Athens from Dekelea is, perhaps, the most striking of all the views which can be obtained of it. 6. ATHENS BY POROS, TROZENE, AND HERMIONE, TO HYDRA: TWO OR THREE DAYS' EXCURSION. DAY. 1 Athens to Poros by steamer. 2 and 3 Poros to Trozene (Damala), and thence ride across the Argolic peninsula to Hermione (Castri); whence a boat will take you in 2 hrs. to Hydra. There are some ancient remains both at Træzene and Hermione, and the orange and lemon-groves around the former are delightful. A little N. of Poros is the volcanic peninsula of Methana, highly interesting to the geologist. 7. TOUR IN THE FOOTSTEPS OF PAUSANIAS; FROM TWO TO THREE MONTHS. Col. Leake has observed that this would be not an ill-advised route; and it would give the classical traveller the opportunity of comparing exactly the present with the ancient topography of Greece; using Pausanias as his handbook. “The Περίοδος Παυσανιακή, οι Pausaniac tour of Greece, might still be recommended, as forming a very convenient plan of travels through this country; namely, from Athens through the Megaris to Corinth; from thence by Sicyon and Phlius to Argos; round the Argolic Peninsula again to Argos; from Argos to Sparta; round the eastern Laconic peninsula again to Sparta; round the western Laconic peninsula into Messenia; from Messenia into the Eleia and Achaia; and, lastly, the tour of Arcadia, requiring various deviations. After having returned to Athens, the traveller might follow Pausanias to Eleuthera, to Platea, and Thebes; and from thence make the tours of Boeotia and Phocis." 8. TOUR IN THE GEAN: SIX WEEKS OR TWO MONTHS. The above period would suffice to visit the chief islands, but not to explore the interior of Crete. Syra should be made the head-quarters of a voyage in the Egean (Section III.), as that island is the centre of the steam navigation. 3. Athens to Sunium 4. Athens to Lamia (Zeitun) by Marathon, Thebes, Delphi, &c.. 5. Thermopyla to Lebadea. 6. Thermopylaa to Thebes. 7. Marathon to Chalkis 8. Athens to Chalkis, direct € 218 227 229 229 233 16. Mesolonghi by Vrakhori and Kravasaras to Vonitza and Prevesa 17. Kravasaras to Arta, by the Pass of Macrimoros . 18. Mesolonghi to Kalydon (Kurt Aga) 9. Thebes to Chalkis (Euboea). 234 19. Mesolonghi to Vonitza, by 10. Chalkis to Oreos (Euboea) 253 257 257 11. Chalkis to Kumi (Eubœa) 20. Aetos to Alyzea and Leneidia 261 INTRODUCTORY REMARKS, Greece N. of the Isthmus of Corinth is often called Continental Hellas (n σTepeà 'Eλλás), in contradistinction to the isles of the Egean and Ionian seas, and to the Peloponnesus, or Island of Pelops. It contains three of the Nomes (vóuoi), or Departments, into which the modern kingdom is divided, and which correspond, more or less exactly with the ancient divisions of the same names: viz., 1. Attica and Boeotia; 2. Phokis and Pthiotis; 3. Ætolia and Acarnania. Beyond Atheus and Attica, the main objects of the traveller in this section of Greece should be to visit the national sanctuary of Delphi, and the national battle-fields of Thermopyla and Platea. The following routes lead to all the most interesting sites and districts; but many Hellenic remains and much wild and beautiful scenery may be enjoyed, perhaps discovered, by those who are willing to leave the beaten tracks, and explore thoroughly the provinces of Ætolia and Acarnania, the forests of Euboea, and the chain of mountains on the frontiers of Thessaly and Epirus. ROUTE 1. inhabited chiefly by Mahommedans. Farther S. is the bay of Gomenitza, a station of the Venetians, whilst they held Corfu. Still farther to the S., and close to the Albanian shore, are the two islets Sybota (see above). FROM CORFU TO ATHENS BY PATRAS, The long sandy point which runs out AND THE GULF AND ISTHMUS OF The Greek steamers leave Corfu for Athens by this route once a week, touching at Cephalonia, Zante, Patras, and so to Lutraki, on the isthmus. Carriages are provided by the company for the crossing of the isthmus (6 m.), and another steamer awaits the arrival of the passengers at Calamaki, on the Gulf of Salamis, and conveys them to the Piræus in about 4 hrs. The first-class fare from Corfu to Athens, including meals, &c., is about 51. The time occupied, including stoppages, rarely exceeds 2 days. It is a most interesting and delightful voyage. The northern entrance to the channel of Corfu has already been described. We now pass out by the southern entrance, which has not the stern features of that from the N. The mountains are lower, and there is more cultivation both in the island and on the The straggling opposite continent. village, whose white houses hang like a snow-wreath on the side of the Albanian hills, nearly due E. of the citadel, is called Konispolis, and is from the opposite coast of Corfu is called the promontory of Lefchimo, a corruption of Leukimne, as Capo Bianco, the most southern cape of the island, is a translation of the same word. At its southern entrance, the channel of Corfu is about 5 miles across. Emerging into the open Ionian sea, we pass on the right the island of Paxo (see above), and approach Leucadia, or Santa Maura, whose mountains, with those of Cephalonia beyond, rise proudly on the southern horizon. Nothing can be more striking than the view presented by the Albanian coast, and its long range of mountains stretching on our left. Parga is the small town perched on a low hill close to the sea. A little farther to the S. is the entrance of Port Phanári (the Sweet Harbour, гAvкùs Auny, of the ancients). Far above it, and on a peaked rock in the gloomy gorge of the river Acheron, which flows into Port Phanári, may be descried in clear weather the white walls of the far-famed castle of Suli. Farther still to the S., and at the mouth of the Ambracian Gulf, are the ruins of Nicopolis, the City of Victory, built Ambracia's gulf behold, where once was lost Imperial anarchs, doubling human woes! GOD! was thy globe ordained for such to win and lose? After leaving Santa Maura on the eft, the steamer sometimes, according to the wind, &c., passes outside, or to the westward, of Cephalonia; sometimes it passes through the channel between Ithaca and Cephalonia, thus affording a good prospect of both those islands. Ithaca is, of course, to It is said that, on the day previous to the battle of Actium, Antony had thirteen kings at his levee. ["To-day (Nov. 12) I saw the remains of the town of Actium, near which Antony lost the world, in a small bay, where two frigates could hardly manœuvre.-Lørd Byron to his Mother, 1809.] the left, and Cephalonia to the right (see the descriptions in Section I.). The steamers generally touch at Argostoli, the capital of Cephalonia; and then at the city of Zante (see above). From Zante the steamer proceeds to the entrance of the Gulf of Corinth. To the left are the mountains of Acarnania and Etolia, with the lagoons and town of Mesolonghi at their foot; to the right the mountains of the Peloponnesus, with the rich plains of Elis and Achaia skirt the sea. In approaching the shores of Greece, that land to which we are indebted for so much that is graceful in art, exalting in freedom, and ennobling in philosophy, the traveller will be forcibly struck with Lord Byron's apostrophe, written while Greece was still subject to the Turks: And yet how lovely in thine age of woe, So perish all in turn, save well-recorded worth Save where some solitary column mourns While strangers only not regardless pass, Lingering like me, perchance, to gaze and sigh "Alas!" Yet are thy skies as blue, thy crags as wild; Sweet are thy groves, and verdant are thy fields, Thine olive ripe as when Minerva smiled, And still his honied wealth Hymettus yields; There the blythe bee his fragrant fortress builds, The freeborn wanderer of thy mountain air; Apollo still thy long, long summer gilds, Still in his beam Mendeli's † marbles glare; Art, glory, freedom fail, but Nature still is fair. Where'er we tread, 'tis haunted holy ground; *The temple of Athena on Cape Sunium. + The Italian name of Pentelicus. The scenes our earliest dreams have dwelt | tern coast of Greece, and the Egean upon; Each hill and dale, each deepening glen and wold He that is lonely, hither let him roam, Patras, Patræ in Greek, in Italian Patrasso (pop. 24,000), is the residence of an English Consul. Sea by the Gulf of Corinth. Its modern prosperity has been the result of the cultivation of the dwarf-vine, currants), which render the greater called Uva passa di Corinto (hence part of the plain of Patras some of the most valuable soil in Europe. The ancient Patre was founded by the Ionians, the original inhabitants of the northern shore of the Peloponnesus, afterwards called Achaia. Herodotus (i. 146) enumerates Patræ among the twelve cities of Achaia. It suffered greatly during the wars of the Achæan league. After the battle of Actium, however, it was raised to its former flourishing condition by Augustus, who made it a Roman colony, like Nicopolis, and established some of his veterans in it. In Strabo's time it was a large and populous town; and in the second century, A.D., it was still prosperous (Pausanias, Achaic., 18-21). When Pausanias visited Patræ, it was noted for its cultivation of cotton, which was abundantly grown in the neighbourhood; and there was a large manufacturing population in of women attracted to the place by the town. So great was the number this employment, that the female have been double that of the male. population is stated by Pausanias to The objects described by him were in four different quarters. 1. The Acropolis. 2. The Agora. 3. A quarter into which there was a gate from the Agora. 4. The quarter near the sea. The chief object of veneration in the Acropolis was the temple of Diana Laphria, containing a statue of that goddess brought from Calydon in Etolia by Augustus. The city contained many other temples and public buildings of importance, especially a famous Odeum. Modern Patras, before the revolution, occupied the same site as the ancient city. It stood upon a ridge about a mile long, which proPatras possesses great advantages jects from the falls of Mount Voidhia in point of situation, from the facility in an easternly direction; to the westof communication by sea with the ward it is separated from the sea by a adjacent islands, with the whole wes-level increasing in breadth from N. to Inns.-Hôtel de la Grande Bretagne ; Hôtel des Quatre Nations; both bad. A bargain should be made for beds and meals. There are several cafés. S. from a quarter to more than half a mile. At the northern end of this ridge stands the castle of Patras, on the site of the ancient Acropolis, of which some pieces are intermixed with the modern masonry on the N.E. side. The castle is strengthened in this direction by a hollow lying between it and the opposite heights, which form the connection with Mount Voidhia. These hills are of the most irregular forms, and have been much subject to earthquakes. The ancient town, like the modern one before the revolution, covered the slopes of the ridge, which branches from the citadel to the S. The old Achaian city does not appear to have extended beyond the foot of this ridge. All the existing remains beyond that line seem to have belonged to the colony established by Augustus after the battle of Actium. Masses of masonry are to be found among the houses and gardens, but none in sufficiently good preservation to be identified with any building among those described by Pausanias. The Agora seems to have been about the middle of the town. The only position of the ancient Patræ, besides the Acropolis, which seems to be perfectly identified, is that of the temple of Ceres, described by Pausanias as adjoining a grove by the sea-side, serving as a public walk to the Patrenses, and as having had below it in front a source of water, to which there was a descent on the side opposite the temple. This spring is easily recognized near the western extremity of the present town, near the sea-shore. There is still a descent of four steps to the well, under a vault near the Greek cathedral church of St. Andrew. This church is held in great veneration by the Greeks, as it is supposed to contain the bones of the apostle, and also a stone which tradition connects with his martyrdom. On the anniversary of his festival, all the Greeks of Patras and the neighbourhood flock to this shrine to pray, and tapers are every night lighted in a shed near which the body is supposed to be buried. This church has been rebuilt since the revolution. According to Ducange, the metropolitan church of Patra stood formerly in the citadel, and was destroyed by Villehardouin, a French noble, who obtained possession of Achaia after the Frank conquest of Constantinople in 1204. About 250 years afterwards, the patron-saint suffered another indignity. Thomas, the Greek despot of the Morea, finding himself under the necessity of retiring to Italy before the arms of Mahomet II., could devise no more effectual mode of recommending himself to the Pope, than to carry off the head of St. Andrew from Patræ as a present to his Holiness. The ruins of the Roman aqueduct, of brick, which supplied the town from the heights to the eastward, are still extant on that side of the Castle Hill. Mount Voidhia (Botdia), 6322 English feet in height, and inferior only to a few of the great summits of Greece, is evidently the Mount Panachaicum, where, in the winter of the second year of the Social War, B.C. 219-20, Pyrrhias the Ætolian established himself at the head of 3000 Etolians and Eleians, after having made incursions upon Patræ, Dyme, &c., whence he continued them towards Egium and Rhium. The Klephts of modern times have also discovered that this mountain is most conveniently placed for commanding Achaia. The greater part of the existing castle of Patras is probably the work of the French crusader Villehardouin and his successors, and he evidently made abundant use of the remains of ancient buildings in constructing it. The castle commands a most beautiful and interesting prospect. Nothing can be more perfect of its kind than the sweep of the coast forming that vast bay to the S.W., which is separated from Mount Panachaicum by the plain of Patras. Beyond appear the distant summits of Zante and Cephalonia. Castel Tornese is seen in this direction a little to the right of the summit of Mount Skopos in Zante. To the N. the outer division of the Corinthian gulf is bounded by the mountains of |
