ELLAS
HER MONUMENTS AND SCENERY
BY
THOMAS CHASE, M.A.
CAMBRIDGE
SEVER AND FRANCIS
1863




Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1863, by
THOMAS CHASE,
in the Clerk's Office of the District Court for the Eastern District of
Pennsylvania.
UNIVERSITY PRESS:
WELCH, BIGELOW, AND COMPANY,
CAMBRIDGE.




)*nscrfbeb
TO THE MEMORY OF
CORNELIUS CONWAY FELTON, LL. D.,
TO WHOM,
AS GENIAL INSTRUCTOR AND EVER-FAITHFUL FRIEND,
THE AUTHOR IS IN GREAT PART INDEBTED
FOR HIS LOVE AND HIS KNOWLEDGE
OF THE ARTS AND LETTERS
OF GREECE.








PREFACE.
IT has been. a labour that was its own reward to collect these notes of personal
observation during a tour in Greece, and
combine them with the results of some subsequent study of the principles of Grecian
Art. The work was begun, and in part carried through the press, in the hollow calm
of the last Presidency; but when the bitter
truth was manifest that our republic was
doomed to drink the calamities of civil war,
the author threw down his pen, for he had
no heart to dwell on other themes than the
one object of all our interests and all our
cares. Yet, having from  the first cherished
the conviction that it is a time no less of
hope than of agony, and believing that his




vi                 PREFACE.
country's cause is the cause of culture and
civilization, as well as of humanity and freedom, deeming it, moreover, the part even of
patriotism for those who are devoted to letters or the arts to pursue their calling with
no less vigour than before, after the lapse
of a twelvemonth he resumed his task. And
whither shall they who fondly hope that it
may be granted them  to make some slight
contributions to that part of their nation's
glory which is most real and most permanent, turn for instruction and for inspiration
rather than to Hellas?  She is a teacher of
humanity for all ages, and her voice is not
silenced by the clash of arms:
"For Greece and her foundations are
Built below the tide of war,
Based on the crystalline sea
Of thought and its eternity."
WEST HAVERFORD, PA., November 27, 1862.




CONTENTS.
Page
FROM NAPLES TO ATHENS....                 1
ARGOLIS....    20
FROM ATHENS TO PARNASSUS.      48
ASCENT OF PARNASSUS.....    67
FROM DELPHI TO ATHENS..84
MARATHON......            96
THE RUINS OF ATHENS.  110
~EGINA...                                   171
PENTELICUS.......                    178
THE MODERN CAPITAL AND KINGDOM.. 183
THE DISCOVERIES AT ATHENS AND MYCENAE IN
1862.......   203
NOTES....215
INDEX........ 217








HELLAS.
FROM NAPLES TO ATHENS.
"Yet to the remnants of thy splendour past
Shall pilgrims, pensive, but unwearied, throng;
Long shall the voyager, with the Ionian blast,
Hail the bright clime of battle and of song'!
Long shall thine annals and immortal tongue
Fill with thy fame the youth of many a shore;
Boast of the aged! lesson of the young!
Which sages venerate and bards adore,
As Pallas and the Muse unveil their awful lore."
I  HAD  seen  the  exiled  sculptures  of the
Parthenon  in London, the Venus of Melos at
the Louvre, -  strayed among the solemn ruins
and through the opulent galleries of Rome, -
been admitted, as it were, to the very households of the ancients, in the disentombed cities
of Campania, and  beheld  on  their walls the
reflected glories of Grecian painting, beautiful
1




2                 HELLAS.
even in its decline, —gazed, too, at Paestum,
in that silent plain by the side of the sea, on
a well-nigh perfect image of the Doric temple,
simple and elegant, matchless in harmony and
repose. Yet all these sights so rich in blessings to a young American scholar -the crown
of youthful studies, the realization of boyish
dreams - but inflamed my longing to wander
in that land which in arts, in letters, in all
that exalts and dignifies man as an intellectual
being, was the mistress and teacher of Rome
herself, and still sways her sceptre over the
whole civilized world.
It was then with a thrill of glad expectation
that, on the 4th of May, 1853, I found myself,
without companion, on board of a French
steamer at Naples, and on my way to the
Peiraeus.  Soon we were floating swiftly over
the calm, blue, bright waters of the Mediterranean, along the picturesque coast of old
Campania and Lucania,while rocks and hills
and water all were flooded with the soft and
living light of an Italian afternoon. Our company presented that variety of nationality and
character commonly met with on  Mediter



FROM NAPLES TO ATHENS.           3
ranean steamships. There was a tall, graceful, neat-limbed Arab from Algiers, with his
red slippers, loose trousers, and closely fitting
fez; a slight, black-eyed Mexican lieutenant of
the navy; two Franciscan monks, missionaries
from  Rome to Constantinople, with shaven
crowns, and wearing the coarse brown robe of
their order, tied by a rope around the girdle, 
mild, good-natured, unintelligent, dirty creatures; a Russian gentleman, who was returning to Moscow, after spending several years in
the most important countries of Europe, and
perfecting himself in their languages, all of
which he spoke with the ease and correctness
often observable in the educated of his nation;
an Italian from Rheggio, who declared to me
his enthusiasm for his country's friend, Lord
"Bee-ron," and pronounced me happy that I
was about to follow his footsteps in the " land
of lost gods and godlike men; " an intelligent
young Greek from Syra, - doing honor to Mr.
Hildner's school, of which he was an alumnus,
-who  did battle, with  some Frenchmen,
against a thin, melancholy, black-faced Armenian priest, who told them  it was a sin to




4                 HELLAS.
read any book whatever, without first assuring
themselves that it had the express sanction of
the Church; a few ladies; and the usual number of swarthy Frenchmen, polyglot Germans,
and respectable Englishmen with round faces
and mutton-chop whiskers.
The next morning the mountain isle of
Stromboli, the fabled home of LEolus, was
close before us, a conical rock, rising boldly
from the sea; and 2Etna showed his summit
far in the south. A few hours more brought
us to the Straits of Messina, with the farfamed rock of Scylla raising its head modestly
enough beneath the highlands of the Italian
coast, to the height of about two hundred feet,
while to the right, between our ship and the
long, low, narrow point of sand on the Sicilian
shore of the narrow pass, was the site of the
whirlpool of Charybdis. Even at the present
day, small vessels are sometimes endangered
by its eddies; but it has long lost the terrors
with which it is invested in ancient song,
whether from the superiority of modern navigation, or from some of the geological changes
frequent in this volcanic region; and we no



FROM NAPLES TO ATHENS.           5
ticed, as we sailed calmly over it, only a slight
agitation in the water, contrasting with the unruffled surface of the broader sea. Hurl-Gate
is at least as terrible as this fabled monster.
In the harbour of the pretty town of Messina,
finely situated at the foot of an amphitheatre
of high, precipitous hills, clothed with the rich
green of luxuriant groves, and sprinkled with
white villas, we lay several hours just outside
of the sickle which curves to form the inner
harbour, and then coasted along the Sicilian
shore, with 2Etna in view  near at hand, on
our left, —the calm  and grand sovereign of
its attendant mountains, its quiet summit exhibiting no signs of the recent eruption.
The very rough sea which the vessel encountered that night was a disagreeable change
for us; but at an early hour the next morning we anchored in the harbour of Valetta, the
chief town of the island of Malta.  Taking
a little boat to the land, and safely running
the gantlet of the beggars on the Nix mangiare stairs, I found a pleasant, homelike feeling in wandering about this town, and hearing,
in the shops and streets, the familiar accents




6                 HELLAS.
of my mother tongue. The language of the
natives, it is true, is a mixture of Arabic and
Punic; and a barbarous Italian, also, is extensively spoken; but English is the language
of the government, and generally understood
by the tradesmen, of whatever descent. Clean
streets and honest shopkeepers were another
and most welcome novelty to one fresh from
Italian towns. Valetta is built chiefly of a
bright cream-colored limestone, a very beautiful building material; in the forms and proportions of its edifices, also, the town makes
no little pretensions to architectural beauty.
In the cathedral of St. John I admired the
costly mosaic pavement, the vaulted aisles,
and some of the paintings and statues; but
the effect of the building is impaired by its
heavily gilded ceilings, and excessive ornamentation. In one of the chapels, a massive
bronze railing takes the place of one of solid
gold which was taken by Napoleon when he
plundered the church of its vast treasures in
1798.  Against a railing of solid silver, in
another chapel, which escaped pillage by being
painted over, hang three large keys, —those




FROM NAPLES TO ATHENS.           7
of the gates of Jerusalem, Acre, and Rhodes.
Costly monuments of the Grand Masters of the
Knights of Malta are seen on every hand in
this church, and in the crypt below, dedicated
to their patron saint; while nearly the whole
floor is covered with the sculptured effigies of
members of the order, mostly concealed, except from the eyes of the curious traveller, by
a matting of straw. In a hasty visit to the
large public library, I noticed chiefly a small,
but very interesting collection of fossil shells
and fishes from the rocks of the neighbourhood.
We could stay but a few hours at Malta,
for our steamer was behind her time, and the
boat for Constantinople was waiting to receive
us. Transferred to the large wooden steamer
Osiris, before noon we were again ploughing
the Mediterranean, with our prow turned to the
East. What a glare of the sun, poured from a
cloudless sky, and reflected from the sparkling
waters; how we tossed on the cross, chopping
waves of that midland ocean! On the morning of the third day we hailed " the bright
clime of battle and of song;" for there, clearly defined in the early light, the hilly shores




8                 HELLAS.
of Peloponnesus rose before us, and soon, passing the Gulf of Conon, we were off Cape Matapan, its barren, treeless hills standing out in
bold relief beneath that brilliant sky, and the
rock wall of their bases deeply indented by the
gnawing surges. A long, low point of rock
extends from these hills, and forms the southern extremity of the cape.  We saw an old
man walking on the shore, —a hermit, who
had chosen for his retreat the southernmost
point of Europe. It was not long before we
were passing between the mainland and the
barren hills of Cythera,- now Cerigo, —where,
first of European Greece, the worship of Aphrodite was introduced by Asiatic colonists, or
where, in the graceful language of mythology,
she sprang from  the foam  of the sea. The
deep-blue AEgean gave us a hospitable reception worthy of its ancient fame, in striking
contrast to the stormy waters of the West.
Over its hushed waves, amid its storied isles,
we glided on to Syra, where we arrived at
midnight. A boat soon came alongside from
the shore, in which, by the light of a lantern
they bore, we noticed an old man and a youth,




FROM NAPLES TO ATHENS.          9
clad in the peculiar and picturesque costume
of these petticoat-trousered islanders. They
endeavored to beguile passengers for the Peirseus to take their boat to the other steamer at
that time; but as we knew it would not leave
until after we had been admitted to pratique
in the morning, they lost the opportunity of
demanding an exorbitant price on account of
the lateness of the hour. From this boat our
ears were first saluted by the accents of the
Modern Greek language; but, in our inexperience, we could distinguish little but the
often-repeated word of assent, "MAlista."
The town of Syra-the most important
and flourishing commercial port of Greece -
is built on the slope of a hill, surrounding a
fine bay, on the eastern side of the island. It
holds an enviable rank among the towns of the
kingdom for the excellence of its schools, one
of which, that under the care of Mr. Hildner,
a German missionary, is among the very few
allowed to exist in Greece without compliance
with the law requiring the catechism of the
Greek Church. to be taught in every place of
instruction.




10                HELLAS.
From this island we departed late in the
forenoon, for the Peiraeus, in the steamer Lycourge, the Osiris proceeding on her way, at
the same time, for Smyrna and Constantinople.
The detention which had abridged our stay at
Malta gave us the unusual advantage of passing among the romantic " isles which crown
the iEgean deep" by daylight, instead of in
the night. Thus, in our passage from Cape
Matapan to the Peiraeus, we enjoyed a view
of nearly every one of the Cyclades. The numerous small isles which form this group are
rocky, hilly, and almost universally dry and
barren in their appearance, but picturesque
in form  and outline, and grouped  charmingly in the calm, blue waters of the sea,
sparkling, in the flood of sunshine, like jewels
on her breast. But their names,-the associations,-their immortal renown in history
and song,- awakened all my enthusiasm as I
floated by their shores. In grateful relief to
the general barrenness of these islands, the
long hill-sides of Zea (Ceos of old) are dotted
with groves of Valonian oak, a noble tree, of
dark green foliage. The picturesque outline




FROM NAPLES TO ATHENS.         11
of the southern shore of Euboea soon greeted
our eyes, and then the promontory of Sunium,
the southeastern point of Attica, with the beautiful ruin of the temple of Athena gleaming
from afar, diminished in the distance to a little speck of white. Those fair columns, hewn
from the marble of a neighbouring hill, crown
a cliff impending the sea in front of the higher
eminence of the peninsula. An opera-glass assisted me in examining them. Even Turner's
well-known drawing does scanty justice to their
loveliness and the surpassing grandeur of their
situation. As one passes by the side of the
treeless hills, of lime-rock mingled with mica
slate and clay slate, which form this promontory, called by the Greeks of the present day
K:vo Kolonai,- the Cape of the Columns,the panorama is beautiful in the extreme.
The picturesque outline of the hills of the
Morea and the Isthmus in the distance, the
lovely isles of 2Egina and Salamis, the Acropolis, and the hills of Attica, under the soft light
of the setting sun, whose last beams were
painting the western skies with rose and purple and gold, upon a background of delicious




12                 HELLAS.
apple-green, presented a picture of the most
enchanting loveliness. A tall, slight, venerable
Briton, who sat reading the London "Athenaeum" on deck, had attracted my attention
by his quiet, gentlemanly bearing, and his intelligent look.  It proved to be Mr. George
Finlay, the learned author of the " History
of the Byzantine Empire," of " Greece under
the Romans," and other well-known standard
works, who was returning to Athens, where
he has lived for many years, from a journey in
pursuit of health among the Greek islands.
Mr. Finlay, with a courtesy to a young stranger which evinced his kindness of heart, took
pleasure in pointing out to me the many objects of immortal interest which we passed.
As I was leaning over the side of the vessel
after we had left JEgina behind us, he came
to me and said, - quoting the lines of Childe
Harold, -" Here you can say,'Wandering in youth, I traced the path of him,
The Roman friend of Rome's least mortal mind,
The friend of Tully: as my bark did skim
The bright blue waters with a fanning wind,
Came MEGARA before me, and behind
]EGINA lay, PEIREUS on the right,
And CORINTH on the left:'




FROM NAPLES TO ATHENS.         13
the same "corpses of noble cities" which
prompted those moralizing strains of Sulpicius,
which we read on the old college benches.
" Wandering in youth! " I repeated the words
to myself, for I had been feeling lonely, and
they suggested the high enjoyments of which
a little loneliness and privation are only the
necessary condition. As we enter the harbour,
a sarcophagus, hollowed out of the rock at the
water's edge, is seen, near which lie the fragments of a large column. This is called the
monument of Themistocles,-most appropriately situated in sight of the scene of his great
victory on the one hand, and the city he saved
on the other. Mr. Finlay told me that he
once made Lord Byron very angry by saying
to him that he ought not to have spoken of
the hero's tomb as standing
" High o'er the land he saved in vain,"
but rather as low in the sea.
The entrance of the haven of the Peiraeus is
extremely narrow, but the harbour itself deep
and commodious. Conspicuous among the vessels here sheltered was the American war



14                HELLAS.
frigate Cumberland, whose fine model and
beautiful proportions drew forth the most rapturous expressions of delight from some intelligent French gentlemen on board of our steamer. A French fleet, of some thirteen vessels
of war, was lying in the Gulf of Salamis,
awaiting, like the English fleet at Malta, the
expected crisis at Constantinople. Taking a
boat, I was soon on Attic soil; and, avoiding
any detention with my luggage by leaving a
drachma at the custom-house, was directly
seated in a carriage, with Thessalian horses,
and on my way to the venerable city of
Athena. On we went, racing from  the Peiraeus to Athens; for my carriage had the start,
and the drivers from other hotels were emulous; but, after several spirited trials, they
abandoned the attempt to pass us.
" And this is Athens! " said I, not without
surprise, when, after riding half an hour on
the jolting and dusty road, we entered the narrow streets and began to pass the low, shabby
shops and houses of the modern city. " And
this is Athens! " I said, with a different feeling, a thousand times afterwards, when, in the




FROM NAPLES TO ATHENS.         15
early morn, or beneath the glories of a sunset
sky, I gazed on the unrivalled loveliness of its
ruined temples, or surveyed from its immortal hills the peculiar and enchanting landscape,-the heights, the vale, the picturesque
islands, and the calm, blue sea.  Even the
modern city improves on acquaintance.  In
the quarter of the town near the Palace, wide
streets are laid out, lined with large and
commodious houses, and new  buildings are
erecting in great numbers. This activity in
building, these signs of growth, and the bright
colours and neatness of the houses in that
neighbourhood, quite remind one of a thriving
New England town.
But no one comes to Athens from  more
civilized lands to see the modern city. We
come to examine the most beautiful and perfect remains of ancient architecture; to witness the scenes associated with the history,
and immortalized by the genius, of heroes,
bards, and sages; to realize the dreams of
our youth, while standing with Demosthenes
on the Bema, or Paul on the Areopagus, wandering with Plato in the groves of the Acad



16                HELLAS.
emy, or recalling the sublimest strains of
ancient tragedy on the hill Colonos.  And
nowhere does the classic pilgrim find so many
shrines to venerate,-nowhere can he so readily recall and recreate the past.  The chief
ruins in Athens are very fortunate in their
position; in this respect, as well as in beauty,
vastly superior to those of Rome. The city
of the Caesars can, indeed, claim pre-eminence
in the extent and colossal grandeur of its imperial ruins; but, with some happy exceptions,
they are so surrounded and obscured by tasteless, ugly, recent buildings,-there is such an
incongruous mixture of the ancient and the
modern,- that they do not make that uniform
and homogeneous impression which one receives from the monuments of Athenian greatness. The beautiful and majestic columns of
the Temple of the Olympian Jove stand, in
solitary grandeur, on a broad, clean plain
above the banks of the Ilyssus; the almost
perfectly preserved Temple of Theseus displays its fair proportions, unhidden by inappropriate buildings; and the crowning beauty of
the city, the abrupt, picturesque height of the




FROM NAPLES TO ATHENS.         17
Acropolis, with its peerless temples, rising in
bold relief in the transparent air of Attica,
greets the eye, to delight and detain it, from
every quarter,    whether one strolls in the
groves of the Academy, or wanders by the
banks of the twin streamlets of the Athenian
vale, or stands directly under its shade on the
summit of the Areopagus, or mounts the Bema
at the Pnyx, or surveys the beautiful and
storied landscape from the neighbouring eminences of Mount Musaeum or Lycabettus, or
the more distant heights of IHymettus, Pentelicon, or zEgaleus. There is no finer situation in the world than that of the Parthenon,
as there is no finer edifice.
The officers of the Cumberland made a large
and most welcome addition to the small society of American residents in this city during
my visit. At a brilliant entertainment, which
they gave on board the vessel, on Wednesday
evening, the 18th of May, there were present not
only the American ladies and gentlemen then
in Athens or at the Peiraeus, but one whose
fame has been carried to the remotest corners
of the civilized world, — Byron's "Maid of
2




18                HELLAS.
Athens."  She is now the wife of an English gentleman, and rejoices in the name of
Blacke; her hair is still of the raven's hue,
but years have robbed her of most of those
charms which  captivated  the young poet.
Those charms, however, cannot have exceeded,
if they can have equalled, those of the lovely
daughter of the "'Maid of Athens," a young
lady of about eighteen, who, as well as her
father, mother, and brother, was present at
this entertainment, and whose surpassing loveliness could subdue a far less susceptible heart
than that of Byron. The object of the young
poet's admiration was dressed in the French
style, and wore a double band of gold ornaments around her hair.
I found a great interest felt by the Greeks
universally in the difficulties existing in Constantinople, and great exultation in the rumours that Russia was ready to prosecute her
demands, if uncomplied with, at the point of
the sword. Fond dreams are still cherished of
the re-establishment of a Byzantine-Greek Empire,  a " veov Bv'avrzwoeXX\\'vLWK   Kparos,"
as the "Athena" newspaper hath it. Even




FROM NAPLES TO ATHENS.          19
if that be not accomplished, the Greeks hope
to gain, from the fall of Turkey, at least a
large extension of their territory.  Some of
their newspapers suggest that the best practical solution of all difficulties in regard to the
balance of power arising from the fall of Turkey (a fall before many years inevitable, in
the opinion of the best judges) will be the
bestowal of its European territories upon the
Greek kingdom.  When the diplomatists of
the Great Powers-or their statesmen, if
such shall arise  find out that the interests
of mankind and the true interest of their own
governments are not opposed to each other,
we may hope to see the end of that hideous
anomaly in Europe, a small and imbecile Moslem  aristocracy upheld by Western bayonets
upon the necks of a Christian population, and
to welcome that race to a large share of the
political power of the Levant, which by its
intelligence, its ability, its purer faith, and its
preponderance in numbers, is so fully entitled
to wield it.




ARGOLIS.
To yap 7raXaLov "Apyos ov7r6OeLs rTOe,
7Trs oio'Tpo7rX^A}yo aXtoos Ivaxov Kopr1s'
avCrT) 8', OpeoTa rov XVKOKTOVOV 0eov
ayopa AvKKELOs  ov apLCTrepas 8' o8e
"Hpas o KXELvos vaos' oT 6' LKavoFev,
aCTKELv MVKvas E a 7 roXvXpvo'ovs opav.
SOPHOCLES.
GLAD  enough was I, on the morning of the
21st of May, to leave the hot air and arid soil
of Athens, for a short excursion in Argolis
and on the Isthmus of Corinth.  Rising before
the break of day, our party, consisting of Mr.
Blackie, the learned Professor of Greek at
the University  of Edinburgh, Mr. Clyde  (a
young  Scotchman  spending a year at Athens
for the purpose of acquiring the modern Greek
language),* and myself, with our intelligent
* Mr. Clyde has given the world some of the fruits of his
diligent study, in an admirable pamphlet, entitled, "Romaic
and Modern Greek compared with one another, and with
Ancient Greek," (Edinburgh, 1855,) highly and justly eulogized by Lord Broughton for the "valuable information and
sound criticism " it contains on the subject in question.




ARGOLIS.                21
guide, Francois Vitalis, drove to the Peiraeus,
where we took the French steamer for Nauplia.
The deck of a steamboat on Greek waters
presents a gay and novel scene to an American
eye. Under the shade of the awnings, groups
of men, women, and children may be seen
lying on the Turkey mats, which they carry
to enable them to spread a couch in almost
any situation; some sleeping, some eating, or
drinking wine from  earthen bottles; others
amusing themselves in conversation, or assisting their meditations by a pipe, or, more commonly, an extemporaneous  cigar, made by
rolling up a mass of the mild tobacco of the
country within a piece of thin white paper.
The  bright hues and striking  contrasts of
colour in the picturesque costume of the men
heighten its effect.  A  long woollen fez of
bright crimson, woven without seam, falling
gracefully over one side, and adorned with
a tassel of blue silk, forms the head-dress; a
full, spreading kilt or tunic of white linen, the
fustanella, is the principal article of clothing
for the body, relieved by a rich jacket or
waistcoat, without sleeves, elaborately wrought




22                 HELLAS.
of silk or worsted, blue, green, brown, black,
or of several colours combined, and frequently
adorned by ornaments in gold or silver thread.
In front of this jacket a pouch or pocket is
often attached, always highly ornamented. A
red sash around the waist secures the graceful setting of the tunic, which hangs in multitudinous folds beneath. Fine white drawers
are worn upon the legs, and rich crimson or
scarlet buskins, of silk, or other delicate material, extend  from  the knees to the feet,
which  are clad in bright slippers.  These
buskins or leggings are elaborately wrought,
and form  one of the most striking parts of
the costume.  The dress I have described
is the one worn by the more wealthy.  Some
wear garments similar in form, but of less
costly materials; coarse leather buskins may
be seen in place of elegant silk or woollen;
a simple straw  hat may be worn on the
head; and various mixtures of the Frank
and Greek costumes are noticed, while many
Greeks adopt throughout the dress of Northern Europe.  The lower orders to a great
extent discard the more expensive and easily




ARGOLIS.                23
soiled tunic, and wear beneath  their simple jacket an ungainly dress of dark cloth,
extending from the waist to the knees, in form
a ridiculous mixture of petticoat and breeches,
-a garment that would put to shame Mrs.
Bloomer herself.  Below the knees their legs
are bare. The waddling gait which they seem
to have, as these broad folds flap about their
legs, is anything but graceful. Their dark
complexions, sometimes still darker than those
of mulattoes, are another striking feature in
the appearance of the groups on deck.  The
women are not remarkable for their beauty,
and the old ladies are particularly hideous;
the girls, however, are sometimes pretty, and
the young men generally have agreeable, intelligent, and manly countenances, and are in
some cases decidedly beautiful,  with bright
eyes, rich complexions, and noble features.
The Greeks, wherever I met them, struck me
as an intelligent race. There is, too, a manliness and self-respect in their bearing, which
forms a pleasant contrast with the degraded
aspect of the downtrodden inhabitants of the
South of Italy.  The latter people, in their




24                 HELLAS.
appearance, realize most fully that eloquent
description of the situation of the victims of
oppression, " There is in their hearts no hope." *
But the quick-eyed Greek walks erect in the
proud consciousness of freedom, and points
exultingly to the future, which is to develop
the full resources of his country, and expel
the yet lingering remains of barbarism. We
could not but be pleased with the whole bearing of the bright-eyed fellows who clustered
around us, and talked with  great courtesy,
and without reserve, of the condition and
prospects of the kingdom, -boasting of their
freedom from superstition and priestly domination, as compared with Roman Catholics, and
urging their youth as a nation in excuse for
the defects of their civilization.
Passing the islands of Salamis, Egina, and
Poros, we stopped a few moments at the beautiful town of Hydra, on the island of the same
name, distinguished for its valour and sacrifices in the Greek Revolution.  This town,
* God speed the day when this language shall be no longer
applicable to the people of any part of Italy.




ARGOLIS.               25
built of clean, white, comfortable houses, and
rising in a natural amphitheatre on the sides
of a barren but grand and picturesque hill,
presents a beautiful and imposing picture.
Another stop at the island of Spezzia, - which
somewhat resembles Hydra, but is smaller and
much less picturesque, - and we were within
the lovely Gulf of Nauplia, the Sinus Argolicus. When we at length entered the harbour
of Nauplia, a scene of unusual grandeur and
beauty was spread before us. On every side,
except where the plain of Argos meets the sea
by the side of the town, rise noble mountains,
which, though barren and unclad with trees
or verdure, delight the spectator by that picturesqueness of outline and beauty of colour
-blue and brown and gray and purple —
which give the hills of Greece their peculiar
charm. The bends of the shore afford the
view of land on all sides, and it seemed as if
we were floating on some grand mountain
lake. Before us rose the precipitous and lofty
rock of Palamidi, which forms the citadel of
the place,    making Nauplia the Gibraltar
of Greece. Another picturesque but inferior




26                HELLAS.
height, on its flank, is also fortified; and a
little island, sleeping on the calm bosom of the
water, is covered with a fort. A small but
trim Greek corvette displayed the white and
blue stripes and the blue cross, - the national
flag, -which also waved from the fortresses.
A few trading vessels and countless little boats
lay in the spacious harbour. The town looked
neat and pleasant from the water, and the rare
but delightful sight of rich, green herbage was
afforded by the long and grassy plain of Argos.  And all was flooded with the light, and
covered by the transparent vault, of a Grecian sky.
Refreshed by a good dinner at the Hotel of
the Peace, 2evoOXeLOv'  Elpr-vcq (sic), we took
an evening walk in the town and neighbouring meadows. Our hotel was on the principal
square, which, surrounded with respectable
buildings, adorned with plane-trees, and frequented by well-dressed citizens and soldiers,
gave us a favourable impression of the place
at the outset.  Another but smaller square
lies at the end of a street which runs from the
centre of this one, and fronts the old palace




ARGOLIS.               27
of the king, a decent yellow  building, two
stories in height. We noticed, as we walked
through the town, a certain style and elegance
in the architecture, superior to the ordinary
streets of Athens. The environs are well cultivated, and clad with grain, tobacco, grapevines, currant-vines, and orchards of figs and
mulberries. A large species of reed, very tall
and stout, gro.ws in the plain, and is often
planted for hedges; and wild almonds abound.
Water is found in abundance, and distributed
by machines for irrigation: still in the land of
Danaus survives the art he introduced.  As
we entered a garden to inspect a machine for
raising water, turned by a donkey, the master
and mistress of the house came out, and, with
graceful hospitality, culled flowers and presented each of us a bouquet of exquisitely fragrant pinks and roses. In these groves we
heard the shrill, clear song of the nightingale,
and the sweeter notes of the blackbird; nor
did we fail to notice the peculiar sound of the
frogs, —most unlike their croaking in America,
and which corresponds exactly with the description in the line of Aristophanes, and could




28                   HELLAS.
not be represented better than by his phrase,
" brekekek6k, kodk, koak." *  The sound first
named is the most sharp and shrill; the second the more deep.  One of them  is made by
one gender of the amphibious musicians, the
other by the other.  I venture to pronounce the
shrill " brekekek6k " the voice of the female,
for, as I stood one day by the ruined bridge
over the Ilyssus, near the Stadium  in Athens,
I heard the two parties striving for the supremacy; loud  and  strong  for  some time both
sounds arose in concert, -but at length the
brekekekekers outstormed the rest, and their
discomfited husbands gave them the field, uttering only from time to time, a discontented,
but subdued and half-submissive " koak."
Returning to the square in front of our hotel, we joined a group of men, women, and
boys, intently listening to the strains of a street
* Aristophanes writes pEKEKEKCK', KOai, Koat, using e to
give the words a regular termination.  The o and a in Koda
should be pronounced rapidly together, the a having the broad
Italian sound. A strong stress should be placed on the last
syllable of each word, as in the written Greek, -for the Attic
frogs pronounce by the accents.




ARGOLIS.               29
ballad-singer, — a modern descendant of the
Homeride, -who, with lively gestures, was
recounting how the great hero Marco Botzares
slew forty Turks with his own hands at Mesolongi; and when he was surrounded by the
enemy, told them that his name was Botzares,
and he would not surrender.
Night brought with it its own peculiar classical reminiscences; for the " Bedouins from
the bedpost," -as Felton translates o0 KopivO0o, in " The Clouds,"- mustered in great
force, and charged with more than wonted
fury. We passed the dark hours in alternate
battle and repose.
The next morning, having obtained permission to enter the citadel, we climbed the north
cliff of Palamidi by a winding staircase, built
on the sides of the precipitous rock. Eight
hundred and sixty-four steps conducted us to
the outer gate, and some two hundred more
to the summit. A  magnificent prospect rewards the toil of the ascent.  The grand
mountains of Arcadia, - the sides of one of
which were white with snow, - of Laconia, and
of Argolis lie around you on every side, with




30                  HELLAS.
every variety of hue, from their different distances and different exposures to the rays of
the sun, while the Bay of Nauplia stretches
along at the side, its clear surface, as we saw
it, agitated by not a single ripple, and in colour
of the softest, lightest blue imaginable. Near
the shore, where there was a transparent and
singularly beautiful green hue in the slumbering water, boys were swimming, and their
limbs flashed silver in the translucent element.
The verdure of the great Argolic plain, in the
foreground, on the side opposite the sea, gives
grateful relief to the simple colours of the rocky
mountains.  The citadel itself was built by the
Venetians, and contains a number of brass
cannon, formerly belonging to their republic.
It is at present garrisoned by a hundred and
twenty-five or a hundred and fifty men.  The
prickly-pear grows abundantly on the rock;
here, too, I plucked  the  delicate  and  exquisitely beautiful blossoms of the caper-vine.*
* I cannot forbear quoting Sig. Ruffini's description of this
lovely flower: "He presently came out of one of his hidingplaces, shouting and waving a huge bunch of flowers, so inconceivably gay, that they could only be met with, he declared,




ARGOLIS.                      31
After inspecting  this  modern  citadel, we
drove to one of the most ancient fortifications
in  the world,-  the remains  of the walls of
Tiryns, Tt'pvvF TreLXLeo-oa,   " three thousand
and two hundred years old " by mythical chronology.  The walls consisted of two enclosures
- an upper and a lower one - on the sides.of
a small, island-like hill, which rises steep and
precipitously from the plain, and was occupied,
as Curtius conjectures, as a fore-post of the
Achaians against the Asiatic immigrants who
stationed themselves in Nauplia. They are the
best specimens extant of the fortifications of
the heroic age, and are built in what is called
the Cyclopean style, - of huge, irregular polygonal blocks of stone, without cement, the
on the way to the gayest village in the world. From  the
centre of each of the large white blossoms he held in his hand,
there sprung up a long, elegant aigrette of deep lilac stamens.
The ensemble, so rich and delicate, had a certain resemblance
to the tail of a white peacock. " What can it be? " said Lucy.
"It is the Capparis spinosa," answered Antonio, "and these
flowers you admire so much are but capers in full blossom,
best known for culinary purposes." -Dr. Antonio, p. 187.
The white blossoms are faintly streaked with pink or purple.
It is the unopened buds which are used for the table.




32                HELLAS.
interstices having been neatly filled with little
stones, most of which have fallen out. The
size of the blocks is stupendous, -some being
seven feet square, and others ten feet in length.
They excited such wonder in Pausanias, that he
says the smallest of them could not have been
moved at all by a yoke of mules, and compares
the whole structure to the Pyramids.  The
ground around is strewn with fallen rocks, and
the walls still standing are in some places giving way. Two singular covered passage-ways
or corridors, in the body of the wall, remain;
the eastern one alone in any great completeness. It is curious on account of its archshaped roof, which, however, is by no means
built on the principle of the arch, - the longest stones being used towards the top of the
walls of the two sides, and their weight, where
supported, compensating for the projection
necessary to make the triangular form of the
top of the chamber. The length of this gallery is about one hundred feet, its height ten
or twelve, and its breadth five. There are six
niches, or closed door-shaped windows, with
arched tops, in the outer wall. For what pur



ARGOLIS.               33
pose these galleries were built, is a puzzle
which baffles antiquarians. Of the city, which
was destroyed nearly five hundred years before
Christ, no vestiges remain except the huge
walls.
Among the ruins of the fortifications we
noticed tall hollyhocks growing wild, and numberless thistles.  The latter plant is found
everywhere, and in  great variety, in these
regions.  While searching for the entrance
to the most ruined gallery, I was suddenly
startled by being violently struck in the face by
some tiny missile and a little stream of water.
My assailant proved to be a harmless vine of
the wild cucumber, which I had stepped upon,
a plant which runs upon the ground, and in
its leaves and blossoms, and the shape of its
fruit, resembles the edible cucumber.  The
fruit, however, is very small, and very prickly.
When removed from the stalk, if sufficiently
ripe, it ejects its seeds and a little water from
the stem end with great violence.
An hour's drive farther, and we were on the
site of the renowned old city of Argos, the
cradle of Hellenic history. Of its ancient edi3




34                HELLAS.
fices there are hardly any vestiges remaining,
except its vast theatre's sixty-seven rows of
seats, hewn from the solid rock on the curving
sides of a hill, and some parts of the wall of the
citadel, crowning the lofty height of Larissa,
behind the town. The modern village consists
of a number of low huts, surrounded by pleasant gardens of mulberries and figs. Here we
were reminded of Italy, by a troop of children
who beset us, begging for five-lepton pieces (a
small copper coin); but this was almost the sole
instance of such an annoyance I met with in
Greece; and, indeed, it was nothing compared
with the insolent importunity of men, women,
and children in an Italian town. We seated
ourselves on the stone benches of the theatre,
which in old time accommodated sixteen thousand spectators, and looked out on modern
Argos. A glance at the ruins of a temple, in
which the secret passage-ways of the artful
priests have been exposed to profane eyes, and
at the oracular cave of Apollo, and we were
again seated in the carriage on our return to
Nauplia. A young Greek whom we saw on
our way, - the centre of a laughing group of




ARGOLIS.                35
youth, himself towering above them all, - in
his manly frame, his black clustering hair,
flashing eyes, and rich complexion, was the
very incarnation of that ineffably beautiful
Achilles of the Pompeian picture.*
The green marshes of Lerna, at the southern extremity of the plain of Argos, we looked
at from  a distance.  They are the Hydra of
mythology; its heads, their many fountains,
of which if one were stopped others burst out
elsewhere, till, by burning the woods which
sheltered them, the mythic drainer and reclaimer of the land was enabled to conquer
the monster.
The next morning beheld us, at about four
o'clock, mounted on horses, ready for a long
day's ride. Following the carriage-road until
we came to Tiryns, we struck into a narrow
path, which conducted us for a long distance
over the plain to the neighbourhood of Mycenae.
Here we diverged, and, riding over several
steep and rocky hills, soon found ourselves
before the so-called Treasury of Atreus and
* The picture which represents Achilles delivering Briseis
to the heralds who were to convey her to Agamemnon.




36                HELLAS.
Tomb of Agamemnon.  This is a great subterranean dome, fifty feet in height, and of about
the same diameter, built of massive parallelogram blocks of conglomerate. A passage-way,
twenty feet wide, protected on either side by
massive walls, leads down to the building.
Two slabs of enormous size form the roof of
the entrance; the larger one is twenty-seven
feet long, three and three quarters wide, and
eighteen or twenty feet in horizontal thickness. Its weight, according to the calculations of the French expedition, is 372,000 lbs.
What skill, and what powerful machines, must
have been employed in placing it in its present
position! The whole doorway is simple and
massive; the effect of its proportions, half
Egyptian, half Doric.  Above the lintel is a
large triangular opening. A vertical section
of the dome would present a parabolic curve.
The stones of which it is built are laid in regular circular courses, contracting as they rise,
till the uppermost ring becomes so narrow that
a single copestone (now displaced) capped the
whole. In each course, the blocks touch each
other with their interior edges, and for a little




ARGOLIS.               37
distance beyond, while the interstices left, as
they extend outwards, are filled with small
stones, driven in very compactly.
Even in its present naked simplicity, the
effect of the grand structure is very imposing; but it was originally brilliant with ornament.  At regular distances on the walls are
seen the holes formerly filled with  broadheaded brazen nails, portions of which still
remain in a few places; fragments of plates
of metal have been found in the building;
and the conclusion is well established that the
whole interior was originally lined with brazen plates, and formed a "brazen chamber,"
of the same character as those mentioned in
the early legends of Greece.  On the exterior, also, we find on the portal indications of
former adorning. On each side of the doorway
and above it are two wide parallel depressions,
one within the other, in which the old ornamental facing was inserted.  I noticed near
either end of the outer one, above the doorway, a hollow in the rock in the shape of a
pine-cone. These cones were so regular that
they might almost be taken as designed them



38                HELLAS.
selves for simple ornaments; but they probably aided in the fastening of the external
coating to the walls. There are nail-holes, too,
on the exterior, particularly on each side of
the triangular opening above the door. Moreover, fragments of semicircular attached columns, with zigzag ornaments, and of stone
plates, were found in the excavations undertaken here by Lord Elgin. The stones were
of various colours, red, green, and white; and
the restoration of the old front of the building,
which Donaldson attempted from  these fragments, presents a quaint and rich style of
architecture, unlike any that prevailed in
Greece in the classic period, and reminding
one rather of Oriental or Byzantine art.
We were admiring the simple majesty of the
massive structure and the lofty dome, when
the light from a fire of brushwood, kindled
by Francois, attracted us into an inner cave,
smaller than the other, and not constructed of
hewn stone, but excavated in the crumbling
conglomerate, which indeed is almost as soft
and friable as earth. It is, by Curtius's measurements, twenty-seven feet long, twenty broad,




ARGOLIS.                39
and nineteen high. Over the entrance is a tri —
angular opening, as in the exterior chamber.
Antiquarians are divided as to the use of these
apertures, - some thinking they were intended:
to receive sculptures, similar to that above
the Gate of the Lions; others, perhaps with,
more reason, regarding them as designed to
introduce  light into the apartments.  Our
guide called this rude excavation Agamemnon's Tomb, giving the name of the Treasury
of Atreus to the larger chamber; and he follows the judgment of some of the best scholars,
in thus taking the inner room as a sepulchre,
the outer as a treasure-house. From the earth
above this ancient structure (which is so covered that one might stroll over the knoll with
no suspicion of the wonder beneath, were his
eyes not attracted by the walls of the passageway leading down to the entrance) I plucked
some yellow flowers; and a beetle and other
insects there congregated attracted our notice
from their great size and bright colors.
Thence a short walk took us to the citadel,
which was built on the summit of a steep hill,
beneath higher mountains.  The huge stone




40                HELLAS.
masses of the walls — in some places twenty
feet high —produce a similar impression to
that of the fortifications at Tiryns; and they
present a very interesting combination of the
three different styles of masonry found in the
ancient Greek walls, - the Cyclopean (which
is the oldest), in which huge irregular stones,
unhewn, are piled together, the interstices
being filled with smaller stones; the polygonal,
of many-sided stones carefully hewn and nicely
fitted to each other; and the rectangular, of
regular parallelograms. But the great wonder
of the place is the gate, formed of huge blocks,
two upright and a third horizontal, over which
are represented, in relief, two lionesses, standing, and resting their fore-paws on a pedestal
whence rises a singular-shaped pillar, smaller
at the bottom than at the top, and crowned by
four round balls above its capital. This pillar,
says Gerhard, is the symbol of Apollo Agyieus,
or the protector of gates; and the lions, between which it stands, are armorial emblems of
the Atreidae: on the chest of Cypselus, Agamemnon has on his shield an image of Terror
with the head of a lion. The heads are gone




ARGOLIS.               41
from the two lionesses; it is evident that they
stood out boldly from the wall, in full relief,
facing all who approached, emblems of formidable might. I have seen no monument of
deeper interest than this, - the oldest sculpture in Europe, - the first bud of that flower
which blossomed in the Parthenon.  Rude as
the lions are, they are highly expressive; "bones
and veins and muscles are given with the closest adherence to nature;" and they breathe
already that life and freedom which, subordinated to law, is the glory of Hellenic art.
Moreover, in the solitude of their situation, in
the thought that they have stood unchanged
through so many generations of men, and in
the imposing  massiveness of the gate and
walls they adorn, is a rare combination of
impressive circumstances.
It was impossible to pass through this gate
into the citadel, for the passage beyond was
nearly filled with earth. The interior of the
gate itself, however, had been excavated, and
we stood under its massive portal, whence the
King of Men sallied with his troops when he
set out for the Trojan war.




42                   HELLAS.
In a little valley near at hand, where we
found a well and a few willows, we reclined
in the shade, and took our simple breakfast, 
drinking water from a leathern bucket. Not
a human habitation was to be seen on the site
of mighty cities in olden time; a swineherd,
tending his unpoetic charge, (although it, too,
was suggestive of the Homeric times,) and a
woman with a donkey, come to the well to get
water, were all that broke the silence of the
lonely spot. Spurring our horses, we set off
at a full gallop over a beautiful plain, through
which flowed a little stream, whose channel
actually  contained  a good  supply of water,
unlike the dry beds of rivers we had passed.*
The sight of the clear water and its pleasant
murmur, the greenness of the shrubs and herbage, and, above all, the gorgeous splendour of
a wilderness of oleanders, - whose bright and
* The mythic story of the punishment of the daughters of
Danaus finds its explanation in the physical conformation of
"thirsty Argos." "The numerous clefts and fissures," says
Curtius, "greedily absorb the falling rain; but it flows rapidly
away over the hard ground, and the thirsty land constantly
pants anew for refreshment." Hence the necessity, and "the
unthankfulness and toilsomeness," of artificial irrigation.




ARGOLIS.               43
beautiful blossoms adorned the plain by the
side of the brook, far and near,- exhilarated
and delighted us beyond measure. Through
wild, romantic glens we followed this stream
for several hours, - crossing and recrossing it,
plucking the magnificent oleanders, and filling
our hats and bosoms with them as we passed,
and gazing with awe and delight on the grand
mountains which met the view in every direction. And such a sky! Heavens of the tenderest, most translucent white-blue, suffused
with light, —an exquisite tint unrivalled elsewhere; and, floating in them, the most delicate little clouds.
At last we came to a little garden in
the wilderness, with  an humble khan for
the accommodation of travellers; and here,
in this beautiful oasis, beneath the shade
of vines and fig-trees, we reclined and enjoyed a substantial lunch which our guide
produced from  his stores, and the no less
grateful refreshment of a little slumber. But
we were soon aroused, for we had a long
journey yet before us; and, ascending and
descending mountains, by steep, stony, unim



44                HELLAS.
aginable paths, sometimes following a stream
flowing to the North, - for we had passed the
water-shed, -we at length beheld, from the
top of a hill, a grand, solitary valley imprisoned by mountains. In this vale rise three
columns of an ancient temple, surrounded by
the scattered remains of walls and pillars.
They are of the Doric order, but of greater
height in proportion to their diameter than
is usual in that style. The pavement of the
temple, and a few blocks of the lower courses
of its walls, remain. They are built of a hard
and coarse, but well-hammered stone. The
effect of these graceful, solitary columns, in
that grand and silent vale, as we galloped
towards them  over the long plain, or rode
slowly among the fallen blocks which strew
the ground around them, was most impressive.
Retracing our course to the other end of the
valley, passing some shepherds, whose rude
huts were placed in the neighbourhood of their
flocks of goats feeding in this solitary spot,
and who offered us silver coins of Alexander
the Great, we visited the remains of the great
Theatre of Nemea, of which little more than




ARGOLIS.               45
the outline can now be traced, lying on the
side of a hill. We were on the scene of the
renowned Nemean Games; and no site could
be more appropriate for such festivals than
this magnificent valley. On the side of a high
hill above the theatre, Francois showed us
what is called the cave of the Nemean lion
which was slain by Hercules. The old hero
began to seem to us as a real existence, for it
was not the first of the scenes of his exploits
we had seen on our journey. We had been to
Tiryns, where he was brought up; to Argos
and Mycenae, the home of his tyrant, Eurysthenes; from the hills of Argos we had gazed
on the Lernean Marsh, where he killed the
hydra; and soon from the hills of Corinth we
beheld Mount Cithaeron, famed for his youthful prowess.
New  mountains and ravines were to be
passed before we reached Corinth. Our road
was sometimes in the bed of a torrent, and
always through wild and romantic scenery.
The hills began to assume a peculiar appearance. Many of them are composed of masses
of hard, white clay, rising precipitously from




46                HELLAS.
the ravines, and often most singularly covered
at the top by a horizontal layer of sandstone.
Through the clay soil deep gullies have been
worn by the torrents and the rains. The sight
of running water and the exquisite oleanders
still gladdened our eyes, and at last we reached
the final ridge which separates the Peloponnesus from the Isthmus, and beheld Parnassus
in the distance, veiling in clouds his awful
brow, Helicon, and Cithaeron, and picturesque
groups of other more neighbouring mountains,
the bold height of Acrocorinthus, the modern
town, and the long Corinthian Gulf. We entered the little town, and, in a clean and comfortable inn, enjoyed sound repose, after the
fatigues of a twelve hours' ride. The next
morning we visited the seven Doric columns,
the very ancient ruins of the old Greek city,
and, after a ride of nine miles across the
Isthmus, with its picturesque dells and ridges,
covered with grain-fields and dwarf pines, —
glancing, as we passed, at the spot where the
Isthmian Games were celebrated, and at the
remains of the Isthmian wall, - took an Austrian steamer at Kalim~ki for the Peiraeus.




ARGOLIS.               47
I could not tire of looking down into the
water as we ploughed the Saronic Gulf. Its
colour was an exquisite light blue, very like
that in the Azure Grotto at Capri. The heavens were of a similar delicate hue; and a few
light, lovely clouds hung in the blue upper sea.
After dining at the clean hotel, we took a
boat for the tomb of Themistocles. Fragments,
about twelve in number, of a large unfluted
pillar of stone lie strewn around. Near it, two
sarcophagus-like depressions are hollowed in
the rock, and filled with the water of the sea.
The column, from  its size, must have been
intended as a memorial of something; and it
stands where rose the hero's monument, "by
the sea's margin, on the watery strand."




FROM ATHENS TO PARNASSUS.
"Nullum est sine nomine saxum."
LUCAN.
WITH my agreeable and accomplished friend,
Professor Blackie, I left Athens on the morning of the 2d of June, for a ten days' journey
on horseback in Northern Greece.  Besides
our dragoman or guide, we were attended by
the "master of the horses," a chief cook, an
assistant cook, and two servants in charge of
the three mules which carried our beds, provisions, and clothing. Rising at early dawn,
after refreshing ourselves with a cup of black
coffee and a slice of bread, it was our custom
to set out with the first rays of the sun, and
ride for four or five hours, till we reached some
khan, where, beneath the shade of a tree, the
table our dragoman carried was spread, and
the best of breakfasts furnished by our skilful
cooks. Our eager appetites appeased, rambles




FROM ATHENS TO PARNASSUS.        49
at will among the rocks, mollesque sub arbore
somni, beguiled the hours till the heat of midday began to abate, and we mounted again for
another ride of four or five hours, to our stopping-place for the night. This was generally a
kind of khan, where the cooks found a kitchen
of which they could have the use, and an upper
chamber was ready for our beds. Our guide
carried cot-bedsteads and good beds, with flannel blankets and other clothing, so that in
these rude apartments we passed the nights
in entire comfort. A family owning the house
is generally found in the room which serves
for the kitchen. In our bedroom, or in the
open air, as we chose, the dinner-table was
spread, with luxury as well as abundance;
indeed, as, seated on our camp-stools, we partook of the six courses, we sometimes thought
we would gladly exchange them for fare more
congenial with the wildness of the scene. We
gave the cook, however, in the most intelligible way, the compliment of thorough appreciation, remembering the dictum of physicians,
that a generous diet is the best for travellers
in hot countries. Dining with the first even4




50                HELLAS.
ing shades, a ramble in the neighborhood to
explore whatever is of interest to be seen, or
a talk with the people, particularly with the
Greek boys, who are very intelligent and better
educated than their elders, and then the welcome couch.  Such is the outline of a day's
life. But how shall I describe the wild grandeur of the hills and mountains of Greece, the
calm beauty of her plains, the transparency
and delicious blueness of her sky, the delight,
the exultation of bounding o'er her " haunted,
holy ground," where every scene is hallowed
by the most fascinating associations, and there
is " no rock without a name "?
It was a fine morning when our cavalcade
left the city of Theseus, and took its way
through the olive-groves which border the
streamlets of the Cephissus, vineyards, and
fields of maize, and by the farm  and neat
country-house of the Queen, to the impregnable height of Phyle. By and by large pinetrees, scattered here and there by the road,
afforded a pleasing contrast in colour with the
olives. A picturesque pass, through hills dotted with shrub pines, leads into the range of




FROM ATHENS TO PARNASSUS.        51
Parnes, which stretches, in complicated windings, from Cithaeron to the east, a natural bulwark of Attica. Here, in a valley among the
wild hills,.we breakfasted in the pleasant village
of Kassia, at an humble cafinet with no floor
but the earth, in front of which we were
accosted by the demarch of the town. Thence
through  grand  ravines, — savage hills all
around, the gray and brown of their rocky
sides relieved by little pines,-having at our
right the abrupt, double plunge of the mountain, forming the precipitous wall of a gorge,
and passing through a valley gay with oleanders, we rode to the bold rock, with its tablelike top, which the fortifications of Phyle
crown. The high and precipitous eminence
is inaccessible on two sides, and protected by
walls on the others. Portions of the walls are
in good preservation; they are built of large,
regular blocks of stone, in two courses, the
space between (which is very broad) being
filled with a compact mass of large stones
irregular in shape.  A more secure retreat
than this mountain fastness could not be imagined. To the lover of scenery, its historical




52                HELLAS.
associations are Phyle's least attractions; from
its reverend brow we looked out upon a broad
and beautiful landscape, embracing queenly
Athens, Hymettus, a part of Euboea, and the
island-dotted sea. Over the old walls of the
fort grow ivy and thorn-bushes.  The wild
glen which almost entirely surrounds the rocky
citadel is one of singular beauty and grandeur;
but it is even surpassed by the glens a little
beyond Phyle in the same pass.  Continuing
on our way over most picturesque hills, clothed
with pines, a plant resembling box, and thickleaved holly-like shrubs, we soon had a fine
view of the strait and island of Euboea, and of
a wide Bceotian plain, into which we descended.
Passing a village at the right and two hamlets
at the left, we dashed on to a little town, at the
extremity of the plain, called Dervenosalesi,
near which stands a ruined castle-like building
of the Middle Ages on a romantic rocky height.
The room we occupied for the night contained
a rude painting of St. George, with a lamp
hanging near it; the mistress of the house
kneeled and crossed herself before the image
of the saint, before retiring to rest.




FROM ATHENS TO PARNASSUS.         53
The next morning, a little after four o'clock,
we commenced the ascent of the stony, difficult hills which bound the plain, and soon
from the summit of one of them saw distinctly
Cithaeron, Helicon, and the far-distant Parnassus.  An intervening plain through which
flows the Asopus, -a considerable stream, 
and another ridge of hills, and we then looked
down on the broad and fertile fields of Thebes.
Descending, we crossed the Ismenus, a full
stream, turning  many mills; and  another
stream flowing from a large basin, with whose
pure, cold waters we refreshed ourselves and
our horses.  We came soon to the moderate
hill which was the Acropolis of the old city,
and is the site of the modern town. It is of
elliptical form, sloping to the north, and rises
about one hundred and fifty feet above the
plain.  Renowned as was seven-gated Thebes,
hardly a vestige of its ancient edifices survives.
Pitiful pieces of marble from old buildings, it
is true, are embedded in the rude walls of the
modern houses; and large regular blocks of
stone, with a few fragments of pillars and architectural ornaments, maybe seen in the ruins of




54                 HELLAS.
an old Turkish tower, a pier of a bridge, and a
dilapidated church. We breakfasted at a khan,
in the middle of the town.  Modern Thebes
presents the appearance of considerable activity and prosperity.  The one-story shops and
houses on its principal street are generally
furnished with awnings of board, —no small
convenience in this climate. There are good
schools here, and we met some intelligent
representatives of the Theban youth, one of
whom  had read at his school two books of
the Iliad.
The arid summit of the.Cadmeia was almost
destitute of herbage. I succeeded, however,
in finding a little flower, which, with others
gathered at interesting points in my tour, has
been given by the wife of our then Minister to
Constantinople to a poetess almost as distinguished for her scholarship as for her extraordinary genius, -Mrs. Browning, - the
modern Sappho,
"with aureole
Of ebon locks on calmed brows."
The plain around Thebes is not only fertile,
but well cultivated.  After descending and




FROM  ATHENS TO PARNASSUS.                 55
crossing a little streamlet,* we soon came into
a region  of secondary  hills,-  not of barren
rock, like their loftier neighbors, but covered
with light friable soil, and clad with waving
grain, grass, or low  shrubs,   actually  green
all over.  Refreshed by their novelty and verdure, we wound  our way  around  and  over
them, till we came to the plain of Thespiae, at
the extremity of which, on two little hills, is
the  village  of Eremokastri, our halting-place
for the night.  In  the plain are foundations of
ancient structures, one of which  our  guide
called a bath, and the other a temple, and in
the walls of a neat, whitewashed church, which
* This brook, which flows to the northward, and empties
into the Ismenus, is generally called Dirce by the topographers. As we were approaching Thebes from the east, I was repeating that magnificent ode from the Antigone,'AKTSi aciXov,
and was struck by the fact that the poet speaks of the rays of
the morning sun as coming over the Dirce's waters, AtpKalcov
Irep  ee'Opcov /toXovCoa. Was the poet regardless of the actual
situation, or can we give the name of Dirce to the streamlet
and fountain directly east of the town?
I may allude here to the great pleasure it was, in many
places on my journey, to recall lines which old school and college studies had fixed in my memory, in the very scenes
which they describe.




56                HELLAS.
stands by itself on a hill near the village, some
spirited bas-reliefs, as well as vine-leaf ornaments, and the inscription of an old sepulchral
monument, have been inserted.  The most
charming thing at Eremokastri is the view of
Helicon and its neighbouring hills. The poetic
mountain, as seen from this village, presents
the appearance of a large cone, not unlike
Vesuvius in shape, with a long ridge running
easterly, terminated by another and smaller
cone-like elevation. Its gray sides are dotted
in many parts with trees, and trees appear to
grow upon the very summit.  But the hills
running out to the north or northwest of the
highest peak  of Helicon  present the most
diversified, bold, and picturesque outline imaginable.  As we watched them, reclining on
our carpets, after dinner, upon a little hill in
front of our khan, their lines, now waving,
now jagged, drawn in bold relief against the
evening sky, and their summits radiant with
tenderest hues in the sunset glow, they made
the fairest picture of the kind on which my
eyes ever lingered. Long did we gaze on the
scene, till the gathering shades obscured its




FROM ATHENS TO PARNASSUS.        57
beauty, and aloft, near the summit of HIelicon,
a red light gleamed forth from a monastery
embosomed in that inviolable seclusion.
The beauty of the flowers and insects we
met with on our excursion was a constant
delight. Il this day's journey, I plucked the
most exquisite blue larkspurs, white and lilac
candy-tuft, nutmeg honeysuckles, bachelor'sbuttons, and mourning-brides.
Pursuing our way the next morning, we
soon reached a height whence we had a view
of the so-called Copaic Lake. How  in the
world, in a land so destitute of water, a lake
of the grand dimensions which Copais exhibits
on the maps could be found, had been a mystery to us; but what was our surprise, when,
instead of a noble expanse of the liquid element, we looked down upon a broad, green
plain, covered with grass and standing corn,
grazed by large herds of horses and cattle, and
only intersected here and there by a few small
and sluggish rivers; -no Scotch mountain
loch, or bright New England lakelet, to inspire
delightful recollections of our native lands,
but an immense swamp, nearly dry, very like




58                HELLAS.
some portions of the Pontine Marshes.  In
the winter, however, the lake better deserves
its name.  Breakfasting at a pleasant khan at
its margin, we galloped entirely across the
cracked soil of the wide, green limne, fording
four or five muddy rivers. We disturbed the
solitary rambles of a stately heron, and started
up three or four noble eagles, who rose in
silence, and winged to the north.  Crossing
the Cephissus by a bridge, we came to a village occupying the site of old and wealthy Orchomenus, on the side of Copais, and beneath
a high hill still crowned by the remains of its
citadel.  Here is the so-called "Treasury of
Minyas,"  almost the sole relic of the prehistoric grandeur of a rich and powerful city.
It is a subterranean chamber, resembling the
Treasury of Atreus at Mycene; but the stonework of the top of its vault has been removed,
and earth filled in, so that nothing is now
visible save the upper part of its massive gateway, spanned by an immense block of limestone, whose under surface is coated with
smooth cement. This block is about three feet
above the present surface of the ground. It is




FROM  ATHENS TO PARNASSUS.               59
sixteen feet in length, eight in breadth, and
above three feet in thickness; there was probably another slab in the architrave. The site
is on rising ground, a little above the valley,
here filled with olive-trees.
Orchomenus was a principal seat of the worship of the Charites, or Graces, whom Pindar
invokes in his fourteenth Olympic:" 0 ye, that by Cephissis' waves profuse
Dwell on the banks with steeds and pastures fair,
Illustrious queens of proud Orchomenus,
Listen, ye Graces, to my prayer.
Ye whose protecting eyes
The Minyans' ancient tribes defend,
From you life's sweets and purest ecstasies
On man's delighted race descend.
Genius, and Beauty, and Immortal Fame
Are yours; without the soft, majestic Graces,
Not e'en the gods, in their celestial places,
Or feast or dance proclaim."
The Copaic Lake  (or Cephissis, as it was
more anciently called) produces (particularly
in  the neighborhood  of Orchomenus) a reed
which has been properly reckoned among the
most important productions of Boeotia, as affording the material of which the flute was




60                   HELLAS.
made, by whose use her minstrels were distinguished.
" Through vocal vent its music flows,
Of brass with slender reed combined,
That near the festive city grows,
Where with light step the Graces move,
Marking the measured dance they wind
In cool Cephissis' flowery grove."
There were annual festivals in honour of the
Graces at Orchomenus, and these flutes were
used in the musical contests. The sanctuary
is supposed to have been on a site now occupied  by  a monastery.   Here we found  an
interesting collection of remains of the old
city, - a grand old altar, adorned with three
deers' heads, with garlands depending from
their antlers, and bearing a long inscription;
another altar, very large, which has been severed in the middle, and now  forms two altars
in the church; a statue in an Egypto-Greek
style; a headless warrior; a torso; and a basrelief in the interior of the church, supposed
to be of the three Graces.  Among the grotesque paintings of saints with which the sides
of the church are lined, I was attracted to one




FROM ATHENS TO PARNASSUS.        61
of a young man with a pleasing face, represented in a modern Greek costume, and wearing arms.  This is St. George the Young, a
priest who fought in the Greek Revolution,
and was canonized for his heroic exploits.
Again plunging into the plain, a ride of
about two hours brought us to Lebadea,green, delightful village, with groves, and
gardens, and full, babbling streams of water,
— an oasis in a thirsty land. Fording the
copious stream of its river, we followed up the
bed of a little brook, through groves of figs,
vineyards, and banks gay with flowers, till we
reached the hill on whose sides the town is
built.  The streets are paved with  large,
irregular stones, slippery and disagreeable to
the horses.  The town is large, and one of
considerable trade and activity. Awnings are
spread across the street in many places; the
houses are open, and furnished with balconies,
with quite an Oriental aspect. Our eyes gladdened by its rich verdure, and our ears by the
rushing sound of its full, rapid streams, we
were charmed with Lebadea, and gladly accepted it as our halting-place for the day of




62                HELLAS.
rest. In a wild gorge, near the town, beneath
a precipitous mountain, crowned by well-preserved mediaeval fortifications, the river bursts
forth suddenly and violently from the foot of
the rocky height, -a striking phenomenon, of
which there are many instances in Greece.
The rocks in this wild, romantic gorge contain several caves, and many niches artificially
excavated to receive statues and votive offerings; for here was the sanctuary and oracular
cave of Trophonius. The precise position of
the cave has not been ascertained, nor is it
known which are the waters of memory, and
which of oblivion; but the religio loci is still
extremely impressive, and one cannot but
acknowledge the fitness of the scene to impress
with supernatural influences the lively susceptibilities of the Greeks. As we sat on the
rocks by the gushing river, two bright-eyed,
intelligent boys joined our company, with that
easy but courteous freedom characteristic of
this people, and sang Greek serenades and
stirring patriotic lays, which my companion
acknowledged by a spirited  German  song.
These lads, one of whom was very handsomely




FROM ATHENS TO PARNASSUS.        63
clad in the full Greek costume, were noblelooking fellows, and particularly manly and
graceful in their manners.  We noticed in the
Greek men, in general, a proud and independent, but very easy and graceful carriage, and
a bearing which happily unites manliness and
courtesy.
Beyond Lebadea, the hills were variegated
with the bright yellow blossoms of a kind of
broom, with thorn-like leaves. Singular fossils, resembling in shape the horns of some
animal, (orthoceratites, probably,) abound in
the road. We soon reached the plain of Choeronea, the scene of three important battles.
Here, in the centre of an excavation inl a little
mound, not more than half a mile from the
modern town, lie the fragments of one of the
most impressive sepulchral monuments in the
world,- the colossal marble lion erected over
the remains of the Boeotians conquered by
Philip in "that disastrous victory fatal to
liberty." The stone is of a light slate-colour,
and overgrown with gray lichens.  Though
the statue has been blown to pieces, - in the
hope, it is said, of finding concealed treasure,




64                HELLAS.
- the head is still perfect, and some of the
legs and other portions; and this intensely
interesting work of art might easily be restored.
The gnashed teeth, the fiery eyes, the grand
expression of a lofty spirit, unconquered in
defeat, render this lion's head one of the most
striking and noble sculptures of antiquity;
nor could we behold without deep emotion, as
we stood by the grave of those brave men, this
wonderfully  appropriate monument to their
spirit and valour, as admirable in defeat as in
success. At the town, which we reached in two
hours from Lebadea, we found well-preserved
remains of the walls of the double-peaked
Acropolis, and a small theatre, excavated in
the solid rock, on the sides of the hill, —the
seats well preserved, although their marble coverings are gone, and the two praecinctions, or
divisions between the seats of the different
orders of spectators, high and well-marked.
Some lads followed me to the top of the Acropolis, and sold me a few coins and a cameo
head of Minerva. They gave their names as
Achilles the son of Johannes, and Soter the
son of Athanasius; and in return I gave my




FROM ATHENS TO PARNASSUS.        65
own name and patronymic, in the same primitive style. In the plain, just below the village, is an old fountain, near which is a sarcophagus, with a cavity some four feet long
and two and a half wide, bearing an inscription to some one called a Platonic philosopher;
and there are many fragments of pillars of
granite, resembling the beautiful stone quarried at Quincy. We had a brilliant, yet soft
and mellow sunset, of red and yellow ethereal
flame.
Our horses ran away in the night, and while
we were waiting for their recapture we talked
with some rustics seated on benches in front of
the tax-gatherer's shop, - one of whom had a
cane which excited our cupidity, though the
old man could not be tempted to sell it. The
handle was the representation, carved in wood,
of the head of a bald Egyptian priest; on one
side of the cane was carved a full-length figure
of a man, with the inscription " Adam; " on
the other, a woman, labelled " Eve." Beneath,
there were two  other figures, representing
children of our great ancestors. Below was
carved, in bold  characters, the inscription
5




66               HELLAS.
borne on policemen's staves in Greece: " The
power of the law," with this addition, "for
boys and dogs; "- -IXT'  TOT NOMOT
Ti2N IIAIAfnN  KAI Td2N   KTAdnN.
From Chaeronea we pursued our path through
romantic hills and plains to Daulia, the ancient
Daulis, at the foot of Parnassus, - passing on
our way the conspicuous walls which crown
the lofty acropolis of Panopeus.  Delightful
Daulis! Thy bright, joyous brooks; thy green
meadows; thy gardens of fig and peach, and
groves of pomegranate, —the beautiful pomegranate, with its bright-green, glossy little
leaves, and blossoms of gorgeous scarlet with
yellow stamens, - form a picture of loveliness
and fairy-like enchantment that will never fade
from my memory. At this flowery hill-side we
commenced the ascent of the haunted mount
of song; and all was " one vast realm of wonder," as, through mountain gorges and over
grand ridges, we wound our way along to the
vine-clad heights of Arachova, and thence to
the cloud-capt summit of the sacred hill.




ASCENT OF PARNASSUS.
AT Ar~chova we exchanged our horses for
mules, -
(" On Parnassus mount,
You take a mule to climb, and not a muse,
Except in fable and figure,") -
and struck into a steep path, winding through
vineyards, along the precipitous sides of the
mountain, by which we soon gained a height
commanding a large valley on the other side,
fertile and well cultivated, though at so great
an elevation, and diversified by a little summer-village of stone, windowless houses, and
two small sheets of water.  We had now left
grape-vines and cultivation beneath, and, turning to the right, soon entered a forest of noble
trees of spruce-fir, with long beards of gray
moss.  Before us, on a little donkey, followed
by her colt, a pretty, bare-headed boy of about
ten years sat sideways, breaking the stillness




68                HELLAS.
of that solitude by piping sweetly on a shepherd's reed; we longed for a painter to perpetuate the scene. Up and down, up and down
rocky hills, and through evergreen groves, we
pursued our way, till from one of the heights
we looked into a large valley, surrounded
by rocky, but tree-clad hills, whose summits
formed the limit of trees on the mountain.
Near the centre of the vale was a rude hut,
built of stones picked up near by, and covered
in part by boughs of fir, in part by an awning
of black goat's-hair cloth.  In front was a
merry group of shepherds, amusing themselves
by spinning around on a long, horizontal pole,
attached by a pivot in the centre to a perpendicular post firmly planted in the ground, and
allowing to those lying over either end, or
hanging from it, a combined rotary and seesaw motion.  Our little minstrel let his donkeys loose to feed, and joined this pastoral
party, who soon dispersed to collect and milk
their large flocks of sheep, feeding on the surrounding hills. The simple repast provided
by our attendants was enriched by delicious
draughts of fresh milk, presented by the shep



ASCENT OF PARNASSUS.          69
herds, and new cheese-curd. Fresh boughs of
spruce-fir were brought from the neighbouring
hill-sides, and spread on the ground, under a
large tree near the hut, for our beds. A large
fire of dry boughs was kindled at our feet; and,
covered by thick capotes, we slept soundly beneath the clear, star-studded sky, in the pure
air and dewless night, lulled to rest by the
musical tinkling of the sheep-bells, the sweet
sounds of the shepherds' reeds, the clear cry
of the cuckoo, and the watch-dogs' honest
bark re-echoed from the mountains. Reclining around the fire, the shepherds told their
robber tales far into the night; then sleep
came over them, and no human sound broke
the sublime stillness of the mountain solitude.
Never have I enjoyed sweeter slumbers. Gently
and imperceptibly I fell asleep, with none of
the stupidity and heaviness which often brood
over civilized chambers; and awoke to greet
the divine dawn with clearest head and most
elastic pulses.
At the first morning light, we again mounted
and set out for the summit.  Soon reaching
the limit of trees, we beheld the long, gray




70                HELLAS.
ridges of Parnassus stretching far above us,
with little patches of snow nestling in the hollows on their sides. Still up and down, by the
rocky path, till the great backbone was reached,
and, leaving the donkeys, we planted our feet
on the everlasting rock, and pursued -our way
to the exulting peaks. By the side of minute
streams, trickling from deep snow-banks, we
picked delicate crocuses, violets, and other
flowers of lovely hue, some of which had
climbed to shed their beauty upon almost the
highest summits.  At last, a glorious panorama, interrupted only in small parts of the
horizon at the southeast, where a peak a little
higher than that on which we stood, but inaccessible on account of the snow and ice, obscured the view. All Greece lay outspread
around us. Far in the north, blue in the distance, but distinct and well defined in the
clear atmosphere, rose grand and beautiful
Olympus, its many rolling  peaks gleaming
with snow. A little to its right, the prominent
cone of Ossa stood conspicuous, and, next, the
range of Pelion; on the left, the long chain
of Pindus, the huge backbone of Greece, with




ASCENT OF PARNASSUS.          71
Othrys running from it to the east. The Gulf
of Zeitun, beyond Thermopylae, Euboea, with
the bright sea on either side, (for we could
look entirely over the island,) and some of the
isles of the lovely JEgean, adorned this side of
the picture. At the west rose the mountains
of Acarnania and JEtolia, their summits snowclad, and their sides exhibiting a rich variety
of colours, in the rich deep red and brown and
gray of the lower region, the green trees of
the central belt, and the broken rock and
snow of the upper heights.  To the south the
Corinthian Gulf stretched out in long extent,
its waters of that soft blue, bathed in the intense light of a Greek sky, characteristic of
Greek seas.  Beyond were the mountains of
the Morea, bold and varied, with snow glittering on many of their summits, and their sides
of various hues.  And all these colours in the
richly variegated landscape were embraced
and canopied by the profound blue of the sky,
in which, near the horizon, a few long clouds
were suspended, of delicate texture, and with
most exquisite blushes welcoming the early
beams of the sun.




72                HELLAS.
When at last we had bidden farewell to the
snow-banks ten and fifteen feet deep, and farewell to the peaks which had sprung to the
height of nearly eight thousand feet above the
neighbouring sea, new beauties in the landscape unfolded themselves as we descended
the rocky sides of the mountain.  As we
reached the region of trees, a thousand exquisite little pictures of wild glens of green and
gray, fantastic branches, and intermingling outlines of rock and tree, met our eyes; of the
blue gulf, nestled amidst embracing mountains, and sleeping like an inland lake; of
town and cultured slopes, of rugged cliffs and
snow-clad peaks. Then what a home-like feeling as we greeted the dear valley of our last
night's rest, the quiet shepherds, and the tuneful flocks! Here we again sat down on the
evergreen boughs; and, while we appeased our
hunger, listened to the song of birds above our
heads, the mellow notes of the shepherd's pipe,
and the soft tinkling of the sheep-bells, and
watched the shepherds beckoning their dogs to
guard the flocks, or chatting on the grass before their rude hut. For the first time I gave




ASCENT OF PARNASSUS.          73
full credence to all that poets have sung of
the felicity and peace of pastoral life.
Descending to the plain, with its little village, which we noticed in the ascent, we rode
across it, and climbed a very steep hill, near
whose summit is the Corycian cave, sacred to
Pan and Corycian nymphs; but more interesting in its poetic associations than in itself.
It is a tolerably large grotto, with a slippery
bottom, and a noble roof adorned with stalactites of graceful form but dull colour. Again,
over hill and dale, among large trees of a hollyleaved oak, we came at length to the precipitous descent, which zigzags down the steep side
of the mountain to Delphi.  Down this we
walked, the slippery path and rude stairway
being too suggestive of broken necks for riding.
Kastri, as the modern town is called, is a
dirty, straggling village, with narrow breakneck streets, and in every respect - except its
delightful situation - as unpoetic in its aspect
as possible.  Women washing dirty linen at
a public fountain in one of the streets -the
Cassotis -  suggested, both  by resemblance




74                 HELLAS.
and by contrast, the princesses of Homer.
The ancient city of Delphi rose in a fine natural amphitheatre, on the side of a mountainous
height, which is connected with the range of Parnassus, and, with the opposite wall of Mount Cirphis, encloses a wide and most romantic gorge.
A succession of terraces for building-sites was
formed on the hill-side, supported by massive
walls (of rectangular, and in one or two instances of polygonal stones), large portions of
which are still remaining. Directly back of
the town rises a bold height of precipitous
rock, with a cleft in the centre forming two
peaks, facing the south, and called in ancient
times the Phadriades, or " the Resplendent."
These are the double-topped Parnassus of the
poets, but in fact only a spur of the great
mountain itself. At the foot of this cleft still
issue the pure waters of the Castalian spring.
An excavation in the rock, called the Bath
of the Pythian Pilgrims, receives the stream,
which flows thence down the sloping height to
the wild glen below. The wall of rock by the
spring's side is indented with artificial niches,
large and small, for votive offerings. I drank




ASCENT OF PARNASSUS.          75
(like a good Roman) nine draughts from the
poetic fount, one for each Muse. Not far to
the south from  the Castalian spring are the
remains of the Stadium; its outline can still be
traced, and some rude seats in the rock at the
upper extremity are preserved. Standing far
up on the terraced height, it commands a
delightful view of the Gulf, and of the wild
picturesque gorge below  the town. A  little
lower, near some tombs excavated in the rock,
we enjoyed a charming prospect over the olive
groves of the plain  at the mouth  of the
romantic glen which  Delphi overhangs, of
Chryso and Galaxidi and Scala di SSlona,
the bay, the gulf, and the mountains of the
opposite shore of the Morea, among which
Cyllene is conspicuous. Still lower down, in
the pleasantly-situated monastery of the Panagia, a few beautiful remains of ancient art
are preserved; — a spirited and well-executed
bas-relief, representing a chariot drawn by
four noble horses towards an altar; a lion's
head; fragments of bas-reliefs, architectural
ornaments, triglyphs, and columns.  In another monastery we saw  a few  old pillars




76                  HELLAS.
and inscriptions, and on some stones near the
site of the Pythian sanctuary are some very
long and well-preserved inscriptions, which were
discovered by Miller, and have been copied
by the indefatigable German archaeologists.
Still, as of old, the Muses of the poetic
mountain use their witchery.  The following
song was written by my accomplished  companion when fresh from  their inspiration; its
author's kindness enables me to give it to my
readers. The Professor retains the modern
popular orthography and accent, llapvaa-ro.
A SONG OF PARNASSUS.
BY JOHN STUART BLACKIE.
ON high Arachova's rocky slope
The green vine richly grows 
From solemn Delphi's chasmed cliffs
The pure fount largely flows.
Brightly, brightly beams the sea
From Galaxidi's bay,
And brightly from the glowing pole
Streams down the glorious day.
But me a soaring fancy lifts
From this fair scene below,



ASCENT OF PARNASSUS.                77
I'11 stride my jogging mule, and mount
The lofty Parnass!
Ho! ho! ho!
Ho! ho! ho!
The lofty Parnass6.
Scramble, scramble o'er the ledge,
And flounder o'er the stones!
Warily, warily, with sure foot
Seize old Earth's giant bones!
Of Arab coursers I have read
That breathe the fiery sun,
And steeds of golden English lords
For golden cups that run;
But when from Delphi's rock-bound nook
Aloft I wish to go,
I praise the stout, sure-footed mule
That jogs to Parnass6.
Ho! ho! ho! etc.
Now halt upon the lofty crag
That rules the vale below;'T is but the fringe of his huge robe
Whose shoulder gleams with snow.
Look down upon the red-tiled huts
In the low, corn-clad plain;
The ploughman's home thou shalt not see
So near this night again.




78                   HELLAS.
Then up and down, and down and up,
Fiist right, then left, you go,
And when your joints are shaken well
You're nearer Parnasso.
Ho! ho! ho! etc.
Wisely, wisely, like a ship
When the strong northwester blew,
Softly, softly, like the wave
That mounts a whirling screw, 
Thus my good mule the steep abreast
Hath made a zigzag way,
Beneath the dark hosts of the pine
That hide the gleaming day, --
Pines that feed upon the viewless
Vapor of the snow,
Round the sides and up the back
Of lofty Parnasso.
Ho! ho! ho! etc.
The cuckoo sings,- the cuckoo's note
How sweet in Parnass6!
And hark! the clear, low-tinkling bells
Of sheep that wandering go.
And see! a little shepherd-boy,
With shepherd's simple skill,
Perched sideways on his little mule,
Comes piping up the hill.




ASCENT OF PARNASSUS.                79
Pipe away,! pipe away!
Nightingales below!
Cuckoo, and pipe, and tinkling bells
On lofty Parnass!
Ho! ho! ho! etc.
The shepherds built a leafy hut
On lofty Parnasso,
And there they keep fresh cheese and milk
High stored on Parnasso,
And eat, and drink, and watch their sheep,
And keep a merry soul,
And when their flocks come home at eve,
They swing upon a pole,
And laugh, and quaff, and tell old tales
Beside bright fires that glow
Beneath the clear and dewless night
Of lofty Parnass!
Ho! ho!ho! etc.
Shake down fresh branches of the pine,
And we will make our bed
Where at our feet the dry logs blaze,
And the stars shine overhead.
Ask not for quilted coverlet,
Nor broidered curtains here;
This rough capote shall wrap thee round
Till streaks of day appear.




80                    HELLAS.
So wise Ulysses slept of old,
And great Achilles so;
So every lusty traveller now
That's fit for Parnasso.
Ho! ho! ho! etc.
The twinklers of the night grow dim,
The Borean sky is gray;
Come seize the path, my trusty mule,
We'll11 gain the top to-day.
Scramble, scramble up the ledge,
And flounder o'er the stones;
Warily, warily, with sure feet
Hold old Earth's giant bones!
Now thin and few, like locks of eld,
The straggling pines do show,
And patches of white winter's robe
Lie thick on Parnasso.
Ho! ho! ho! etc.
Snow and stone, and stone and snow,
Bare rock on rock all round:
But still a lovely bright blue flower
You pluck from stony ground.
The little blue " Forget-me-not"
With friendly face is seen,
And in snow-watered sunny nooks
Shine spots of grassy green.




ASCENT OF PARNASSUS.               81
Blank high-peaked ridges stretching far
A grisly rampart show;
But lightsome summer breezes kiss
The peaks of Parnass!
Ho! ho! ho! etc.
Freely, freely, cast thine eye
With raptured gaze around;
From peaks that cleave the skies behold
Earth's various - pictured ground.
Lo where OLYMPUS hails the gods,
And PINDUS cleaves the sky,
And where ZETOUNI'S waters round
The high-souled Spartans lie.
From ACARNANIA'S craggy bound
To steep MOREA'S snow,
Hills on hills and seas on seas
Thou greet'st from Parnass6.
Ho! ho! ho! etc.
Where green ZACYNTHUS' sunny isle
WTith generous vintage glows;
Where from rich CORINTH'S mountain fort
The mythic fountain flows;
Where famous ATHENS, girdled round
With many a storied hill,
Her pillared wreck of chastest shrines
Upholds serene and still,6




t8~2 ~         HELLAS.
All lovely Greece before thee lies!
Canst thou believe the show?
Bless God who brought thy pilgrim feet
At length to Parnasso!
Ho! ho! ho! etc.
The Roman and the Turk had swept
For years this lovely land;
And many a grim old portal shows
The Doge's stern command.
But now the land hath snapt her chain, 
A slave she ne'er might be,And lovely Greece is free again,
Mountain, and plain, and sea!
Canst thou believe the thing thou seest?
Though freedom's growth be slow,
It grows, and ne'er shall die again,
Round sacred Parnasso!
Ho! ho hoho! etc.
Now fill this bowl with Santorin,
That hopeful blood may glow,
While on my stout-paced mule again
I wend down Parnasso.
Live Parnass6! live rock and pine,
Green nook and bulwark gray,
The shepherds and the shepherds' hut,
And sheep that tuneful stray!




ASCENT OF PARNASSUS.                83
Farewell, fair Mount! and evermore
May vines for free Greeks grow
On high Arachova's slopes that fringe
The lofty Parnasso.
Ho! ho! ho!
Ho! ho! ho!
The lofty Parnasso.




FROM DELPHI TO ATHENS.
WHAT is the secret of the mighty influence
which the Pythian oracle wielded for so many
centuries throughout the Grecian world? Not,
surely, mere vain superstition; not, as some
of the Christian fathers imagined, the agency
of evil spirits. Its true source, as Curtius
has shown in his admirable History of Greece,
is found in the intelligence, the knowledge,
the wisdom, and the foresight of the Delphian
priesthood. Careful watchers of the course of
events in every province of Hellas and the
whole ancient world, deep students of human
nature, and inheriting profound maxims of
practical wisdom from their predecessors, by
the legitimate exercise of human faculties they
were enabled to give the wisest counsel, and
often to predict the issue of enterprises; while
they had the cunning in  doubtful cases to
utter an ambiguous voice. Hence was it that




FROM DELPHI TO ATHENS.          85
Delphi was the true centre of Greece, - the
keystone of Grecian unity, the guide of Grecian activity.
As we rode out of Delphi in the morning,
we stopped to examine some sarcophagi and
tombs near the road on the hill-side, a little
north of the town. We were particularly delighted with a sarcophagus of pure white marble, its sides adorned with bas-reliefs of exquisite finish; and the slab, which once formed
the cover, and now lies near by, surmounted by
a mutilated but exceedingly fine and lifelike
statue of'a female, in a recumbent posture.
The sarcophagus has been broken in two, but
the parts are preserved, and might easily be
united, so as to leave little trace of the injury.
Along wild gorges, and through miles and
miles of vineyards on the terraced hill-sides,
we rode on to Arachova. It is sad to think
that the generous product of these luxuriant
vines should be ruined, as it is every year, by
the almost universal Greek custom of putting
resin into the wine, imparting a flavour unendurable to a Frank, though acceptable to the
taste of the natives.  We tasted some of this




86                HELLAS.
vile compound at a khan in Arachova, in
which enough of the original excellence remained to show that it would be a wine of the
rarest richness and deliciousness, had it not
been spoiled by the resin.  Our host, who
offered us this wine, was a man of noble
figure and classic features.  It is probable
that the old Greek blood has been preserved
in much purity in the region of Parnassus; at
any rate, the ancient type of face and form is
often met with.  At Arechova, as at Kastri
and several other villages in the neigbourhood,
the tiles on the roofs are kept in place by
stones placed upon them.  The same custom
prevails in some parts of Switzerland; and that
it obtained in ancient Greece, also, there is
reason to infer from the passage in Thucydides describing the attempted surprise of Platsea by a party of Thebans, in which the
women and servants are represented as pelting the intruders with "stones and tiles"
from the house-tops.
Through wild and picturesque glens, and
grand gorges, we pursued our way hence,the long, gray, bare rock of the heights of Par



FROM DELPHI TO ATHENS.          87
nassus in full view on the left. Among these
mountain passes (not far from the Triple Way
where (Edipus met his father Laius) we were
overtaken by a brisk shower, _ the first rain we
had seen for a month in this cloudless land, -
and we wdre well drenched when we arrived
at our khan at Lebadea.  As one approaches
Lebadea from Parnassus, hills of an alluvial
formation, with loose, fertile soil, take the
place of the rock-ribbed mountains.  This
chain of arable hills extends nearly to Thebes.
The next morning, as we rode by the side of
the Copaic " Lake," Nicolaos, one of our attendants, plucked long wreaths of beautiful and fragrant white clematis, which grows in great abundance and luxuriancy by the side of the path,
and we twined them around our hats. We went,
but by a different road,  along the roots of.Helicon, and passing the noontide by the waters
of a sacred fountain, -to our old khan at Erem6kastri, and there spent the night. As we sat
enjoying the beautiful view of the neighbouring
mountains, bright-eyed Greek boys told us of
Klephts descending from Helicon to a village
which we saw, and murdering a peasant to ob



88               HELLAS.
tain his property, and this but a month before.
They talked, too, of their studies, at the excellent school in the village, and some of them
offered ancient coins for sale.
To the battle-ground of Leuctra we rode
the next morning; near it are the ruins of a
Venetian tower. Thence to the plain of Platea, - crossing the Asopus, muddy and sedgy,
and riding through fields of yellow grain,
enamelled with blue larkspurs, waving over
the ancient scene of conflict. The site of the
old city, on a gentle elevation rising from the
plain, still exhibits extensive and interesting
remains of walls and towers, built of large
hewn blocks of limestone, considerably worn
by time. The height of the remaining portion
of the walls is, in general, but two or three
courses. On higher ground, to the south, are
remains of walls of the most ancient city.
Some large, but coarse and rude sarcophagi,
stand on the side of the hill.
In the house where we breakfasted, which
contained but one apartment, its floor the
ground, and with a long row of hens' nests
near the fireplace, a boy, who had been to the




FROM  DELPHI TO ATHENS.                 89
schools in Thebes, showed us his little library,
consisting of books of the Church, and several
historical works, published  by the  American
missionaries, and printed at the Greek press in
Malta, about twenty years ago. My companion
increased the young man's literary treasures
by the present of a copy of a Greek translation of Robinson Crusoe, recently printed in
Athens.*
Striking over the hills, along the sides of the
long Mount Cithaeron, at whose feet Platsea is
built, we come at length into the road from
Thebes to Athens, one of the few  roads passable by carriages which Greece can boast. It
is, on the whole, a very good road, but in some
places so rough and stony as to subject the
strength of a carriage to a severe test. On a
* No greater boon could be bestowed upon the Greeks than
the translation into their language of some of the most wholesome works of English literature. The admirable version of the
Pilgrim's Progress, published at Athens in 1854, is doubtless
working good among them.  " Poor Richard" might teach
not unneeded lessons of practical wisdom; and, in higher
fields, our language would afford much better aliment for their
nascent civilization than the French, which at present, unfortunately, furnishes the larger portion of their intellectual
food.




90                HELLAS.
high hill, rising abruptly in the picturesque
pass between Cithaeron and Parnes, stand the
high walls and towers of the acropolis of
CEnoe. These are the best-preserved fortifications we saw in Greece; and their fortunate
and commanding position adds to their imposing effect. In a guard-house, at the foot of
the hill, we found a company of ten soldiers
posted, and had a pleasant chat with their
captain, who offered us resined wine. A little
farther on, in the plain below, are the remains
of a tower, supposed by some scholars to mark
the site of Eleutherae. An hour's ride hence
brought us to a solitary khan, near a deserted
church., on a moderate slope, overlooking a
valley surrounded by green hills.  A  large
tree, of the holly-oak, spread its shadow near
the khan, and cool breezes offered their refreshment.  Here we slept in the same room
as the horses and mules, -a long apartment,
its floor the earth. Near our beds our dinner
was cooked, by a fire made on the ground, the
smoke curling upwards, and finding its way
out as it could through apertures in the blackened roof of tiles.  In a long brick oven in
the  side-wall, large  loaves of bread  were




FROM DELPHI TO ATHENS.          91
baking; a goodly number of fowls sat on the
nests, or perched at the side of the room near
the horses, - cats and dogs prepared themselves for a night's rest, - and the servants
stretched themselves out on their capotes, and
soon were snoring around us.
The next morning, after a pleasant ride
among the pine-dotted (ratler than pine-clad)
hills, we came to the large plain of Eleusis, by
the side of the sea. Across the plain stretch
the arches of a ruined aqueduct, built by the
Romans.  I had already visited Eleusis, making the excursion in a carriage from Athens,
from which it is eleven miles distant; but it
was delightful to see again the deep-blue waters
of its bay, and the crags of Salamis.  The
greatest interest which attaches to Eleusis
arises from its having been the seat of those
august mysteries which gave men " sweeter
hopes of a future life."  The huts of the
modern village are built near the site of the
magnificent temple of Demeter.  Fragments
of columns of a large size, and of the most
beautiful white marble, lie strewn around,
and a few mutilated statues and sculptured




92                  HELLAS.
reliefs are preserved in a rude Iittle chapel;
large foundation walls, also, are still perfect;
but we found little else to testify to the splendour of the ancient edifice.*
The hill of the acropolis of Eleusis is long
and low, but steep and rocky, and well adapted
to its purpose. Remains of the old wall can
still be traced upon it. From it there is a fine
view of the plain and the sea, including the
Rharian field, where Demeter is said to have
first sown corn.  We rested at a clean and
comfortable khan, where Prof. Blackie amused
an intelligent company of boys by ingeniously
comparing  the men  of the most important
countries in the world to  different animals
with similar characteristics.
Leaving the sacred city, we followed a most
delightful path by the side of the exquisitely
beautiful Gulf of Salamis, our prospect bounded by the brown and barren, but strikingly
picturesque island.  Nothing could be more
unspeakably enchanting than.those blue and
* Very extensive remains of the temple and of the propylea have been discovered in the present year (1860), in the
excavations undertaken by the French government.




FROM DELPHI TO ATHENS.         93
historic waters, and the contrast between their
intensely bright colour and the various hues of
the rocky shores.  Passing the sarcophagus
and the ruins of the large monument of Strato,
built of exquisite marble, we crossed the saltsprings, which of old formed the boundaries
of the Athenians and Eleusinians, and soon
came to the picturesque pass of Daphne. On
the left are rocks indented with rudely-carved
niches, and bearing inscriptions which show
that the place was consecrated to Aphrodite.
Near the end of the defile, at the highest
point of the pass, and in one of the most
delightful retreats in the neighbourhood of
Athens, is the partially ruined monastery of
Daphne, the  burial-place of the  Christian
Dukes of Athens in the Middle Ages. Its
church, of the Byzantine order, bears marks
of injuries suffered from the Turks, in its
blackened and mutilated walls and mosaics.
In the centre of the dome is a large and
quaint half-length figure, in mosaic, of our
Saviour.  Here, as in  nearly all the  old
churches we visited in Greece, new pictures
and furniture have been very recently added,




94                HELLAS.
by the munificence, generally, of Greek merchants residing abroad, or of Russians.  A
threefold picture, representing the death, ascension, and reception in heaven of the Virgin
Mary, but just presented to the monastery, is
admirable for the fine execution of many of
its parts, and particularly the pure and deep
expression of the faces, which  are almost
worthy of comparison with those of Fra Angelico; yet, as a whole, it has some of the
Chinese-like stiffness characteristic of the pictures in Greek churches, which are still painted
according to the traditions of the Byzantine
school.
After enjoying, for the last time, the products of our cook's skill, in an excellent dinner, we turned our horses' heads towards
Athens.  We passed four dromedaries " all
in a row,"  giving  the scene something of
an Oriental aspect.  Never did the city of
Athens appear more lovely than when we had
gained the hills whence we looked down upon
it. The whole plain, stretching from Pentelicus, between Parnes and Hymettus, to the
sea, was spread out before us, the queen-like




FROM DELPHI TO ATHENS.         95
city in the centre, the graceful ruins on its
acropolis transfigured by the last rays of the
setting sun. The beautiful and picturesquelyoutlined.mountain of Pentelicus was all of a
rich, dark purple, the long range of Hymettus
was glowing in lilac tints, while the detached
and romantic peak of Lycabettus, overhanging
the city, shone yellow like burnished gold.
The sea, calm and blue, stretched away in the
distance, AEgina peered forth afar, and in the
secure haven of the well-built town of the
Peirseus rose the graceful masts of two American vessels of war, amidst the surrounding
shipping, while the French fleet was distinctly
visible near the entrance of the Gulf of Salamis. Along the old Sacred Way, by which
the solemn processions moved to Eleusis, we
rode, delighted by the beautiful scene; we
crossed the bridge over the Cephissus, where
the initiated, returning from the celebration
of the mysteries, bandied jests with the Athenian populace; we passed the gardens of the
Academy, and the site of the storied monuments of the Cerameicus; and soon warm
grasps of the hand, and hearty salutations of
friends, welcomed us back to Athens.




MARATHON.
"TAKE Hierodotus and Byron," said Mr.
Finlay, " for your guides to Marathon."
Aroused from short slumbers just after midnight on the morning of the 18th of June, at
one o'clock I was astride the same good white
horse that had carried me to Parnassus, and
on my way, by the faint starlight, to the scene
of the first great recorded victory of civilization over barbarism. Besides the admirable
guides which Mr. Finlay recommended  for
the history of the battle, the scenery, and the
sentiment, I needed a path-finder and a servant
in human shape; and had engaged one skilled
in his profession. He was taken, however, on
this very night, with a Greek fever, caught in
ascending Pentelicus in a hot sun the day before; but sent in his stead an intelligent young
man from the " Seven Islands," whose best
qualifications for his office were a plenty of




MARATHON.                97
good-nature, and a tolerable knowledge of English.  I would gladly have exchanged the
latter for a knowledge of the country. Passing the long, white, graceless palace of King
Otho, built of limestone and stucco, and keeping the road near the banks of the Ilyssus till
we had left Lycabettus behind us, as we rose
to the great plain lying at the foot of the
marble mountain, Pentelicus, and extending
to the limerock sides of Ilymettus on the one
hand, and the winding ranges of Parnes on
the other, a warm breeze saluted our cheeks,
and drove away the chill of the lowlands.
The thyme, and other aromatic herbs which
clothe the plain, and feed the bees of Hymettus, filled the air with fragrance; and by and
by, in the broadening light, the delicate blossoms of many varieties of flowers disclosed
themselves, and the sweet matin songs of birds
swelled upward around us. Little companies
of peasants,- man, wife, and children,- riding on patient donkeys, or driving donkeys
laden with panniers of vegetables or bundles
of firewbod, passed us on their way to market.
A little to my surprise, the guide struck into
7




98               HELLAS.
a path to the right of Pentelicus, leading between that mountain and Hymettus; I knew,
however, that, although the road to the left is
the one pursued by travellers, there is a pass
from the plain of Marathon, leaving the battlefield by the sea-side, and coming out between
the two mountains; and congratulated myself
that I was about to explore a comparatively
unknown route. But at length we were told
by some country people whom we met, that
we could not reach Marathon by that path,
and must retrace our steps and take the other
road.  My pretended " guide" thus showed
himself no less ignorant (I afterwards found
that he was much more ignorant) of the way
than myself. Could I have spared another day
for the excursion, I should have been inclined
to push on and endeavour to reach the plain by
this pass; but the danger of losing the way, or
of being detained by obstacles such as marshes,
thickets, and fences, and thus failing of reaching the battle-field altogether, induced me to
prefer a certainty and take the beaten track.
And so we rode back, and came out between
the two mountains, and then striking over the




MARATHON.                99
fields along the side of Pentelicus, now among
little bushes, now over ploughed ground, and
now in the deep, stony bed of a winter torrent,
among high and gorgeous oleanders flushing
its dry sands, came to the little village of
Marousi, in the midst of olive-groves, where
we found an old man standing in the yard in
front of his cottage, and took him to guide us
to the neighbouring town of Cephissia. After
taking a cup of coffee in front of a little cafinet
in the centre of the village, I rode on by rich
gardens of fruit-trees, watered by rills from
the Cephissus, and turned to visit the kephalari, or fountain, where this stream takes its
rise. In a natural cavity, some ten or fifteen
feet square, and about the same number of feet
in depth, with its sides protected by a wall
which may have sustained some ancient shrine
built over the fount, the clear waters of the
pure rivulet spring noiselessly from the ground,
through the large clean stones which cover the
bottom  of the pool.  The bright, transparent
waters fill their well to the depth of about six
feet, and then flow off in sparkling, leaping,
silver, thread-like streamlets to fertilize the




100               HELLAS.
gardens of the most delightful villages of
Attica. Cephissia is the summer retreat of the
Athenian court, the foreign ambassadors, and
the wealthier families. Its beautiful gardens
are filled with fruit-trees in rich variety, - the
olive, the fig, the pomegranate, the peach, the
nectarine, the plum, the pear, and the walnut.
In its delightful shades and waters, its greenness, and luxuriance of vegetation, it can
hardly be less charming now than in the days
of Herodes Atticus, of whose Cephissian villa
Gellius speaks with such rapture. I breakfasted in this pleasant town.  A  noble old
plane-tree, growing in the middle of a large
square, into which the road  had widened,
spread its broad arms far and wide, and with
its deep foliage cast a welcome shade from one
side of the street to the other.  Around its
trunk is a level square, raised about a foot
above the road, and protected by a border
of stone; here there are a number of stone
tables and benches, on which quiet citizens
were sitting, discussing the news and speculating on the future glories of Greece, or partaking of coffee and spirits served from the




MARATHON.               101
rival shops on either side of the way. Under
the beautiful leafy canopy I seated myself on
one of the benches, and took the refreshment
which my servant produced from  his stores.
It was nearly eight o'clock, and I found we had
consumed five hours in wandering off the road;
no pleasant thought, inasmuch as, even without
any such accident, a journey to Marathon and
back in the same day with the same horse is a
hard one for both man and beast.  We found
here, however, an old man among the loiterers
who said he was thoroughly acquainted with
the road to Marathon, and the battle-field itself,
with all the objects of interest to a stranger;
he was a hale, active old fellow, although more
than seventy winters had frosted his head, and
I gladly hired him to guide us.  So the old
man, in his simple white sheep-skin raiment,
trudged and trotted on before us, as brisk as a
youth of twenty.
On the north side of Pentelicus, the prevailing rock in our path over the hill was micaslate, with the strata upheaved at a large
angle. Young pines grow luxuriantly on these
hills, and a great variety of shrubs and flowers,




102               HELLAS.
among which I noticed the beautiful mist-tree,
and the graceful and fragrant clematis.  Passing, after a few hours, the little hamlet of
Stamtta, from a hill-top we caught a glimpse
of the beautiful sea and shore of Marathon,
and saw, as we descended a mountain slope by
a long, steep path, paved in part with slippery
stones, the little village of Marath6na. Pushing on towards this village, we came upon a
large meadow, at whose western end, on our
left, stood a high round tower of mediaeval
date. Towards this the old Albanian began
to run, pointing, gesticulating, and shouting, here was the battle fought; this was the
ground that had drunk the blood of the Turks.
" The Turks! " said I. " Pshaw! show me the
field where your old Greeks routed the Persians."  " The Persians? "- the old man had
never heard of them; the name of Miltiades
was equally strange to his ears;- so much for
all his stories of guiding strangers to the immortal plain, all his boasts of familiarity with
its localities. I explained the matter to my
attendant, (for he knew no more of the history of Marathon than the old rustic,) and,




MARATHON.               103
in the first flush of vexation, we spurred our
horses and galloped away from this profitless
servant.  We came soon to the banks of a little river (its course dry in the hot season),
which, coming from  among the  hills, and
washing the village of Marath6na, crosses the
battle-field, and empties into the sea. On its
side and in its bed rose countless oleanders of
large size, with their glorious blossoms in their
fullest beauty, — the finest specimens I saw
even in Greece.  By this flowery hedge we
rode to the village, and, after inquiring of an
intelligent citizen the proper way to the field,
at once began to descend to it. We accosted
some Albanian children playing near a well,
but they did not understand modern Greek.
Our path lay by the side of the river, or in its
wide bed, covered with sand, and large, round,
white marble stones.
Reaching the field, I saw at the distance of
about three miles transversely, near the shore,
the mound which covers the remains of the
one hundred and ninety-two Athenians who
fell in the battle; towards.which we rode at
once, thus crossing the middle of the plain.




104               HELLAS.
No house or building of any kind rises in the
broad field, but here and there cattle were
grazing, and we rode over the stubble of corn
newly reaped, or plunged through high standing grain, ripe and awaiting the sickle. The
monument - simple, but more eloquent than
the proudest trophies of brass or marble 
was soon reached.  It is a small tumulus,
evidently artificial, and of light, crumbly soil.
Its height is thirty feet, its circumference six
hundred. A part of the mould has been removed or displaced, from curiosity to know its
contents, in a considerable excavation at the
top and on one side. Dry, pitiful grass, and a
few thin, sickly bushes, are the mound's only
covering; bushes so blighted and eaten by
insects, that it was with the greatest difficulty
I succeeded in finding any leaves upon them
sufficiently uninjured to take with me as memorials. A few pebbles, gathered from the soil
with which the dust of heroes has mingled, furnished more satisfactory mementos. From this
mound, erected on the spot where was the
thickest of the battle, - for the Athenians were
buried where they fell, —I had an excellent




MARATHON.              105
view of the whole plain, and of the scene of the
fight. A little more than half a mile distant is
the shore; here the Persians landed, or a little
farther to the south, near a marsh which forms
a natural obstacle to egress from the field in
that direction, and is covered with luxuriant
reeds and rushes, and little shrubs.  After
lingering as long as the burning heat of the
sun would allow, we turned to leave the field by
another pass, which leads by the little hamlet
of VranA.  Thus we rode across the site occupied by the camp of the Greeks, whether, as
is generally supposed, it was pitched so as to
cover this pass of Vrana, or whether, as Mr.
Finlay argues, the line was inclined in another
direction, so as to cover the pass to Athens
near the sea.
In every part of the plain, and  almost
wherever I went in Greece, thistles grow in
great numbers and variety, red, yellow, purple,
and whitish-blue. Soon, along the wide, dry
bed of a little river which flows into the field
from the pass of Vrana, I found some oleanders with a profusion of gorgeous blossoms,
and plucked large branches, from which, when




106               HELLAS.
I halted for dinner, I selected little buds and
flowers to press and keep.
A slight ascent brought us to a khan. A
woman, with a group of ragged children, who
lived in the lower rooms, was seated on the
ground in front; but she could not give us
the key to the travellers' room above. However, I ate my dinner on the steps, and then
lay down on the broad upper stones and got
a little sleep under the shade of its porch.
Meanwhile my "guide," as he appeased his
hunger at the foot of the stairs, was recounting, to the mistress of the house and an old
man who had come up to see the strangers,
the story of the glorious battle as he had heard
it from my lips while we rode over the field
together.  His auditors, living as they did
almost on the very ground of the battle, were
as totally ignorant concerning it as he had
been a few hours before!
I could allow little time for rest, and was
soon ascending the high hill back of Vrana,
but often stopping for a farewell look at the
plain of immortal memories, which is nowhere
seen to greater advantage than from  these




MARATHON.               107
heights. In addition to its glorious associations, Marathon, with  its high, embracing
mountains, and its brilliant, beaming sea, is
one of the loveliest pictures of natural scenery
that earth can show. A long, low promontory, the Cynosura, whose gentle hills connect themselves with the stately mountains
guarding the plain on the north, runs out into
the sea with a most graceful curve, and with a
beautiful beach, which, like that of the whole
shore, is covered with sparkling white sand.
West of this promontory is the marsh in which
the greatest slaughter of the Persians occurred.
Across the blue, bright waves, the island of
Euboea stretches far along in a continuous
chain of hills and mountains of picturesque
forms, and varied, ethereal colours. The field,
in about half its length, lies facing this beautiful island; but in the southern part it looks
out upon the broad open sea.
On our way homeward, a little before we
reached Cephissia, we came up with the old
man who had offered to guide us to the battlefield; he fell to crossing himself as soon as he
saw us, protesting it was not his fault that he




108               HELLAS.
had not satisfied our wishes. I assured him
I had not thought of letting him go uncompensated for his trouble, and was only waiting
to get a piece of money changed at the village
where I had expected to meet him.  So, by
and by, under that glorious plane-tree, I paid
the old fellow, who, after all, was no more
ignorant than some of his neighbours; and
after a cup of coffee, and a pleasant chat with
one of the accomplished Professors of the
Athenian University, I set off for Athens.
I had watched the stars fading, one by one,
in the early morning, as through gates of
pearl the dawn approached, with her robes
of saffron and her fingers of rose; and now
they were again shining forth in the firmament, while the shades of night were falling
around me.  The drums were beating the
nine o'clock tattoo in the Street of 2Eolus as,
after a rapid ride, we entered the city, and it
was twenty hours after we had set out in the
morning when I dismounted at my hotel. The
next day, when I rang for breakfast, my landlady asked me whether I would have my soup
or my coffee. It was nearly three o'clock, and




MARATHON.             109
past my usual dinner-hour. When I told my
friends of my journey, they congratulated me
on these prolonged slumbers; for without
them, after so fatiguing a ride on a day when
the Sun Demon raged with unusual violence,
I could hardly have escaped without the terrible penalty of a Greek fever.




THE RUINS OF ATHENS.
"Earth proudly wears the Parthenon,
As the best gem upon her zone.
For out of Thought's interior sphere
These wonders rose to upper air;
And Nature gladly gave them place,
Adopted them into her race,
And granted them an equal date
With Andes and with Ararat."
EMERSON.
IF you stand in the Street of iEolus, the
principal street of modern Athens, you see at
its southern end the bold crag of the Acropolis, crowned  by  the  graceful ruins of the
Erechtheum   and  the  Parthenon.   To  this,
the centre of all interest, whether we regard
the history of Athens, her religion, or her art,
let us turn our steps.
At the end of the street, just where  the
slope begins which leads up to the foot of the
long rocky height, we find an octagonal tower




THE RUINS OF ATHENS.         111
of marble, built about a hundred years before
our era,- the Horologe of Andronicus Cyrrhestes. It is commonly called the Tower of
the Winds, its sides facing respectively the
eight principal points of the compass, which
are marked by the figures of the winds from
those points, sculptured on the frieze, and
represented in rapid flight, —the more rude
and boisterous as males, the milder as females.
The figures are still in good preservation, except some mutilation of the faces, (the Turks
made it a point of religion to disfigure graven
images, particularly by knocking off the noses),
and well exhibit the character of the different
winds. A bronze Triton on the top used to
serve as a weathercock; and the time of day
was indicated by sun-dials on the outside, or,
in cloudy weather, by a water-clock in the interior. The Triton is gone, and the clepsydra;
but the indexes of the sun-dials have been recently renewed. On the south side, a few feet
from the tower, are two massive arches, a part
of the aqueduct which conducted water to
the clock. These arches have been recently
excavated; and, as the earth has been removed




112               HELLAS.
around the tower, the whole building stands
fifteen or twenty feet below the present surface
of the neighbouring ground, which has been
raised by the accumulation of soil and the
debris of ancient structures.
If we are impatient to stand before the Parthenon, we ought, starting from this point, to
wind around the hill to the right; but we will
take the path on the left, as we shall thus find
more objects of interest on our way. The brown
wall of the Acropolis, rising from the edge of
the cliff, contains remains of the old Hellenic
wall, but is made up for the most part of the
rude constructions of mediaeval and Turkish
times. Fragments of white marble, the wrecks,
perhaps, of cunning workmanship, gleam now
and then from among its irregular stones. In
the north wall, which we are facing as we stand
by the horologe, we find occasionally large parallelogram blocks, and some twenty-six drums
of columns, together with architrave-stones.
These very interesting relics are probably from
the original temple on the site of the Parthenon, which was burned by the Persians, 
its ruins affording ready material for Themis



THE RUINS OF ATHENS.          113
tocles when he hastily rebuilt the walls of the
citadel.
Winding around and up the hill, among
low, wretched hovels, whose rude walls boast
fragments, now  and  then, of ancient marbles, sometimes finely sculptured, we soon
stand on the site of the Street of the Tripods.
This street was lined by the little monuments
or chapels erected by the leaders in the dramatic choruses, to receive and display the
bronze tripods given as prizes for the success
of the  choruses whose  expenses they had
defrayed.  The tripods were consecrated to
Dionysus, the god in whose honour the dramatic festivals were held. Of these  structures  one  lovely  example  remains, -  the
Choregic Monument of Lysicrates, erected
B. C. 335.  It is a little circular structure,
thirty-five feet in height, with six Corinthian
columns; and. its roof is crested by an exquisitely beautiful finial (designed as a pedestal for the tripod), which swells upwards
in graceful shape, and curves with plumelike drooping at the three corners of its triangular summit.  The spirited frieze repre8




114               HELLAS.
sents Dionysus and his attendant satyrs turning the Tyrrhenian pirates into dolphins. The
metamorphosis in some places is but half completed, so that human legs are striking out
from  dolphins' bodies.  These sculptures, as
well as the columns and the finial, are considerably mutilated; but for all that the monument is still a little gem.
We are now turning the southeast corner
of the citadel, and as soon as we have fairly
reached the southern side, we are on the site
of the renowned Theatre of Dionysus. The
outlines of the theatre and a few of its rows
of seats are all that can now be traced; yet
what delight in standing on the very spot
which witnessed the triumphs of zEschylus,
Sophocles, Euripides, and Aristophanes! A
little grotto in the rock, just above the theatre, was formerly adorned with statues, and
is still surmounted by two columns of unequal height, reared to support consecrated
tripods which had been obtained as choregic
prizes. Passing on through the ruins of some
arches, of uncertain history, we come to the
extensive remains of the Odeum, or Music




THE RUINS OF ATHENS.           115
Theatre, built by the munificent Herodes Atticus in the time of Marcus Aurelius. They
are in the Roman style, and have no beauty
to detain us long.
We are at the  southwest corner of the
Acropolis, and near the entrance to the citadel.  Imagine  a rocky height, rising  precipitously  from the plain, so as to be inaccessible on all sides but the west, where
it is approached by a gentle slope; give it
an elevation of three hundred and fifty feet
above the vale of Athens, and five hundred
and sixty-nine above  the  sea, a length  of
about nine hundred and fifty feet from  east
to west, and a breadth of four hundred and
thirty  from  north  to  south.  This is the
Acropolis.  Its summit was levelled, probably by the early Pelasgian inhabitants, who
made their abode upon this rock.  The site
of the first settlement, the fortress of the
city, the oldest and most sacred seat of the
gods, the consecrated pedestal which upbore
* The sides of the rock originally rose almost perpendicularly; but the debris of ancient ruins, thrown down from
above, decreases at present their apparent height.




116               HELLAS.
the most glorious works of Athenian art, in
architecture, sculpture, and painting:- enter
with reverence, for thou art ascending to the
Athens of Athens, the Greece of Greece!
Unsightly medieval and Turkish walls are
drawn to shelter the western approach. Removing their rude stones, a few months before
my visit, a French gentleman disclosed a Doric
gateway, facing the Propylaea, and very likely
the ancient entrance. But, as this gateway is
blocked up, the only admission within the citadel is by a little door at the southwest corner.
We enter a yard, where, in the marble fragments of old edifices and statues piled around
in rich profusion, we have a foretaste of the
scene of costly ruin which the whole hill presents.  A  soldier comes forward to take the
card of admission which we have obtained,
by paying a small fee, from M. Pittakys, the
Inspector of Antiquities; another soldier accompanies us over the citadel, to see that we
remove no fragment of ancient workmanship.
A  slight turn, and at our right, crowning a
high, tower-like projection of the Cimonian
wall, rises a very small, but exquisitely beau



THE RUINS OF ATHENS.          117
tiful temple, that of the Wingless Victory,*Victory who would never desert that people in
whose fortress and among whose gods she had
taken up her abode. Four graceful Ionic columns on each front sustain the pediment, and
a highly ornamented frieze, portions of which
remain, surrounded the building. A balustrade
of marble slabs, adorned with exquisite reliefs,
ran along the northern edge of the wall on
which the temple stands, to guard the narrow
passage-way; some of these slabs are now
preserved in the interior of the building, one
of which, representing Victory unloosing her
sandals, is of singular beauty, spirit, and grace.
The recent history of the temple is interesting.
It was seen in 1676 by the travellers Spon and
Wheler; but a century ago it had entirely
disappeared. In 1835, however, in some excavations among the ruins of a Turkish bastion, carried on by the German archaeologist,
Ross, its fragments were discovered, and with
great skill restored to their original position.
* This temple of NLKo'irrepos " is only twenty-seven feet
long, eighteen feet broad, and, from the lowest step to the top
of the pediment, not more than twenty-three feet high."




118               HELLAS.
To gain the temple of Victory, we ascended
the noble flight of steps which led up from
the Agora to the Propylaea.  It was paved
in the middle with slabs furrowed crosswise
for the horsemen, and furnished at the sides
with steps of marble, of which only broken
and interrupted fragments remain.  We are
facing the ruins of that noble gateway - the
Propylaea -which Pericles built, B. C. 437432, with a magnificence worthy of the architectural glories to which it is the prelude.
Let us before our mind's eye restore the
structure in its original perfection. It was
the problem  of the architect to combine a
cheerful "overture" to the Parthenon and
other temples of the Acropolis, with the
strength of the entrance to a fortress; and
in this he happily succeeded.  A broad portico of six Doric columns in the centre, with
a wider interval between the two middle
columns than the rest, invites us to enter;
on either flank boldly project two marble
halls or chambers, (the northern a picturegallery, the southern an arsenal,) entered
each through a portico of three columns on




THE RUINS OF ATHENS.         119
the side adjacent to the central structure, but
presenting a line of strong and solid wall on
their western faces, towards the approaching
visitor; while the military character of the
edifice was still further indicated by the projection of the Cimonian wall, (crowned by the
little temple of the Wingless Victory,) which
forms a solid tower directly in front of the
arsenal, and stands on the right of the flight
of steps, according to the law in Greek fortification, so as to take an approaching enemy
on the side unprotected by his shield.  On
reaching the portico, you find that it introduces you to a hall, covered with a marble
roof, which has a depth of forty-three feet,
and is terminated by a solid marble wall,
pierced with  five gateways diminishing  in
height from the central and wider to the two
outmost.  The middle and wider passage-way
within  this hall is flanked by three Ionic
columns on  each  side.  The happy interchange of the Doric and Ionic orders, the
graceful proportions of the whole structure,
the exquisite carvings and brilliant colours of
the roof, the wealth of statues, bronzes, and




120                HELLAS.
votive  offerings  with  which  the  hall was
adorned, combined to render the Propylea
one of the most glorious creations even of
the age of Pericles, and the envy of Greece.
Nor could the spirit of the Athenians be better
symbolized, or the  double  purpose  of the
structure itself better indicated, than by the
dedication of the two apartments on either
side of the central portico to Art and to Arms,
-the Pinacotheca, on the north, being filled
with master-pieces of the first painters of the
age, and the southern chamber being occupied as an arsenal.  The doors with which
the five gateways were closed were of wood,
but elaborately carved  and  heavily gilded.
Passing through them, the visitor found himself in another portico, of little depth, formed
by six Doric columns precisely corresponding
with those of the western front, through which
he saw the statue of Athena Promachos, the
peerless Parthenon, and the other wonders of
the storied hill.*
*The central part of the Propylrea is most simply described as a wall, pierced with five gates, and enclosed within
a double portico. It was fifty-eight feet in breadth; the




THE RUINS OF ATHENS.                121
But of this magnificent structure the modern traveller finds only a shattered wreck.
It is well that he should be prepared at once
for the  desolation  and  ruin  which  mar the
reliques of the Parthenon, that his eye, recovered from the first shock of disappointment
and sorrow, may dwell the more lovingly upon
the inimitable grace and beauty which assert
their immortality in the midst of all this decay. In place of the arsenal, now rises a tall,
unsightly tower, built by a Frankish duke in
the  fifteenth  century.   The roofs and  pediments  of the  central structure  and  of the
Pinacotheca  have  vanished;  while  most of
the  columns of the  western  portico, and all
the  Ionic  columns  of the  pillared  corridor
behind them, have lost their capitals, and remain but in about three fourths of their origiwestern portico forty-three feet in depth, the eastern some
twenty feet. The Doric columns were four and a half feet
in diameter and nearly twenty-nine feet in height. The two
wings projected twenty-six feet in front of the central structure; the picture-gallery, entered through a porch twelve feet
in depth, was itself thirty-five feet by thirty, the arsenal
twenty-six by seventeen.




122                    HELLAS.
nal height.* Yet still are these rich marble
walls  and  swelling  columns  irresistibly  winning, still do they extort a tribute of admiration from the pilgrim who is hastening beyond.
On every side, in the Pinacotheca and central hall of the Propylaea, we have seen piled
fragments of ancient statues, friezes, soffits,
and  other  architectural ornaments, and  similar heaps of shattered splendour meet us on
our way to the Parthenon.  That loveliest of
* Of the Pinacotheca the walls are nearly perfect, and the
three Doric columns entire. The two columns at either end
of the western portico are well preserved, but the four others
mutilated as I have described; the eastern portico retains its
six columns in tolerable preservation, although the blocks of
which they are composed are considerably mutilated, and the
capital of one of them lies broken at its feet.
I was interested in the proof of the unfinished state in which
the Propylea was left (the disastrous Peloponnesian war
breaking out before it was entirely completed) furnished
by the bosses or projections from the centre of the marble
blocks in a part of the inner wall. Those which I first saw
were so regular, that I thought they might have been intended
as ornaments, to relieve the blankness of the wall; but a
little further examination showed that this explanation is inadmissible, and that they were left to facilitate the raising of
the blocks, with the intention of removing them and smoothing the stones after the walls had been erected.




THE RUINS OF ATHENS.        123
temples stood on the highest part of the hill,
— on ground forty feet higher than the Propylaea, - and not directly in front of this gateway, but at a considerable angle to the right,
as the Greeks liked to approach their temples.
Its western facade rises boldly before us, nor
shall we soon have eyes for anything else.
Yet in the days of Athenian glory this
peerless edifice was but one- though indeed
the noblest- in the multitude  of stately
structures borne by the sacred hill. Shrines,
temples, and statues of gods, heroes, and illustrious men, were crowded together on the
hallowed ground. One of the foremost and
most impressive inhabitants of this chosen
home of religion and art was Athena Promachos, — Athena the Champion of the City,
— whose colossal statue of bronze, wrought
by the cunning hand of Phidias, bearing lance
and shield, and clad with aegis and helmet,
rose to the height of upwards of seventy feet,
keeping watch and ward over the sanctuaries
and the fortress of her favourite city. Her
gilded spear-point, glittering above the roofs
of the Parthenon, was visible off the Cape of




124               HELLAS.
Sunium to the mariner approaching Athens.
Pagan superstition believed the legend that
Alaric, when at the end of the fourth century
he came to Athens bent upon conquest ahd
pillage, was stricken with superstitious terrour
as he beheld the stately image of the warlike
goddess towering above the citadel, and withdrew without molesting the people she guarded.
The path to the Parthenon led to the east,
passing along the northern side of the building, and between it and the statue of Athena
Promachos. The entrance to the Greek temples was almost always on the east. It was
not the object of these edifices to accommodate a throng of worshippers; but they were
built as houses for the gods, not for men,as shrines in which the sacred image should
dwell securely, and which should be of a
magnificence and beauty worthy of their indweller. They were elevated upon platforms
above the surrounding ground, so as to stand
out from all profane structures as something
apart; and the peristyle was raised three
steps above these platforms, that he who entered might come with  the good omen of




THE RUINS OF ATHENS.         125
having struck both the first and the last step
with his right foot.  The statue of the god
was placed in the cella, or chief apartment
of the temple, which, in accordance with
its design of sheltering the image and separating it from everything profane, was enclosed by solid walls; but not on the east,for here, in front of the temple, stood the altar
of burnt offerings, and the suppliant would
fain offer his sacrifice in sight of the god.
Accordingly, on this side a wide doorway was
left open, behind the vestibule, which was
formed by a row of columns standing opposite
to those of the exterior portico, and met at
each end by an extension of the side walls of
the cella.
The Parthenon, as the name implies, was
the " House of the Virgin," - the fane of
the maiden goddess Athena. Its solid walls
of Pentelic marble were surrounded by an
ambulatory of forty-six Doric columns, eight
on  each  end and seventeen on each side
(counting the two exterior columns twice).
After ascending the three steps which conduct the visitor to the floor of the eastern




126               HELLAS.
portico, he mounts two more steps to enter
the vestibule or pronaos. Six Doric columns
mark the outer limit of this vestibule, and
the interstices between them were filled by
a gilded grating.  Within the pronaos stood
the golden basin of water for purification,
while votive gifts of various kinds were suspended on the walls or borne by tripods and
tables. The wall itself was painted.
The cella proper, entered from this porch,
contained the magnificent statue of Athena,
by Phidias, made of ivory and gold. The
apartment itself was nearly a hundred feet
long, and above sixty feet in width.  Two
ranges of pillars, one above the other, supported the roof, —for the temple was hypaethral (that is to say, lighted from above),
and the aperture to admit the light made
such support necessary. The aperture had
a movable covering of bronze, and was open
only on days of festival; at such times, from
the clear blue heavens, the light fell in the
most advantageous way upon the colossal
statue, which stood below, upon a platform
of Piraean tufa, not immediately beneath,




THE RUINS OF ATHENS.           127
but a little beyond the opening in the roof.
"This plastic hymn, celebrating the might
and greatness of the goddess," is thus described by Hettner:  "A long garment falls
in massive  and  graceful folds to her feet,
and is enriched at the breast with an ivory
mask of Medusa; the head is covered by a
helmet, on the top of which rests a sphinx,
and on each side a griffin, carved in relief.
In her left hand she bears a spear, round
which twines the sacred snake of the citadel; in her right, Nike, the golden goddess
of victory; at her feet leans her shield. On
the base of the  statue  is represented the
birth of Pandora; along the edge of her sandals, the victory over the Centaurs; and on
her shield, her other conquests, - outside, the
battle with the Amazons, - inside, the conflict
with the giants." *  In the inner chamber,
formed by the pillars surrounding the statue,
which were connected with each other, perhaps, by gratings, -  the Parthenon proper,
in the stricter sense, - were placed the no* The statue was thirty-nine feet seven inches in height,
the figure of Victory six feet high.




128               HELLAS.
blest and most beautiful gifts presented to
the shrine.
Behind the cella was another apartment,
separated from it by a solid wall, and entered only from the west, - the Opisthodomus.
This was the Treasury of the temple and of
the state. Its walls were painted by Polygnotus. Four pillars supported the ceiling,
" which, as in other temples, was painted with
golden stars on a blue ground, in imitation
of the open sky."  It was entered through
a pronaos or porch, precisely corresponding
with that of the eastern end.
More wondrous even than  the exquisite
proportions of the building itself, and the
effect of majesty and  grace which it produced, were the sculptures with which its
exterior was profusely adorned. The mutilated statue of Theseus (as it is called in
England, many German scholars dissenting),
from the pediment of the Parthenon, is justly regarded as the finest statue in the world;
and, altogether, in pediments, metopes, and
frieze, the Fane of the Virgin was decked
with the very highest and noblest works in




THE RUINS OF ATHENS.          129
sculpture to which human genius ever gave
birth.  The figures of the pedimental sculptures-not less than twenty to twenty-five
in number in each pediment   were full and
complete, detached from  the wall, and, like
all the works of Phidias, finished ad unguem,
even in the parts entirely removed from the
sight of the visitor:
"For the gods see everywhere."
Those of the eastern front represented the
birth of Athena, and her reception in the
assembly of the gods; the western, the victory of the goddess in her contest with Poseidon for the land of Attica.  The sculptured  metopes -  ninety-two  in  all-  filled
the intervals between  the triglyphs in the
frieze of the peristyle. They represented, in
very bold relief (parts of the figures being
quite detached from the tablets), various incidents in the life of Athena, exploits of her
favorite heroes, and combats with centaurs.
And the entire wall of the cella, within the
peristyle, was surrounded  by a sculptured
frieze, in a continuous line of bas-reliefs five
hundred and twenty-four feet in length, rep9




130                HELLAS.
resenting the joyous procession of the great
Panathenaic festival, which carried the peplos,
or sacred veil, wrought annually by the maidens of Athens, and other gifts for the goddess, to her sanctuary. This frieze is as admirable in its way as the pedimental sculptures in theirs, - the highest achievement of
art in this kind.  The life, the grace, the
variety of the figures,-the perfect representation, in their different characters, of grave
old men, spirited youth, and winning maidens,
-  the horses, which, as Flaxman says (in
words often quoted, because so true), "appear to live and move, to roll their eyes, to
gallop, prance, and curvet," -  command the
admiration of the world.  How  easily and
gracefully sit those horsemen,- what life and
reality in every group! I once visited the
imperial stud at Tarbes, in France, when a
party of soldiers were riding some twenty or
thirty noble animals of the purest Arabian
and English blood, for exercise, in the field.
The horses were full of fire, and life, and
frolic; I exclaimed at once, " It is the frieze
of the Parthenon realized!" and I felt, as I




THE RUINS OF ATHENS.          131
had never felt before, the full power and
genius of those old Greek sculptors.
Such were the adornments of the Virgin's
Fane, - so lovely, that, when we contemplate
them alone, the whole edifice, so exquisitely
symmetrical, seems but the pedestal which
supported those wondrous sculptures,-  the
casket which enshrined that matchless statue.
But in the construction of the temple itself
there are hidden refinements and delicacies
which testify no less strikingly to the genius
of the builders.  Its architects had caught
from  Nature her cunning secret of avoiding
straight lines by delicate curves. Thus every
apparently horizontal line in the buildingas in the upper surfaces of the steps, the entablature, etc. - rises at the centre in an
almost imperceptible curve from  either end;
the columns, as they gently taper upwards,
swell with a hyperbolic entasis; while vertical lines are equally avoided, the columns
inclining slightly towards the centre of the
building, and the walls themselves inclining
inwards, so that every  apparently vertical
line produced would meet in one point,



132               HELLAS.
of course at an immense distance above the
building.  The curves are conic sections,
wrought out with  extreme  accuracy  and
subtilty of reference to the optical effect. I
doubt not that the exquisite eye of the
Greeks, so sensitive to beauty, first taught
them  to employ these delicate curves; and
that they afterwards applied their admirable
mathematical science to the development of
the laws by which their use should be governed. While beauty and grace are heightened by these nice deviations from  rectilineal structure, the effect of the absence of
perpendicularity, or the slight approach to
the pyramidal form, is strength and repose.
It is true that one object of the curves is to
correct the optical illusion by which a horizontal line perfectly straight appears to sag,
and a column tapering regularly to be depressed in the middle; as intelligent builders
raise the king-post an inch or two higher than
the other supports of a roof, knowing that the
ridge must be slightly elevated in the centre
to appear horizontal. But the swell in the
lines of the Parthenon is more than correc



THE RUINS OF ATHENS.              133
tive; though almost imperceptible, it is just
sufficient to add a mysterious grace and softness to  the  contour, and  constitute  one  of
those peculiar charms, always felt though till
lately inexplicable, the absence of which in all
the modern imitations of classical architecture
makes them comparatively so cold and harsh.
I could distinctly trace the swell in the columns, and thought I could perceive the curves
in other lines of the temple; and yet they are
so delicate that no  one would  detect them,
were he not previously aware of their existence;  and, although  they  were  noticed  by
Vitruvius, the modern world has been strangely ignorant in the matter, until the recent
investigations of Pennethorne and Penrose.*
Moreover, to all the perfect graces of form
there were added  here  the  richest enchantments of colour.  For that in the Parthenon,
* In a visit to the Acropolis, one evening, I satisfied some
sceptical companions of the existence of this curve on the
upper step of the Parthenon, by getting one of them to hold a
lighted match at one end while his friend at the other end
looked along the surface of the step.  It was not until the
match had been raised some six inches above the marble that
it became visible from the other end.




134              HELLAS.
as in ancient temples generally, the architectural effect was heightened by painting, there
is no longer room for doubt. The wall of the
tympanum  was coloured, to bring out the
pedimental statues in bolder relief.  There
are indications that the cornice was decorated
with "painted  ovoli and arrows, coloured
meanders, and honeysuckle ornaments," and
that gilded festoons hung on the architraves,
below the triglyphs, which, as well as the
guttae, were painted  azure.  The  ceilings
were painted in blue and gold; and, besides
these colours, ochre and vermilion were used
in  the decorations.  The  drapery  of the
figures on the frieze was marked with colour
and gilding, but the human form stood out
in the white purity of marble. And that the
shafts of the pillars, and the walls of the
temple, were not coloured, is the best established opinion. To add pigments to the broad
masses of that rich Pentelic marble would be
indeed " to paint the lily;" although the
walls of temples of inferior stone, covered
with stucco, needed and received such embellishment.  It is still maintained by some,




THE RUINS OF ATHENS.         135
however, that the whole surface was stained
with ochre or other pigment; for what purpose I know not, unless to soften the dazzling
brilliancy of the marble. The question is one
of fact, as well as of a priori probability; and
we find, that, while the traces of colouring in
the parts already alluded to have been so
clearly ascertained as to be admitted on all
hands, no colour has been detected on the
outer cella-walls and pillar-shafts of the marble temples of Athens, except such as receives
its most natural explanation in the effect of
oxidation, and the growth of mosses or other
vegetable matter. But to whatever extent the
painting of the temple was carried, it must
have been controlled by the same exquisite
taste as was displayed in every other feature
of the building.
Less than two hundred years ago this wondrous structure survived, almost uninjured by
time. The chryselephantine statue of Athena
had been carried to Constantinople; her shrine
had been converted, successively, into a Christian church   first of the "Divine Wisdom,"
or the Word, afterwards of the Virgin Mary -




136               HELLAS.
and a Mohammedan mosque.  Yet were the
walls unbroken, the splendours of pediments,
frieze, and metopes little impaired. The bombardment of the Acropolis by the Venetians
in 1687 dashed the middle of the Parthenon to
pieces; Morosini, the Venetian commander,
broke some of the noblest statues of the pediment to atoms in an unskilful attempt to
remove them; and in more recent times the
work of spoliation was continued by Lord
Elgin. And now at first sight the visitor is
oppressed by the mournful aspect of ruin,at least if, as in my case, he has received
from  drawings the impression of less mutilation than exists in fact. The roof is gone,
and the whole centre of the building thrown
down; fourteen columns of the peristyle, on
the north and south, and five of the eastern
vestibule, have been prostrated, and all the
columns and  division-walls of the interior
apartments destroyed. But the majesty, and
grace, and beauty, which, after all the havoc,
still speak in these stones, throw an irresistible
spell around you, and you hardly miss what
is absent, just as you never feel the want of




THE RUINS OF ATHENS.              137
the arms when  you  look at that victorious
Venus, who  once  looked  down  in  proud
beauty upon the thronged theatre of Melos,
and still conquers all hearts as of yore.
There was no barbaric splendour about the
architectural wonders of Athens; it was not
to stupendous size, or profusion of costly ornament, that they owed their effect; in all
things, the Athenians  knew  how  to  unite
beauty with simplicity.*   The Parthenon is
of moderate dimensions,-two hundred and
twenty-eight feet in length, one hundred and
one in breadth, and sixty-six in height to the
top of the pediments (omitting  fractions); t
and  yet, both at my first and  every subsequent visit, I was struck with its majesty, as
well as its grace. But its great charm is the
perfect harmony which breathes in it, - the
cheerfulness, the serenity, which reign in its
*  ILXoKaXovlEv yap IEfT evrEXEtlas.- Funeral Oration of
Pericles, Thucyd. II. 40.
I In mere size the Parthenon is far surpassed by Girard College,- one of the noblest modern buildings in the Grecian style.
The latter has a length of two hundred and eighteen feet, a
breadth of one hundred and sixty, and a height of ninety-seven
feet.




138               HELLAS.
lovely proportions.  It dwells in immortal
calm, enthroned  in that pure and  serene
beauty which is the type of the highest excellence in human character,-the complete
symmetry of mind and heart and will, under
the supreme control of true religion.  I do
not mean that this symbolic significance is
due to any conscious purpose of the architects,
any more than I believe that the builders of
Gothic cathedrals intended to symbolize the
mystery and  aspiration  of Christian  faith.
" They builded  better than  they  knew; "
and one of the noblest vindications of art lies
in the fact that there are meanings and relations in all beauty, which correspond to
every truth.
The world is apt to regard with some suspicion rhapsodies over the great works of
classical art and literature.  But although
it be true that among the admirers of antiquity, as in every other class of persons, you
may find some extravagant enthusiasts, all
men of catholic  taste  and  cultivation, of
whatever school, unite in paying homage to
the architects and sculptors of Athens. Geni



THE RUINS OF ATHENS.        139
us is not confined to one race or one epoch.
The memory of the Parthenon but heightened
the admiration and reverence with which I
floated along the watery streets of Venice,
or stood beneath the dome of St. Peter's;
paced the grand nave of Milan, or climbed
the towers and galleries of Amiens, Rouen,
Strasburg, and Cologne. New times and new
institutions must give rise to new styles of
architecture, fitted to their peculiar demands.
It would be absurd to take an idol-house of
the Greeks as the model for the place of worship of a Christian congregation. True taste
is bound in the trammels of no narrow partisanship; heirs as we are of all the ages,
let us admire and be grateful for our richly
varied inheritance in the monuments of classic, medieval, and modern times.  But in
complete grace and symmetry and harmony,
in wondrous delicacy and learned refinement
of construction, in the association of the highest achievements of sculpture, what building in the world is the peer of the Parthenon?
As you admire an exquisite ode of Simoni



140               HELLAS.
des, though fresh  from  the stately epic of
Homer, even so when  you  turn  from  the
splendours of the Virgin's Fane  does the
graceful ruin of the Erechtheum delight you.
Without the majesty of its stately neighbour,
it breathes an exquisite grace and a winning
loveliness unrivalled. Nowhere else has Greek
architecture so well displayed its powers of
adaptation.  Here were a number of sacred
objects, irregularly placed, which were to be
comprehended within one structure, properly
distributed, at the same time, in their appropriate apartments: the olive-tree which sprang
up at Athena's bidding, -  the salt spring
which burst forth at the touch of Poseidon's
trident, —the ancient altars of various gods
and national heroes,- the graves of Cecrops,
Erechtheus, and Butes, —the lair of the sacred serpent, - the sanctuary of Pandrosus, 
and above all the fane of Athena Polias, whose
statue of olive-wood, the most venerable object of worship in Athens, was reputed to
have fallen from heaven.  To her was allotted the largest section of the temple, entered
from the eastern portico; while behind it was




THE RUINS OF ATHENS.          141
the Pandroseum, with its portico on the north.
These two cellao filled the main body of the
building, which is thirty-seven feet in breadth
and seventy-three feet in length. Before the
statue of Athena burned a golden lamp, both
night and day, furnished with a wick of asbestos, and fed with oil once a year; a brazen palm-tree, rising  above it to the roof,
carried off the smoke.  Persian spoils, — as
the silver-footed throne on which Xerxes sat,
upon
"the rocky brow
Which looks o'er sea-born Salamis,"
and the sword of Mardonius, taken at Plataea,
- a folding-chair made by Dsedalus, - and a
wooden Hermes said to have been presented
by Cecrops, - were among the objects whose
presence filled the shrine with interesting associations.
The six Ionic columns of the northern portico, and five of the six of the eastern, are
still standing. The northern is the larger and
the nobler; it stands on ground eight feet
lower than the other,  hence its columns are
higher.  The intercolumnar distances, also,




142                  HELLAS.
here are greater;* and the whole portico has
a lightness and  gracefulness which make it
the most charming example of the Ionic order
in the world.  The neck of the shafts, below
the capitals, is exquisitely adorned with flowers and leafage, — a prophecy of the Corinthian capital, to which the Ionic subsequently
gave  birth.  All the  mouldings  and  ornaments of the entablature, and the arabesques
of the doorways, are  singularly  lovely  and
elegant.
At the western end, the wall rose unbroken
to  about half the  height of the  building,
where it is surmounted by four Ionic pillars,
whose interspaces were either left open, or
closed with some transparent material. The
effect of these novel windows is very beautiful; and the significance of the construction
lies herein, that the eastern  portico  would
* The height of the pillars in the eastern portico is eight
and three fifths diameters; in the northern, nine and a half; -
the distance of the pillars from each other is two diameters
in the former, three in the latter; - the height of the entablature on the eastern portico, two and one ninth diameters;
on the northern, only two.




THE RUINS OF ATHENS.         143
lead you to expect a corresponding portico
at the western end, while from the fact that
the  Pandroseum  occupies, transversely, the
western part of the building, such a portico,
projecting from  its side wall, would be an
architectural absurdity. The present arrangement reconciles conflicting demands, by its
felicitous intermingling of wall and pillars.
But the most unique feature of the Erechtheum is the southern portico. Six Athenian
maidens, carved in marble, of colossal size,
upbear the entablature, — I do not say the
roof, for the portico (or, rather, sacred enclosure) stood open to the sky. They are
clad in the robes worn by the virgins in the
Panathenaic procession.  Of grand and noble
forms, serene and stately, firmly, but without effort, they bear the load imposed, while
in their whole attitude, and in every feature of
their lovely faces, reign a grace and a sweetness ineffably winning.  There was probably
some special propriety, resulting from the religious associations of the place, which justified
the architect in his bold, but most successful,
use of the human form  as an architectural




144               HELLAS.
member.  How different the effortless ease of
these noble maidens from the contortions and
agonies of the monstrous Caryatides and Atlantes of the Renaissance!  One of these
statue-pillars was carried to London by Lord
Elgin; its place has been recently supplied
by a wooden effigy, and the entablature replaced. Within this roofless enclosure, it is
supposed, grew the sacred olive-tree.
The frieze of the Erechtheum was adorned
with exquisite sculptures representing some
festive procession; but of them we have but
few and  mutilated remains.  The name of
" the house of Erechtheus" was given to
this assemblage of shrines from  the mythic
builder tf the old temple, which occupied the
same site, and was (itself or its successor)
burned  by Xerxes.  The present structure
was built a little after the Parthenon and
Propylea, —begun, perhaps, under Pericles,
but not completed till about the year 393
B. C. Time has shattered and defaced the
lovely temple; the Moslem  lords of Athens
converted it into a harem; but the charm of
its original loveliness could not be wholly




THE RUINS OF ATtENS.         145
destroyed, and the world can hardly show a
structure more captivating in its beautiful
harmony.
We must not forget the great distinction
between the Erechtheum and the Parthenon,
which Boetticher and Curtius have recently
pointed out, that, while the former was a temple for worship,- the most holy sanctuary of
the city, with its priests, its sacrifices, and its
perpetual flame,-the latter, built in honour
of the goddess rather than for her immediate
service, had a political as well as a religious
significance, and symbolized the glory at once
of Athens and of Athena. In form, it is true,
the Parthenon was a temple; and its chryselephantine statue, though not directly an object of worship, was the most impressive revelation of the divine attributes of the goddess,
the most glorious offering consecrated in her
name. While the ancient, misshapen idol of
Athena Polias, said to have fallen from heaven,
was venerated with profound and superstitious
awe, the magnificent image wrought by Phidias
received a more intellectual homage. Worthily
did she preside over the select assemblage col10




146                      HELLAS.
lected within the Parthenon, when the judges,
sitting at her feet, bestowed the prizes upon
the victors in the great Panathenaic festival;
but this was probably the only occasion when
her sanctuary was employed for a public purpose.* As for the Opisthodomus, the purpose
for which it was occupied was directly secular;
yet it was quite in character with the religious
spirit of the Athenians to invoke the protec* Curtius -whose learning and fine aesthetic sense have
done so much to illustrate the monuments of Athens —has
noticed the concentration in the Parthenon of symbols of that
emulation " which was the soul of the Periclean state." " Here
belong," he says, "not only the image of Nike, which sprang
from the hand of the Parthenos to meet the victors, but also
the prize-vases on the top of the temple and the shields on its
architrave. The pediments represented Athena herself as the
resplendent and victorious goddess in heaven and upon the
earth; in the metopes the heroes are presented in victorious
combats, in the frieze the Athenians, as the foremost of the
Greeks." - Gr. Gesch., II. 275.
I have already called attention (North American Review,
Oct., 1858, Article VIII.) to the admirable work from which I
make this quotation. The second volume, recently published,
amply fulfils the promise of the first. No author is more happy than Curtius in reproducing in all its freshness the very
life of ancient times.




THE RUINS OF ATHENS.         147
tion of their tutelar deity for the treasures of
the state.
Among the various fragments of ancient
edifices which strew the Athenian hill of the
gods, you find in front of the eastern portico
of the Parthenon, where excavations have been
recently made, drums of columns in various
stages of preparation, and the remains of a
small circular temple, with the inscription on
its entablature, " To Rome and Augustus."
A rude hut near by contains a collection of
ancient lamps, vases, pottery, and fragments
of sculpture. Even the struggles of Turk and
Greek have left their memorials in bones and
skulls, with which a deep pit is filled. But
your attention is most worthily attracted by
the exquisite slabs from the frieze of the Parthenon which lie against the wall, on the pavement of the temple itself, or among the piles
of fragments against the Propylaea. Beautifully unstained and white, and surviving in
almost the full glory of their original perfection, there is something exceedingly touching
in them as they lie carelessly in those piles of
ruin. Nor will you disdain to pause for a




148               HELLAS.
moment and admire the loyalty of an owl,
whose rude and quaint, but grave and impressive image, is perched among these relics,
still faithful amidst the desolation of his mistress's fane.
Nature asserts her charms, on this the very
throne of Art. How often did I turn from
living frieze and swelling column, to gaze entranced upon broad plain, and calm, majestic
mountain, and sparkling, blue, blue sea!
But, however reluctant, we must leave this
consecrated rock, for Athens has much else to
show.  Glancing, as we descend, at the high
pedestal which stands in front of the Pinacotheca, and formerly sustained a statue of
Agrippa, we will mount that craggy height
directly opposite the western end of the Acropolis, and distant from  it but two hundred
yards, - the hill of Mars, - haunted not only
by the associations of the most venerable tribunal of Athens, but by those, more impressive
still, of the sublimest scene which even this
city ever witnessed, -one of the sublimest
scenes in the history of our race,-the confronting of the simple truths of the Gospel of




THE RUINS OF ATHENS.       149
Christ with the pomp and pride of Grecian
philosophy and religion, when Stoic and Epicurean gathered around to hear the strange
teachings of the Apostle to the Gentiles. Undazzled by the beauty of shrine and statue,
"his spirit was stirred in him, when he saw
the city wholly given to idolatry "; he knew
how much corruption was mingled with these
rites; he knew  that this religion, however
much it ministered to the taste, was unable to
cleanse the heart and the affections, and satisfy
the deepest wants of the soul; he knew, too,
that though God had overlooked "the times
of this ignorance," He had been pleased, " by
that Man whom He had ordained," to reveal
the full knowledge of Himself, and proclaim
that catholic faith which was to be embraced
by every nation, tongue, and people, -a faith
loftier than the most spiritual dreams of Plato,
wider than the broadest generalizations of
Aristotle,- bringing with it a happiness and
internal peace unimagined by the Epicurean,
a heroism  of soul and a superiority to the
accidents of time unknown to the Stoic. He
had " disputed in the synagogue with the Jews




150                HELLAS.
and with the devout persons, and in the Agora
daily with them that met him "; and now the
curious philosophers, longing to hear him unfold his new  and strange belief in greater
quiet and  to more advantage than  in the
thronged square, led him to the Areopagus.
He mounts the rudely excavated steps which
lead up the rocky hill.  Though short, and
prematurely bent in person, there is on him
the  unmistakable  stamp of greatness; his
eyes are quick and piercing, but kindly and
sympathetic; his nose bold  and  aquiline;
his beard thick, and already sprinkled with
white: * evidently. a strong, earnest, impetuous, but sensitive and loving spirit.  About
fifty years of age, he is at the meridian of
his intellectual strength. Peril and hardship
have deepened the furrows on his brow; but
his wan features are aglow with holy ardour,
inspired by his single purpose to proclaim,
among the baffled seekers after wisdom, " the
power and the wisdom of God."
* On the personal appearance of the Apostle, see Edwards's
Encyclopadia of Religious Knowledge, Art. " Paul."




THE RUINS OF ATHENS.        151
He ascends to the levelled platform of rock
on which the Court of the Areopagus held its
sessions; near him, on the brow of the hill,
is a temple of Ares; immediately below him,
in a cleft in the rock, the dark sanctuary of
the Eumenides; above him tower the temples
and statues of the Acropolis; around, in whatsoever direction he turns his eye, it falls upon
the shrine or statue of some one of those gods
whom the hospitable mythology of the Athenians received in greater numbers, and whom
they worshipped with more devotion, than any
other city on the earth. He opens his mouth,
but it is not to utter the words of fanatical
denunciation.  Nay, he commends the Athenians for their obedience to that instinctive
impulse which leads man to bow down before
the conception of divine power: widely apart
as stand their systems and his, in this elementary principle they meet at one: and, having
conciliated his hearers by the recognition, so
far, of the legitimacy of their worship, he proceeds to point out its misdirection, and guide
them to its true object. " Ye men of Athens,"
he says, in words of masterly rhetoric, no less




152                 HELLAS.
than of sacred and momentous import, "I
perceive that in all things ye are much inclined
to reverence divine power.  For as I passed
by, and beheld the objects of your worship, I
found an altar with this inscription: To the
Unknown God.  Whom  therefore ye worship,
though ye know him  not, him  declare I unto
you."  The Apostle was interrupted by cries
of derision, before he had given utterance to
all that burdened his heart; yet how comprehensive his speech! How significant, beneath
the shadows of the Parthenon, and almost at
the feet of the idol statues of Phidias, the declarations that God " dwelleth not in temples
made with hands," and that " we ought not
to think that the Godhead is like unto gold, or
silver, or stone, graven by art and man's device "; how apt the quotation, from  " certain
of their own poets,"
"For we are also His offspring"!
* This half-line, rov yap KaL yevos EerL-e, is found both in
the Hymn to Zeus of the Stoic Cleanthes, and in the Phaenomena of Aratus, an astronomical poem. Two other quotations
from the Greek poets were made by the learned Apostle; viz.
1 Corinth. xv. 33:




THE RUINS OF ATHENS.          153
And although, "when they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some mocked," and to
many of that throng of Greeks the doctrine of
Christ crucified was "foolishness," the seed
was not sown  that day in vain; "certain
men "-  among them  an honourable member
of the council of the Areopagus -  "clave
unto him  and believed "; nor was it without
instruction for all future time that the picture
has been given us in the sacred record, of the
proclamation, in the proudest seat of human
philosophy, of the revealed mysteries of Christian truth.
Turn we from the stand of the sacred messenger whom Longinus enumerates among the
masters of Grecian eloquence, to that Bema
from  which  the  secular orators of Athens
launched their thunderbolts.  The Pnyx, or
place in which the parliamentary assemblies
of the people were held, lies on the gently
8OElepovcrv q'r  XpSro)' oILXlat KaKal,
from the Thais, a comedy of Menander; and Tit. i. 12:
Kpiore aeL veio-rat, KaKCa Cr1pla, yaroTpest apyal,
from Epimenides, the Cretan prophet and poet.




154                 HELLAS.
sloping side of a low, rocky hill of limestone,
thinly clad with herbage, about a quarter of
a mile west of the Areopagus.*  A  platform
of rock, nearly semicircular, with an area of
twelve thousand square yards, was the simple
gathering-place of the Demos. No seats were
provided, except a few wooden benches in the
first row, but the citizens stood, as in Faneuil
Hall, or sat upon the bare floor of rock.  With
no canopy but the vault of heaven, they chose
the morning hour for their meetings, before
the sun's rays should become oppressive.  A
vertical wall, made by excavating the solid
rock of the hill, forms the southern boundary,
and is the chord of the segment; the ground
slopes gradually from  this wall to the circumference of the area, in whose lowest point, near
the centre of the arc, is built a terrace wall of
huge polygonal blocks, fifteen feet high, within
which the depression has been filled. Projecting from the middle of the southern wall is the
* Distinguished scholars have disputed the correctness of
this site; but, after examining the arguments on both sides, it
seems to me that the propriety of placing it here is established
by a strong concurrence of probabilities.




THE RUINS OF ATHENS.          155
Bema, - a stand or pulpit, of rectangular form,
twenty feet high, and eleven feet broad at the
top, widening at the base into seats, which rise
three or four in number above each other, and
its summit reached by a flight of steps. It
were long to enumerate the objects of immortal
renown which met the eye of the orator as he
stood upon this block; nothing was wanting
that could remind him of his country's greatness and her fame.  Nor need I recount the
visions which rise before the mind of the
scholar as he stands on this haunted rock, -
the mighty shades of orators and statesmen,
"Those ancient, whose resistless eloquence
Wielded at will that fierce democratie."
The rock wall at the side of the Bema is full
of tiny niches for offerings, and various little
marble representations of different parts of the
body have been found in the neighbourhood,
here hung, as are similar images before the
shrine of a favourite saint in some Catholic
churches, and dedicated to Zeus Hupsistos.
We are not to wonder at this consecration of
the ground devoted to political assemblages;
it is in complete accordance with the " relig



156                  HELLAS.
iousness" of the Athenians, which " made of
every public place and building a sanctuary."
Passing over the hill of the Nymphs, crowned
by an excellent astronomical Observatory recently built by the liberality of a wealthy
Greek residing in Austria, a short walk brings
us to the best-preserved relic of the great
days of Athens, the Temple of Theseus,* - at
once the temple and the tomb of the mythic
founder  of the  Athenian  form   of popular
government.  It is a memorial at the same
time of the hero's friend, Heracles, and of the
alliance between the cities which the two represent, Athens and Argos.  The ten metopes
of the eastern front were adorned with sculpture representing the labours of Heracles,
while only eight (the four adjoining the eastern front on either flank) commemorated the
* This temple is of the Doric order, of Pentelic marble,
with six columns at each end, and thirteen on each side. It
is about thirty years older than the Parthenon. Its length is
one hundred and four feet, breadth forty-five, and height to the
summit of the pediment thirty-three and a half. The stylobate is mounted by two steps, instead of three, - a fact which,
as has been suggested, may indicate its inferiority as an
heroum to a temple.




THE RUINS OF ATHENS.        157
exploits of Theseus. None of the other metopes were ornamented; but both the eastern
and western pediments were filled with sculptures, known only by the traces left of their
metallic fastenings. The remains of the metopes, and of the friezes of the pronaos and
posticum, are of a bold and noble style of art.
The color of the marble walls and pillars of
the Theseum, as of the Parthenon and all the
old ruins of Athens, has been changed, by long
and gradual oxidation, to an " autumnal hue,"
- a mellow golden brown, so rich and satisfying that one would not exchange it for the
whiteness of stone freshly quarried.
Very appropriately, this temple is now occupied as a Museum of relics of ancient Greek
art. Statues and reliefs, —often dating from
the best periods, and of great beauty and significance, - and a collection of inscriptions of
more or less interest, are sheltered within its
walls. They were picked up or excavated in
the city and its neighbourhood, or, in some
cases, in distant parts of the kingdom. I have
vivid memories of the grace and beauty of
some of these statues, but regret that my notes




158               HELLAS.
are not full enough to justify any attempt
to describe them; — indeed, under the best
circumstances, what adequate description of
either a painting or a statue can be given
in words?  Particularly noteworthy are the
reliefs upon the marble gravestones, the noble workmanship of the followers of Phidias.
These represent some family group, -most frequently a husband and a wife, but often with
the addition of other members of the domestic
circle, - and are generally taken to represent "l'adieu supreme."  With that delicate
feeling, however, which in language led the
Greeks to abstain from words of ill omen, and
to soften the expression of everything disagreeable, the sculptor represented none of the painful features of the parting hour; not from the
couch of sickness extends a wasted hand, but
the departed wife or husband stands or sits in
the full bloom and vigour of health, and clad
in the garments of every-day life.  A child
may be gazing into that face which is soon to
be hidden in the tomb; attendants may hold
before it an unconscious infant; but there is
nothing to denote death rather than life, ex



THE RUINS OF ATHENS.         159
cept a silent sorrow, a sad foreboding, delicately impressed on every countenance, and immortalized in the marble, in the calm repose
of perfect art. The right hands of the two
principal figures, extended towards each other
for clasping, or actually clasped, speak plainly
of parting; but it is the happiness of life, to
be darkened by that parting, and not the hideousness and ghastliness of death, which is
represented: -so different in spirit are Greek
art and Teutonic.  Comparatively humble as
they are, these sepulchral monuments can boast
the characteristic merits of the statelier sculptures of the Parthenon frieze,- an unaffected
naturalness and simplicity, an exquisite delicacy and refinement, a depth of meaning,
told by the simplest touches, and a power of
breathing the breath of life into marble, in
which the sculptors of Athens, if ever equalled,
can never be surpassed.
The monument of Aristion, an old Marathonian warrior, is one of the most noteworthy
in this collection.  On a high and narrow
pillar of Pentelic marble is carved, in low
relief, the figure of the worthy hoplite, armed




160               HELLAS.
with cuirass and greaves and helmet, and
grasping a long lance in his left hand. Sturdy and stalwart, he makes the battle of Marathon a reality. With a certain stiffness, there
is a remarkable truthfulness and vigour in the
delineation of the various parts of the body;
and while the artificially curled hair and beard,
and the set smile on the lips, remind you of
Assyrian sculptures, there is a life and freedom in the whole effect, which you recognize
as a gleam  of the untrammelled inspiration
that, breaking all bonds of conventionality in
the spontaneous play of genius, created the
subsequent wonders of the Phidian age.
The decided traces of colour in this ancient
work have a particular importance in the history of painted sculpture. They confirm the
opinion, that " only ornaments as ornaments,
and those portions of the body in which nature
herself passes from the simple flesh-tone to
more decided colouring,-as the eye, the hair,
the lip, —were accessible to colour, never the
flesh as flesh."
Plunging  into the tangle of the modern
town, you find in the yard behind an humble




THE RUINS OF ATHENS.        161
house a singular statue, -perhaps of Erichthonius,- represented as a man to the middle,
thence a dragon with a fish's tail. The chest
is vigorous and bold, the muscles strongly
marked, but the joint between man and dragon abrupt and unskilful. In a cellar near by,
I saw a similar statue (then recently discovered and but partially excavated), lying horizontally, and forming part of the foundations
of the house.  There are some interesting
architectural remains of the Roman period
in the midst of the town,-the portico of
Athena Archegetis, consisting of four Doric
pillars sustaining a pediment, bearing an inscription recording that the building (of which
these are the only remains) was erected by
means of donations from C. Julius Caesar and
Augustus, - and the rich Corinthian columns
of the Stoa of Hadrian.
In the outskirts of the modern city, on the
southeast, stands the Gate of Hadrian, inscribed, on the side facing the Acropolis, " This
is Athens, the ancient city of Theseus"; on
the other, " This is the city of Hadrian, and
not of Theseus." It formed an entrance to the
11




162                  HELLAS.
enclosure of the great Temple of the Olympian
Zeus, whose ruins, if without the peculiar interest which invests the monuments of Ictinian
and Phidian art, are among the most beautiful
and imposing in the world. They consist of an
exquisite group of pure Corinthian columns,
of Pentelic marble, rising to the height of
above sixty feet, and by rare good fortune so
unencumbered  and remote from  incongruous
objects as to keep the charm of their grace
and their stateliness unimpaired. Fifteen of
these columns, the loftiest of their kind in
marble in all Europe, still stand in their original places, while a sixteenth, blown down in
a storm  in the autumn  of 1852, needs only
the replacing of its stones to be as perfect
as before.  But where are the rest of the one
hundred  and  twenty  columns, -where  the
walls of the colossal temple? * It is almost
* This temple of Jove, which Livy speaks of as " the only
one in the world undertaken upon a scale commensurate with
the majesty of the god," was three hundred and fifty-four feet in
length, and one hundred and seventy-one in breadth. A double
range of columns at the sides, and a triple range on either
front, made up the peristyle, which had ten columns on each




THE RUINS OF ATHENS.                  163
inconceivable how the depredations for building material, made in the Middle Ages, could
have exhausted such a quarry.
The charm of this stately group of columns
is all their own, for they boast no such fascinating associations as those which cluster
around  the  ruins  on  the  Acropolis.  Begun
by the tyrant Pisistratus, and finished seven
hundred years afterwards by the Roman Emperor Hadrian, the Olympieum, though one of
the grandest temples in the world, seems hardly  a part of the  glory  of Athens,-breathes
not her peculiar spirit, nor is redolent with
front, and twenty on each side. There were also three columns between anta at each end of the cella. The exterior
enclosure was about half a mile in circumference.
The columns were more than six feet and a half in diameter,
and above sixty feet high. Each one (as I found by examination of the prostrate pillar) is fluted with twenty-four channels,
the regular number, and composed of twenty-one cylindrical
blocks, whose upper and lower surfaces, at which the different
blocks come in contact, are polished to extreme smoothness,
except at the centre, where a little circular space is left rough
and uneven; near the exterior two cramps of iron are inserted,
opposite each other, by which the drums were joined firmly
together. These inner surfaces, not having been exposed to
the air, are of the most exquisite whiteness.




164              HELLAS.
the aroma of her soil. Yet Grecian hands
have hewn those shafts and shaped those lovely capitals, and Nature, " adopting them into
her race," has given them on this broad plain
a home second only to the rocky pedestal of
the Parthenon in its fitness to display and enhance the loveliness of its inhabitants.
You find here the same rich, mellow brown
or iron-rust hue, the same weather-stains and
battered edges, as in the other ruins. A modern excrescence will attract your eye, on the
architrave above one of the columns, —the
remains of a little cell of brick, once inhabited
by a monk emulous of the fame of St. Simeon
Stylites. The odour of his sanctity attracted
old women around his dizzy perch, and they
kept him supplied with food, which he drew
up in a basket. A young guide who accompanied me in my first strolls about Athens, and
prided himself on his linguistic accomplishments, told me, as he pointed out this cell,
" There was a monkee used to live up there."
I did not correct his English in this instance.
Modern Athens uses the open space around
the Olympieum as a pleasure-ground. Here




THE RUINS OF ATHENS.         165
on any pleasant afternoon or evening you will
find Greek men and women, in their peculiar
dress, seated at tables picturesquely grouped
among the ruins, and partaking of cakes and
wine or coffee, furnished from a shop close by.
Men and youths, hand in hand, their red caps
flashing and blue tassels waving in the air,
dance along, singing Greek songs in nasal
strains of Chinese-like music.  Perhaps a
mother leans against one of the columns, with
her son's head in her lap, while she rids him
of" certain personal companions."  And some
donkey, feeding or carrying a load in your
neighbourhood, gives utterance ever and anon
to the prolonged, unearthly vocal agonies for
which that beast is remarkable.
A massive buttressed wall of large blocks of
stone supports the platform on which the temple stands, and separates it from the lower
ground which slopes down to the Ilissus. This
classic stream is but a scanty brooklet, although the width of its bed and the depth of
the channel attest its occasional importance
when swollen by the rains. It is crossed, at
the point where you would strike it on walk



166                HELLAS.
ing down from  the Olympieum, by a tasteful
modern bridge of white marble, with three
arches. Above lies the little pool and fountain
of Callirrhoe, whose waters trickle from beneath a bank of rocks, which are themselves
picturesque in their varied outline. Ascending the stream, you walk upon its dry bed of
sand and pebbles till you have come near the
Stadium, - where I again found water flowing
in the channel, —and you reach the piers of
the ruined bridge which here in old time with
a hugh arch spanned the stream. Then, stepping across the Ilissus, you enter the long
hollow between precipitously rising hills, where
was the Stadium  Panathenaicum, the scene
ill the classic age of many a feat of strength
and speed, sometimes imitated  on the same
spot in these degenerate days.  The hills themselves, aided by excavation and by artificial
constructions of masonry, make the walls of
the edifice, in the form of an elongated horseshoe.*  Their sides were lined with marble
* The length of the Stadium was six hundred and seventyfive feet, its width one hundred and thirty-seven feet at the
lower end, but nearly twice as great at the rounded end, where
the chariots turned.




THE RUINS OF ATHENS.        167
seats, which have now  totally disappeared,
accommodating twenty-five thousand spectators, while multitudes more could stand above,
and view the games. A winding passage-way
through the hill, near the upper end of the
Stadium, mercifully afforded the means of an
unnoticed exit to the unfortunate competitors
who were distanced in the race.
We have nearly completed our survey of the
most important ruins of Athens; but there are
still places, whose very names are spells of
potency the world over, that we must visit.
Let us first, returning along the Ilissus, and
crossing past the southern side of that rocky
height, the pedestal of the Parthenon, ascend
the hill Musaeum, which lies a short distance
to the southwest of the Acropolis. Here we
shall be detained a few moments by the ruins
of the sepulchral monument of Philopappus,a work of the age of Hadrian, adorned with
statues and sculptured reliefs not without
merit. But a deeper interest attaches to some
hewn chambers in the rock at the base of this
hill, called the "Prison of Socrates."  They
are three in number, and the inner chamber




168               HELLAS.
has a funnel-shaped dome, with a round aperture letting in the light from the top. However doubtful the tradition which has given
these excavations their popular name, no traveller will regret to be reminded of a scene so
impressive as the death of that inspired heathen, who, when he was confronted with his
judges, and when he conversed with his friends
before his execution, taught that we should
recompense to no man evil for evil,* and that
no evil can happen to a good man living or
dead.t
And, having ennobled ourselves with the
memory of Socrates, let us seek a fitting place
to pay our homage to his greatest pupil. A
walk of a little more than a mile, in a northerly direction, will lead us to the Academy.
Our road, after leaving the town, passes through
low  vineyards and olive-groves, watered by
little streamlets led from the Cephissus. A
gentleman's garden and summer residence now
occupy the site of the grove of Academus.
A few little marble posts, a few fragments of
statues and architectural ornaments imbedded
* Plato's Crito, 49.   t Apol. Soc., 41 D.




THE RUINS OF ATHENS.          169
in the wall of a reservoir, are all that indicate
the structures with which it was adorned; but
beautiful trees here wave their branches, and
sweet flowers bloom as of old. Look up, and
beyond the wide meadow and the town, that
stately Acropolis
" Her pillared wreck of chastest shrines
Upholds serene and still."
The gardener at my visit plucked me a handful
of white and red roses, -a graceful offering
to a stranger from remote Atlantis.
We may extend our walk a short distance
northwards to two little hills, which rise to
the height of about a hundred feet above the
plain, and mark the site of the Attic deme
Colonos, immortalized in song.  On one of
these hills a marble monument points out the
grave of that profound and genial scholar,
Karl Ottfried Muller.
The flower of all my memories of Athenian
grace and beauty is the recollection of my last
night in the violet-crowned city. I had seen
my last sunset from the Acropolis, gilding that
varied picture of sea and shore.  Hymettus,
at whose feet the vale of Athens nestles, had




170              HELLAS.
put on, for my delight, his evening robes of
lilac and violet, Pentelicus his kingly purple,
and Lycabettus his beaming gold. In the soft
twilight I walked from hill to hill, and ruin
to ruin, to bid farewell to their now familiar
charms. And when the moon, then near her
full, had rolled a flood of silver radiance over
the scene, I bent again my reverent steps to
the Parthenon, - explored every corner, every
stone, —rambled over the hill, to different
points of view, or sat on fallen columns, or in
the marble chairs of the Areopagites, now
brought up to the temple.  And while for
hours I drank in the beauty of harmonious
forms revealed in white light and tender shadows, or indulged the dreams which the associations of the place inspired, a deeper feeling
of gratitude filled my heart with thanksgiving,
and hallowed my delight.




EXCURSIONS.
AEGINA.
BEAUTIFUL ~Egila, the old rival of Athens,
lies in full view from her hills, at the distance
of about twenty miles from the Peirveus. One
fine morning in the last of June, I joined a
party on an expedition to this island. It was
a company calculated to appreciate the full interest of what would be seen; there was my
old companion, the Professor,-my messmate,
the indefatigable scholar, -and a young German artist, with the gift of song, employed by
the Queen on paintings for the palace. Francois, the most learned, intelligent, and agreeable of Greek guides, again accompanied us as
factotum.  We drove before sunrise to the
Peirseus, making our way outside the town,
to the right, to a little cove where a sail-boat
with two oarsmen had come to meet us, thus
evading the port laws which allow no boat to




172              HELLAS.
leave the harbour before ten o'clock. By the
way, the navigation laws of the Greek kingdom are very injudicious, and tend, by their
foolish restrictions, to throw a great part of
the carrying trade into the hands of the foreign steamers which ply between the Greek'ports. A good breeze bore us rapidly along,
and in two or three hours we landed on the
northeast side of the island, where we saw excavations in the rocks just covered by the
water, and other indications of the existence
of a port there in ancient times. We walked
to a garden a little way from the shore, looking greener than the greater part of the land
in the neighbourhood, and there, among grapevines and under a broad fig-tree, took our
lunch.
Francois talked with us about his nation,
and expressed decidedly his disapprobation of
the King, for his personal, as well as his political qualities; "for," said he, "he is deaf, he
squints, he lisps, and he has no children!"
But we were impatient to reach the temple,
which we had seen to good advantage before
gaining the shore; its graceful pillars, on the




EGINA.               173
summit of a considerable elevation, being beautifully relieved against the sky. We climbed
the hill, which is dotted with pretty bushes
and small trees, and found the remains of
the temple quite noteworthy,  twenty columns of the peribolos and two of the cella
standing entire, and still surmounted by the
architrave. Drums of the fallen columns lay
scattered here and there, in the most picturesque confusion; and the green shrubs on the
sloping sides of the hill, the view of vales and
heights in the interior of the island, and the
all-glorious prospect of the sea and the Attic
coast from Sunium to Salamis, made up, with
the beautiful ruins, a scene of unusual interest
and variety. The stone of which the temple
is built is of a light gray colour, and porous.
Where exposed to the storms, it has been considerably worn and eaten.  It was covered
with stucco, - now almost entirely worn away,
-and, in parts, beautifully painted; the walls
of the cella were vermilion-red, the tympanum
azure, the architrave adorned with yellow and
green foliage, the triglyphs blue, the gutta of
the same colour, and the fillets above them




174               HELLAS.
red.   The upper mouldings of the cornice,
and the roof, were of marble.  We were disappointed in the size of the temple.  The
pillars, seen in the clear air at a distance, from
the sea, give the idea of a much larger building than is actually found.*
Leake still maintains the old, and certainly
the most grateful belief, that this is that renowned temple of Zeus Panhellenius built
on the spot where the prayers of }Eacus, the
most pious of mankind, appeased the wrath of
heaven, and stayed the plague of famine and
barrenness with which the gods had smitten
all Greece.  But the opinion advanced  by
Stackelberg in 1826, that it was dedicated to
Athena, has met with general favour among
scholars. I fancy that the artist who was with
us, and who carried away a beautiful sketch
of the lovely ruin, cared little about its name.
With the hill it crowns, and the magnificent
prospect of sea and  shore which  it commands, this temple has furnished the subject
* The temple was ninety-four feet in length, and forty-five
in breadth. It was peripteral, having six columns on each
front and thirteen on each side.




AGINA.                175
of some of the most beautiful of modern paintings. One by Turner, in the possession of an
English nobleman, which I saw in an exhibition in London, struck me as one of the most
satisfactory and admirable of that great master's productions.
The pedimental sculptures dug up in front
of the temple in 1811, and skilfully restored
by Thorwaldsen, are the best examples extant
of pre-Phidian art.  No traces of them  are
now to be found on the spot, but I saw and
studied them  in Munich, where they are preserved in the Glyptothek as its greatest treasure.  They had been broken, many of them,
into so small fragments that their restoration
was a miracle of skill. The sculptures of the
western pediment are the better preserved, but
those of the eastern were wrought in a higher
style of art. In the western group the subject
is the fight of Greek heroes, chiefly of the race
of the JEginetan LEacus, with the Trojans,
for the dead body of Patroclus (or, as some
will have it, of Achilles); in the eastern, is
represented the fight of Hercules and Telamon the son of AEacus with the Trojans, for




176              HELLAS.
the body of a fallen Greek, probably Oicles.
Athena presides over both combats, forming
the central figure in each pediment; a fact
favouring the hypothesis that the temple was
built in her honour. In the older sculptures
(of the western pediment) we find something
of the stiffness and angularity of early art;
the muscles, too, are exaggerated, the proportions of the figures remarkably short, the hair
is elaborately curled, and every mouth wears
a smile. But the joints and sinews are accurately defined, and a conscientious, careful
aiming at truthfulness to nature is conspicuous throughout, even in the exaggerations.
Again, in the life of the attitudes, and the
spirit of the grouping, as well as in the truthful anatomical delineation of the different muscles and members, an immense superiority
to Ninevite and Egyptian art appears, and
the unequalled skill of the Greek begins to
be manifest. In the sculptures of the eastern
pediment, the defects of the old style have
nearly vanished, except in the heads; and the
anatomical truth of representation is astonishing. But five figures remain of this east



EGINA.                177
ern group. Among them two are particularly
admirable: a nude warrior advancing, with
outstretched arms, -a figure which in perfection of anatomical treatment, and in lifelikeness, ease, and meaning, can hardly be surpassed, - and a wounded, prostrate combatant,- probably King  Laomedon, who was
slain by Hercules, -a sculpture not unworthy of comparison with the Dying Gladiator.
The figure of Athena in the western group
(but small fragments of her statue on the
eastern pediment are preserved) is a little
more rigid and less expressive than the others,
having the archaic character of the hieratic
style, - the Greek sculptors of that period
deeming it their duty to adhere as closely as
possible to the old traditionary representations
of their deities, which were hallowed by time
and by sacred associations, but, being the creations of a less advanced age, were deficient
both in anatomical truth and in expression
of intellectual life.
In that part of the island which we saw,
the soil was dry and scorched, and the vegetation scanty.  There were, to be sure, one
12




178              HELLAS.
or two carob-trees, and many figs and olives.
Ants were numerous, but we met none of
the Myrmidons. A man or two in the fields,
and a few boys watering donkeys at a well
in a hollow, were the only human beings
that encountered us on old sea-ruling zEgina, "the stranger-thronged Dorian island."
The wind had gone down when we got
again upon the water, and we had to depend
on our oars to return. The long passage was
enlivened by pleasant talk, and songs both
Greek and German. Our Greek song was an
improvisation by the Professor, who imitated
capitally the nasal unearthly intonations and
Chinese rudeness of Modern Greek singing.
PENTELICUS.
AT about half past eight on the morning of
the 14th of May, we started - Clyde, Nixon,
and myself — for a drive from  Athens to
Pentelicus. Our kind companion and guide
boasted the classic name of Odysseus Kyneg6s.
The sun gave unwelcome earnest of his midday fury; yet we rode comfortably through




PENTELICUS.              179
vineyards, olive-gardens, and wide fields, whose
dry, thin soil, though barren and untilled, was
fragrant with aromatic herbs, and gay with red
poppies, rose-coloured mallows, white and pink
convolvuli, daisies, and bright yellow flowers.
Gradually rising from the plain, we arrived at
length at a delightful grove of tall, handsome
silver-poplars, with a clear babbling brook running through it,- thrice welcome both, in
that parched and treeless land. How we revelled in the shade, and the coolness, and the
greenness, - in the music of the water and
its refreshing draughts!
"Te flagrantis atrox hora Caniculae
Nescit tangere, tu frigus amabile
Praebes."
After a lunch in the grove, we walked to a
ruinous monastery just above it, in whose
court-yard grew a noble laurel of great size,
and whose chapel is adorned with Byzantinesque pictures of sacred personages, quaint
and stiff, - as are all the productions of the
school of Mount Athos, -  but not without
feeling.
A monk conducting us to the proper path,




180              HELLAS.
we began the long, hot, laborious ascent of
the mountain.  We passed the quarries in
which the sculptures of Phidias slept unconscious before his hammer and chisel knocked
off the encumbering marble and brought them
into the light. Bits of marble of dazzling
whiteness, scattered all along our path, reflected the sun with a blinding glare. We
found mica-slate abundant, and some specimens of delicate rosy and white quartz, and
crystals of calcareous spar. Pentelicus is a
mass of compact limestone or marble, resting on a stratum  of micaceous slate, " of
unknown thickness," which seems to form
the base of all the mountains of Attica. The
juniper and the arbutus, prickly oaks, lentisks, and bays, clothe the sides of the mountain, which were  also  plentifully  besprent
with yellow immortelles.  Stopping now and
then where we could find a little shade under
the bushes, we refreshed ourselves with juicy
oranges,-  a provident thought of Clyde's,
which I recommend to all mountain climbers in hot countries.  But at length poor
Kynegcs's heart failed him, at the foot of a




PENTELICUS.              181
very precipitous crag which we had to scale,
and he turned back to await us at the monastery.
"Hills peep o'er hills" on Pentelicus, as
on other mountains; but after several lessons on the vanity of human  expectations,
we planted proud, conquering feet upon the
topmost height, and forgot our toil in the
enjoyment of the glorious prospect.*  First
in  interest was the view  of the  plain  of
Marathon, the general topography of which
can here be studied to great advantage; the
knowledge I gained of it stood me in stead,
when  subsequently,  with  an  incompetent
guide, I visited  the  field  itself.  Lovely
indeed is the natural scenery which human
deeds have clothed with such interest. The
sweep with which the bright beach of silver sands curves into  the  crescent of the
Cynosura is exquisitely charming.  Beyond,
fiom the blue waters, rose Euboea, with its
hills of picturesque outline softened in the
* Pentelicus is, next to Parnes, the highest mountain in
Attica. Its summit is 3,637 feet above the sea; that of Parnes 4,592, Hymettus 3,340, and Lycabettus 903.




182                HELLAS.
summer haze.  We traced the four passes to
the field of Marathon, one on the north beyond the marshes, two at the west, and one
at the south by the sea. Nor were we insensible to the beasuty and thrilling interest of
the whole panorama, - mountains and valleys, and islands and sea, —for the whole of
Attica lay at our feet.
A cairn has been built on the summit by
the contributions of successive travellers; to
which we did not omit to add each our stone.
Descending, we dined in that Elysian grove,
where the simplest fare was nectar and ambrosia, and then  dashed back through  the
thyme-scented plain to Athens, the never-satiating Acropolis before us all the way.




THE MODERN CAPITAL AND KINGDOM.
"Another Athens shall arise,
And to remoter time
Bequeath, like sunset to the skies,
The splendour of its prime."
SHELLEY.
MODERN Athens presents in its aspect the
same incongruity, the same intermixture of
barbarity and civilization, as the modern kingdom  and people of Greece herself.  Its nucleus is a confused, dirty, ill-built Turkish village, of narrow, crooked lanes, and low huts
without windows; beyond  this has  grown
up a modern European capital, with regular
streets and neat and  handsome houses, in
comfort and elegance worthy of the nineteenth
century.  A  solitary palm  rises above the
shabby post-office, and is a graceful feature in
every view of the city. Near it, on a high
tower, is the only public clock, the gift of Lord
Elgin.  The streets of Eolus and of Hermes,
which intersect each other at right angles, are




184               HELLAS.
the principal thoroughfares; they are both
straight, except that the latter curves gently in
one part to avoid a picturesque little church,
in quaint Byzantine style. There are several
other Byzantine churches in the city, of considerable antiquity and no little architectural
interest. Of the modern buildings, the Palace
is the most pretentious; it fronts a fine square
at the western end of Hermes Street, and is
sufficiently ugly on the exterior, looking like a
long, dreary barrack; the interior, however,
is bright with painting and rich with marble.
A better taste has been displayed in the University, which has a fine marble Ionic portico,
successfully adorned with colours and gilding
about the capitals and in the sunken compartments of the roof. The new Cathedral, of
Byzantine architecture and built of marble,
though unfinished at my visit, gave promise of
a stately edifice.
Of productive industry there are few tokens.
The people in general find plenty of leisure
for idling at cafes or walking about. Their
favourite promenade is along IEolus Street, in
its northward continuation beyond the city to




THE MODERN CAPITAL AND KINGDOM. 185
the little suburb of Patissia, a distance of a
little over half a mile. It is a dusty road, with
nothing attractive immediately about it, but
it affords a delightful view of the long and picturesquely involved range of Parnes in front,
while on the left you have the blue AEgean,
soft, yet metallic in its lustre, and beyond in
the distance the Peloponnesian hills, on the
right bold Lycabettus, and behind you that
grand, " vast altar," the Acropolis. On every
pleasant evening the promenade is frequented,
but on Sundays the whole population crowd
it: tall, slender youths from the University
— pale and thin, many of them, but some
of superb beauty- swing along in an independent gait, their waists laced excruciatingly
tight; priests, in long robes of black and black
caps, and with long hair and beard, mingle in
the throng; gentlemen and ladies on horseback, both Greek and foreign, and families in
carriages, dash by; till all collect around a
stand in an opie area to the right of the road,
whence a military band discourses music. On
such occasions, the King and Queen, when
they were in the city, seldom failed to join the




186               HELLAS.
circle, well mounted, to listen to the performance and exchange salutations with their subjects.
You will notice here, and wherever you
meet the people, that the men almost invariably carry a rosary, whose beads they are
continually telling and twirling in their fingers, - but not for any purposes of devotion;
for this is only an ingenious expedient by
which the Greeks avoid the question, sometimes troublesome in the polished society of
Western nations, " What shall gentlemen do
with their hands? "  The lounger in the caf6,
the tradesman behind his counter, the judge
on the bench, and the senator in the Boule, all
preserve the equilibrium of their nerves and
muscles by means of this regulator.
Landscape gardening has not been attempted except in the Queen's garden, in the rear
of the palace; but here with decided success.
In the evenings of June days of suffocating
heat, I found these grounds a most delightful
resort, and refreshed myself with the costly
verdure of their turf and foliage, and the
beauty of their flowers, so grateful in contrast




THE MODERN CAPITAL AND KINGDOM.  187
with the parched and bare appearance of all
other ground in the neighbourhood. Amongst
other treasures, the Queen prided herself on
her oleanders, of many colours, and often with
double flowers.  Fortunately, remains of a
Roman villa were found here, and its mosaic
pavements, surrounded with living walls of
flowers, give additional interest to the garden,
which can also boast    what is indeed one of
its chief attractions -a near view of the columns of Olympian Zeus.
The aspect of Greek affairs is more encouraging on the side of intellectual than on that
of material progress.  In provision for the
education of the people, Greece has been
more liberal than  some of the  foremost
nations of Europe.  Her demotic or common schools in every village, her "Hellenic
schools,"  (in which  ancient Greek, Latin,
and French are taught,) and her gymnasia in
the larger towns, and, crowning all, her University, with its able corps of upwards of
fifty Professors, its library of nearly a hundred and twenty thousand volumes, and its six
hundred students, constitute a complete appa



188               HELLAS.
ratus for the instruction of her future citizens
up from the first lessons of childhood to the
highest fields of science.
The University of Otho (its  designation
indicates only that Greece  had a German
monarch, not that he manifested any extraordinary liberality in endowing her institutions of learning) attracts students from all
the islands and shores of the  Egean.  It is,
indeed, the eye of the modern Greek race,
and second only to the Greek Church as a
rallying-point for the sentiment of nationality.  Besides the regular students, the lectures are attended by many of the citizens of
Athens, who manifest a very general thirst
for knowledge.  Judging from those I heard,
by several of the Professors, the lectures at
the University of Athens in interest, ability,
and scholarship will not compare unfavourably
with those at similar institutions in Western
Europe and America.
Excellent provision is made for the instruction of young ladies, as at the schools of Madame Mano and of the American missionaries,
Dr. and Mrs. Hill, to both of which, as to the




THE MODERN CAPITAL AND KINGDOM. 189
University also, pupils are sent from all the regions in which Greeks have made their home.
No lover of his race can contemplate these
efforts for the diffusion of education without
cheerful hopes for the future of such a people.
To bind the race together, and maintain its
own consciousness of its unity, —to perpetuate, amidst the shocks of conquest and the
degradation of bondage, the Greek language,
Greek ideas, and, in substance, Greek nationality, no instrumentality has been more potent
than that of the Greek Church.  There is
something extremely imposing in the image
which this venerable organization presents to
the mind. The oldest division of the visible
Church, reading the Scriptures, both of the
Old and the New  Testaments, in the same
language in which they were read by the
Apostles, and observing the remotest (unbroken) traditions of ritual and usage, —if
the husk were the thing of value, and not the
kernel, well might she claim allegiance and
conformity from the whole Christian world.*
* President Felton, in one of the notes to his edition of




190                     HELLAS.
Yet undoubtedly  in  the  very  antiquity  and
orthodoxy  on  which  she  vaunts  herself lies
one of her greatest dangers: that of narrowness and formality, infacility of adapting herself  to  the  changing   features  of  changing
times, and excessive reliance in the dead letter rather than in the ever-living Spirit. But
the independence of that division of the Eastern  Church  which  is  comprised  within  the
limits of Greece herself, the better provision
therein made for the education of the clergy,
and  the contact of the East with  the West in
Lord Carlisle's " Diary in Turkish and Greek Waters," quotes
a writer in the Spectateur de 1' Orient as follows: -
" If one of the holy fathers of the Council of Nicaea, - if
St. John Chrysostom  or St. Basil should return to life on
earth, - in what part of the world, except here, would he find
the Christian Church of their times? At the mass, at the
ceremonies of baptism, of marriage, etc., they would acknowledge that not an iota has been changed; that they find in
their places even the sacerdotal vestments, even the sacred
psalmody, as if more than fifteen centuries had not rolled
away since their time."
I grant that this antiquity is illusive. It runs back only to
a period of ecclesiastical corruption, in which the simplicity of
the primitive churches had been sadly departed from. But
it runs back further than that of any other existing external
organization.




THE MODERN CAPITAL AND KINGDOM. 191
the advancing civilization of the new kingdom,
must gradually give its faith a broader, more
catholic, and more intelligent spirit. The inevitable strife between "High Church" and
" Broad  Church,"  Old Greece and  Young
Greece, has already been inaugurated.  The
former party have very recently attempted to
check the distribution of copies of the Holy
Scriptures amongst the people; but there is
no danger of their gaining more than a temporary success, if indeed they succeed at all.
It is' a boast of the Eastern Church, that it has
allowed, if not encouraged, the free circulation of the Bible, and that its non-Greek communicants are permitted to translate its service
into their own language.  Among those of its
features which are most open to criticism, a
Protestant would notice the tedious length of
its service, the infrequency of preaching, and
the deficient education of the clergy.  The
latter defect bids fair to be'materially obviated in Otho's recent dominions.*
* That the Eastern, as compared with Western Churches,
exhibits the peculiarities of the Oriental mind, has often been
remarked. An extract from the beginning of the shorter




192                    HELLAS.
The  language,  though   mutilated  in  its
grammatical forms, and corrupted by the accretion of foreign words, is still Greek, - the
same language substantially as that of Homer,
Demosthenes, and  the  Greek  Fathers, with
less alteration than might have been expected
from the shocks of foreign conquest and mediseval barbarism.   Any one tolerably familiar
with classical Greek can take up an Athenian
newspaper, or a book in the modern language,
Catechism, used in the schools of Greece, will illustrate the
comparatively metaphysical tone of its teachings.
"Concerning God and His Perfections.
"Q. What is it necessary that he should know first, who
wishes to know God?
"A. He must know himself.
"Q. Why?
"A. Because, when a man has examined himself, he perceives that it was impossible that he should have created
himself.
"Q. And what dost thou infer from this?
"A. That he was created himself, and all other creatures,
by one uncreated Being, the which is God.
"Q. Hast thou other proofs that there is a God?
"A. The first proof is this world, which we see made with
so much wisdom.
"Q. What is the second?




THE MODERN CAPITAL AND KINGDOM. 193
and  read  nearly  everything  on  the  page.
A half-hour's study of Professor Sophocles's
Modern  Greek  Grammar, to  inform   him   of
the chief peculiarities of the new dialect, and
ordinary ingenuity in guessing the meaning of
novel words, are the only assistance he need
desire.  To  enable  him  to  read  the popular
songs, however, and understand the conversation of the common people, a dictionary will
sometimes be requisite; and in the use of the
"A. The common confession of all nations that are found
in the world; for all, in common, believe that there is a God.
"Q. What is the third?
"A. Our conscience, which rejoices for the good works that
we do, and grieves for the bad.
"Q. And what is inferred from this l
"A. That there is one All-seeing and Almighty Judge, rewarding virtue and chastising wickedness.
"Q. What is the fourth and final proof that there is a
God?
"A. The inborn desire which we have for a perfect happiness, which, however, it is impossible that we should obtain in
this world.
"Q. And what is inferred from this?
"A. That our Creator, God, would not have implanted
such a desire in our soul in vain, had he not intended to
satisfy it in the other life with the supreme good, which is
God himself."
13




194                HELLAS.
spoken language, he will be obliged to habituate himself to the peculiar modern pronunciation.
In literary activity, if not in intellectual
achievements, the Athens of to-day repeats the
Athens of old.  She publishes more newspapers, in proportion to her population, than any
other city on the globe;   and her scholars
are beginning to produce respectable and elaborate works in literature and science.
But there are many obstacles yet in the way
of national regeneration.
Purblind diplomacy never blundered more
palpably than in the negotiations which determined the boundaries of the new  kingdom.
False notions of the importance of doing as
little injury as possible to the power of Turkey excluded much that was rightfully entitled to independence, and by nature a constituent part of the Greek state.  Thessaly, the
cradle of the race, the first Hellas, - and still
* Of the Greeks, as a people, even before the Revolution,
Mr. Finlay remarks: "It is probable that a larger proportion
could read and write than among any other Christian race in
Europe." - istory of the Greek Revolution, II. 20.




THE MODERN CAPITAL AND KINGDOM. 195
inhabited by a more unmixed Greek population than most parts of Otho's kingdom, -the
birthplace of Rhegas, the patriot bard, and
the home of many of the foremost champions
of the Revolution, - with its rich soil (whose
annual bounty Greece so much needs), its
intelligence and thirst for knowledge, and
its fitness for freedom,-this Thessaly and
Epeirus were both thrust back under Mohammedan despotism. What a commentary on
the sagacity and the fairness of the diplomatic
map-makers of Western Europe! From the
necessity of the case, this first misstep has entailed others; and in the Crimean war France
and England were compelled to crush by their
arms the efforts of a gallant people to vindicate their freedom and nationality, and secure a higher civilization. Honest Lord Carlisle, who was on board one of the English
vessels sent on an expedition " to the Macedonian and Thracian coast, to show the flag, encourage the Turks, and prevent any improper
communications from Greece," betrays his consciousness that they were playing a strange
part for Englishmen. " Our mission here, in



196                    HELLAS.
deed," he says, " is to give countenance to the
invaded Turks, and the reverse to the insurgent Greeks.  Such, probably, is loyally our
duty; still the thought recurs, where are we
now  doing this? -opposite the Pass of Thermopylae." *
But Greece has found worse obstacles than
unnatural boundaries.  She has still to wait
for wise and liberal rulers.
It was a day of proud hope for Hellas when,
escorted by the fleets of three great nations,
her youthful monarch landed  on her shores.t
A graceful youth of seventeen, manly and prepossessing, with a reputation for kindness of
heart and  quick  intelligence,  -  no  wonder
* " Diary in Turkish and Greek Waters," p. 263, American
edition.
t February 6, 1833.
t N. P. Willis, who was presented to King Otho at Nauplia,
a few months after his landing, thus describes his appearance:
" He is rather tall, and his figure is extremely light and elegant. A very flat nose and high cheek-bones are the most
marked features of his face; his hair is straight, and of a light
brown, and with no claim to beauty; the expression of his
countenance is manly, open, and prepossessing." The same
writer, in speaking of the young king's visit to the American frigate United States, says, "As he stepped on the deck,




THE MODERN CAPITAL AND KINGDOM.  197
that every eye followed him with admiration,
and every heart with blessings, as he rode to his
palace through joyous throngs of his new subjects, hailing his advent as their deliverance
from  an anarchy no more tolerable than  the
tyranny of the Turks which preceded it. Nor
can we doubt that Otho then sincerely desired,
as he continued to the end to desire, the happiness and prosperity of his people. But, educated in  a petty  German  court, with  feudal
notions as far remote as possible from applicability to the affairs of Greece, and, notwithstanding  his  honesty  of purpose, by  nature
and was received by Commodore Patterson, I thought I had
never seen a more elegant and well-proportioned man." Mr.
Finlay says of the new sovereign, "Though not handsome,
he was well-grown, and of an engaging appearance."
Commander Wise (" Harry Gringo"), who was in Greece
at the same time as myself, paints him as he was then. " Otho
is tall and slim, with a small head and very large neck; dark
hair, flat nose turned up at the apex; no front teeth, and
somewhat hard of hearing; in fact,' So very deaf,
That he might have worn a percussion-cap
And been knocked on the head without hearing it snap.'
But still, with his German-grayish eyes, the face is, on the
whole, pleasing."




198               HELLAS.
narrow-minded and obstinate, he has failed to
satisfy the expectations which the establishment of Grecian independence had reasonably
excited in his nation and the world. Singularly blind to the truth that all national greatness must rest on a groundwork of material
well-being, he has done next to nothing in the
way of opening roads, reclaiming lands, planting forests, or fostering the interests of agriculture and commerce. Trained in the narrowest maxims of bureaucracy, he has perpetuated the evil work, begun by Capodistrias,
of crippling the municipal institutions of the
country.  Yielding with ill grace in 1843 to
the demands of the people for the constitutional government which had been promised
them, he has to a great extent neutralized its
advantages by tampering with the elections,
and filling both houses of the legislature with
his creatures. Errours so grave cannot be
counterbalanced by the good qualities with
which they coexisted, or by the benefits which
could not fail to result from the substitution
of any kind of regular government for anarchy.  It is not to be wondered at that the




THE MODERN CAPITAL AND KINGDOM. 199
Greeks were dissatisfied with their " barbarian " sovereign, and that his reign was checkered with many a revolt.
Sagacious kingcraft has always allied itself
with the religious prejudices of the people.
Yet to the Greeks, so proudly Orthodox, the
Great Powers sent a Catholic King, who took
to himself a Protestant Queen. It was in the
bond, it is true, that their children should
be brought up in the tenets of the national
Church; but the hopes which the people entertained for an heir to the crown born on Greek
soil and educated in the Greek faith have been
disappointed.  We may set it down to the
credit of Otho, that his was not the easy virtue
of Henry IV. or of Bernadotte, and that he
remained true to the faith of his ancestors;
but, as enlightened England wisely excludes
from her throne all who shock her prejudices
by professing either his religion or that of his
recent subjects, so it might have been expected
that Greece would be restive under a king of
a different creed from her own, and it is not
strange that the want of religious sympathy
between him and his people was one of the




200              HELLAS.
causes which led to the deposition of the
Bavarian dynasty.
Perhaps the capital errour of the Greek government has been the retention of the Turkish
land-tax, which exacts yearly one tenth of the
produce of the soil, and is so burdensome in
its operation that it has effectually checked
the development of the agricultural resources
of the country, preventing the immigration of
labourers and the building up of a sturdy and
independent yeomanry.
But the Greeks should not forget that, great
as is the influence of the government upon a
nation, much more must always depend upon
the people themselves. If the energies which
have been wasted in rebellion had been devoted to the peaceful discussion of measures
of reform, and the dissemination of sound
principles, or to the promotion of a better
training, both in the family and in the school,
something would have been done to secure
that elevation in the character of the whole
people which is the sure bulwark of freedom,
and which, by its moral influence, must sooner or later compel despotism  to give way.




THE MODERN CAPITAL AND KINGDOM. 201
And so also of those hopes- not, as I believe, unfounded —which contemplate fondly
the vision of a Hellas with enlarged boundaries, and with a power which shall not be insignificant in the councils of Europe. To the
few  who, from  personal interest, may read
these words on the banks of the Ilissus, and
to all the statesmen and patriots of Greece, if
my voice could reach them, I would say with
all earnestness, Labour manfully for the education of your people, not only in the learning
of the schools, but in those habits of industry
and thrift which are best calculated to develop
your material wealth, —that integrity  and
honour which shall gain them the confidence
of other nations,  that sturdy morality, without which national stability is impossible, —
that generous aspiration  for well-regulated
liberty  which  shall make  them  render a
cheerful obedience to constituted authority,
whilst they strive persistently, but by peaceful measures, to effect the removal of all
restrictions which  obstruct their progress.
Piedmont had gained the respect and confidence of the world by her quiet career of




202              HELLAS.
well-ordered liberty and wise national development, before she sprang forth to rescue
Italy from  tyranny, and add the fairest to
the countries of the free. Greece, too, must
educate herself up to the height of the full
desert of freedom  and of greatness, before
she can hope to welcome "the rich dawn"
/
of her "ampler day."  She must find her
Cavour before her Garibaldi.
Let her show herself worthy, and Thessaly,
Epeirus, and Macedonia, Crete and the Ionian
Isles, shall be hers in fact, —and by moral
gravitation, rather than through bloody convulsion, - as they will be hers by divine right,
- that right which consists in the evident and
providential fitness of things, attested by common interests, hopes, and aspirations, and by
the invincible consciousness of a common nationality.




THE  DISCOVERIES  AT  ATHENS AND
MYCENIE  IN  1862.
IN the spring of 1862, some eminent German scholars had the happiness to make discoveries in Athens which will mark an epoch
in the history of archaeology. The additions
thus made to our knowledge are so important,
that I am unwilling to leave the foregoing chapters without appending some notice of them.
And first, the Dionysiac Theatre has been
in great part laid open to view, by the removal
of the soil and rubbish which covered it to
the depth of twenty feet. The excavations
were conducted by Mr. Strack, royal architect
of Prussia. They disclosed the seats occupied
by the general body of spectators, and moreover a number of marble thrones or chairs of
honour, next to the orchestra, and constituting
the three front rows. The chairs still bear
the inscriptions designating the officials for
whom they were designed, so that, as Curtius




204                 HELLAS.
says, " if the dignitaries of the city were to
come back to-day, there would be no quarrels
about precedency of seats to fear."     It is a
striking fact, that, of the chairs of honour thus
far excavated, almost all - or forty-one out of
forty-five- were designed for priests or men
of sacerdotal rank. "' This may be accidenttl,
since certainly many more of these chairs have
been destroyed than preserved, and conspicuous seats for the magistrates could not have
been wanting; yet, on the other hand, the
extraordinary insignificance of many of the
deities whose priests are named in the inscriptions (such as the Muses, Eucleia, Eunomia,
and certain obscure heroes) makes it probable
that an extensive claim on the part of sacerdotal personages to seats in the theatre was
early made, and was subsequently turned to
account by  means  of half-illusory  priestly
titles." t At any rate, especial dignity and
* "Festrede " before the University at Gottingen, June 4,
1862, p. 10.
t E. Gerhard, in the "Anzeiger zur Archaologischer Zeitung," May and June, 1862, p. 328; from an article on the
discoveries in the Dionysiac Theatre, to which I am indebted
for my best information on the whole subject.




DISCOVERIES' AT ATHENS AND MYCENAE. 205
prominence  was given to the  priests at the
theatrical representations, — a consequence
perhaps of the religious character which actually belonged to the dithyrambic and choral
odes from which Greek tragedy took its origin,
and which continued to be attributed to the
drama itself.
The midmost and most highly decorated of
the chairs was appropriated to the priest of
Dionysos. It is adorned with reliefs of satyrs
and winged genii. On one of the bench-rows,
as it appears from an inscription, seats were
reserved for the guild of stone-masons. Besides the chairs and rows of seats, two pedestals were discovered, a colossal female statue
without head, some remains of the scena, and
the ascent from the orchestra to the middle of
the proscenium (the stage, in modern phrase),
on the upper step of which is carved the following inscription of the Roman period:" Fr thee, wild-revelling god, this beautiful stage was erected
By Phaedrus, Zoilus' son, bountiful Attica's archon." 
The investigation of the ruins on the Acro* 2ol ro8e KaXoov ETevue, (f\XopYLfE,  iia OerTpov (sic)
1aiZ8pos ZcotXov /3Lo80Topo'ArT0l8os apXos.




206               HELLAS.
polis, with their inexhaustible problems, was
intrusted to the skilful hands of Professor
Botticher.  He has established the fact, that
in the Parthenon there were two doors between the cella, or the Hecatompedon, and the
Opisthodomus, having actually  detected the
sockets il the floor wherein the pivots were
inserted upon which the doors turned, the
scratches made by the rubbing of the doors
against the pavement as they were opened and
shut, and even by the bolt which fastened the
doors against the sill, the hole into which this
bolt was inserted, and the marks of feet which
passed over the threshold. Each of the doors
was five feet wide in the clear. They were'
folding-doors, and were fastened on the side of
the Opisthodornus.
Botticher has also found sufficient confirmation of his hypothesis of the existence of a
platform or raised seat for the magistrates
and judges, before  the statue, whence the
prizes were bestowed in the Panathenaic festival, "whilst a select festal assembly filled
the space of the cella beneath, and from the
upper galleries, to which the steps on both




DISCOVERIES AT ATHENS AND MYCENAE. 207
sides of the Parthenos mounted, resounded
hymns of victory and joy." * The statue itself
is proved to have been placed further back
than previous investigators have supposed.
The door of entrance to the Opisthodomus
from without, Botticher finds to have been a
double one, the halves of the outer door opening against the sides of the aperture in the
temple-wall, which was six and a half feet thick,
and the inner door, of brazen lattice-work,
opening directly into the Opisthodomus. Above
the door was a very large latticed window.
In the temple of Athena Polias, B6tticher
has discovered six windows in the crypt, and
~arrived at a theory of the structure of this
whole building, differing from any hitherto entertained.  For fuller information in regard
to the result of his researches,t I await impatiently the appearance of a book which he
promises upon the Acropolis, in which we may
expect a fuller and clearer exposition than
* Curtius, Gr. Gesch., II. 274, 275.
t My information in regard to Prof. Batticher's discoveries
is derived chiefly from extracts from his letters from Athens in
the Arch. Zeitung for May and June, 1862, pp. 321 - 324.




208                HFJLLAS.
has ever yet appeared, not only of the outward
form, but of the internal organism  and structure,-the whole anatomy of the different
parts and their respective functions, - in those
wondrous architectural creations on the rocky
citadel of Athens, which, in the immortal
beauty and perfection of their design and meaning, in spite of all the mutilations to which they
may be subjected in their outward form and
embodiment, will remain a fT'/aa e' a'e, a
possession for all time.
Not less interesting than the brilliant discoveries of Strack and Botticher were those
made by Professor Curtius, who undertook a
thorough investigation of the most important'
points in the topography of Athens.* It does
not fall within the scope of this little volume
to follow this distinguished scholar as he traces
the whole history and development of the city
on the ground itself, points out the seats of
the earliest inhabitants, determines the boundaries of the Agora and the course of the city
walls, and re-creates the Athens of the past
* See extracts from letters from Curtius, etc., in the number of the Arch. Zeitung already cited, pp. 324 -327.




DISCOVERIES AT ATHENS AND MYCENAE. 209
with a skill equal to that of the geologist and
the palaeontologist in restoring bygone epochs
in the history of our globe. But I am bound
to lay before my readers the decisive results
of his excavations at the so-called Pnyx, in
which he has disclosed the whole of the old
polygonal wall, hitherto in great part hidden,
and proved that the original surface between
this wall and the " bema " was of rock, carefully levelled and sinking as it receded from
the bema, and therefore not intended to be
covered with earth. That the present surface
is not the old one is further proved by the discovery of the foundations of middle-age buildings upon the original ground, and of three
steps hewn in the rock beneath the brick
masonry of these foundations, as well as by
the finding of shards of pottery, terra-cottas,
bits of inscriptions, and two fragments of votive
offerings, -the latter being naked members
of the human body dedicated to Zeus Hupsistos. Moreover, trenches were found, smoothly
cut in the rock, and dividing it in a manner
inconsistent with the hypothesis that this was
the place wherein the political assemblages of
14




210                HELLAS.
the people were held. And so, as Curtius
says, instead of hopelessly pursuing the quarrel on the modern surface, the original ground
has been for the first time interrogated, and a
final answer in the negative returned to those
who have asserted the claims of this locality
as the veritable Pnyx. Yielding perhaps too
easily to the conservative arguments of English and American scholars, I have myself indulged the gratissimus error that I had planted my feet upon the rocky tribune whence
Pericles and Demosthenes first uttered those
words which will echo through all generations;
but the science which wins so much for us.
from the scanty relics of the past, may well be
forgiven if it sometimes dispels our pleasing
illusions.
On the slopes of the Musaeum, also, Curtius
undertook excavations, whence important information may be derived; and at the Munychia topographical investigations were set on
foot which promise the richest results. Scholars will read with eagerness the full account
of his researches which Curtius has promised
in his " Attic Studies," the first number of




DISCOVERIES AT ATHENS AND MYCENiE. 211
which was to appear at Christmas, 1862, in
the Proceedings of the Gottingen Academy of
Sciences.
The old-time monuments of Mycense were
not neglected amidst the archaeological attractions of Athens.  Mr. Strack, accompanied by
Professor Vischer of Basle and Mr. Schirrmacher, an architect, devoted several days to
their examination.  Of the relief over the
Gate of the Lions Strack declares that all the
drawings that have been published are false;
that the pillar (as he proved by actual measurement) is not smaller at the bottom than
at the top, but of uniform diameter throughout; that the lions stand on two separate
pedestals, and not on one with a hole in the
middle; and that the architrave above the
capital does not exhibit balls in its middle
portion, "but cylindrical figures like treetrunks." The concurrence of all previous beholders in representing the pillar as growing
smaller towards the bottom, proves that there
is an optical illusion in the case, as indeed
might be expected in a column of uniform
diameter, our eyes being accustomed to col



212                HELLAS.
umns larger at the bottom than at the top.
The heads of the lions, as Strack states, were
inserted by means of stone pegs; inasmuch as
they were turned outwards, and the stone tablet on which the bodies were carved was not
thick enough for the heads to be wrought in
the same piece of stone.
On the northwest side of the walls of the
citadel, the explorers laid open a gallery with a
pointed-arched roof, like those of Tiryns, " so
that now all the forms of Pelasgic construction are found in Mycenae."  They also explored the remains of the smaller vaulted subterranean  building, near the "Treasury of
Atreus " and resembling it in construction,
where they uncovered fourteen circular courses
of stone, and found a brazen plate of the lining
of the inner surface still well preserved.
Under the auspices of the Royal Museum
at Berlin, plaster casts have been taken of a
number of hitherto uncopied sculptures, among
which are the lions from the gate of Mycenae,
and the monument of Aristion.
The researches so happily begun will doubtless be continued. The Archeological Society




DISCOVERIES AT ATHENS AND MYCENLE. 213
of Athens has taken in hand the completion
of the excavation of the Dionysiac Theatre,
and German scholars will not abandon the seat
of their triumphs till every problem of its
archaeology has been either answered or proved
unanswerable. Meantime, in all civilized nations the results of these investigations will
be watched for with interest; for wherever
the achievements of the noblest powers of man
are held in honour, everything will be welcomed that throws new light on the history
and the monuments of Hellas.








NOTES.
P. 17. How painful would it have been, at this entertainment on board the Cumberland, to have foreseen the
civil strife in which that noble vessel was to gain its sad
immortality!
P. 130. Curtius discovers in the frieze of the Parthenon a representation not so much of the actual procession
in the Panathenaic festival, as of the preparations for the
same. Had it been the task proposed to give a true copy
of the procession itself, he says, " all freedom would have
been taken away from the inventive artist; a solemn
monotony would have been unavoidable, and every representation of this kind would have remained as a feeble
counterfeit far behind the living reality.  Much more
significant was it to represent the preparations for the
great festal procession; since therein the earnestness was
manifested with which the Athenians undertook their national festivals. Thus, in a natural manner and without
constraint, the groups of riders and the four-horse teams,
the sacrificial trains and the musicians, the aliens performing service and the magistrates directing and marshalling the procession, could be represented." Gr. Gesch.,
II. 267.
P. 134. The brilliant golden shields, with which the
architrave was adorned below the metopes on the eastern




216                   NOTES.
and western fronts of the Parthenon, added to the varied
effects of colour.
P. 140. B6tticher's recent investigations may give us
greater certainty in regard to the much-disputed plan of
the Erechtheum, and the purposes to which its different
parts were appropriated. That a part of the temple was
devoted to the worship of Poseidon, under the name of
Poseidon-Erechtheus, seems to be established.




INDEX.
Academy of Plato, 168, 169.        Athena, Archegetis, Portico of,
Achilles, Pompeian picture of,    161 -  Parthenos,  chrysele35.                                phantine statue of, 126, 127
Acropolis of Athens, its fortu-    - Polias, her temple, 145 -
nate position, 17 - its wall,    Promachos, statue of, 123.
112- described, 115 sqq. -   Athens,its aspect, 14-17-view
rich  fragments of buildings    of, from iEgaleus, 94, 95 - its
and statues upon it, 116, 122,   ruins described, 110 - 170, 203
147 -  multitude of shrines,    -210 —their fortunate positemples, and  statues which    tion, 16, 17 - my last night in,
covered it, 123, 147 - the first    169, 170.
impression its ruins give, 121, Athens, Modern, 14, 15, 183 -
136.                               187 - intermixture of barbarEgina, 171-178 -ruins of tem-    ity and civilization in, 183 -
pie at, 173, 175 - pedimental    idle habits of the people, 184
sculptures of the temple, 175 -    - their favorite  promenade,
177 -  their lifelikeness and    185, 186 - literary activity of,
anatomical truth, 176, 177.        194.
Alaric, a legend of, 124.
Amalia, Queen, her garden in  Blackie, Prof., a Song of ParAthens, 186, 187.                  nassus by, 76 - 83.
Aphrodite, her mythical birth  Botticher, Prof., points out disexplained, 8.                      tinction  between  Parthenon
Arachova, 85, 86.                    and temple of Athena Polias,
Architecture, admiration of one    145 - his recent discoveries
of its schools consistent with    at Athens, 206 - 208.
appreciation  of the  others, Byron's " Maid of Athens," 17,
139.                               18.
Areopagus, 148-151 -  St. Paul Byzantine-Greek Empire, new,
on the, 148 - 153.                 dreams of a, 18, 19.
Argos, plain of, 26 -the ancient
city, 33, 34.                    Callirrhoe, 166.
Aristion, monument of, 159, 160, Caper, beauty of its blossom, 30,
212.                               31.
Art, Greek, instinctive, 132 -   Carlisle, Earl of, quoted, 195, 196.
union of liberty and law in it, Castalian spring, 74, 75.
41, 160 -  its cheerful spirit, Cathedral, St. John's, at Valetta,
137, 138, 143, 159-its im-    6, 7-the new, at Athens,
mortality, 208.                    184.




218                          INDEX.
Cephissia, 99, 100 - a source of   -  portico  of the  Athenian
Cephissus at, 99.                 maidens, J143, 144.
Chmronea, 63- 65- lion monu- Erechthonius, statue of, 161.
ment at, 63, 64.                Erem6kastri, 55, 56.
Choregic monument of Lysicrates, 113, 114.                Finlay, George, 12, 13, 96-his
Clyde, James, 20.                    History of the Greek RevoluColonos, 169.                        tion quoted, 194.
Colours, of earth, sea, and sky, Flutes made of the reeds of Coin Greek landscapes, 11, 25,    pais, 59, 60.
30, 43, 47, 71, 95, 170.        Frogs, croaking of the Greek,
Colours, use of, in decorating    27, 28.
Greek temples and sculptures,
133 -135, 160, 173.              Gate of the Lions, 40,41,211,212.
Columns, drums of, how joined  Gerhard, Prof., quoted, 204.
together, 163.                   Gravestones, admirable  reliefs
Copais, Lake, 57 - 59.               upon ancient Greek, 158, 159.
Corinth, 46.                       Greece, Modern,  aspect  and
Corinthian order, its earliest ex-    prospects of, 187 - 202- wise
ample, 113-prophecy of, 142.    provision for education in, 187
Corycian Cave, 73.                   - 189 - blunders of diplomacy
Costume, Modern Greek, 21, 23.   in determining its boundaries,
Cucumber, wild, 33.                  etc., 194, 195, 199-capital
Cumberland, war-frigate (after-    errour of the government of,
wards sloop-of-war), 13, 14, 17,   200 - true method of national
18, 215.                           regeneration, 200 - 202 - possiCurtius, Prof. Ernst, his " Pelo-    ble future of, 201, 202.
ponnesos" quoted, 42 -  his  Greek  Church, 189-191-its
History of Greece cited, 84,   imposing antiquity. 189, 190
146, 206, 215- his recent dis-    -its dangers and hopes, 190,
coveries at Athens, 208 - 211.    191-  its encouragement of
Cyclades, the, 10.                   the circulation of the ScripCythera, 8.                          tures, 191 -extract from  its
Catechism, 192 - 193.
Danaides, their mythical punish-  Greek churches, paintings in, 93,
ment explained, 42.                94, 179.
Daphne, pass and monastery of, Greek language, Modern, 192 -
93, 94.                            194 — translations into from
Daulia, 66.                          English, 89.
Delpli, 73-76, 84, 85.             Greek people, Modern, their inDervenostlesi, 52.                   telligence, 23, 24 - beauty, 23
Dirce, 55.                           — manly  bearing, 24, 63 -
Dromedaries in Greece, 94.           customs, 165, 184, 186 - their
mode of singing, 165, 178.
Education, liberal provision for,
in Modern  Greece, 187-189  Hadrian, gate of, 161 —stoa of,
- of young ladies, 188, 189.       161.
Eleusis, 91, 92.                   Helicon, view of, 56.
Eleuthers, 90.                     Hieratic style, 177.
Erechtheum, 140-145, 207, 216  Homeridue, a modern represent-  variety of sacred objects    ative of the, 28, 29.
comprehended in, 140, 141-   Horologe of Andronicus  Cyrbeauty of Ionic order in, 142    rhestes, 111.




INDEX.                          219
Horses of the frieze of the Par-   tained at his arrival, 196, 197
thenon, 130.                     -his character and errours,
Hydra, 24.                          197-198, 200 -his religion,
199.
Ilissus, 165 - ruined bridge over,
166.                           Palamidi, 29- 30.
Parnassus, ascent of, 67-83 —
Khans, Greek, described, 49, 90.   shepherds of, 68, 69, 72-a
Klephts, 87.                        night on, 69- view from  its
summit, 70, 71-a song of,
Land-tax, Turkish, retained in    76 - 83 - purity of Greek race
Modern Greece, 200.              in region of, 86.
Lebadea, 61 - 63.                 Parthenon, described, 125-138,
Lernaean hydra, meaning of the    206- 207- its sculptures, 128
myth, 35.                        -131, 147, 215 - architectural
Leuctra, 88.                        refinements in its construction, 131 - 133 -avoidance of
Malta, 5 - 7.                       straight lines in it, 131 -133 -
Marathon, 96-109 -  "Herodo-   its coloured adornments, 133 -
tus and Byron best guides to,"    135 - its recent history, 135 -
96 -beauty of the scenery,    137 - shields on its architrave,
107 - monument of Athenians    146, 216 —in what its great
who fell at, 104 — ignorance    charm  consists, 137-138of Albanian inhabitants of its   its harmony and serenity, 137 -
history, 106- view  of, from      138- designed for festal uses,
Pentelicus, 181, 182.             not for sacrifice and worship,
Matapan, Cape, 8.                   145, 146- concentration in it
Messina, 5.                         of symbols of emulation, 146.
Mountains, heights of, in Attica, Partisanship, true taste untram181.                             melled by, 139.
Musseum, 167, 210.                Paul, St., his discourse on Mars'
Museum  of Greek Art in the    Hill, 148-153-his personal
Theseum, 157 -160.               appearance, 150 - his quotaMycense, 35-41, 211, 212.           tions from  the Greek poets,
Myths explained, 8, 35, 42.         152, 153.
Peiraeus, 13, 47.
Nauplia, gulf and harbour, 25-  Pentelicus, 178-182- grove and
26- town and neighbourhood,   monastery at its foot, 17926-30.                            ascent of, 180, 181-its geoNavigation laws, modern Greek,   logical character, 180 - view
172.                             from it, 181, 182.
Nemea, 44, 45.                    Philopappus, monument of, 167.
Nike Apteros, temple of, 117.    Phyle, 51, 52.
Platsea, 88, 89.
Observatory at Athens, 156.       Pnyx, the old theory of its site
Odeum of Herodes Atticus, 115.   and form, 153-156 —Curti(Enoe, 90.                          us's recent excavations, 209,
Oleanders, 42, 43, 103, 187.        210.
Olympieum, 162-165.               Pomegranate, its beauty, 66.
Orchomenus, 58-61.               Priests, prominence given to, at
Otho I., king, a guide's opinion    the theatre, 204, 205.
of, 172 - his personal appear- Propylea, 118-122 —evidence
ance, 196, 197-hopes enter-    of its unfinished state, 122.




220                         INDEX.
Pythian oracle, secret of its in-  Thebes, 53, 54.
fluence, 84.                   Themistocles, monument of, 13,
47.
Road from Thebes to Athens, 89. Theseum, 156, 157.
Rome and Augustus, temple of, Thespise, 55.
147.                           Thessaly   unjustly   excluded
Rosaries, Greek habit of twirl-   from the modern kingdom  of
ing, 186.                         Greece, 194, 195.
Ruins of Athens, orange, tawny, Thucydides, a passage in, illusand russet colour of, 157, 164.   trated, 86.
Tiryns, 31- 33.
St. George the Younger (6 veos), Travelling in Greece, mode of,
61.                              48 - 50.
Scylla and Charybdis, 4, 5.       Treasury, of Atreus, 35 - 39 -
Socrates, the so-called prison of,   of Minyas, 58, 59-similar
167, 168.                        building recently excavated
Stadium  Panathenaicum, 166,   at Mycene, 212.
167.                           Tripods, street of the, 113.
Steamboats, groups  on  their Trophonius, sanctuary of, 62.
decks in Greek waters, 21-23. Turkey, her coming fall, 19.
Steamships on the Mediterra- Turks, disfigured ancient statnean, usual company in, 2- 4.   ues, 111.
Strack, Mr., his recent discover-  Turner, J. M. W., his painting
ies at Athens, 203 -205- at   of the temple at AEgina, 175.
Mycenae, 211-212.
Strombol. 4.
Stylites, St. Simeon, a moder   University at Athens, 187, 188.
Styltes, St. Simeon, a modern  
rival of, 164.
Sunium, promontory of, 11-   Valetta,5-7.
ruins of temple of Athena on, Voyage, from  Naples to Malta.
11.                              2- -5-from  Malta to Athens,
Syra, 8, 9- Mr. Hildner's school   7 - 14.
at, 9.
Temples, ancient Greek, plan of, Wine, G-eek, injured by resin,
124, 125.                        85, 86.
Theatre, Dionysiac, 114, 203205.                           Zeus Hupsistos, 155, 209.
TH E  EN)D.
Camllbrlldge: Printed by V'ei(ii, tiiliut,, & Co.