Pentelic marble, and of the veined marble of the portico at Athens. The
_Styrax officinalis_ added to the beauty of the scene by its profusion
of flowers. On the 26th, we rode over to Rhamnus, now called
Hebræocastro. The first part of the way lies across the plain of
Marathon, and by the edge of the marsh, great part of which is now dry,
but it bears marks of being occasionally overflowed. Afterwards we
passed by the vestiges of an ancient temple, and began to ascend the
hills, over ground covered with cistus (_Cistus Monspeliensis_); and
afterwards through beautiful forest scenery shaded with the Vallonia oak
(_Quercus Esculus_).[35]
The situation of the temples at Rhamnus again called forth our warmest
admiration, and in scenes of such surpassing beauty one is generally
disposed to think the last best. The immediate neighbourhood is wild and
desolate, broken with rocks, and covered with brushwood; and the finely
varied lines of the island of Eubœa, with its cultivation, its
olive-grounds, woods, rugged hills, and snowy mountains, were spread
before us, beyond a sea of the deepest blue, and illuminated from a sky,
which, though brilliant, exhibited a proportional intensity of colour.
There were two temples almost touching each other, but not parallel, and
very little is standing of either: one is very ancient, of Cyclopean
masonry; it is supposed to have been lined with wood, and some of the
nails of this lining have been found: the other is of the finest period
of Grecian art, built, as we are told by Pausanias, by Alcamenes, a
pupil of Phidias; but for a description I shall refer you to the work of
the Dilettanti Society.[36] Fragments of very fine sculpture lie about
in great profusion, and I could not but regret that the missionaries of
that society had not employed themselves in collecting and arranging
them, instead of, as they are accused of doing, breaking some which were
more perfect. The town of Rhamnus was about a mile from these temples,
on an insulated hill close by the shore; there are considerable remains
of the walls, and within the inclosure, a marble chair, and some other
fragments.
We returned by the road we came to Vraunon, and slept in the same
convent, intending on the 27th to visit the quarries of Pentelicus, but
I had for some time past been troubled with indisposition, and a
gathering in the knee during this excursion had been exceedingly
painful. It was highly inflamed by the exertion of going to Rhamnus, and
my courage failed at the prospect of a still more painful effort. I
therefore took the shortest road to Athens, with Capt. T., who very
kindly accompanied me, while Messrs. B. and S. rode round by the village
of Marathon. Our route lay across some of the lower branches of
Pentelicus, following a steep and rugged road, among bushes of _Arbutus
Unedo_ and _A. Andrachne_, with sometimes woods of pine, or groves of
Vallonia oak. We passed through the village of Kephisia, near the
sources of the Cephissus, an elevated situation, but well watered by
little rills collected from Pentelicus, and surrounded by olive-grounds
and vineyards, and gardens filled with almond, quince, and fig-trees. We
were detained at the gate of Athens, on account of increasing reports of
the plague at Negropont and Thebes, and could not obtain admittance
without the interference of our consul.
The plague is a curious disease, and the regulations adopted in
different places to prevent it, are still more so. At Negropont, (a
corruption of Evripo, which is the real modern name) about sixty miles
from Athens, it has existed more than a twelvemonth, and as it is the
residence of the pashaw, whose jurisdiction extends over Athens, the
communication is direct, and very frequent. At first there was a vaivode
at Athens who was willing to take some precautions: I know not what they
were, but they must have been very trifling. When the present vaivode
came, the Greeks applied to him to authorize similar measures; he
replied, that if they presumed to set a guard at the gate, he would
order him to be shot; and that if any man shut up his shop in
consequence of reports about the plague, he should be immediately
bastinadoed. In the course of this spring the disorder spread to some
villages near Thebes, and the European consuls at Athens made an
application to the pashaw of Negropont, who authorized them to station a
guard at each entrance into the town. This was accordingly done: two of
the gates less used were nailed up, and the earth heaped against them,
for the double purpose of keeping them closed, and of preventing any
unlucky wight from creeping beneath them; but in one place a large hole
in the city walls, through which a short man might walk upright, was
left unnoticed; and there were several mounds of earth against them, by
means of which a person might get over with little difficulty. In this
state of things, a French gentleman from Salonica arrived at Athens,
having slept in his way at Thebes. He was stopped at the gate, and sent
for the French consul to obtain admittance; but after a short time,
being tired of waiting, put spurs to his horse, and galloped into the
city, in spite of the opposition of the guard. I dined in company with
him the very same day, and he assured us that the plague was undoubtedly
in Thebes. The hole in the wall was then stopped up, the mounds of earth
dug away, and a guard established on the frontier, of which our landlord
was a member. Within two days, a messenger from Negropont threatened to
shoot the guard, and entered in spite of it. Meanwhile reports
increased; it was said that the plague had reached Megara and Eleusis,
and a letter from Thebes was shewn, by authority of the vaivode, stating
that eighty persons had there died of it in the course of a month.
Athens is principally supplied with corn from that neighbourhood, and we
were told afterwards, that the vaivode having a considerable quantity on
his hands, encouraged these reports, in order to enhance his price, and
had even falsified the letter, by changing eight to eighty. Soon after
this I left Athens with a bill of health, which procured me admission at
Egina; but when at Corinth, I heard of many persons, and amongst others,
the French consul general, having been stopped at the port of Cenchrea,
and not permitted to come to Corinth, although they had clean bills of
health from Athens. We had very minute accounts of the plague from
Athens itself, and the old physician was exceedingly angry with me for
doubting them, but before I left Corinth, he produced us documents which
proved the former statements to have been false.
The plague has diverted my narration from its regular course, but I now
return to the order of events. A difference in the mode of computing
Easter between the Greek and Roman churches, made it arrive very early
this year in Italy, and very late here, not indeed till the 28th of
April. On that day the Greeks and Albanians, drest in their best
clothes, assemble with music and dancing at the temple of Theseus. The
Greeks here dress generally in dark colours, but the Albanians prefer
lively hues, and the petticoat of the men is always white, but with a
coloured border. The scene was gay and splendid, and the more
interesting, as it probably conveyed a picture of ancient times, and is
perhaps the offspring of some pagan festival; it was however, over at
noon; and the parties dispersed to their homes.
On leaving us at Marathon, Capt. M. very kindly gave an invitation to
Sharp and myself to meet him at Hydra, when he would take us to Malta.
Various circumstances induced Mr. Sharp to avail himself of this
opportunity, and he left me on the 3rd of May. On the next day Mr. B.
set off for the Argolis, whither I promised to follow him as soon as the
swelling on my knee would permit me to move. It had always been part of
my plan to visit at least, Eleusis, Megara, Thebes, and other places
within a short journey of Athens; if not to make a longer tour on the
Greek continent, as soon as the spring was a little advanced; but the
increasing reports of the plague have made me change my determination.
It is not that I feel myself in much personal danger, but the continual
precautions, and the necessity of performing a sort of quarantine at
every town, would have made travelling exceedingly unpleasant.
LETTER LI.
FROM ATHENS TO MALTA.
_Lazaretto at Malta, 6th June, 1818._
I LEFT Athens on the 9th of May with regret, for I had been so much
interrupted, that all I had wished and intended to perform was by no
means accomplished. The boatmen who were to take me to Egina, as usual
in Greece, were not ready near the appointed time; the fair wind died
away, and we arrived at Egina so late that the harbour-master was gone
to bed. No one was permitted to land, and we were consequently obliged
to remain in the boat all night. In the morning I went on shore, and
visited the remains of a Doric temple near the port. In the time of
Chandler there were two columns erect, and a portion of the architrave,
but the architrave and one capital disappeared some time ago. The storms
of last December, which had annoyed us so much in coming to Greece,
threw down the most perfect of the remaining columns, I measured its
beautiful capital, which is certainly one of the best examples existing.
A few traces of terrace-walls remain, but as the situation is on a
gentle eminence, entirely under cultivation, and close to a
comparatively thriving town, the circumstances are unfavourable to its
preservation. A considerable portion of the ancient walls of the port
also exist, but I could not distinctly make out their arrangement. The
piers are formed of external courses of pretty large stretchers,
alternately filled in with two headers and three stretchers, the
external joint always remaining perpendicular over that below.
Some subterraneous chambers have been lately discovered in the
neighbourhood of this town, but they have been filled up again, and I
only saw a few inscriptions of late date, _i. e._ not 2,000 years old.
The ancient city of Egina was on a mountain, about two miles distant,
and it is only a few years ago that the inhabitants began to descend to
a more convenient situation. They have bought some privileges of the
Turks, and are flourishing greatly under this partial glimpse of
liberty, though they have no assurance of its continuance. Those who are
habitually secure in the exercise of their own rights, can form no idea
of the elasticity of the human mind when a little relieved from
oppression. The town is neat and clean, and about five years ago they
began to build a church, which is by far the largest I have seen in
Greece. The houses have no pretence to magnificence, but they seem to
contain all the essentials of Greek comfort, and every thing announces a
thriving place. After this ramble, I returned to take another look at
the remains of the temple, when a woman called me to her, and showed me
an ivory pin, which she assured me had been taken out of the middle of
the column when it was overturned; if so it must have been used as a
centre in describing the column. I offered her a _rubia_ for it. This is
a small gold coin worth one hundred and ten _parás_, or about two
shillings, or two and a penny. I should have offered more, but was
pretty certain that if genuine, I should not obtain it; for, entirely
ignorant of what might be demanded for objects of antiquity, the Greek
peasantry endeavour to obtain as many offers as they can, in order to
form their judgment, and never part with it to the first bidder.
Before noon I was on board another boat to go to Pidhavro, or Epidaurus,
but the calms made it evening before we arrived there; however, I had
time to walk to the site of the ancient town on a little peninsulated
hill, but it is marked only by the remains of the Cyclopean wall which
defended it. The stones are well fitted together, and sometimes notched
into the adjoining ones; one part shows two faces, and the interval is
now filled up with dirt. The open ground was almost covered with
spiders’ webs, forming funnels leading to a hole in the earth, probably
occupied by the animal. At the foot of the hill is a small fragment of
brickwork, which appears to have been a bath; and there are traces of an
aqueduct. In a wood by the way there is a recumbent statue of Pentelic
marble, of fine style, but as you may suppose, much mutilated; and there
are also some fragments of drapery of less merit.
The next morning I proceeded to Hiero, the chief seat of the worship of
Æsculapius. Foundations of temples, baths, and aqueducts; of a theatre,
a stadium, and various other buildings, announce its former
magnificence; but in so wild and remote a place, it seems surprising
that nothing but foundations should remain. The situation occupies part
of an elevated valley, of varied surface, and surrounded by mountains,
neither high, bold, nor woody, but which by contrast must have
heightened the effect of the display of architecture beneath them.
One of the first objects which fixed my attention was a spring bubbling
up through sand, and throwing up a little milky cloud when disturbed,
perhaps from a portion of pipeclay in the soil; for it had no mineral
taste or smell. One supposes that there must have been a medicinal
spring of some sort, to give reputation to the place, and make it
appropriate to the worship of the god of medicine; but if any such
existed, it is now buried under the heaps of rubbish, for besides this
spring, the only water I could find was a little rill descending from
the mountains, equally destitute of mineral appearances, but warm, and
tasting of decomposed vegetable matter, as if exposed to the air and sun
in a course of some length. By the existing remains of aqueducts tending
towards this streamlet, it seems to have supplied the water of the baths
and cisterns. I next visited a large bath, which appears to have been
originally of stone, but repaired with brick. The arch is used in both
parts. The aqueduct which supplied it, is a small square conduit with a
semicircular channel on the lower stone, calculated for a very small
current of water: below this ruin we again met with evidences of baths
and aqueducts. Pausanias mentions the theatre as the most beautiful in
Greece, but in whatever its superiority may have consisted, it has now
disappeared, and we see only a hollow on the side of the mountain,
surrounded by seats of a red and white marble, and half overgrown with
bushes. Some foundations of the proscenium may be observed, but they are
merely indications that something once stood there, and without digging
it would not be possible to make out even its ground plan. Passing among
fragments, and over numerous old foundations, we arrive at the Stadium,
which is also a hollow, but of a different shape; and the seats do not
remain. At some distance, and not very far from my first entrance into
this valley, is an extensive marble pavement, which apparently once
belonged to a large temple, but there is no vestige either of walls or
columns. Some Roman antiquities in the lower part closed my
observations. On the road hence to Lycourió there are some inscriptions,
and fragments of mouldings. An extremely beautiful ornament of a large
size remains among the fragments of Hiero, and there is abundance of
pieces of tiles, many of which were painted with frets, or with leaves.
There is also at Agia Marina, near Lycourió, a little bit of Cyclopean
masonry, which might be taken for a pyramid, but for an irregularity on
the south side. It was probably a tomb.
I was very ill at Hiero, and even anticipated the probability of being
laid up at Lycourió, the nearest village, where I dined and passed the
night. However, the next morning I exerted myself to proceed in my
journey to Nafplia, for Lycourió is certainly not a place in which a man
would be confined by illness if he could possibly avoid it. In the way I
observed some forts of Cyclopean masonry, and visited one of them, but
found nothing except these great, rude walls of unworked stones, and
without cement, supporting the earth behind them.
I expected to meet Mr. B. at Nafplia, but he had proceeded to Argos, and
after resting about an hour at the house of the French consul, I
followed him. In the way I visited the ruins of Tyrins. The walls are of
the rudest Cyclopean masonry, the stones seem to have been selected to
fit their intended situations, and not to have been touched with a tool,
and this was probably effected by the use of the Phœnician rule
mentioned by Herodotus. A strip of lead was bent into the angle intended
to be filled up, and then the same strip reversed was applied to the
stones collected for use. In one instance however, on the east side, we
find a stone with a sunk face and two holes in it, and a circular
sinking below. Besides these walls, we may observe here a sort of
gallery covered by the advance of the successive courses of stone; but
after all, the great interest of the place is, that you see the very
walls admired by Homer 2,500 years ago. The figure of Tyrins has been
compared to that of a ship, but there is more imagination than truth in
the resemblance.
I was rather glad to find that Mr. B. had left Argos, for I felt myself
so completely exhausted, that it would have been a painful effort to
speak only a dozen words. My attendant procured for me very comfortable
quarters at the house of a Greek, where I spent the next day, partly to
rest myself, and partly to recover my watch, which I had taken out at
Nafplia and very carelessly left behind me.
Argos is situated at the foot of a high hill, on the edge of one of the
finest plains in Greece. The length of this plain must be nearly fifteen
miles, its breadth eight or ten; and if but a little kingdom, it must be
confessed a most noble estate for Agamemnon. It is bounded by ranges of
varied and picturesque mountains, rising in successive distances, and by
the fine gulf of Argos. It wants indeed the olive-grove of the plain of
Athens, but its greater extent, greater fertility, and more broken and
varied boundary, give it the decided preference in natural beauty. The
older antiquities of Argos consist only of a few fragments of Cyclopean
walls, the stones of which are artificially fitted together. Of Roman
times there are some remains of temples, or baths, of an aqueduct, and
of a theatre. There is also a long, subterraneous chamber cut in the
rock, the receptacle of either corn or water; and at the top of a hill
the ruins of a Venetian fortress, built partly on ancient foundations,
make a conspicuous figure. Argos itself is a collection of mud cottages;
yet in general they do not look either shabby or dirty, and as they are
mixed with gardens and fruit-trees, and with the domes and slender
minarets of the Turkish mosques, and the tall cypresses which surround
them, Argos has on the whole a very pleasing appearance. A number of
Albanian children crowded about me while I was drawing: some of the
girls were very beautiful.
While I was here, a Turk of consequence, with an order from the vaivode
applied for admission into the house of my landlord: a representation
that his rooms were already occupied by a milordhos, released him from
the intrusion, greatly to his satisfaction. His English guest gave him
little trouble, and paid for the use of every thing he had. The Turk
would have given him a great deal of trouble, made use of the best of
every thing, and paid little, or perhaps nothing. The Greeks of the
Morea are very much oppressed, but rather by the Turks than by the
Turkish government. They pay one seventh of the gross produce of the
land, animate and inanimate, but the taxgatherers live at free quarters,
and exact presents besides, and a Turk of any consequence feels himself
entitled to take their fruit and fowls whenever he pleases, at his own
prices. These things are not indeed according to law, but as justice is
neither pure nor impartially administered, it is a dangerous resource.
I left Argos on the 14th, and visited the ruins of Mycene, where the
gates, the walls, and the circular, subterranean chambers called
treasuries, are perhaps the most interesting relics remaining of early
Grecian antiquity. The ruins occupy some eminences at the foot of the
mountains opposite to Argos. I hunted in vain for some curious
fragments, said by Sir W. Gell to exist near a small chapel, and guided
by him, descended to a bridge which he thinks was formed by advancing
courses of stone, but I could see no traces of such a construction. It
seemed to me a rude pier of unhewn stones, probably supporting beams
laid across the torrent.
The Treasury of Atreus is a circular room about 56 feet in diameter,
covered by the successive advance of each course of stones, which are
cut into something of a curve. The top has been broken in, by which
means we have sufficient light to examine it, but the present approach
is along a deep trench which has been recently dug, to the ancient
entrance; how this doorway was originally accessible, I do not very well
know. In spite of its position and of its antiquity, it has something
like a regular architrave, and above this, there is a triangular
opening, which perhaps has been occupied by a piece of sculpture; at
least a comparison with the gate of the citadel would lead us to such a
conclusion. The motive of leaving such a space, covered like the room
itself, by the advance of each course, was to relieve the lintel from
the superincumbent weight; this lintel is in two pieces, the innermost
of which is about 27 feet long, 19 feet wide, and above 4 feet thick.
What can have been the motive of using such an immense slab, is not
readily conceived, and the labour of placing it must have been immense;
they probably had not to transport it far; for it is, I believe, of the
rock of the mountain, a calcareous breccia, perhaps a Magnesian
limestone; three holes are cut in it, two of which may have been to
receive the pivots of the doors.
The inside of the room is supposed to have been covered with plates of
bronze. The holes for the bronze pins which fastened this covering are
visible all over it, and some stumps of the pins themselves may be
discovered by a careful examination, but I did not see any sticking out
from the face of the work, as Clarke has represented them. There is an
internal chamber, which seemed to me merely an excavation in the rock.
Dodwell considers it as an artificially constructed chamber like the
other, and not disencumbered from the compact earth, which has filled
great part of both of them. There is another edifice of the same nature
nearer to the citadel, a little broken in at the top, but otherwise
inaccessible. The citadel itself exhibits a large circuit of Cyclopean
walls, composed of stones which have been in some degree shaped by human
labour. In some parts of the wall they have been very accurately fitted,
in others they are more loosely put together. The gateway recedes, and
you arrive at it through a sort of lane formed by the walls, and almost
filled up with bushes of the _Vitex Agnus Castus_. It is ornamented with
two figures of animals, which occupy a triangular space over the
entrance; they have lost their heads, perhaps by violence, as they do
not seem much weather-worn; but I will not detain you with a subject on
which so much has been written by those whose pursuits have better
qualified them to do justice to this interesting relick, perhaps the
most ancient bas-relief in existence, for the figures on the Egyptian
temples can hardly be included in that name. The pivot-holes in the
lintel in which the doors worked, remain very perfect, and they are here
placed in a square rebate. Besides these objects, there are here a
curious old gateway, and some other fragments; but the weather was wet,
and I was very unwell; so that I did not give to the place half the
examination it deserved.