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Nauplia by Tiryns and Mykenæ to Argos, see Rte. 23.

From Argos we proceed into Arcadia by the road anciently called Prinus. It follows the course of the Charadrus (now the Xeria, or Dry River) and afterwards ascends Mount Artemisium (Malerós). From the summit of the ridge there is a very interesting view over the upland plains of Arcadia, separated by the branches of various mountain ranges. Hence we descend

to

Tzipiána (9 hrs.), a flourishing village, built on rising ground, near the E. edge of the valley of Mantinea.

Hence our route passes the ruins of Mantinea (Rte. 23), and then turning N. crosses several ridges with intervening valleys. The scenery recalls all the associations connected with the rivers of Arcadia. There is a beautiful view over the Lake and plain of Phonia from the ridge at their S. extremity. From this point the path descends through a striking_gorge, adorned with fine forest-trees. It then winds along the eastern side of the lake, among groves of sweet-scented shrubs. Near the N. end of the lake, the size of which varies considerably in different seasons, is the town of

Phonia, 12 hrs. Rte. 35.

We ascend from the lake through a fine ravine. From the summit there are grand views on all sides. To the 1. are the snows, pines, and crags of Khelmos, the Aroanian range. Thence we descend by the bed of a torrent to the pretty village of Zaruchla. Then comes a most picturesque ride through the glen of Klakines to

Solos, 7 hrs. A straggling village built on the site of the ancient Nonacus, among groves of chestnut and walnut trees. 2 m. from Solos the Styx trickles over an inaccessible cliff, from the grand and lofty Khelmos (Rte. 35).

The road to Megaspelion climbs up the steep and rugged Mount Olenos, having Khelmos, a mass of rock and snow, on the 1. From the summit of

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There are 3 routes from Nauplia and Argos to Corinth.

The most circuitous, which is the most level, issues from the Argolic plain, at its N.W. angle, passes over some low hills, then turns to the rt., and arrives at Nemea; thence, bearing to the N.E. it leaves Cleone on the rt., and reaches Corinth after traversing about 33 m.

The other two roads are to the E. of the first; that nearest to it following, after its exit from the plain, two narrow defiles, which were of old known by the name of Tretus (8 TpeTos), or perforated road (from the caverns fabled to be haunted by the Nemean lion), and which are

now

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called Dervenakia; the other, to the E. of this, is a footpath skirting the rugged mountains to the N. of Mykenæ, and was termed of old the Contoporeia, or staff road. These two latter routes were in 1822 the scene of the destruction of the Turkish army which had incautiously advanced into the plain of Argos without supplies. They are the Khyber Pass of the Peloponnesus. All the neighbouring towns were long afterwards a mart for the rich clothes and arms of the Turks, and for many subsequent years the ravines were strewed with the skeletons of men, horses, and camels.

The most interesting route for the traveller to follow is the second of those described above; viz., by Mykenæ, through the Tretus pass to Nemea; and thence by Cleonæ to Corinth.

From Nauplia it is 3 hrs. to Mykenæ (Rte. 23).

From Mykena to Nemea it is about 2 hrs. 20 min. by the Tretus road.

As he descends into the plain from Mykenæ, the traveller will observe that the rocks in this part, as in other districts of Greece, frequently assume the appearance of rude ancient masonry, like the ruins which he has just left. Quitting the Argolic plain, the road enters the defile called of old Tretus, or perforated road, and continues partly along the bed of the torrent. This pass was the chief scene of the destruction of the Turkish army in 1822, as stated above. The road emerges on the valley of Nemea.

Nemea. Near Nemea, to the rt., are many caves in the rocks, the haunts of the Nemean Lion of fable:-

"There is a temple in ruins stands,
Fashion'd by long-forgotten hands;
Two or three columns, and many a stone,
Marble and granite, with grass o'ergrown!
Out upon Time! it will leave no more

Of the things to come than the things before!
Out upon Time! who for ever will leave
But enough of the past for the future to grieve
O'er that which hath been, and o'er that which
must be;

What we have seen, our sons shall see;
Remnants of things that have pass'd away,
Fragments of stone, rear'd by creatures of
clay!"

Of the famous temple of Jupiter, the patron god of Nemea, three pillars only are now standing; but a portion of the cella, several prostrate columns almost entire, and fragments of the entablature still remain. The form and decorations are Doric, with nearly Ionic proportions. It is owing probably to the coarseness of the material that these ruins, like those of Pæstum, have been left in their place. The breadth of the temple was 65 ft., and the length more than double. The walls of the cella, pronaos, and porticus are together 105 ft. 2 in. in length: width 30 ft. 7 in. Two of the columns now standing belonged to the Pronaos, and were placed as usual between antæ: they are 4 ft. 7 in. in diameter at the base, and still support their architrave. The third column, which belonged to the outer range, is 5 ft. 3 in. in diameter at the base, and about 34 ft. high, including a capital of 2 ft. Its distance from the corresponding column of the pronaos is 18 ft. The total height of the three members of the entablature was 8 ft. 2 in. The general intercolumniation of the peristyle was 7 ft.; at the angles, ft. 10 in. The entablature was less than one-fourth of the height of the column. The lowness of the extant architrave, and the smallness and narrowness of the capitals, give the impression that the building was inelegant, but it would be wrong to form this conclusion from a mere frag

ment.

At a small distance S. of the temple are other remains of the Doric order. Traces of the Nemean theatre are to distant. The valley is surrounded by be found at the foot of a hill not far mountains of considerable height, and the waters collected here run into the Corinthian Gulf.

Like Olympia, Nemea was a sanctuary and not a town. The place set apart for the celebration of the Nemean games was a level valley stretching from N. to S., nearly 3 m. in length, and 1 in breadth; but it had not, like Olympia, an Alpheus to adorn it, and was watered only by several rills which flow down from the mountains that

encircle it, the chief of which, that on the N.E., is Fuka, the ancient Apesas, with a flat summit, nearly 3000 ft. high.

Nemea is 1 hr. 15 min. from the site of

Cleone. The only remains here are some Hellenic fragments round a small height, on which are the foundation walls of several terraces. Cleona was a small town connected by alliance with Argos. It derived its only im

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portance from the Nemean games being celebrated in its territory, in front of the Sanctuary of Nemea, between Cleonæ and Phlius.

Cleons to Corinth is 23 hrs. The road lies sometimes in the bed of a torrent, then crosses a bridge and ravine, and ascends by a steep path to two tumuli. It then descends to another deep ravine, and enters the plain of Corinth, across which it continues to the town (Rte. 1).

SECTION III.

THE GREEK ISLANDS.

INTRODUCTORY INFORMATION.

1. Geographical Position, &c.-2. Steamers, Accommodation for

Travellers, &c.

1. GEOGRAPHICAL POSITION, &c.

THE Ægean Sea, called by the Italians the Archipelago (probably from Alyaîov Téλayos), and by the Turks the White Sea (to distinguish it from the Black Sea) is bounded on the N. by Macedonia and Thrace, on the W. by Greece, and on the East by Asia Minor. Ancient writers have divided it into the Thracian, the Myrtoan, the Icarian, and the Cretan seas; but the name is usually applied to the whole expanse of water as far S. as the islands of Crete and Rhodes. The derivation is probably from aiyís, a squall; but other etymologies have been given. The navigation of the gean has been dangerous and intricate in all ages, on account of its numerous islands and rocks, which occasion eddies and a rough sea, and also on account of the Etesian or northerly winds, which blow with great fury, especially about the equinoxes. The ancient poets frequently allude to these storms.

The appearance of most of the Egean islands, on approaching them, is similar. Instead of the rich verdure and fragrant groves of Corfu and Zante, they generally present rude cliffs and acclivities, scarcely varied by a single tree, and whose loneliness is seldom enlivened by a human habitation. "The currents of the tideless sea," says Sir J. E. Tennant, "glide wavelessly around their shores, and the rays of the unclouded sun beam fiercely down on their unsheltered hills, dimmed with a haze of light.'" On landing, however, every islet presents a different aspect; and every secluded hamlet a new picture of life, of manners, of costume, and sometimes of dialect. "The soil of one is rich, luxuriant, and verdant; that of a second, only a few miles distant, is dry, scorched, and volcanic; the harbour of another is filled with the little trading craft of all the surrounding ports: its quays rife with the hum and hurry of commerce, and its coffee houses crowded with the varied inhabitants of a hundred trading-marts; whilst a fourth, of equal capacities, and barely an hour's sail beyond it, will be as quiet and noiseless as a city of the plague; its shores unvisited, its streets untrodden, and its fields untilled. But such is the result of that tenacity to ancient usages, and that predilection for the pursuits, the habits, and the tastes of their forefathers, which vindicates the title of the unchanging East. From age to age the natives of these secluded spots have continued to preserve those customs and those manners whose antiquity is now their greatest charm, and which long association has rendered it almost sacrilegious to alter or abandon."

The islands of the Egean are divided into two principal groups :-1. The Cyclades, so named from their encircling the holy sanctuary of Delos; and 2. The Sporades, which derive their name from being, as it were, sown in a wavy line off the coasts of Macedonia, Thrace, and Asia Minor. The Cyclades belong to the kingdom of Greece; the Sporades, with the exception of the

group lying off the northern extremity of Euboea, are still under the dominion of Turkey, though the Ottomans have rarely settled in them; and they have been almost invariably treated with less oppression than the continental provinces of the Sultan.

The Isles of Greece, the Isles of Greece!

Where burning Sappho loved and sung, Where grew the the arts of war and peace,Where Delos rose, and Phoebus sprung! Eternal summer gilds them yet, But all, except their sun, is set.

The Scian and the Teian muse,

The hero's harp, the lover's lute,
Have found the fame your shores refuse;
Their place of birth alone is mute
To sounds which echo further west
Than your sires' "Islands of the Blest."
The mountains look on Marathon-
And Marathon looks on the sea;
And musing there an hour alone,

I dream'd that Greece might still be free;
For, standing on the Persian's grave,
I could not deem myself a slave.

A king sate on the rocky brow

Which looks o'er sea-born Salamis;
And ships, by thousands, lay below,

And men in nations ;-all were his!
He counted them at break of day-
And when the sun set, where were they?
And where are they? and where art thou,
My country? On thy voiceless shore
The heroic lay is tuneless now-

The heroic bosom beats no more!
And must thy lyre, so long divine,
Degenerate into hands like mine?
"Tis something, in the dearth of fame,
Though link'd among a fetter'd race,
To feel at least a patriot's shame,

Even as I sing, suffuse my face;
For what is left the poet here?
For Greeks a blush-for Greece a tear.
Must we but weep o'er days more blest?
Must we but blush ?-Our fathers bled.
Earth! render back from out thy breast
A remnant of our Spartan dead!
Of the three hundred grant but three,
To make a new Thermopyla!
What, silent still? and silent all.

Ah! no;-the voices of the dead
Sound like a distant torrent's fall,

And answer, "Let one living head, But one arise,-we come, we come!" 'Tis but the living who are dumb.

In vain-in vain: strike other chords;
Fill high the bowl with Samian wine!
Leave battle to the Turkish hordes,

And shed the blood of Scio's vine,
Hark! rising to the ignoble call—
How answers each bold Bacchanal !
Ye have the Pyrrhic dance as yet;
Where is the Pyrrhic phalanx gone?
Of two such lessons, why forget

The nobler and the manlier one:
Ye have the letters Cadmus gave-
Think ye he meant them for a slave?
Fill high the bowl with Samlan wine;
We will not think of themes like these!
It made Anacreon's song divine:

He served-but served Polycrates

A tyrant; but our masters then
Were still, at least, our countrymen.

The tyrant of the Chersonese

Was freedom's best and bravest friend; That tyrant was Miltiades!

Oh! that the present hour would lend Another despot of the kind! Such chains as his were sure to bind. Fill high the bowl with Samian wine! On Suli's rock, and Parga's shore, Exists the remnant of a line

Such as the Doric mothers bore; And there, perhaps, some seed is sown, The Heracleidan blood might own. Trust not for freedom to the FranksThey have a king who buys and sells: In native swords, and native ranks,

Your only hope of freedom dwells: But Turkish force, and Latin fraud, Would break your shield, however broad. Fill high the bowl with Samian wine! Our virgins dance beneath the shadeI see their glorious black eyes shine; But, gazing on each glowing inaid, My own the burning tear-drop laves, To think such breasts must suckle slaves. Place me on Sunium's marbled steep,

Where nothing, save the waves and I, May hear our mutual murmurs sweep; There, swan-like, let me sing and die: A land of slaves shall ne'er be mineDash down yon cup of Samian wine!

2. STEAMERS, ACCOMMODATION FOR TRAVELLERS, &c.

Syra (úpos) should be the head-quarters of the traveller in the Egean. Here are several small inns; the best is the Hôtel d'Angleterre. In all the other islands strangers must generally rely on getting lodgings in private houses and they should endeavour to procure letters of introduction to the authorities, &c. Syra is the centre of the steam navigation of the Levant; and steamers, English, French, Greek, and Austrian, are constantly arriving from

Homer and Anacreon.

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