulence and familiarity with oriental habits, they would very soon otherwise have fallen. Olympia was the Palaestra of all Greece. The simplicity of the prizes, the antiquity of their institution, the sacred cere- monies with which they were connected; the glory which attached not merely to the victor, but to his parents, his friends and country: his canonisation in the Greek calendar; the concourse of rival tribes from every quarter of the Greek continent and peninsula, to behold the contests and to applaud the conqueror ; the lyric songs of poets ; the garlands showered upon his head by the hands of friends, of strangers, and of Greece herself; the statue erected to him in the precincts of the consecrated grove, by the side of Princes, of Heroes, and of Gods ; the very rareness of the celebration, and the glories of the season of the year at which it took place, when all the charms of summer were poured upon the earth by day, and the full orb of the moon streamed upon the olive groves and the broad flood of the Alpheius by night ; these were influences which, while they seemed to raise the individual to an elevation more than human, produced a far more noble and useful result than this, — that of maintaining in the nation a general respect for a manly and intrepid character, and of supporting that moral dignity and independence which so long resisted the aggressions of force from without, and were proof against the contagion of weak and licentious principles within. Without interruption, for upwards of a thousand years the full moon after the summer solstice every fourth year witnessed the celebration of these Games. The first Olympiad coincides with the year b. c. 776, the last with A. D. 394, or the sixteenth of the Emperor Theodosius, when the calculation by indictions was adopted in its stead. According to the assertion of Polybius, Timseus the Sicilian historian, who flourished b. c. 300, was the first annalist who introduced the regular practice of comparing chronologically the Archons of Athens, the Priestesses of Argos, and the Ephors and Kings of Sparta, with the contemporary victors at Olympia. He was thus the founder of the Olympic sera as applied to history, without which no records for the general use of Greece could have existed. There is now no habitation on the site of Olympia. On the north of it are rocky heights crowned with wood ; some pines are seen on the hills to 316 PRESENT ASPECT OF OLYMPIA. the west, and oriental plane-trees hang over the wide gravelly bed of the river Alpheius on the south. Some few ruins of brick are scattered over the soil of what was once the Altis, or consecrated enclosure, but hardly a vestige remains even of the foundations of the Temple of Olympian Jove, i X i III ALmilU*. and all the altars and statues which once crowded its precincts have passed away like those countless multitudes who came here and departed hence in successive generations during a fifth part of the long period of time which has elapsed from the Creation of the world to the present day. On the opposite side of the Alpheius, at a little more than two miles distant to the south of Olympia, is the site of the small village of Scillus. It stood in a woody valley, watered by the river Selinus. In this picturesque and solitary spot, the friend of Socrates, of Agesilaus, and of Cyrus, — the General, the Philosopher and the Historian, — Xenophon, an exile from his own country, spent the latter part of his days. By the side of this stream and among these woods he composed the greater part of his works. In one of them he has left a description, forming a pleasing contrast to the stirring narratives of marches and battles which succeed and follow it, of this peaceful XENOPHON AT SCILLUS. 317 place and of his own occupations here. Perhaps no more agreeable specimen of simple and unaffected piety in a heathen can be found, than in his account of the small temple of Diana erected here by himself, of its cypress statue, of its sacred grove of beautiful shrubs planted by his own hand, and of the annual tithe set apart by him for its maintenance from his estate. The south-western portion of Arcadia, which borders upon the territory of Olympia, contains within it two objects of interest : one of them is the oldest, the other the youngest city of Greece ; the former Lycosura, whose ruins are seen on the south-eastern side of Mount Lycseum, the modern Diophorti ; the latter near it, but on the other or eastern side of the Alpheius, Megalopolis, founded by Eparainondas, in a beautiful valley clothed with noble forests and irrigated with fresh streams, and still preserving in its vast Theatre the signs of its ancient magnificence, nor less deserving attention as the birth-place of Philopoemen and Polybius. 318 OBJECT, SITE, AND REMAINS But there is another relic of antiquity which, from its position, its purpose, and its intrinsic beauty, has more powerful attractions for the traveller than either of these two. It was expressed in the noble edict wherewith the Senate of Florence gave orders for the erection of their Cathedral, by which the mind of Brunelleschi inspired the genius of Michael Angelo, that having obtained renown in war and wealth in peace, it became the inhabitants of their illustrious City to erect a Christian temple worthy of a powerful and prosperous State ; but in the beautiful structure of Bassae, on one of the ridges of Mount Cotylium, throe miles to the west of Diophorti, wo have an TKiirti or AroLiJi at BAnAS. evidence of the operation of a somewhat similar feeling attended by circum- stances more striking than those to which we have alluded. For this edifice was erected, not by a large and wealthy metropolis like Florence, but by a small village of Arcadia, namely, by the neighbouring community of Phigaleia. J OF THE TEMPLE OF BASSAE. 319 It was founded, not in a spot to which the materials for building could readily bo brought, or where it might display to passing crowds the evidence it afforded of the affluence and skill of those who erected it ; but it stood alone, exposed to winds and storms, on a bleak and rugged mountain difficult of access, and seeming, by its seclusion and solitude, to ask for no other notice than that of the Deity to whom it was consecrated. The first theatre which was constructed at Rome was designed to appease the wrath of the Gods during a pestilence. This Temple of Bassae was an offering of a more pleasing kind ; it was raised, not during the ravages of a plague, but as a grateful record of deliverance from them. It was inscribed to Apollo Epicubius, or the Helper, ETSMPLK OF APOMX) AT RASSAB. The building stands not from east to west, — the usual direction of Greek temples, — but from north to south. Another peculiarity is observable in the number of its columns: while that of those on each flank generally exceeds by one the double of those at each end, here are six at each end, and fifteen upon each side. The building was a hundred and twenty-five feet in length by forty-seven in breadth. It was in the Doric style. 320 ARCHITECTURE AND SCULPTURE AT BASSAE. peripteral and hypsethral, and raised upon three steps. It was built by the architect of the Parthenon at Athens, Ictinus. Pausanias speaks of this Temple of Bassae as eclipsing all the fabrics of the same kind in the Peloponnesus by the beauty of its stone and the har- mony of its construction. Such being the case, it may be considered as an instance of singular good fortune, or rather an interposition of Providence, watching over the Arts which delight and dignify the mind of man, that this fabric should remain in a more perfect state than any other temple, with the exception of that of Theseus, in the whole of Greece. The principal entrance was on the north. Having mounted the steps, passed through the columns of the portico, and of the pronaos, we arrive in the cella. Here, on each side, and attached to the wall, were arranged five Ionic columns of white marble, for the purpose of supporting the roof, which stretched from the walls of the cella so as to cover the greater part of its interior, leaving only an aperture in the centre, like that in the vault of the Pantheon at Rome, for the admission of light and air. Between the two most southern Ionic columns stood one of the Corinthian order, also of white marble, which supported the architrave over the southern entrance into the cella. The frieze which once adorned the interior requires no description for those who have access to it in the national Museum of England. Suffice it to say, that it is, in all probability, the work of the scholars of Phidias. And as the architects and sculptors employed in the erection and decoration of this temple wore of Athenian extraction, so many of the subjects repre- sented in this frieze are connected with Athenian history. They refer to the struggles of Theseus with the Centaurs and Amazons. Vlf.W ON THE COAST KBAft Ci'Rn Such is the seclusion in which the temple of Bassae stands, that for many THE NEDA— IRA— THE PAMISUS. 321 ages its very existence was either unknown or forgotten. Like the temples at Pa3stum in this respect, it was not till after the middle of the eighteenth century that this, the most beautiful and most perfect of all the remains of Greek architecture in the Peloponnesus, was discovered to survive in nearly the same state as when visited more than a thousand years before by Pausanias. The country of Messenia was endowed much more liberally by Nature than the neighbouring territory of Laconia. The river Neda, which takes OV THE NRI its rise in one of the ridges of Mount Lycseum, flows eastward in a winding course through a beautiful valley, by the walls of Iua, the fortress of Aris- tomenes, and of Phigaleia, into the Ionian Sea. Several small streams, rising near the same spot, unite their waters in a deep channel, which tends to the south, leaving Mount Ithorae and the city of Messene on the right, and empty themselves in a copious river, the Pamisus, which falls into the Gulf between Messenia and Laconia, the receptacle of numerous other small rills from the Messenian basin. Irrigated by these rivers, and possessing many woody valleys and wide plains through which they flowed, Messenia was famed for the number and beauty of its herds and flocks, and for the variety of its shrubs and fruit- 322 HISTORY OF trees : in addition to this, the mountains here were not of gufficient height, as was the case in Laconia, to render its climate inclement by retaining the snow for the greater part of the year, or by screening the lands beneath them from the sun. VALI.KV or MKI*rKIA- i^ ^S/^lx^^^--*^'''':'''' ;^ *^ll ^^ ^^*® "^* wonderful, therefore, that the Lace- '•■■>''" " -^ ' - . ^'J dsemonians were covetous of a neighbouring land so superior to their own. In the year b. c. 724, Ithome, the Acropolis and capital of Messenia, was taken by the Spartans. In 685, the war was renewed ( c^(,.-<'rr^-:c_---'' CnNVKNT ON THK SITH OX THK TKHPL8 Ot Jl'PI MESSENIA. 323 under Aristomenes, who fortified himself in Ira, in the fastnesses of Mount Lycaeum. Here he remained for many years, and performed those wonderful feats of courage, and saved himself by those marvellous escapes, which made him the national hero of Messenia. But, in 668, Ira fell into the hands of Sparta, as Itliome had done before. Nothing remained for the conquered Messenians but to become Helots or Exiles. Many fled beyond the sea, and settled in Sicily, Italy, and Africa ; but enough remained behind to render Sparta the mistress of two hundred thousand slaves. After a long banishment, during which they preserved their language and manners unaltered, the Messenians returned, in the year b. c. 370, to their ancient abodes from which they had been exterminated by the Spartans : being recalled by the Theban general and statesman Epami- nondas, who had just laid low the power of Sparta on the field of Leuctra, they proceeded with the sound of flutes and pipes and vocal melody, and with the sacred pomp of procession and of sacrifice, to rebuild on the ridges of Mount Ithome their city which had so long lain desolate. That day was the return to them from a Captivity of near three centuries. The responses of the Augurs, who were consulted whether the new city would prosper, were favourable. The victims were propitious ; everything bore the aspect of hope and joy. Artificers of every kind were present, materials flowing in 324 FOUNDATION AND SITE— from all quarters, temples rising, and streets stretching along the vacant space ; and a new Messene grew up on the site of the old, like a fabled city charmed into life by the sound of the Orphean Lyre. In order to connect themselves with their Progenitors, and also with the Powers of Heaven, they invited to come and dwell among them, by special invocations, their own Heroes of ancient time — Eurytus, Aphareus, Cresphontes, ^Epytus, and above all, with the unanimous voice of the whole city, the great Aristomenes and those gods who were believed to wish well to the Messenian State. The work of building was carried on, as it had begun, with tlu; sound of the Argive and Boeotian flute. The present aspect of Messene is not surpassed in interest and beauty by that of any ancient city in the Peloponnesus. The scene is grand and solitary. On the north and east of it rise the magnificent cliffs of Mounts Ituome and Evan ; towards the west stretch fine plains of arable and pasture land, varied with coppices of shrubs in rich profusion. This level site was selected by Epaminondas, on account of the water with which it was well supplied. THB Qvxs or coRon. WALLS AND TOWERS OF MESSENE. 326 The Walls of the city, which, together with the public buildings originally existing at Messene, although not loss than four miles in circumference, were erected in the course of eighty-five days, present one of the most remarkable specimens of military architecture to be found upon the soil of Greece. We look upon them with a feeling of deeper interest in consequence of the fact that they were raised from the plans and under the direction of Epaminondas ; they make us as it were his contemporaries, by exhibiting to us a model of the system of fortification adopted in his age. The walls are built in horizontal courses, and generally with rectangular stones. They consist of an exterior and interior facing of such masonry, the bays between the facings being filled with rubble. At distances, varying from seven to ten feet, the two faces are tied together by transverse courses of stone. This method of construction corresponds to the Roman emplecton. A pplied to the walls at different intervals, are Towers of stone : their ground- plan is generally rectangular, but on the north-east of the city are two instances with circular fronts ; they seem to have possessed flat roofs, from which missiles might be discharged on the besieger : one, which remains in a nearly perfect state, was divided into two stories, in each of which are windows and embrasures, those in the lower story being splayed, to admit more light and to afford a freer range for the emission of projectiles from within. At certain distances are flights of stone steps, ascending from the 326 ANCIENT GATE— ROAD— THEATRE AND STADIUM. interior of the city nearly to the battlements of the walls, so as to afford an opportunity of assailing the besieger beneath them ; and thence similar flights lead into the towers which have been described. One of the most remarkable features in the fortifications of Messene is the Gate in the north-west part of the walls through which the road passed which led to Megalopolis. It consisted of an outer area, thirty-one feet in breadth, and flanked by two massy projections ; within this was an outer door, which led into a circular court sixty-three feet in diameter, and through this court to an inner door, which opened into the city itself. A paved Road, formed of parallel slabs lying transversely, succeeds to the gate and descends rapidly towards the interior of the town. The marks of ancient wheels are still visible in the court-yard, and the road itself is one of the very few specimens of ancient paving which remain in Greece ; it shows a method of road-making very different from that adopted by the Romans, of which wo have still many examples in the closely-wedged strata of polygonal blocks in the Appian, Pnenostine, and Latin Ways. .;*l^.. nAuuM AT Huauum LATER HISTORY OF MESSENIA. 327 Toward the southern part of the city are the remains of a small Theatre, looking to the south, and also of a Stadium with a similar aspect, which was environed on three sides by a colonnade. For some time after their restoration, the Messenians maintained an alliance with their neighbours the Arcadians, according to the advice of Epaminondas : they afterwards joined the Achaean League, but seem in a short time to have been alienated from that confederacy by the encroach- ments of their allies. In the year n. c. 183 the Achsean General Philopoemen fighting before these walls, was taken prisoner and cast into a dungeon, where he died. The city was soon afterwards stormed and taken by Lycortas the successor of Philopoemen, and Messene was again united to the Achsean Confederacy, with which it maintained its connection till the dissolution of the League. Thus the second existence of Messene lasted for two hundred and twenty-four years. It still retained the evidence of its former power in the third century of the Christian sera, and Pausanias, who then visited it, asserts tliat he could not indeed compare these fortifications, of which the vestiges still remain, with the walls of Babylon or the Memnonian bulwarks of Susa, for these he had never seen ; but cities such as Ambrysus, Byzantium, MCHULAS, HHOt'Bfe. and Rhodes, which in his judgment were more strongly defended than any others, could not bear a comparison with Messene. 328 PYLOS. There is but one harbour of any excellence on the western coast of the Peloponnesus. As might have been presupposed from such a cir- cumstance, it is a spot connected with many interesting recollections. This, the port of Pylus in Messenia, has from the time of the Trojan war to our own days, enjoyed a celebrity superior to that of any other similar place in the peninsula, with the exception of Corinth. Let us imagine a semicircular bay two miles and a half in diameter, lying from north-east to south-west. 6- F- SAIL6CMT hAVARlNO rKUH PYLOS— SPHACTERIA— NAVARINO. 329 Let us place a castle on each of its two horns, that on the northern being on a lofty ground and in ruins ; let us suppose a large lagoon stretching along the coast to the east of the latter, and fields of maize covering the lowlands near it ; let us add two small streams flowing down from the limestone hills on the east, and emptying themselves into the bay ; let us plant some small churches here and there on the eminences of these hills, and trace some mountain paths winding in an inland direction upon their surface ; on the southern horn of the bay let us place a large fortress of a pentagonal form, a number of small houses and a cemetery, and near it, further to the east, a small creek filled with Greek boats ; let us stretch across the harbour a long narrow island, leaving a passage between itself and the southern castle of rather more than half a mile, and one of about five hundred feet between its northern point and the other promontory of the bay, the latter being shallow and fordable, the former having an average of twenty-seven fathoms of water. We have then a picture of the ancient harbour of Pylus, and, as it is termed from the names of the castles we have mentioned, the modern bay of Navaeino ; the island of which we have spoken was called Sphactkkia. • PHACTKRU AND PYLOS, FROM NAVARINO. 330 HOMERIC SCENES AT PYLOS. Notwithstanding the exceptions which have been made, both in ancient and in modem time, to that supposition, we do not hesitate to recognise in the northern fortress, and the plain now occupied by the lagoon beneath it, the site of the sandy Pylus, the well-built city of the Neleian Nestor. With this spot wo may connect the scene described by Homer in the third book of the Odyssey. Here we may suppose Telemachus, attended by Minerva in Mentor''8 shape, landing with his companions. Here they found nine companies of Pylians, with five hundred persons in each, engaged in offering a sacrifice to Neptune on the sea-shore. Here sat Nestor with his sons. Here that intercourse took place between Telemachus and Minerva which presents so fair a specimen of youthful modesty supported and encouraged by Divine aid. Here Minerva rejoiced, as the Poet says, in the piety of the young Pisistratus, Nestor^s son, who had requested her to pray and make libations to Neptune, and then to give the cup for the same purpose to her companion, "^or that all men stood in need of the gods.''^ Hero the old Nestor wa« accosted with a reverential awe by the youthful son of his fellow-warrior Ulysses. Hero began the acquaintance between Telemachus and Pisistratus, who was nearly of the same age with himself, which was soon ripened into intimacy by their journey together in the same car from the city of Nestor, Pylus, to that of Menelaus, Laccdaemon. We should indeed bo loth to be without some local habitation for such scenes as these. We confess that we would willingly surrender the site of a field of battle in exchange for a fixed spot wherewith to combine those beau- tiful representations of the manners and feelings of the heroic times in Greece which the poetry of Homer has associated for ever with the name of KHOOL ur BATTLES OF SPHACTERIA AND NAVARINO. 331 Pylus. Nor do we suppose that any one who will examine the details he has given of the voyage of Telemachus from Ithaca, and his subsequent journey to Sparta, will entertain a doubt that the bay now before us is that in which ho landed when he came to inquire of Nestor concerning his father"'s fate. The reader will contrast, in his own mind, with these scenes, the other events of a different nature and character with which in more recent times the harbour of Pylos was connected. In the year b. c. 425, the island of Sphacteria, which lies in its front, was witness to the calamity so degrading and injurious to Sparta, which has been described with such remarkable accuracy by the historian of the Peloponnesian war. Twenty-one years after that event, Athens, which then won so splendid a victory, was destroyed. More than two thousand years after that time, she has now become again the Capital of Greece by a victory gained in 1827 upon the same spot. May the consequences of Navarino be more durable to her than those of Sphacteria ! CA8TLB or UODUN. Beside the harbour of Pylos, two other bays of Messenia deserve notice, — those of Methone and Colonides, — one the modem bay of Modon, the other that of Coron. They occupy respectively in the Messenian peninsula 332 MODON AND iiijL or tiirisraA Ano cttrv or Moooit. the same positions that the small bays of Anaphlystus and Thoricus do in that of Attica. The former, Modon, is four miles to the south of Pylos, being separated from it by a rocky ridge, on which stands the church of St. Nicolas. On the south of these heights is the town of Modon, built on a slip of coast jutting southward into the sea : near it is a lighthouse, C A ROAM VLB. CORON. 333 placed on the southern spit ot land which projects from it towards the island of Sapienza, which covers the bay of Modon on the south, as Sphac- teria does Pylos on the west. The bay is an unsafe anchorage, being exposed on the west side, and but little protected on the east. The town of Coron is placed beneath a slope, on a tongue of land which extends eastward for about half a league into the sea. Its roadstead is much exposed, except on the south-west. Its principal recommendation as a place of commerce consists in the great productiveness of its neigh- bourhood. It is also well supplied with wood and water. In general, the western or Messenian side of this gulf, called either the Gulf of Coron or of Kalamata, presents in its open plains, its rich fields and olive grounds, a striking contrast to the rugged barrenness of its eastern or Laconian coast. /I'/i Let us follow Telemachus in his journey, and direct our course to the east- ward along a level country for about thirty-five miles, and we shall arrive at 334 RUINS OF SPARTA. Pherae, not far from the Messenian Gulf. Hero ho and his friend unyoked their horses and reposed for the night. The next day they drove to Sparta, which is not quite a distance of thirty miles. Homer describes Lacedaemon, by which he seems to mean the Valley of the EuROTAS, and not merely the town of Sparta, by an epithet derived from the numerous ravines and chasms into which it is broken. The general features of this district have been before noticed. The site of the town itself, bearing some resemblance to Olympia, as being placed between two small streams flowing parallel to each other into a third, the Eurotas, -£ muraa om m msoru. may on account of the low hills upon which it stands be compared rather with that of Rome than with any important city on the soil of Greece. It is singular also that the principal remains which Sparta now exhibits are not of Greek but of Roman age and character. On entering the city from the modern village of Mistra, which is about four miles to the west of Sparta, we have on the left in the plain the ruins of Roman baths, and before us, further to the east, a hill surrounded with Roman walls of a late Imperial age. Upon the hill are the vestiges of a Roman temple, and below it to the east those of a Roman circus. To the north of the hill is an aqueduct of a similar character. The only Hellenic ruin of any note that survives at Sparta is a spacious Theatre. The prophecy therefore of Thucydides, with respect to the probable remains of 1 ■^1 ^:a>^^"L<^- y^ POSITION OF SPARTA AND ATHENS COMPARED. 336 ^'iLLAGB OF MI8TRA. Athens and of its rival city, has been fully verified. No one who looks upon these fragments would suppose, that the city to which they belong had ever held the sway of Greece. There is one important characteristic of her internal policy, in which Sparta presents a remarkable contrast to that of the capital of Attica, and which is forcibly suggested by the aspect of the physical objects about us, compared with those which we surveyed at Athens. Sparta seems by nature to be excluded from all communication from without. She was placed at the distance of many miles from the sea. She was hemmed in on all sides by lofty mountains. She lay secure and unmolested in her own nestlike valley. She possessed a plain sufficient to supply her frugal wants. She owned the rich neighbouring territory of Messenia on the west, productive of com and abundant in cattle. She was therefore all-sufficient to herself. At Athens the reverse of all this was the case. Everything there was free and open ; the sea was near, and the earth barren. It was on her efficiency abroad, not upon her self-sufficiency at home, that Athens was led by nature to depend. Hence the two different systems of Education adopted by these States, — systems which seem to have been dictated by the physical forms of the two countries 336 EDUCATION AT SPARTA AND ATHENS COMPARED. themselves. At Sparta, the distance of her position from the coast, the lofty hills with which her valley was pent, her situation at the extremity of Greece, so that no stranger would pass through her territory in his way to any other land,— all these her natural properties spoke of restraint and control, of abstinence and self-denial ; they prepared the way for the establishment and reception of a system founded upon the single principle of unhesitating and implicit obedience to the Law. In the objects about us at Lacedsemon we appear to recognise the elements that led to the creation of the spirit which is nowhere more truly or more emphatically described than in the epitaph engraved upon the tomb of the Spartan heroes who fell at Thermopylae, — " O stranger, go and tell the Lacedaemonians that we lie here in obedience to their commands." Not for personal glory, not even for public aggrandizement, THEBMOrTUK. DICTATED liY THE NATURAL FEATURES OF EACH. 337 not for the sake of national revenge, much less from private animosity, but because he was commanded to do so by the State, did the Spartan march to the field. At Athens, on the contrary, placed where she was, endowed with the advantages she possessed, and subject to difficulties and pri- vations greater than those advantages, the maintenance of such a system of education would have been a physical impossibility. Morally and politically, she dwelt at the an- tipodes of Sparta. Everything about her struggled against restraint ; everything was eager for the freest development of which it was capable ; all things in nature — her air, her soil, her wide plain, — her earth barren in corn and in pasture, but fertile in marble and in silver, — the sea flowing before her, — her excellent ports, formed by the hand of Nature, — the islands not far beyond them, tempting her, as it were, by degrees across the deep to the Asiatic coast and to all the regions of the East, — her facilities for communicating with strangers of all countries both at home and abroad, — these, and other circumstances of a similar kind, led to the adoption of a system of education of which the greatest possible development and exercise of individual energy was the object and the result. 338 NAME AND SITE OF MYCEN^. By a road which we have before traced we proceed from Sparta, the city of Menelaus, to that of his brother, Mycenae. The road from Nauplia thithor lies through the ArgoHc plain, winch is coulincd by a curved barrier of hills on all sides but the south, where it is bounded by the sea. Mycenre lies in the northern apse of this curve of hills, at a distance of nine miles from the head of the gulf. Hence no more appropriate designation could be devised than that which describes Argos, by which we mean the province and not the city, as hollow, and Mycenae as lying in the corner or PLAIN OF AROOS. A \^ ?^ V FORM AND APPEARANCE OF THE ARGOLIC PLAIN. 33'J recess of Argos. It seems not improbable that MycensD derived its name from the word in the ancient language signifying a " recess." The plain over which we pass in our way thither is dry and dusty, and has few objects to relieve its bare level. It is not intersected by hedges, and the few modern villages which are scattered over its surface are small and nearly deserted. They consist, in general, of a low church, of a well, whose stone edges are deeply furrowed by the ropes which draw up the buckets of water, of heaps of large hewn blocks of stone near them, and of a few mud cottages, on the walls of which, at the close of the summer season, stalks of Indian corn and tobacco are hung to dry. The distance from Nauplia to Mycen^ is about twelve miles. The road passes under the lofty rock on the south-east of Nauplia, on which stands the ancient citadel of Palamedi, and leaves the Cyclopean walls of Tiryns, the city of Hercules, at about a mile on the north from Nauplia, on the right hand. The ruins of Mycenae, concerning which some details have been given above, in the fifty -sixth and following pages, are in some respects unequalled in interest by any object in Greece. Their position is fortunate ; there is 340 CITADEL OF MYCENJE. no habitation on the spot, and you rise from a vacant plain to the deserted hill upon which they stand. The citadel occupied an eminence stretching from east to west, and supplying a platform of about a thousand feet in length, and half that distance in breadth. Two mountain-torrents, coming from the hills on the east, flowed in their rocky beds, one on the north, the other on the south, along the foot of the Acropolis, and thence were carried into the general receptacle of the neighbouring mountain-streams, the Argolic plain. The walls of the citadel may be traced in their entire circuit, and on the western side they rise to a considerable height. The interior of their enclosure, or area of the citadel, is covered '^ ^ with the common turf and mountain-plants of the country. Only a few foundations of ancient buildings remain, * and one or two cistoms hewn in the rocky soil and lined with cement. Such is the present state of the Acropolis of MycensB. C ^' KSHB OK TH« RtTSB FLAKITZA. It was entered by two gates, one on the north-east, the other on the north- west, and by two only. In an ancient city, gates seem to have been regarded P08TBRN OK M MYCENiE AND THE ILIAD CONTEMPORARY. 341 as necessary evils, which it was unsafe to multiply, and a largo number of them was considered honourable, as proving the confidence of the citizens in their own strength and courage to defend them. Hence the epithets applied to Thebes and other simi- lar cities. Nor was the line of the walls of the citadel of Mycenae varied by projecting towers; only two approximations to a tower- like structure occur in their whole circuit. These are placed to guard the two entrances of which we have spoken, and project in such a manner on the right-hand side of each gate that the sword-arm of an assailant was exposed to missiles hurled upon him by the besieged from the tower. Both these points are worthy of notice ; the connection of the gate and the tower, and the projection of the latter with a view to defence ; and in both these respects the construction of the citadel before us supplies an interesting commentary upon the military architecture presented to our notice in the Iliad of Homer. That poem and the walls of Mycenae seem to belong to the same age. In the Iliad, when a tower is mentioned, a gate is, we believe, always to be supposed as contiguous to it. Helen, for instance, is conducted to a tower that she may view from its flat summit the Grecian leaders on the plain of Troy. She is welcomed there by Priam and the Trojan Elders, who are described as sitting at the Scsean Gate. Andromache, in another passage, ascends a tower for a similar purpose; Hector goes in quest of her, and they meet, we learn, at the Scaean Gate. The usual contiguity of Gate and Tower is assumed to be well knoNvn to the hearers of the poem in these and in other places. But in cities more recent than Mycenae, and in poems more recent than those of Homer, although the gate never exists without a tower, yet a tower does not necessarily involve the presence of a gate near it. The principal, or north-western, of the two gates at Mycenae exhibits above its lintel the most ancient monument of sculpture in Greece. Those two lions, carved in low relief, are the only survivors of their age. This single block of green basalt on which they are graven contains all the history of the sculpture 342 MEANING OF THE GATE OF LIONS. of that period. What was the object of this work would seem unnecessary to inquire, after the elaborate disquisitions that have been produced upon it. It has been conjectured from the column which divides the two lions, and from its probable termination in a spiry flame — for the capital and epistyle are mutilated — that this device was a symbol of the solar worship, which Mycenae is supposed to have derived from its connexion with Persia. This supposi- tion is a bold one, and rests upon insecure foundations. Pausanias, sensi- tive as he was upon such subjects, and somewhat prone to find a mystical meaning where none was intended to be conveyed, does not seem to have considered these animals as affording any grounds for the application of a process by which sculptural representations are converted into scrolls of reli- gious hieroglyphics. To him they are mere lions. Standing as they do over the principal gate of Mycenae, through which the citadel was entered by all who had ascended from the plain of Argos below it, they seem to suggest a more simple conjecture, — that they were devised and placed there as signi- ficant intimations to the stranger of the strength and " couratje leonine " of that city which he was about to enter by the gate upon which they stood. They were thus heraldic badges upon the national scutcheon of Mycenae. The sculptured dogs placed at the entrance of the Palace of Alcinous, according to the description of Homer, indicated the vigilance with which it was guarded. KAUrLlA, rsUM THB MA THE ARGOLIC PLAIN. 343 The lions of Mycenre, in a similar position, declared tho bolder spirit which animated the inhabitants of that city. The King of Mycenie also, as we are told by Pausanias, bore a figure of Fear, with a Hone's head, emblazoned upon his shield : that animal, therefore, was probably not merely an appro- priate characteristic, but also a national emblem of the Mycensean power. '^, TmrOLITZA. A road issues from the Argolic plain on the south-west, which leads to the modern town of Tripolitza. The Argolic plain itself extends from north to south to the distance of about ten miles ; commencing at the head of the gulf^ and terminating in the mountain-passes which lead northward to the Isthmus of Corinth. Its breadth is equal to about half its length. The higher or more northern parts of this plain suffer from the want of water : whence the epithet applied to it by Homer, indicative of the thirstiness of the soil. The lower district of it, on the contrary, is covered by swamps during the greater portion of the year, and is intersected by the copious stream of the river Erasinus, which issues from a picturesque cave, formerly dedicated to Bacchus it. " ^ '^ and Pan, beneath the rocks of Mount Chaon, through which it has worked its way from the Arcadian lake of Stymphahis. A little beyond it to the south, on the sea-shore, are the Lernaean Marsh and the unfathomable pool of Halcyone, from which a large volume of water is carried after a short course into the gulf. The river Inachus, which comes ^ ARGOS— CITADEL— THEATRE. 345 AV OK NAUPLIA. from the higher part of the plain, rarely finds its way into the sea except when it has been swollen by a recent fall of rain : it then be- comes a broad and impetuous torrent. The city of Argos itself is three miles to the north of the gulf, and to the west of the gravelly bed of the Inachus, and at an equal distance from Lema and Nauplia, namely, six miles. Its Acropolis was a conical hill, nearly a thousand feet above the level of the sea, and connected by a neck of land with a lower platform on the north-east. The former was the old citadel of Phoroneus, and was called by the Pelasgic term for a fortress, Larissa, and also Aspis, or Shield, from its circular form. The latter, from the connexion above mentioned, was termed Deiras, or Neck. The principal remains of antiquity at Argos are seen in the substructions of this citadel, which are blended with works of modern date ; the three lines of ramparts and the three several castles of which the fortress consists being for the most part of Venetian architecture. Beneath the citadel, looking nearly to the south-east towards Tiryns, is a well-preserved specimen of an ancient Theatre, whose seats are hewn in the rocky soil ; they were divided into three separate tiers by two precinctions. In the lowest portion of the cavea there seem to have been thirty-six seats, 346 MYCEN^ ABSORBED IN ARGOS. sixteen in the second division, and upwards of fourteen in the highest. They were formed into cunei by three y'lvo. Such being the state of preservation in which this theatre exists, it is a very agreeable and not very difficult task to re-people it with the spectators which once thronged these now deserted seats, and to contemplate in fancy the actors who moved on the stage before them ; to indulge, in short, in that pleasing error which afforded so much delight to the Argivo nobleman of olden time, who, as Horace tells us, was wont to come to these very seats, while empty as they now are, and there dream away his time in listening to imaginary tragedies, a joyful sitter and applauder in a vacant theatre. But though the former glories of Argos have faded so as to have left such scanty traces behind them, yet from her ancient conquests she has been able to borrow and to appropriate to herself honours which do not strictly belong to her. In the year b. c. 468 the neighbouring city of Mycenae was taken and destroyed by the Argives. From that time the history of that ancient seat of the house of Atreus became merged in that of Argos, and thence it happens that events which really took place at MycenaB are trans- ferred by the dramatic poets of Athens to Argos, and so the gods and heroes, as well as the walls and inhabitants of Mycenae, may be said to have come into the possession of the victorious city, of whose history and mythology they have now become a part. Consistently with this notion, ^schylus, in his tragedies connected with Mycenae, has never once mentioned the name of Mycenae, but always sub- stitutes that of Argos in its stead ; while the other two tragedians use both the names Mycenae and Argos concerning the same subject. There are three routes from Argos to Corinth : the one the most circuit- ous, but also the most easy, issues from the Argolic plain at its north-west -.\ ROADS FROM ARGOS TO CORINTH. 347 angle, passes over some low hills and through a valley clothed with vineyards, then turns to the right, and arrives at Nemea ; thence bearing to the north- east, it leaves Cleon^ on the right, and arrives at its destination, after traversing a distance of about thirty miles. The other two roads are to the east of this, the one nearest to it following two narrow defiles after its exit from the plain, which were formerly known by the name of Tretus, or the perforated road, where the cave of the Nemean Lion was anciently shown, and which are now called the Dervenakia ; the other to the east of this, skirts the rugged mountains to the north of Mycense, and was termed of old the Contopokeia, or the Pedestrian track. These two latter routes, which are both shorter but more difficult than the first, were rendered memorable in the autumn of the year 1822, by the havoc which the Greeks made in the Turkish army when it was endeavouring to r)*r FROM AROOJ AKDCOtlKTM. 348 NEME A— TEMPLE AND STADIUM. escape by these defiles from the plain of Argos, into which it had rashly thrown itself without securing its retreat, and where it could no longer subsist, from the failure of provisions, from the drought of the plain, and from the prevalence of sickness. The Turks plunged into these Caudine Forks of Argolis in the hope of reaching Corinth, which was in the hands of their friends, and of finding supplies there. On two separate occasions, and in each of the routes we have mentioned, they were encountered by a destructive fire from the enemy above them ; thousands of them fell beneath the volleys discharged from the rocks, without the power of making any resistance or return ; horses, mules, and camels, fell into the hands of their foes in immense numbers ; all the baggage and treasure of the army was taken, and for several weeks afterwards all the towns of the Morea, in the words of the Author of the History of the Greek Revolution, who has vividly described these events, resembled so many auction marts, rich dresses and arms being offered for sale about the streets from morning to night. ftOIKa or TBB TRMPLB Ot JUPTTBR AT KXMU. There are but few remains at Nemea. Three columns alone survive to tell where the temple of the Nemean Jupite*»stood. It was once surrounded by a sacred enclosure, and embosomed in a cypress grove. Now there is but one solitary wild pear-tree upon the spot. Like Olympia, the place CORINTH— LECH^UM—CENCHREJE. 349 set apart for the celebration of the Nemean Games was a level plain ; it stretched from north to south, — was nearly three miles in length and one in breadth, — but it had not, like Olympia, an Alpheius to adorn it, and was watered only by several rills which flow down from the mountains that encircle it. The Stadium or race-course still exists ; it measures six hundred feet, the ordinary length of the places in Greece designed for such purpose ; it was hollowed in the slope of the hill to the south of the temple, and was entered from the north. Corinth has been called in modern times the Gibraltar of Greece. The town stands at half a league''s distance to the south of the gulf. Further to THB CITV OF COIlI>TH. the south is that magnificent hill, nearly nineteen hundred feet in height, which has served as the citadel of this place for three thousand years, and was called by its ancient inhabitants the Acrocorinthus. In former time, two long walls stretched from those of the city to the sea-shore, and con- nected it with its harbour in the Corinthian Gulf; the port there was called the Lechveum. A road led from Corinth to the south-east, which terminated, after a distance of about five miles, in its other harbour, — that of Cenchre^, on the Saronic Gulf. The traveller by land, who was going from the Palo- 350 ACROCORINTHUS. ponnesus to visit any of the cities of Nortliem Greece, passed beneath the walls of Corinth ; and all who came into the Peloponnesus from those cities entered it by the same route. By its two ports, therefore, Corinth commu- nicated at once with the eastern and western world ; while by the Isthmian road it had intercourse with the north and south. No wonder, therefore, that it was called " The wealthy." There are few remains of antiquity now surviving at Corinth. The traveller who arrives in the modern village from Nemea, perceives on his right hand five fluted columns of a very ancient date, which once formed avut o» oomirrB, moii thb AMocoRinrnuf. part of a temple. What the name of that temple was, is a subject for con- jecture alone. The ascent to the hill of the Acrocorinth is steep and difficult. The first gate, which is approached by a drawbridge, is flanked by an ~^: 1^ i"^' FOUNTAIN OF PEIRfiNE. :5-.l impregnable wall of rock on the right, and by artificial outworks on the left. From this gate a road leads to a hill on the south-west, in form like a truncated cone, upon which is a fortress: it is called Pente Skouphia. Proceeding upwards towards the summit of the Acrocorinth, wo enter a semicircular battery, and after seventy paces another gate, defended by artillery ; within it is the steep rocky fortress on the southern crest of the Acrocorinth. The eastern wall of this enclosure is strengthened by four square towers, and the angles are formed with ancient polygonal masonry. After a little more than a hundred paces we enter a third gate, on the right of which is a square tower of Pelasgic architecture, by which we pass into the large enclosure, which comprehends in its circuit the two northern crests of the Acrocorinth, on the eastern or higher of which are the remains of the ancient temple of Venus, on the site of which a mosque now stands. This larger enclosure seems to be comparatively easy of access, and has been entered by a besieging force along a path leading between the two crests, of which we have spoken ; and by a well-concerted attack at different points might, perhaps, be surprised, and could not easily be defended on account of its vast extent. If the eastern crest, which commands the whole citadel, were walled into a separate enclosure, it would seem almost impregnable. The large enclosure resembles a town ; it contains many houses, cisterns, churches, and mosques, — all which are now in ruins. There is a fountain in this enclosure, to the east of the southern crest of it ; it is approached by a descent on a subterra- nean slope, which is nine feet broad, and seems to have been covered with marble steps. The water is contained in a rectangular basin, at the termi- nation of the slope : above the water the rock is hewn into an architectural form, resembling the fa9ade of a small temple ; it consists of a tympanum supported by an architrave resting upon two anta?, and a pilaster in the centre of them : above the tympanum there is an arched vault. On the rock, near the water, are inscribed commemorations of vows offered in ancient times in this place, which was probably known in the earliest days of Corinth by the name of the Fountain of Peibene. BOU8B IN CORlNm. 362 PEGASUS ON THE COINS OF CORINTH. There are two other fountains in the lower part of the city, one at the foot of the citadel, the other in the modem town. The former was believed to be supplied from the source in the Acrocorinth, and is now called the Fountain of Mustapha ; that in the town is named Paliko. From the descriptions of Strabo and Pausanias, it is not easy to collect which of these three sources bore the name of Peirene ; but the probability is, that this was a title applied at different times to them all, or at least to the two first of the three, which were supposed to have a subterranean communication with each other. KTaIN AI 4A>JUJ»i We prefer to imagine that the Peirene, at which Pegasus was caught, while ho was drinking, by Bellerophon, was that source which springs from the rock on the summit of the Acrocorinth, and that it was from this high point that he soared aloft into the air. It is remarkable that the winged Pegasus appears upon most of the coins of Corinth and her colonies. The mythological analogy between the Horse and the element of Water, — an analogy which shows itself in the name of Pegasus, and which appears in the activity of both the animal and the element, each, in its own manner, struggling to burst from its confinement, foaming with restless fury, and, as it were, " pawing to get free," and at other times bridled, whether by reins of steel or stone, and in the circumstance that they both are to man o. ISTHMIAN STADIUM— THEATRE— PROPOSED CANAL. 3£3 the means of conquering distance and of conversing with things remote, — may have led to the adoption of this device ; and the symbol upon these coins was, perhaps, intended to express the national sense entertained by Corinth of the advantage which she enjoyed in the excellence and super- abundance of her fresh water ^ an advantage not possessed in the same degree by any other maritime city of Greece. A road which commences at the foot of the citadel, and winds toward the east among low shrubs and stone quarries, arrives, after a distance of about eight miles, at the ancient port of Schcenus. At about a mile short of that place is the site of the Sacred Grove, in which the Isthmian Games were celebrated. The only vestiges which survive of its ancient buildings, are those of the Stadium in the southern part of the enclosure, the shell of a Theatrh nearly three hundred yards to the north of it, and the foundations of the sacred precinct, which contained the Temples of Neptune and Pa- laemon. Immediately to the east of the enclosure are the substructions of the long line of Wall which stretched from the Saronic Gulf on the east to the Corinthian on the west, and defended the Isthmus ; and a little beyond, upon the western shore, are the excavations for the Canal of three miles and a half, by which Nero designed to unite the waters of these two Gulfs, and to make the Peloponnesus an Island. Returning towards Corinth from this part of the coast of the Corinthian Gulf, we pass, at a quarter of a mile from the eastern entrance of the modern town, the remains of an ancient Amphi- (r } ^r''oe^t o»i BRIDUS BETWEEN DAUALA AND TR>j>. fe£:i«=^, ^y^y. 1 ti -^. '" "'*-^r «^