tombs at Athens. And in the same temple at Olympia, above the zone that
runs round the pillars on the outside, are twenty-one golden shields,
the offering of Mummius the Roman general, after he had beaten the
Achæans and taken Corinth, and expelled the Dorians from Corinth. And on
the gables in bas-relief is the chariot race between Pelops and
OEnomaus; and both chariots in motion. And in the middle of the gable
is a statue of Zeus; and on the right hand of Zeus is OEnomaus with a
helmet on his head; and beside him his wife Sterope, one of the
daughters of Atlas. And Myrtilus, who was the charioteer of OEnomaus,
is seated behind the four horses. And next to him are two men whose
names are not recorded, but they are doubtless OEnomaus's grooms,
whose duty was to take care of the horses....
The carvings on the gables in front are by Pæonius of Mende in Thracia;
those behind by Alcamenes, a contemporary of Phidias and second only to
him as statuary. And on the gables is a representation of the fight
between the Lapithæ and the Centaurs at the marriage of Pirithous.
Pirithous is in the center, and on one side of him is Eurytion trying to
carry off Pirithous's wife, and Cæneus coming to the rescue, and on the
other side Theseus laying about among the Centaurs with his battle-ax;
and one Centaur is carrying off a maiden, another a blooming boy.
Alcamenes has engraved this story, I imagine, because he learned from
the lines of Homer that Pirithous was the son of Zeus, and knew that
Theseus was fourth in descent from Pelops. There are also in bas-relief
at Olympia most of the Labors of Hercules. Above the doors of the temple
is the hunting of the Erymanthian boar, and Hercules taking the mares
of Diomede the Thracian, and robbing Geryon of his oxen in the island of
Erytheia, and supporting the load of Atlas, and clearing the land of
Elis of its dung....
The image of the god is in gold and ivory, seated on a throne. And a
crown is on his head imitating the foliage of the olive tree. In his
right hand he holds a Victory in ivory and gold, with a tiara and crown
on his head; and in his left hand a scepter adorned with all manner of
precious stones, and the bird seated on the scepter is an eagle. The
robes and sandals of the god are also of gold; and on his robes are
imitations of flowers, especially of lilies. And the throne is richly
adorned with gold and precious stones, and with ebony and ivory. And
there are imitations of animals painted on it, and models worked on it.
There are four Victories like dancers, one at each foot of the throne,
and two also at the instep of each foot; and at each of the front feet
are Theban boys carried off by Sphinxes, and below the Sphinxes, Apollo
and Artemis shooting down the children of Niobe. And between the feet of
the throne are four divisions formed by straight lines drawn from each
of the four feet.
In the division nearest the entrance there are seven models--the eighth
has vanished no one knows where or how. And they are imitations of
ancient contests, for in the days of Phidias the contests for boys were
not yet established. And the figure with its head muffled up in a scarf
is, they say, Pantarcas, who was a native of Elis and the darling of
Phidias. This Pantarces won the wrestling-prize for boys in the 86th
Olympiad. And in the remaining divisions is the band of Hercules
fighting against the Amazons. The number on each side is twenty-nine,
and Theseus is on the side of Hercules. And the throne is supported not
only by the four feet, but also by four pillars between the feet. But
one can not get under the throne, as one can at Amyclæ, and pass inside;
for at Olympia there are panels like walls that keep one off.
At the top of the throne, Phidias has represented above the head of Zeus
the three Graces and three Seasons. For these too, as we learn from the
poets, were daughters of Zeus. Homer in the Iliad has represented the
Seasons as having the care of Heaven, as a kind of guards of a royal
palace. And the base under the feet of Zeus (what is called in Attic
"thranion") has golden lions engraved on it, and the battle between
Theseus and the Amazons--the first famous exploit of the Athenians
beyond their own borders. And on the platform that supports the throne
there are various ornaments round Zeus, and gilt carving--the Sun seated
in his chariot, and Zeus and Hera; and near is Grace. Hermes is close to
her, and Vesta close to Hermes. And next to Vesta is Eros receiving
Aphrodite, who is just rising from the sea and being crowned by
Persuasion. And Apollo and Artemis, Athene and Hercules, are standing
by, and at the end of the platform Amphitrite and Poseidon, and Selene
apparently urging on her horse. And some say it is a mule and not a
horse that the goddess is riding upon; and there is a silly tale about
this mule.
I know that the size of the Olympian Zeus both in height and breadth has
been stated; but I can not bestow praise on the measurers, for their
recorded measurement comes far short of what any one would infer from
looking at the statue. They make the god also to have testified to the
art of Phidias. For they say that when the statue was finished, Phidias
prayed him to signify if the work was to his mind; and immediately Zeus,
struck with lightning that part of the pavement where in our day is a
brazen urn with a lid.
And all the pavement in front of the statue is not of white but of black
stone. And a border of Parian marble runs round this black stone, as a
preservative against spilled oil. For oil is good for the statue at
Olympia, as it prevents the ivory being harmed by the dampness of the
grove. But in the Acropolis at Athens, in regard to the statue of Athene
called the Maiden, it is not oil but water that is advantageously
employed to the ivory; for as the citadel is dry by reason of its great
height, the statue being made of ivory needs to be sprinkled with water
freely. And when I was at Epidaurus, and inquired why they use neither
water nor oil to the statue of Æsculapius, the sacristans of the temple
informed me that the statue of the god and its throne are over a well.
THERMOPYLÆ[55]
BY RUFUS B. RICHARDSON
We took Thermopylæ at our leisure, passing out from Lamia over the
Spercheios on the bridge of Alamana, at which Diakos, famous in ballad,
resisted with a small band a Turkish army, until he was at last captured
and taken to Lamia to be impaled....
It may be taken as a well-known fact that the Spercheios has since the
time of Herodotus made so large an alluvial deposit around its mouth
that, if he himself should return to earth, he would hardly recognize
the spot which he has described so minutely. The western horn, which in
his time came down so near to the gulf as to leave space for a single
carriage-road only, is now separated from it by more than a mile of
plain. Each visit to Thermopylæ has, however, deepened my conviction
that Herodotus exaggerated the impregnability of this pass. The mountain
spur which formed it did not rise so abruptly from the sea as to form an
impassable barrier to the advance of a determined antagonist. It is of
course difficult ground to operate on, but certainly not impossible.
The other narrow place, nearly two miles to the east of this, is still
more open, a fact that is to be emphasized, because many topographers,
including Colonel Leake, hold that the battle actually took place
there, as the great battle between the Romans and Antioches certainly
did. This eastern pass is, to be sure, no place where "a thousand may
well be stopt by three," and there can not have taken place any great
transformation here since classical times, inasmuch as this region is
practically out of reach of the Spercheios, and the deposit from the hot
sulfur streams, which has so broadened the theater-shaped area enclosed
by the two horns, can hardly have contributed to changing the shape of
the eastern horn itself.
Artificial fortification was always needed here; but it is very
uncertain whether any of the stones that still remain can be claimed as
parts of such fortification. It is a fine position for an inferior force
to choose for defense against a superior one; but while it can not be
declared with absolute certainty that this is not the place where the
fighting took place, yet the western pass fits better the description of
Herodotus. Besides this, if the western pass had been abandoned to the
Persians at the outset the fact would have been worth mentioning.
As to the heroic deed itself, the view that Leonidas threw away his own
life and that of the four thousand, that it was magnificent but not
strategy, not war, does not take into account the fact that Sparta had
for nearly half a century been looked to as the military leader of
Greece. It was audacious in the Athenians to fight the battle of
Marathon without them, and they did so only because the Spartans did not
come at their call. Sparta had not come to Thermopylæ in force, it is
true; but her king was there with three hundred of her best men. Only
by staying and fighting could he show that Sparta held by right the
place she had won. It had to be done. "So the glory of Sparta was not
blotted out."
One may have read, and read often, the description of the battle in the
school-room, but he reads it with different eyes on the spot, when he
can look up at the hillock crowned with a ruined cavalry barrack just
inside the western pass and say to himself: "Here on this hill they
fought their last fight and fell to the last man. Here once stood the
monuments to Leonidas, to the three hundred, and to the four thousand."
The very monuments have crumbled to dust, but the great deed lives on.
We rode back to Lamia under the spell of it. It was as if we had been in
church and been held by a great preacher who knows how to touch the
deepest chords of the heart. Euboea was already dark blue, while the
sky above it was shaded from pink to purple. Tymphrestos in the west was
bathed in the light of the sun that had gone down behind it. The whole
surrounding was most stirring, and there was ever sounding in our hearts
that deep bass note: "What they did here."
SALONICA[56]
BY CHARLES DUDLEY WARNER
The city of Salonica lies on a fine bay, and presents an attractive
appearance from the harbor, rising up the hill in the form of an
amphitheater. On all sides, except the sea, ancient walls surround it,
fortified at the angles by large, round towers and crowned in the
center, on the hill, by a respectable citadel. I suppose that portions
of these walls are of Hellenic, and perhaps, Pelasgic date, but the most
are probably of the time of the Latin crusaders' occupation, patched and
repaired by Saracens and Turks. We had come to Thessalonica on St.
Paul's account, not expecting to see much that would excite us, and we
were not disappointed. When we went ashore we found ourselves in a city
of perhaps sixty thousand inhabitants, commonplace in aspect, altho its
bazaars are well filled with European goods, and a fair display of
Oriental stuffs and antiquities, and animated by considerable briskness
of trade. I presume there are more Jews here than there were in Paul's
time, but Turks and Greeks, in nearly equal numbers, form the bulk of
the population.
In modern Salonica there is not much respect for pagan antiquities, and
one sees only the usual fragments of columns and sculptures worked into
walls or incorporated in Christian churches. But those curious in early
Byzantine architecture will find more to interest them here than in any
place in the world except Constantinople. We spent the day wandering
about the city, under the guidance of a young Jew, who was without
either prejudices or information. On our way to the Mosque of St.
Sophia, we passed through the quarter of the Jews, which is much cleaner
than is usual with them. These are the descendants of Spanish Jews, who
were expelled by Isabella, and they still retain, in a corrupt form, the
language of Spain. In the doors and windows were many pretty Jewesses;
banishment and vicissitude appear to agree with this elastic race, for
in all the countries of Europe Jewish women develop more beauty in form
and feature than in Palestine. We saw here and in other parts of the
city a novel head-dress, which may commend itself to America in the
revolutions of fashion. A great mass of hair, real or assumed, was
gathered into a long, slender, green bag, which hung down the back and
was terminated by a heavy fringe of silver. Otherwise, the dress of the
Jewish women does not differ much from that of the men; the latter wear
a fez or turban, and a tunic which reaches to the ankles, and is bound
about the waist by a gay sash or shawl.
The Mosque of St. Sophia, once a church, and copied in its proportions
and style from its namesake in Constantinople, is retired, in a
delightful court, shaded by gigantic trees and cheered by a fountain. So
peaceful a spot we had not seen in many a day; birds sang in the trees
without disturbing the calm of the meditative pilgrim. In the portico
and also in the interior are noble columns of marble and verd-antique,
and in the dome is a wonderfully quaint mosaic of the Transfiguration.
We were shown also a magnificent pulpit of the latter beautiful stone
cut from a solid block, in which it is said St. Paul preached. As the
Apostle, according to his custom, reasoned with the people out of the
Scriptures in a synagogue, and this church was not built for centuries
after his visit, the statement needs confirmation; but pious ingenuity
suggests that the pulpit stood in a subterranean church underneath this.
I should like to believe that Paul sanctified this very spot with his
presence; but there is little in its quiet seclusion to remind one of
him who had the reputation when he was in Thessalonica of one of those
who turn the world upside down.
FROM THE PIERIAN PLAIN TO MARATHON[57]
BY CHARLES DUDLEY WARNER
At early light of a cloudless morning we were going easily down the Gulf
of Thermæ or Salonica, having upon our right the Pierian plain; and I
tried to distinguish the two mounds which mark the place of the great
battle near Pydna, one hundred and sixty-eight years before Christ,
between Æmilius Paulus and King Perseus, which gave Macedonia to the
Roman Empire. Beyond, almost ten thousand feet in the air, towered
Olympus, upon whose "broad" summit Homer displays the ethereal palaces
and inaccessible abode of the Grecian gods. Shaggy forests still clothe
its sides, but snow now, and for the greater part of the year, covers
the wide surface of the height, which is a sterile, light-colored rock.
The gods did not want snow to cool the nectar at their banquets.
This is the very center of the mythologic world; there between Olympus
and Ossa is the Vale of Tempe, where the Peneus, breaking through a
narrow gorge fringed with the sacred laurel, reaches the gulf, south of
ancient Heracleum. Into this charming but secluded retreat the gods and
goddesses, weary of the icy air, or the Pumblechookian deportment of the
court of Olympian Jove, descended to pass the sunny hours with the
youths and maidens of mortal mold; through this defile marks of
chariot-wheels still attest the passage of armies which flowed either
way, in invasion or retreat; and here Pompey, after a ride of forty
miles from the fatal field of Pharsalia, quenched his thirst.
At six o'clock the Cape of Posilio was on our left, we were sinking
Olympus in the white haze of morning, Ossa, in its huge silver bulk, was
near us, and Pelion stretched its long white back below. The sharp cone
of Ossa might well ride upon the extended back of Pelion, and it seems a
pity that the Titans did not succeed in their attempt. We were leaving,
and looking our last on the Thracian coasts, once rimmed from Mt. Athos
to the Bosphorus with a wreath of prosperous cities. What must once
have been the splendor of the Ægean Sea and its islands, when every
island was the seat of a vigorous state, and every harbor the site of a
commercial town which sent forth adventurous galleys upon any errand of
trade or conquest!...
We ascended Mt. Pentelicus. Hymettus and Pentelicus are about the same
height--thirty-five hundred feet--but the latter, ten miles to the
northeast of Athens, commands every foot of the Attic territory; if one
should sit on its summit and read a history of the little state, he
would need no map.
Up to the highest quarries the road is steep, and strewn with broken
marble, and after that there is an hour's scramble through bushes and
over a rocky path. From these quarries was hewn the marble for the
Temple of Theseus, the Parthenon, the Propylæ, the theaters, and other
public buildings, to which age has now given a soft and creamy tone; the
Pentelic marble must have been too brilliant for the eye, and its
dazzling luster was, no doubt, softened by the judicious use of color.
Fragments which we broke off had the sparkle and crystalline grain of
loaf-sugar, and if they were placed upon the table one would
unhesitatingly take them to sweeten his tea. The whole mountain-side is
overgrown with laurel, and we found wild flowers all the way to the
summit....
We looked almost directly down upon Marathon. There is the bay and the
curving sandy shore where the Persian galleys landed; here upon a spur,
jutting out from the hill, the Athenians formed before they encountered
the host in the plain, and there--alas! it was hidden by a hill--is the
mound where the one hundred and ninety-two Athenian dead are buried. It
is only a small field, perhaps six miles along the shore and a mile and
a half deep, and there is a considerable marsh on the north and a small
one at the south end. The victory at so little cost, of ten thousand
over a hundred thousand, is partially explained by the nature of the
ground; the Persians had not room enough to maneuver, and must have been
thrown into confusion on the skirts of the northern swamp, and if over
six thousand of them were slain, they must have been killed on the shore
in the panic of their embarkation. But still the shore is broad, level,
and firm, and the Greeks must have been convinced that the gods
themselves terrified the hearts of the barbarians, and enabled them to
discomfit a host which had chosen this plain as the most feasible in all
Attica for the action of cavalry.
AN EXCURSION TO SPARTA AND MAINA[58]
BY BAYARD TAYLOR
As we approached Sparta, the road descended to the banks of the Eurotas.
Traces of the ancient walls which restrained the river still remain in
places, but, in his shifting course, he has swept the most of them away,
and spread his gravelly deposits freely over the bottoms inclosed
between the spurs of the hills. Toward evening we saw, at a distance,
the white houses of modern Sparta, and presently some indications of the
ancient city. At first, the remains of terraces and ramparts, then the
unmistakable Hellenic walls, and, as the superb plain of the Eurotas
burst upon us, stretching, in garden-like beauty, to the foot of the
abrupt hills, over which towered the sun-touched snows of Taygetus, we
saw, close on our right, almost the only relic of the lost ages--the
theater. Riding across the field of wheat, which extended all over the
scene of the Spartan gymnastic exhibitions, we stood on the proscenium
and contemplated these silent ruins, and the broad, beautiful landscape.
It is one of the finest views in Greece--not so crowded with striking
points, not so splendid in associations as that of Athens, but larger,
grander, richer in coloring. Besides the theater, the only remains are
some masses of Roman brickwork, and the massive substructions of a small
temple which the natives call the tomb of Leonidas....
We spent the night in a comfortable house, which actually boasted of a
floor, glass windows, and muslin curtains. On returning to the theater
in the morning, we turned aside into a plowed field to inspect a
sarcophagus which had just been discovered. It still lay in the pit
where it was found, and was entire, with the exception of the lid. It
was ten feet long by four broad, and was remarkable in having a division
at one end, forming a smaller chamber, as if for the purpose of
receiving the bones of a child. From the theater I made a sketch of the
valley, with the dazzling ridge of Taygetus in the rear, and Mistra, the
medieval Sparta, hanging on the steep sides of one of his gorges. The
sun was intensely hot, and we were glad to descend again, making our way
through tall wheat, past walls of Roman brickwork and scattering blocks
of the older city, to the tomb of Leonidas. This is said to be a temple,
tho there are traces of vaults and passages beneath the pavement which
do not quite harmonize with such a conjecture. It is composed of huge
blocks of breccia, some of them thirteen feet long.
I determined to make an excursion to Maina. This is a region rarely
visited by travelers, who are generally frightened off by the reputation
of its inhabitants, who are considered by the Greeks to be bandits and
cut-throats to a man. The Mainotes are, for the most part, lineal
descendants of the ancient Spartans, and, from the decline of the Roman
power up to the present century, have preserved a virtual independence
in their mountain fastnesses. The worship of the pagan deities existed
among them as late as the eighth century. They were never conquered by
the Turks, and it required considerable management to bring them under
the rule of Otho....
Starting at noon, we passed through the modern Sparta, which is well
laid out with broad streets. The site is superb, and in the course of
time the new town will take the place of Mistra. We rode southward, down
the valley of the Eurotas, through orchards of olive and mulberry. We
stopt for the night at the little khan of Levetzova. I saw some cows
pasturing here, quite a rare sight in Greece, where genuine butter is
unknown. That which is made from the milk of sheep and goats is no
better than mild tallow. The people informed me, however, that they make
cheese from cow's milk, but not during Lent. They are now occupied with
rearing Paschal lambs, a quarter of a million of which are slaughtered
in Greece on Easter Day. The next morning, we rode over hills covered
with real turf, a little thin, perhaps, but still a rare sight in
southern lands. In two hours we entered the territory of Maina, on the
crest of a hill, where we saw Marathonisi (the ancient Gythium), lying
warm upon the Laconian Gulf. The town is a steep, dirty, labyrinthine
place, and so rarely visited by strangers that our appearance created
quite a sensation....
A broad, rich valley opened before us, crossed by belts of poplar and
willow trees, and inclosed by a semicircle of hills, most of which were
crowned with the lofty towers of the Mainotes. In Maina almost every
house is a fortress. The law of blood revenge, the right of which is
transmitted from father to son, draws the whole population under its
bloody sway in the course of a few generations. Life is a running fight,
and every foe slain entails on the slayer a new penalty of retribution
for himself and his descendants for ever.
Previous to the revolution most of the Mainote families lived in a state
of alternate attack and siege. Their houses are square towers, forty or
fifty feet high, with massive walls, and windows so narrow that they
may be used as loopholes for musketry. The first story is at a
considerable distance from the ground, and reached by a long ladder
which can be drawn up so as to cut off all communication. Some of the
towers are further strengthened by a semicircular bastion, projecting
from the side most liable to attack. The families supplied themselves
with telescopes, to look out for enemies in the distance, and always had
a store of provisions on hand, in case of a siege. Altho this private
warfare has been supprest, the law of revenge exists.