The Piræus—The Sacra Via—Ruins of Eleusis—Gigantic
Medallion—Costume of the Athenian Women—The Tomb of
Themistocles—The Temple of Minerva—Autographs.
PIRÆUS.—With a basket of ham and claret in the stern-sheets, a cool
awning over our heads, and twelve men at the oars, such as the coxswain
of Themistocles’ galley might have sighed for, we pulled away from the
ship at an early hour, for Eleusis. The conqueror of Salamis delayed the
battle for the ten o’clock breeze, and as nature (which should be called
_he_ instead of _she_, for her constancy) still ruffles the Ægæan at the
same hour, we had a calm sea through the strait, where once lay the
“ships by thousands.”