which in spring are covered with corn, but at this season the burnt up
stubble or bare earth presented a uniform dead brown, like that of some
dreary moor. We passed some baths furnished with a pretty copious spring
of warm water, without taste, issuing from the foot of a rock, which I
believe to be of limestone, but it was capped with a breccia composed of
rounded fragments of different substances, the base of which is a hard,
reddish stone. Warm springs in this island seem more common than cold.
Hence, we descended to Belli Frati, which is placed in a beautiful open
valley abounding in vineyards and orchards: and the slopes of the hills
are covered with olives; higher up are corn, rocks and brushwood; but
the principal feature is a very bold face of mountain at some distance,
of great extent, covered with fine wood, except where the perpendicular
rock will not admit its growth, and except various little beautiful
openings among the trees. This is, I believe, part of the royal forest
or chase of Busambra. Above this mountain rise more distant summits,
which were only obscurely seen among the clouds. My guide’s scheme was
to stop at this place, twenty-two miles from Palermo, but he was willing
to proceed, and so was I, as there was plenty of day remaining. We
therefore continued our route to San Giuseppe, about nine miles further.
Here also is a pretty valley, and the flowering heads of the aloes
rising abundantly among, and above the olives, had the charm of novelty
as well as beauty. San Giuseppe is a miserable solitary hovel, which
contained no separate apartments, and had I remained there, I could only
have slept on the straw, among the vetturini and their mules. I
therefore determined to push on to Alcara, thirty-nine miles from
Palermo, and here with some difficulty I obtained a bed. The hesitation
about giving me one was merely adopted in order to form a plea for a
more exorbitant charge. This latter part of the road led me over a
considerable mountain, (Serra Fareschia) and I found myself enveloped in
the clouds. If this had not been the case, I was too late in the evening
to have seen from them any extensive prospect, but as far I could judge,
the country was entirely destitute of wood; and my journey the next
morning to Fontana Fredda was of the same character. Here again is a
pleasant valley, and finding myself fatigued and rather unwell I stopt
for the night. The place derives its name from a well of excellent
water. The scenery is of a very peculiar character, arising from the
frequent mural precipices formed by the hills. The substance of those in
the immediate neighbourhood I supposed to be gypsum from its
translucency, and brilliant fracture, but it effervesces with acids, and
is therefore I suppose, a carbonate of lime. The structure seems to be
somewhat fibrous. There is, however, also a quantity of gypsum on the
road. Higher up, the mountains offer another series of mural precipices,
equally vertical, and of perhaps about the same height, which may be
from one to two hundred feet. These appear to be of a conglomerate, but
I did not approach near enough to any one of them to be certain of the
fact. During the first day we passed many beds of rivers, but only one
of them contained a stream of water, and that was poisoned by the flax
and hemp steeped in it. On the second day, after a long descent from
Alcara, we arrived at the banks of the Fiume, or rather Fiumara, di San
Pietro, in some parts of which the water ran, while in others we saw
only a bed of stones; but this also was extremely offensive. The third
day, the first part of our course lay near the same river; the quantity
of water was increased, but the smell remained the same. It was an
excessive disappointment to me, when after riding and walking a long way
under a hot sun, and seeing in the distance the sparkling of the water,
to find on a nearer approach, that what ought to give a charm to every
thing about it, was only productive of disgust. Even when a clear stream
does occur, a Sicilian, having perhaps formed his ideas of running water
from its general offensiveness, never either drinks it himself, or lets
his cattle drink of it, but the water of various springs is conducted
here and there, through covered channels, to troughs on the road sides
prepared for that purpose. After a few miles we crossed a range of high,
clayey hills, in parts of which sulphur is dug, and arrived before noon
at Girgenti. The modern city stands high on the southern slope of a
steep hill, which forms on the summit, a narrow ridge. The highest part
has perhaps an elevation of 800 feet. It commands a full view of the sea
and the intervening country, interspersed with vineyards, and orchards,
and groves of olive and almond-trees; a delightful prospect. About
half-way between this and the shore stand the ruins of the ancient
Agrigentum. The way to them from Girgenti is on a continued descent, but
they nevertheless occupy a rocky and picturesque eminence, which shows
them to great advantage. I had been warned not to go to the Benedictine
convent, and recommended to stay at that of the Capuchins, which among
other merits, has that of being on the outskirts of the town, and
towards the ruins; but I prefer the sovereignty of my own apartment in
an inn, where it is practicable; and finding that there was a locanda in
the place, I made my arrangements there, and though I cannot boast
greatly of my accommodations, yet I must doubt their being better at the
Capuchin convent. I delivered a letter to Don Guglielmo Salice, who was
exceedingly civil, and in compliance with what he conceived to be
English customs, offered me rum in the morning, and tea at noon.
Afterwards taking a boy whom I found at the city gate for a guide, I
walked down to the temples.
The first antiquity we meet with is called the Oratory of Phalaris; but
from the multiplication of small mouldings, I conjecture it to be of
Roman times; the pilasters have bases, while the architrave shews the
guttæ belonging to the triglyphs of the Doric order.
A wide interval occurs between this temple and the rest, but the walk is
very pleasant among vineyards and olive-groves, with here and there some
trifling fragment of a wall or an aqueduct. The principal objects form a
single series, occupying the ridge of a hill, which, steep on one side,
is almost precipitous on the other. This ridge is between two and three
miles from the sea, but only partially open to it; the eastern point is
the highest, and may perhaps have an elevation of 250 feet. Here we find
a ruin usually called the Temple of Juno. Eleven columns with their
architrave are still standing, and several other single columns, more or
less perfect. The proportions and forms are beautiful, and the sober
brown colour of the stone is in perfect harmony with the scene. These
tinted ruins, the brown rock from which they rise, the dark green of the
carob, and the sober gray of the olive-trees, among which they stand,
and all seen against the deep blue sky, have an indescribable air of
repose. In this edifice there are vestiges of smaller steps below the
two principal ones in front of the pronaos, and at the foot of these
smaller steps there is a course hollowed out on the surface, as if for a
drain, and after an interval of about 27 feet, a mass of masonry, which
bears the appearance of steps rising from the temple, as if to give a
view of what was going forward within, or immediately in front of the
edifice.
From the temple of Juno we walk among the ancient quarries, sepulchres,
granaries, and cisterns, to that of Concord; both these names are very
uncertain, or rather perhaps it is pretty clear that they are erroneous,
but they serve for distinction. Here all the columns are standing, and
the walls of the cell, and both fronts, are nearly entire. His Sicilian
majesty has had it patched and plastered, and an inscription on marble
records restorations executed in stucco. This slab and inscription have,
I suspect, cost more than the repairs, and will probably remain to
puzzle antiquaries when all traces of the latter have disappeared. The
architecture of this temple is inferior to that of Juno. The situation
is similar, but less lofty. The entasis of the columns is less evident.
The capitals of the pilasters are clumsy, and look ill in the work as
well as in drawing. Here also are traces of an extended platform, before
the east front, but none of the mode of entering from it, into the
temple, nor is there any appearance of steps on the opposite side of the
platform. There is not enough of the back wall remaining, to determine
whether there was a door between the posticum and the temple.
Continuing our progress westward, partly among thick plantations of
Indian fig, we arrive at the Temple of Hercules. This has been much
larger than either of the others, but only one fragment of a column is
erect. Many others are lying as they fell, and the ruins form quite a
hill. The columns were nearly 7 feet in diameter, and about 30 feet
high. The clear width of the peristyle was about 11 feet. It appears to
have been hexastyle and peripteral, with columns not much more than one
diameter apart.
After crossing a little hollow, which probably marks the situation of
the ancient outlet of the city towards the port, we find the tremendous
ruin of the Temple of Jupiter. Enough remains to shew that it was in bad
taste, and of bad construction, but of immense proportions. The stone
employed in the Sicilian antiquities is too coarse in its grain, and of
too soft and perishable a nature, for the exact discrimination of the
forms of the smaller parts. The mere waste of time and weather seems to
have been sufficient to reduce the temples to their present state, and
in the building before us, the material has I think been crushed in many
parts by the superincumbent weight. Do not however form too bad an
opinion of it, but recollect that it is 2,200 years since Agrigentum
ceased to flourish. This temple was pseudoperipteral, _i. e._ surrounded
by half columns attached to the wall. Part of the middle column still
remaining at the east end, shows that there were seven of these behind;
and we may make out fourteen on each flank, including the angular ones;
but whether there was a central column in front, or how that part was
managed we cannot determine. An excavation has been made on the line of
the front, in order to solve this question, but it shows nothing but the
regular courses of the foundations. More extensive excavations on the
north side expose the immense substructions on which the temple rested,
rising in a flight of steep steps, at the top of which several of the
ancient columns form each a considerable tumulus of its own ruins. We
can with difficulty discover some filleting, and perhaps a curved
moulding, forming a sort of base. Within, two rows of enormous piers
divide the space into three aisles, but of these, the foundations alone
remain, and various schemes have been devised to connect these piers
with certain colossal figures, which are supposed to have given to the
edifice the name of temple of the Giants, by which it has long been
known. Fragments of sculpture are indeed found of a vast size, as we
might suppose they would be, if forming an essential part of such a
building. Some of the stones were of enormous bulk, but in general they
were small. The half columns were built up in this manner,
[Illustration: Illustration of half column]
each course being in eight pieces, but each capital was composed of two
large blocks. The architrave is in three heights, and the lower stone
rests merely on the projections of the capitals. The frieze is in one
height, and so is the cornice, except the sima, which is wanting. The
projection of the cornice appears to have been nearly 7 feet. The stones
of the frieze were lifted into their places by means of a horse-shoe
groove at each end, but those of the cornice required two such grooves.
We find fragments of ornamented ovolos, of two different sizes, one of
which, and perhaps both, belonged to an internal cornice. The sculpture
has the smirking character of the early attempts to represent the gods,
and we may distinctly trace in one fragment the features of Venus.
If, instead of proceeding directly to this temple after leaving that of
Hercules, we descend the hollow, we meet almost immediately with a
little edifice of a mixed order, placed on an elevated basement. This is
usually called the Tomb of Theron, on the same principle, I suppose,
that we are told _lucus_ is derived _à non lucendo_. All we know of the
tomb of Theron is, that it was split by lightning, and this little
edifice shows no trace of such an accident. Various guesses have been
made, but in fact we have no clue to guide us to what it has been, or to
the period of its erection; and farther off on the plain is a ruin, now
called the Temple of Æsculapius. Wilkins has given a representation of
part of the back wall in the antiquities of Magna Græcia, but one of the
antæ in front still exists, and the enclosure of the staircase as in the
temple of Concord: so that the plan may be confidently restored. It was
a pseudoamphiprostyle, _i. e._ it had a portico or pronaos in front, no
columns on the sides, and only half columns behind.
Returning to the temple of Jupiter, and resuming our course to the
north-west, we find some heaps of ruins, which, as my cicerone asserted,
belonged to the temple of Castor and Pollux; and further on are two
columns, which he pronounced to be the temple of Æsculapius, while he
gave the name of Vulcan to the temple in the plain below. These two
columns are considered by Wilkins as part of the temple of Castor and
Pollux, and I think he is quite as good authority as my little guide,
for where there are few visitors, these smaller ruins do not get
established names.
Besides these temples, there are in the present city some foundations
and stumps of columns of the Temple of Jupiter Polieus; and in the
cathedral is a beautiful vase, and a sarcophagus which is much
celebrated; one side and one end of the latter are of very good
sculpture; the other two are rough in form and finish. It is of a white
marble, containing mica, which scales off in places, as in the Pentelic
marble; but there are fragments of a similar material in the museum of
the prince of Biscari, and I observed pebbles of the same nature in the
Fiumare, at the eastern part of Sicily, so that it is perhaps a Sicilian
stone. This cathedral is Gothic, and said to be of the 15th century, but
I found nothing to interest me in it. The lower part of the Campanile
was erected by a man who died in 1485. The rest is of later date, and
the arches mostly terminate in reversed curves, yet even here we find
the little columns and zigzag ornaments of the Norman, and early English
architecture. While I was at Girgenti one man stabbed two others. The
first in consequence of a quarrel, of which I could not learn the
particulars, the second, because he thought he was going to apprehend
him. The offender was secured and taken to jail. It has excited a great
commotion in the city, which may be considered as a proof that such
things do not often happen.
The soil of Agrigentum and Girgenti is a coarse, brown limestone, full
of modern shells, but perhaps not very thick, (_i. e._ short of 100
feet.) It appears to repose on a formation of clay and gypsum. An older
limestone is found up the valley, a few miles from Girgenti.
On the 26th of August I left Girgenti for Monte Allegro, a corruption of
the ancient name of Heraclea, which stood in this neighbourhood; and on
the morning of the 27th proceeded to Sciacca. About three miles from
Sciacca, on the top of a high limestone hill, are the _stufe_ of San
Calogero, consisting of a cavern, nearly at the top of a precipice,
whence issues a very strong, hot wind, loaded with vapour, but without
any disagreeable smell. This cavern bends round so rapidly, that the
channel must approach very near the surface of the cliff. The limestone
is generally of a brownish colour, and in beds nearly horizontal; the
hot wind is said to be strongest in windy weather.
Just by the town of Sciacca there are springs of hot water, (not however
boiling) having a sulphurous smell, and an intensely salt taste, and
depositing sulphur in their course. They are so copious as to form the
chief supply of a mill just below them. Near to these there is a spring
slightly warm, the taste of which is not unlike that of skimmed milk.
The same hollow furnishes a small chalybeate, and it is said that there
were not long ago two or three more springs of different qualities,
which are now lost. The bank of the little hollow immediately above
these springs consists of a white, argillaceous rock, such as I had
already met with on the way, lying under a conglomerate, and throwing
out the water. A brown friable stone lies over the argillaceous rock on
one bank, while on the opposite side it is covered by a shaly grit, and
over that by a compact limestone containing shells. In the afternoon we
proceeded to Memplice, or Menfrice, where there is a miserable inn
swarming with vermin. I waked in the night and brushed them off my
pillow as lightly as I could, but they seem to harbour principally in
the broken plaster of the walls, and never attacked me in such numbers
after I adopted the plan of drawing my bed away from the side of the
room.
With Sciacca I left the mountains, and entered a country of a completely
different character; an extensive elevated plain, intersected by winding
valleys, which divide it into flat-topped hills of nearly equal
elevation. These tops are very stony, and are partially cultivated in
vineyards and olive-grounds. The valleys are loamy, and all in corn. We
crossed a river which occupies a valley of greater extent and more
beauty than the rest, where the upper ground is covered with a forest of
cork-trees, but the stream itself is as usual very offensive; and
afterwards entered a great plain covered with brushwood, at the
extremity of which stand, or rather lie, the ruins of Selinus, or as it
was called by the Romans, of Selinuntum. These ruins are divided by a
sandy valley into two distinct parts, each occupying its own eminence.
On that at which we first arrive, there are the ruins of three large
temples, one of which is emphatically called the Great Temple. About 45
feet of one column is still erect. It is above 10 feet in diameter, and
looks like a tower, while the fragments heaped around seem the ruins of
a city rather than of a temple. The magnitude of this edifice is far
more impressive than that of the temple of Jupiter at Agrigentum. The
columns and entablature are not _built up_ as in that edifice, but
formed of large masses; and the perception of this circumstance
harmonizes in the mind with their massive proportions and vast
magnitude. One block of the architrave (probably the angular one)
measures 26 feet 2 inches in length, is 4 feet 9 inches wide, and 6 feet
10½ inches high; but the most striking masses of stone are those which
form the great capitals, each of which has been cut out of a block 13
feet square. The shape of these capitals is very peculiar. I have seen
nothing like them in Greece, except a fragment on a very small scale,
which I noticed at Corfu. The common Grecian Doric capitals in the best
examples, form a sort of ogee, and we find this curve in that of the
third temple on this eminence, (_fig. 1_,) but in the great temple a
deep hollow interrupts the flow of the lines as in _fig. 2_.
[Illustration: _Fig. 1._]
[Illustration: _Fig. 2._]
The fragments of this temple are on so large a scale that it is no easy
matter to clamber among them. There are traces of the existence of a
comparatively very small, internal, Doric order, and also of a still
smaller Ionic. All the particulars of this immense building might be
obtained, but it would be a labour of considerable time, and of some
expense, for although one would not attempt to remove any of the larger
masses, yet many of those of a smaller size, and these are not small,
must be taken out of the way.
This, and indeed all the temples here, seem to have been thrown down by
violence, perhaps by an earthquake; as although the surfaces are much
weather-worn, the stone is not in general so wasted as to have
endangered the stability of the building, and many of the columns might
be set up again. They have fallen inwards from both sides, but those on
the south the most regularly so. The stone, though of the same nature as
that at Agrigentum, is of a much superior quality, being both firmer,
and of a finer grain.
[Illustration:
A. B. Clayton. del. from Sketches by J. Woods. W^m. Miller. Sculp.
RUINS OF SELINUS. ]
Just by the great temple are the ruins of a second, in which many of the
lower drums of the columns still remain in their places; and a few yards
farther off, there are parts of a third temple, which is of better
architecture than either of the others, or at least more pleasing to me.
The three temples now described are supposed to have been out of the
city. On the opposite hill, which is hardly a mile distant, there are
the distinct ruins of three other temples, and traces of two or three
smaller edifices. The eminence on which they stand is surrounded by a
terrace-wall, which has been imagined to be that of the city. It sets
off at each course, presenting the appearance of a very steep flight of
steps, and this is sufficient to determine that it was not built for
defence. The whole hill was probably holy ground, and these walls formed
a common basement to the sacred edifices with which it was crowned. Two
of these temples have the peculiar form of capital which I have just
noticed as existing in the great Temple. They are less beautiful than
those of the Athenian Doric, but the parts harmonize well together, and
the effect seems to have been well understood. I can easily imagine that
it would find many advocates in England, particularly among those who
admire bold projections and deep shadows. This peculiarity is not
however to be found in all these buildings. Three of the larger temples
exhibit it, in the other three the capitals resemble those of the Greek
order. The northernmost of the three, on the second hill, is an example
of this Sicilian Doric, and as the surface of the stone is more wasted
in this than in any other example, without any apparent reason for the
difference in the nature of the stone, we may conclude that it was not a
recent innovation; but neither will a comparison of the condition of
these edifices entitle us to suppose it a very ancient method, which
afterwards gave way to the imitation of the Greeks, for the edifice
which, after this, has the appearance of the highest antiquity, exhibits
the more usual form. In one of the temples on the second eminence,
eleven of the columns of the north side lie parallel to each other, and
apparently just as they fell. They fell to the north, and this is the
general direction in all these ruins, though with some exceptions.
We know nothing of all this heap of magnificence, but that it belonged
to the city of Selinus, which was destroyed by the elder Hannibal about
450 years before Christ. There was afterwards a Roman colony called
Selinuntum, but the style of the six principal temples renders it
certain that these buildings are of Grecian origin.
I slept at Castel Vetrano, where I had some difficulty in procuring a
bed, and returned on the 29th and 31st to the ruins, but I found the
daily ride rather fatiguing. The road, for about four miles from the
temples, crosses a plain very gently descending towards the sea, covered
with _Pistacia Lentiscus_, _Daphne Gnidium_, the prickly broom
(_Spartium spinosum_), and the tree-spurge (_Euphorbia dendroides_), the
two latter of which bear leaves in the winter, and show their naked
stems in the summer. Nearer to Castel Vetrano, the track passes a very
pretty valley, and the whole of this part is an exceedingly stony soil,
but covered with olive-trees and vineyards; the latter in particular,
seem to delight in this sort of soil, and produce some of the best wine
in Sicily. On the 30th I rode to the quarries of Selinus, which are
about eight miles from Castel Vetrano, and six from the temples. They
are particularly curious, because several pieces of columns, whose
dimensions show them to have been intended for the large temple, lie
scattered about. Others have been prepared by a channel cut round them,
while the base still remains attached to the native rock. I suspect
however, that all these are rejected blocks; and they consequently do
not form any proof that the solid masses of the building were not
completed. Neither here nor at the temple do we perceive any means
provided for raising these immense stones to their places, and I am at a
loss to conceive how it was performed, but there are even, square
sinkings, in one end of several, which were probably made in order to
receive cubes to assist in fixing them together. My guide assured me
that they had been cut in order to steady the stone on the head of the
giant who carried it. In some of the smaller pieces there are lewis
holes.
On the 1st of September I left Castel Vetrano, and proceeded over naked
hills to Calatafimi. We here again cross beds of selenite, and of a
white, argillaceous rock, which forms rounded eminences, and afterwards,
hills of a porous carbonate of lime. These are more broken and varied
than the former, and many of the mountains at a distance are exceedingly
abrupt in their forms. At Salemi the tops are of conglomerate, which
seems to lie on the calcareous beds. The next morning a ride of about
four miles brought me from Calatafimi to Segesta, where there is a
temple remarkable for having all the columns of the external peristyle
still erect, while the cell has disappeared. There are, however, some
traces of foundations, but the soil is entirely rock, and these were
perhaps only erected to make good deficiencies in the level, without
determining the position of the walls. The architecture has neither
great beauty, nor decided singularity, when compared with other Sicilian
buildings, but it is unfinished, and this, though a source of
imperfection, generally exhibits some circumstances in the mode of
proceeding which render the ruin more interesting. These columns are not
fluted, and whether the artist proposed that they should be so may be
doubted, though it was probably intended to rework the whole surface. On
the steps, and in some blocks of the frieze, the projections left for
raising them into their places are still seen. The progress was curious,
for while in the steps, the arrisses are formed correctly as guides for
finishing the work, and the general face is left rough; in the abaci of
the capitals, the face was worked and the angles left, in order that
they might not be injured in the placing; and a similar method was
adopted in the architraves. The situation of this edifice is singular,
as there is neither sea-port nor productive plain in its immediate
neighbourhood. Various ruins of buildings belonging to the ancient city
may be observed on a hill just by the temple. The principal of these is
the Theatre. The building is of a gray limestone, containing very
compressed nodules of flint; the whole cavea remains, reclining against
the slope of the hill, but the natural curve being insufficient, it has
been made out by art. There is a doorway in each flank wall, with an
opening to a descending passage under the sedile. This doorway is only 2
feet 2 inches wide, and the head is semicircular. This part is not
however constructed of wedges, but cut out of a single stone.