"We seated ourselves on a fallen column," says Mr. Williams, "and could
not but admire the scene before us: Attica, Peloponnesus, and the gulf
of Ægina, with their many points of attraction, addressing both the eye
and the mind! While we were enjoying the splendid view, two shepherds
stepped from the ruins, and passing their crooks from their right hand
to their left, pressed their hearts and foreheads, and kissed their
hands in a manner than which nothing could be more graceful. Their eyes
bespoke their curiosity to know what brought us there; and when we
looked across the gulf, they both exclaimed, 'Athenæ! Athenæ!' as if we
were desirous to know the name of the distant spot, that marked the site
of Athens."
Servius Sulpitius mentions Ægina in a very agreeable manner to Cicero,
who was then grieving for the loss of his daughter Tullia:--"Once," said
he, "when I was in distress, I received a sensible alleviation of my
sorrow from a circumstance, which, in the hope of its having the same
influence upon you, I will take this opportunity of relating. I was
returning from Asia; and as I was steering my course, I began to
contemplate the surrounding country. Behind me was Ægina; Megara in the
front; the Piræus occupied my right hand, and Corinth my left. These
cities, once flourishing, were now reduced to irretrievable ruin.
'Alas!' said I, somewhat indignantly, 'shall man presume to complain of
the shortness and the ills of life, whose being in this world is
necessarily short, when I see so many cities, at one view, totally
destroyed?' This reflection, my friend, relieved my sorrow."
Mr. Dodwell, when he was in Ægina, lodged at the house of the principal
Greek, who was acquainted with the leading particulars of its history;
and when he talked of its former grandeur, and compared it with its
present abject condition, the tears came into his eyes, and he
exclaimed--"_Alas! where is Ægina now?_"
The island of Ægina lies between Attica and Argolis, eighteen miles
distant from the coast of Athens and fourteen from Epidaurus. It does
not exceed nine miles in its greatest length, nor six miles in its
greatest breadth; its interior is rough and mountainous, and the
valleys, though they are made to bear corn, cotton, olive, and fruit
trees, are stony and narrow. Notwithstanding this, in ancient days,
through the blessings of commerce, this spot in the seas of Greece was
the residence of a numerous and most thriving population, who created
upon it such works as are still the admiration of the civilised world,
though they are now in ruins; the place, however, of those who built
them, is scantily occupied by an impoverished and degraded race of men.
The people of Ægina were the first who coined money to be subservient to
the uses of life, agreeably to the advice of Phidon, who considered that
a maritime commerce would best be promoted, where exchange and
accommodation became easy and familiar between the vendor and purchaser.
The place, too, had the advantage of security; an important point in the
earlier ages of Greece, when piracy was a common and honourable
profession. It lay deep within a gulf; nature had made access to its
shores difficult, by nearly encircling them with rocks and sand-banks;
and its industrious population added artificial defences. Its port also
was commodious, and well protected against the attacks of man. Here,
therefore, the goods procured, far and near, by the enterprising
inhabitants, could be lodged without fear of pillage, and the Greeks
would resort hither as to a general mart, where whatever they wanted
might be purchased. Wealth would thus flow into the island, and its
inhabitants, with their exquisite feeling for all that was beautiful,
would employ their wealth in cultivating the fine arts, and in covering
their barren rocks with grand and graceful edifices; and this was shown
by the ancient inhabitants of Ægina having had the honour of introducing
a style in sculpture superior to all that preceded, though inferior to
the ultimate perfection of the Athenian school.
Ægina was, originally, subject to kings; but it afterwards adopted the
republican form of government. It was at length reduced by the
Athenians, and continued subject to them, till, at the end of the
Macedonian war, it was declared free by the Romans. In the reign of
Vespasian, however, it underwent the same fortune as the other states of
Greece.
A.D. 1536, it was subdued by the Turks, after an obstinate resistance;
the capital was plundered and burned; and, after a great slaughter of
the inhabitants, the rest were carried into slavery--not an unworthy
fate, had it occurred in ancient times, for a people, who were possessed
of 420,000 slaves!
The site of Ægina, the capital of the island, has long been forsaken.
Instead of the temples, mentioned by Pausanias, there are thirteen
lonely churches, all very mean, and two Doric columns supporting their
architrave. These stand by the sea-side toward the low cape; and, it has
been supposed, are a remnant of a temple of Venus, which was situated by
the port principally frequented. The theatre, which is recorded as
greatly worth seeing, resembled that of the Epidaurians, both in size
and workmanship. It was not far from the private port; the _stadium_,
which like that at Priene, was constructed with only one side, being
joined to it behind, and each structure mutually sustaining and propping
the other.
The most celebrated of its edifices was the temple of Jupiter
Panhellenius. "This temple," says Colonel Leake, "was erected upon a
large paved platform, and must, when complete, have been one of the most
remarkable examples in Greece of the majesty and beauty of its sacred
edifices, as well as of the admirable taste with which the Greeks
enhanced those qualities by an attention to local situation and
surrounding scenery. It is not only in itself one of the finest
specimens of Grecian architecture, but is the more curious as being, in
all probability, the most ancient example of the Doric order in Greece,
with the exception of the columns at Corinth." This temple is far from
any habitation, and is surrounded with shrubs and small pine-trees. No
ruin in Greece is more rich in the picturesque, as every point of view
has some peculiar charm:--"When I was at Ægina," says Mr. Dodwell, "the
interior of the temple was covered with large blocks of stone, and
overgrown with bushes. This circumstance produced a sort of confusion,
which, while it intermingled the trees and the architecture, made a
great addition to the picturesque effect of the interesting scene. The
place has since been cleared, the stones have been taken away, and the
trees cut down to facilitate the removal of the statues which were found
among the ruins. Though these changes may have made some deduction from
the pleasure with which the painter would have viewed the spot, yet they
have added greatly to the gratification of the classical traveller, by
whom all the architectural details may now be readily examined and
accurately discriminated."
This ruin Dr. Chandler considers as scarcely to be paralleled in its
claim to remote antiquity. The situation on a lonely mountain at a
distance from the sea has preserved it from total demolition, and all
the changes and accidents of numerous centuries[4].
Lusieri classes the architecture of the temple of the Panhellenian
Jupiter at Ægina with that of Pæstum in Lucania:--"In their buildings,"
says he, "the Doric order attained a pre-eminence which it never passed;
not a stone has been there placed without some evident and important
design; every part of the structure bespeaks its own essential utility.
Of such a nature were works in architecture, when the whole aim of the
architect was to unite grandeur with utility; the former being founded
on the latter. All then was truth, strength, and sublimity."
In 1811, several statues of Parian marble were discovered by two English
gentlemen and two Germans[5], the rivals in the style of which are said
nowhere to be found. They were excavated from the two extremities of the
temple below the tympana, from which they had fallen at some unknown
period. Mr. Dodwell has given the following account of them:--"I shall
not attempt," says he, "a minute description of these precious remains
of the Æginetic school; the discovery of which, in its importance, has
not been surpassed by any of the kind in modern times. They are supposed
by some to represent the principal heroes of the Iliad contending with
the Trojans for the body of Patroclus. Minerva, armed with her helmet,
is the principal figure; and from its superior size, is conjectured to
have stood in the centre of the tympanum, below which it was found. The
other figures are combatants in various costumes and attitudes; their
shields are circular, and their helmets crowned with the lophos. The
bodies of some are naked, while others are covered with armour or
leather; their attitudes are judiciously adapted to the four tympana,
and the places which they occupied. They were evidently made prior to
the introduction of the beautiful ideal in Grecian sculpture. The
muscles and the veins, which are anatomically correct, exhibit the soft
flexibility of life, and every motion of the body is in scientific
harmony with that of nature. The limbs are strong, though not Herculean,
and elegant without effeminacy; no preposterous muscular protuberance,
no unnatural feminine delicacy offends the eye. They are noble without
being harsh or rigid, and are composed with Doric severity mingled with
the airy grace of youthful forms; the perfection of the finish is quite
wonderful; every part being in a style worthy of the most beautiful
cameo. The extremities of the hands and feet merit more particular
admiration. Indeed, the ancients thought that elegant fingers and nails
were essential ingredients in the composition of the beautiful. The most
extraordinary circumstance, however, in these statues, is the want of
expression, and the sameness of countenance, which is to be observed in
all the heads. This approximation to identity is certainly not
fortuitous; for the artists, who were able to throw so much varied
beauty into the forms of the bodies, were, no doubt, fully able to
infuse a similar diversity of expression into the features. Their talent
was probably confined to one style of countenance by some religious
prejudice. Perhaps some ancient and much venerated statue served as a
model, from which it might not have been consistent with the feeling of
reverence, or with the state of opinion, to deviate. The formation and
posture of the bodies afforded a greater scope and a wider field for the
talent of the sculptor; for while the Doric severity of the early
Æginetic school is evidently diffused through the whole, yet a
correctness of muscular knowledge; and a strict adherence to natural
beauty, are conspicuously blended in every statue. An unmeaning and
inanimate smile is prevalent in all the faces; every one of the heroes,
who is mortally wounded, is supporting himself in the most beautiful
attitude, and smiling upon death! In short, the conquerors and the
conquered, the dying and dead, have all one expression, or rather none
at all. The high finish of the hair is particularly worthy of notice.
Some in curls, which hang down in short ringlets, are of lead, and still
remain. The helmets were ornamented with metallic accessories, and the
offensive weapons were probably of bronze; but they have not been found.
All the figures have been painted; the colour is still visible, though
nearly effaced. The colour on the ægis of Minerva is very
distinguishable; but the white marble, of which the statues are
composed, has assumed a yellow dye from the soil in which they were
buried."
Dr. Clarke tells us, that Lusieri found here both medals and vases in
such numbers, that he was under the necessity of dismissing the peasants
who amassed them, without purchasing more than half that were brought to
him; although they were offered for a very trifling consideration, and
were of very high antiquity[6].