Being the key, as it were, of Arcadia, the Lacedemonians laid siege to
it and took it 659 B. C. In order to regain the city, the inhabitants
consulted the oracle of Delphos, who directed them to select one hundred
men from Orestasium to assist them. These brave persons perished; but
the Orestasians, in concert with the Phigalians, attacked their enemies
and routed them. The Phigalians afterwards erected a monument in honour
of the one hundred men who had fallen.
There was one temple dedicated to Diana Conservatrix, in which was her
statue, and another dedicated to Apollo the Deliverer.
Chandler relates, that M. Joachim Bocher, an architect of Paris, was
desirous of examining a building near Caritena. He was still remote from
that place, when he perceived a ruin, two hours from Verrizza, which
prevented him from going further. This ruin stands on an eminence,
sheltered by lofty mountains. The temple, it is supposed, was that of
Apollo Epicurius, near Phigalia. It was of the Doric order, and had six
columns in front. The number which ranged round the cella was
thirty-eight. Two at the angles are fallen; the rest are entire, in good
preservation, and support their architraves. Within them lies a confused
heap. The stone inclines to grey, with reddish veins. To its beauty is
added great precision in the workmanship. These remains had their
effect, striking equally the mind and the eye of the beholder.
The walls of Phigalia alone remain; they were flanked with towers, both
square and circular. One gate towards the east is yet covered by blocks,
which approach each other like the underside of a staircase. There has
been a temple, of fine limestone, of the Doric order, on which is an
inscription.
Pausanias describes Phigalia as surrounded by mountains, of which one
named _Cotylium_ was distant about forty stadia, or five miles. The
temple of Apollo stood on this, at a place called Bassæ.
Under the ruins of this temple, the Baron Von Stachelberg discovered, in
1812, some curious bas-reliefs, which are now in the British Museum.
They were executed in the time of Pericles, the temple having been built
by Ictinus, the architect of the Parthenon.
These bas-reliefs, representing the battle of the Centaurs and Lapithæ,
and the combat between the Greeks and Amazons, composed the frieze in
the interior of the cella, in the temple of Apollo the Deliverer. The
battle of the Centaurs and Lapithæ is sculptured on eleven slabs of
marble; that of the Greeks and Amazons occupies twelve.
Besides these there are other fragments from the same temple:—1. A
fragment of a Doric capital of one of the columns of the peristyle. 2. A
fragment of an Ionic temple of one of the columns of the cella. 3. Two
fragments of the tiles, which surmounted the pediments, and formed the
superior moulding. 4. Fragments of metopes, found in the porticos.
The following observations lately appeared in the Times newspaper:—“In
the saloon of the British Museum are the celebrated bas-reliefs, found
at Mount Cobylus, near the ancient city of Phigalia, in Arcadia. They
represent the battles of the Greeks and Amazons, and those of Theseus
and the Lapithæ against the Centaurs. According to Pausanias, they were
the work of Ictinus, a contemporary of Phidias. The grandeur of
conception displayed in their composition, the variety of attitude and
action shown, is not surpassed by those in the Elgin saloon, though
their execution may be inferior. The combat of the Greeks and Amazons
occupies twelve slabs of marble, and that of the Centaurs eleven. Both
the history of the Amazons and the battle, here represented, are
obscure. The origin of the name is derived from two words, ‘Ama’ or
‘Ma,’ which in all old languages signifies ‘mother’—its ubiquity is
proof of its antiquity—and the ancient name of the sun, as found in the
Temple of Heliopolis, in Egypt, is ‘On,’ ‘Ton,’ or ‘Zoan;’ but that any
nation of Amazons, in the vulgar acceptation of the word, ever existed,
is more than problematical. Faber says that those nations, who
worshipped the female principle of the world, such as the Iberians, the
Cimmerians, the Mootæ, the Atalantians of Mauritania, and the Ionians,
were Amazons, and a celebrated invasion of Attica by them is mentioned.
We are told that Eumolphus, an Egyptian, was the leader; and Pausanias
mentions an Attic victory or trophy, called an Amazonium, erected to
their manes. According to Arrian, the Queen of the Amazons, on the
borders of the Caspian Sea, sent ambassadors with defiance to Alexander.
In the time of Pompey, they were still supposed to exist; and Dion
Cassius says, that in the Mithridatic war buskins and boots were found
by the Roman soldiers, undoubtedly Amazonian. The worship of the male
and female deities in Greece caused peace between the sects, and the
origin of their quarrel and their name was forgotten in Europe. In Asia
the Persians and the Jews seem still to have formed an exception.
Cambyses, in his invasion, destroyed in Egypt everything connected with
the female worship; he overturned the sphinxes, but he left the obelisks
untouched. The scene of the combat, depicted on these tablets, is drawn
with great force and spirit: some of the Amazons have long tunics,
others short vestments, only reaching to the knee; one on horseback has
trousers, and loose sleeves reaching to the wrist; on the head of some
is the Archaic helmet, and those without have the hair fastened in a
knot on the top; they all but one wear boots, which reach to the knees;
their robes are fastened with a zone; some have two belts crossed
between the breasts; their arms are swords, and the double-headed
Scythian battle-axe, as also spears, bows, and arrows. None of these
last are preserved, they being probably of bronze, as the holes remain,
and added afterwards, as was the custom with ancient sculpture; the
shields are small, and of the lunar form, opening at top. The Athenian
warriors have cloaks, or tunics, fastened round the neck, and tightened
about the waist by a belt; it reaches no lower than the knee; the right
arm is bare. In one group a fierce warrior has seized a mounted Amazon
by the hair; he is dragging her from the horse, which is rearing. The
action of the female figure is very fine: she firmly maintains her seat,
till relieved by another; who, with uplifted axe and shield to protect
her from the flying arrows, shall have brained her antagonist. The 18th
slab has five figures and two horses; in one the horse has fallen, and
an Athenian warrior has his right hand fixed on the throat of the
Amazon, while, with the other hand, he has grasped her foot, and drags
her, who seems to have lost all recollection, from the horse’s back. The
position of the centre figure is very fine: he is within the guard of
the shield of the Amazon, and is striking a deadly blow with his hand,
in which has been a sword. In another group an Athenian has fallen; he
rests on his left hand, and extends his right in supplication to the
female warriors who surround him, and is in the act of surrendering,
while behind him an Amazon is striking him with her battle-axe. In the
sculptures of the Lapithæ and Centaurs all the warriors, with the
exception of Theseus, are armed with swords, who, as an imitator of
Hercules, has a club. The shields are large and circular; they have a
broad border round the circumference, and resemble those of the Ephibi
of Athens. Of the helmets there are four kinds—one which fits the head
closely, without either crest or vizor; another with a crest, and one
with guards for the ears, and a fourth with a pointed vizor. In one of
the sculptures Theseus is seen attacking a Centaur; he has the head of
the monster under his left arm, and with the right, which probably held
a club of bronze, as the hole remains, he is destroying him. He appears
to have arrived just in time to save Hippodomia, whom the Centaur has
disrobed, and who is clinging to the statue of Diana. From the tiara
behind, and the lion’s skin, this figure is supposed to be Theseus; the
Centaur is Eurytion; a female figure is also seen pleading on her
behalf, and, in the distance, a Goddess is hastening in a car drawn by
stags to the rescue; this probably is Diana, as the temple was dedicated
to Apollo.”
The city of Phigalia is now become a mere village, known by the name of
Paolitza[97].
NO. XVII.—PLATÆA.
This city has long been famous; for it was in a plain near to it that
was fought the celebrated battle between the Greeks and Persians[98]. On
the evening previous to the engagement, the Grecians held a council of
war, in which it was resolved, that they should decamp from the place
they were in, and march to another more conveniently situated for water.
Night being come on, and the officers endeavouring at the head of their
corps to make more haste than ordinary to the camp marked out for them,
great confusion happened among the troops, some going one way and some
another, without observing any order or regularity in their march. At
last they halted near the little city of Platæa.
On the first news of the Grecians being decamped, Mardonius drew his
army into order of battle, and pursued them with hideous shouting and
bawling of his barbarian forces, who thought they were advancing not so
much in order of battle, as to strip and plunder a flying enemy; and
their general likewise, making himself sure of victory, proudly insulted
Artabazus; reproaching him with his fearful and cowardly prudence, and
with the false notion, he had conceived of the Lacedæmonians, who never
fled, as he pretended, before an enemy; whereas here was an instance of
the contrary. But the general found quickly this was no false or
ill-grounded notion. He happened to fall in with the Lacedæmonians, who
were alone and separated from the body of the Grecian army, to the
number of fifty thousand men, together with three thousand of the
Tegeatæ. The encounter was exceedingly fierce and resolute on both
sides; the men fought with the courage of lions, and the barbarians
perceived that they had to do with soldiers, who were determined to
conquer or die on the field. The Athenian troops, to whom Pausanias sent
an officer, were already upon their march to their aid; but the Greeks
who had taken part with the Persians, to the number of fifty thousand
men, went out to meet them on their way, and hindered them from
proceeding any farther. Aristides, with his little body of men, bore up
firmly against them, and withstood their attack, telling them how
insignificant a superiority of numbers is against true courage and
bravery. The battle being thus divided, and fought in two different
places, the Spartans were the first who broke in upon the Persian
forces, and put them in disorder. Mardonius, their general, falling dead
of a wound he had received in the engagement, all his army betook
themselves to flight; and those Greeks, who were engaged against
Aristides, did the same thing as soon as they understood the barbarians
were defeated. The latter ran away to their former camp which they had
quitted, where they were sheltered and fortified with an inclosure of
wood.
The manner, in which the Lacedæmonians treated the Platæans some time
after, is, also, not unworthy of remembrance. About the end of the
campaign, which is that wherein Mitylene was taken, the Platæans, being
in absolute want of provisions, and unable to make the least defence,
surrendered, upon condition that they should not be punished till they
had been tried and judged in form of justice. Five commissioners came
for that purpose from Lacedæmon; and these, without charging them for
any crime, barely asked them, Whether they had done any service to the
Lacedæmonians and the allies in war? The Platæans were much surprised as
well as puzzled at this question, and were sensible that it had been
suggested by the Thebans, their professed enemies, who had vowed their
destruction. They therefore put the Lacedæmonians in mind of the
services, they had done to Greece in general; both at the battle of
Artemesium, and that of Platæa, and particularly in Lacedæmonia, at the
time of the earthquake, which was followed by the revolt of their
slaves. The only reason, they declared, of their having joined the
Athenians afterwards, was to defend themselves from the hostilities of
the Thebans, against whom they had implored the assistance of the
Lacedæmonians to no purpose: that if that was imputed to them as a
crime, which was only their misfortune, it ought not however entirely to
obliterate the remembrance of their former services. “Cast your eyes,”
said they, “on the monuments of your ancestors, which you see here, to
whom we annually pay all the honours, which can be rendered to the manes
of the dead. You thought fit to entrust their bodies with us, as we were
eye-witnesses of their bravery; and yet you will now give up their ashes
to their murderers, in abandoning us to the Thebans, who fought against
us at the battle of Platæa. Will you enslave a province where Greece
recovered its liberty? Will you destroy the temples of those gods to
whom you owe the victory? Will you abolish the memory of their founders,
who contributed so greatly to your safety? On this occasion, we may
venture to say, our interest is inseparable from your glory; and you
cannot deliver up your ancient friends and benefactors to the unjust
hatred of the Thebans, without eternal infamy to yourselves.”
One would conclude, that these just remonstrances would have made some
impression on the Lacedæmonians; but they were biassed more by the
answer the Thebans made, and which was expressed in the most bitter and
haughty terms against the Platæans, and, besides, they had brought their
instructions from Lacedæmon. They stood, therefore, to their first
question, “Whether the Platæans had done them any service during the
war?” And making them pass one after another, as they severally answered
“No,” each was immediately butchered, and not one escaped. About two
hundred were killed in this manner; and twenty-five Athenians, who were
among them, met the same unhappy fate. Their wives, who were taken
prisoners, were made slaves. The Thebans afterwards peopled their city
with exiles from Megara and Platæa; but, the year after, they demolished
the latter entirely. It was in this manner the Lacedæmonians, in the
hopes of reaping great advantages from the Thebans, sacrificed the
Platæans to their animosity, ninety-three years after their first
alliance with the Athenians.
Herodotus relates, that cenotaphs, composed of heaps of earth, were
raised near the town; but no vestige of these remain; nor are there any
traces of the sepulchres of those who fell at Platæa. These are
mentioned by Plutarch, who says, that at the anniversary of those who
were killed at Platæa, the Archon crossed the city to go to the
sepulchres, and drawing water from the fountain in a vase, washed the
columns of the tombs, and made libations of wine, oil, milk, and
perfumes.
Here was a temple of Minerva, in which Polygnotus executed a group of
the return of Ulysses; and a statue of the goddess of great size, of
gilt wood; but the face, hands, and feet, were of ivory. Also a temple
of Diana, in which was a monument of Euchidas, a citizen of Platæa, to
commemorate his having run from Platæa to Delphos, and returned before
sunset: he expired a few minutes after. The distance was thirty-seven
leagues and a half.
Mr. Dodwell says, he could find no certain traces of this temple, nor of
one dedicated to Ceres, unless several heaps of large stones might be
regarded as such. Neither could he find any remains of a stadium. He
saw, however, a frieze of white marble, enriched with Ionic ornaments.
Dr. Clarke says, that the upper part of the promontory is covered with
ruins; amidst which he found some pieces of serpentine porphyry; and
the peasants, he says, in ploughing the soil in the neighbourhood, find
their labours frequently obstructed by large blocks of stone, and earth,
filled with broken remains of terra cottas. The ground-plot and
foundations of temples are visible among the vestiges of the citadel,
and remains of towers are conspicuous upon the walls.
The walls form a triangle of about three thousand three hundred yards in
compass. In some parts they are in a high state of preservation, and
extremely interesting; since they were rebuilt in the reign of
Alexander, after having been destroyed by the Persians. They are of
regular masonry, eight feet in thickness, and fortified by towers, most
of which are square.[99]
The view from the ruins is extremely interesting and beautiful. “When we
look towards Thebes,” says Mr. Dodwell, “we behold the Asopos, and the
other small streams, winding through this memorable plain, which,
towards the west, is separated by a low range of hills from the equally
celebrated field of Leuctra; while the distant view is terminated by the
two pointed summits of Helicon, and the snow-topped heights of
Parnassus.”—“What must this city have been, in all its pride and
glory!” exclaims Mr. Williams. “The remains now appear grey as twilight;
but without a charm of returning day. Time is modelling now, instead of
art. Miles of ancient pottery and tiles, hardly allowing the blades of
corn to grow among the ruins; sheep-tracks among the massive
foundations; asses loaded with brush-wood, from shrubs growing in the
courts of ancient palaces and temples; shepherds with their flocks, the
bells of the goats heard from among the rocks; tombs and sarcophagi of
ancient heroes, covered with moss, some broken and some entire;
fragments, and ornaments, and stones containing mutilated
inscriptions;—these are the objects, which Platæa now presents. But
who, that stands there, with a recollection of its ancient glory, and
having Parnassus full in view, can quit the spot without regret?[100]”
NO. XVIII.—PÆSTUM.[101]
Wreck of the mighty—relics of the dead—
Who may remove the veil o’er PÆSTUM spread,
Who pierce the clouds that rest upon your name,
Or from oblivion’s eddies snatch your fame?—
Yet as she stands within your mould’ring walls,
_Fancy_—the days of former pride recalls;
And at her bidding—lo! the Tyrrhene shore,
Swarms with its countless multitude once more;
And bright pavilions rise;—her magic art
Peoples thy streets, and throngs thy busy mart.
In quick succession her creative power
Restores the splendour of Phœnicia’s hour,
Revives the Sybarite’s unbless’d repose,
Toss’d on the foldings of the Pæstum rose,
Lucania’s thraldom—Rome’s imperial sway,
The Vandal’s triumph—and the robber’s prey.
But truth beholds thee now, a dreary waste;
Where solitude usurps the realms of taste.
Where once thy doubly blooming roses smiled,
The nettle riots, and the thorn runs wild;
Primeval silence broods upon thy plain,
And ruin holds her desolate domain:
Save where, in massive pride, three temples stand
Colossal fragments of a mighty land.
Sepulchral monuments of fame, that tower
In proud derision of barbarian power;
That still survive and mock, with front sublime,
The spoiler’s vengeance, and the strifes of time.
ROGERS.
When the president Dupaty first beheld Pæstum, he expressed his
admiration in the following manner:—“No; I am not at Pæstum, in
a city of the Sybarites! Never did the Sybarites choose for their
habitation so horrible a desert; never did they build a city in the
midst of weeds, on a parched soil, on a spot where the little water
to be met with is stagnant and dirty. Lead me to one of those groves
of roses, which still bloom in the poetry of Virgil.[102] Show me
some baths of alabaster; some palaces of marble; show me on all sides
voluptuousness, and you will indeed make me believe I am at Pæstum.
It is true, nevertheless, that it was the Sybarites who built these
three temples, in one of which I write this letter, seated on the
ruins of a pediment, which has withstood the ravages of two thousand
years. How strange! Sybarites and works that have endured two thousand
years! How could Sybarites imagine and erect so prodigious a number
of columns of such vile materials, of such uncouth workmanship, of so
heavy a mass, and such a sameness of form? It is not the character
of Grecian columns to crush the earth; they lightly mounted into the
air; these, on the contrary, weigh ponderously on the earth; they
fall. The Grecian columns had an elegant and slender shape, around
which the eye continually glided; these have a wide and clumsy form,
around which it is impossible for the eye to turn: our pencils and
our graving-tools, which flatter every monument, have endeavoured in
vain to beautify them. I am of the opinion of those, who think that
these temples were the earliest essays of the Grecian architecture,
and not its masterpieces. The Greeks, when they erected these pillars,
were searching for the column. It must be admitted, however, that,
notwithstanding their rusticity, these temples do possess beauties;
they present at least simplicity, unity, and a whole, which constitute
the first of beauties: the imagination may supply almost all the
others, but it never can supply these. It is impossible to visit
these places without emotion. I proceed across desert fields, along
a frightful road, far from all human traces, at the foot of rugged
mountains, on shores where there is nothing but the sea; and suddenly
I behold a temple, then a second, then a third: I make my way through
grass and weeds; I mount on the socle of a column, or on the ruins of a
pediment: a cloud of ravens take their flight; cows low in the bottom
of a sanctuary; the adder, basking between the column and the weeds,
hisses and makes his escape; a young shepherd, however, carelessly
leaning on an ancient cornice, stands serenading with his reedy pipe
the vast silence of this desert.” Such was the language of Dupaty, when
he entered these celebrated ruins; nor was his enthusiasm in any way
misplaced.
Pæstum was a town of Lucania, called by the Greeks Posidonia and
Neptunia, from its being situated in the bay. It was then called Sinus
Pæstanus; now the Gulf of Salerno.
Obscurity hangs not only over the origin, but over the general history
of this city. The mere outlines have been sketched, perhaps, with
accuracy; but the details are, doubtless, obliterated for ever.
In scenery Pæstum yields not only to Baiæ, but to many other towns in
the vicinity of Vesuvius; yet, in noble and well-preserved monuments of
antiquity, it surpasses any city in Italy; the immortal capital alone
excepted.
The origin of the city may be safely referred to remote antiquity; but
those are probably in the right, who would fix the period at which the
existing temples were erected, as a little posterior to the building of
the Parthenon at Athens. But even this calculation leaves them the
venerable age of twenty-two centuries; and so firm and strong are they
still, that, except in the case of extraordinary convulsions of nature,
two thousand two hundred and many more years may pass over their mighty
columns and architraves, and they remain, as they now are,—the object
of the world’s admiration.
Whatever age we may ascribe to the temples, certain it is that the city
cannot be less than two thousand five hundred years old.
It was founded by a colony of the Dorians, who called it Posetan; a
Phœnician name for the God of the Sea, to whom it was dedicated. Those
settlers were driven out by the Sybarites, who extended the name to
Posidonia. The Sybarites were expelled by the Lucanians; and these, in
turn, were expelled by the Romans, who took possession of it (A.C. 480).
From this time the poets alone are found to speak of it. It was,
nevertheless, the first city of Southern Italy, that embraced the
Christian doctrine. In 840, the Saracens, having subdued Sicily,
surprised the city, and took possession. The question now arises, to
whom was Pæsium indebted for its temples? To this it has been answered,
that, as the ruins seem to exhibit the oldest specimens of Greek
architecture now in existence, the probability is, that they were
erected by the Dorians.