CORNELL UNIVERSITY LIBRARY BOUGHT WITH THE INCOME OF THE SAGE ENDOWMENT FUND GIVEN IN 1 89 1 BY HENRY WILLIAMS SAGE Cornell University Library DF 719.L76 cenei^ of Greece and Its Islands, 3 1924 028 239 691 ^.„.. \^y XI Cornell University Library The original of this book is in the Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924028239691 THE SCENERY OP GREECE AND ITS ISLANDS, ILLUSTRATED BY FIFTY YIEWS, SKETCHED FROM NATURE, EXECUTED ON STEEL, AND DESCRIBED EN ROUTE, WITH A MAP OF THE COUNTRY, BY WILLIAM LINTON, CORRESPONDING MEMBER OP THE ARCHiEOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF ATHENS: AUTHOR OF "ANCIENT AND MODERN COLOURS," &C. ' And yet how lovely Land of lost gods and godlike men! art thou! Thy valea of evergreen, thy hills of snow. Proclaim thee Nature's varied favorite now; Thy fanes, thy temples, to thy surface bow. Commingling slowly with heroic earth—— Yet are thy skies as blue, thy crags as wild; Sweet are thy groves, and verdant are thy fields." — BTBOif. LONDON: PUBLISHED BY THE ARTIST, 7, LODGE PLACE, ST. JOHN'S WOOD ROAD. MTCCOLVI. ^• \'j~^'b {^% PEINTED BY HABBISOK AND SOUS, ST. MAETIH's lane, LONDON. TO EICHAED ELLISON, OF SUDBROOKE HOLME, IN THE COUNTY OP LINCOLN, ESQUIRE, Sfc, Sfc, Sfc, A DISTINGUISHED PEOMOTER OE THE FINE AETS OF HIS COUNTEY, THIS WOBK IS DEDICATED, WITH FEELINGS OF GRATITUDE, RESPECT, AND ESTEEM. P E E F A C E. These specimens of the Scenery of Greece were selected from upwards of three hundred Sketches, taken in almost every district of that interesting country. Those subjects have been preferred which appeared to unite the greatest amount of picturesque grandeur or beauty with the most stining or the most pleasing associations. They are arranged in the order in which they were visited by the Artist; and the letter-press which accompanies them, (and which consists chiefly of the observations which were recorded on the spot, together with a few of the most useful extracts which he had previously compiled for travel), is designed to comprehend a brief digest of the more prominent reminiscences, historical or poetical, connected with the several scenes ; while an union between them has been attempted, by short notices of the intervening scenery and antiquities, to render the excursion more intelligible and satisfactory as a whole. In this deUghtful region the Graces scattered their favours over the forms of things, as well as over the minds of men — " For Nature here Wanton' d as in her prime, and play'd at will Her virgin fancies Wild above rule or art." — Milton. " Greece combines, in the highest degree, every feature essential to the finest beauties of landscape. Travellers of taste have wanted words to describe the magnificence of the views which it aflfords. Its mountains, encircled with zones of wood and capped with snow, though below the Alps in absolute height, are, perhaps, as imposing from the suddenness of VI PREFACE. their elevation. Rich sheltered plains lie at their feet. Bat it is in the combination of these more common features, with so many spacious and beautiful inland bays and seas, broken by headlands, enclosed by moun- tains, and speckled and studded with islands in every variety of magnitude, form, and distance, that Greece surpasses every other country in Europe, and, perhaps, in the world. The effect of such scenery,, aided by a serene sky and delicious climate, on the character of the Greeks cannot be doubted. ' Under the influence of so many sublime objects, the human mind becomes gifted as by inspiration, and is by nature filled with poetical ideas.' Greece became the birth-place of taste, science, and eloquence, the chosen sanctuary of the Muses, the prototype of all that is graceful, dignified, and grand, in sentiment and action." ^ " Genius has breathed over it a perfume sweeter than the thyme of its own hills — has painted it with a beauty surpassing that of earth — ^rendered its atmosphere redolent for ever of human greatness and human glory — and cast so dazzUng an illusion over its very dust and ruins, that they appear more beautiful than the richest scenes and the most perfect struc- tures of other lands." ^ " ! attend. "Whoe'er thou art wlioin these delights can touch, Whose candid bosom the refining love Of Nature warms ; And I will guide thee to her favorite walks. And point her loveliest features to thy view." — Akenside. 7, LoBGE Place, St. John's Wood Eoad. ' Travels in Greece and Tv/rhey, hy Dr. E. D. Clarke, of Cambridge, and others. 2 The Manners and Customs of the Ancient Greeks, by J. A. St. John. A LIST OF THE PLATES. A Map of G-eeece to face page 1 1 Athens, and Colonua, and Hymettua, from the Academy 6 2 The Fountain Oallibhoe, or Enaeacraunus .... .... .... ... .... 7 3 Jtjpitee Oltmpius, the Temple of .... 8 •i Stjnittm, the Temple of .... 9 5 The Plain of Maeathon 11 6 The Castle of Phtle, Athens and Hymettus in the distance ... .... 15 7 Thebes, with the Euhoean mountains .... .... .... .... .... .... 16 8 Mount PAENASsrs, from the ruins of Haliaetus 17 9 Letadia; the Cliffs of Teophonius: — -moonlight .... 18 10 Letadia ; the old Castle — looking to Orchomenus and Lake Copais .... 19 11 Chlseonea, the Acropolis and plain of .... .... .... .... .... 20 12 Delphi; the Parnassian Cliffs ... 22 13 Delphi; the Castalian fount 23 14 Ceisso; on the descent from Delphi .... .... .... .... .... .... 26 15 Salona, and the western heights of Parnassus.... .... .... .... ... 27 16 ELErsis, with its plain, and bay ... .... 33 17 Aeeopagtts, with the Athenian Acropolis ... 34 ^G.*AlSr ISLANDS. 18 The Temple in .^GiNA ; mount G-eranion in the distance .... 36 1 9 Stea ; the upper and lower towns : Tenos, Myconi, and Delos, in the distance 41 20 Delos ; with Ehenea, Tenos, and Andros .... ... .. .... .... 43 21 Htdea 44, 22 PoEOS, with the shores of Troezen, and mount Omolithi ... ... 47 THE MOEEA. 23 PiDATEO, or Epidauetjs, from the bay 49 24 Piada ; ^gina and Methana in the distance .... .... .... .... .... 50 25 Nauplia, or Napoli di Eomania, with the Fortress rock Palamide .... 53 26 Napoli di Eomania, from the lower citadel 54 27 Aegos ; with its citadel, Larissa .... ... ... .... . 56. 28 Megalopolis, the Valley of, with mount Ltceus ... .... .... .... 60 29 Spabta ; Misthra Castle and the ruined Turkish town 64 Vlll A LIST OF THE PLATES. PASE 30 Spaeta ; the town and Castle of Misthra, with Mount Taigeton 65 31 Spaeta ; the Eavine of the Pantalimone, and the plain 66 32 Mount Taigeton, the Pass of .••• 66 83 Messenia, the plain of, with the Pamisus, and Mount Taigeton .... .... 68 34 Aekabhia, the Citadel, town, and bay of ... .... .... .... ... 69 35 Neda, Valley of the— Moonlight 71 36 Apollo Epicueitjs, the Temple of, at Bassae — Phigalieia ... 78 37 Kaeitbna ; the citadel, town, and bridge .... .... .... 75 38 The Eiver Alphbtjs, with the Nomian Mountains 76 39 The Elvers Alpheits, Ladon, and EsTMANTHrs, looking towards Olympia ... 77 40 Clitoe, the Valley of, with Mount Khelmos.... 79 41 Kalabeita .... .... 80 42 The Sttx 81 48 Lake Phonia 83 44 Lake Stymphaltjs, with Mount Ctllbite 84 45 CoEiNTH ; the Temple and Citadel 86 46 MEftASPiLiON ; its rocks and Monastery J from the Terrace .... 90 47 Megaspilion; from the garden 90 IONIAN ISLANDS. 48 Zantb; its citadel and port ... .... 94 49 Cephalonia ; Argostoli and the Black Mountains 95 50 CoEFTj , 96 THE SCENEM OE GREECE. The Tour of Greece is usually commenced either from Corfou or from Athens. The former route is the one selected by those who arrive at the Ionian Islands through Germany or Northern Italy, the latter by travellers who take Malta and probably Southern Italy in their course. It is perhaps preferable to commence with the Greek metropolis under any circum- stances, since it will be found the most convenient centre from which the several detached tours of the country may be made ; being the best place also to obtain guides, horses, and provisions, and the safest as a depository for extra luggage. This arrangement will prevent the traveller from being disappointed at the outset by privations which would be very likely to confront him, if, in order to save distance, he landed on any obscure part of the coast ; since the same steamer would, in another day, convey him round the Morea to Athens. As the most interesting locality in all Greece too, Athens demands the tourist's freshest and best atten- tions. A short residence here cannot fail to confirm his most ardent expectations, whilst it will enable him to prepare for his perambulations in the provinces. In Athens only will he be able to furnish his canteen, to purchase his bedding and cooking utensils, and make such other arrange- ments as may ensure him the least possible discomfort when he finds himself in the wilds, far away from house and home : — and from Athens he must take his letters of introduction to the various officials at the different towns and villages, whose hospitable attentions are ever ready to "welcome the coming," though not to "speed the parting, guest." After the tourist has pursued his ocean track about two hundred miles B 2 THE SCENERY OF GREECE. to the eastward of Malta, the bold and rocky headlands of the Morea are the first objects which salute him on his approach to the classic shores of Greece ; and the mountains of Maina, o'ertopped by the giant Taigeton, form the highest group that presents itself. On the left, the hills of Navarino are seen rising out of the blue waters ; while the island of Cerigo (CytherEea), with the opposite heights of ancient Sparta, appear, as he advances, to close the scene. Every island, rock, and mountain, now assumes an intense interest — an interest which nothing less than Greece and her associations can excite. Several of the Cyclades, as he passes, wiU perhaps tempt him to wish for a private steamer, to make the tour of the whole of the islands of the Archipelago. Luxuries like these, however, are seldom at the beck of those who can appreciate them, and, of course, mostly sighed for by those who are only too glad to obtain a glance at such interesting scenes as they are best able. The promontory of Sunium, on the threshold of Attica, crowned by its beautiful temple of white marble, is the first point to attract the attention. The island of Belbina (Agios Giorgios) on the left, Patroclus (Guidaronesi) on the right, as he passes the cape, and ^gina, with its peaked mountain, Ores, in front. The fine forms of the mountains on each side of the bay, will further assure him that the reputation of Greece for those beautiful landscape elements is not the mere suggestion of fancy. The temple of Jupiter Panhellenius exhibits itself on an elevated hilly range of the island of^gina, surrounded by stunted brushwood; and soon afterwards Salamis ^ stretches out its brown and rocky hills in front, the low islet of Lipsocutali (PsyttaHa)^ lying at its base. As the tourist enters the Pirsean harbour, he will observe the throne of Xerxes on Mount JEgaleus, which appears on the right of the little island,^ and immediately over the great circular tomb, erected to the Athenians who fell at Salamis, on the western peninsula of the harbour. " A king sat on the rocky brow Which looks o'er sea-born Salamis ; And ships by thousands lay below, And men in nations : — all were his ! He counted them at bre;ik of day — And when the sun set, where were they 1" — Byuon. ' " Salamis hath many high rooks and cliffs, but withall several fruitful valleys running between them." — Sib Geobse Wheeler. - " The promontory beyond Lipsocutali, Cynosura, yet contains the ruins of the trophy erected after the battle of Salamis. It was a column on a circular base. There is a tower on the main-land opposite." — Sir William Gell. ' " Exactly opposite Psyttalia, on an eminence, is a heap, where was placed the seat of Xerxes." — Id. THE SCENERY OF GREECE. 3 On the eastern peninsula, which he has just passed (the promontory of Munychia), several frusta of the column dedicated to Themistocles may be seen near the water's edge, among antique tombs or sarcophagi cut in the li^-ing rock. But this rich succession of stirring sights, enough for a whole tour in any other district of the globe, is soon cast into shade by the first glimpse of the Acropolis and Parthenon, looming as it were over the newly-restored seaport, and backed by Mounts Lycabettus, Pentelicus, and Hymettus.* The three ancient harbours, with their numberless but almost shapeless antiquities, as foundations of walls and towers, cisterns, baths, granaries, &c., will probably induce a separate visit, when the tourist has abated his enthusiasm by a few days' sojourn in the metropolis of ancient art. NOETHEEN GEEECE. ATTICA. " While, strictly speaking, Attica occupies a space in the map which is hardly perceptible, to how many square miles, or rather thousands of square mUes, in the social and political geography of the world, does Attica extend ! 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 iu the speech, of men, and it will never cease to do so ; it is not enough to say that it lives in the inspi- ration of the poet, in the eloquence of the orator, and in the speculations of the philosopher. Besides this, 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 temples, and palaces, and council-rooms of capital cities, give sensible witness — and will do for ever. The genius of the Athenians made their speech universal ; the treasures which they deposited in it rendered its acquisition essential to aU : 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." — Dr. Wobdswokth. ATHENS. " Behold Where on the jEgasan shore a city stands, Built nobly, pure the air, and light the soil, ATHENS — the eye of Greece, mother of arts."— Miltok. The huge walls of Piraeus, and the olive grove of Academe, obtain a passing glance as the tourist is whirled along the new road to the Athenian capital. Here the architectural glories of the Acropolis are the first to arrest his attention — those illustrious monuments, from the canons of ' The Acropolis is estimated at 579 English feet above the sea ; Lycabettus, 903 feet ; Mount Pames, 4592 ; Mount Pentelicus, 3637 ; and Mount Hymettus, 3341. — See " Greece as a Kingdom,'' by Frederick Strong, 1842 : a very, elaborate volume on the resources of revolutionized Greece. B 2 4 THE SCENERY OF GREECE. whose exquisite symmetiy there is no appeal, even to this day ; and whose sculptural decorations (probably enjoying too high a renown to be permitted to encounter the hazards of war) have long since been removed to give law to British art — while the Turkish hovels, which till recently defiled the splendours of the sacred peribolus, are all swept away; the propylsea cleared of the barbarous fortifications with which it was enveloped, and the ^gaean and the mountains, and the Piraeus, are seen through its snowy columns, as in days of yore — the little Temple of Victory without wings also, risen from its grave in its original substance as well as form ; and the marble chariot-way, up which the Panathenaic procession used to pass to the shrine of Minerva, exposed to the light of day after an inhumation of centuries ! " Come, blue-eyed maid of Heaven ! Goddess of Wisdom ! here thy temple was, And is, despite of war and wasting fire." — Byron. The beautiful little Temple of Theseus next presents itself to the traveller's attention — the columns of Jupiter Olympius, the most majestic ruin in Athens — the little gem of Lysicrates, entirely freed from its former rubbish — the portico of the Agora — the Clepsydra— the Academy — the Pnyx — the Areopagus — the Musseum, and the Stadium. Besides these relics of antiquity, there are grottos, caves, and foun- dations in abundance : the former exist as in ancient days, while many of the latter depend for their names upon the various readings of Pausanias, who describes them in a tour through the city from a particular gate of entrance about the site of which classical antiquarians are not agreed. The Roman forum delights in a similar uncertainty with respect to the names attached to its ruins : aS an eminent author remarks, they are made to change sides and back again, like the votaries of Terpsichore ; baths are turned into palaces at pleasure, palaces into temples ; whilst, at a century's end, their dance is concluded, and they are all recognized in the same places again. The kings of Naples seem to have taken a hint from their antiquarian neighbours of Rome ; but instead of exhuming the treasures of Herculaneum and Pompeii at once, and then depending upon a change of names for future attraction, they have proceeded with greater caution, occupying as much time as possible in their excavations, and yet so ingeniously managing them as to keep public anxiety constantly alive. At Athens, however, the whole secret is out; and, except from the little - contentions about Pausanias and his giro, nothing new in the way of discovery is looked for of any THE SCENERY OF GREECE. 5 importance. But the monuments of the Cecropian citadel need no metamorphoses to sustain their world-wide reputation and interest, for they are the noblest ever erected by man, and that alone insures them a prestige which no evolutions of fashion can shake, and no scholastic controversies obscure. There is a quality of artistic mind about these great works, that wiU reign triumphant as long as good taste is to be found, whether they were dedicated to gods, heroes, or demons. They are not valued for their mere arftiquity, but for their intellectual worth ; they are the landmarks that tell of an sera when man put forth his greatest powers, and achieved the greatest glories in art. They are not the offspring of a capricious and unbridled fancy; but elaborate compositions based on the demands of fit- ness and propriety, adorned by the most beautiful invention, and perfected by the soundest taste. The temporary prejudices of peoples and classes have left no mark upon them but what may be considered universal. Their excellences are not esteemed from their being definable by dates, or traceable to epochs ; but because they are based upon those immutable principles which belong to all time ; principles that are as new to-day as they were twenty centuries ago ; and which, unless the world again relapses into barbarism, wHl never cease to be appreciated and revered. It is much to be regretted that the tourist's first visit to the Acropolis should not be one of unalloyed pleasure. Time and war, those fell destroyers both of man and his works, require no assistance in their machinations : for these he comes in a measure prepared ; but he is keenly alive to the dilapidations which have been entailed upon the anti- quities by the tasteless rapacity of dUettanti travellers. The mutUator.s of fingers and toes, of ears and noses, the authors of "elegant extracts"" from celebrated statues, now rank only as vulgar aspirants to dilettanti distinction ; but the purloiner of a group, or what is far more heroic, the appropriator of a thousand statues, is sure to command a meed of fame which none can dare to dispute. The very magnitude of the mischief overpowers complaint, and criticism is disarmed and awed into submission, if not approval.^ When Spon and Wheeler visited Athens (in 1676), the Parthenon was entire ! ' " Such rapacity is a crime against all ages and all generations ; it deprives the past of the trophies of their genius, and the title deeds of their fame ; the present of the strongest inducements to exertion, the noblest exhibitions that curiosity can contemplate ; the future of the masterpieces of art, the models of imitation. To guard against the repetition of such depredations is the wish of every man of genius, the duty of every man in power, and the common intei'est of every civilized nation." — Eustace's Classical Tour in Italy. To effect this desirable object, and establish a museum for the disconnected and fragmental antiqui- ties of all Greece, the Archseological Society of Athens was established some years ago, each member THE SCENERY OF GREECE. PLATE I. -ATHENS FKOM THE ACADEMY. " See there the olive grove of Academe, Plato's retirement, where the Attic bird Trills her thick-warbled notes the summer long." — Milton. The Academic Grove is as flourishing as ever in its natural products, and its present proprietor, who has a most dehghtful casino among the trees, the walls of which he has ornamented with many a beautiful sculptured relic of the best ages, collected in this his territory, neglects no means of preserving its character as a pleasant suburban retreat.^ A rough pile of masonry near the road-side constitutes the only visible relic of the ancient wall.^ From the known longevity of the olive, however, some of which are ascertained to have lived upwards of a thousand years, we may discover more characteristic and more lively remembrances of the classic grove, in the present leafy generation (which is probably only the next in descent from .the very trees which sheltered the great philosophers of antiquity), than in a shapeless heap of stones. This view of Athens is from the first floor of the casino, overlooking "the grove ;" and comprises the Acropolis with the Temple of Minerva- being pledged to oppose the future removal of antiquities from the country ; and when such personages as the Kings of Prussia and Denmark are honorary presidents, and such individuals are on the list of members as the ambassadors of England, France, America, and Russia, with Thorwaldsen, ChampoUion, Pouqueville, lamartine, Leake, Inglis,, Wordsworth, i<6ii€6' aKpov APrjvav." ' — HoM. Od. 3. The tourist now prepares for his visit to Sunium, in which, from the difficulties of the path, he is obhged to consume three days. A barren ride round the eastern end of Hymettus, brings him in a few hours to Porto Raphti (ant. Prasise), after passing the village of Makropulo. The shores, the hills, the island, are deserted and bare. The sea and sky, and the naked bay, are all that are left of the splendours of the scene that witnessed the departure of the Theoria of Nicias for Delos; one of the most gorgeous dedications of classic antiquity. Excepting some cultivated ' Vitruvius, proem, lib. xxxvi. c. 6. * Suetonius, in Vit. Aug. " Lib. i. ' Wilkins' Atheniensia. ' The architectural world is indebted to the enterprising spirit of Mr. Vulliamy, the distinguished architect, who, with his friend. Captain Edward Jones, ascended the columns and obtained the details of the capital and entablature, in the year 1820. « Sir William Gell's Itinerary of Greece. ' But when Athena's temple we came nigh. Glistening on Sunium's height, against the sky. C 10 THE SCENERY OF GREECE. landscape on departing from the wretched hoveP at Keratik, all is sterile as before ; the remains of a theatre and a Doric temple at Thoricus, one of the twelve ancient towns of Attica, and some acres of cinders spread over the ground where the ancient silver mines of Laurion were worked, are nearly all that ensure a cursory notice until the distant columns of Sunium glisten in the sky. " Save where Tritonia's airy shrine adorns Colonna's cliff, and gleams along the wave." — Bxbon. On a bold and rocky headland, at the embouchure of the Athenian estuary, stand the remains of the white marble Doric Temple of Minerva Suniade. They consist of fourteen columns, and one in antis ; the ruins of its propylsea are also visible, as well as the walls of the town or demos. ^ From the summit of its elevated platform, almost down to the water's edge, its glittering remains, intermingled with bushes of mastic, low cedars, and evergreens, are seen scattered about in every direction. The peribolus of the temple of Sunium affords a most extensive prospect of sea and islands and mountains. " Place me on Sunium's marbled steep, Where nothing save the waves and I May hear our mutual murmurs sweep ; There, swanlike, let me sing and die."^ — Bybos. ' To and from Sunium the tourist must plant his bed where he is able, and unless he can make himself happy under the coarsest fare, he had better look after his canteen. People live so much out of doors in this climate, that to obtain a roof to keep off the dew, is almost as much as should be expected among the cottages. The mansion-house of the Demark or Mayor of Keratia was the first provincial abode whose hospitality the writer sought in Greece. An arched entrance, with large gates, received his little cavalcade. The building consisted' of a square in closure of high walls of stone, against the inner sides of which were attached sloping roofs or sheds all around, some of them closed in front, having each a door ; others had arched fronts, with boarded floors. Northern travellers prefer being closed up from the outward air, a little experience generally corrects this desire. The horses stood with their saddles on all night, near a well in the middle of the square. The mayor and mayoress, their daughter, and a priest her husband, with two brothers, in their daily habiliments, all lay at fuU length on the boarded floor beneath the arcade, sleeping soundly. To remedy the inconveniences and discomforts of a Grecian tour, there is nothing so efiectual as a well-provisioned tent, with troops of friends, and servants, and horses ; but the tented traveller, though be may see the country, is kept aloof from the people, in consequence of his board and lodging being at his own command ; this is probably no great sacrifice at the time, but it is very likely to be regretted afterwards. ^ Sunium was fortified by the Athenians in the Peloponnesian war ; portions of its walls appear in the foreground of the accompanying view. ^ See the Ajax of Sophocles, 1236. '^yivoifxav, Xv vKaiv eTrea-n." &c. Would I were on the woody height O'erhanging Sunium's sea-beat shore, (fee. In the time of the ancient poet this noble scenery appears to have been adorned with trees : in that of the modern poet there is scarcely a tree to be seen. This is another among the many instances of the disadvantage under which the modern tourist views some of the most remarkable scenes of Grecian story. To an English eye, especially, a woodless district has a most comfortless look at all times, however it may harmonize with the sentiment of desolation conveyed by the sight of a lonely ruin of great antiquity. The noble old trees around the Temple of Phigaleia add much to its scenic beauty and interest ; and if the Temples of Psestum had been still surrounded by the forest in which they were discovered, buried as it were in vegetation, some two or three centuries ago, the attractions of the scene, if not its salubrity, would have been enhanced. If the woods of Sunium had still existed, like the olive groves of Academe, its recollections of the past would have been more agreeable. It is melancholy enough to contemplate the ruined works of a great people, long extinct ; but it is miserable to find the natural graces of their ancient localities extinct also. THE SCENERY OF GREECE. 11 The ^^ew here given is from near the peribolus looking westward along the Saronic Gulph ; the island of Guidaronesi (ant. Patroclus) appearing in front, and the Peloponnesian and ^ginetan mountains in the background. At the foot of the descent, on the right hand, was the ancient port of Sunium, a demos of Athens, which was fortified by the Athenians in the Peloponnesian war. The harbour is a deep and capacious basin of lava, and the whole promontory and surrounding district speak intelligibly of former igneous convulsions. The base of the Sunian cliff on the left was the scene of Falconer's shipwreck : — " While shoreward now the bounding vessel flies, FuU o'er her van St. George's cliffs arise. But now Athenian mountains they descry, And o'er the surge Colonna frowns on high ; Beside the cape's projecting verge are placed A range of columns long by time defaced ; Foams the wild beach below with madd'ning rage, Where waves and rocks a dreadful combat wage. A troop of Grecians who inhabit nigh, And oft these perils of the deep descry, Roused by the blust'ring tempest of the night. Anxious had climb'd Colonna's neighbouring height ; When gazing downward on the adjacent flood, Full to their view the scene of ruin stood ; The surf with mangled bodies strew'd around ! And those yet breathing on the sea- washed ground !" — Falconeb. On returning towards Athens, the temple and promontory of Minerva again display a bold subject for the painter; after which a dreary and rough ride to the Cecropian city is only reheved by a Claude-like peep at the gulf and islands over the valley of Anaphlystus, and by a short detour to the curious cave near Bari. PLATE V.-MAEATHON. " The mountains look on Marathon, And Marathon looks on the sea. And musing there an hour alone, I dream'd that Greece might still be free ; For standing on the Persian's grave, I could not deem myself a slave."— Byron. Having performed the tour of Sunium, the traveller will prepare for that of Marathon, and Rhamnus, and Pentehcus (ant. Brilessus). The pretty village of Kephissia, one of the few specimens of a suburban c 2 12 THE SCENERY OF GREECE. retreat in Attica which offer any temptation to a prolonged residence, is the only point of interest that presents itself, previous to the ascent to Pentelicus, and its quarries and convent. The convent is a miserable- looking place, but the views from its neighbourhood, as well as from the quarries, which are at some distance, looking back to Athens, Hymettus, and the Saronic Gulf, with Egina and the mountains of the Morea, are of the finest kind. The quarries, which furnished the marble for the erection of the unrivalled edifices in the Acropolis, have an interest peculiar to themselves. The old road up the side of the hill, the steep and well-built incline for the descent of the blocks, a noble work of the ancients, and the huge and 'high marble precipices above, overgrown with trees, plants, creepers, and grassy coverings, on their varied summits and ledges, and stained on their fronts with all the colours on the palette or in the rainbow, convey a melancholy impression of the lapse of ages. The temples to which they gave birth have been in ruins for centuries, and the snow-white cliffs are resuming their original vestments, as if to forbid the further encroach- ments of man upon their hallowed treasures. Having freely given their resources to the ennobling and adorning of the brightest ages of human culture, they seem desirous of returning to their original obscurity ; the dust and weeds which once covered them are fast hastening to cover them again. After a rough and rapid descent from the quarries into the plain, and a few hours toil over rocky ground, interspersed with clumps of brushwood, occasionally the resort of klephts, the plain of Marathon appears in aU its glory, on descending the precipitous woody defile to the convent of Vrana. The accommodations at the convent are very miserable, but a day's ride over the plain, among objects of such intense interest, cannot fail in its recompense ; here, at least, the naked wildness of the scenery is in harmony with its associations. " Where'er we tread, 'tis haunted, holy ground, No earth of thine is lost in vulgar mould. But one vast realm of wonder spreads around, And all the Muses' tales seem truly told. Till the sense aches with gazing to behold The scenes our earliest dreams have dwelt upon. Each hill and dale, each deepening glen and wold. Defies the power which crush'd thy temples gone ; Age shakes Athena's towers, but spares grey Marathon." '— Btkoit. ' At the battle of Marathon, which took place 490 years before Christ, eleven thousand Athenians (fee are said to have conquered one hundred and twenty thousand Persians. The site of the ancient demos of Marathon is believed to be at Varna, near the convent above mentioned. " The battle of Marathon was the most important, not only to Greece, but to the whole world, that was ever fought. It is not too much to assert that we feel its effects to this day ; and that, if we THE SCENERY OF GREECE. 13 Before the tourist returns to Athens, he will feel much interested by a visit to Rhamnus (now Hebraio, or Obrio, Castro), the city of Nemesis, an ancient site on the shore of the Euripus, not far distant from the northern confines of the plain of Marathon. About a mile beyond the tall bassi tempi tower, at the base of a mountain, on the left of the great plain, the path begins to ascend the tufted downs. On the right hand, a few hundred feet distant, stands a group of forest trees, beneath whose shade commences the peribolus of a temple, which stands twenty or thirty feet above the plain. A few square blocks, and several frusta of white mar- ble columns, trace the outline of the inclosure. As this antiquity does not appear to have been noticed by any tourist, ancient or modern, and as it is not marked in the larger surveys of Greece, the writer has every reason to presume that he is the first to record its existence. From this spot, and looking over the scanty ruins, a very extensive view of the great battle plain presents itself, with the whole range of Pentelicus sweeping across the distance, beneath which the tomb of the Athenians may be seen : the Venetian tower forms, with its mountain background, the right hand screen of the picture, and the sea appears over the marsh in which the Persians perished on the left. After a few miles spent in tortuous gyrations among hills and straggling woods of lentisk, arbutus, and wild pear, the tourist comes suddenly into view of the Straits of Euboea, with the noble mountains of that island rising along the opposite shore, and the wooded knoll of Rhamnus, its two Cyclopean temples of Nemesis, on an Acropohs ; and, a Uttle lower down, its city gate, directly beneath the eye, half covered with trees. The great statue of Nemesis, by Phidias, has disappeared. A more romantic district can scarcely be imagined than the whole of the coast between Chalcis and the Cynosura of Marathon, more especially when seen from the higher grounds, as the views they command of this lake-like estuary are of a truly magnificent description ; but as subjects for landscape art, the ruins of Rhamnus are somewhat ineligible, consisting of little more than founda- tions, the gate excepted ; and being almost buried in foliage, they are scarcely evident at even a short distance. Rhamnus is not the only spot in Greece whose associations and general scenery afford high gratification, have produced anything excellent in art or science, we owe it to the triumph of the Greeks in that memorable conflict. Had Greece been overwhelmed by the host of barbarians which then assailed her, she would have been erased from the list of nations, and become the province of a barbarous eastern empire, uor have given birth to that illustrious succession of great men, whose works civilized their contemporaries, and have served as models for whatever is pure and noble in composition from that age to the present." — Haygarth's Greece. " It was an engagement that was to decide the liberty of Greece, and what was of infinitely greater moment, the future progress of refinement among mankind." — Goldsmith. 14 THE SCENERY OF GREECE. but furnish little material for the portfolio. The painter's art requires some marked feature in each scene to form a satisfactory composition. The scenery of Rhamnus, and its adjoining gulf and distant mountains, look well in a bird's eye view, but such scenes are generally too map-like and incom- plete for pictures, however gratifying they may be to the general observer. Thousands of grand and beautiful scenes obtain the admiration of the painter, as he travels through nature's favoured regions-, which never reach his sketch-book ;^ those which he judges most suitable to his art he records, the rest serve for general observation, and if they do not constitute a portion of the stock which he carries away as "facts accomphshed," they seldom fail to make an impress on his memory, and form chains of connection among those which have been selected for portraiture.^ About half or three-quarters of a mile south of the tomb of the Athenians, and on the sea-shore, the writer visited a small islet, containing many stelse, frusta of small columns, an architrave, and other remains of marble tombs and temples. J^o history is pretended to belong to them ; they are slowly and silently disappearing, with the aid of the winds and the waves. The view of Marathon represented in this plate is from the descent among rocks and woods to Vrana, which village is seen at the foot of the Pentehc hills on the right. The tumulus appears on the plain, not far from the edge of the bay, and the Charadrus may be observed stretching across the plain, on its way to the sea. The distant promontory is the Cynosura, at whose junction with the plain are the bogs or marais where the Persians suffered so much loss. The island of Negropont, or Eubcea, is in the distance ; and those who are famihar with the mountain outlines of our English lake scenery, will probably be forcibly reminded of Langdale Pikes, by the two higher peaks which appear in this view. The convent of Vrana is a frequent resort for travellers ; but very respectable quarters may be found at the modern village of Marathon, which lies up the valley on the left, on the banks of the Charadrus, which is here a broad and picturesque stream. > " Quam multa vident pictores in umbris et in eminentiis quae nos non videmus."— Ciceko Academ. Quest., lib. iv. ' ' For an interesting account of Rhamnus and its temples, see Dr. Wordsworth's " Athens and Attica ;" and for drawings of them, see Mr. Gandy's work. THE SCENERY OF GREECE. 15 PLATE VI.-PHYLE. "xiopiov liTxvpov." — Xenophon. " Spirit of Freedom ! when on Phyle's brow Thou sit'st with Thrasybulus and hia train." — BvaoN. The traveller now leaves Athens for the tour of Northern Greece. Until he has crossed the Athenian campagna, and fairly entered the gorge of Phyle, he will find little to attract his attention, except an occasional retrospect of the immortal city. This pass is one of savage grandeur — rocks, and trees, and torrents, tumbled about in admirable confusion: so perfect indeed is the chaos that a passage through its dark defile is not to be found without scaling wooded precipices, which are steep enough to hurl the horse and his rider back into the ravines he has crossed, unless great caution as well as resolution be at command. Having arrived, after innu- merable ascents and descents, at the summit of the pass, the tourist will observe the old Hellenic castle of Phyle, hanging over one of the numerous precipices which spring from the brook below. The waters may be heard, but not seen, gurgling at the bottom of the chasm, and working their way through the rude labyrinth whence he has just emerged, into the great plain of Athens, of which, as the Kephissus, they constitute the principal river. It was in this, one of the frontier castles of Attica, that the patriot Thrasybulus assembled his small band of comrades before he commenced the attack upon Athens which relieved her from the thraldom of the Thirty Tyrants.^ ''The pass being very narrow, was effectually defended by this small fortress ; which, connected as it is with one of the most remarkable events in Athenian history, furnishes the most interesting accompaniment that can be imaginjed to the magnificent view which the castle commands of the plain of Athens, the city, mount Hymettus, and the Saronic Gulf." From Phyle ^ the path into Bceotia descends towards the valley of the Asopus, which river it crosses on the way to Thebes. The country around ' " From Phyle, Thrasybulus (b.o. 404,) descended into the Athenian plain, with a band of seven hundred men. His first aim was the town of Acharnas, which lies to the south east of that fortress. It was 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 he expelled the forces of the Tyrants, and was thus furnished with means of effecting an entrance into the city itself and of rescuing it from their hands." — Dk. Wordsworth. ' Col. Leake. ' " The town of Phyle was situated near the foot of the Castle Hill or Acropolis, some traces of it still remain, consisting of the foundations of a square tower, and a transverse wall to guard the pass ; several large blocks are here scattered abovit, with a clear spring of water rippling among the ruins of the town. The date of the foundation of Phyle is unknown.'' — Dodwell's Cydopeiaii and Pdasgic Retnains. 16 THE SCENERY OF GREECE. appears bleak and cheerless, and vegetation seems to have fled the whole district. Having. loitered away more than the usual allowance of time at the Castle of Phyle, the writer was fain to set up his hammock for the night in a cottage near the banks of a clear and rapid stream, a few hours further, instead of completing his journey to Thebes. The whole family? old and young, except infants, sat round the fire on the bare earth, Turkish fashion, and about midnight they were all strewn out where they had sat, fast asleep. Three hours and a half of much needed rest was all that could be obtained in this over-peopled hovel; for the moment the light was perceived through the crevices of door or window, "bright chanticleer proclaimed the dawn" from the rafters above, in screams loud enough to endanger the tympanum of a northern ear, and all hope of further repose was banished. Poultry, calves, donkeys, and even the lords and ladies of the creation themselves, were compelled to shake off the lingering influence of the drowsy god and rush from the murky cabin to the purling brook, ere they could feel themselves sufficiently awake for the day. Noah's ark could scarcely have sent forth a more motley assemblage. BCEOTIA. PLATE VII -THEBES. '' Saxa Cithseronis Thebas agitata per artem Sponte sua muri membra coisse ferunt." — Propbetitts, 3. 2. 5. The traveller continues his descent to the plain of the Asopus through a barren waste of stunted brushwood, and across naked valleys, containing occasionally a miserable hamlet. After a few irksome hours the city of Thebes is descried among a crowd of immense sand-hills, which look like the creations of some furious mountain deluge that had recently rushed down from Cithseron, and, ploughing its way to the Cadmcean plain by several deep channels, had left the place standing alone — wretched amid ruin. Mean, however, as it now appears, Thebes is one of the oldest cities of Greece, and can boast of her Pindar and her Epaminondas, two of the greatest names in ancient story. In the time of Pausanias, about seventeen centuries ago, there were seven gates remaining in the circuit of the old walls of the city. In the time of "Wheeler, who was at Thebes two centuries since, the place was much the same, the walls and towers being of the most exact masonry. All }M0%iJi THE SCENERY OF GREECE. 17 these have departed during the lapse of the two last centuries, and scarcely a vestige of antiquity is left to console the inquisitive tourist, who sees little either of the picturesque or the beautiful in this woodless district. The fountains of Dirce and Ismenus, however, stUl maintain their course, though the nymphs who attend them are not very flattering representatives of classic times. WTien Alexander destroyed Thebes it had fifby thousand inhabitants: when Mr. Dodwell visited it at the He volution the number was reduced to between five and six thousand ; and when these sketches were made, the last thousands were reduced almost to hundreds. The seven gates, six temples, two gymnasia, two stadia, a hippodrome, theatres, and statues, have not left a remnant of their existence. Never was destruction more complete.-^ On leaving Thebes, the city, with its aqueduct and the mountains of Delphi^ in Eubcea, aftbrds an agreeable composition. The distant range of Helicon and Parnassus soon meets the eye, which compensates in some degree for the cheerlessness of the district over which the tourist has to ride full nine hours, before he can reach Levadia. PLATE VIIL-HALIAETUS (miceocura, hod.) WITH PARNASSUS. 'AXiapros Sviiv ovKere itrri, — Stbabo. " Urbs diruta a fundameiitis." — Liy y. Haliartus was destroyed by Xerxes,^ and was rebuilt, having been an important place in the Peloponnesian war. It was afterwards destroyed by the Romans. About fifteen miles from Thebes, and half way to Levadia, the road passes over the shoulder of the rocky promontory of Haliartus, which bulges forth into the Copiac Lake. Foundations of several ancient build- ings, of two churches built from old remains, and large blocks of the second and third styles of Greek masonry, are scattered over this Acropolis, among which are several four-sided altars of stone ; but there is no entire edifice ' " Near the gates Electrse was a polyandrium of the Thebans who fell against Alexander, and a little beyond, the place where Cadmus produced men by sowing the teeth of the dragon which he slew at the fountain of Mars. This fountain was above the Ismenum. Euripides says that the dragon was the guardian of Dirce." — Leake. In the accompanying plate the Cadmsean citadel and plain are seen on the left hand ; the fountain of Dirce appears in a recess at the base of the city hUl, and the Buboean mountains form the distance. ' The height of Mount Delphi is stated to be 5,525 English feet. ' Pausanias, 9. D 18 THE SCENERY OF GREECE. left. ^ Some of the walls also are still to be seen, with sepulchral crypts, at the base of the cliffs. " Although the hill of Haliartus," says Colonel Leake, "is not fifty feet higher than the lake or marsh, its rocky project- ing point is remarkable from every part of the plain." It is hailed by the scenic devotee with no little satisfaction, as auguring a change from the bald and shapeless mounds of corn -land over which his course has been directed ever since he lefb Thebes. The village of Mazi is seen a mile distant up the hill Libethrion, which descends to the lake at this spot. Just beyond the pass a small khan may protect the tourist from the heat of the day, and afford his horses and men both shelter and refreshment. In the latter item, however, he must always come provided for his own wants, or he may have to fare more coarsely than is agreeable. The view from the porch of this khan, over the Copaic Limne^ to Parnassus, displays the great moun- tain to the best advantage, from its summits to its base, the smaller pro- jections from Helicon forming the left screen of the picture, a tall bassi tempi tower standing on the verge of one of .the precipices in front^ as it advances into the lake. " thou. Parnassus !' whom I now survey, Not in the phrenzy of a dreamer's eye, Not in the fabled landscape of a lay. But soaring snow-clad through thy native sky. In the wild pomp of mountain majesty." — Btkon. A little further on, and at the foot of a lofty and picturesque range of rocks, adorned with wild-fig trees, is a copious fountain, said to be that of Tilphossus. The water proved dehcious, and though the day was hot, less danger was feared from an over-indulgence in the grateful beverage (though Pausanias teUs us it proved fatal to a thirsty old prophet) ,* than from the recesses above, where it was said a goodly troop of brigands had ensconced themselves, to "pick off" any wayfarer who might appear likely to add to their booty. The gendarme who led the cortege, and who was quartered at Mazi, not many miles distant, urged a speedy departure. PLATES IX & X -LEVADIA. The town of Levadia, the river, the cliffs, and the castle (the site of the ancient Mideia) which crowns them, are all essentially romantic, and ought ' Pausanias speaks of its temples without Statues or roofs. Strabo says the city did not exist in his time ; and Livy adds, there are nothing but foundations left. ' " In the summer the greater part of this lake is dry, and becomes a green meadow, in which cattle are pastured." The Lake Topolias (Oopais) was anciently, and is now, celebrated for its eels. ' 8001 feet above the sea. — Strong's Greece. ' Tiresias, one of the most celebrated prophets of Greece ; who, after a life of miraculous duration, closed his days by drinking at this cold fountain of Tilphossus. A^O' 'r> "" i-J THE SCENKl.Y OF CREECE. 19 to detain the picturesque tourist a WLck, if he have any love for wild scenery. * The present castle Avas built by the Catalans; but Greece and Italy do not recognize such antiquities — theirs tell of more distant and of brighter days. The ruins, however, are strikingly situated, and the painter will not complain, for they suit his art ; and, besides, he cannot expect to find every Grecian citadel decked out in the monumental pomp of the Athenian Acropolis. The Cave of Trophonius is situated high up the glen, at the base of the huge mass of overhanging rock, opposite the castle hill. Niches for votive offerings, and other vestiges of the ancient oracle, are seen around it, and a light is still kept burning there — a complimentary memorial to the ancient pagan shrine by the votaries of Christianity.^ The Hieron, or sacred grove of Trophonius and Temple of Hercyna, with the other temples and statues of Pausanias, are all gone. Gell supposes the present town to occupy the site of the ancient grove. " In the eastern face of the rock," says Mr. Dodwell, " is an excavated chamber, raised three or four feet from the present level of the ground, to which we ascended by steps, formed by the present Vaivode, who uses it as a cool retreat in summer. Within the cave, just under the roof, are still seen the remains of some elegant painted ornaments, particularly the funeral leaf which is delineated on terra-cotta vases. It is probable that this place contained the statues of ^sculapius and Hygeia. The rock which is contiguous to the cave is full of niches of various sizes for statues and votive offerings. Near this, the sacred fountain issues from the rock by ten small modem spouts ; the water is extremely cold and clear. On the opposite side of the channel is the other fount, the water of which, though not warm, is of a much higher temperature. The two springs of jNiemory and Oblivion, blending their waters, pass under a modern bridge ' We were much struck with its singular appearance, forming the most extraordinary combina- tion of rocks, chasms, precipices, and torrents, intermingled with the habitations of past and present ages, that ever was pourtrayed. Salvator Rosa would have revelled in such a scene." — The Rev. HUOHES. ^ " It is well known," says Dr. Wordsworth, " to have been the practice of some early Christian churches to modify the objects of heathen adoration, rather than to destroy them. The stream of paganism was thus taught to glide into a Christian channel with a soft and easy current." — At/iens and Attica. — Or rather, with all deference, was it not that the same channel or ceremonials continued to be employed at the outset of the new faith, that its precepts might be the more readily conveyed to the minds of the people, without their prejudices being oifended 1 At Thebes and Levadia, letters to the cashiers of the districts were found most serviceable. The hospitality and obliging attentions of these officers save the tourist much anxiety ; and, if the route be dangerous, he can generally command, through their influence, one or more of the soldiery to head his escort through the day's or week's journey. At Levadia the writer was induced to retain one of the king's riflemen to accompany his cortege to Salona and back to Athens, and a more active, resolute, and faithful servant could not be wished for. n 2 20 THE SCENERY OF GREECE. (in the foreground of the moonlight scene), and immediately form a rapid stream, the ancient Hercyna. It contains excellent fish of a small size, and, in its way through the town, turns several mills ; after a course of a few miles it enters the Lake Copais." "There was something," says Dr. Clarke, " in the nature of the scenery here, which tended to excite the solemn impressions that were essential to the purposes of priestcraft. The votaries of the oracle were conducted through a grove to the Hieron. Having reached the consecrated precinct, they could not avoid being struck with its gloomy and imposing grandeur. It is surrounded with rocks, bare and rugged, rising in fearful precipices to a great height ; the silence of the place being interrupted only by the roaring of the waters bursting from their cavernous abyss. The most sacred part of the Hieron, containing the narrow entrance to the adytum and receptacle for the offerings, is a perpendicular rock of black marble." The first of the two scenes of Levadia has been already described — the second represents the Castle of the Catalans, as seen from above and beyond it ; the chasm of Trophonius descending on the right, while a portion of the town appears below on the left, and over it the Copaic plain and lake, the Hercyna river, and the hills of Orchomenus. " The town of Levadia," observes Colonel Leake, " has an imposing appearance from the northward, and forms a scene not less singular than beautiful. Houses surrounded with gardens on some steep acchvities, at the foot of a precipitous height, which is crowned with a ruined castle of the Catalans. A torrent is seen issuing from the mountain, between lofty precipices, and falling with great rapidity over a rocky bed, as it passes through the middle of the town. It has also a greater air of opulence than any place in Northern Greece. The larger Greek houses have spacious chambers and galleries in the Turkish fashion, and look to great advantage on a steep declivity. The only remains of antiquity are some Hellenic squared stones in the walls of the ruined castle, with a few inscriptions and architectural fragments dispersed about the town." PLATE XI.-CH^KONEA ' (kapranu, hod.) Pausanias says that the city was formerly called Arne,^ which was the name of a daughter of iEolus. The plain of Chseronea was a celebrated ' From Chaero, its founder. 2 Lib. 9. THE SCENERY OP GREECE. 21 battle-field. It was here that the Boeotians defeated the Athenians, in the fifth century before Christ. In the fourth century, Philip of Macedon, aided by the Boeotians, conquered the Athenians, from which period may be dated their downfall, " That dishonest victory At Chajronea, fatal to liberty." MiLToif.' And in the first century of our sera, Sylla defeated Mithridates.^ It was not customary for the Macedonians to erect trophies to commemorate their victories : hence there are no souvenirs of Philip's or Alexander's con- quests. But Caranos the Argive, who reigned in Macedonia, having conquered Crissus, set up a trophy after the battle, according to the Argive law : a lion rushing out of Olympia overturned it, and it was altogether removed. The Thebans have a tomb or Polyandrium here, crowned by a Hon ; but there is no inscription upon it, as the gods did not favour their arms.^ This noble trophy, after having been buried for ages, was cleared of its earthy covering when the writer visited the plain, and is now re- instated on its pedestal;* one of the most interesting monuments of ancient Greece, executed in the best style of art. The plain of Chseronea lies to the west of the marais, limne, or boggy portion of the Lake Copais, and is from ten to twelve miles long, and two broad. Its western barrier is formed by the rocky heights of Parnassus, which rise in much majesty above this richly cultivated district. Imme- diately above the plain on which the trophy now stands, rises the Acropolis of Chseronea, Mount Petrachus. Its massive walls skirt the edge of the precipice, and on its summit are some small Ionic capitals, whilst against its base rests one of the oldest and most perfect theatres left in Greece. Ancient fragments are stiU found lying around, and a short distance from the trophy stands the only antique fountain now existing in the country ; a singular but beautiful structure of white marble. On one of the blocks may be seen the name of the city, XAIPPONEA. Chseronea was the birth-place of Plutarch. As the tourist advances, Panopeius (Agios Blasios), with the walls of its Acropohs, exhibiting different specimens of Greek masonry,^ towers above the plain ; and in the distance, and at the foot of Mount Parnassus, are seen the craggy citadel and whitened ruins of Daulis, famed for its > Milton's Sonnet to the Lady Margaret Ley. * Plutarch. " Pausanias. * Transactions of the Archaeological Society of Athens — 1840. * Some of the stones are twelve feet long. ' This Acropolis was destroyed by Xerxes. 22 THE SCENERY OF GREECE. stalwart race of men.^ Leaving the great plain, the road enters and ascends the rugged defile of Schiste, passing along the base of the great mountain, and beneath some of its most awful cliffs of limestone, perforated with enormous caves, until, after leaving a wretched khan, near the via sacra, it zigzags up a toilsome ascent of some thousands of feet to the romantically placed town of Arakhova. A more striking appearance than is exhibited by this mountain-town, when it bursts upon the traveller's view at a turn of the road, can hardly be conceived. The vieM's also which it affords down the valleys of the Pleistus and of Crisso, backed by the Corinthian Gulph and the glorious Alpine range of Peloponnesus, give promise of a still more interesting region, as the traveller advances. PLATE XII -DELPHI (kastri, hod.) THE CLIFFS OF PARNASSUS. " Mons ibi verticibus petit arduus astra duobus Nomine Parnassus." — Otid. The descent to Delphi is, of course, full of intense interest ; but the tourist will probably not find his musings disturbed by any demands upon his pencil until he arrives at the sacred fount and its rocky chasm. The two peaks which rise from the sides of the chasm, several hundred feet above the fount, form but an insignificant portion of the mighty mass of Parnassus, the summit of the mountain being many thousand feet higher, and many miles distant. These Delphian peaks terminate a range of rocks which display their bare fronts for miles along the southern declivity of the mountain, at an elevation which commences between two and three thou- sand feet above its base. The altitude of the loftiest summit of Parnassus is not less than eight thousand feet above the Corinthian Gulph. When seen from the platform^ near St. Elias, the Delphian cliffs present a • " The stoutest men are yet found at Daulis, as of yore." — Gell. " The site of the Pyloea, or Palace of the Amphictyones, which was remarkable for its magni- ficence. " The Council Hall of the Amphictyones, the treasure-house of Croesus, and the three thousand statues which crowded the buildings and streets of Delphi, are all vanished." — Dr. Wokdsworth. " The town, when entire, must have exhibited the imposing spectacle of an immense theatre. The town was small, but was a concentration of great opulence and splendour." — Dodwell. " Templum autem Apollinis Delphis positum est in monte Parnaso, in rupe undique impendente ; ibi civitatem frequentia hominum fecit, qui ad affirmationem majestatis undique concurrentes in eo saxo considere. Atque ita templum et civitatem non muri sed prEecipitia,'nec manufacta sed naturalia prsssidia, defendunt ; prorsus ut incertum sit, utrum munimentum loci, an majestas dei plus hie ad- mirationis habeat. Media saxi rupes in formam theatri recessit." — Justin, 24. 6. — ecarpofiSf's. — Strabo, 9. The Archaeological Society of Athens have recently discovered, by excavations, three temples mentioned by Pausanias. ^. r ^^'V;?,-'^^-, ,^-^fi^^^^-' ^ f^Bm THE SCENERY OF GREECE. 23 bold outline, with the ancient foundations and modern village of Kastri at their base. — (See the plate.) ^ " Though here no more Apollo haunts his grot, And thou, the Muses' seat, art now their grave, Some gentle spirit still pervades the spot, Sighs in the gale, keeps silence in the cave. And glides with glassy foot o'er yon melodious wave." — Byeon. " On the way from Arakhova to Delphi are sepulchral caverns. One of these has been very magnificent. There is a large perpendicular fissure in the rock, apparently occasioned by an earthquake. The Kastriotes, or Delphians, have a tradition that, at the birth of Christ, a priest of Apollo, who was sacrificing at this place, suddenly stopped the sacrificial ceremo- nies, and declared to the multitude, that the son of a god was at that moment bom, whose power would equal that of Apollo, but that the Del- phian god would ultimately triumph over the new-born divinity. The words were scarcely uttered, when the rock was rent in two by a clap of thunder, and the priest was consumed to ashes by a flash of hghtning !" "Delphis oracula cessant." — Juvekal. " The oracles are dumb, No voice or hideous hum Rings through the arched roof in words deceiving. Apollo from his shrine Can no more divine. With hoUow shriek the steep of Delphos leaving.'' Milton's Hymn. DELPHI. PLATE XIII-THE CASTALIAN FOUNT. " UtiUum sagax rerum, et divina futuri, Sortilegis non discrepuit sententia Delphis." — Horace. " Yet there I've wandered by thy vaunted riU ; Yes ! sigh'd o'er Delphi's long-deserted shrine, Where, save that feeble fountain, all is still." — Byron. The ravine of the Castahan fount, which enters the mountain between two precipitous walls of limestone rock, is one of the most colossal rifts in Europe. That at the baths of Pfefiers may perhaps compete with it. ' Prom this point a splendid restoration of Delphi might be made, as every object of importance must have been visible from it in the best days of the sacred city. The Castalian fount and chasm — the Stadium — gymnasium — sepulchral chambers — broken terraces — remains of roads — foundations of edifices and fragments of marble columns, furnish materials for the fency to work out an admirable architectural picture in this precipitous and rocky recess, " What a scene," says Hughes, " does this spot still present to the painter who could raise his ideas to the sublime associations with which it is connected." 24 THE SCENEEY OF GREECE. Gordale Scar in Yorkshire has bold and massive forms, but is scarcely a fourth of its elevation. Two thousand feet have been named as the perpen- dicular height of these rocks ; but it is probable that this estimate exceeds the truth. There are two falls of the water, one above the other, as they strike the eye : the chapel of St. John and the shallow tank cut in the rock, called the Pythian's bath, being on the right of the entrance to the great chasm, cannot be seen at the point from which th6 waterfalls are viewed. The ancient Greeks, without caring to dissert about it, exhibited an instinctive taste for grandeur in their selections of religious localities. If they did not write poems about their scenery, it was simply because they dwelt in the midst of nature's choicest works, and were familiar with them. Their whole territory was but a series of pictures, and while they were studying philosophy and science in their groves, the beautiful and the sublime which characterized the rocks and mountains, the woods and lakes around them, had made them poets and artists from their cradles.^ What but an innate love of the poetry of landscape could have dictated the glorious position of Sunium for a temple ; or the lofty site of Jupiter at ^gina, or the wooded heights of Phigaleia or of Rhamnus, or the majestic elevation of the Athenian temenos itself ? '"It may be easily imagined, without much description, what scenes for a painter such a country must afford — what subjects for poetry it must contain. Heaven and earth seem to be brought together ; the mountain tops appear shining above the clouds in regions of ineffable light, as thrones for immortal beings. The Muses have ever made such scenes their favorite abode, and it is upon this account that they have haunted Parnassus, and all the heights and the depths, the vales and the rooks, and the woods and the waters of Greece. Those illustrious bards, Homer and Pindar, owed the bent of their genius to the scenery of nature wherein they were bom and educated. Even Homer himself, if he had been a native of oriental Tartary, and been brought up under the impressions made by such scenery and climate, would never have been a poet. " The heavy Boeotian and his flat boggy district, enveloped with fc^s ; the light and cheerful Athenian, with his brisk clear air, his dry marble mountains, and his brilliant blue sea ; the fierce Spartan, amid his rugged mountain fastnesses — a character that has continued unchanged to the pre- sent day : all these prove the power of scenery over character." — De. B. Clarke. " Boeotlim in crasso jurares aere natum." — Horace. " We have endeavoured to show how the political state of the Peloponnesus received its true character frpm the physical form and features of the soil itself ; and it would not be an uninteresting speculation to examine how the religious faith, the mythological traditions, and the social manners of its inhabitants, were affected by influences arising from the same source. " 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 Athe- nians were partly due to the light air, the dry soil, and the genial climate of Attica."^DE. Wordsworth. Colonel Leake says, — " In endeavouring to account for the perfection which the Greeks attained in the elegant arts, something may be attributed to the more acute perceptions, to the more beautiful forms and colours of animate and inanimate nature, and to the brighter skies of a southern climate," THE SCENERY OF GREECE. 25 PARNASSUS. " Sed me Parnassi deserta per ardua dulcis Raptat amor ; juvat ire jugis, quk nulla priorum Castaliam molli divertitur orbita oUvo." — VibgiI;. The desire for a ramble among the wild defiles of Parnassus was not confined to the Mantuan bard. Once located at Delphi, and become fami- liar with its wonders, the tourist soon feels disposed to scale the heights of the immortal mountain, — an excursion of surpassing interest. THE CORYCIAN CAVE, (Mavpr) Tpovira, hod.). " Coryoidas nymphas, et numina mentis adorant." — Ovid. The ascent to the Corycian Cave is commenced from the highest portion of the village, beyond the Stadium, where a narrow and hazardous mule- track is cut against the waU of rock which rises nearly perpendicularly above the site of the ancient city. The zigzag ascent is not effected with- out considerable caution; and, as the prospect becomes every moment of a more extensive and interesting character, the tourist finds no Httle diffi- culty in dividing his attention justly between the view before him, or rather first on one side and then on the other, and the footing of his horse or mule beneath. In about half an hour he finds himself skirting the rivulet which precipitates itself down the Delphic chasm ; thence he ascends over a vast arid territory, covered with white limestone blocks, and spotted with dark pointed pines ; descending into hollows, and then mounting into still loftier regions, all exhibiting the same sterile appearance ; these dark pines being the only evidences of vegetation along the route. After several hours of toil to the poor horses, a halt is made (as at the base of the cone on the ascent of Vesuvius), when he is compelled to take his share of the labour, and, dismounting, to scramble up a long and steep incline, covered with loose rocks and shrubs, to the mouth of the cave, when the extensive view will abundantly repay him for his exertions. The cave is neither striking nor picturesque at its entrance ; but the interior is a truly magnificent specimen of natural vaulting. In length and breadth it is about three hundred by two hundred feet, and forty feet in height. The stalactites, which constitute the architectural ornamentation of this noble cathedral, are massive and grand in the extreme — the work of ages. Every thing seems to have been designed upon a colossal scale, and finished with aU the graces that the Corycian nymphs (the Muses) could command.^ ' Pausanias speaks in raptures of the Corycian cave ; and says, of all the caves ho ever beheld, it is the most worthy of admiration, E 26 THE SCENERY OF GREECE. From the terrace in front, the whole range of the Morea mountains, with the Corinthian Gulf below them, is spread forth from east to west, while a Parnassian valley, and lake, and farm, are mapped out at the base of the declivity on which the spectator stands. The summits of Parnassus appear a little above the eye on the left, wrapt in snow. To ascend them would have been the work of another day ; but, as this renowned cavern is situated full three-fourths of the height of the mountain, the writer was resolved to content himself with what he had already accomplished, that he might devote the additional day to less elevated researches. PLATE XIV -CEISSO. " Kpl(TCTav Te ^aderjv." — HoM. At some httle distance below the rocky boundary of the Delphian temenos, on which are the remains of the" old walls, and beneath which are cut many sepulchral chambers, fronting the valley below, and to the right of the rugged and steep descent towards Crisso by the via sacra, is an extensive platform among the masses of cliff which project from the sides of the mountain, called by the natives " the Hippodrome." Classical anti- quarians have generally placed this arena in the valley below the town of Crisso, partly from the authority of Pausanias, and possibly from not having been made acquainted with this snug little course, so much more convenient from its almost immediate vicinity to Delphi. The writer can offer an additional evidence for its being the possible site of an old race- course, in its having afforded him the only opportunity for a hand-gallop he had enjoyed for many days, to the great consternation of the horse- owners, or aywyicLTai, who have an instinctive horror of their property being coerced into any pace beyond the odious one of two and a half miles an hour. Before the cortege had descended as far as Crisso, the sun, which had been obscured for some time by a hazy atmosphere, burst forth in all its glory ; producing a striking effect of hght and shadow on the mountains and vaUey in front. Even the guides and servitors exclaimed, " KaXd! icaXd!" "beautiftil! beautiful!" There is also a noble view of the gulf of Crisso or Galaxidi, with the Crissean plain and Morean mountains, during the whole of the descent. THE SCENERY OF GREECE. 27 Crisso 1 is a straggling village, interspersed with trees, and commanding a fine prospect of the great plain, or valley of Salona, with the Crissean stream meandering through its whole extent ; the castellated acropolis of Amphissa being enthroned beneath the distant mountains, which extend from Parnassus to Pindus. The finest olives in Greece ^ are grovm in this productive district ; and, in recent times, their consumption was rigidly- confined to the sultan's palace at Constantinople. In ancient days, also, the Crissean valleys enjoyed a high reputation for their produce and pastures.^ OZOLAIA LOCKIS. PLATE XV.-SALOM* (amphissa). " Phocaicas Amphissa manus, scopulosaque Cyrrha, Parnassusque jugo misit desertus utroque." — Luoaw. Leaving Crisso, the tourist descends into the valley of Salona, through groves of trees and rich pastures, frequently crossing the river and its tributaries. The lower shoulders of Parnassus rise immediately above him on the right ; on the left a more varied range of summits of an Alpine character, divided by richly wooded ravines, adorn the landscape. The castle itself, situated on a bold and lofty rock, has aU the appearance of a work of the lower ages, though its foundations are ancient. Salona is on the site of the ancient Amphissa, the chief town of the Locri Ozolse ; which was declared war against by the Amphictyons, and destroyed by Phillip, B.C. 338. It was afterwards rebuilt by the Romans, who constituted it a free state. ' "The lofty crags where the Crisso of Homer stood, and the huge polygonal walls of its Acropolis, are still left. A noble landscape from thence." — Da. Wokdswoeth. These rocky bluffs, many of them boulders, frequently turn aside the rough road, forming useful studies for the artist. They are composed of a cretaceous stone, richly coloured with lichens, and marked with indented hollows, reminding the student of the broad and boldly-penciUed foreground rocks of our distinguished landscape painter, Wilson, whose manly and masterly style of art, with its richness of colour, and breadth of effect, gave a more elevated tone and character to the study of landscape nature than had previously obtained on this side of the Alps. '^ Columbades. ' " Bouyo/ia d/cT^." — Sophocles. ' Eufiai'/ioi'.' — Strabo. " At present, the Krissean plain flourishes more under the yoke of the Turk, than formerly under that of Apollo ; it is better cultivated than most parts of Greece, and the olive trees arrive at a very large size, and to a great degree of perfection." — Dodwell. ' Dr. Chandler considers Salona to be fifteenmiles from Delphi. Sir William GeU calls the distance seven miles. .lEschines says it is sixty stadia — about six miles; and Pausanias, one hundred and twenty stadia, or twelve miles ! For the satisfaction of the tourist, he had better take the Doctor's word for it, as the largest estimate is generally found to be nearest the mark in actual travel ; though it is possible that it may exceed the measured distance. Travellers in Greece should never inquire distances in miles or leagues, but in hours and minutes, if they wish to be secure in their reckoning. ndcrcis &/3ais «f hBfjvais 1 How many hours to Athens ? E 2 28 THE SCENERY OF GREECE. The new town exhibits some very neat and comfortable-looking dwell- ings, one of which, an inn, in the absence of the Governor of Amphissa from his Palazzo, afforded very acceptable accommodation, after a fatiguing journey. Pausanias's monuments of Amphissa and Andrsemon are vanished, with the ancient splendours of this once " most noble" city. Salona may almost be considered in a cul-de-sac, situated at the head of a noble valley ten miles from the Corinthian Gulf, into which its waters flow; and surmounted by a stupendous chain of mountains which seem to forbid all further advance, it usually forms the terminus or goal of the tourist in Northern Greece, whence he retraces his steps to the Attic metropolis. Arrived again at Delphi, he gives that hallowed region a second opportunity of impressing him with its picturesque as well as its mysterious localities. To the traveller who is not altogether absorbed by the love of anti- quarian research, but delights in new scenes and mountain air, a repetition of the pass of the Triodos will perhaps appear uninviting. The ancient road from Athens to Delphi ascends through this deep and rough defile, Schiste; and its pavement must be as old as the oracle to which it led. However passable it may have been in the days of the sacred processions, twenty or thirty centuries ago, its foundations have been so shaken, and its surface so much disrupted, as if by earthquakes, that few mules can be found to retain their footing for many paces with any thing hke certainty, at the present day ; so that, with the constant , fear of broken bones, or a final slip into the rocky river bed, far below, there are few who would not desire a change of route, to avoid either alternative, or even the anxieties attendant upon their anticipation. Should the traveller prefer a new route,^ he must cross the Pleistus below Arakhova, and scramble among the woods, up the rocky breast of Mount Cirphis, an exertion which will not add to the good-humour of his mules or their owners, though he wUl be obliged to perform the greater portion of his task on foot. From this great platform, which is between four and five thousand feet above the sea, his eye will embrace the gulf in its whole extent, from the castles of Lepanto to the Corinthian citadel, with Cyllene, Chelmos, Olonos, and the rest of the Alps of Arcadia, rising in aU their majesty to nearly twice the height of the ground on which he stands. In the opposite direction he ' It may as well be told, that nearly all deviations from prescribed routes, suggested by a love of novelty, entail difficulties of which the tourist will not fail to complain at the time. They give a zest, however, to his travels, and even if he have no peculiar researches in view, they place the country before him in new aspects, which to the landscape painter are often a source of pleasure and satisfac- tion, whether they add to his portfolio or not. THE SCENERY OF GREECE. 29 may look down upon the river and valley of the Pleistus, with its broken hilly surface of woods and crags — Delphi, perched aloft in its rocky recess, at one extremity — the deep ravine of the Schiste, descending towards Ximeno, at the other — and the romantic town of Arakhova direct in front, across the valley, hterally impending from the cliffs, dwelling above dwell- ing — the snow-capped summits of Mount Parnassus soaring beyond, several thousands of feet still higher. A more spirit-stirring scene is scarcely to be found in all Greece. During his passage over these mountain summits, which will occupy several hours, the only refreshment which the traveller can obtain will be furnished by the flocks of sUken-haired sheep, Avhich, with the shepherds and their ferocious dogs, are occasionally to be seen on the grassy downs that are interspersed among the higher peaks — the milk of these beautiful animals is one of the Hghtest and most delicious beverages that the country affords. A long and rough descent, in view of the gulf, will bring the tourist to Ximeno, near the site of the tomb of Laius, where some large blocks are supposed by some to have constituted a portion of the sepulchre itself. Thence to Levadia the route hes over a barren territory, the only object of interest to arrest his attention being one of those many fountains, the most valuable legacies which the Turks have left to Greece, and the most welcome objects a traveller finds during the scorching heats of a summer tour. BCEOTIA. LEYADIA TO HELICON AND PLAT^ilA. " Pandite nunc Helicona, Deae, cantusque movete !" — Vibgil. Having turned the shoulder of the mountain Granitza, to the eastward of Levadia, and descended past the mills to the Topohan level, in the vici- nity of Coroncea ; the writer's party had to ascend the wooded rocks above the fountain of TUphossus, and thread their way through brake and deU for many a weary mile, before the conductors brought them to the Convent of St. Nicolo, the presumed locality of the Grove of the Muses. On passing the ruined walls of the convent, a group of chestnut and sycamore trees of extraordinary magnitude presented themselves ; through their colossal arms were seen the most grotesquely-shaped masses of rock, broken into every variety of form, and piled above each other to a considerable height : against their marble fronts were hung, in the most 30 THE SCENEEY OF GREECE. luxuriant festoons, the choicest climbing plants — ^which in this region flourish without culture, " Ye wildings of Nature, I doat upon you, For ye waft me to summers of old." — Campbell. while down the dark clefts, amid a profusion of flowering creepers, cascades of the clearest water were pouring in all directions, until they united near the base of the grotto in one full stream, and hurried away through the forest below to the Topolian Lake. " Prom HeKcon's harmonious springs A thousand rills their mazy progress take : The laughing flow'rs that round them blow, Drink life and fragrance as they flow." — Gbat. The picturesque assemblage was arranged with the most consummate artistic skill and taste, and exhibited just such a fairy scene as one might imagine the Muses would delight in. "Nous etions alors sur I'H^licon, sur cette montagne si renommee pour la puret6 de I'air, I'abondance des eaux, la fertilite des vallees, la fraicheur des ombrages, et la beaut6 des arbres antiques dont elle est couverte. " — Babthelbmy. The lake itself lay at some distance, and the woodlands of Libethrium, (from which arose a fine old Venetian tower), commencing at the base of the high clifis which constituted the crest of that mountain, described a dark and jagged outline, that led the eye down nearly to the water side. Beyond the eastern or Theban extremity of the lake, the mountains of Euboea, with the lofty Delphi in the centre of the range, completed the landscape. No doubt crossed the writer's mind at the time, that -this was the veri- table " Grove of the Muses ;" besides, the tortuosity of the route, and the difficulties encountered in following it out, tended in no degree to diminish the confidence of the party as to the correctness of their decision. Other Groves of the Muses may have been found by other travellers, possibly equally quahfied to answer the descriptions of this celebrated place by tour- writers — but this singularly curious combination of wood, rock, and water seemed to possess the stamp of " the Nine," and to repel suspicion. It so happened, however, that, before the cavalcade, ascending through the forest over the shoulder of Libethrium to Zagora (Ascra), had arrived at their domicile for the night, another Convent of St. Nicolo came into view. It was a large and long-fronted white building, conspicuously placed on the summit of a high precipice immediately under the crest of Hehcon^ itself, ' "Mount Helicon is said to be 4,963 feet above the Corinthian Gulf." — Steono's Greece as a Kingdom. THE SCENERY OF GREECE. 31 full four thousand feet above the sea-level, and backed by the darkest pine trees. This was a most unwelcome discovery, after the toil which the party had gone through ; for, if a Convent of St. Nicolo be reaUy necessary to identify the hallowed locality,^ this important looking building seemed to possess a better claim than the small group of ruined cells which had obtained the honours in the morning. How far the scenic pretensions in the vicinity of this elevated monastery might aid in sustaining their claim to the true title, the party had no means of ascertaining, since they could not afford to devote the additional day which must have been accorded to pursue the required research. The mountain region of HeUcon is of great extent, and consists of many peaked or pointed summits, as seen from the plain of Leuctra, the highest of which is said to measure about five thousand feet, forming an apex to the group. The valleys which he at the base of these precipitous elevations are the most secluded imaginable, but difficult of access, being in many instances choked with dense woods and loose rocks. The largest and most accessible of these is the valley of Ascra, the birth-place of Hesiod. " In a pleasant glade, With mountains round about environed. And mighty woodes, which did the vaUey shade Like to a stately theatre And in the midst a little river plaide Emongst the pumy stones, which seem'd to plaine With gentle murmure that his course they did restraine." — Spensbb. Here the cavalcade were housed in safety for the night in the cottage of a brigand, under the conduct of their new protector,^ and pursued their route at daybreak, through the remaining portion of the defile, ascending and descending in a most tortuous course, until they arrived at the village of Eremo Kastro, (near the ancient Thespise, once remarkable for its possessing the Eros or Love of Praxiteles) . Descending to the plain, the travellers, being threatened by a storm, galloped, much to the annoyance of their guides and conductors, over the levels of Thespice, Leuctra, and Platcea, which were then covered with ripe corn, and crossing the fuU stream of the Asopus, at the base of Mount Cithseron, entered Kokla, in the immediate neighbourhood of Plataea, drenched with rain. ' " Monasteries and chapels throughout this country, may generally be regarded as fin ourable indications of the former situation of the shrines and sanctuaries of ancient Greece. — De. E. Clarke. ' The brigands having infested the district of Helicon when the writer's party was in the neigh- bourhood, an English officer, who commanded a troop at Levadia, sent a smart handsome fellow, dressed in the rich Albanian costume, to foot it, as the guide to a reverend fellow-traveller, with the rifleman before mentioned, during the three days' trip to Athens. He had only left the brigands about three weeks to rejoin his military comrades, and might, the captain said, for aught he knew, visit them again before he returned to Levadia ; but whether in the service of the king, or of his friends the klephts, his faithfulness was to be depended upon. He proved the best protector under the circumstances. 33 THE SCENERY OF GREECE. Here the "walls, towers, and vacant platform of the ancient city, with a few broken sarcophagi among the rocks below, on the descent from the citadel, invited a survey. The site is sufficiently elevated to command a full view of the whole of the ground where the celebrated battle was fought, in which a Persian army of three hundred thousand men were routed by the Spartans and Tegeans, with only one-sixth of that number. Not more than three thousand of the conquered escaped from the field, and these were afterwards killed in Macedonia. At the battle of Leuctra, the field of which is marked by a ruined Venetian tower, the Thebans, under Epaminondas, gave the death-blow to Spartan supremacy. The country below looks bare and desolate, although the soil is exceedingly productive. An English eye, accustomed to alternations of woods and woody fences, wiU scarcely be disposed to credit the richness of the plain before him, in which those umbrageous adornments make no appearance. Beneath the eastern wall of the citadel is a deep and dry ravine, the only channel within view which could convey the water of the Gargraphian fountain^ to the Asopus ; but, though the writer quitted his party to trace it to its source, neither fountain tree nor shrub appeared, after a long pursuit, to indicate the dehcious retreat painted by Ovid, as the scene of Actaeon's fatal intrusion upon the privacy of the Goddess of the Chase and her Sphragidian nymphs.^ ATTICA. The tourist now leaves Boeotia, by a new carriage road, over Mount Cithseron,^ which descends to the castellated rock of Gypto-Kastro, the ancient CEnoe,* or Eleutherse. The fortress is Venetian, on ancient foundations, and very extensive ; the walls and towers being also in good condition, though not in present use. On his return towards Athens, the tourist may proceed near the walls and towers of an ancient Hellenic city, which lays claim to one or other of the above names, according with the dicta of one or other of our two popular Greek antiquarians ; and thence ascending the woodlands, through a magnificent forest, and along the course of the river Saranda-poro, into the plain of Eleusis ; or he may travel from Gypto-Kastro to Kondura, and by the via sacra to Eleusis or Athens ' Gell says that the fountain may be seen leaving the summit of the mountain. ^ Pausanias, 9. 2. Ovid. Met., 3. 155. ' CithDsron is said to be upwards of 4,000 feet high. This mountain was devoted to the Erynnes: it was the scene of the death of King Pentheus, and of the Boeotian feast of the Daedala. * Gell calls Gypto-Kastro the ancient CEnoe; and St. Miletius (Myiipoli) the ancient Eleutherse; whilst Colonel Leake reverses these designations. THE SCENERY OF GREECE. 33 PLATE XVL-ELEUSIS. (lepsina, hod.). " Vetabo, qui Cereris sacrum Vulgarit arcanse." — Horace. The remains of the ancient Hierum of Demeter, whose city disputed the empire of the Athenians before it was conquered by Theseus, are reduced to a few huge blocks of marble, with sculptured torches upon them, and some finista of large columns.^ On the hill above the village are ancient cisterns, and still higher up is a church of St. Nicolas, overlooking the bay, built with masonry probably belonging to an antecedent temple of Xeptune, the said saint being the Neptune of modern Greek sailors. The summit of this long acropolitan height is occupied by a Venetian tower on Hellenic foundations, which commands an extensive view over the whole district, together with Salamis and the ^Egsean ; and remnants of a theatre are observable on the descent near the sea. The port was small and of a circular form : the stones of one of the piers are seen above water, and the corresponding pier may be traced.^ There are several ancient sculptures on blocks, scattered around and built into recent edifices ; but Eleusis makes no appearance that can convey the shghtest impression ,of its ancient importance, as the seat of the famed Eleusinian Mysteries.* The mean cottages of the present village are located on a portion of the old site ;* a circumstance which accounts in a great measure for the utter prostration of the antiquities ; for, excepting a few arches which formed part of a Roman aqueduct, that appear in the middle distance of this view, there is scarcely one stone left upon another as originally located. The plain is rich, and the mountains beyond it are of a fine picturesque character. The ancient via sacra, which crossed the plain, still remains undisturbed in several places, constituting no inconsiderable portion of the present road between Eleusis and Daphne. The remaining ruins are chiefly foundations, whose intricacies appear to have been traced by Sir WiUiam Gell, with great care and industry; they are not such, however, as to attract the curiosity of the general or picturesque tourist. ' Sir William Gell traced " very great remains" of the Propylaeum, which was an exact copy of the entrance gates of Athens, and built by the same architect. 2 Dr. Chandler. ' " They were the remains of a worship which preceded the rise of the Hellenic mythology and its attendant rites, grounded on a view of nature less fanciful, more earnest, and better fitted to awaken both philosophical thought and religious feeling." — Bishop Thirlw all's History of Greece. " 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." — Db. Woedswokth's Greece. * " The site of the Temple of Ceres includes most of the modern village." — Lord Brouohtok. Sib W. Gell. 34 THE SCENERY OF GREECE. Between Eleusis and Athens the road is passable for carriages. On the ascent from the bay there is a beautiful lake-like retrospect of it, with Mount Kerat4, Salamis, and the mountains of the Morea. The pass of Daphne is now entered, in which there is a monastery, and some remains of a temple of Venus with marks of votive offerings. At the summit of the pass, the Acropolis, Lycabettus, and Hymettus come into full view, over the olive-grounds of the Academy; and nine miles more bring the tourist back to the immortal city, where he will be glad to refresh himself by a short sojourn, before he commences the larger tour of the Pelopon- nesus. PLATE XVII -THE ACROPOLIS FRO¥ AEEOPAOFS. The " Areidpagos,"^ or Mars'-hill, the natural substructions of which form the foreground of the present scene, is a name famiharly known to all Christian readers. It consists of a mass of rock, which springs abruptly from the side of the hill of the Acropolis, not far distant from the great western entrance to the paved way which ascends to the Propylsea. The higher parts of the rock are cut into steps, seats, cisterns, foundations, and other not very intelligible forms, indicating, to curious observers, the purposes for which they were made, as related in story. Here Mars was tried for the murder of Halirrhotius. Here was held the great council which bore the name of the hill itself. Here Orestes was tried for the murder of his mother, and from this spot the Persians made an attack upon the Acropolis; a position which has doubtless been selected for a similar object by warriors of subsequent ages, although their feats may not have been immortalized by the historian. There are other eminences in the vicinity of Athens, along the line of the Pnyx and Musseum range, well adapted for an orator to address a multitude from ; but none perhaps so commanding as the Areopagus. Prom its summit, the hearers, below and around, would find little difficulty in collecting all that was said. Here St. Paul took his stand, environed by the temples and altars and statues of false gods ; and, in the midst of the most pohshed people on earth who worshipped them, he rebuked their superstitions, and preached the truths of his divine mission.^ The reverence in which the ground he trod upon >""ApEtos 5x6os." — Sophocles and Euripides. " Areopagitica petra." — Ennitis. ' " Then Paul stood in the midst of Mars'-hill, and said : Ye men of Athens, I perceive that in all things ye are too superstitious. " For as I passed by, and beheld your devotions, I found an altar with this inscription, To the Unknown God. Whom therefore ye ignorantly worship, Him declare I unto you ." — Acts of the Apostles. \-ir THE SCENERY OF GREECE. 35 was held, as the dreaded court of criminal judicature, added to the many superstitious associations connected with it/ was admirably calculated to aid the Christian orator in making the powerful impression upon his hearers which he is recorded to have done. The beautiful little Temple of Victory without wings is the first object seen at the extremity of the citadel on the right hand of this design; against it appears the huge bassi tempi tower, which has intruded upon these elegant remains, though its presence will not greatly offend the painter's eye; then comes the Propylsea, with the gallery of Polygnotus, and a colossal pedestal without a statue. The great waUs of the Acropolis, above which are seen the Parthenon and Erectheum, thence file off in broken perspective to the end of the citadel rock. There are a few remains of large triglyphs imbedded in the northern waU of the Acropolis, which some antiquarians suppose to be parts of an entablature which originally surrounded the whole; not an ungraceful idea; but as they are only found at intervals, and as there are in other places partially fluted blocks of columns (like those at Delos, &c.), stuck in the walls also, it has by others been thought that the whole is merely a congregation of old materials, rather than an original architectural ruin. Lower down are seen other ancient walls and foundations, which are attributed to the Pelasgians, embracing an additional portion of territory for the city.^ There is scarcely a cave or a crevice in the rocks around, that has not some interesting association attached to it, but these are a class of antiqui- ties which the classical tourist would do weU not to pry too closely into, especially when they happen to be in the vicinage of large populations. The hiU of Areopagus offers one of the best positions at Athens for contemplating "the flood of fire with which the marble columns, the mountains, and the sea, are all bathed and penetrated by the illumination of an Athenian sunset."^ " Slow sinks, more lovely ere his race be run, Along Morea's hills, the setting sun : Not as in northern climes obscurely bright, But one unclouded blaze of living light ! O'er the hush'd deep the yellow beam he throws — Gilds the green wave that trembles as it flows ; On old jEgea's rock and Hydra's isle The God of Gladness sheds his parting smUe.'' — Bmou's Curse of Minerva. ' Some suppose the cave-like recess among the rocks in the foreground of this scene to be the entrance to the Temple of Erinyes. St. Paul stood immediately above it, on the summit of the rock. ^ " About two hundred paces lower, yet not quite at the bottom of the hUl, are distinctly to be seen the foundations of other walls, encompassing the first almost quite round ; which I believe to be those built by Theseus, who first enlarged the city." — Wheeleb and Spon. * The Rev. A. P. Stanley. T 2 36 THE SCENERY OF GREECE. THE ^G^AN ISLANDS. " The isles of Greece, the isles of Greece ! Where burning Sappho loved and sung ; Where grew the arts of war and peace ; Where Delos rose and Phoebus sprung — Eternal summer gilds them yet, But all, except their sun, is set." — Bteow. PLATE XVIIL-^GINA ((enopea). " (Enopeam veteres appellavere ; sed ipse Macns ^ginam genitricis nomine dixit." — Otid. It is said that the inhabitants of this island were destroyed by a pestilence, and that Jupiter repeopled it, by changing ants into men. Since Greece happens to be very thinly peopled at the present day, the traveller might possibly feel himself relieved from some portion of the annoyance to which he is frequently subjected by those insects, and the country be at the same time greatly benefited, if the metamorphosis were to be repeated. ^gina is situated in the middle of the Saronic Gulf, about twelve miles from either shore. It is better cultivated than Attica, and the port and town on its shore are located on the antique site. The remains of a Temple of Venus just above the town, of a Roman mosaic in the town, of a few tombs and wells, and of the Temple called Jupiter Panhellenius,^ about two and a half hours distant (to which there is a pleasant ride), are the chief objects of interest. The position of this latter temple is very fine, but the country around is arid, and merely spotted with stunted stone-pines, mastic bushes, and young cedars. Dr. Wordsworth disputes the position of the Temple of Jupiter, which he places on Mount Oros, the high conical mountain at the end of the island, as more in accordance with the account of Pausanias. He considers this temple to have been dedicated to Minerva, from the statue of that goddess being prominent among the sculptures, as well as from an inscrip- tion in the vicinity. Colonel Leake prefers the old dedication. A Greek inscription, on a fragment of an architrave, which was found among the dSbris of the building, is urged, by the French Commission,^ in proof of the popular impression ; but the learned Doctor suspects it to be a forgery,^ ' Erected b.c. 520 : the most ancient temple in Greece, after Coriath. 2 The splendid work of the French Commission is illustrated with coloured restorations of this temple. » " Athens and Attica." THE SCENERY OF GREECE. 37 from its not being couched in the Doric (J]]ginetan) dialect. The temple is built of a soft porous stone, which is covered with a thin stucco, like the temples and halls at Pompei, and the old temple at Corinth; and the archi- trave and cornice were elegantly painted. The pavement, and the exterior walls of the cella, were found to be covered with a fine stucco of a Ver- million colour ; and the tympana were painted blue ;^ the architraves and cornices also were elegantly painted. STATUE AND TEMPLE PAINTING. Canova is related by Bourrienne to have proved to the first Emperor Napoleon, by examples drawn from the Egyptians, Greeks, Romans, and Italians, that religion alone had caused the arts to flourish in ancient as well as in modern times. The blocks of wood and stone,^ which were the earliest objects of religious worship in Greece, as elsewhere, were painted with brilhant colours, gilded, silvered, and clothed with real drapery.^ As time advanced, when materials improved, and imitative art began to dawn, the sculptor* was called in to give form and grace and beauty to the rude idol ; but that any special grace to dispense with these decorations was shown to public sculptures in marble, which was not granted to those of wood or stone, can only be conjectured from the numerous statues which have descended to us entirely free from colour ; unless, which is not impro- bable, they were executed under private influences, free from sacerdotal mandates and ordinances, and for the honour and glory of art alone : for the great fame^ of the chryselephantine statues, by Phidias, would seem to ' Dodwell. ' See Jeremiah, chap, x, passim. = Baruch vi. Ezekiel xxiii, 14. Jeremiah xxii, 14. ' " AH accounts agree that the earliest productions of statuary among the Greeks, and perhaps among any other people, were consecrated to the service of religion." — Bisuop Thiriwall's Greece. " Greek art sprang from Greek religion. Art, among the Greeks, was an occupation of a priestly character ; as it belonged to her to lift the veil of mystery which concealed the gods, so was it also her office to exalt and consecrate the human forms under which they could alone De represented. The image of the god was no mere copy from common and variable life ; it was stamped with a super- natural grandeur, which raised the mind to a higher world." — Kugler's Handbook, <&c., edited by Sir C. L'. Eastlake. ^ " Adeo majestas operis aequavit Deum." — Quintil. Inst. Oral., 1 2. 10. " The statues of the Parthenon at Athens were originally painted and gilded ; and, however con- trary the practice may seem to our notions of taste, a custom of painting statues, and of gilding the hair of images representing celestial beings, has continued, without intermission, from the age of Pericles, and the golden-haired ApoUos of Greece, down to the sera of those Italian artists who filled our English churches with alabaster monuments, where, besides the painted eflSgies of our ancestors, may be seen the figures of angels with gilded wings and gilded hair." — De. B. D. Clarke's Travels in Tnrlcey, ^ '^^^ s,a,ng the dithyrambi, and danced that species of song in praise of Bacchus. Thus do the present inhabit- ants of these islands exhibit a faithful portraiture of the manners and customs of their progenitors; the ceremonies of ancient Greece have not been swept away by the revolutions of the country ; even the representations of the theatre, the favourite exhibition of the Attic drama, are yet beheld, as they existed among the people, before they were removed from the scenes of common hfe to become the ornaments of the Grecian stage." ^ The view of Syra which is here represented, is taken from the ascent up the rocky glen above the towns, looking over to Delos and Rhenea on the right, the round hill above Myconi in the centre, and the Isle of A ndros on the left hand. The lighthouse rock of Syra appears in the offing. As the tourist approaches Delos, in his passage from Syra (a pleasant sea excursion of eighteen miles in an open boat), he wiU find it convenient to land at Rhenea, and walk across that island, which is celebrated as the burial-place of the smaller and more sacred isle; in order that he may have an opportunity of examining the funereal antiquities still existing on the farther shore, which are very elegant and of a pure Greek taste. His boat will go round the headland to the straits immediately beneath the hill of the tombs, and convey him across, when his survey is completed, to the little bay or harbour near to the remains of the Temple of Apollo. ' wEschyluB. 2 Dr. Clarke. %^ THE SCENERY OF GREECE. 43 PLATE XX -DELOS/ " egressi veneramur ApoUinis urbem." — Virgil. " A soNO was heard of old — a low sweet song, On the blue seas by Delos : from that isle, The Sun-God's own domain, a gentle girl. Gentle — yet all-inspired of soul, of mien, Lit with a light too perilously bright. Was borne away to die. How beautiful Seems this world to the dying ! — but for her, The child of beauty and of poesy, And of soft Grecian skies — oh! who may dream Of all that from her changeful eye flashed forth, Or glanced more quiveringly through starry tears, As on her land's rich vision, fane o'er fane Coloured with loving light — she gazed her last. Her young life's last, that hour ! From her. pale brow And burning cheek she threw the ringlets back, And bending forward — as the spirit swayed The reed-hke form, still to the shore beloved, Breathed the swan-music of her wild farewell O'er dancing waves." — Mrs. Hemans.'' Delos^ the birth-place of Apollo and Artemis, so renowned in classic story for its sanctuary, which was held in great veneration by all the nations of Greece, is now a barren mountainous wilderness, without a human inhabitant. Its marble temples and porticos are reduced to frag- ments and foundations. Mount Cynthus, which rises in the centre of the island to an elevation of about five hundred feet, was the ancient Acropolis ; remnants of walls and marble debris are to be seen on its summit, and steps are left on the ascent, with a Cyclopean doorway or rude gate, constructed of huge unshaped blocks, thrown across in the manner of a rustic arch, a work that will stiU endure for ages.* The whole surface of the larger half of the island bristles with marble ruins from the summit of the Acropolis down to the sea-shore, near which may be seen the prostrate remains of the ' " Terre, soleil, vallons, beUe et douce Nature, Je vous dois une larme aux bords de mon tombeau ; L'air est si parfame ! la lumifere est si pure ! Aux regards d'un Mourant le soleil est si beau ! ' — Lamartinb. ^ Part of a poem written by Mrs. Hemans to accompany an engraving from a picture of the Grecian Theoria at Delos, painted by the author of this work many years ago. ' Ipsaque longe clarissima, Cycladum media, templo Apollinis et mercatu celebrata, Delos. — Pliny, lib. iv, c. 12. * The roofs of the temples at Pallenque, in Central America, are built in this rude manner — (.'^ee Cathbrwood's Central America) — Sir George Wheeler, who made a careful examination of this interesting island, remarked that, on the ascent to Mount Cynthus, he saw a gateway built of large rooks ; and that foundations of white marble still existed on the summit. The ascent was by steps, with walls on each side, that left the passage open, which was embellished with porticos, cloisters, and other admirable buildings, as may be seen from the quantity of columns, pedestals, friezes, altars, and other pieces of marble. G 2 44 THE SCENERY OF GREECE. temple of Apollo and the portico of Philip. Bushes of lentisk and myrtle are interwoven with the scattered ruins in all directions. The little circular bay in front of the temple and portico is still the landing-place as in olden days, and is bordered by a beautiful belt of silvery sand, on the edge of which, gently laved by the clear waters of the jEgsean, a frustum of one of the white marble columns of Apollo's fane is placed to receive the foot of the modern tourist as he steps upon the hallowed territory. Judging from the number and beauty of these ruins, Delos must have been a most gorgeous place in ancient times. The island was dedicated to Apollo, and no birth or death was suffei'ed to occur in it ; the neighbouring island of Rhenea being resorted, to' on aU such occasions. To this sacred spot the triennial Theoria of the Athenians came in great pump and splendour, especially at the time when Nicias commanded it.^' Besides the many elegant remains of buildings in a style of pure Greek art, ruins are seen of later dates, chiefly Roman, but a cursory glance at the latter will betray their inferiority both in taste and masonry.^ At one time Delos was a great commercial emporium. The Corinthians settled here after the burning of their city by Mummius. The view here presented is taken from the ascent to the Acropolis, near the Cyclopean gate: the "round lake" appears near the curved bay, on the right ; the Temple of Apollo lying between them. The island by which the bridge of Nicias connected Rhenea with Delos, is seen off' the little harbour. The two portions of Rhenea are beyond the strait, and the islands of Tenos and Aridros occupy the extreme distance. PLATE XXI.-HYDRA (aristera), (hydrea). A romantically situated town in an island of the same name, and near to the coast of Argolis. It was formerly a place of great commercial importance, and its inhabitants were considered wealthy. The trade of the ' See an account of the Theoria in Plutarch's life of Nicias. When Theseus was sent to Crete to be devoured by the Minotaur, he made a vow to Apollo that if the god would allow him and his young Athenian companions to return in safety, they would pay a pious visit every year to his temple at Delos. Hence the Theoria. There was also a quinquennial festival in Delos instituted by Theseus in honour of Venus. 2 These are attributed to the Emperor Hadrian, who erected here a city called New Athens. The round (oval?) lake, Tpoxo^cra-a Xijxvri of CaUimachus, not far from the Temple of Apollo, is now called the Naumachia. " The river Inopus of Strabo," says Wheeler, " is not to be found " (Inopus fom — Pliny) ; and Tournefort adds : " Nous avons si Men parcouru cette ile dans les quatre voyages que nous y avons faits, que nous pouvons assurer qu'il n'y a point d'eau courante." The bronze palm, dedicated to Apollo has not left a fragment, and the horned altar, one of the seven wonders of the world, has entirely perished. The marble ruins have served for a quarry to the Turks and the neighbouring islanders ; and have doubtless been robbed of their artistic sculptures by more distant depredators : among others, the Russians and Venetians have the credit of carrying off whole ship- loads of antiquities. te THE SCENERY OF GREECE. 45 ■ island has greatly decreased, and the population is reduced from 20,000 to 4,000. It was here that the Greek Revolution is said to have first com- menced. Hydra, as a view from sea, is the Genoa of Greece.^ It looks like a galaxy of marble palaces, rising from the recesses of two bays, tier above tier, to a great height ; each roof seemingly a terrace to the dwelling above. A bold rocky promontory, crested with windmills carrying number- less sails, projects into the sea from the midst, and ends in a precipitous bluff, vnth. a ruined round tower on its summit. Notwithstanding all this splendour, the surrounding shores of the island, as well as the hills above, present a bleak appearance. " What a spot you have chosen for your country !" said Mr. Waddington to the Greek admiral Tombazi, at the time of the Kevolution. " It was Liberty that chose the spot — not we," was the patriot's ready reply. Herodotus states that this island was given by the people of Her- mione to the Samian exiles. Colonel Leake thinks it may have been a place of some importance in ancient times. Pausanias merely mentions its position. Sir J. Emerson Tennant, who appears to have, like the writer, spent more than an average allowance of his travelling time on this island, gives a very graphic accoimt of it. "The town, on approaching it from the sea, presents an extremely beautiful prospect ; its large white houses rise up suddenly from the sea, along the precipitous cliJffs which form its harbour ; everj' httle crag displayed the white sails of an immense number of wind- mills, and every peak was bristliug with a battery. In the back-ground, the rugged and barren summits of the rocks which form the island, with scarcely a speck of cultivation, or a single tree, are crowned with numerous monasteries. On one is stationed a guard, to observe the approach of ships ; and his look-out extending to an immense distance, the Hydriots have, in general, the earhest intimation of any important naval movement. The streets, from the rugged situation of the town, are precipitous and uneven; but, to one arriving from the Peloponnesus, their cleanhness is their strongest recommendation. The quay, for the entire sweep of- the harbour, is lined -^^th storehouses and shops, which carry on the little external traffic that remains, whilst their numbers show the former extent of the Hydriot commerce. The houses are built in the most substantial manner, and, with the exception of their flat roofs, on European models. ' " The town, which appears suspended in the air, contains more than 1500 houses." — Poqcevillb. "The white houses of this- singularly interesting city, hanging in the form of an amphitheatre upon a steep mountain, appear Uke a mass of snow, and present one of the most magnificent scenes imaginable. — Waddington. 46 THE SCENERY OF GREECE. Tke apartments are large and airy, and the halls spacious, and always paved with marble. The walls are so thick as almost to supersede the necessity of sun-blinds in the niches of their deepest windows. The furniture, half Turkish and half European, combines the luxury of one with the conve- nience of the other, whilst its solidity and want of ornament show that it has been made for comfort, and not for ostentation." Though it is not the writer's wish to obtrude more of his trifling adven- tures than may serve as hints to those who happen to take the same route, he cannot omit to relate one which occurred at Hydra. He hired a caique, a small decked craft with four hands, at Napoh di Romania, to make the tour of the Argolic islands, and as he did not anticipate any novelties during the early part of the voyage, he embarked at midnight, and arrived the following afternoon in the harbour of Hydra. A merchant vessel had arrived there during the previous night without her papers, and had rashly landed her crew without the cognizance of the customs. This " un- toward event" of course put the whole island under quarantine, and every vessel which touched (prior to the return of the boat from Syra, nearly 100 miles off, which had been dispatched for the papers of the evil vessel), was subjected to an embargo. All prayers and entreaties on the part of the writer, with displays of official letters of introduction, were of no avail. He, with his servant and boat's crew, were compelled to part with their liberty for at least four days (had the vessel been from Egypt or Syria, it would in all probabihty, have been as many weeks) . On landing, he hired a small chamber on the quay, the best lodging that could be procured, and, directing it to be put in order, left the bustling place to take a survey of the scenery around. On returning to his apartment, he found that neither luggage nor servant were in possession. The faithful Demetrius, however, soon appeared, and informed him that the commandant of the garrisons of the islands had heard of the writer's dilemma, and ordering the luggage to be sent to his private domicile, without either personal interview or letter of introduction, had given up his bed to the stranger, and caused a temporary one to he erected for himself on the roof in the open air! The writer need scarcely add, that he experienced the utmost kindness and hospitahty during this singular quarantine. His military entertainer spoke Itahan and French fluently, though he had never been either in Italy or France ; he was an Asiatic Greek by birth ; a handsome, active, and well-dressed officer, whose whole soul was devoted to his profession and his country's liberty. On returning to Athens, the writer was informed that the com- mandant had had the district awarded to him for his valorous ser\aces in the war of freedom. WMi^Sv^J'--^-::'^-: .^' I M. i liWlfl' THE SCENERY OF GREECE. 47 PLATE XXII.-POEOS (sph^ria). An island oif Troezen^ in Argolis, at the mouth of the Gulf of ^Egina. Poros may be called the Portsmouth of Greece, and it possesses one of the noblest harbours in the world. The town is built on a ridge of granitic rocks, and has a very beautiful appearance, with its spacious bay and sur- rounding mountains. Poros is the Hiera of Pausanias, who, speaking of it as an island emer- ged from the sea, says it emitted fire from its highest point.^ Both crests of the Athenian Gulf, at its embouchure, exhibit unmistakeable evidences of volcanic action; lava or granite taking place of the usual hmestone formation. It was in a temple of Neptune on the neighbouring island of Calauria that Demosthenes poisoned himself to avoid the fury of Antipater. The ruins of this edifice, which are exceedingly scanty, are found on the most elevated part of the island, about an hour distant from Poros. The summit which they occupy is between 900 and 1000 feet above the level of the sea. Crossing by the ferry to the opposite shore from Poros, the tourist may stroll through luxuriant orange grounds to the birth-place of Hercules, Troezen (Theseia Troezen). Pausanias mentions eight temples at Trcezen, besides a stadium, theatre, statues, altars, sepulchres, &c., which are now no more. The plain is for the most part dry and covered with stunted bushes ; near the sea, however, the farms and cultivation give it a more cheerful aspect. The village is situated at the head of the plain beneath the mountains ; the ancient Acropolis, being (according to the fancy of the antiquarian) on a detached hill immediately above, where there is now a monastery, or half- a-mile nearer to OmoUthi on a much higher rock — the latter combines well in picture with the mountains and gulf up to Megara and the Scironian rocks; the most richly cultivated part of the plain covered with olives and oranges occupying the middle ground beneath the village. The whole demi-panoramic range of mountains from Geranion to Sunium, including both sides of the Gulf of Egina, is finely varied ; — Trcezen is the very point whence landscape distances may be studied to perfection. The range of dark pointed summits which intercept by their lower extremity the view of Athens over the Troezenian plain, is mentioned by ' Hoo-fiSiui'ia, ant. — Psestum in Italy, and Halicarnassus in Asia Minor, were colonies of Troezen. 2 Lib. 8 and 10. 48 THE SCENERY OF GREECE. Strabo as a volcano in full activity ; and Ovid speaks of a treeless mountain near Troezen (Met. 15) having usurped the place of a broad plain. Sir Charles LyeU makes the following observations on this ancient volcanic elevation: "At Methone, or Mothone (now Modon), in Messenia, about three centuries before our sera, an eruption threw up a great volcanic mountain, which is represented by Strabo as being nearly four thousand feet in height; but the magnitude of the hill requires confirmation. Some sup- pose that the accounts of the formation of a hill near Troezen, of which the dat'O is unknown, may refer to the same event." The best evidence that it does so refer, consists in the fact that there is no mountain near Modon of any such elevation, while at Troezen in Argolis there is. Add to which, the district of Troezen is especially vol- canic, whilst that of Modon or Methone in Messenia is not. Change Methone into Methana, and all the circumstances apply correctly. The many-peaked volcanic Methana, which is higher than Vesuvius, did not exist in the earlier days of Athens. At that period the Cecropian Acropolis was visible from Troezen,^ but it was concealed from view about the third century before Christ, by the elevation of this new mountain. To those who considered burning mountains an acquisition to fine scenery, this great estuary must have exhibited a most strikingly beautiful appearance when Methana, with perhaps Ppros, was in full eruption. The magnificent lake- like scene, nearly fifty miles in length by twenty-five in width, diversified by islands and rocks of every shape and size, and sur- rounded, from the sea to the isthmus of Corinth, by the noble mountains above alluded to, with the great volcano upwards of four thousand feet high in the centre — ^Athens, ^gina, and Sunium aU within view, from several points on either side the gulf, must have presented a cowp d'osil never sur- passed on earth. • Hippolytus, Burip. : also Diodorus. The volcano was burning in Strabo's time. It is a lower portion of the eastern ridge of Methana, the great volcanic upheave, which shuts out the sight of Athens from Troezen. The Athenian Acropolis is still seen from the heights behind. See also Leake's Morea. SOUTHEEN GREECE. THE MOEEA, oe PELOPONNESUS. AEGOLIS. PLATE XXIIL-PIDAYEO (epidaueus). " A^tTTEXotvr 'BiriSavpov." — HoM. " Domitrixque Bpidaurus equorum." — Vraa. To the traveller who has been buflFeted by the little classic bUlows of the Athenian Gulf, during four-and-twenty hours, this smooth sequestered bay, overhung by high mountains, cannot but prove a haven of satisfaction. " Now sank the sun, now twilight sank, and night Eode in her zenith ; not a passing breeze Sigh'd to the grove, which in the midnight air Stood motionless, and in the peaceful floods Inverted hung ; for now the billow slept Along the shore, nor heav'd the deep, but spread A shining mirror to the moon's pale orb, Which, dim and waning, o'er the shadowy cliffs, The solemn woods, and lofty mountain tops, Her glimmering faintness threw." — De. Beown . * Pidavro is a small village and seaport, and was remarkable in ancient times as the landing-place for visitors to the renowned valley of the Hieron of Esculapius, a few mUes distant on the road to Nauplia. Homer speaks of its wine-growiug celebrity, and the district around still supports the cha- racter it possessed. The ancient city stood on the peninsular rock which projects iato the centre of the bay; portions of its acropolitan walls, and a remnant or two of statuary of little or no note, with fragments of small columns are all that the most persevering antiquarian can descry amid the dense masses of vegetation which cover the whole spot. Pausanias is of little use to the traveller here, from the extreme insignificance of the remains existing : his temple of Juno has been conjectured from a few small Doric frusta, but unless the promontory be at least partially cleared no satisfac- tory inquiry can be prosecuted. ' See Cumberland's Works. H 50 THE SCENERY OF GREECE. This beautiful and reposive harbour, with the broad and massive moun- tains which enclose it, the rich and highly cultivated plain and rising grounds which skirt the water, the craggy peninsula on which the ancient city stood, and the njore evident elevation above the little port on which the Greek chapel now stands, aU combine to form a picture which is more than grateful after the dry and burnt-up landscape of Attica. To a tourist nurtured among the prolific greeneries of a moist climate the change is ex- ceedingly dehghtful. Epidaurus used to be famous for its horses, but that period has passed away : their coats and their points remind one more of the rough steeds of Gainsborough than the glossy ones of Landseer. On the ascent towards lero, looking back over Pidavro, a noble view of the bay and vaUey, the old acropolis, the whole range of mountains to Omoli- this and across the blue ^gsean, the serrated promontory of Methana, with the island of .^gina, make a comprehensive picture of a Claude-like character. PLATE XXIV.-PIADA. Before finally quitting Pidavro, the landscape tourist should not omit to visit the romantic district of Piada, not two hours distant. The horse- track lies among rich and finely varied hanging woods, interspersed with lentisk, cactus opuntia, aloes, and every variety of fragrant and flowering shrub, " Laurel and myrtle, and what higher grew Of firm and fragrant leaf ; on either side Acanthus, and each odorous bushy shrub, Penc'd up the verdant wall ; each beauteous flower, Iris all hues, roses, and jessamine, Eear'd high their flourish'd heads between, and wrought Mosaic ; underfoot the violet. Crocus, and hyacinth, with rich inlay Broider'd the ground, more colour'd than with stone Of costliest emblem." — Milton.' ' " There sprang the violet all new, And fresh peruinke rich of hew, And flowers yellow, white, and rede, Such plenty grew there never in mede ; Pull gay was all the ground and queint, And poudred, as men had it peint. With many a fresh and sundry flower. That casten up full good savour." Chadoek's Romauni of the Rose. "Recent travellers Unite in extoUing the profusion of flowers and shrubs which adorn the hills and vales of Greece. AU the fragrant plants which Eupolis celebrates as the food of goats ; the laurel, the oleander, the arbutus unedo, the arbutus andracnne, the agnus castus, the cystus oreticus the pistachia lentisous, the myrtle, all stDl bloom on the soil of Greece. Roses in great variety ; the many kinds of heath ; the ivy (hedera helix), once so luxurious in Acharnse ; the broom, the sage, lillies, hyacinths, the asphodel, and the Attic violet, have not yet forsaken the land haunted by so many beautiful recollections." — Da. Ease's Ancient Greeks, '1.?^ .*^.;./' c'^'jfc THE SCENERY OF GREECE. 51 along steep rocky precipices high above the blue iEgsean, and commanding the whole gulf and islands, with the opposite coast of Attica. The plain of Piada suddenly presents itself at a great depth below the spectator, covered with corn and olives, through which a mountain torrent rushes into the gulf. The village afterwards makes its appearance on a huge mass of per- pendicular grey rocks, that close up the valley from side to side, leaving only a huge cavernous gorge, through which the torrent must have worked its way when the world was some thousands of years younger than it is now. The scenery is so like Gaspar Poussin's that one would imagine the artist had formed his style of composition here, and merely visited Italy for the buildings which he delighted to introduce. Having ascended to and passed through the mean-looking village, a. fine Venetian tower is seen to the left, immediately under the woods which rise to the summit of the mountain. Descending to the bed of the torrent at th6 base of the vast precipices, and again ascending by the paved way up the o'pposite hill to a level with the little acropohs which has just been passed, the view represented in this plate displays itself, which comprises the old tower, the viUage-crowned rock, on which was formerly a Venetian castle, the dark ravine, the fertile httle valley beyond, and the distant heights of jEgina and Methana. The law of Epidaurus, or the new Greek constitution, was signed at this village after the Revolution — would that it had been more effectually carried out ! The artist, the botanist, and the geologist cannot fail to reap enjoyment from this beautiful little day-excursion, but the antiquarian will find nothing to remind him of the great past. How so romantic a spot and so formidable a pass could have been neglected by " the spirits of immortal eld" it is not easy to conceive. The general tourist, however, may consider the circumstance a relief, Piada being one of the few places in Greece where he is not called upon to refer to his classical memoranda. lEEO, ("lepoy aSXo-09.) THE GROVE OF iESCULAPIUS. The Hierum, or sacred grove, of .^sculapius, may be reached from Pidavro, or from Poros. It consists of a great number of Greek and Roman ruins and foundations, which are spread over an elevated plain or valley, plentifully dotted with trees, bushes, and shrubs, watered by a rapid stream, and surrounded by mountains. The sanctity of the place is well sustained, for not a human habitation of any kind encroaches upon the privacy of the H 2 52 THE SCENEilY OF GREECE, whole domain. As at Delos, no birth or death was suffered to take place on this sacred temenos. Pausanias records a theatre, which is still in exis- tence ; an ivory and gold statue of ^sculapius, by Phidias, resembhng those of Zeus at Olympus, and Athena on the acropohs of Athens, which has of course disappeared ; a round building of white marble, called the Tholus, of which there is a brick skeleton ; a stadium, of which the earthy shell survives ; temples to Venus and Themis with a chapel of Diana, which the inquisitive tourist may identify for himself; and a statue to Epione (departed), together with buildings erected by the Eomans, which always identify themselves by their inferior workmanship and taste. The noble theatre of iEsculapius, by the architect Polycletus, which was capable of holding twelve thousand spectators, rests against the base of the moun- tain, immediately above the river, and is the most striking and beautiful object left ; and the beauty of its construction is equalled by the purity of its material — the whitest Pentelic marble. Baths and cisterns, one of the latter being of considerable magnitude, are seen in various places ; besides, stuc- coed walls, sunken foundations, reservoirs, water ducts, platforms of temples, and even a fountain whose water is stiU considered medicinal. The Roman ruins, though of an inferior character, as far as architectural beauty is con- cerned, do not fail to give an additional importance to the sacredness of the locahty, by proving the respect in which it was held after Greece had been made tributary to the conquerors of the west. Inscriptions relating to cures are seen on some of the stones ; marble sculptures and terra- cotta ornaments have also been found among the ruins. " The sacred peribolus is less than a mile in circumference ; it was confined on two sides by steep hills, and on the other two by a wall which formed a right angle, in the lowest and most level part of the valley, and is stOl traceable in several places. This was the most fashionable resort in Greece for invalids, or those who sought change of air and place, or of medical treatment."^ In many of the upland valleys of Greece, which must have been produc- tive in ancient times, the ground is so arid and impenetrable that it is difficult to believe vegetation could ever have been rife there. In alluvial plains, such as that of Argos, fewer agricultural appliances are necessary to render the soil productive. Deserted as the latter surfaces may occa- sionally be, their vegetative powers are only suspended, and are without ' Leake. Surmounting the lower range of hills, three greater elevations " of mountain lineage," are seen ; Araohnoeon, Tithseon (a double-crested one, Titthys) and Kanortion ; remains of Temples are stUl found on some of their summits and declivities. " Tith-is was the mount of fire ; and was probably a pharos, or fire tower, near the sea." — Bryaut. 'J-\ \\' ^ f THE SCENERY OF GREECE. 53 much difficulty resuscitated ; but these curiously sloping upland valleys are as hard and as dry as the steep declivities which enclose them. In such climates as Greece and Italy, frequent irrigation is indispensable, as well as occasional additions of soil, especially on inclined and elevated planes, to support production. No visitor can ride across the plain of Troezen, and through the valley of the Hieron of ^sculapius, as well as down that of Ligurio, towards Naupha, without, as these places appear to him now, doubting their susceptibility of cultivation ; and yet population alone is wanted to make even this barren district fruitful, as in ancient times. But there are not a million of inhabitants in all Greece Proper at the present day, it cannot therefore be expected that aU the once-cultivated districts can be kept in that productive state which gives such beauty and pic- turesqueness to rural scenery, when there are not hands enough to supply the wants, and take advantage of the bounties, of nature. In many parts of Southern Italy patches of cultivation may be seen on the sides of rocky mountains, where the vine grows in proftision, but the moisture and the very soil have been carried there by the indefatigable husbandman. It Greece were as populous as Italy, its valleys enclosed by precipitous heights would then assume an appearance of richness and beauty very different to what they do at present. Cultivation would cover the land, and give a finishing grace to the most varied and beautiful assemblage of mountain forms that any country can boast of. Excess of heat, as in the south of Europe, can only be met by irrigatioii — excess of moisture, as in the north, by drainage. Arcadia is happily interspersed with woody heights, while its valleys are threaded with rivers and rushing waters ; the climate renders drainage unnecessary, and produc- tion requires less aid. In Attica, woodlands are almost unknown ; there is not a single river that is not absorbed on its way to the sea ; production is scanty,^ and the whole district looks exhausted and blighted. Commerce supplied the deficiences of Attica, and its people moved about the world — Arcadia knew no such deficiencies, and its inhabitants lived peaceably among their native hiUs and plains. PLATES XXY. & XXVL-NAPOLI DI KOMA^IA (nauplia, am.) There is a descent to Napoh from Ligurio, by first crossing a ridge of hiUs to the Convent of St. Demetrius, which is sometimes recommended for ' "Barley was the only grain produced in perfection. At no one period of its history did Attica produce one twentieth of the corn necessary for the subsistence of its inhabitants." — Da. Hill. 54 THE SCENEEY OF GREECE. variety's sake. The route is sterile and disappointing, and is only relieved by a distant prospect of Palamide and the mountain barriers of Arcadia. The convent itself forms a square, consisting of stone buildings, which possess no pretensions to architectural beauty ; its interior being surrounded, hke a Turkish khan, by wooden galleries, with the usual Greek church and cupola standing in the middle of the court. A few umbrageous plane trees sur- round the building, adjacent to the brook that runs through the vaUey, which shows that the bleakest situations wiU produce these noble plants, when the hand of the spoiler is kept aloof. The landscape tourist will find little to arrest his attention as he continues his descent to the plain of Argos, but the beauty of the mountain outUnes ; for form is all, and in aU, here. As he approaches the gate of NapoH di Romania, however, the scenery assumes an air of great magnificence. The fortress of Palamide (called after an unhappy warrior in the Iliad), said to have been originally buUt by the Egyptians, stands above him to the left, on a precipitous rock nearly eight hundred feet liigh, one of the most anti-historic foundations in all Greece. On the right, the road from the city enters upon the great plain, passing by Tiryns to Argos, both of which ancient foundations are in view, surrounded by a noble amphitheatre of mountains. Nauplius, son of Neptune and Amymone, was the reputed builder of this ancient city. The Argives say, that Juno renewed her charms here every year, by washing at the fountain Canathus. Pausanias describes the city as deserted in his time. It is now so thoroughly Italianized in appear- ance, for mosques and minarets have all vanished, that it is not easy to imagine one's self in Greece; Immediately above the houses a long ridge of castellated rock overlooks the city, the bay, and the surrounding country, and above these dilapidated fortifications, the great fortress rock of Pala- mide frowns over all. Extensive Cyclopean waUs are intermixed with the Venetian masonry of which the fortress is composed. The ascent to it is by five hundred steps cut in the rock, covered by a bomb-proof roof. Palamide has been rightly called the Gibraltar of Greece, and, in good hands, it might bid defiance to any enemy. It is a noble object in picture, especially from the bay or the island castle, with the tower-fortified heights (Aero Naupha) rising from the water in front. This subject forms one of the annexed plates — the other scene is taken on the descent to the town from the last- mentioned height, and embraces the plain of Argos in aU its breadth, the citadel rock of Larissa, with Deiras in the midst, and the mountains that enclose the whole from Mount Malevo (5757 feet high) on the left, to those above the Herseum of the Argolic Juno on the right. The lake-like appear- THE SCENERY OF GREECE. 55 ance of the gulf itself from the lower citadel, is exceedingly beautiful and majestic ; surrounded by high mountains, it has not a feature to remind the spectator of an arm of the sea, except the square-rigged vessels which occasionally enhven its surface. NaupUa is the best-built town in Greece, but its air is pestilential in the usual malaria season of hot chmates; the land is stUl encroaching upon the bay, and the port becoming gradually more shallow, changes which must materially affect the health of those who take up their abode in this district. The court of King Otho first located itself here, but soon fled to Athens. TIKYNS. TipvvBa Tt Ttixiotaaav." ' — HoM. These impressive ruins are said to belong to the same period as those of Mycenae, nearly fourteen centuries before Christ. They are only half an- hour's walk from Naupha (Napoli di Romania), of which they are called the older city, and, though they have Httle artistical about them, they fur- nish plenty of food for contemplation. Tiryns rose, flourished, and decayed before history began. The remembrance of its mirthful inhabitants is all that has escaped the abyss of time. Its cyclopean walls were originally about sixty feet high, and twenty-five feet thick ; having gateways of rude angular arches, the gates themselves being hung upon a large pivot in the centre, iaserted in the architrave above and the threshold below, one wing opening inward while the other opened outward— an evidence of the remotest antiquity. The golden gate at Jerusalem shows similar marks — some of the iron turnstiles of toU bridges may be called their miniature re- presentatives in these times. The galleries in the walls are built of colossal masses of rock, but the external walls are formed of large stones inter- spersed with smaller ones, called in the north " eye-sores," that convey an indifferent idea of their strength on an ordinary inspection; and yet they have endured above three thousand years ! Time has chiselled aiway the angles of each block, but the marble structures on the Athenian acropohs, (though certainly a thousand years younger), exhibit no decay in the junction of their parts ; the beauty and perfectness of their workmanship having enabled them to defy the lapse of ages — but not unhappily the reckless spoHations of man. ■ " Walled or fortified Tiryns." These walls are all that is now left of the city. 56 THE SCENERY OF GREECE. PLATE XXVII.-AEGOS/ " Dulces moriens reminiscitur Argos." — Vibgil. The present town of Argos stands on the same ground as the ancient city. The acropolis, Larissa, a conical mountain which rises abruptly from the plain to the height of eight hundred feet, commands the town and the whole district around. There is also a lower acropolis, or citadel,^ in its immediate vicinity, Phoroneus (Deiras), supposed to have been the first site of the ancient city. The modem town is a straggling place, consisting chiefly of low houses, in the midst of gardens, high walls, and straight streets, or garden avenues of entrance — not unlike the snug suburban re- treats of St. John's Wood in plan, and probably not very dissimilar to the modes of dwelling in the palmy days of Nineveh and Babylon, when large spaces enclosed small populations, and many a house had its garden, park, or paradise within the city walls. ^ These streets and walls are not without some resemblance to Pompeii ; they appear to advantage when viewed with the huge castellated Larissa soaring far above them. Pausanias declares Argos to have been a potent and wealthy city in heroic times, but that it suffered a reverse of fortune under the Dorians. There are the remains of an ancient theatre, embedded, agreeable to Hellenic custom, against the base of the citadel mount, which, according to Colonel Leake, was capable of containing between 30,000 and 40,000 spectators.* Above the theatre are vestiges of a temple of Venus. The temple of Apollo is said to have stood on the site of the curiously-painted monastery that is seen from all parts of the town and plain, perched on a projecting rock halfway up to the citadel; beneath it is a cave, probably connected with the oracle. On the summit are ancient foundations,^ perhaps of the hypsethral temple to Jupiter, which has been succeeded by a Venetian castle. The river Zeria,® ' " Argos was considered the oldest kingdom of antiquity after Sicyone, having been founded two hundred and thirty-two years subsequently, that is, in the year of the world 2148. Argos lasted eight hundred years." — Tbmpie Stanyan. The Rev. A. P. Stanley says, "the only indisputable vestige of Egyptian influence in Greece, is the remnant of a pyramid, of unknown date, still to be seen in the plain of Argos." « Livy, 34. 25. " "The houses are small and low, but intermingled with numerous gardens, and dispersed over a considerable space, and exhibit the semblance of a large straggling viUage." — Dodwell. * "Fuit haud ignobOis Argos, Qui se credebat miros audire tragaedos In vacuo Isetus sessor plausorque theatre." — Hob. Ep. 2. 2. ' Perhaps the walls aUuded to by Euripides, buHt by seven Cyclopes from Syria, — see "Iphigenia in Aulis." ' Prom ^ripos, dry — a very suitable name. Jt£&S^l^ I ■ il THE SCENERY OF GREECE. 57 {ant. Inachus) waters the plain — that is, when there is any moisture in the district. The sculptor's art was successfully cultivated at Argos ; among its most distinguished professors were Polycletus and Ageladas. A ride of two hours along the plain of Argos^ brings the tourist to one of the most exciting localities in Greece. MYCENiE. "AltsB ceoidere Mycenae." — Ovid. No remains of gorgeous amphitheatres, temples, columns, aqueducts, and colossal towers are here, to remind the spectator of ancient Roman splendours. Even the Parthenon itself, with the gems of antiquity around it, would seem things of the other day in such a presence ; for Mycenae was in ruins before the glories of the Athenian Acropolis were brought forth. All that is left speaks of the remotest past, and assimilates itself with our ordinary notions of the semi-barbarous simplicity which charac- terized the works of the heroic ages. The poetry of the place is too impres- sive not to take possession of the most superficial observer; while the crumbhng edifices before him appear more hke a dream than a visible record of ancient times. Sterility and desolation stalk over the whole scene ; even the distant cities which catch the eye as it traverses the im- mense plain below — Tiryns, Nauplia, Argos — are, each and all, of heroic origin ; and the ruins themselves on whicb he treads are so far reduced by natural decay as to look like a portion of the rocky debris of the hUls from which they were first excavated, and on which they still stand. Bleached and shapeless walls, a few broken cisterns, a couple of primitive gateways, one of them surmounted by a curious and rude piece of sculpture, probably the oldest in existence ; and a subterranean vault or two in the hiU below, are nearly aU that now remain of this mountain-home of ancient heroism — the city of Agamemnon." ^ ' In the plain of Argos we feel that we are in the region, not of historical, but of mythological and poetical Greece. The rapid succession of rocky insulated eminences along the level pasture bring at once to our minds the age in which kings were chieftans, and cities were fortresses ; the lofty citadel of Nauplia, retaining in its name of Palamide an unbroken tradition, not otherwise known even from ancient writers, of its unfortunate founder. The Larissa of Argos, with the rough dry bed of the Charadrus at its foot, in which the Argive people meet in solemn assembly to stone their unworthy generals. The low oblong rock of Tiryns, whose enormous Cyclopean walls are probably the only works of man recorded by Homer which are yet in existence. — A. P. Stanley's Greek Topography in Classical Museum. ' " I was not so forcibly impressed at Athens, at Delphi, at Delos, or at Troy."— Dodwell. "It cannot but be felt that this very desolation itself has its value. It simplifies the picture, It makes an abstraction of aU other features, and leaves the spectator alone with antiquity." — Db. Wordswokth. "There is a massive simplicity about these ruins, and a boldness in their situation, overhanging the ravines of mountain torrents, which accord well with the history and associations of the spot. Even the single stones have a grandeur of size." — Dr. Holland. I X 58 THE SCENERY OF GREECE. O'er Tretus' wild and cavernous domain, Apesas' height, and famed Nemea's plain.' From Mycenae the tourist pursues his course up the pass of Tretus ; a narrow dingle, beset with rocks and stunted trees "So thick entwined. As one continued brake, the undergrowth Of shrubs and tangling bushes had perplexed All path of man or beast that paas'd that way." — Milton. High above this rugged wilderness are seen broken masses of limestone cliff, showing vast fissures and caves beneath their summits, one of which is said to have been the home of the Nemean lion, whose destruction consti- tuted the first labour of Hercules.^ " It was the beast that whylome did forray The Nemean forrest, till th' Amphytrionide Him slew, and with his hide did him array." — Spensek. From the head of the pass his route Hes across the ridge of low hills on the left, when he will presently find himself on the solitary plain of Nemea, and in front of the three remaining columns of a temple. The flat summit in the distance, the ancient Apesas, is said to be the spot on which Perseus first sacrificed to Jupiter Apesantius. Pausanias found the temple in a grove of cypresses : the trees are gone, but the fount of Adrastes still pours forth its waters as in days of yore — a most gratifying specimen of antiquity on a hot day. On this plain were celebrated, every three years, the Nemean games in honour of Zeus, which were among the most im- portant and solemn exhibitions in Greece. They were continued long after those of Olympia were abolished. The victors were at first rewarded with olive branches, but afterwards with a chaplet of green parsley^ that sprang from the blood of Opheltes (afterwards called Archemorus), who was killed by a serpent on the brink of the fountain. It was in commemoration of this event that the games were established. The tourist may now return to Argos by the same route, or by Agios Giorgios, down a sterile valley, to the plain near Mycenae ; or he may proceed onward to Cleonae and Corinth. ' Tretus: the perforation. " Koipaveav 'VpTjToio N(nei'j/« ^8' ' KnltravTos." — Hesiod's Theogonia, - "Et vastum Nemea; sub rupe leonem." — ViRd. jEn. 8. = In some parts of Britain, rosemary, with its decaying smell, is put into the coffins of the dead. In Greece parsley is still strewn on, or planted near the grave. So it was in Plutarch's time. THE SCENERY OF GREECE. 09 AEGOS TO TKIPOLITZA. " Redditur Argolicis iugens Erasmus in arvis." — Ovid. From Argos the path skirts the edge of the plain, and crosses the river Erasinus/ which rushes in full volume from its huge rocky cavern, as if impatient for the light of day after its long subterranean concealment. The group of rocks, mills and water is strikingly picturesque, and should obtain a special visit from the landscape tourist who has leisure to make a short sojourn at Argos. On leaving the Erasinus the bare quiet plain again succeeds, until the tourist commences the long Appenine ascent on a rough stony road. Below him, on the left, are seen the Lernean lake and marsh, near the shore of the Argolic estuary, where Hercules destroyed the monster Hydra. The noble bird's-eye views down upon the Argive plain, the gulf, islands, and mountains beyond, frequently call forth the tourist's admiration as he continues his arduous ascent. Having attained the highest point of the road, which passes a small khan, Daouli, a " rest and be thankful" to the muleteers, it descends near the site of the ancient Hysise, through field and forest, to the bottom of a deep wild valley, in which there is another khan which offers no temptation to the wayfarer. The path thence ascends the mountain ridge of Parthenion,^ by the Bey's causeway, a narrow, rugged pavement, zigzagging along the verge of deep precipices for more than two hours, when the tourist finds himself at last on the great plain of Tripolitza, a platform about three thousand feet above the sea-level. Treeless and disappointing as the district around appears, he has entered Arcadia; where, if he has to complain, with the poet, of the coldness^ of the climate (and this will entirely depend upon the season he may choose for his visit), it is to be hoped that he wiU not be less fortunate than the writer, who encountered none of the coldness of heart among the inhabitants which has been recorded against them by the same illustrious authority.* Tripolitza, the capital of the Morea, exhibits itself, beyond this extensive corn-plain, on the slope of an insignificant hill. Having been alternately sacked by Mainotes and Arabs, it displays an unsightly mass of ruins, • The Erasmus, as will be noticed hereafter, is the outlet of the Lake Stymphalus, (Herodotus.) On leaving the lake, it is precipitated into a rocky chasm, and is not seen again, until, after a subter- ranean passage of twenty miles, it emerges at this spot. — Vide also Statius Theb. lib. 1. ' "Nun rae uUa vetabunt Frigora Parthenios canibus circundare saltus." — Virg. Ed. 10. '- " Arcadise gelidos invisere fines." — Id. JEn. 8. 159. * " Frigidus Arcadibus coit in prascordia sanguis." — Id. 10 452. The Abbe Barthelemy also dissents from this view of the Arcadian character. " Les Arcadiens sont humains, bienfaisans, attaches aux lois de I'hospitalite, patiens dans les travaux, ohstines dans leurs entreprises, au mepris des obstacles et des dangers. lis ont souvent combattus avec succfes, toujours aveo gloire." — Voyac/e dujeurie Anacharsis. 1 2 60 THE SCENERY OF GREECE. interspersed with, a few straggling ranges of mean dwellings and a bazaar. "It could not/' says Mr. Swan, " be defended balf-an-hour against a regu- lar attack. The gates are in so dilapidated a condition that they might almost be kicked down, and the walls are little better than the gates." Here, however, the tourist may replenish his canteen, and make any small purchases that his needs require, but he wiU feel little inducement to pro- long his stay where it is scarcely possible to procure tolerable bouse -room. Quitting the town, and advancing on the path to Londari, a small hamlet, about four miles distant on the left hand, marks the site of the ancient Tegea ;^ but the miserable remnants of the great temple of Minerva Alea,^ witb its once triple height of columns, wiU scarcely repay a visit.^ A rugged Turkish pavement over a billy, marshy, and barren country, dotted with the lentisk and wild pear, and commanded by insignificant hills, fur- nishes no materials either for pencil or pen, during a dreary ride of many hours ; and, unless it be summer-time, the chmate will not add much to the comfort or good-humour of the tourist as he wends his way. After passing Frankovrysi, the ruins of Asea, consisting of foundations of walls and other remains are seen crowning a hill on the right. ARCADIA. PLATE XXVIII -THE VALLEY OF MEGALOPOLIS. " Q Hav, Hdv, eiT eV(rl kot oipea fiaKpa AvKalov." — TheoceMUS. " Ipse nemus linquens patrium, saltusque lycsei, Pan ovium custos."^-ViiiGiL. After several hours of toilsome and unsatisfactory travel the great Valley of Megalopolis suddenly discloses itself in its fullest glory .^ Dhia- ' "Pan, ovium custos; tua si tibi Mssnala curas, Adsis, Tegesee favens." — Vmo. Oeorg. 1. 17. ^ The temple of Minerva Alea was the noblest in Peloponnesus.— Pausakias. • So also says Dr. Holland. " In the ruined Church, are inscriptions, broken statues, and ruins of the Doric, Ionic, and Corinthian order. There are large marble columns in a field near the village, > and a capital of the Doric order, of great size, at the well." — Gbll. ' "The valley of Megalopolis abounds in delightful scenery. The sides of the majestic mountains, Kerge and Tetr&,gi, are covered with oaks, chestnuts, &c. The valley itself, varied with hillocks and detached copses, refreshed with numerous rivulets, shaded by planes, a larger stream winding through the middle, may almost rival the plain of Sparta in picturesque beauty — a sylvan valley resembling an ideal Arcadia." — Col. Leake. " The variety of arable and pasture land, richly interspersed with villages and country houses, is encircled with vast forests and open groves of oak, and these are surrounded again with the most picturesque and magnificent mountains, fuU of natural beauties; and exciting a cloud of classical recollections, unrivalled, except in the vicinity of Athens. In front, lay Mount Cerausius and Lycseus, where Jupiter was nursed, and Pan was revered. On the sumniit, human sacrifices are said to have been offered at a period beyond the reach of history. There the Lycaean games, the temple of the great Goddess, the Arotaio Lycosura on its lofty peak, the feast of Lycaon, the flaming valley of the Gods and Giants, and a thousand other circumstances, rush upon the mind." — Sir Wm. Gell. Haygarth, the painter, says the scenery around Megalopolis is very fine and thoroughly Arcadian, mountains of beautiful forms on every side. "There was great magnificence in the landscape during the whole of Our ride, and we passed through some beautiful pastoral scenes." THE SCENERY OF GREECE. 61 forti, the ancient mount Lycseus/ on which was an altar to Jupiter (Zeus Lycseus), rises majestically in front of the spectator : " But his proud head the aery mountain hides Among the olouds ; his shoulders, and his sides, A shady mantle clothes ; his curled brows Frown on the gentle stream, which calmly flows, While winds and storms his lofty forehead beat." — Denham. The citadel of Karitena forms one extremity of the picture, and the mountains above Londari the other. The vast plain below is covered with com, green vegetable, and fallow grounds, interspersed with villages and farms, and ornamented with trees, single and in groups. 'Tis Arcadia ! The woods, luxuriant and majestic, sweep in broad masses over the lower hills and swelling eminences which rise around the plain, and the wild magnificence of nature reigns throughout the whole, untramelled by the impertinences of art; for no geometrical hedge-row, no artificial belt? offends the eye. The mountains for miles in extent tower into the air to elevations varying between four and five thousand feet, and the river Alpheus, one of the largest in Greece, with its tributary, the Helisson, in tortuous and playful courses, water the entire valley. The city of Megalopolis was built by Epaminondas, according to Pau- sanias ; the river Helisson divides it, and runs into the Alpheus. It was fifty stadia in circumference ; its temples and public edifices were nume- rous, and its theatre the largest in Greece. " The diameter of the inner semicircle, or orchestra, being one hundred and seventy feet, and that of the whole at least four hundred feet." The Koilon still remains; seats covered with earth and bushes, part of the proscenium being only a few yards from and facing the Helisson. Fragments are also found in the river bed, together with the piers of a bridge. The city was taken and nearly destroyed by the treachery of Cleomenes, the son of Leonidas the Spartan, and its inhabitants slaughtered. Megalopolis was the birth-place of Philopcemen and of Polybius. " The pastoral inhabitants of the surrounding villages are a hardy and handsome race, e\'incing a spirit of probity and independence, and exercising hospitahty and kindness to strangers." The writer can corroborate this opinion of Sir William Gell's ; for, often as he had to throw himself upon the hospitality of the cottagers, he never had occasion to complain of his reception. In the valley of Megalopolis more particularly he met with great kindness and attention — being somewhat fastidious about the choice • The woody skirts and recesses of this far-famed classical mountain, are the especial abode of the deity Pan. His sylvaii majesty has occasionally graced other renowned districts by his presence, but the Olympian Mount of Lycaeus is his native home. This mountain is stated by the French Commissioners to be 4,659 English feet high. 62 THE SCENERY OF GREECE. of a cottage to reside in for the night, for every peasant of the village eagerly proffered his own, he was accompanied in his survey by the owner of the first he had entered (and to which he had objected), until he had made his election, when the worthy man expressed his great satisfaction at having at last succeeded, and bounded away to his quarters, after wishing " good night," with his hand to his breast, in the true Greek mode, but in evident sincerity, as it afterwards proved ; for the guide declared when the cavalcade was en route for Sparta the following morning, that he had not solicited a single para for his services. This looks like a remnant of the civilization of past ages, and proves that even four centuries of barbarous oppression has not extinguished every ancient virtue. Why should not the great temple of the human mind, after ages of decline, exhibit signs of its former beauty and excellence ; as the works of the sculptor and architect, in the extremity of their ruin, leave evidences of what they were in the days of their completeness ? Colonel Leake bears testimony to the worth of the poorer classes in the following terms : " though the condition of the peasant is on the whole miserable, he is in general industrious, much attached to his family, anxious for the education of his children, and equal, if not superior, in inteUigence to the peasantry of the most civilized countries of Europe. Among the most ignorant and uncultivated, even in the parts of Greece where the Turkish system was most oppressive, the observant traveller could not fail to remark that curiosity, ingenuity, keenness, and elocution, for which the ancient people was remarkable ; and the natural effect of which upon the present race was an extreme impatience of their unhappy condition." ^ LACONIA. SPARTA. "Clara fuit Sparta."— Ovid. The scenery all the way from Londari to Sparta, ^ through other wooded valleys, dells, and forests, along the banks of the Eurotas, is peculiarly ' Colonel Leake's Eistorical Outline of the Greek Revolution. " The Greeks (before the revolution) being only slaves by right of conquest, must and will if treated with cruelty, endeavour from time to time to regain their rights." — Sib W. Gelxi, Jowrney in " Even in her ancient decline, in the midst of war, devastation, and slavery, Greece continued long to be the seat of Philosophy and the Pine Arts. Whatever conjectures may be formed concerning the advancement of Science in India and in Egypt, it is certain that Greece was the country which enlightened, exalted, and adorned the rest of Europe, and set an example of whatever is beautiful and great to the nations." — Goldsmith. ' Nothing can exceed the beauty and variety of the glens and eminences which alternately presented themselves on our route; the prettiest valleys, each watered by its little rivulet, and reminding us perpetually of the parks and pleasure grounds, which in England are often contrived by art and study, but are here produced in endless succession by unaided nature. All the streams flovr ultimately into the Alpheus, having first joined the main river of the valley formed by the mountain of Londari and Mount Chimparu." — Gbll. THE SCENERY OF GREECE. 63 Arcadian and beautiful. No part of the world can boast of varied wood- land and mountain scenery in greater perfection. The approach to Sparta, on whose site the modern little town is now • advancing, lies through masses of walls of the lower ages, built up of ancient fi-agments. The old acropolis is believed to have occupied the hill above on the right, and the tomb of Leonidas is seen in front on entering the town, near a magnificent ancient theatre. There are also the remains of a small Roman amphitheatre, and the hollow of a stadium or hippodrome. The great plain of Sparta, one of the richest spots in Greece, lies about fifty feet below the site of the ancient city, and Mount Taigeton rises subHmely as the barrier to the whole district, and the background of the scene. The ravines, for miles along the base of the mountain, are full of picturesque subjects, more especially the great one of Mistra, which separates its castellated clifi" from the rest of Taigeton. The fertility which ascends for miles up the sides and skirts of the adjacent hills, exhibits pleasing evidence of the industry and energy of the inhabitants, while -it adds to the scenic beauty of this delightful region. There is no part of Greece where the rural inhabitants appear to be so well employed (excepting, perhaps, in the currant district on the southern borders of the Gulf of Corinth) as at Sparta, Corn, wine, oil, oranges, and silk are the chief productions — the latter article is much cultivated, and must form a considerable object of commerce ; and the mulberry tree with its rich foliage enlivens the landscape in every direction. It is not surprising that the general tourist should expect to find the territory of the pohshed Athenian graced with the charms of scenic beauty, and that of the austere and tasteless Spartan entirely destitute of such attractions. The reverse, however, happens to be the fact. Attica pre- sents httle more than a sterile and naked surface of limestone rock, while the plain of Sparta is perhaps the most beautiful and productive spot in Greece. " Sparta, or Lacedsemon, must have existed to a late period ; as we found walls composed of small stones and mortar, mixed with broken columns, and the fine blocks of its ancient buildings ; and the population has been sufficiently numerous to have consumed or carried off the greater part even of the vestiges of its former magnificence. An ancient author had observed, that if Lacedsemon and Athens were both ruined posterity would scarcely believe that the former had been so powerful, or that the latter could have been the capital of so little a territory ; and the fact justifies the assertion ; for while Athens remains the treasury of architec- 64 THE SCENERY OF GREECE. ture and the arts, Sparta boasts scarcely anything that can be cited with certainty, as a remnant of the real city of Lycurgus."^ PLATE XXIX -MISTEA, THE EUINED TUEKISH TOWN. On a- high rock which forms one of a long range of abrupt eminences, constituting the immense base of Mount Taigeton, and at the north-east angle of the great plain of Amyclse, or Sparta, stands the castle of Mistra.^ On its declivities are situated the different divisions of the town itself, which, (possibly from the superior advantages for defence afforded by its position), is said to have surpassed the old city of Sparta in importance very early in the Christian sera. " One of the most remarkable features of Mistra," says Colonel Leake, "is the deserted and ruined quarter a httle below the castle on the north-east side;" (sec the plate) which is called Kastro. '-'It presents itself," says Sir William Gell, " in all its magnificence so well dis- played on the sides of its lofty rock, that every house is visible, rising in gradation one above another, to the grey towers of the citadel on its summit." This portion of Mistra was occupied by the Turks at the time of the late Revolution, when every dwelling of the enemy was unroofed or levelled to the ground by the conquering Greeks. The singularly romantic scene here presented bursts upon the sight as the traveller turns the comer of a little glen, near the commencement of the Spartan plain, on the road from Londari. The waterfall, which shoots into the middle of the picture, is one of the numerous tributaries to the Eurotas from Mount Taigeton. PLATE XXX-MISTEA AND TAIGETON, FROM THE PLAIN OF SPARTA; Mistra was unknown to antiquity. It has changed hands frequently in the lower ages, and exhibits evidences of Venetian supremacy, hke many other towns of Greece, in its castellated remains.^ Ancient Sparta was ' "Descending into the valley of the Eurotas we passed several islands in that river; and before the pass opened into a wider valley we crossed the ruins of two walls, which shewed, that though the Spartans were so loud in the boast that their city of Lacedsemon was defended without walls, they had taken very good care to render it difficult of access by distant fortifications. In many places we passed the road supported by ancient walls of massive blocks ; and nothing could surpass the beauty of the tall oleanders, called by the Greeks rhododaphne, or rose laurel, which may possibly be the Laconian roses that flower twice in the year." — Gell. ^ 1,961 feet above the sea. ' "It may appear surprising that so strong and advantageous a situation as Mistra should have been neglected by the Spartans. It must be recollected however, that in early times, even their capital was unprotected by walls : they despised all defence except that which arose from the terror of their name and the valour of their arms, and disdained to be indebted for their security to strong .>Wf„ lu ►'jB- 4 THE SCENERY OF GREECE. 65 situated across the plain, about three Enghsh miles distant. Groves of mulberry, olive, and orange trees, enhvened by villas and farms, are spread over the district. The habitable portion of the town of Mistra having been reduced by the revolutionists to its few Greek dwellings, and the gentle eminences, on which Sparta stood being found more airy and wholesome, a new town is now seen rising on the ancient site, which promises to become an important feature in the commercial topography of modern Greece. It already dis- plays a goodly show of commodious residences, including the palaces of the Governor and the Bishop of Sparta and Amyclse, the house of representa- tives for the district of Laconia, with the cassini of the cashier, and other pubhc officers, besides numerous dwellings which respond in some degree to the rich and beautifully cultivated plain below. The few Hellenic vestiges which remain make no appearance in picture — so completely have they been swept away by the vicissitudes of twenty centuries. History says the Lacedaemonians were too valorous to need the protection of walls, and that it was not untU the dechne of their glory, after the battle of Leuctra, that Sparta was fortified.^ This view of Mistra is taken from the Spartan plain ; the castle rock is seen on the right hand, rising above the ruined houses of the Turks' town, which here present themselves in a different position — the ravine (through which the plain appears in the succeeding plate) is in the middle of the picture, and Mount Taigeton is observed ascending in the distance. The effect here represented exhibited itself at the time the sketch was taken ; the day was alternately bright and showery ; and the great mountain, on several occasions, assumed an appearance of indescribable grandeur and majesty.^ walls and artificial ramparts. It is probable tbat Mistra arose out of the ruins of Sparta, which appear to have been abandoned by the unworthy descendants of the HeracUdae about the time of the Turkish invasion, when they sought, in the rocks and precipices of Taigeton, that protection which they could not find in the low hills and gentle eminences of the Spartan plain." — Dodweu. ' "That the Lacedaemonians were serious in rejecting the protection of walls for their city (see Sir Wm. Gell, in last plate) may be matter of question ; but that the ladies of Sparta were not averse to protection of a more interesting kind seems beyond all doubt. Athenasus mentions a Spartan festival at which the women took the old bachelors, and dragged them round an altar, beating them all the time with their fists, so that if no other motive would induce them to marry, the shame and ignominy to which they were exposed on these occasions, might compel them to fall in love and enter "the happy state"! — See Athbii2eus, Lib. 13. » Mount Taygetus or Taigeton is said to be 7,829 feet above the sea. — Sieong's Greece. 66 THE SCENERY OF GREECE. PLATE XXXI.-M1STEA MVINE AND THE PLAIN OF SPARTA.» " Eura mihi, et rigui placeant in vallibus amnes ; Flumina amem, silvasque inglorius. ubi oampi, Sperchiusque, et virginibus bacchata Lacaenis Taygeta! "— Vie8. Oeorg. 2. 485. This view over the plain of Sparta, from among the lower rocks of Mount Taigeton, is obtained by ascending the bed of the river PantaHmone, from the town of Mistra, and climbing up the ravine near the edge of a waterfall, where the precipices on both sides rise perpendicularly to the height of several hundred feet. Having crossed the mountain torrent above the fall, near a small ruined bridge, the tourist, on turning round, will find the scene here represented spread out beneath his eye. The Castle of Mistra appears on the left precipice. The wild grandeur and magnificence of this mountain, its vast extent, nearly thirty miles from north to south, the variety and intricacy of its woody and rocky recesses, the boldness of its precipices, and the noble Alpine character of its whole summit, especially of the five peaks which crown the higher portion, immediately above the Spartan plain, at once stamp it as the mountain monarch of the Peloponnesus.^ PLATE XXXIL-THE PASS OF TAIGETON. This Pass is approached by a steep ascent from the Spartan plain, through extensive and populous tracts of cultivation, with farms and churches and noble sycamore trees, and other attributes of rural beauty, until the gloomy jaws of the mountain close upon the traveller. Through this pre- cipitous and rugged defile he wends his perilous way for miles, the rocks rising hundreds of feet above his head, and descending as many to the bed of the torrent beneath his feet. From some positions high in air, the 1 There is no part of Greece where the rural inhabitants appear to be so well employed (except- ing, perhaps, in the currant district on the southern borders of the Gulf of. Corinth) as at Sparta. Corn, wine, oil, oranges, and silk, are the chief productions— the latter article is much cultivated, and must form a considerable object of commerce ; and the mulberry tree with its rich foliage enlivens the landscape in every direction. " " AU the plains and all the mountains that I have seen are surpassed in the variety of their combinations and the beauty of their appearance by the plain of Lacedaemon and Mount Taygeton : — in beauty of form and richness of colouring. From the western side of the plain rise the grand and abrupt precipices of Taygeton, which is broken into many summits. The bases are formed by several distinct projections, and produce that rich assemblage and luxuriating multiplicity of lines and tints and shades which render it the finest locality in Greece." — Burgess. J. THE SCENERY OF GREECE. 67 sublimity of the scenery is truly appalling, while the danger which fre- quently presents itself enhances the excitement. In one quarter, where the savage is exchanged for the romantic, the colouring of the rocks is quite magical — huge masses of enormous altitude are decked in ochres, and reds, and greys, to the heart's content of the painter, and relieved by the deepest and most profuse foliage. Whilst the cavalcade were threading their way through this gloomy gorge, the sun burst suddenly on the sight, and, by lighting up some of the more elevated cliffs and peaks, and throwing a deep gloom over aU below, produced an effect exceedingly striking ; but it was not destined to last long; for the evening was advancing, and, on emerging from the pass at its last and highest extremity, the great luminary, whose day had been one of unclouded brilliancy, had just sunk below the horizon. The transit occupies many hours, and the view from the height alluded to comprises the bay, town, and plain of Calamata, with the mountains stretching from the most southerly point of the Morea, far away into the Arcadian gulf; the intervening ones being tumbled about, like ocean waves, in every shape and colour. MESSENIA. CALAMATA (PHAR^). Calamata is situated near a semicircular bay, whose limits are the pro- montory of Maina (Cape Matapan), and Cape GaUo, and at the extremity of an extensive plain which runs up into Arcadia. The town is modem, and the castle of the lower ages. It might have been found in England, Scotland, or Wales. A broad river descends from the great mountain, and forming a delta from the castle rock, enters the sea by two mouths. There is a good khan at Calamata, and letters of introduction, if the tourist wish to make a long sojourn and visit Maina, would be very likely to be serviceable. The writer kept his credentials in his pocket, as he had fixed upon the Monastery of Vourkano on Ithorae as his resting-place for the night. The view from above the castle, which embraces the whole bay, with Cape Koron, and the two mouths of the river, diverging from the castle to the sea, is very descriptive of the place, though little characteristic of Grecian scenery in general. After fording the broad stream, the road, or sandy lane, which receives the tourist, continues for some distance along the plain, whose surface is agreeably diversified with houses, trees, fields, vineyards, and small lakes or meres, with brooks and rivers. K 2 68 THE SCENERY OF GREECE. As the little cortege of the writer turned a comer of the road, the horses were suddenly bereft of their propriety by the abrupt advent of two horsemen at full gallop, and in flying armour, who were hastening to the market of Calamata. Both men and horses were decked out, cap-a-pie, with live geese, which were strung by the legs in couples, and hung on every practicable projection, from the heads of man and horse down to the flat stirrups ; the heads and necks of the flutterers being thrust forth, hissing and screaming with rage and fright, while their wings were in fall play to extricate themselves from their unhappy trammels — the Gorgons themselves could not have put on a more terrific appearance. Notwith- standing the disorder into which this unexpected vision had thrown the cavalcade, a messenger was speedily despatched in pursuit ; when a couple of the innocent stragglers soon changed horses, and were placed in the canteen, to which they proved a very useful as well as savoury addition. PLATE XXXIII.-THE PLAIN OF MESSENIA. " Meseneque ferax." — Otid. The plain of Stenyclerus, or Messenia, watered by the Pamisus, is an extensive valley of a fine classical character, and affords a noble scene for a picture fi:om the gate of the ancient Messene, on the mountain Ithome, about seven or eight miles from the bay of Coron. The whole range of Taigeton, with its crest of five peaks {irevTehaKrvKov) , and the sea, form the Claude-like background. Indeed Claude is often seen in Greece, and very rarely in Italy, though he never visited the former country. The atmos- phere of Greece is more in accordance with his taste than the drier and harsher one of Italy, where the outhnes are obtrusively distinct. Though colour is developed in the extremest distances of Greece, form is rarely offensive. As the tourist pursues his ascent from the convent of Vourkano, most romantically situated on the steep side of Ithome, he will enter the city gates, whence the view is taken, at the summit of the inchne ; and, descending among ruins and brushwood, through the village of Mavromati, where there is a fine fountain, the ancient Clepsydra, a bath worthy of the infant Jupiter, he will presently find himself at the great gate^ of Arcadia, ' " The magnificent walls near the great gate are almost entirely preserved ; they are composed of square stones of a prodigious size, rustic and chipped. The pavement consists of large square stones, in vfhich we discern the track of ancient wheels. The towers are square, and composed of much smaller stones than the walls. A few steps lead up to the door in each tower, in the second story of which are two windows of the same form as the doors, diminishing towards the top." — DODWBLL. " The AbbS Fourmont, who visited Messene seventy years ago, counted 38 towers then standing. I think M. Viel, the French Consul at Coron, informed me that nine of them yet remain entire."— Chateaubriand, 2. 94. The Abbe, it may be observed is by no means a select authority. THE SCENERY OF GREECE. 69 a large and noble work, constructed of excellent masonry. The circular platform within the gate, with its surrounding wall, and colossal lintel, the square towers of solid stone work pierced with windows, which surmount the walls of the city, right and left, as far as the eye can embrace them, and the walls themselves, give an admirable idea of the size and importance of this ancient metropolis of the Messenians. These Hellenic structures are said to have been built, after the restoration of the inhabitants from a banishment of three centuries, by Epaminondas, one of the greatest of heroes, and best of Greeks — a conqueror, but not a scourge ; who deserved better of his country than his country deserved of him. '' But chief were those who not for empire fought, But with their toils their peoples' safety bought, High o'er the rest Epaminondas stood." — Pope.' Remains of a small theatre, with floors of temples and other founda- tions, are still to be seen within the limits of the city, which taken altoge- ther exhibit an intelligible scheme of its general arrangements ; though most of the details, as the temples and statues described by Pausanias, in his interesting and lengthened account of Messene, are wanting to complete the picture. Driven from their country for so long a period by the fero- cious Spartans, the history of the Messenians possesses an interest which oppressed worth always inspires. The romantic situation and beauty of the ruins, together with their extraordinary freshness and perfectness, united to a recollection of the valour and fortitude of its former inhabitants, who had to struggle with a brutal and savage enemy, wiU always rank the city and mountain of Ithome among the most exciting spots in Greece. PLATE XXXrV.-AEKADIA (cyparissia). " Kat KvTrapwcrrifvTa." — HoMEB. The path now advances into a more luxuriant and richly wooded country, resembling wild English park scenery, in the midst of which, on a high knoll, stands an old Venetian castle, called Ml15 Kastro, through well- watered valleys, backed by the mountain Lycseus (Dhiaforti), the Pelopon- nesian Olympus. After fording a river, it ascends a tract of high and rugged ground, whence the plain to seaward, with the castellated town of Arkadia rising from the olive groves on the left, displays a Claude-like composition^ — ^the bay of Arkadia completing the picture. The town, bay, and mountains form a striking view also from the south. In this vieAv ' " Temple of Fame.' ' 70 THE SCENERY OF GREECE. {see the plate) the modem town lies below the spectator, the ancient acro- polis (where Hellenic foundations are stUl to be seen, on which stands a dismantled castle of the middle ages), occupies the centre of the picture, and rises to the horizontal line ; the great bay of Arkadia ascending the left of the scene to the extreme distance, in which the mountains of Elis are conspicuous. Pausanias mentions two ancient temples ; one dedicated to Apollo, the other to Minerva Cyparissia. Doric columns, according to Sir WiUiam Gell, are to be seen in the plain below. When and why this town of Arkadia changed its name from Cyparissia do not appear. The place, like its neighbours, furnished its quota to the Trojan war; and from that period until after the time of Pausanias, seems to have maintained its original appellation. Being in Messenia, as of old, its present name is liable to perplex and mislead, since the locahty which it suggests to the stranger's mind is nearly a day's journey distant. The upper class of Greeks display an evident desire to reinstate the old Hellenic nomenclature in the various towns and districts, as the writer saw by the addresses of letters of introduction which he took into the provinces from some of the king's ministers at Athens. " Salona" and " Arkadia" were both ignored, and the old Homeric designations "Amphyssa" and " Kyparissia" substituted ; these changes being probably stUl unrecognized by the multitude. Agreeable to our notions of Arcadian scenery, nothing can exceed the rural beauty of the whole Une of coast, which is a continuous range of olive groves, covering the plains and ascending the hills above, the copious river Cyparisseis watering the whole of the lower district. The course of this river is not rough and rugged, like that of the Neda, but its banks are picturesquely broken and varied, and if it cannot display many scenes of grandeur or subhmity, from the absence of abrupt rocks and hills, it is admirably in character with the sylvan beauty of the country through which it flows. AECADIA. " Dicunt in tenero gramine pinguiun Custodes ovium oarmina fistula, Deleotantque Deum, cui peous et nigri Colles Arcadiae plaoent." — Hoe. Od. 12. lib. 4. The present inhabitants of Arcadia, especially of the higher parts of that district, are occupied chiefly in tending flocks of sheep, as in the "olden time. / v-y' s-'i^''' lyy THE SCENERY OF GREECE. 71 Solon's reply to Crcesus, the rich Lydian monarch, who, in displaying his immense treasure to captivate the Greek sage, asked him if he must not of necessity be the happiest of human beings, seems to apply even in the pre- sent more humble condition of the country. "No," said the lawgiver; " I know one who is more so than you — the poor Greek peasant, who is not rich, nor yet poor, for he has few wants, and is in the habit of supplying them by his labour." The costume of the peasantry is simple and graceful, as of yore. The hilt and vest, united by a sash, look like the girdled tunic ; the loose sleeves (which hang down with great fullness when the hand is elevated) , with the surtout falling aU round to the knees, complete the habi- Uments ; the whole is of a cream colour, and possesses a simple classic character, which the costume of the Italian peasant has no pretensions to ; the latter being truly " a thing of shreds and patches." PLATE XXXV -THE VALLEY OF THE NEDA. PHIGALEIA (PAOLITZA, hod.) ** *A\Xa TO xev^a Kelvo veSrjv ovoiirjve." — CalliMACHITS. Bidding farewell to the hospitalities (for there are no hostelries) of Cyparissia, and surmounting the isthmsean shoulder of the Acropolis, and its connecting heights, the route Hes among vineyards, and fenced fields, and wooded eminences, and across a picturesque heath, with forest hills in the back ground, o'ertopped by Lycseus and the rest of the Nomian group of mountains. Passing a broad stream, the Cyparisseis, it ascends the hill, among arbutus and myrtle, to Kakavo and Sidero Kastrb, and thence, by a long and rapid descent over a verdant and uneven territory, spotted with cottages, clumps of trees, and enclosures, into the deep and romantic valley of the Neda, below Paulitza. ■ " 'Twas a horrid pile Of hills with many a shaggy forest mixed With many a sable cliff and glittering stream. Aloft recumbent o'er the hanging ridge The brown woods waved, while ever-trickling springs Washed from the naked roots of oak and pine The crumbling soil ; and still at every fall Down the steep windings of the channel'd rook Remurm'ring rushed the congregated floods With hoarser inundation, till at last They reach a grassy plain." — Akenside. Woods, rocks, and water here combine to form one of the most wildly picturesque ravines in Greece ; and if the day should be exhausted, and the 72 THE SCENEEY OF GREECE. tourist disposed to pass, the night sub Dio, or at any rate under the shelter of the forest trees, instead of climbing up the opposite cliflPs in the dark to risk a welcome at the modern representative of Phigaleia, he may possibly be treated, as the writer was, with one of the most inexplicable displays of atmospheric vagary he ever witnessed on a quiet night. The day having been very hot, the mists began to congregate around the sum- mits of the wooded rocks, Some seven or eight hundred feet above the secluded valley, gradually assuming various grotesque combinations, ascend- ing, descending, and moAdng to the right and to the left, as if they had been worked by some hidden machinery for the amusement of the by- standers. Rocks and filmy clouds assumed the same ghostly appearance, and seemed to change places with the greatest alacrity, but with the most perfect stiUness, while the starry vault above afforded just light enough to display their evolutions to the wondering eyes of the spectators. After this mute phantasmagoria had lasted a fuU hour, uprose "The Moon Pull orb'd and breaking through the scatter'd clouds Show'd her broad visage ;" — Thomson. when the fleecy vapours rapidly vanished. A huge pile of faggots, which had been collected from the woods, being now kindled, sent up a fierce blaze, that seemed to surmount the rocky heights around, illuminating every brake and crevice, and completing the disenchantment. The evening meal being finished, and the forest fire having smouldered away, the queen of the firmament assumed her rule with an effulgence rarely witnessed but in southern climes, surrounded by constellations, which, with slight varia- tions in their positions, almost necessarily reminded the tired traveller of the celestial configurations which adorn the nightly canopy of his native isle, as he sank to rest. Mr. Laurent has so well painted another portion of this scenery, that the writer cannot resist transcribing his picture : " On the opposite side of a deep glen, watered by the Neda, is the supposed site of ancient Phigaleia. Represent to yourself a river, darting from a narrow pass between the rocks, rapidly flowing at an immense depth below a bridge, overhung with myrtle, bay,^ and arbutus, and soon after lost by the eye between two per- pendicular and approaching cliffs, the trees of which seem to unite their branches, and form one lofty mass of forest ; then a steep road leading to a fountain, overhung with weeping willows and wild olives, rushing from ' " Et vos, 6 lauri, oarpam, et te, proxima myrte, Sic positae quoniam suaves miscetis odores." — Vies. Eel. 2 54. THE SCENERY OF GREECE. 73 the rock, under an immense natural arch, and afterwards dashing with a loud noise its foaming waters to feed the river. Over this, built among hanging masses of stone, which the first blast threatens to hurl down the abyss, some miserable cottages, commanded by a mountain crowned with ancient walls, the extent of which seems to indicate the habitation of the giant warriors of old — such is the situation of the little village of Pauhtza. "We reached the bottom by a zigzag path of tremendous declivity, sometimes obhterated by fallen rocks, and only practicable with the greatest care and precaution. It was here that we found ourselves on the banks of the celebrated Neda, flowing rapidly through one of the most singular chasms in the world, under magnificent precipices, which tower to an astonishing height on each side, and seem to oppose the passage of its waters ; leaving, in fact, no space but that which time and the incessant flood have worn between the most prominent of their enormous masses." " We crossed the Neda near a waterfall, and, ascending by a steep path, came immediately to the foundations of what must have been the gate of Phigaleia. Another rugged ascent, which in one part consists of a road supported by ancient masonry, conducts to the little village of Pauhtza, the present representative of the Arcadian city." ^ PLATE XXXVI -THE TEMPLE OF APOLLO EPICUEIFS AT BASSiE, NEAR PHIGALEIA. After a variety of hill and dale, and moor and mountain, the tourist, ascending through a steep wood of ancient oaks, descries " the Columns," (as they are called), and soon afterwards arrives at the renowned temple of Apollo Epicurius, whose sculptured marbles, like others of the more celebrated Parthenon, adorn our national Museum. Next to the Tegean temple, Pausanias tells us that the temple of Apollo Epicurius, at Bassse, was the most distinguished in the Pelopon- nesus, It was built by Ictinus, the architect of the Athenian Parthenon and Propylsea. There are thirty-six columns of the peristyle standing, out of forty-two, with some frusta of the pilasters. The roof and walls of the cella have fallen, and the sculptured frieze — Centaurs and Lapithse, Amazons and Greeks — was covered with the ruins. The scenery all around is bold, varied, and romantic; mountain over mountain, till all is lost in the distant sea beyond Calamata and its plain. ' Gell's Narrative. 74 THE SCENERY OF GREECE. Ithome stands out in the centre of the picture, and the temple itself, from which there is no view, has its place in the landscape immediately below the foreground, relieved by the deep wood through which the traveller ascends to the platform of the temple.^ -"From the Temple's base The rocky knoll, precipitous and bare, Sweeps down to yonder vale, whose clustering woods Sleep in the lustre of the setting sun." — Hatgabxh's Greece. ANDRITZENA AND LYC^US.^ After a devious and beautiful ride through a pass* among the high Nomian mountains, whose declivities are embosomed in groves and forests, the tourist emerges into an open and elevated space, looking down upon the valley of the Alpheus, over which are seen the higher Alps of the 1 " The spacious expanse of the Messenian plain, encircled with mountains, bursts on the view and Mount Ithotne (3,865 feet high) appears in all its beauty." — Dodwbll. " There is a magnificent view from the temple, to Ithome, and the gulf of Coron." — Gbll. ^ Mount LYCiEus, (Dhiaforti) — " On looking up the mountain the village of Tragomano is descried in an elevated situation full two hours distant. Half an hour higher is the Hippodrome of the Lycsean games, and twenty minutes more would bring to the summit a person who should be disposed to climb into what is perhaps the most interesting among the most interesting mountains in the world. " From its summit," says Mr. DodweU, "no words can convey an adequate idea of the enchanting scene which burst upon us. The snow-crested summits of Taigeton rise in rugged majesty and towering pride above the smooth and even surface of the Messenian Gulf, terminated by the blue horizon of the open sea ; and the broad Pamisus is seen winding through the rich plain of Stenykleros, and adding to it its tributary stream. The flat-topped Ithome is distinguished beyond the great plain of Messenia, enveloped in tints of aerial blue. The Cape of Coron is observed shooting into the Gulf. The open sea is now and then descried over the undulating surface of the Messenian mountains. The plain and Acropolis of Cyparissia (now Arkadia) are distinguished clearly, rising from the Cyparrissian Gulf. A long fine of open sea is then contemplated towards the west, and further north, the dim and distant outliues of Zante and Cephalonia. Skottis and Olenus are next beheld, tipped with snow, nor are even the misty summits unseen which are beyond the Olympic plain. The ramification from Lycseus which forms Mount Kotylion, appears toward the north, with its temple like a luminous speck. The panorama is closed with the flat and verdant plain of Megalopolis, with its ancient capital, the winding Alpheus, and the lofty mountains which rise beyond it. The nearer view is gratified by the sight of abrupt precipices and wooded masses receding one behind another, and with intervening glens and plains, and adorned with every variety of tint that Nature ever combined in her most fantastic mood and most smiling hour." — ^Dodwell. The sides of Ly casus are covered with thick woods of chestnut, under which the shepherds of the country stiU feed their flocks, as when Pan, the favorite deity of Arcadia, had his temple and grove and sacred games on the summit. — Gell. ^ " This pass is known by the name of the Anathema, from a heap of stones found on the road side, and called by the Greeks a curse. The following is the manner in which a Romaic peasant anathematizes his enemy : — surrounded by his friends and his neighbours, he proceeds to some hillock, oross-road, or other pubUc and frequented spot, there, imprecating Divine vengeance against his unfortunate foe, he gathers together a certain number of stones ; each of his friends and neighbours adds to the mass, pronouncing at the same time the dreadful word avaB^jia, which consigns to eternal abhorrence the miserable object of the curse, and severs him from the society of his townsmen. Every traveller who passes for some time afterwards, thinks it his duty to augment the heap of stones, pronouncing the dire form of execration. These anathemas are not unfrequently seen in Greece ; they are generally formed on public occasions : such a one, I am told, is seen somewhere near Athens ; it was erected against an individual who betrayed his fellow-citizens to their common adversaries, the Turks." — Laitrbnt's Classical Tour. Several of these piles of stones were pointed out to the writer, during his tour through Greece, as Anathemas. "Cruelty towards an enemy, whom they considered it just and lawful to hate and pursue to the death is one of the blemishes which from the days of Hesiod and Herodotus to those of Polybius deformed the old Hellenic character." — Da. Heinbich Hase. ' -^^Ji ¥i>- i- 'jits» isi -::=--.* -'ti--.^fcr- THE SCENERY OF GREECE. 75 northern portion of the Morea, the great chain of Cyllene, Aroania, Eryman- thus, and Skottis, that surround the Arcadian valleys and lakes. Three hours from the temple the extensive village of Andritzena presents itself, of little pictorial character, but most delightfully situated, and well provided for the repose and comfort of the jaded tourist, especially if he be a bearer of introductory letters. From Andritzena he descends the steep and rugged slope of the Nomian mountains towards the vaUey. At some distance below is seen a conical hill, surmounted by a decayed fortress ; it is called Palaio Kastro, a name bestowed upon every ruin of the kind in Greece, for want of a more definite and historical one. Vestiges of an old town are near its base ; these, as well as the castle, are probably on ancient sites. Travellers call the place Labda. The scenery now becomes more striking and bold in its character. The Alpheus is heard roaring among the rocks beneath, while above their highest peaks the Morean Olympus, Mount Lycseus, is seen frowning over the whole, with his head just below the clouds. "If deep glens, spreading trees, and gushing waters constitute the delights of Arca- dian scenery," says Sir "William Gell, " the poets have not sung in vain the praises of this region." After passing through a deep defile of the river, and turning a rocky shoulder of the mountain, the tourist comes suddenly in view of the old bridge, the town, and lofty citadel of Karitena. PLATE XXXVII.-KAEITENA. The CitadeP of Karitena, crowned by a Venetian fortress, with the town at its upper, and the Alpheus at its lower, base, struggling through a deep rocky ravine, together with the old bridge as a foreground, make one of the most striking and picturesque scenes in Greece. Karitena has no antiquities to boast of. Sir William Gell thinks that the ancient Brenthea was probably on its site. According to Tennent,^ Karitena, which was the birth-place of Coloco- troni, was one of the first towns in Greece to raise the standard of freedom. It contained, at that period, about three thousand souls. It was in a large vault, on the summit of this citadel, that the klefts or brigands, who, on the loss of their leader, had come over from the defiles ' The citadel of Karitena was estimated by the Morea CommissionerB at 1,913 feet (English) above the sea. ' Picture of Greece, by Sib Jas. Bmebson Tenkent, M.P. L 2 76 THE SCENERY OF GREECE. of Mount Helicon to solicit the king's pardon, were summarily incarcerated by the governor before they had an opportunity of making voluntary sub- mission to the sovereign, who was then on a tour in this district. These men were the terror of Greece at the time these sketches were taken, and it was probably as well that they were secured from doing further mis- chief, which would in all likelihood have occurred, had the king, in the exercise of his prerogative, let them loose again upon society. They were sixteen in number, on their capture by the soldiery ; one was shot in the needless affray, and the officious governor told the writer that he should single out one or two more for decapitation. Without venturing to specu- late upon the nature of the circumstances, probably political, which usually give a show of cause to such illegal assemblages, the satisfaction which the fact of their being taken spread over the whole country was unmistakeable — it was the subject of rejoicing in all the conversations of the quiet pea- santry for several days' journey afterwards. PLATES XXXVIII & XXXIX -THE YALLEY OF THE ALPHEUS. "Mstuat Alpheos."— OviK. The descent from Karitena to the banks of the river Gortyna affords a striking retrospect of the romantic and lofty citadel. The ancient Arca- dians must have been a more peace-loving people than their neighbours if they had never occasion to make use of this natural fortress as a place of refiige or defence ; and yet, because the few pages of history which have come down to us say nothing about it, some have concluded that the ancients passed it over as a position of no importance, although, as the key to a most important pass, it must have been of great value at all periods while the country was inhabited. The river Gortyna, which flows into the Alpheus a little below, is crossed by a singular and very steep old bridge of one arch, a miniature Ponte di Eialto. The path thence ascends the wooded rocks, until it places the traveller on the platform of the ancient town of Gortys. Temples to Apollo and ^sculapius existed here, of which the foundations, together with some Cyclopean blocks, alone remain. The precipices on which these foundations are located rise about two hundred feet above the river, which here makes an abrupt angle, washing their rocky base. A curiously-orna- mented monastery arrests the eye of the tourist as he looks down upon the torrent beneath, which appears stuck against the perpendicular cliffs about '^'H'' THE SCENERY OF GREECE. 77 half-way from the summit ; but the scene is more peculiar than picturesque. From Gortys the route ascends to a long valley, beautifully interspersed with forest trees, the descent from which, among noble sycamores, to the lower valley of the Alpheus, is abrupt and highly picturesque. A few hours from Gortys, on the way to Aios Aiannes, there is a fine anavathron — a whole river, fifty or sixty feet wide, rushes into existence at once from under a low ledge of Umestone rock, and assuming its ample course in the wooded valley, hastens to join the Alpheus at no great dis- tance. The water is dehciously cool and translucent, which travellers know how to appreciate. On the left some loose building materials mark the site of the ancient Buphagus. Wood and water scenery in the utmost perfection accompany the tourist to Aios Aiannes, the position of the Arcadian Heraea, where two of the most beautiful vaUey scenes that even Arcadia can boast of await his admiration. In the first the Alpheus is seen flowing towards him in a broad and rapid stream, from the mountainous region near Andritzena, amid villages (among which is Nerovitza, the ancient Ahphera), and woods and cultivated grounds, until it makes a gentle inclination to the west, and again becomes an interesting and beautiful feature as it hastens away to the plains of Olympia and to the sea, under which the poets tell us it pur- sues its course to the shores of Sicily, where it reappears in the fountain of Arethusa.^ The rivers Ladon and Erymanthus^ flow into the valley, and unite with the Alpheus a short distance below Hersea, as may be remarked in the second view. " Nymphs and shepherds, dance no more By sandy Ladon's lilied banks ; On old Lycaeus, or Cyllene hoar, Trip no more in twilight ranks ; Though Erymanth your loss deplore A better soil shall give ye thanks." — Milton's Arcades. Here, as in the vale of Megalopolis, no geometrical demarcations of hedge and ditch ofiend the eye, but an inartificial elegance and natural beauty reign throughout. -" Alpheum fama est hue, Elidis amnem. Occultas egiese vias subter mare ; qui nunc Ore, Arethusa, tuo Siculis confunditur undis." — Virqil ^ra. 3. 694. The fountain of Arethusa in Sicily is now, as of yore, a large anavathron ; it is surrounded by high walls, and is the daily resort of the laundress nymphs of Syracuse, who exercise their profession and their tongues here in a style well calculated to banish all classic recollections from the mind of the visitor. ^ " Donee arenosi placitum Ladonis ad amnem Venerit." — Ovin Met. "Aut Erymanthi Pacarit nemora." — Virgil u^n. 6. 802. See Callimachus' Hymn in Jov. Homer in his sixth Odyssey describes Diana hunting the boar amid the shady groves of Erymanthus and Taigetus. 78 THE SCENERY OF GREECE. Pausanias informs us that Herseus, son of Lycaon, built Hersea, on the right bank of the Alpheus, the larger portion of which is situated on a gently rising hiU, and the remainder on the skirts of the river below, where are the race-course, baths, &c. Two temples to the Greek Bacchus, one to Pan, and another to Juno, the patroness of the spot, were likewise erected at Hersea. A few frusta of small stone columns were the only remains of antiquity which the writer observed during his limited sojourn in this most beautiful district. At the extremity of the last of the two valley scenes appears a conical mountain ; it faces Olympia, and is the ancient Typseus, from which women were thrown who crossed the Alpheus on forbidden days to attend the Olympic games. ^ Beyond this mountain, and about two miles south of Olympia, stood Scyhus, the residence of Xenophon, which was given to him by the Spartans after his banishment from Athens ; a woody region, watered by the Selinus, where he and his sons hunted the deer, and the wUd boar, and the roe, and where he composed many of his works.^ Here Xenophon erected a sanctuary to Artemis, which he had vowed during the retreat of the Ten Thousand. From this retirement he was afterwards expelled, and is said to have died at Corinth. On quitting Hersea the path ascends among the lower hiUs, but it is as devious and dubious as can well be imagined. The usual scenery of an Arcadian or shepherd district is plentifully furnished forth, but without any striking points to arrest the artist's attention. Occasional villages with surrounding enclosures, deep woody glens with rapid rivers, fall into the line of travel, but the hovels are mean and the landscape above generally bare. From Visitza, where are some well-built stone houses, a high conical acropoUs catches the eye, with antique walls and towers running along its contour on both sides to the summit. A large portion of this district of Arcadia is very imperfectly known to antiquarians,* and the maps are not well calculated to guide the inquiring tourist, either in search of ancient ruins, or modern horse-tracks. Over bill and dale the route is continued, for many hours, tOl the scenery begins to assume a more striking character. The mountains around become higher and of finer forms, the confines of the valleys more decided and precipitous, the valleys themselves more cultivated and level, the forest trees more lofty and umbrageous, and the rivers more rapid and beautiful, while high above on either hand are seen lofty perpendicular rocks, crowned with ' Pausanias, 5. ^ Plutarch de exil. » As Sir William Gell observes, " where Pausanias does not travel, it is in vain to expect any- certain ty with regard to the antiquities." THE SCENERY OF GREECE. 79 gnarled oaks and brushwood, surmounted by the mighty range of Klhelmo and Olenus/ the highest mountains in Arcadia. "And over head up grew Insuperable height of loftiest shade, Cedar, and pine, and fir, and branching palm, A sylvan scene, and as the ranks ascend Shade above shade, a woody theatre Of stateliest view." — Milton.^ PLATE XL -THE VALLEY OF CLITOE. " Clitorio quicunque sitim de fonte levarit, Vina ftigit, gaudetque meris abstemius undis." — Ovid.' " Soli oantare periti Arcades." — Vibqil. The more northern and Alpine regions of Arcadia abound in fertile valleys, intersected and enlivened by copious streams and rivers, environed by richly wooded forest-like decUvities, and finely formed mountains from four to seven and eight thousand feet in height. The general aspect of the country is here more truly characteristic of its poetical reputation than in many of its southern provinces. This plate represents one of the beautiful valleys alluded to. The stream which flows through it bore the name given to the valley itself. Kleitor, or Clitorium, was a city of the Azanes, one of the most ancient peoples of Greece,* and one of the three^ tribes into which the Arcadians were divided by Azan and his two brothers, sons of Areas, king of Arcadia — ^they were famed for their hospitality, and for their love of music. Clitor, son of Azan, founded and gave his name to the city,^ which was located near the middle of the valley. Temples were erected here to Ceres, Esculapius, Lucina, &c. ; but the most remarkable object connected with this city in ancient times was a fountain of water, which was said to possess the singular faculty of creating an aversion to wine.'^ The ancient as well as modem practice of saturating the finest wines of Greece with resinous matters easily disposes of the phenomenon, as it would have been more extraordinary if any pure brook or stream in the country did not possess the power to produce the same result on an unvitiated palate.* Perhaps the Clitorians used resin to a more disgusting excess than their neighbours? ' Khelmos is 7,726 feet high, French Commission. Olenus 7,228. — Strong's Greece. 2 " An ample theatre of sylvan grace." — Mason's English Garden. 3 " Vinum tsedio venire his qui ex Clitorio lacu biberint." — Plin. 31. 2. ' Strabo, lib. 8. '' Stephanus Byzant. " Pausanias, lib. 8. 4. ApoUodorus, 3. 8. ' Vitruvius, 8. 3. » " Dr. Sibthorp counted in Modern Greece thirty-nine different sorts of grape, exclusive of the currant grape. But a custom, derived from the remotest antiquity, spoils the flavour of the wine to European palates. Turpentine from the pinus maritima, which was barked for that purpose in September, often even tar, is poured in great quantities (three pounds to twenty-four gallons English) into the wine, to prevent its turning sour. The pine-cone on the stafl' of the thyrsus is the type by 80 THE SCENERY OF GREECE. A modern village, called Klitoras, stands above the southern descent into the valley, a few miles from the site of the ancient city ;^ and the village of Karnesi is in the immediate vicinity of the latter. Both these places aiford house room to travellers passing from Aios Aiannes (Hersea), in the valley of the Alpheus, to Kalabrita ; which latter town is only half a day's journey from Clitor. PLATE XLI.-KALABKITA' (cyn^thium). Having ascended from the valley of Clitor, through picturesque glens, to a high and naked sheep valley, in which is a small lake of most delicious water, beneath the western summit of mount Khelmos (Aroania), a long and rapid Alpine descent brings the tourist into the valley of the Buraicus, near Kalabrita, a large and thriving modern town, in a mountainous recess. Here the writer was hospitably received by the brother-in-law of the then Greek premier, instead of having to confront the miseries of the wretched khan in which M. Pouqueville was compelled to take up his abode in Turkish times. The town is partly located on the rising ground, and many of the houses, some of which are new and European in form and size, have an air of importance, which, with Khelmos in the background, give to the whole scene a striking and romantic character. Although the great valley, with its noble river, the ancient Buraicus, has a bare appearance, the older houses of the town are well sheltered by trees, and surrounded by productive as well as ornamental gardens, with oranges, lemons, and mulberries. There are no antiquities of any importance here — the site of Cynsetha is very doubtful, though it could not have been far distant. The ancient Cynsethans who inhabited this valley were considered a base, cruel, and uncivilized race, the reverse of their generous neighbours of Clitor. Polybius explains this remarkable difference of character, by informing us that the Cynsethans were the only people of Arcadia who did not cultivate music! "The man who has not music in his soul," &c. The writer, however, entirely disclaims the application of this ancient charac- teristic to the Cynsethans of the present day. which the old Hellenes signified this ancient union of the gifts of the vine with those of the pine tree." — Dr. Hbnrioh Hase's Ancient Greeks. Greeks, and even Frank residents, who have been accustomed to these nauseous mixed wines of Greece, look upon the pure and beautiful productions of the islands, which are not so adulterated, as comparatively insipid beverages. ' " Most of the walls of Kleitor may be traced, though little of them remain above ground. They enclose an irregular oblong space, and were fortified with circular towers. The style of construction is nearly equilateral which gives them the appearance of great solidity ; their general thickness is fifteen feet. Here are remains of a small Doric temple with fluted antae, and columns with capitals of a singular form. Beyond the walls of the city, on the side towards the Kalybia, the ground is covered with sepulchres of the hj-pogasan kind, similar to those at the Piraeus ; they might be opened with little trouble and expense." — Sir Wm. Gell. ^ KaXa PpvTa. Beautiful water-spring. % i^^' %\ 82 THE SCENERY OF GREECE. nias (still believed by the peasantry)^ had been conned over that morning. It may suflSce to observe, that taken in a solid state the Stygian beverage proved exceedingly grateful and refreshing. As, however, their thirst was quenched before they returned to the lower part of the valley, where the water was in its fluid and proper state, the writer does not consider himself justified in disputing the truth of Pausanias' statement. He begs there- fore to leave the antiquarian's history of its powers just as it was ; for it would be a pity to chill the enthusiasm of the true believer in classical mysteries by any rude allusions to modem experience. Pausanias tells us that the water distilled itself from a great height, and passing through a rock entered the river Crathis — that it is deadly to men and animals — that vases of all kinds of material made by man, whether of glass, or crystal, or clay, or murrhine, or stone, of iron, brass, silver, lead, tin or electrum, are broken by it — so let it be ! Alexander the Great is said by some to have been poisoned by this water; if so, the deadly potion must have been trans- ported farther than the water of the Ganges, which is said to have been hrought fresh from that river morning and evening to wash the famous Colossus of Juggernaut' — a distance of several hundred miles.^ In addition to these extraordinary properties, the Styx, by an ordination of Jupiter, became a sacred oath among the gods — one which they could not break without loss of power and station for a whole century.^ For Jove among the gods an oath ordained, To swear by Styx ; and who that oath profaned, One hundred years should lose his power divine, Nor "precious Nectar" quaff, celestial wine. The ravine of this sacred torrent is bounded nearly all the way up from the greater valley by vast precipices of perpendicular rock, hundreds of feet high ; large trees, old trunks, and brushwood crowning their summits, or shooting out from their interstices. The usual road to the waterfall, how- ever, is at some distance from the ravine, having been contrived to bring the traveller upon the chief object in the shortest time possible : a refine- ment in sight-showing which one would scarcely expect to find in so remote a corner of Greece. ■ " I can find no person at Solos, not even the didaskolos (schoolmaster) who is scholar enough to be sensible that he is living on the banks of the Styx, but what is very curious, though ignorant in this respect, they preserve the old notion that the water is unwholesome ; and relate nearly the same story concerning it as Pausanias, saying that no vessel will hold the water ! " — Col. Lbake. * Meurice's Indian Antiquities. Vol. 3. ' Classic authors differ as to the actual period assigned for punishing the celestial culprits ; some are for one, others nine, one a hundred, and another a thousand years ; the difference, however, though great to mortals, cannot be worthy of notice to the parties implicated, who have a whole eternity before them. " Stygias juravimus undas." — Ovid, Met. 2. 101. "Adjuro Stygii caput implacabile fontis." — Vikg. JEh. 12. 816. THE SCENERY OF GREECE. 83 The landscape studies afforded by the valley of Klouchines below are innumerable ; there is, perhaps, no part of Greece where the grand and the picturesque are so happily blended. Mills and cascades, rocky chasms choked with wood, towns on decUvities — in fact, every material which a landscape painter can desire — but not a decent roof to shelter him if he were disposed to remain for a short period. PLATE XLIII-LAKE PHONIA (pheneos.) " Est locus Arcadiaa (Pheneon dixSre priores) Ambiguia suspectus aquis : quas nocta timeto ; Nocte nocent potae. Sine nox^ luce bibuntur." — Ovid. On the route from Klouchines up the neighbouring valley to the pass at its extremity, there are few points to attract the artist; but when the summit of the pass is attained, a scene of indescribable magnificence bursts upon his view like a paradise. All the beauties of our English lakes, with those of Italy, seem concentrated and displayed with a new and more capti- vating grace. The noble amphitheatre of mountains combined with the lake form the heart of the picture. Mount Khelmos the right, and Mount Cyllene, in all its grandeur, the left screen. The foreground is decked with pines aU the way down to the vaUey on this side of the lake, where they are exchanged for deciduous trees; the varieties of hUI and dale perpetually varying the prospect during the descent. The monastery of St. Demetrius comes admirably into the middleground above the valley alluded to, and, by its combination with, improves the most picturesque view of the lake. {See plate 43.) There is an old prophecy extant concerning this lake. Long previous to the acknowledgment of Greek liberty it was entirely deprived of its waters by a katavathron, or subterraneous conduit, its only outlet — a mode of discharge not unusual in this limestone country. The prophecy was, that " Greece would never be free untU the lake was replenished."^ A very- short period before the alHed powers declared the freedom of Greece the katavathron closed, and the lake reappeared.* > The reverse of the Delphian prophecy respecting the Lake of Albano, and the conquest of Veil — , see Livy. When Albano was emptied, Veil would faD. When Phonik became full, Greece would be free. The waters of Phonic after passing through this katavathron become the source of the river Laden. * It is yet more than twenty feet lower than it was in ancient times. The mark denoting its former elevation is very evident along the base of the mountains, many yards above the present water level. The appearance is singular in an inland lake, and reminds the spectator of an arm of the sea after the tide has left. (This lake is said to be 2,444 feet above the sea.) " "Qtrre Ka\ €(j> rjiiau OTjfiela eKetireTO cVt Ta>v opiov, tls & €7ravat^pai to vdtop Xeynvfri." — PausANIAS, Arcadica, lib. 8. Colonel Leake, however, has entered his protest against this solution of the phenomenon. M 2 84 THE SCENERY OF GREECE. The ancient Pheneos (an Homeric city) may be seen on an isolated hill not far distant, with the ruins of its walls and scattered masses of masonry. It formerly, according to Pausanias, contained a temple of Minerva Tritonia, of which are now only seen some rude relics ; also an equestrian statue of Neptune, which was of brass, dedicated by Ulysses, they say, when, having lost his horses, he rambled through Greece in search of them, and being successful, he built a temple to Diana Heurippen on the spot. Hermes had a temple, statue, and games here. The houses of the modem village are situated among trees and waUed gardens, and have all the appearance of affording the necessaries of life to the wayfarer whose canteen should be empty, and whose arrangements should admit of a sojourn. The writer and his cortege dined at a spring near the monastery of St. Demetrius, under the supervision of the hegoij- menos or abbot, who, in this remote spot, was only too glad to have an opportunity of gaining, by an hour's gossip, any news that a fresh arrival might bring. The recent capture of the brigands was the aU-absorbing theme. The way to Stymphalus lies across a broad territory of flat corn land, formerly a part of the bed of the lake, ascending through the village of Moshea, on the hill side, where is a beautiful fountain, to a shoulder of the mountain (Geronteion), which separates the two valleys and lakes, and whence there is a second beautiful view of the vale and lake of Phonik. PLATE XLIV.-LAIE STYMPHALUS (zaraka, hod.) "Bt serisonum Stymphalon." — Statius. A descent of a few miles through a wild and uncultivated vaUey brings the tourist in sight of Lake Stymphalus, ^ but not a habitation for man is to be seen ; and, though there is no lack of either sheep or shepherds, there is not even a fold in view. The path, which is only occasionally evident, was pursued along the southern border of the lake, sometimes near its brink, at others, where huge masses of rock obstructed all direct progress, ascending bluff promontories. Having passed the katavathron^ by which the waters of the lake are discharged, which are said to reappear in the ' " We came in sight of Lake Stymphalus, which, though not of considerable dimensions, is very grand and picturesque, and surrounded by mountains of a bold outline and magnificent appearance." — Sir Wm. Gell. " The scenery of Mount CyUene is of the finest kind both in its magnitude and in its picturesque character." — ^Db. Holland. Mount CyUene is stated by the French Commission to be 7,788 feet above the sea. ' A miracle is told, that when the rites of Diana were carelessly performed the woods fell into the cavern of the outlet, so that the water inundated the plain. A hunter, swimming after a deer h^i m THE SCENERY OF GREECE. 85 Argolic plain as the river Erasinus, and the daylight being nearly ex- hausted, the tourists took advantage of a rocky cavern as their place of repose, which presented its seemingly hospitable recess in the face of a per- pendicular limestone cHff, about a hundred feet above the surface of the water. A better position for contemplating the magnificent scenery around could scarcely have been selected. The wide expanse of the lake, the sublime forms of the mountains, the recollections of its mythic history, in which gods and fiends are more prominent than men, combine to make the view one of the most poetical that can be imagined. Mount Cyllene, on whose summit Mercury was born. -" The herald Mercury New lighted on a heaven-kissing hill," and where the remains of his temple are said stiU to exist, rises in broad and solemn grandeur directly in front of the spectator, to an altitude of eight thousand feet ; at its base is just visible on the opposite shore the ancient acropohs of Stymphalus, an Homeric city. Over the lower skirts of Cyllene the great mountain Aroania (Khelmos), with its rocky summit (next in height only to Cyllene, and whence the waters of the Styx distil them- selves,) makes a conspicuous appearance in the distance, while the dark lake below completes this impressive ancient landscape. Pausanias informs us that those cannibal birds, the stymphalides, in- fested this district. Similar feathered monsters, which are as savage to mankind as lions or tigers, were said also to exist in Arabia. The only nui- sances which the writer found in his troglodital dormitory were the swarms of huge and venemous mosquitoes, whose inflictions, accompanied by the loud croaking noise of the frogs on the beach below, rendered sleep next to impossible, and put his little cavalcade in motion a fiill hour before daybreak in self-defence. That the mosquitoes of the present day are hneal descen- dants from the stymphalides of ancient times cannot be doubted for a moment by any one who has suffered for hours by their cannibal attacks. The clouds of Latakia smoke, which were made to roll in volumes through the cave after supper, had the effect of scaring them away for a time, Uke the brazen rattle of Hercules ; but they returned and renewed their torments with redoubled vigour, as soon as the vapours subsided. both were swallowed up in the vortex, and the plain dried again in a day. Sir William QeU climbed a precipice to look down upon this fearful chasm. "A sort of imposing stUlness," he says "rendered more terrible the sight of what appeared an unfathomable abyss, drawing to itself in treacherous silence, every floating object, till it became insensibly and irrevocably lost in the dark and tremendous gulf below. The water had all the appearance of immense depth, so that, though perfectly transparent, and seen from a considerable elevation, no signs of the bottom were visible. The natives believe that the cones of fir trees, having been thrown in considerable numbers into the waters here, have really re-appeared at the fountain head of the Erasinus near Argos." 86 THE SCENERY OF GREECE. " Mali culioes, ranseque palustres Avertunt somnos." — Hobaoe. The path now lay over the two boundary hills of Stymphalus towards the east, an extensive tract covered with myrtles, lentisk bushes, and other plants, highly valued in colder climes; in the midst of which are the debris of an ancient city, Alea : the travellers, however, were too much exhausted by their previous fatigues and restless slumbers to prosecute any researches, though the spot was sanctified, according to Pausanias, by three temples. One of these celebrities, it appears, the temple of Bacchus, was remarkable, during the festivals of that deity, as the arena for whipping women — a remembrance that did not quicken the desire for inquiry. The route thence descended into what GeU calls " a frightfully ugly and dreary country," at whose confines the large modern village of Agios Giorgios (St. George) is located, thence by Nemea and Cleonse to Corinth. COEINTHIA. PLATE XLV.-COEINTH (ephyra). " Upapa KoL irpvp.va ttjs 'EXAdSos." — DiON Chktsostom. " Lumen totius Qraeciae." — Cioebo. CoEiNTH was a very magnificent city; renowned for its commerce, its wealth, its splendour, its luxury, its dissipation, and its expensiveness.^ Corcyra (Corfu) and Syracuse were both colonies of Corinth. It was here that the first triremes were built. The first naval battle on record was fought between Corcyra and the mother country, 657 B.C. The Isthmsean games, a source of great attraction to the wealthy, were celebrated in the neighbourhood of Corinth, where extensive ruins and foundations still exist. The city abounded in noble edifices, and the fine arts were pursued with every success. It was alternately ruled by kings and ohgarchs ; and then by Macedonian troops, until it joined the Achaian league. The city was taken and burnt to the ground by Mummius, 146 B.C. During this fire the Corinthian brass was discovered. Corinth was restored by Juhus Caesar, a.d. 46, who called it Colonia Julia Corinthius, when it became the capital of Achaia. The new city was two hundred and seventeen years old when Pausanias visited and described it ; but an enumeration of the splendid edifices which he saw would only disappoint the tourist, as there is nothing to arrest his attention in memory ' " 'Ow wavT^s dvSpbs is KopivBov iaff onXovs." — " Non cuiTis," The Sicyonians are said to have enacted a law by which none but persons of birth could profess the fine arts — so anxious were they to prevent these sources of mental refinement from being degraded by vulgar practitioners. THE SCENERY OF GKEECE. 89 spot. A few huge masses of Eoman brick work on the plain in front of these antiquities sadly defile the associations of the spot, and drag the mind back from the earliest ages of refinement into more recent memories of brute war and conquest. The district around is bald and almost houseless, but, as Byron says, " Nature stiU is fair,"— Mount Geranion, the Corinthian Acropolis, and the great gulf, present the same enchanting view from the theatre which they did forty centuries ago. From Sicyon a tortuous path hes near the margin of the Gulf of Corinth, among currant grounds that tell of commerce and of wealth (things long unknown to Greece), many a tedious mile. Hedges, ditches, and streamlets, the divisions among the vineyards, repeatedly turn the tourist from his onward course. The elevated range of woody hills and cliifs which accompany hkn on the left are frequently crowned with ancient masonry — to some of these, ancient names are attached. Near Xylo Kastro was the port of Pellene, Aristonautse ; the town itself, which is mentioned by Homer, was sixty stadia distant, among the hiUs, according to Pausanias. The hUls themselves are exceedingly picturesque and beautiful, but they rarely comply with the requirements of the artist, except as separate studies. The broad bay with the noble mountains of Locris on the other side, crowned by Parnassus, is always an interesting scene to the traveller when he can find himself sufficiently disengaged from attention to his horse's footing, to cast an eye in that direction. From the great elevations of the mountains which rise above either shore, the gulf of Corinth has all the character of a large lake. It is nearly fifty miles long and from ten to fifteen and twenty broad. Pindus and Parnassus on the north, and CyUene, Kiielmos, and Olenus on the south, averaging as much as eight thousand feet in height. ACHAIA. About half an hour beyond Xylo Kastro is Kamares, on the high hill above which GeU places the Gonussa of Pausanias. Four hours more bring the tourist to Mavra Litharia ; the summit of the height, twelve stadia off, shows the remains of the ancient JEgira, and when he arrives at the khan of Akrata, at the mouth of the Crathis, the outlet of the Styx, he will find himself near the ancient ^gse. The lake-like character of the great gulf becomes more evident as the tourist ascends the high woody hills from the khan on his way to Mec^as- pOion ; the mountains on the opposite side, too, rise before him in much magnificence — those above Salona and the range of Pindus are particularly N 90 THE SCENERY OF GREECE. bold and striking in their forms. The tourist has still before him an upward track of many mUes, through woods and across ravines, till the huge rocks alone reign triumphant ; not such rocks as are seen in Borrowdale, or the Trosachs, or in Dovedale, but such as a young landscape painter would dream before his first visit to romantic scenes : large isolated masses shoot- ing out of the ground, as if they were independent of it, to heights that astound the observer. These rocks are at the back of the cHffs which overhang the great monastery, to which the descent among the woods is rapid and rugged, until he suddenly finds himself on the terrace, in front of perhaps the most striking scene he ever beheld. PLATES XLVI. & XLVIL-MEGASPILION/ " Prsesentiorem conspioimus Deum Per invias rupes, fera per juga, Clivosque prseruptos." — Gbat. The highest strung imagination must fail in idealizing the wonders of this place ; the pencil may not err in delineating individual scenes with accuracy, but those are (as art itself is) necessarily limited, and nothing short of an actual sight of the stupendous assemblage of objects which con- stitute this far-famed group, can convey an adequate impression of its grandeur and sublimity. " For frail was Painting's hand, and rude, Imperfect to her will ; And Nature's awful magnitude Frowned at her mimic skUl." — SwAiir. The terrace by which the visitor approaches the chief entrance to the monastery is many stories above the actual base of the building, which latter is in the garden far below. The great front, which is very irregular, is, in its highest part, httle short of one hundred and twenty feet above the ground, and the windows, many of them having arched loggie and verandahs, in front, of every variety of shape and projection, amount to nearly two hundred in number, counting fourteen stories in the tallest por- tion. There is a picturesque magnificence about it which is exceedingly striking. Nature has here worked upon her grandest scale, whUe man has exceeded himself in the vastness of his effort to rival her — the scene is without a parallel. ' The great Cave. The traveller will find respectable accommodation in the Monastery, especially if he carry with him official letters of introduction. The writer was so over-burthened with attentions if not with varied dishes, for it was Lent, that the Monks would not allow him to be at the trouble of separating the hones from the fish which constituted his repast, but stood at the table to perform this operation whUe he was appeasing his hunger. i|I\t?