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| author | Roger Frank <rfrank@pglaf.org> | 2025-10-15 04:54:48 -0700 |
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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/19061-8.txt b/19061-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..792eacb --- /dev/null +++ b/19061-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,5871 @@ +Project Gutenberg's Seeing Europe with Famous Authors, Vol VIII, by Various + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Seeing Europe with Famous Authors, Vol VIII + Italy and Greece, Part Two + +Author: Various + +Editor: Francis W Halsey + +Release Date: August 16, 2006 [EBook #19061] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SEEING EUROPE *** + + + + +Produced by Janet Blenkinship and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + + + [Illustration: THE PARTHENON] + + + SEEING EUROPE + + WITH FAMOUS + AUTHORS + + + SELECTED AND EDITED + + WITH + INTRODUCTIONS, ETC. + + BY + + FRANCIS W. HALSEY + + _Editor of "Great Epochs in American History" + Associate Editor of "The World's Famous Orations" + and of "The Best of the World's Classics," etc._ + + + IN TEN + + VOLUMES + + ILLUSTRATED + + Vol. VIII + + ITALY, SICILY, AND GREECE + + PART TWO + + + FUNK & WAGNALLS COMPANY + NEW YORK AND LONDON + + + + + COPYRIGHT, 1914, BY + FUNK & WAGNALLS COMPANY + [_Printed in the United States of America_] + + + + + CONTENTS OF VOLUME VIII + + Italy, Sicily, and Greece--Part Two + + + IV. THREE FAMOUS CITIES + + PAGE + + IN THE STREETS OF GENOA--By Charles Dickens 1 + + MILAN CATHEDRAL--By Hippolyte Adolphe Taine 4 + + PISA'S FOUR GLORIES--By Hippolyte Adolphe Taine 7 + + THE WALLS AND "SKYSCRAPERS" OF PISA--By Janet Ross and + Nelly Erichson 11 + + + V. NAPLES AND ITS ENVIRONS + + + IN AND ABOUT NAPLES--By Charles Dickens 18 + + THE TOMB OF VIRGIL--By Augustus J. C. Hare 24 + + TWO ASCENTS OF VESUVIUS--By Johann Wolfgang von Goethe 26 + + ANOTHER ASCENT--By Charles Dickens 31 + + CASTELLAMARE AND SORRENTO--By Hippolyte Adolphe Taine 37 + + CAPRI--By Augustus J. C. Hare 42 + + POMPEII--By Percy Bysshe Shelley 45 + + + VI. OTHER ITALIAN SCENES + + + VERONA--By Charles Dickens 52 + + PADUA--By Theophile Gautier 55 + + FERRARA--By Theophile Gautier 59 + + LAKE LUGANO--By Victor Tissot 62 + + LAKE COMO--By Percy Bysshe Shelley 64 + + BELLAGIO ON LAKE COMO--By W. D. M'Crackan 66 + + THE REPUBLIC OF SAN MARINO--By Joseph Addison 69 + + PERUGIA--By Nathaniel Hawthorne 73 + + SIENA---By Mr. and Mrs. Edwin H. Blashfield 75 + + THE ASSISSI OF ST. FRANCIS--By Hippolyte Adolphe Taine 78 + + RAVENNA--By Edward A. Freeman 80 + + BENEDICTINE SUBIACO--By Augustus J. C. Hare 83 + + ETRUSCAN VOLTERRA--By William Cullen Bryant 86 + + THE PAESTUM OF THE GREEKS--By Edward A. Freeman 88 + + + VII. SICILIAN SCENES + + + PALERMO--By Will S. Monroe 91 + + GIRGENTI--By Edward A. Freeman 93 + + SEGESTE--By Johann Wolfgang von Goethe 97 + + TAORMINA--By Johann Wolfgang von Goethe 99 + + MOUNT ÆTNA--By Will S. Monroe 101 + + SYRACUSE--By Rufus B. Richardson 104 + + MALTA--By Theophile Gautier 107 + + + VIII. THE MAINLAND OF GREECE + + + ARRIVING IN ATHENS--THE ACROPOLIS--By J. P. Mahaffy 112 + + A WINTER IN ATHENS HALF A CENTURY AGO--By Bayard Taylor 119 + + THE ACROPOLIS AS IT WAS--By Pausanias 122 + + THE ELGIN MARBLES--By J. P. Mahaffy 127 + + THE THEATER OF DIONYSUS--By J. P. Mahaffy 130 + + WHERE ST. PAUL PREACHED--By J. P. Mahaffy 134 + + FROM ATHENS TO DELPHI ON HORSEBACK--By Bayard Taylor 136 + + CORINTH--By J. P. Mahaffy 140 + + OLYMPIA--By Philip S. Marden 143 + + THE TEMPLE OF ZEUS AT OLYMPIA AS IT WAS--By Pausanias 146 + + THERMOPYLÆ--By Rufus B. Richardson 152 + + SALONICA--By Charles Dudley Warner 155 + + FROM THE PIERIAN PLAIN TO MARATHON--By Charles Dudley Warner 157 + + SPARTA AND MAINA--By Bayard Taylor 160 + + MESSENIA--By Bayard Taylor 164 + + TIRYNS AND MYCENÆ--By J. P. Mahaffy 169 + + + IX. THE GREEK ISLANDS + + A TOUR OF CRETE--By Bayard Taylor 175 + + THE COLOSSAL RUINS AT CNOSSOS--By Philip S. Marden 179 + + CORFU--By Edward A. Freeman 182 + + RHODES--By Charles Dudley Warner 185 + + MT. ATHOS--By Charles Dudley Warner 189 + + + + + LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS + + VOLUME VIII + + + FRONTISPIECE + + + THE PARTHENON + + + PRECEDING PAGE 1 + + + VENICE: SANTA MARIA DEL SALUTE + + FEEDING THE DOVES IN FRONT OF ST. MARK'S + + VENICE: STATUE OF COLLEONI + + PALACE IN ST. MARK'S PLACE + + GONDOLA ON THE GRAND CANAL + + GENERAL VIEW OF FLORENCE + + PALACE OF THE DUKES OF ESTE, FERRARA + + LAKE LUGANO + + TITIAN'S BIRTHPLACE AT CADORE + + THE BRIDGE OF SIGHS + + VERONA: TOMB OF THE SCALIGERS + + MILAN CATHEDRAL + + BAPTISTERY, CATHEDRAL, AND LEANING TOWER OF PISA + + + FOLLOWING PAGE 96 + + + CITY AND BAY OF NAPLES WITH VESUVIUS + + IN THE DISTANCE + + TEMPLE OF THESEUS AT ATHENS + + PALERMO, SICILY, FROM THE SEA + + GREEK THEATER, SEGESTA, SICILY + + TEMPLE OF CONCORD, GIRGENTI, SICILY + + TEMPLE OF JUNO, GIRGENTI, SICILY + + AMPHITHEATER AT SYRACUSE, SICILY + + GREEK TEMPLE AT SEGESTA, SICILY + + HARBOR OF SYRACUSE, SICILY + + THE SO-CALLED "SHIP OF ULYSSES," OFF CORFU + + TEMPLE OF THE OLYMPIAN ZEUS AT ATHENS + + THE PLAIN BELOW DELPHI + + THE ROAD NEAR DELPHI + + ENTRANCE TO THE STADIUM AT OLYMPIA + + THRONE OF MINOS IN CRETE + + + + +[Illustration: VENICE: SANTA MARIA DEL SALUTE] + +[Illustration: FEEDING THE DOVES IN FRONT OF ST. MARK'S +(See Vol. VII for article on these doves)] + +[Illustration: VENICE: STATUE OF COLLEONI +Courtesy John C. Winston Co.] + +[Illustration: PALACE IN ST. MARK'S PLACE, VENICE +(Base of the old Campanile at the right)] + +[Illustration: GONDOLA ON THE GRAND CANAL, VENICE] + +[Illustration: GENERAL VIEW OF FLORENCE] + +[Illustration: PALACE OF THE DUKES OF ESTE. FERRARA] + +[Illustration: LAKE LUGANO] + +[Illustration: TITIAN'S BIRTHPLACE AT CADORE +(Cadore is in the Italian part of the Dolomites)] + +[Illustration: THE BRIDGE OF SIGHS, VENICE] + +[Illustration: TOMB OF THE SCALÍGERS AT VERONA] + +[Illustration: MILAN CATHEDRAL +(See Vol. VII for article on Milan Cathedral)] + +[Illustration: BAPTISTERY, CATHEDRAL, AND LEANING TOWER OF PISA +(See Vol. VII for article on Pisa)] + + + + +IV + +THREE FAMOUS CITIES + + + + +IN THE STREETS OF GENOA[1] + +BY CHARLES DICKENS + + +The great majority of the streets are as narrow as any thoroughfare can +well be, where people (even Italian people) are supposed to live and +walk about; being mere lanes, with here and there a kind of well, or +breathing-place. The houses are immensely high, painted in all sorts of +colors, and are in every stage and state of damage, dirt, and lack of +repair. They are commonly let off in floors, or flats, like the houses +in the old town of Edinburgh, or many houses in Paris.... + +When shall I forget the Streets of Palaces: the Strada Nuova and the +Strada Baldi! The endless details of these rich palaces; the walls of +some of them, within, alive with masterpieces by Vandyke! The great, +heavy, stone balconies, one above another, and tier over tier; with here +and there, one larger than the rest, towering high up--a huge marble +platform; the doorless vestibules, massively barred lower windows, +immense public staircases, thick marble pillars, strong dungeon-like +arches, and dreary, dreaming, echoing vaulted chambers; among which the +eye wanders again, and again, and again, as every palace is succeeded by +another--the terrace gardens between house and house, with green arches +of the vine, and groves of orange-trees, and blushing oleander in full +bloom, twenty, thirty, forty feet above the street--the painted halls, +moldering and blotting, and rotting in the damp corners, and still +shining out in beautiful colors and voluptuous designs, where the walls +are dry--the faded figures on the outsides of the houses, holding +wreaths, and crowns, and flying upward, and downward, and standing in +niches, and here and there looking fainter and more feeble than +elsewhere, by contrast with some fresh little Cupids, who on a more +recently decorated portion of the front, are stretching out what seems +to be the semblance of a blanket, but is, indeed, a sun-dial--the steep, +steep, up-hill streets of small palaces (but very large palaces for all +that), with marble terraces looking down into close by-ways--the +magnificent and innumerable churches; and the rapid passage from a +street of stately edifices, into a maze of the vilest squalor, steaming +with unwholesome stenches, and swarming with half-naked children and +whole worlds of dirty people--make up, altogether, such a scene of +wonder; so lively, and yet so dead; so noisy, and yet so quiet; so +obtrusive, and yet so shy and lowering; so wide-awake, and yet so fast +asleep; that it is a sort of intoxication to a stranger to walk on, and +on, and on, and look about him. A bewildering phantasmagoria, with all +the inconsistency of a dream, and all the pain and all the pleasure of +an extravagant reality!... + +In the streets of shops, the houses are much smaller, but of great size +notwithstanding, and extremely high. They are very dirty; quite +undrained, if my nose be at all reliable; and emit a peculiar fragrance, +like the smell of very bad cheese, kept in very hot blankets. +Notwithstanding the height of the houses, there would seem to have been +a lack of room in the city, for new houses are thrust in everywhere. +Wherever it has been possible to cram a tumble-down tenement into a +crack or corner, in it has gone. If there be a nook or angle in the wall +of a church, or a crevice in any other dead wall, of any sort, there you +are sure to find some kind of habitation; looking as if it had grown +there, like a fungus. Against the Government House, against the old +Senate House, round about any large building, little shops stick close, +like parasite vermin to the great carcass. And for all this, look where +you may; up steps, down steps, anywhere, everywhere; there are irregular +houses, receding, starting forward, tumbling down, leaning against their +neighbors, crippling themselves or their friends by some means or other, +until one, more irregular than the rest, chokes up the way, and you +can't see any further. + + + + +MILAN CATHEDRAL[2] + +BY HIPPOLYTE ADOLPHE TAINE + + +The cathedral, at the first sight, is bewildering. Gothic art, +transported entire into Italy at the close of the Middle Ages,[3] +attains at once its triumph and its extravagance. Never had it been seen +so pointed, so highly embroidered, so complex, so overcharged, so +strongly resembling a piece of jewelry; and as, instead of coarse and +lifeless stone, it here takes for its material the beautiful lustrous +Italian marble, it becomes a pure chased gem as precious through its +substance as through the labor bestowed on it. The whole church seems to +be a colossal and magnificent crystallization, so splendidly do its +forests of spires, its intersections of moldings, its population of +statues, its fringes of fretted, hollowed, embroidered and open +marblework, ascend in multiple and interminable bright forms against the +pure blue sky. + +Truly is it the mystic candelabra of visions and legends, with a hundred +thousand branches bristling and overflowing with sorrowing thorns and +ecstatic roses, with angels, virgins, and martyrs upon every flower and +on every thorn, with infinite myriads of the triumphant Church springing +from the ground pyramidically even into the azure, with its millions of +blended and vibrating voices mounting upward in a single shout, +hosannah!... + +We enter, and the impression deepens. What a difference between the +religious power of such a church and that of St. Peter's at Rome! One +exclaims to himself, this is the true Christian temple! Four rows of +enormous eight-sided pillars, close together, seem like a serried hedge +of gigantic oaks. Their strange capitals, bristling with a fantastic +vegetation of pinnacles, canopies, foliated niches and statues, are like +venerable trunks crowned with delicate and pendent mosses. They spread +out in great branches meeting in the vault overhead, the intervals of +the arches being filled with an inextricable network of foliage, thorny +sprigs and light branches, twining and intertwining, and figuring the +aerial dome of a mighty forest. As in a great wood, the lateral aisles +are almost equal in height to that of the center, and, on all sides, at +equal distances apart, one sees ascending around him the secular +colonnades. + +Here truly is the ancient Germanic forest, as if a reminiscence of the +religious groves of Irmensul. Light pours in transformed by green, +yellow and purple panes, as if through the red and orange tints of +autumnal leaves. This, certainly, is a complete architecture like that +of Greece, having, like that of Greece, its root in vegetable forms. The +Greek takes the trunk of the tree, drest, for his type; the German the +entire tree with all its leaves and branches. True architecture, +perhaps, always springs out of vegetal nature, and each zone may have +its own edifices as well as plants; in this way oriental architectures +might be comprehended--the vague idea of the slender palm and of its +bouquet of leaves with the Arabs, and the vague idea of the colossal, +prolific, dilated and bristling vegetation of India. + +In any event I have never seen a church in which the aspect of northern +forests was more striking, or where one more involuntarily imagines long +alleys of trunks terminating in glimpses of daylight, curved branches +meeting in acute angles, domes of irregular and commingling foliage, +universal shade scattered with lights through colored and diaphanous +leaves. Sometimes a section of yellow panes, through which the sun +darts, launches into the obscurity its shower of rays and a portion of +the nave glows like a luminous glade. A vast rosace behind the choir, a +window with tortuous branchings above the entrance, shimmer with the +tints of amethyst, ruby, emerald and topaz like leafy labyrinths in +which lights from above break in and diffuse themselves in shifting +radiance. Near the sacristy a small door-top, fastened against the wall, +exposes an infinity of intersecting moldings similar to the delicate +meshes of some marvelous twining and climbing plant. A day might be +passed here as in a forest, in the presence of grandeurs as solemn as +those of nature, before caprices as fascinating, amid the same +intermingling of sublime monotony and inexhaustible fecundity, before +contrasts and metamorphoses of light as rich and as unexpected. A mystic +reverie, combined with a fresh sentiment of northern nature, such is the +source of Gothic architecture. + + + + +PISA'S FOUR GLORIES[4] + +BY HIPPOLYTE ADOLPHE TAINE + + +There are two Pisas--one in which people have lapsed into ennui, and +live from hand to mouth since the decadence, which is in fact the entire +city, except a remote corner; the other is this corner, a marble +sepulcher where the Duomo, Baptistery, Leaning Tower and Campo-Santo +silently repose like beautiful dead beings. This is the genuine Pisa, +and in these relics of a departed life, one beholds a world. + +In 1083 in order to honor the Virgin, who had given them a victory over +the Saracens of Sardignia, they [the Pisans] laid the foundations of +their Duomo. This edifice is almost a Roman basilica, that is to say a +temple surmounted by another temple, or, if you prefer it, a house +having a gable for its façade which gable is cut off at the peak to +support another house of smaller dimensions. Five stories of columns +entirely cover the façade with their superposed porticos. Two by two +they stand coupled together to support small arcades; all these pretty +shapes of white marble under their dark arcades form an aerial +population of the utmost grace and novelty. Nowhere here are we +conscious of the dolorous reverie of the medieval north; it is the fête +of a young nation which is awakening, and, in the gladness of its recent +prosperity, honoring its gods. It has collected capitals, ornaments, +entire columns obtained on the distant shores to which its wars and its +commerce have led it, and these ancient fragments enter into its work +without incongruity; for it is instinctively cast in the ancient mold, +and only developed with a tinge of fancy on the side of finesse and the +pleasing. Every antique form reappears, but reshaped in the same sense +by a fresh and original impulse. + +The outer columns of the Greek temple are reduced, multiplied and +uplifted in the air, and from a support have become an ornament. The +Roman or Byzantine dome is elongated and its natural heaviness +diminished under a crown of slender columns with a miter ornament, which +girds it midway with its delicate promenade. On the two sides of the +great door two Corinthian columns are enveloped with luxurious foliage, +calyxes and twining or blooming acanthus; and from the threshold we see +the church with its files of intersecting columns, its alternate courses +of black and white marble and its multitude of slender and brilliant +forms, rising upward like an altar of candelabra. A new spirit appears +here, a more delicate sensibility; it is not excessive and disordered as +in the north, and yet it is not satisfied with the grave simplicity, the +robust nudity of antique architecture. It is the daughter of the pagan +mother, healthy and gay, but more womanly than its mother. + +She is not yet an adult, sure in all her steps--she is somewhat awkward. +The lateral façades on the exterior are monotonous; the cupola within +is a reversed funnel of a peculiar and disagreeable form. The junction +of the two arms of the cross is unsatisfactory and so many modernized +chapels dispel the charm due to purity, as at Sienna. At the second +glance however all this is forgotten, and we again regard it as a +complete whole. Four rows of Corinthian columns, surmounted with +arcades, divide the church into five naves, and form a forest. A second +passage, as richly crowded, traverses the former crosswise, and, above +the beautiful grove, files of still smaller columns prolong and +intersect each other in order to uphold in the air the prolongation and +intersection of the quadruple gallery. The ceiling is flat; the windows +are small, and for the most part, without sashes; they allow the walls +to retain the grandeur of their mass and the solidity of their position; +and among these long, straight and simple lines, in this natural light, +the innumerable shafts glow with the serenity of an antique temple.... + +Nothing more can be added in relation to the Baptistery or the Leaning +Tower; the same ideas prevail in these, the same taste, the same style. +The former is a simple, isolated dome, the latter a cylinder, and each +has an outward dress of small columns. And yet each has its own distinct +and expressive physiognomy; but description and writing consume too much +time, and too many technical terms are requisite to define their +differences. I note, simply, the inclination of the Tower. Some suppose +that, when half constructed, the tower sank in the earth on one side, +and that the architects continued on; seeing that they did continue +this deflection was only a partial obstacle to them. In any event, there +are other leaning towers in Italy, at Bologna, for example; voluntarily +or involuntarily this feeling for oddness, this love of paradox, this +yielding to fancy is one of the characteristics of the Middle Ages. + +In the center of the Baptistery stands a superb font with eight panels; +each panel is incrusted with a rich complicated flower in full bloom, +and each flower is different. Around it a circle of large Corinthian +columns supports round-arch arcades; most of them are antique and are +ornamented with antique bas-reliefs; Meleager with his barking dogs, and +the nude torsos of his companions in attendance on Christian mysteries. +On the left stands a pulpit similar to that of Sienna, the first work of +Nicholas of Pisa (1260), a simple marble coffer supported by marble +columns and covered with sculptures. The sentiment of force and of +antique nudity comes out here in striking features. The sculptor +comprehended the postures and torsions of bodies. His figures, somewhat +massive, are grand and simple; he frequently reproduces the tunics and +folds of the Roman costume; one of his nude personages, a sort of +Hercules bearing a young lion on his shoulders, has the broad breast and +muscular tension which the sculptors of the sixteenth century admired. + +The last of these edifices, the Campo-Santo, is a cemetery, the soil of +which, brought from Palestine, is holy ground. Four high walls of +polished marble surround it with their white and crowded panels. +Inside, a square gallery forms a promenade opening into the court +through arcades trellised with ogive windows. It is filled with funereal +monuments, busts, inscriptions and statues of every form and of every +age. Nothing could be simpler and nobler. A framework of dark wood +supports the arch overhead, and the crest of the roof cuts sharp against +the crystal sky. At the angles are four rustling cypress trees, +tranquilly swayed by the breeze. Grass is growing in the court with a +wild freshness and luxuriance. Here and there a climbing flower twined +around a column, a small rosebush, or a shrub glows beneath a gleam of +sunshine. There is no noise; this quarter is deserted; only now and then +is heard the voice of some promenader which reverberates as under the +vault of a church. It is the veritable cemetery of a free and Christian +city; here, before the tombs of the great, people might well reflect +over death and public affairs. + + + + +THE WALLS AND "SKYSCRAPERS" OF PISA[5] + +BY JANET ROSS AND NELLY ERICHSON + + +Few cities have preserved their medieval walls with such loving care as +Pisa. The circuit is complete save where the traveler enters the city; +and there, alas, a wide breach has been made by the restless spirit of +modernity. But once past the paltry barrier and the banal square, with +its inevitable statue of Victor Emanuel, that take the place of the old +Porta Romana, one quickly perceives that the city is a walled one. +Glimpses of battlements close the vistas of the streets, and green +fields peep through the open gates, marking that abrupt transition +between town and country peculiar to a fortified city. + +The walls are best seen from without. An admirable impression of them +can be had on leaving the city by the Porta Lucchese. Turning to the +left, after passing a crucifix overshadowed by cypresses, we come to the +edge of a stretch of level marshy meadows, gaily pied in spring with +orchids and grape hyacinths. Above our heads the high air vibrates with +the song of larks. Before us is the long line of the city walls. Strong, +grim and gray, they look with nothing to break the outline of square +battlements against the sky, but that majestic groups of domes and +towers for whose defense they were built. At the angle of the wall to +the right is a square watch-tower, backed by groups of cypresses that +rise into the air like dark flames. Its little windows command the flat +plain as far as the horizon. How easy to imagine the warning blast of +the warder's trumpet as he caught sight of a distant enemy, and the wall +springing into life at the sound. Armed men buckling on their harness +would swarm up ladders to the battlements, the catapult groan and squeak +as its lever was forced backward, and at the sharp word of command the +first flight of arrows would be loosed. + +But the dream fades, and we pass on to the angle of the wall where the +cypresses stand. From the picturesque Jews' cemetery, to which access is +easy, the structure of the walls can be studied in detail because the +hand of the restorer has been perforce withheld within its gates. The +wall is some forty feet high, built of stone from the Pisan hills, +weathered for the most part to a grayish hue. The masonry of the lower +half is good. The blocks of stone are large and well laid. Those of the +upper half are smaller and the masonry is in places careless and +irregular. The red brick battlements are square. At short intervals +there are walled-up gateways, round-headed or ogival in form, and the +whole surface is rent and patched. Centuries of war and earthquakes, +rain and fire, have given it a pleasant irregularity, the record of +violent and troublous times. + +The city can be reentered by the Porta Nuova, only a few yards to the +left of the cemetery. So venerable do these battered walls look that we +need the full evidence of history to realize that they had more than one +predecessor. The memory even of the first walls of Pisa, an ancient city +when Rome was young, has been lost. The earliest record of which we know +anything appears on a map of the ninth century drawn by one Bonanno; a +map, we should rather say professing to be of the ninth century, for +churches of the thirteenth century are marked upon it, so it must either +have been made, or the churches inserted, then.... + +The ancient walls were practically swept away by the prosperity of Pisa. +Beside the Balearic Islands she had conquered Carthage, the Lipari +Islands, Elba, Corsica, and Palermo, and her galleys poured their spoils +into the Pisan port. She traded with the East, and was successful in +commerce as in war. Her inhabitants increased rapidly. They could no +longer be penned within the narrow limits of the old wall, but +overflowed in all directions beyond it. Not only was the Borgo thickly +populated, but a whole new region called Forisportae, sprang up. + +So masked was the wall by houses, built into it and huddling against it +both on the outside and the inside, that it seems to have been actually +invisible. So much so that contemporary chroniclers spoke of Pisa as +without walls, and attributed her safety to the valor of her citizens +and the multitude of her towers. The ancient wall was evidently so +hidden and decayed that Pisa must be regarded as a defenseless city in +the twelfth century. It is curious that her citizens should have +neglected their own safety at a time when they were masters of +fortification and defense; when their fame in these arts had reached as +far as Egypt and Syria, and when the Milanese came to them to beg for +engineers.... + +The external appearance of an Italian city in the twelfth century was so +unlike anything we are accustomed to in modern times that a strong +effort of the imagination is needed to conceive it. Seen from a distance +the walls enclosed, not houses, but a forest of tall square shafts, +rising into the sky like the crowded chimney stacks in a manufacturing +town but far more thickly set together. The city appeared, to use a +graphic contemporary metaphor, like a sheaf of corn bound together by +its walls. + +[Illustration: PANEL IN THE CATHEDRAL, SHOWING PART OF THE MEDIEVAL WALL +AND TOWERS OF PISA] + +San Gimignano, tho most of its towers have perished long ago, helps us +to imagine faintly what Italian towns were like in the days of Frederick +Barbarossa or his grandson Frederick II. For most of the houses were +actually towers, long rectangular columns, vying with each other in +height and crowded close together on either side of the narrow, airless, +darkened streets. Sometimes they were connected with one another by +wooden bridges, and all were furnished with wooden balconies used in +defensive and offensive warfare with their neighbors. + +Cities full of towers were common all over southern France and central +Italy, but Tuscany had more than any other state, and those of Pisa were +the most famous of all. The habit of building and dwelling in towers +rather than in houses may have arisen from the difficulty of expanding +laterally within an enclosed city; but a stronger reason may be found in +the dangers and uncertainty of life in a period when a man might be +attacked at any moment by his fellow-citizen, as well as by the enemy of +the state. It was a distinct military advantage to overlook one's +neighbor, who might be an enemy; and towers rose higher and higher. The +spirit of emulation entered, and rich nobles gloried in adding tower to +tower and in looking down on all rivals. + +But whatever the cause of their existence, they were picturesque, and +must have presented a gallant sight on the eve of a high festival. The +tall shafts were tinged with gold by the western sun, their battlements +crowned with three fluttering banners--the eagle of the Emperor, the +white cross of the Commune, and the device of the People--looking as tho +a cloud of many-colored butterflies were hovering over the city. + +Again, how dramatic the scene when the city was rent by one of the +perpetually recurring faction-fights. Light bridges with grappling-irons +were thrown from tower to tower, doors and windows were barricaded, +balconies and battlements lined with men in shining mail, bearing the +fantastic device of their leader on helm and shield. Mangonels, or +catapults, huge engines stationed on the roofs of the towers, sent +masses of stone hurtling through the air, whistling arbelast bolts and +clothyard shafts flew in thick showers, boiling oil or lead rained down +on the heads of those who ventured down to attack the doors, and arrows, +with Greek fire attached, were shot with nice aim into the wooden +balconies and bridges. Vile insults were hurled where missiles failed to +strike. The shouts and shrieks of the combatants were mingled with the +crash of a falling tower or with the hissing of a fire-arrow. Where +those struck, a red glow arose and a thick cloud of smoke enveloped the +defenders. + +Altho it is evident that towers were very numerous in Pisa, it is +difficult to arrive at their precise number. The chroniclers differ +greatly in their estimates. Benjamin da Tudela, for instance, says that +there were 10,000 in the twelfth century; while Marangone puts the +number at 15,000 and Tronci at 16,000. These are round numbers such as +the medieval mind loved, but we have abundant evidence that they are not +much exaggerated. An intarsia panel in the Duomo, shows how closely the +towers were packed together, while the mass of legislation relating to +them was directed against abuses that could only have arisen if their +number was very large. + + + + +V + +NAPLES AND ITS ENVIRONS + + + + +IN AND ABOUT THE CITY[6] + +BY CHARLES DICKENS + + +So we go, rattling down-hill, into Naples. A funeral is coming up the +street, toward us. The body, on an open bier, borne on a kind of +palanquin, covered with a gay cloth of crimson and gold. The mourners, +in white gowns and masks. If there be death abroad, life is well +represented too, for all Naples would seem to be out of doors, and +tearing to and fro in carriages. Some of these, the common Vetturino +vehicles, are drawn by three horses abreast, decked with smart trappings +and great abundance of brazen ornament, and always going very fast. Not +that their loads are light; for the smallest of them has at least six +people inside, four in front, four or five more hanging behind, and two +or three more, in a net or bag below the axle-tree, where they lie +half-suffocated with mud and dust. + +Exhibitors of Punch, buffo singers with guitars, reciters of poetry, +reciters of stories, a row of cheap exhibitions with clowns and +showmen, drums, and trumpets, painted cloths representing the wonders +within, and admiring crowds assembled without, assist the whirl and +bustle. Ragged lazzaroni lie asleep in doorways, archways, and kennels; +the gentry, gaily drest, are dashing up and down in carriages on the +Chiaja, or walking in the Public Gardens; and quiet letter-writers, +perched behind their little desks and inkstands under the Portico of the +Great Theater of San Carlo, in the public street, are waiting for +clients. + +Why do the beggars rap their chins constantly, with their right hands, +when you look at them? Everything is done in pantomime in Naples, and +that is the conventional sign for hunger. A man who is quarreling with +another, yonder, lays the palm of his right hand on the back of his +left, and shakes the two thumbs--expressive of a donkey's ears--whereat +his adversary is goaded to desperation. Two people bargaining for fish, +the buyer empties an imaginary waistcoat pocket when he is told the +price, and walks away without a word, having thoroughly conveyed to the +seller that he considers it too dear. Two people in carriages, meeting, +one touches his lips, twice or thrice, holding up the five fingers of +his right hand, and gives a horizontal cut in the air with the palm. The +other nods briskly, and goes his way. He has been invited to a friendly +dinner at half-past five o'clock, and will certainly come. + +All over Italy, a peculiar shake of the right hand from the wrist, with +the forefinger stretched out, expresses a negative--the only negative +beggars will ever understand. But, in Naples, those five fingers are a +copious language. All this, and every other kind of out-door life and +stir, and maccaroni-eating at sunset, and flower-selling all day long, +and begging and stealing everywhere and at all hours, you see upon the +bright sea-shore, where the waves of the Bay sparkle merrily.... + +Capri--once made odious by the deified beast Tiberius--Ischia, Procida, +and the thousand distant beauties of the Bay, lie in the blue sea +yonder, changing in the mist and sunshine twenty times a day; now close +at hand, now far off, now unseen. The fairest country in the world, is +spread about us. Whether we turn toward the Miseno shore of the splendid +watery amphitheater, and go by the Grotto of Posilipo to the Grotto del +Cane and away to Baiae, or take the other way, toward Vesuvius and +Sorrento, it is one succession of delights. In the last-named direction, +where, over doors and archways, there are countless little images of San +Gennaro, with this Canute's hand stretched out, to check the fury of the +burning Mountain, we are carried pleasantly, by a railroad on the +beautiful Sea Beach, past the town of Torre del Greco, built upon the +ashes of the former town destroyed by an eruption of Vesuvius, within a +hundred years; and past the flat-roofed houses, granaries, and maccaroni +manufacturies; to Castellamare, with its ruined castle, now inhabited by +fishermen, standing in the sea upon a heap of rocks. + +Here, the railroad terminates; but, hence we may ride on, by an unbroken +succession of enchanting bays, and beautiful scenery, sloping from the +highest summit of Saint Angelo, the highest neighboring mountain, down +to the water's edge--among vineyards, olive-trees, gardens of oranges +and lemons, orchards, heaped-up rocks, green gorges in the hills--and by +the bases of snow-covered heights, and through small towns with +handsome, dark-haired women at the doors--and pass delicious summer +villas--to Sorrento, where the poet Tasso drew his inspiration from the +beauty surrounding him. Returning, we may climb the heights above +Castellamare, and looking down among the boughs and leaves, see the +crisp water glistening in the sun; and clusters of white houses in +distant Naples, dwindling, in the great extent of prospect, down to +dice. The coming back to the city, by the beach again, at sunset; with +the glowing sea on one side, and the darkening mountain (Vesuvius), with +its smoke and flame, upon the other, is a sublime conclusion to the +glory of the day. + +That church by the Porta Capuna--near the old fisher-market in the +dirtiest quarter of dirty Naples, where the revolt of Masaniello +began--is memorable for having been the scene of one of his earliest +proclamations to the people, and is particularly remarkable for nothing +else, unless it be its waxen and bejeweled Saint in a glass case, with +two odd hands; or the enormous number of beggars who are constantly +rapping their chins there, like a battery of castanets. The cathedral +with the beautiful door, and the columns of African and Egyptian granite +that once ornamented the temple of Apollo, contains the famous sacred +blood of San Gennaro or Januarius, which is preserved in two phials in a +silver tabernacle, and miraculously liquefies three times a year, to the +great admiration of the people. At the same moment, the stone (distant +some miles) where the Saint suffered martyrdom, becomes faintly red. It +is said that the officiating priests turn faintly red also, sometimes, +when these miracles occur. + +The old, old men who live in hovels at the entrance of these ancient +catacombs, and who, in their age and infirmity, seem waiting here, to be +buried themselves, are members of a curious body, called the Royal +Hospital, who are the official attendants at funerals. Two of these old +specters totter away, with lighted tapers, to show the caverns of +death--as unconcerned as if they were immortal. They were used as +burying-places for three hundred years; and, in one part, is a large pit +full of skulls and bones, said to be the sad remains of a great +mortality occasioned by a plague. In the rest, there is nothing but +dust. They consist, chiefly, of great wide corridors and labyrinths, +hewn out of the rock. At the end of some of these long passages, are +unexpected glimpses of the daylight, shining down from above. It looks +as ghastly and as strange; among the torches, and the dust, and the dark +vaults; as if it, too, were dead and buried. + +The present burial-place lies out yonder, on a hill between the city and +Vesuvius. The old Campo Santo with its three hundred and sixty-five +pits, is only used for those who die in hospitals, and prisons, and are +unclaimed by their friends. The graceful new cemetery, at no great +distance from it, tho yet unfinished, has already many graves among its +shrubs and flowers, and airy colonnades. It might be reasonably objected +elsewhere, that some of the tombs are meretricious and too fanciful; but +the general brightness seems to justify it here; and Mount Vesuvius, +separated from them by a lovely slope of ground, exalts and saddens the +scene. + +If it be solemn to behold from this new City of the Dead, with its dark +smoke hanging in the clear sky, how much more awful and impressive is +it, viewed from the ghostly ruins of Herculaneum and Pompeii! + +Stand at the bottom of the great market-place of Pompeii, and look up +the silent streets, through the ruined temples of Jupiter and Isis, over +the broken houses with their inmost sanctuaries open to the day, away to +Mount Vesuvius, bright and snowy in the peaceful distance; and lose all +count of time, and heed of other things, in the strange and melancholy +sensation of seeing the Destroyed and the Destroyer making this quiet +picture in the sun. Then, ramble on, and see, at every turn, the little +familiar tokens of human habitation and everyday pursuits, the chafing +of the bucket-rope in the stone rim of the exhausted well; the track of +carriage-wheels in the pavement of the street; the marks of +drinking-vessels on the stone counter of the wine-shop; the amphoræ in +private cellars, stored away so many hundred years ago, and undisturbed +to this hour--all rendering the solitude and deadly lonesomeness of the +place, ten thousand times more solemn, than if the volcano, in its fury, +had swept the city from the earth, and sunk it in the bottom of the sea. + + + + +THE TOMB OF VIRGIL[7] + +BY AUGUSTUS J. C. HARE + + +A road to the right at the end of the Chiaja, leads to the mouth of the +Grotto of Posilipo, above which those who do not wish to leave their +carriages may see, high on the left, close above the grotto, the ruined +columbarium known as the Tomb of Virgil. A door in the wall, on the left +of the approach to the grotto, and a very steep staircase, lead to the +columbarium, which is situated in a pretty fruit-garden. + +Virgil desired that his body should be brought to Naples from +Brundusium, where he died, B.C. 19, and there is every probability that +he was buried on this spot, which was visited as Virgil's burial-place +little more than a century after his death by the poet Statius, who was +born at Naples, and who describes composing his own poems while seated +in the shadow of the tomb. If further confirmation were needed of the +story that Virgil was laid here, it would be found in the fact that +Silius Italicus, who lived at the same time with Statius, purchased the +tomb of Virgil, restored it from the neglect into which it had fallen, +and celebrated funeral rites before it. + +The tomb was originally shaded by a gigantic bay-tree, which is said to +have died on the death of Dante. Petrarch, who was brought hither by +King Robert, planted another, which existed in the time of Sannazaro, +but was destroyed by relic-collectors in the last century. A branch was +sent to Frederick the Great by the Margravine of Baireuth, with some +verses by Voltaire. If from no other cause, the tomb would be +interesting from its visitors; here Boccaccio renounced the career of a +merchant for that of a poet, and a well-known legend, that St. Paul +visited the sepulcher of Virgil at Naples, was long commemorated in the +verse of a hymn used in the service for St. Paul's Day at Mantua. + +The tomb is a small, square, vaulted chamber with three windows. Early +in the sixteenth century a funeral urn, containing the ashes of the +poet, stood in the center, supported by nine little marble pillars. Some +say that Robert of Anjou removed it, in 1326, for security to the Castel +Nuovo, others that it was given by the Government to a cardinal from +Mantua, who died at Genoa on his way home. In either event the urn is +now lost. + +It is just beneath the tomb that the road to Pozzuoli enters the famous +Grotto of Posilipo, a tunnel about half a mile long, in breadth from 25 +to 30 feet, and varying from about 90 feet in height near the entrance, +to little more than 20 feet at points of the interior. Petronius and +Seneca mention its narrow gloomy passage with horror, in the reign of +Nero, when it was so low that it could only be used for foot-passengers, +who were obliged to stoop in passing through. + +In the fifteenth century King Alphonso I. gave it height by lowering the +floor, which was paved by Don Pedro di Toledo a hundred years later. In +the Middle Ages the grotto was ascribed to the magic arts of Virgil. In +recent years it has been the chief means of communication between Naples +and Baiae, and is at all times filled with dust and noise, the +flickering lights and resounding echoes giving it a most weird effect. +However much one may abuse Neapolitans, we may consider in their favor, +as Swinburne observes, "what a terror this dark grotto would be in +London!" + + + + +TWO ASCENTS OF VESUVIUS[8] + +BY JOHANN WOLGANG VON GOETHE + + +At the foot of the steep ascent, we were received by two guides, one +old, the other young, but both active fellows. The first pulled me up +the path, the other Tischbein[9]--pulled I say, for these guides are +girded round the waist with a leathern belt, which the traveler takes +hold of, and being drawn up by his guide, makes his way the easier with +foot and staff. In this manner we reached the flat from which the cone +rises; toward the north lay the ruins of the summit. + +A glance westward over the country beneath us, removed, as well as a +bath could, all feeling of exhaustion and fatigue, and we now went round +the ever-smoking cone, as it threw out its stones and ashes. Wherever +the space allowed of our viewing it at a sufficient distance, it +appeared a grand and elevating spectacle. In the first place, a violent +thundering toned forth from its deepest abyss, then stones of larger and +smaller sizes were showered into the air by thousands, and enveloped by +clouds of ashes. The greatest part fell again into the gorge; the rest +of the fragments, receiving a lateral inclination, and falling on the +outside of the crater, made a marvelous rumbling noise. First of all the +larger masses plumped against the side, and rebounded with a dull heavy +sound; then the smaller came rattling down; and last of all, drizzled a +shower of ashes. All this took place at regular intervals, which by +slowly counting, we were able to measure pretty accurately. + +Between the summit, however, and the cone the space is narrow enough; +moreover, several stones fell around us, and made the circuit anything +but agreeable. Tischbein now felt more disgusted than ever with +Vesuvius, as the monster, not content with being hateful, showed an +inclination to become mischievous also. + +As, however, the presence of danger generally exercises on man a kind of +attraction, and calls forth a spirit of opposition in the human breast +to defy it, I bethought myself that, in the interval of the eruptions, +it would be possible to climb up the cone to the crater, and to get back +before it broke out again. I held a council on this point with our +guides under one of the overhanging rocks of the summit, where, encamped +in safety, we refreshed ourselves with the provisions we had brought +with us. The younger guide was willing to run the risk with me; we +stuffed our hats full of linen and silk handkerchiefs, and, staff in +hand, we prepared to start, I holding on to his girdle. + +The little stones were yet rattling around us, and the ashes still +drizzling, as the stalwart youth hurried forth with me across the hot +glowing rubble. We soon stood on the brink of the vast chasm, the smoke +of which, altho a gentle air was bearing it away from us, unfortunately +veiled the interior of the crater, which smoked all round from a +thousand crannies. At intervals, however, we caught sight through the +smoke of the cracked walls of the rock. The view was neither instructive +nor delightful; but for the very reason that one saw nothing, one +lingered in the hope of catching a glimpse of something more; and so we +forgot our slow counting. We were standing on a narrow ridge of the +vast abyss; of a sudden the thunder pealed aloud; we ducked our heads +involuntarily, as if that would have rescued us from the precipitated +masses. The smaller stones soon rattled, and without considering that we +had again an interval of cessation before us, and only too much rejoiced +to have outstood the danger, we rushed down and reached the foot of the +hill together with the drizzling ashes, which pretty thickly covered +our heads and shoulders.... + +The news [two weeks later] that an eruption of lava had just commenced, +which, taking the direction of Ottajano, was invisible at Naples, +tempted me to visit Vesuvius for the third time. Scarcely had I jumped +out of my cabriolet at the foot of the mountain, when immediately +appeared the two guides who had accompanied us on our previous ascent. I +had no wish to do without either, but took one out of gratitude and +custom, the other for reliance on his judgment--and the two for the +greater convenience. Having ascended the summit, the older guide +remained with our cloaks and refreshment, while the younger followed me, +and we boldly went straight toward a dense volume of smoke, which broke +forth from the bottom of the funnel; then we quickly went downward by +the side of it, till at last, under the clear heaven, we distinctly saw +the lava emitted from the rolling clouds of smoke. + +We may hear an object spoken of a thousand times, but its peculiar +features will never be caught till we see it with our own eyes. The +stream of lava was small, not broader perhaps than ten feet, but the way +in which it flowed down a gentle and tolerably smooth plain was +remarkable. As it flowed along, it cooled both on the sides and on the +surface, so that it formed a sort of canal, the bed of which was +continually raised in consequence of the molten mass congealing even +beneath the fiery stream, which, with uniform action, precipitated right +and left the scoria which were floating on its surface. In this way a +regular dam was at length thrown up, in which the glowing stream flowed +on as quietly as any mill-stream. We passed along the tolerably high +dam, while the scoria rolled regularly off the sides at our feet. Some +cracks in the canal afforded opportunity of looking at the living +stream, from below, and as it rushed onward, we observed it from above. + +A very bright sun made the glowing lava look dull; but a moderate steam +rose from it into the pure air. I felt a great desire to go nearer to +the point where it broke out from the mountain; there my guide averred, +it at once formed vaults and roofs above itself, on which he had often +stood. To see and experience this phenomenon, we again ascended the +hill, in order to come from behind to this point. Fortunately at this +moment the place was cleared by a pretty strong wind, but not entirely, +for all round it the smoke eddied from a thousand crannies; and now at +last we stood on the top of the solid roof (which looked like a hardened +mass of twisted dough), but which, however, projected so far outward, +that it was impossible to see the welling lava. + +We ventured about twenty steps further, but the ground on which we stept +became hotter and hotter, while around us rolled an oppressive steam, +which obscured and hid the sun; the guide, who was a few steps in +advance of me, presently turned back, and seizing hold of me, hurried +out of this Stygian exhalation. + +After we had refreshed our eyes with the clear prospect, and washed our +gums and throat with wine, we went round again to notice any other +peculiarities which might characterize this peak of hell, thus rearing +itself in the midst of a Paradise. I again observed attentively some +chasms, in appearance like so many vulcanic forges, which emitted no +smoke, but continually shot out a steam of hot glowing air. They were +all tapestried, as it were, with a kind of stalactite, which covered the +funnel to the top, with its knobs and chintz-like variation of colors. +In consequence of the irregularity of the forges, I found many specimens +of this sublimation hanging within reach, so that, with our staves and a +little contrivance, we were able to hack off a few, and to secure them. +I saw in the shops of the dealers in lava similar specimens, labeled +simply "Lava"; and I was delighted to have discovered that it was +volcanic soot precipitated from the hot vapor, and distinctly exhibiting +the sublimated mineral particles which it contained. + + + + +ANOTHER ASCENT[10] + +BY CHARLES DICKENS + + +No matter that the snow and ice lie thick upon the summit of Vesuvius, +or that we have been on foot all day at Pompeii, or that croakers +maintain that strangers should not be on the mountain by night, in such +unusual season. Let us take advantage of the fine weather; make the best +of our way to Resina, the little village at the foot of the mountain; +prepare ourselves, as well as we can, on so short a notice, at the +guide's house, ascend at once, and have sunset half-way up, moonlight at +the top, and midnight to come down in! + +At four o'clock in the afternoon, there is a terrible uproar in the +little stable-yard of Signor Salvatore, the recognized head guide, with +the gold band round his cap; and thirty under-guides who are all +scuffling and screaming at once, are preparing half-a-dozen saddled +ponies, three litters, and some stout staves, for the journey. Every one +of the thirty quarrels with the other twenty-nine, and frightens the six +ponies; and as much of the village as can possibly squeeze itself into +the little stable-yard, participates in the tumult, and gets trodden on +by the cattle. + +After much violent skirmishing, and more noise than would suffice for +the storming of Naples, the procession starts. The head guide, who is +liberally paid for all the attendants, rides a little in advance of the +party; the other thirty guides proceed on foot. Eight go forward with +the litters that are to be used by and by; and the remaining +two-and-twenty beg. We ascend, gradually, by stony lanes like rough +broad flights of stairs, for some time. At length, we leave these, and +the vineyards on either side of them, and emerge upon a bleak, bare +region where the lava lies confusedly, in enormous rusty masses; as if +the earth had been plowed up by burning thunder-bolts. And now, we halt +to see the sunset. The change that falls upon the dreary region and on +the whole mountain, as its red light fades, and the night comes on--and +the unutterable solemnity and dreariness that reign around, who that has +witnessed it, can ever forget! + +It is dark, when after winding, for some time, over the broken ground, +we arrive at the foot of the cone, which is extremely steep, and seems +to rise, almost perpendicularly, from the spot where we dismount. The +only light is reflected from the snow, deep, hard, and white, with which +the cone is covered. It is now intensely cold, and the air is piercing. +The thirty-one have brought no torches, knowing that the moon will rise +before we reach the top. Two of the litters are devoted to the two +ladies; the third, to a rather heavy gentleman from Naples, whose +hospitality and good-nature have attached him to the expedition, and +determined him to assist in doing the honors of the mountain. The rather +heavy gentleman is carried by fifteen men; each of the ladies by +half-a-dozen. We who walk, make the best use of our staves; and so the +whole party begin to labor upward over the snow--as if they were toiling +to the summit of an antediluvian Twelfth-cake. + +We are a long time toiling up; and the head guide looks oddly about him +when one of the company--not an Italian, tho an habitué of the mountain +for many years: whom we will call, for our present purpose, Mr. Pickle +of Portici--suggests that, as it is freezing hard, and the usual footing +of ashes is covered by the snow and ice, it will surely be difficult to +descend. But the sight of the litters above, tilting up, and down, and +jerking from this side to that, as the bearers continually slip, and +tumble, diverts our attention, more especially as the whole length of +the rather heavy gentleman is, at that moment, presented to us +alarmingly foreshortened, with his head downward. + +The rising of the moon soon afterward, revives the flagging spirits of +the bearers. Stimulating each other with their usual watchword, +"Courage, friend! It is to eat maccaroni!" they press on, gallantly, for +the summit. + +From tingeing the top of the snow above us with a band of light, and +pouring it in a stream through the valley below, while we have been +ascending in the dark, the moon soon lights the whole white mountain +side, and the broad sea down below, and tiny Naples in the distance, and +every village in the country round. The whole prospect is in this lovely +state, when we come upon the platform on the mountain-top--the region of +fire--an exhausted crater formed of great masses of gigantic cinders, +like blocks of stone from some tremendous waterfall, burned up; from +every chink and crevice of which, hot, sulfurous smoke is pouring out; +while, from another conical-shaped hill, the present crater, rising +abruptly from this platform at the end, great sheets of fire are +streaming forth; reddening the night with flame, blackening it with +smoke, and spotting it with red-hot stones and cinders, that fly up into +the air like feathers, and fall down like lead. What words can paint the +gloom and grandeur of this scene! + +The broken ground; the smoke; the sense of suffocation from the sulfur; +the fear of falling down through the crevices in the yawning ground; the +stopping, every now and then, for somebody who is missing in the dark +(for the dense smoke now obscures the moon); the intolerable noise of +the thirty; and the hoarse roaring of the mountain; make it a scene of +such confusion, at the same time, that we reel again. But, dragging the +ladies through it, and across another exhausted crater to the foot of +the present volcano, we approach close to it on the windy side, and then +sit down among the hot ashes at its foot, and look up in silence; +faintly estimating the action that is going on within, from its being +full a hundred feet higher, at this minute, than it was six weeks ago. + +There is something in the fire and roar, that generates an irresistible +desire to get nearer to it. We can not rest long, without starting off, +two of us on our hands and knees, accompanied by the head guide, to +climb to the brim of the flaming crater, and try to look in. Meanwhile, +the thirty yell, as with one voice, that it is a dangerous proceeding, +and call to us to come back; frightening the rest of the party out of +their wits. + +What with their noise, and what with the trembling of the thin crust of +ground, that seems about to open underneath our feet and plunge us in +the burning gulf below (which is the real danger, if there be any); and +what with the flashing of the fire in our faces, and the shower of +red-hot ashes that is raining down, and the choking smoke and sulfur; we +may well feel giddy and irrational, like drunken men. But, we contrive +to climb up to the brim, and look down, for a moment, into the hell of +boiling fire below. Then, we all three come rolling down; blackened, and +singed, and scorched, and hot, and giddy; and each with his dress alight +in half-a-dozen places. + +You have read, a thousand times, that the usual way of descending, is, +by sliding down the ashes; which, forming a gradually-increasing ledge +below the feet, prevent too rapid a descent. But, when we have crossed +the two exhausted craters on our way back, and are come to this +precipitous place, there is (as Mr. Pickle has foretold) no vestige of +ashes to be seen; the whole being a smooth sheet of ice. + +In this dilemma, ten or a dozen of the guides cautiously join hands, and +make a chain of men; of whom the foremost beat, as well as they can, a +rough track with their sticks, down which we prepare to follow. The way +being fearfully steep, and none of the party--even of the thirty--being +able to keep their feet for six paces together, the ladies are taken out +of their litters, and placed, each between two careful persons; while +others of the thirty hold by their skirts, to prevent their falling +forward--a necessary precaution, tending to the immediate and hopeless +dilapidation of their apparel. The rather heavy gentleman is abjured to +leave his litter too, and be escorted in a similar manner; but he +resolves to be brought down as he was brought up, on the principle that +his fifteen bearers are not likely to tumble all at once, and that he is +safer so, than trusting to his own legs. + +In this order, we begin the descent; sometimes on foot, sometimes +shuffling on the ice; always proceeding much more quietly and slowly +than on our upward way; and constantly alarmed by the falling among us +of somebody from behind, who endangers the footing of the whole party, +and clings pertinaciously to anybody's ankles. It is impossible for the +litter to be in advance, too, as the track has to be made; and its +appearance behind us, overhead--with some one or other of the bearers +always down, and the rather heavy gentleman with his legs always in the +air--is very threatening and frightful. We have gone on thus, a very +little way, painfully and anxiously, but quite merrily, and regarding it +as a great success--and have all fallen several times, and have all been +stopt, somehow or other, as we were sliding away when Mr. Pickle of +Portici, in the act of remarking on these uncommon circumstances as +quite beyond his experience, stumbles, falls, disengages himself, with +quick presence of mind, from those about him, plunges away head +foremost, and rolls, over and over, down the whole surface of the cone! + +Giddy, and bloody, and a mere bundle of rags, is Pickle of Portici when +we reach the place where we dismounted, and where the horses are +waiting; but, thank God, sound in limb! And never are we likely to be +more glad to see a man alive and on his feet, than to see him +now--making light of it too, tho sorely bruised and in great pain. The +boy is brought into the Hermitage on the Mountain, while we are at +supper, with his head tied up; and the man is heard of, some hours +afterward. He, too, is bruised and stunned, but has broken no bones; the +snow having, fortunately, covered all the larger blocks of rock and +stone, and rendered them harmless. + + + + +CASTELLAMARE AND SORRENTO[11] + +BY HIPPOLYTE ADOLPHE TAINE + + +The sky is almost clear. Only above Naples hangs a bank of clouds, and +around Vesuvius huge white masses of smoke, moving and stationary. I +never yet saw, even in summer at Marseilles, the blue of the sea so +deep, bordering even on hardness. Above this powerful lustrous azure, +absorbing three-quarters of the visible space, the white sky seems to be +a firmament of crystal. As we recede we obtain a better view of the +undulating coast, embraced in one grand mountain form, all its parts +uniting like the members of one body. Ischia and the naked promontories +on the extreme end repose in their lilac envelop, like a slumbering +Pompeiian nymph under her veil. Veritably, to paint such nature as this, +this violet continent extending around this broad luminous water, one +must employ the terms of the ancient poets, and represent the great +fertile goddess embraced and beset by the eternal ocean, and above them +the serene effulgence of the dazzling Jupiter. + +We encounter on the road some fine faces with long elegant features, +quite Grecian; some intelligent noble-looking girls, and here and there +hideous mendicants cleaning their hairy breasts. But the race is much +superior to that of Naples, where it is deformed and diminutive, the +young girls there appearing like stunted, pallid grisets. The railroad +skirts the sea a few paces off and almost on a level with it. A harbor +appears blackened with lines of rigging, and then a mole, consisting of +a small half-ruined fort, reflecting a clear sharp shadow in the +luminous expanse. Surrounding this rise square houses, gray as if +charred, and heaped together like tortoises under round roofs, serving +them as a sort of thick shell. + +On this fertile soil, full of cinders, cultivation extends to the shore +and forms gardens; a simple reed hedge protects them from the sea and +the wind; the Indian fig with its clumsy thorny leaves clings to the +slopes; verdure begins to appear on the branches of the trees, the +apricots showing their smiling pink blossoms; half-naked men work the +friable soil without apparent effort; a few square gardens contain +columns and small statues of white marble. Everywhere you behold traces +of antique beauty and joyousness. And why wonder at this when you feel +that you have the divine vernal sun for a companion, and on the right, +whenever you turn to the sea, its flaming golden waves. + +With what facility you here forget all ugly objects! I believe I passed +at Castellamare some unsightly modern structures, a railroad station, +hotels, a guard-house, and a number of rickety vehicles hurrying along +in quest of fares. This is all effaced from my mind; nothing remains but +impressions of obscure porches with glimpses of bright courts filled +with glossy oranges and spring verdure, of esplanades with children +playing on them and nets drying, and happy idlers snuffing the breeze +and contemplating the capricious heaving of the tossing sea. + +On leaving Castellamare the road forms a corniche[12] winding along the +bank. Huge white rocks, split off from the cliffs above, lie below in +the midst of the eternally besieging waves. On the left the mountains +lift their shattered pinnacles, fretted walls, and projecting crags, all +that scaffolding of indentations which strike you as the ruins of a line +of rocked and tottering fortresses. Each projection, each mass throws +its shadow on the surrounding white surfaces, the entire range being +peopled with tints and forms. + +Sometimes the mountain is rent in twain, and the sides of the chasm are +lined with cultivation, descending in successive stages. Sorrento is +thus built on three deep ravines. All these hollows contain gardens, +crowded with masses of trees overhanging each other. Nut-trees, already +lively with sap, project their white branches like gnarled fingers; +everything else is green; winter lays no hand on this eternal spring. +The thick lustrous leaf of the orange-tree rises from amid the foliage +of the olive, and its golden apples glisten in the sun by thousands, +interspersed with gleams of the pale lemon; often in these shady lanes +do its glittering leaves flash out above the crest of the walls. This is +the land of the orange. It grows even in miserable court-yards, +alongside of dilapidated steps, spreading its luxuriant tops everywhere +in the bright sunlight. The delicate aromatic odor of all these opening +buds and blossoms is a luxury of kings, which here a beggar enjoys for +nothing. + +I passed an hour in the garden of the hotel, a terrace overlooking the +sea about half-way up the bank. A scene like this fills the imagination +with a dream of perfect bliss. The house stands in a luxurious garden, +filled with orange and lemon-trees, as heavily laden with fruit as those +of a Normandy orchard; the ground at the foot of the trees is covered +with it. Clusters of foliage and shrubbery of a pale green, bordering on +blue, occupy intermediate spaces. The rosy blossoms of the peach, so +tender and delicate, bloom on its naked branches. The walks are of +bright blue porcelain, and the terrace displays its round verdant +masses overhanging the sea, of which the lovely azure fills all space. + +I have not yet spoken of my impressions after leaving Castellamare. The +charm was only too great. The pure sky, the pale azure almost +transparent, the radiant blue sea as chaste and tender as a virgin +bride, this infinite expanse so exquisitely adorned as if for a festival +of rare delight, is a sensation that has no equal. Capri and Ischia on +the line of the sky lie white in their soft vapory tissue, and the +divine azure gently fades away surrounded by this border of brightness. + +Where find words to express all this? The gulf seemed like a marble vase +purposely rounded to receive the sea. The satin sheen of a flower, the +soft luminous petals of the velvet orris with shimmering sunshine on +their pearly borders, such are the images that fill the mind, and which +accumulate in vain and are ever inadequate. The water at the base of +these rocks is now a transparent emerald, reflecting the tints of topaz +and amethyst; again a liquid diamond, changing its hue according to the +shifting influences of rock and depth; or again a flashing diadem, +glittering with the splendor of this divine effulgence. + + + + +CAPRI[13] + +BY AUGUSTUS J. C. HARE + + +The Island of Capri (in the dialect of the people Crapi), the ancient +Capreae, is a huge limestone rock, a continuation of the mountain range +which forms the southern boundary of the Bay of Naples. Legend says that +it was once inhabited by a people called Teleboae, subject to a king +called Telon. Augustus took possession of Capreae as part of the +imperial domains, and repeatedly visited it. His stepson Tiberius (A.D. +27) established his permanent residence on the island, and spent the +latter years of his life there, abandoning himself to the voluptuous +excesses which gave him the name of Caprineus.... + +The first point usually visited in Capri is the Blue Grotto (Grotta +Azzurra), which is entered from the sea by an arch under the wall of +limestone cliff, only available when the sea is perfectly calm. Visitors +have to lie flat down in the boat, which is carried in by the wave and +is almost level with the top of the arch. Then they suddenly find +themselves in a magical scene. The water is liquid sapphire, and the +whole rocky vaulting of the cavern shimmers to its inmost recesses with +a pale blue light of marvelous beauty. A man stands ready to plunge into +the water when the boats from the steamers arrive, and to swim about; +his body, in the water, then sparkles like a sea-god with phosphorescent +silver; his head, out of the water, is black like that of a Moor. +Nothing can exaggerate the beauty of the Blue Grotto, and perhaps the +effect is rather enhanced than spoiled by the shouting of the boatmen, +the rush of boats to the entrance, the confusion on leaving and reaching +the steamers. + +That the Grotta Azzurra was known to the Romans is evinced by the +existence of a subterranean passage, leading to it from the upper +heights, and now blocked up; it was also well known in the seventeenth +century, when it was described by Capraanica. There are other beautiful +grottoes in the cliffs surrounding the island, the most remarkable being +the natural tunnel called the Green Grotto (Grotta Verde), under the +southern rocks, quite as splendid in color as the Grotta Azzurra +itself--a passage through the rocks, into which the boat glides (through +no hole, as in the case of the Grotta Azzurra) into water of the most +exquisite emerald. The late afternoon is the best time for visiting this +grotto. Occasionally a small steamer makes the round of the island, +stopping at the different caverns. + +On landing at the Marina, a number of donkey women offer their services, +and it will be well to accept them, for the ascent of about one mile, to +the village of Capri is very hot and tiring. On the left we pass the +Church of St. Costanzo, a very curious building with apse, cupola, stone +pulpit, and several ancient marble pillars and other fragments taken +from the palaces of Tiberius. + +The little town of Capri, overhung on one side by great purple rocks, +occupies a terrace on the high ridge between the two rocky promontories +of the island. Close above the piazza stands the many-domed ancient +church, like a mosque, and so many of the houses--sometimes of dazzling +whiteness, sometimes painted in gay colors--have their own little domes, +that the appearance is quite that of an oriental village, which is +enhanced by the palm-trees which flourish here and there. In the piazza +is a tablet to Major Hamill, who is buried in the church. He fell under +French bayonets, when the troops of Murat, landing at Orico, recaptured +the island, which had been taken from the French two years and a half +before (May, 1806) by Sir Sidney Smith. + +Through a low wide arch in the piazza is the approach to the principal +hotels. There is a tiny English chapel. An ascent of half an hour by +stony donkey-paths leads from Capri to the ruins called the Villa +Tiberiana, on the west of the island, above a precipitous rock 700 feet +high, which still bears the name of Il Salto.... + +The visitor who lingers in Capri may interest himself in tracing out the +remains of all the twelve villas of Tiberius. A relief exhibiting +Tiberius riding a led donkey, as modern travelers do now, was found on +the island, and is now in the museum at Naples. Capri has a delightful +winter climate, and is most comfortable as a residence. The natives are +quite unlike the Neapolitans, pleasant and civil in their manners, and +full of courtesies to strangers. The women are frequently beautiful. + + + + +POMPEII[14] + +BY PERCY BYSSHE SHELLEY + + +We have been to see Pompeii, and are waiting now for the return of +spring weather, to visit, first, Paestum, and then the islands; after +which we shall return to Rome. I was astonished at the remains of this +city; I had no conception of anything so perfect yet remaining. My idea +of the mode of its destruction was this: First, an earthquake shattered +it, and unroofed almost all its temples, and split its columns; then a +rain of light small pumice-stones fell; then torrents of boiling water, +mixed with ashes, filled up all its crevices. A wide, flat hill, from +which the city was excavated, is now covered by thick woods, and you see +the tombs and the theaters, the temples and the houses, surrounded by +the uninhabited wilderness. + +We entered the town from the side toward the sea, and first saw two +theaters; one more magnificent than the other, strewn with the ruins of +the white marble which formed their seats and cornices, wrought with +deep, bold sculpture. In the front, between the stage and the seats, is +the circular space, occasionally occupied by the chorus. The stage is +very narrow, but long, and divided from this space by a narrow enclosure +parallel to it, I suppose for the orchestra. On each side are the +consuls' boxes, and below, in the theater at Herculaneum, were found two +equestrian statues of admirable workmanship, occupying the same place +as the great bronze lamps did at Drury Lane. The smallest of the +theaters is said to have been comic, tho I should doubt. From both you +see, as you sit on the seats, a prospect of the most wonderful beauty. + +You then pass through the ancient streets; they are very narrow, and the +houses rather small, but all constructed on an admirable plan, +especially for this climate. The rooms are built round a court, or +sometimes two, according to the extent of the house. In the midst is a +fountain, sometimes surrounded with a portico, supported on fluted +columns of white stucco; the floor is paved with mosaic, sometimes +wrought in imitation of vine leaves, sometimes in quaint figures, and +more or less beautiful, according to the rank of the inhabitant. There +were paintings on all, but most of them have been removed to decorate +the royal museums. Little winged figures, and small ornaments of +exquisite elegance, yet remain. There is an ideal life in the forms of +these paintings of an incomparable loveliness, tho most are evidently +the work of very inferior artists. It seems as if, from the atmosphere +of mental beauty which surrounded them, every human being caught a +splendor not his own. + +In one house you see how the bed-rooms were managed; a small sofa was +built up, where the cushions were placed; two pictures, one representing +Diana and Endymion, the other Venus and Mars, decorate the chamber; and +a little niche, which contains the statue of a domestic god. The floor +is composed of a rich mosaic of the rarest marbles, agate, jasper, and +porphyry; it looks to the marble fountain and the snow-white columns, +whose entablatures strew the floor of the portico they supported. The +houses have only one story, and the apartments, tho not large, are very +lofty. A great advantage results from this, wholly unknown in our +cities. + +The public buildings, whose ruins are now forests, as it were, of white +fluted columns, and which then supported entablatures, loaded with +sculptures, were seen on all sides over the roofs of the houses. This +was the excellence of the ancients. Their private expenses were +comparatively moderate; the dwelling of one of the chief senators of +Pompeii is elegant indeed, and adorned with most beautiful specimens of +art, but small. But their public buildings are everywhere marked by the +bold and grand designs of an unsparing magnificence. In the little town +of Pompeii (it contained about twenty thousand inhabitants), it is +wonderful to see the number and the grandeur of their public buildings. +Another advantage, too, is that, in the present case, the glorious +scenery around is not shut out, and that, unlike the inhabitants of the +Cimmerian ravines of modern cities, the ancient Pompeiians could +contemplate the clouds and the lamps of heaven; could see the moon rise +high behind Vesuvius, and the sun set in the sea, tremulous with an +atmosphere of golden vapor, between Inarime and Misenum. + +We next saw the temples. Of the temples of Aesculapius little remains +but an altar of black stone, adorned with a cornice imitating the scales +of a serpent. His statue, in terra-cotta, was found in the cell. The +temple of Isis is more perfect. It is surrounded by a portico of fluted +columns, and in the area around it are two altars, and many ceppi for +statues; and a little chapel of white stucco, as hard as stone, of the +most exquisite proportion; its panels are adorned with figures in +bas-relief, slightly indicated, but of a workmanship the most delicate +and perfect that can be conceived. + +They are Egyptian subjects, executed by a Greek artist, who has +harmonized all the unnatural extravagances of the original conception +into the supernatural loveliness of his country's genius. They scarcely +touch the ground with their feet, and their wind-uplifted robes seem in +the place of wings. The temple in the midst raised on a high platform, +and approached by steps, was decorated with exquisite paintings, some of +which we saw in the museum at Portici. It is small, of the same +materials as the chapel, with a pavement of mosaic, and fluted Ionic +columns of white stucco, so white that it dazzles you to look at it. + +Thence through the other porticos and labyrinths of walls and columns +(for I can not hope to detail everything to you), we came to the Forum. +This is a large square, surrounded by lofty porticos of fluted columns, +some broken, some entire, their entablatures strewed under them. The +temple of Jupiter, of Venus, and another temple, the Tribunal, and the +Hall of Public Justice, with their forest of lofty columns, surround the +Forum. Two pedestals or altars of an enormous size (for, whether they +supported equestrian statues, or were the altars of the temple of Venus, +before which they stand, the guide could not tell), occupy the lower end +of the Forum. At the upper end, supported on an elevated platform, +stands the temple of Jupiter. Under the colonnade of its portico we sat +and pulled out our oranges, and figs, and bread, and medlars (sorry +fare, you will say), and rested to eat. + +Here was a magnificent spectacle. Above and between the multitudinous +shafts of the sun-shining columns was seen the sea, reflecting the +purple heaven of noon above it, and supporting, as it were, on its line +the dark lofty mountains of Sorrento, of a blue inexpressibly deep, and +tinged toward their summits with streaks of new-fallen snow. Between was +one small green island. To the right was Capreae, Inarime, Prochyta, and +Misenum. Behind was the single summit of Vesuvius, rolling forth volumes +of thick white smoke, whose foam-like column was sometimes darted into +the clear dark sky, and fell in little streaks along the wind. Between +Vesuvius and the nearer mountains, as through a chasm, was seen the main +line of the loftiest Apennines, to the east. + +The day was radiant and warm. Every now and then we heard the +subterranean thunder of Vesuvius; its distant deep peals seemed to shake +the very air and light of day, which interpenetrated our frames with the +sullen and tremendous sound. This sound was what the Greeks beheld +(Pompeii, you know, was a Greek city). They lived in harmony with +nature; and the interstices of their incomparable columns were portals, +as it were, to admit the spirit of beauty which animates this glorious +universe to visit those whom it inspired. If such is Pompeii, what was +Athens? What scene was exhibited from the Acropolis, the Parthenon, and +the temples of Hercules, and Theseus, and the Winds? The island and the +Ægean sea, the mountains of Argolis, and the peaks of Pindus and +Olympus, and the darkness of the Boeotian forests interspersed? + +From the Forum we went to another public place; a triangular portico, +half enclosing the ruins of an enormous temple. It is built on the edge +of the hill overlooking the sea. That black point is the temple. In the +apex of the triangle stands an altar and a fountain, and before the +altar once stood the statue of the builder of the portico. Returning +hence, and following the consular road, we came to the eastern gate of +the city. The walls are of an enormous strength, and enclose a space of +three miles. On each side of the road beyond the gate are built the +tombs. How unlike ours! They seem not so much hiding-places for that +which must decay, as voluptuous chambers for immortal spirits. They are +of marble, radiantly white; and two, especially beautiful, are loaded +with exquisite bas-reliefs. On the stucco-wall that encloses them are +little emblematic figures, of a relief exceedingly low, of dead and +dying animals, and little winged genii, and female forms bending in +groups in some funereal office. The high reliefs represent, one a +nautical subject, and the other a Bacchanalian one. + +Within the cell stand the cinerary urns, sometimes one, sometimes more. +It is said that paintings were found within, which are now, as has been +everything movable in Pompeii, removed, and scattered about in royal +museums. These tombs were the most impressive things of all. The wild +woods surround them on either side; and along the broad stones of the +paved road which divides them, you hear the late leaves of autumn shiver +and rustle in the stream of the inconstant wind, as it were, like the +step of ghosts. The radiance and magnificence of these dwellings of the +dead, the white freshness of the scarcely-finished marble, the +impassioned or imaginative life of the figures which adorn them, +contrast strangely with the simplicity of the houses of those who were +living when Vesuvius overwhelmed them. + +I have forgotten the amphitheater, which is of great magnitude, tho much +inferior to the Coliseum. I now understand why the Greeks were such +great poets; and, above all, I can account, it seems to me, for the +harmony, the unity, the perfection, the uniform excellence, of all their +works of art. They lived in a perpetual commerce with external nature, +and nourished themselves upon the spirit of its forms. Their theaters +were all open to the mountains and the sky. Their columns, the ideal +types of a sacred forest, with its roof of interwoven tracery, admitted +the light and wind; the odor and the freshness of the country penetrated +the cities. Their temples were mostly upaithric; and the flying clouds, +the stars, or the deep sky, were seen above. + + + + +VI + +OTHER ITALIAN SCENES + + + + +VERONA[15] + +BY CHARLES DICKENS + + +I had been half afraid to go to Verona, lest it should at all put me out +of conceit with Romeo and Juliet. But, I was no sooner come into the old +Market-place, than the misgiving vanished. It is so fanciful, quaint, +and picturesque a place, formed by such an extraordinary and rich +variety of fantastic buildings, that there could be nothing better at +the core of even this romantic town; scene of one of the most romantic +and beautiful of stories. + +It was natural enough, to go straight from the Market-place, to the +House of the Capulets, now degenerated into a most miserable little inn. +Noisy vetturini and muddy market-carts were disputing possession of the +yard, which was ankle-deep in dirt, with a brood of splashed and +bespattered geese; and there was a grim-visaged dog, viciously panting +in a doorway, who would certainly have had Romeo by the leg, the moment +he put it over the wall, if he had existed and been at large in those +times. The orchard fell into other hands, and was parted off many years +ago; but there used to be one attached to the house--or at all events +there may have been--and the Hat (Cappello), the ancient cognizance of +the family, may still be seen, carved in stone, over the gateway of the +yard. The geese, the market-carts, their drivers, and the dog, were +somewhat in the way of the story, it must be confessed; and it would +have been pleasanter to have found the house empty, and to have been +able to walk through the disused rooms. But the Hat was unspeakably +comfortable; and the place where the garden used to be, hardly less so. +Besides, the house is a distrustful, jealous-looking house as one would +desire to see, tho of a very moderate size. So I was quite satisfied +with it, as the veritable mansion of old Capulet, and was +correspondingly grateful in my acknowledgments to an extremely +unsentimental middle-aged lady, the Padrona of the Hotel, who was +lounging on the threshold looking at the geese. + +From Juliet's home, to Juliet's tomb, is a transition as natural to the +visitor, as to fair Juliet herself, or to the proudest Juliet that ever +has taught the torches to burn bright in any time. So, I went off, with +a guide, to an old, old garden, once belonging to an old, old convent, I +suppose; and being admitted, at a shattered gate, by a bright-eyed woman +who was washing clothes, went down some walks where fresh plants and +young flowers were prettily growing among fragments of old wall, and +ivy-covered mounds; and was shown a little tank, or water-trough, which +the bright-eyed woman--drying her arms upon her 'kerchief--called "La +tomba di Giulietta la sfortunáta." With the best disposition in the +world to believe, I could do no more than believe that the bright-eyed +woman believed; so I gave her that much credit, and her customary fee in +ready money. It was a pleasure, rather than a disappointment, that +Juliet's resting-place was forgotten. However consolatory it may have +been to Yorick's Ghost, to hear the feet upon the pavement overhead, +and, twenty times a day, the repetition of his name, it is better for +Juliet to lie out of the track of tourists, and to have no visitors but +such as come to graves in spring-rain, and sweet air, and sunshine. + +Pleasant Verona! With its beautiful old palaces, and charming country in +the distance, seen from terrace walks, and stately, balustraded +galleries. With its Roman gates, still spanning the fair street, and +casting, on the sunlight of to-day, the shade of fifteen hundred years +ago. With its marble-fitted churches, lofty towers, rich architecture, +and quaint old quiet thoroughfares, where shouts of Montagues and +Capulets once resounded. + + And made Verona's ancient citizens + Cast by their grave, beseeming ornaments, + To wield old partisans. + +With its fast-rushing river, picturesque old bridge, great castle, +waving cypresses, and prospect so delightful, and so cheerful! Pleasant +Verona! In the midst of it, in the Piazza di Brá--a spirit of old time +among the familiar realities of the passing hour--is the great Roman +Amphitheater. So well preserved, and carefully maintained, that every +row of seats is there, unbroken. Over certain of the arches, the old +Roman numerals may yet be seen; and there are corridors, and staircases, +and subterranean passages for beasts, and winding ways, above ground and +below, as when the fierce thousands hurried in and out, intent upon the +bloody shows of the arena. Nestling in some of the shadows and hollow +places of the walls, now, are smiths with their forges, and a few small +dealers of one kind or other; and there are green weeds, and leaves, and +grass, upon the parapet. But little else is greatly changed. + +When I had traversed all about it, with great interest, and had gone up +to the topmost round of seats, and turning from the lovely panorama +closed in by the distant Alps, looked down into the building, it seemed +to lie before me like the inside of a prodigious hat of plaited straw, +with an enormously broad brim and a shallow crown; the plaits being +represented by the four-and-forty rows of seats. The comparison is a +homely and fantastic one, in sober remembrance and on paper, but it was +irresistibly suggested at the moment, nevertheless. + + + + +PADUA[16] + +BY THÉOPHILE GAUTIER + + +Padua is an ancient city and exhibits a rather respectable appearance +against the horizon with its bell-turrets, its domes, and its old walls +upon which myriads of lizards run and frisk in the sun. Situated near a +center which attracts life to itself, Padua is a dead city with an +almost deserted air. Its streets, bordered by two rows of low arcades, +in nowise recall the elegant and charming architecture of Venice. The +heavy, massive structures have a serious, somewhat crabbed aspect, and +its somber porticos in the lower stories of the houses resemble black +mouths which yawn with ennui. + +We were conducted to a big inn, established probably in some ancient +palace, and whose great halls, dishonored by vulgar uses, had formerly +seen better company. It was a real journey to go from the vestibule to +our room by a host of stairways and corridors; a map of Ariadne's thread +would have been needed to find one's way back. Our windows opened upon a +very pleasant view; a river flows at the foot of the wall--the Brenta or +the Bacchiglione, I know not which, for both water Padua. The banks of +this watercourse were adorned with old houses and long walls, and trees, +too, overhung the banks; some rather picturesque rows of piles, from +which the fishermen cast their lines with that patience characteristic +of them in all countries; huts with nets and linen hanging from the +windows to dry, formed under the sun's rays a very pretty subject for a +water-color. + +After dinner we went to the Café Pedrocchi, celebrated throughout all +Italy for its magnificence. Nothing could be more monumentally classic. +There are nothing but pillars, columnets, ovolos, and palm leaves of the +Percier and Fontain kind, the whole very fine and lavish of marble. +What was most curious was some immense maps forming a tapestry and +representing the different divisions of the world on an enormous scale. +This somewhat pedantic decoration gives to the hall an academic air; and +one is surprized not to see a chair in place of the bar, with a +professor in his gown in place of a dispenser of lemonade. + +The University of Padua was formerly famous. In the thirteenth century +eighteen thousand young men, a whole people of scholars, followed the +lessons of the learned professors, among whom later Galileo figured, one +of whose bones is preserved there as a relic, a relic of a martyr who +suffered for the truth. The façade of the University is very beautiful; +four Doric columns give it a severe and monumental air; but solitude +reigns in the class-rooms where to-day scarcely a thousand students can +be reckoned.... + +We paid a visit to the Cathedral dedicated to Saint Anthony, who enjoys +at Padua the same reputation as Saint Januarius at Naples. He is the +"genius loci," the Saint venerated above all others. He used to perform +not less than thirty miracles each day, if Casanova[17] is to be +believed. Such a performance fairly earned for him his surname of +Thaumaturge, but this prodigious zeal has fallen off greatly. +Nevertheless, the reputation of the saint has not suffered, and so many +masses are paid for at his altar that the number of the priests of the +cathedral and of days in the year are not sufficient. To liquidate the +accounts, the Pope has granted permission, at the end of the year, for +masses to be said, each, one of which is of the value of a thousand; in +this fashion Saint Anthony is saved from being bankrupt to his faithful +devotees. + +On the place which adjoins the cathedral, a beautiful equestrian statue +by Donatello, in bronze, rises to view, the first which had been cast +since the days of antiquity, representing a leader of banditti: +Gattamelata, a brigand who surely did not deserve that honor. But the +artist has given him a superb bearing and a spirited figure with his +baton of a Roman emperor, and it is entirely sufficient.... + +One thing which must not be neglected in passing through Padua is a +visit to the old Church of the Arena, situated at the rear of a garden +of luxuriant vegetation, where it would certainly not be conjectured to +be located unless one were advised of the fact. It is entirely painted +in its interior by Giotto. Not a single column, not a single rib, nor +architectural division interrupts that vast tapestry of frescoes. The +general aspect is soft, azure, starry, like a beautiful, calm sky; +ultramarine dominates; thirty compartments of large dimensions, +indicated by simple lines, contain the life of the Virgin and of her +Divine Son in all their details; they might be called illustrations in +miniature of a gigantic missal. The personages, by naïve anachronisms +very precious for history, are clothed in the mode of the times in which +Giotto painted. + +Below these compositions of the purest religious feeling, a painted +plinth shows the seven deadly sins symbolized in an ingenious manner, +and other allegorical figures of a very good style; a Paradise and a +Hell, subjects which greatly imprest the minds of the artists of that +epoch, complete this marvelous whole. There are in these paintings weird +and touching details; children issue from their little coffins to mount +to Paradise with a joyous ardor, and launch themselves forth to go to +play upon the blossoming turf of the celestial garden; others stretch +forth their hands to their half-resurrected mothers. The remark may also +be made that all the devils and vices are obese, while the angels and +virtues are thin and slender. The painter wishes to mark the +preponderance of matter in the one class and of spirit in the other. + + + + +FERRARA[18] + +BY THÉOPHILE GAUTIER + + +Ferrara rises solitary in the midst of a flat country more rich than +picturesque. When one enters it by the broad street which leads to the +square, the aspect of the city is imposing and monumental. A palace with +a grand staircase occupies a corner of this vast square; it might be a +court-house or a town hall, for people of all classes were entering and +departing through its wide doors.... + +The castle of the ancient dukes of Ferrara, which is to be found a +little farther on, has a fine feudal aspect. It is a vast collection of +towers joined together by high walls crowned with a battlement forming +a cornice, and which emerge from a great moat full of water, over which +one enters by a protected bridge. The castle, built wholly of brick or +of stones reddened by the sun, has a vermilion tint which deprives it of +its imposing effect. It is too much like a decoration of a melodrama. + +It was in this castle that the famous Lucretia Borgia lived, whom Victor +Hugo has made such a monster for us, and whom Ariosto depicts as a model +of chastity, grace and virtue; that blonde Lucretia who wrote letters +breathing the purest love, and some of whose hair, fine as silk and +shining as gold, Byron possest. It was there that the dramas of Tasso +and Ariosto and Guarini were played; there that those brilliant orgies +took place, mingled with poisonings and assassinations, which +characterized that learned and artistic, refined and criminal, period of +Italy. + +It is the custom to pay a pious visit to the problematical dungeon in +which Tasso, mad with love and grief, passed so many years, according to +the poetic legend which grew up concerning his misfortune. We did not +have time to spare and we regretted it very little. This dungeon, a +perfectly correct sketch of which we have before our eyes, consists only +of four walls, ceiled by a low arch. At the back is to be seen a window +grated by heavy bars and a door with big bolts. It is quite unlikely +that in this obscure hole, tapestried with cobwebs, Tasso could have +worked and retouched his poem, composed sonnets, and occupied himself +with small details of toilet, such as the quality of the velvet of his +cap and the silk of his stockings, and with kitchen details, such as +with what kind of sugar he ought to powder his salad, that which he had +not being fine enough for his liking. Neither did we see the house of +Ariosto, another required pilgrimage. Not to speak of the little faith +which one should place in these unauthenticated traditions, in these +relics without character, we prefer to seek Ariosto in the "Orlando +Furioso," and Tasso in the "Jerusalem Délivrée" or in the fine drama of +Goethe. + +The life of Ferrara is concentrated on the Plaza Nuova, in front of the +church and in the neighborhood of the castle. Life has not yet abandoned +this heart of the city; but in proportion as one moves away from it, it +becomes more feeble, paralysis begins, death gains; silence, solitude, +and grass invade the streets; one feels that one is wandering about a +Thebes peopled with ghosts of the past and from which the living have +evaporated like water which has dried up. There is nothing more sad than +to see the corpse of a dead city slowly falling into dust in the sun and +rain. One at least buries human bodies. + + + + +LAKE LUGANO[19] + +BY VICTOR TISSOT + + +On emerging from the second tunnel,[20] beyond a wild and narrow gorge, +there lies suddenly before us, as in a gorgeous fairyland or in the +landscape of a dream, the blue expanse of Lake Lugano, with its setting +of green meadows and purple mountains, with the many-colored village +spires, and the great white fronts of the hotels and villas. Oh, what a +wonderful picture! + +We feel as if we were going down into an enchanted garden that has been +hidden by the great snowy walls of the Alps. The air is full of the +perfume of roses and jessamine. The hedges are in flower, butterflies +are dancing, insects are humming, birds are singing. Up above, in the +mountain, is snow, ice, winter, and silence; here there is sunshine, +life, joy, love--all the living delights of spring and summer. Golden +harvests are shining on the plains, and the lake in the distance is like +a piece of the sky brought down to earth. + +Lugano is already Italy, not only because of the richness of the soil +and the magnificence of the vegetation, but also as regards the +language, the manners, and the picturesque costumes. In each valley the +dress is different; in one place the women wear a short skirt, an apron +held in by a girdle, and a bright colored bodice; in another they wear a +cap above which is a large shady hat; in the Val Maroblio they have a +woolen dress not very different from that of the Capuchins. + +The men have not the square figure, the slow, heavy walk of the people +of Basle and Lucerne; they are brisk, vigorous, easy; and the women have +something of the wavy suppleness of vine branches twining among the +trees. These people have the happy, childlike joyousness, the frank +good-nature, of those who live in the open air, who do not shut +themselves up in their houses, but grow freely like the flowers under +the strong, glowing sunshine. + +At every street corner sellers are sitting behind baskets of +extraordinary vegetables and magnificent fruit; and under the arcades +that run along the houses, big grocers in shirt sleeves come at +intervals to their shop doors to take breath, like hippopotami coming +out of the water for the same purpose. In this town, ultramontane in its +piety, the bells of churches and convents are sounding all day long, and +women are seen going to make their evening prayer together in the +nearest chapel. + +But if the fair sex in Lugano are diligent in frequenting the churches, +they by no means scorn the cafés. After sunset the little tables that +are all over the great square are surrounded by an entire population of +men and women. How gay and amusing those Italian cafés are! full of +sound and color, with their red and blue striped awnings, their advance +guard of little tables under the shade of the orange-trees, and their +babbling, stirring, gesticulating company. The waiters, in black vests +and leather slippers, a corner of their apron tucked up in their belt, +run with the speed of kangaroos, carrying on metal plates syrups of +every shade, ices, sweets in red, yellow, or green pyramids. Between +seven and nine o'clock the whole society of Lugano defiles before you. +There are lawyers with their wives, doctors with their daughters, +bankers, professors, merchants, public officials, with whom are +sometimes misted stout, comfortable, jovial-looking canons, wrapping +themselves in the bitter smoke of a regalia, as in a cloud of incense. + + + + +LAKE COMO[21] + +BY PERCY BYSSHE SHELLEY + + +We have been to Como, looking for a house. This lake exceeds anything I +ever beheld in beauty, with the exception of the arbutus islands of +Killarney. It is long and narrow, and has the appearance of a mighty +river winding among the mountains and the forests. We sailed from the +town of Como to a tract of country called the Tremezina, and saw the +various aspects presented by that part of the lake. The mountains +between Como and that village, or rather cluster of villages, are +covered on high with chestnut forests (the eating chestnuts, on which +the inhabitants of the country subsist in time of scarcity), which +sometimes descend to the very verge of the lake, overhanging it with +their hoary branches. But usually the immediate border of this shore is +composed of laurel-trees, and bay, and myrtle, and wild fig-trees, and +olives which grow in the crevices of the rocks, and overhang the +caverns, and shadow the deep glens, which are filled with the flashing +light of the waterfalls. Other flowering shrubs, which I can not name, +grow there also. On high, the towers of village churches are seen white +among the dark forests. + +Beyond, on the opposite shore, which faces the south, the mountains +descend less precipitously to the lake, and altho they are much higher, +and some covered with perpetual snow, there intervenes between them and +the lake a range of lower hills, which have glens and rifts opening to +the other, such as I should fancy the abysses of Ida or Parnassus. Here +are plantations of olive, and orange, and lemon trees, which are now so +loaded with fruit, that there is more fruit than leaves--and vineyards. +This shore of the lake is one continued village, and the Milanese +nobility have their villas here. The union of culture and the untameable +profusion and loveliness of nature is here so close, that the line where +they are divided can hardly be discovered. + +But the finest scenery is that of the Villa Pliniana; so called from a +fountain which ebbs and flows every three hours, described by the +younger Pliny, which is in the courtyard. This house, which was once a +magnificent palace, and is now half in ruins, we are endeavoring to +procure. It is built upon terraces raised from the bottom of the lake, +together with its garden, at the foot of a semicircular precipice, +overshadowed by profound forests of chestnut. The scene from the +colonnade is the most extraordinary, at once, and the most lovely that +eye ever beheld. On one side is the mountain, and immediately over you +are clusters of cypress-trees, of an astonishing height, which seem to +pierce the sky. + +Above you, from among the clouds, as it were, descends a waterfall of +immense size, broken by the woody rocks into a thousand channels to the +lake. On the other side is seen the blue extent of the lake and the +mountains, speckled with sails and spires. The apartments of the +Pliniana are immensely large, but ill-furnished and antique. The +terraces, which overlook the lake, and conduct under the shade of such +immense laurel-trees as deserve the epithet of Pythian, are most +delightful. + + + + +BELLAGIO ON LAKE COMO[22] + +BY W. D. M'CRACKEN + + +The picture of the promontory of Bellagio is so beautiful as a whole +that the traveler had better stand off for awhile to admire it at a +distance and at his leisure. Indeed it is a question whether the lasting +impressions which we treasure of Bellagio are not, after all, those +derived from across the lake, from the shore-fronts of Tremezzo, +Cadenabbia, Menaggio, or Varenna. + +A colossal, conquering geological lion appears to have come up from the +south in times immemorial, bound for the north, and finding further +progress stopt by the great sheet of water in front of him, seems to +have halted and to be now crouching there with his noble head between +his paws and his eyes fixt on the snow-covered Alps. The big white house +on the lion's neck is the Villa Serbelloni, now used as the annex of a +hotel, and the park of noble trees belonging to the villa forms the +lion's mane. Hotels, both large and small, line the quay at the water's +edge; then comes a break in the houses, and stately Villa Melzi is seen +to stand off at one side. Villa Trotti gleams from among its bowers +farther south; on the slope Villa Trivulzio, formerly Poldi, shows +bravely, and Villa Giulia has cut for itself a wide prospect over both +arms of the lake. At the back of this lion couchant, in the middle +ground, sheer mountain walls tower protectingly, culminating in Monte +Grigna. + +The picture varies from hour to hour, from day to day, and from season +to season. Its color-scheme changes with wind and sun, its sparkle comes +and goes from sunrise to sunset; only its form remains untouched through +the night and lives to delight us another day. As the evening wears on, +lights appear one by one on the quay of Bellagio, until there is a line +of fire along the base of the dark peninsula. The hotel windows catch +the glare, the villas light their storied corridors, and presently +Bellagio, all aglow, presents the spectacle of a Venetian night mirrored +in the lake. + +By this time the mountains have turned black and the sky has faded. It +grows so still on the water that the tinkle of a little Italian band +reaches across the lake to Cadenabbia, a laugh rings out into the quiet +air from one of the merry little rowboats, and even the slight clatter +made by the fishermen, in putting their boats to rights for the night +and in carrying their nets indoors, can be distinguished as one of many +indications that the day is done. + +When we land at Bellagio by daylight, we find it to be very much of a +bazaar of souvenirs along the water-front, and everybody determined to +carry away a keepsake. There is so much to buy--ornamental olive wood +and tortoise-shell articles, Como blankets, lace, and what may be +described in general terms as modern antiquities. These abound from shop +to shop; even English groceries are available. Bellagio's principal +street is suddenly converted at its northern end into a delightful +arcade, after the arrangement which constitutes a characteristic charm +of the villages and smaller towns on the Italian lakes; moreover, the +vista up its side street is distinctly original. This mounts steeply +from the waterside, like the streets of Algiers, is narrow and +constructed in long steps to break the incline. + + + + +THE REPUBLIC OF SAN MARINO[23] + +BY JOSEPH ADDISON + + +The town and republic of St. Marino stands on the top of a very high and +craggy mountain. It is generally hid among the clouds, and lay under +snow when I saw it, though it was clear and warm weather in all the +country about it. There is not a spring or fountain, that I could hear +of, in the whole dominions; but they are always well provided with huge +cisterns and reservoirs of rain and snow water. The wine that grows on +the sides of their mountain is extraordinarily good, much better than +any I met with on the cold side of the Apennines. + +This mountain, and a few neighboring hillocks that lie scattered about +the bottom of it, is the whole circuit of these dominions. They have +what they call three castles, three convents, and five churches and can +reckon about five thousand souls in their community.[24] The +inhabitants, as well as the historians who mention this little republic, +give the following account of its origin. St. Marino was its founder, a +Dalmatian by birth, and by trade a mason. He was employed above thirteen +hundred years ago in the reparation of Rimini, and after he had finished +his work, retired to this solitary mountain, as finding it very proper +for the life of a hermit, which he led in the greatest rigors and +austerities of religion. He had not been long here before he wrought a +reputed miracle, which, joined with his extraordinary sanctity, gained +him so great an esteem, that the princess of the country made him a +present of the mountain, to dispose of at his own discretion. His +reputation quickly peopled it, and gave rise to the republic which calls +itself after his name. + +So that the commonwealth of Marino may boast, at least, of a nobler +original than that of Rome, the one having been at first an asylum for +robbers and murderers, and the other a resort of persons eminent for +their piety and devotion. The best of their churches is dedicated to the +saint, and holds his ashes. His statue stands over the high altar, with +the figure of a mountain in its hands, crowned with three castles, which +is likewise the arms of the commonwealth. They attribute to his +protection the long duration of their state, and look on him as the +greatest saint next the blessed virgin. I saw in their statute-book a +law against such as speak disrespectfully of him, who are to be punished +in the same manner as those convicted of blasphemy. + +This petty republic has now lasted thirteen hundred years,[25] while all +the other states of Italy have several times changed their masters and +forms of government. Their whole history is comprised in two purchases, +which they made of a neighboring prince, and in a war in which they +assisted the pope against a lord of Rimini. In the year 1100 they bought +a castle in the neighborhood, as they did another in the year 1170. The +papers of the conditions are preserved in their archives, where it is +very remarkable that the name of the agent for the commonwealth, of the +seller, of the notary, and the witnesses, are the same in both the +instruments, tho drawn up at seventy years' distance from each other. +Nor can it be any mistake in the date, because the popes' and emperors' +names, with the year of their respective reigns, are both punctually set +down. About two hundred and ninety years after this they assisted Pope +Pius the Second against one of the Malatestas, who was then, lord of +Rimini; and when they had helped to conquer him, received from the pope, +as a reward for their assistance, four little castles. This they +represent as the flourishing time of the commonwealth, when their +dominions reached half-way up a neighboring hill; but at present they +are reduced to their old extent.... + +The chief officers of the commonwealth are the two capitaneos, who have +such a power as the old Roman consuls had, but are chosen every six +months. I talked with some that had been capitaneos six or seven times, +tho the office is never to be continued to the same persons twice +successively. The third officer is the commissary, who judges in all +civil and criminal matters. But because the many alliances, friendships, +and intermarriages, as well as the personal feuds and animosities, that +happen among so small a people might obstruct the course of justice, if +one of their own number had the distribution of it, they have always a +foreigner for this employ, whom they choose for three years, and +maintain out of the public stock. He must be a doctor of law, and a man +of known integrity. He is joined in commission with the capitaneos, and +acts something like the recorder of London under the lord mayor. The +commonwealth of Genoa was forced to make use of a foreign judge for many +years, while their republic was torn into the divisions of Guelphs and +Ghibelines. The fourth man in the state is the physician, who must +likewise be a stranger, and is maintained by a public salary. He is +obliged to keep a horse, to visit the sick, and to inspect all drugs +that are imported. He must be at least thirty-five years old, a doctor +of the faculty, and eminent for his religion and honesty, that his +rashness or ignorance may not unpeople the commonwealth. And, that they +may not suffer long under any bad choice, he is elected only for three +years. + +The people are esteemed very honest and rigorous in the execution of +justice, and seem to live more happy and contented among their rocks and +snows, than others of the Italians do in the pleasantest valleys of the +world. Nothing, indeed, can be a greater instance of the natural love +that mankind has for liberty, and of their aversion to an arbitrary +government, than such a savage mountain covered with people, and the +Campania of Rome, which lies in the same country, almost destitute of +inhabitants. + + + + +PERUGIA[26] + +BY NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE + + +We pursued our way, and came, by and by, to the foot of the high hill on +which stands Perugia, and which is so long and steep that Gaetano took a +yoke of oxen to aid his horses in the ascent. We all, except my wife, +walked a part of the way up, and I myself, with J----[27] for my +companion, kept on even to the city gate, a distance, I should think, of +two or three miles, at least. The lower part of the road was on the edge +of the hill, with a narrow valley on our left; and as the sun had now +broken out, its verdure and fertility, its foliage and cultivation, +shone forth in miraculous beauty, as green as England, as bright as only +Italy. + +Perugia appeared above us, crowning a mighty hill, the most picturesque +of cities; and the higher we ascended, the more the view opened before +us, as we looked back on the course that we had traversed, and saw the +wide valley, sweeping down and spreading out, bounded afar by mountains, +and sleeping in sun and shadow. No language nor any art of the pencil +can give an idea of the scene.... + +We plunged from the upper city down through some of the strangest +passages that ever were called streets; some of them, indeed, being +arched all over, and, going down into the unknown darkness, looked like +caverns; and we followed one of them doubtfully, till it opened, out +upon the light. The houses on each side were divided only by a pace or +two, and communicated with one another, here and there, by arched +passages. They looked very ancient, and may have been inhabited by +Etruscan princes, judging from the massiveness of some of the foundation +stones. The present inhabitants, nevertheless, are by no means princely, +shabby men, and the careworn wives and mothers of the people, one of +whom was guiding a child in leading-strings through these antique +alleys, where hundreds of generations have trod before those little +feet. Finally we came out through a gateway, the same gateway at which +we entered last night. + +The best part of Perugia, that in which the grand piazzas and the +principal public edifices stand, seems to be a nearly level plateau on +the summit of the hill; but it is of no very great extent, and the +streets rapidly run downward on either side. J---- and I followed one of +these descending streets, and were led a long way by it, till we at last +emerged from one of the gates of the city, and had another view of the +mountains and valleys, the fertile and sunny wilderness in which this +ancient civilization stands. + +On the right of the gate there was a rude country path, partly overgrown +with grass, bordered by a hedge on one side, and on the other by the +gray city wall, at the base of which the tract kept onward. We followed +it, hoping that it would lead us to some other gate by which we might +reenter the city; but it soon grew so indistinct and broken, that it was +evidently on the point of melting into somebody's olive-orchard or +wheat-fields or vineyards, all of which lay on the other side of the +hedge; and a kindly old woman of whom I inquired told me (if I rightly +understood her Italian) that I should find no further passage in that +direction. So we turned back, much broiled in the hot sun, and only now +and then relieved by the shadow of an angle or a tower. + + + + +SIENA[28] + +BY MR. AND MRS. EDWIN H. BLASHFIELD + + +That admirers of minute designs and florid detail could appreciate +grandeur as well, no one can doubt who has seen the plans of the Sienese +cathedral. Its history is one of a grand result, and of far grander, tho +thwarted endeavor, and it is hard to realize to-day, that the church as +it stands is but a fragment, the transept only, of what Siena willed. +From the state of the existing works no one can doubt that the brave +little republic would have finished it had she not met an enemy before +whom the sword of Monteaperto was useless. The plague of 1348 stalked +across Tuscany, and the chill of thirty thousand Sienese graves numbed +the hand of master and workman, sweeping away the architect who planned, +the masons who built, the magistrates who ordered, it left but the +yellowed parchment in the archives which conferred upon Maestro Lorenzo +Maitani the superintendence of the works. + +The façade of the present church is amazing in its richness, undoubtedly +possesses some grand and much lovely detail, and is as undoubtedly +suggestive, with its white marble ornaments upon a pink marble ground, +of a huge, sugared cake. It is impossible to look at this restored +whiteness with the sun upon it; the dazzled eyes close involuntarily and +one sees in retrospect the great, gray church front at Rheims, or the +solemn façade of Notre Dame de Paris. It is like remembering an organ +burst of Handel after hearing the florid roulades of the mass within the +cathedral. + +The interior is rich in color and fine in effect, but the northerner is +painfully imprest by the black and white horizontal stripes which, +running from vaulting to pavement, seem to blur and confuse the vision, +and the closely set bars of the piers are positively irritating. In the +hexagonal lantern, however, they are less offensive than elsewhere, +because the fan-like radiation of the bars above the great gilded +statues breaks up the horizontal effect. The decoration of the +stone-work is not happy; the use of cold red and cold blue with gilt +bosses in relief does much to vulgarize, and there is constant sally in +small masses which belittles the general effect. It is evident that the +Sienese tendency to floridity is answerable for much of this, and that +having added some piece of big and bad decoration, the cornice of papal +head, for instance, they felt forced to do away with it or continue it +throughout. + +But this fault and many others are forgotten when we examine the detail +with which later men have filled the church. Other Italian cathedrals +possess art-objects of a higher order; perhaps no other one is so rich +in these treasures. The great masters are disappointing here. Raphael, +as the co-laborer of Pinturicchio, is dainty, rather than great, and +Michelangelo passes unnoticed in the huge and coldly elaborate +altar-front of the Piccolomini. But Marrina, with his doors of the +library; Barili, with his marvelous casing of the choir-stalls; +Beccafumi, with his bronze and neillo--these are the artists whom one +wonders at; these wood-carvers and bronze-founders, creators of the +microcosmic detail of the Renaissance which had at last burst +triumphantly into Siena. + +This treasure is cumulative, as we walk eastward from the main door, +where the pillars are a maze of scroll-work in deepest cutting, and by +the time we reach the choir the head fairly swims with the play of light +and color. We wander from point to point, we finger and caress the +lustrous stalls of Barili, and turn with a kind of confusion of vision +from panel to panel; above our heads the tabernacle of Vecchietta, the +lamp bearing angels of Beccafumi make spots of bituminous color, with +glittering high-lights, strangely emphasizing their modeling; from these +youths, who might be pages to some Roman prefect, the eye travels upward +still further, along the golden convolutions of the heavily stuccoed +pilasters to the huge, gilded cherubs' heads that frame the eastern +rose.... + +It is incredible that these frescoes are four hundred years old. Surely +Pinturicchio came down from his scaffolding but yesterday. This is how +the hardly dried plaster must have looked to pope and cardinal and +princes when the boards were removed, and when the very figures on these +walls--smart youths in tights and slashes, bright-robed scholars, +ecclesiastics caped in ermine, ladies with long braids bound in nets of +silk--crowded to see themselves embalmed in tempera for curious +after-centuries to gaze upon. + + + + +THE ASSISSI OF ST. FRANCIS[29] + +BY HIPPOLYTE ADOLPHE TAINE + + +On the summit of an abrupt height, over a double row of arcades, appears +the monastery; at its base a torrent plows the soil, winding off in the +distance between banks of boulders; beyond is the old town prolonging +itself on the ridge of the mountain. We ascend slowly under the burning +sun, and suddenly, at the end of a court surrounded by slender columns, +enter within the obscurity of the cathedral. It is unequalled; before +having seen it one has no idea of the art and the genius of the Middle +Ages. Append to it Dante and the "Fioretti" of St. Francis, and it +becomes the masterpiece of mystic Christianity. + +There are three churches, one above the other, all of them arranged +around the tomb of St. Francis. Over this venerated body, which the +people regard as ever living and absorbed in prayer at the bottom of an +inaccessible cave, the edifice has arisen and gloriously flowered like +an architectural shrine. The lowest is a crypt, dark as a sepulcher, +into which the visitors descend with torches; pilgrims keep close to the +dripping walls and grope along in order to reach the grating. + +Here is the tomb, in a pale, dim light, similar to that of limbo. A few +brass lamps, almost without lights, burn here eternally like stars lost +in mournful obscurity. The ascending smoke clings to the arches, and the +heavy odor of the tapers mingles with that of the cave. The guide trims +his torch; and the sudden flash in this horrible darkness, above the +bones of a corpse, is like one of Dante's visions. Here is the mystic +grave of a saint who, in the midst of corruption and worms, beholds his +slimy dungeon of earth filled with the supernatural radiance of the +Savior. + +But that which can not be represented by words is the middle church, a +long, low spiracle supported by small, round arches curving in the +half-shadow, and whose voluntary depression makes one instinctively +bend his knees. A coating of somber blue and of reddish bands starred +with gold, a marvelous embroidery of ornaments, wreaths, delicate +scroll-work, leaves, and painted figures, covers the arches and ceilings +with its harmonious multitude; the eye is overwhelmed by it; a +population of forms and tints lives on its vaults; I would not exchange +this cavern for all the churches of Rome! + +On the summit, the upper church shoots up as brilliant, as aerial, as +triumphant, as this is low and grave. Really, if one were to give way to +conjecture, he might suppose that in these three sanctuaries the +architect meant to represent the three worlds; below, the gloom of death +and the horrors of the infernal tomb; in the middle, the impassioned +anxiety of the beseeching Christian who strives and hopes in this world +of trial; aloft, the bliss and dazzling glory of Paradise. + + + + +RAVENNA[30] + +BY EDWARD A. FREEMAN + + +With exceptions, all the monuments of Ravenna belong to the days of +transition from Roman to Medieval times, and the greater part of them +come within the fifth and sixth centuries. It was then that Ravenna +became, for a season, the head of Italy and of the Western world. The +sea had made Ravenna a great haven: the falling back of the sea made her +the ruling city of the earth. Augustus had called into being the port of +Caesarea as the Peiraieus of the Old Thessalian or Umbrian Ravenna. +Haven and city grew and became one; but the faithless element again fell +back; the haven of Augustus became dry land covered by orchards, and +Classis arose as the third station, leaving Ravenna itself an inland +city. + +Again has the sea fallen back; Caesarea has utterly perished; Classis +survives only in one venerable church; the famous pine forest has grown +up between the third haven and the now distant Hadriatic. Out of all +this grew the momentary greatness of Ravenna. The city, girded with the +three fold zone of marshes, causeways, and strong walls, became the +impregnable shelter of the later Emperors; and the earliest Teutonic +Kings naturally fixt their royal seat in the city of their Imperial +predecessors. When this immediate need had passed away, the city +naturally fell into insignificance, and it plays hardly any part in the +history of Medieval Italy. Hence it is that the city is crowded with the +monuments of an age which has left hardly any monuments elsewhere. + +In Britain, indeed, if Dr. Merivale be right in the date which he gives +to the great Northern wall, we have a wonderful relic of those times; +but it is the work, not of the architect, but of the military engineers. +In other parts of Europe also works of this date are found here and +there; but nowhere save at Ravenna is there a whole city, so to speak, +made up of them. Nowhere but at Ravenna can we find, thickly scattered +around us, the churches, the tombs, perhaps the palaces, of the last +Roman and the first Teutonic rulers of Italy. In the Old and in the New +Rome, and in Milan also, works of the same date exist; but either they +do not form the chief objects of the city, or they have lost their +character and position through later changes. If Ravenna boasts of the +tombs of Honorius and Theodoric, Milan boasts also, truly or falsely, of +the tombs of Stilicho and Athaulf. But at Milan we have to seek for the +so-called tomb of Athaulf in a side-chapel of a church which has lost +all ancient character, and the so-called tomb of Stilicho, tho placed in +the most venerable church of the city, stands in a strange position as +the support of a pulpit. + +At Ravenna, on the other hand, the mighty mausoleum of Theodoric, and +the chapel which contains the tombs of Galla Placidia, her brother, and +her second husband, are among the best known and best preserved +monuments of the city. Ravenna, in the days of its Exarchs, could never +have dared to set up its own St. Vital as a rival to Imperial St. +Sophia. But at St. Sophia, changed into the temple of another faith, the +most characteristic ornaments have been hidden or torn away, while at +St. Vital Hebrew patriarchs and Christian saints, and the Imperial forms +of Justinian and his strangely-chosen Empress, still look down, as they +did thirteen hundred years back, upon the altars of Christian worship. +Ravenna, in short, seems, as it were, to have been preserved all but +untouched to keep up the memory of the days which were alike Roman, +Christian, and Imperial. + + + + +BENEDICTINE SUBIACO[31] + +BY AUGUSTUS J. C. HARE + + +One of the excellent mountain roads constructed by Pius IX. leads +through a wild district from Olevano to Subiaco. A few miles before +reaching Subiaco we skirt a lake, probably one of the Simbrivii Lacus +which Nero is believed to have made by damming up the Anio. Here he +fished for trout with a golden net, and here he built the mountain villa +which he called Sublaqueum--a name which still exists in Subiaco. + +Four centuries after the valley had witnessed the orgies of Nero, a +young patrician of the family of the Anicii-Benedictus, or "the blessed +one," being only fourteen at the time, fled from the seductions of the +capital to the rocks of Mentorella, but, being followed thither, sought +a more complete solitude in a cave above the falls of the Anio. Here he +lived unknown to any except the hermit Romanus, who daily let down food +to him, half of his own loaf, by a cord from the top of the cliff. At +length the hiding-place was revealed to the village priest in a vision, +and pilgrims flocked from all quarters to the valley. Through the +disciples who gathered around Benedict, this desolate ravine became the +cradle of monastic life in the West, and twelve monasteries rose amid +its peaks under the Benedictine rule.... + +Nothing can exceed the solemn grandeur of the situation of the convent +dedicated to St. Scholastica, the sainted sister of St. Benedict, which +was founded in the fifth century, and which, till quite lately, included +as many as sixteen towns and villages among its possessions. The scenery +becomes more romantic and savage at every step as we ascend the winding +path after leaving St. Scholastica, till a small gate admits us to the +famous immemorial Ilex Grove of St. Benedict, which is said to date from +the fifth century, and which has never been profaned by ax or hatchet. +Beyond it the path narrows, and a steep winding stair, just wide enough +to admit one person at a time, leads to the platform before the second +convent, which up to that moment is entirely concealed. Its name, Sacro +Speco, commemorates the holy cave of St. Benedict. + +At the portal, the thrilling interest of the place is suggested by the +inscription--"Here is the patriarchal cradle of the monks of the West +Order of St. Benedict." The entrance corridor, built on arches over the +abyss, has frescoes of four sainted popes, and ends in an ante-chamber +with beautiful Umbrian frescoes, and a painted statue of St. Benedict. +Here we enter the all-glorious church of 1116, completely covered with +ancient frescoes. A number of smaller chapels, hewn out of the rock, are +dedicated to the sainted followers of the founder. Some of the paintings +are by the rare Umbrian master Concioli. A staircase in front of the +high altar leads to the lower church. At the foot of the first flight of +steps, above the charter of 1213, setting forth all its privileges, is +the frescoed figure of Innocent III., who first raised Subiaco into an +abbacy; in the same fresco is represented Abbot John of Tagliacozzo, +under whom (1217-1277) many of the paintings were executed. + +On the second landing, the figure of Benedict faces us on a window with +his finger on his lips, imposing silence. On the left is the coro, on +the right the cave where Benedict is said to have passed three years in +darkness. A statue by Raggi commemorates his presence here; a basket is +a memorial of that lowered with his food by St. Romanus; an ancient bell +is shown as that which rang to announce its approach. As we descend the +Scala Santa trodden by the feet of Benedict, and ascended by the monks +upon their knees, the solemn beauty of the place increases at every +step. On the right is a powerful fresco of Death mowing down the young +and sparing the old; on the left, the Preacher shows the young and +thoughtless the three states to which the body is reduced after death. +Lastly, we reach the Holy of Holies, the second cave, in which Benedict +laid down the rule of his order, making its basis the twelve degrees of +humility. Here also an inscription enumerates the wonderful series of +saints, who, issuing from Subiaco, founded the Benedictine Order +throughout the world. + + + + +ETRUSCAN VOLTERRA[32] + +BY WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT + + +For several miles before reaching Volterra, our attention was fixt by +the extraordinary aspect of the country through which we were passing. +The road gradually ascended, and we found ourselves among deep ravines +and steep, high, broken banks, principally of clay, barren, and in most +places wholly bare of herbage, a scene of complete desolation, were it +not for a cottage here and there perched upon the heights, a few sheep +attended by a boy and a dog grazing on the brink of one of the +precipices, or a solitary patch of bright green wheat in some spot where +the rains had not yet carried away the vegetable mold. + +In the midst of this desolate tract, which is, however, here and there +interspersed with fertile spots, rises the mountain on which Volterra is +situated, where the inhabitants breathe a pure and keen atmosphere, +almost perpetually cool, and only die of pleurisies and apoplexies; +while below, on the banks of the Cecina, which in full sight winds its +way to the sea, they die of fevers. One of the ravines of which I have +spoken--the "balza," they call it at Volterra--has plowed a deep chasm +on the north side of this mountain, and is every year rapidly +approaching the city on its summit. I stood on its edge and looked down +a bank of soft, red earth five hundred feet in height. A few rods in +front of me I saw where a road had crossed the spot in which the gulf +now yawned; the tracks of the last year's carriages were seen reaching +to the edge on both sides. The ruins of a convent were close at hand, +the inmates of which, two or three years since, had been removed by the +Government to the town for safety.... + +The antiquities of Volterra consist of an Etruscan burial-ground, in +which the tombs still remain, pieces of the old and incredibly massive +Etruscan wall, including a far larger circuit than the present city, two +Etruscan gates of immemorial antiquity, older, doubtless, than any thing +at Rome, built of enormous stones, one of them serving even yet as an +entrance to the town, and a multitude of cinerary vessels, mostly of +alabaster, sculptured with numerous figures in "alto relievo." These +figures are sometimes allegorical representations, and sometimes embody +the fables of the Greek mythology. Among them are many in the most +perfect style of Grecian art, the subjects of which are taken from the +poems of Homer; groups representing the besiegers of Troy and its +defenders, or Ulysses with his companions and his ships. I gazed with +exceeding delight on these works of forgotten artists, who had the +verses of Homer by heart--works just drawn from the tombs where they had +been buried for thousands of years, and looking as if fresh from the +chisel. + + + + +THE PAESTUM OF THE GREEKS[33] + +BY EDWARD A. FREEMAN + + +Few buildings are more familiar than the temples of Paestum; yet the +moment when the traveler first comes in sight of works of untouched +Hellenic skill is one which is simply overwhelming. Suddenly, by the +side of a dreary road, in a spot backed indeed by noble mountains, but +having no charm of its own, we come on these works, unrivaled on our +side of the Hadriatic and the Messenian strait, standing in all their +solitary grandeur, shattered indeed, but far more perfect than the mass +of ruined buildings of later days. The feeling of being brought near to +Hellenic days and Hellenic men, of standing face to face with the +fathers of the world's civilization, is one which can never pass away. +Descriptions, pictures, models, all fail; they give us the outward form; +they can not give us the true life. + +The thought comes upon us that we have passed away from that Roman world +out of which our own world has sprung into that earlier and fresher and +brighter world by which Rome and ourselves have been so deeply +influenced, but out of which neither the Roman nor the modern world can +be said to spring. There is the true Doric in its earliest form, in all +its unmixed and simple majesty. The ground is strewed with shells and +covered with acanthus-leaves; but no shell had suggested the Ionic +volute, no acanthus-leaf had suggested the Corinthian foliage. The vast +columns, with the sudden tapering, the overhanging capitals, the stern, +square abacus, all betoken the infancy of art. But it is an infancy like +that of their own Hêraklês; the strength which clutched the serpent in +his cradle is there in every stone. Later improvements, the improvements +of Attic skill, may have added grace; the perfection of art may be found +in the city which the vote of the divine Assembly decreed to Athênê; but +for the sense of power, of simplicity without rudeness, the city of +Poseidon holds her own. Unlike in every detail, there is in these +wonderful works of early Greek art a spirit akin to some of the great +churches of Romanesque date, simple, massive, unadorned, like the +Poseidônian Doric. + +And they show, too, how far the ancient architects were from any slavish +bondage to those minute rules which moderns have invented for them. In +each of the three temples of Paestum differences both of detail and of +arrangement may be marked, differences partly of age, but also partly of +taste. And some other thoughts are brought forcibly upon the mind. Here +indeed we feel that the wonders of Hellenic architecture are things to +kindle our admiration, even our reverence; but that, as the expression +of a state of things which has wholly passed away, nothing can be less +fit for reproduction in modern times. + +And again, we may be sure that the admiration and reverence which they +may awaken in the mind of the mere classical purist is cold beside that +which they kindle in the mind which can give them their true place in +the history of art. The temples of Paestum are great and noble from any +point of view. But they become greater and nobler as we run over the +successive steps in the long series by which their massive columns and +entablatures grew into the tall clusters and soaring arches of +Westminster and Amiens. + + + + +VII + +SICILIAN SCENES + + + + +PALERMO[34] + +BY WILL S. MONROE + + +While not one of the original Hellenic city-states, Palermo has a superb +location on the northern shores of the central island of the central +sea; its harbor is guarded by the two picturesque cliffs and the fertile +plain that forms the "compagne" is hemmed in by a semicircular cord of +rugged mountains. "Perhaps there are few spots upon the surface of the +globe more beautiful than Palermo," writes Arthur Symonds. "The hills on +either hand descend upon the sea with long-drawn delicately broken +outlines, so delicately tinted with aerial hues at early dawn or beneath +the blue light of a full moon the panorama seems to be some fabric of +fancy, that must fade away, 'like shapes of clouds we form,' to nothing. +Within the cradle of these hills, and close upon the tideless water, +lies the city. Behind and around on every side stretches the famous +Conco d'Oro, or golden shell, a plain of marvelous fertility, so called +because of its richness and also because of its shape; for it tapers to +a fine point where the mountains meet, and spreads abroad, where they +diverge, like a cornucopia. The whole of this long vega is a garden, +thick with olive-groves and orange trees, with orchards of nespole and +palms and almonds, with fig-trees and locust-trees, with judas-trees +that blush in spring, and with flowers as multitudinously brilliant as +the fretwork of sunset clouds." + +During the days of Phoenician and Carthagenian supremacy Palermo was a +busy mart--a great clearing-house for the commerce of the island and +that part of the Mediterranean. But during the days of the Saracens it +became not only a very busy city but also a very beautiful city. The +Arabian poets extolled its charms in terms that sound to us exceedingly +extravagant. One of them wrote: "Oh how beautiful is the lakelet of the +twin palms and the island where the spacious palace stands. The limpid +waters of the double springs resemble liquid pearls, and their basin is +a sea; you would say that the branches of the trees stretched down to +see the fishes in the pool and smile at them. The great fishes in those +clear waters, and the birds among the gardens tune their songs. The ripe +oranges of the island are like fire that burns on boughs of emerald; the +pale lemon reminds me of a lover who has passed the night in weeping for +his absent darling. The two palms may be compared to lovers who have +gained an inaccessible retreat against their enemies, or raise +themselves erect in pride to confound the murmurs and the ill thoughts +of jealous men. O palms of two lakelets of Palermo, ceaseless, +undisturbed, and plenteous days for ever keep your freshness." + +With the coming of the Normans Palermo enjoyed even greater prosperity +than had been experienced under the liberal rule of the Saracens. This +was the most brilliant period in the history of the city. The population +was even more mixed than during Moslem supremacy. Besides the Greeks, +Normans, Saracens, and Hebrews, there were commercial colonies of Slavs, +Venetians, Lombardians, Catalans, and Pisans. + +The most interesting public monuments at Palermo date from the Norman +period; and while many of the buildings are strikingly Saracenic in +character and recall similar structures erected by the Arabs in Spain, +it will be remembered that the Normans brought no trained architects to +the island, but employed the Arabs, Greeks, and Hebrews who had already +been in the service of the Saracen emirs. But the Arab influence in +architecture was dominant, and it survived well into the fourteenth +century. + + + + +GIRGENTI[35] + +BY EDWARD A. FREEMAN + + +The reported luxury of the Sikeliot cities in this age is, in the +double-edged saying of Empedocles, connected with one of their noblest +tastes. They built their houses as if they were going to live for ever. +And if their houses, how much more their temples and other public +buildings? In some of the Sikeliot cities, this was the most brilliant +time of architectural splendor. At Syracuse indeed the greatest +buildings which remain to tell their own story belong either to an +earlier or to a later time. It is the theater alone, as in its first +estate a probable work of the first Hierôn, which at all connects itself +with our present time. But at Akragas[36] and at Selinous the greatest +of the existing buildings belong to the days of republican freedom and +independence. At Akragas what the tyrant began the democracy went on +with. The series of temples that line the southern wall are due to an +impulse which began under Thêrôn and went on to the days of the +Carthaginian siege. + +Of the greatest among them, the temple of Olympian Zeus, this is +literally true. There can be little doubt that it was begun as one of +the thank-offerings after the victory of Himera, and it is certain that +at the coming of Hannibal and Hamilkôn it was still so far imperfect +that the roof was not yet added. It was therefore in building during a +time of more than seventy years, years which take in the whole of the +brilliant days of Akragantine freedom and well-being. + +To the same period also belong the other temples in the lower city, +temples which abide above ground either standing or in ruins, while the +older temples in the akropolis have to be looked for underneath +buildings of later ages. It was a grand conception to line the southern +wall, the wall most open to the attacks of mortal enemies, with this +wonderful series of holy places of the divine protectors of the city. It +was a conception due, we may believe, in the first instance, to Thêrôn, +but which the democracy fully entered into and carried out. The two best +preserved of the range stand to the east; one indeed occupies the +southeastern corner of the fortified enclosure. + +Next in order to the west comes the temple which bears a name not +unlikely, but altogether impossible and unmeaning, the so-called temple +of Concord. No reasonable guess can be made at its pagan dedication; in +the fifteenth century of our era it followed the far earlier precedent +of the temples in the akropolis. It became the church of Saint Gregory, +not of any of the great pontiffs and doctors of the Church, but of the +local bishop whose full description as Saint Gregory of the Turnips can +hardly be written without a smile. The peristyle was walled up, and +arches were cut through the walls of the cella, exactly as in the great +church of Syracuse. Saint Gregory of Girgenti plays no such part in the +world's history as was played by the Panagia of Syracuse; we may +therefore be more inclined to extend some mercy to the Bourbon king who +set free the columns as we now see them. When he had gone so far, one +might even wish that he had gone on to wall up the arches. In each of +the former states of the building there was a solid wall somewhere to +give shelter from the blasts which sweep round this exposed spot. As the +building now stands, it is, after the Athenian house of Theseus and +Saint George, the best preserved Greek temple in being. Like its fellow +to the east, it is a building of moderate size, of the middle stage of +Doric, with columns less massive than those of Syracuse and Corinth, +less slender than those of Nemea. + +Again to the west stood a temple of greater size, nearly ranging in +scale with the Athenian Parthenon, which is assigned, with far more of +likelihood than the other names, to Hêraklês. Save one patched-up column +standing amid the general ruin, it has, in the language of the prophet, +become heaps. All that is left is a mass of huge stones, among which we +can see the mighty columns, fallen, each in its place, overthrown, it is +clear, by no hand of man but by those powers of the nether world whose +sway is felt in every corner of Sicilian soil. + +These three temples form a continuous range along the eastern part of +the southern wall of the city. To the west of them, parted from them by +a gate, which, in Roman times at least, bore, as at Constantinople and +Spalato, the name of Golden, rose the mightiest work of Akragantine +splendor and devotion, the great Olympieion itself. Of this gigantic +building, the vastest Greek temple in Europe, we happily have somewhat +full descriptions from men who had looked at it, if not in the days of +its full glory, yet at least when it was a house standing up, and not a +ruin. As it now lies, a few fragments of wall still standing amid +confused heaps of fallen stones, of broken columns and capitals, no +building kindles a more earnest desire to see it as it stood in the days +of its perfection. + +[Illustration: CITY AND BAY OF NAPLES WITH VESUVIUS IN THE DISTANCE + Courtesy International Mercantile Marine Co.] + +[Illustration: TEMPLE OF THESEUS AT ATHENS] + +[Illustration: PALERMO, SICILY, FROM THE SEA +Courtesy L. C. Page & Co.] + +[Illustration: GREEK THEATER AT SEGESTA, SICILY] + +[Illustration: TEMPLE OF CONCORD, GIRGENTI, SICILY] + +[Illustration: TEMPLE OF JUNO AT GIRGENTI, SICILY] + +[Illustration: AMPHITHEATER AT SYRACUSE, SICILY] + +[Illustration: GREEK TEMPLE AT SEGESTA, SICILY + Courtesy L. C. Page & Co.] + +[Illustration: HARBOR OF SYRACUSE, SICILY + Courtesy L. C. Page & Co.] + +[Illustration: THE SO-CALLED "SHIP OF ULYSSES" OFF CORFU + Courtesy Houghton, Mifflin Co.] + +[Illustration: TEMPLE OF THE OLYMPIAN ZEUS AT ATHENS +Courtesy Houghton, Mifflin Co.] + +[Illustration: THE PLAIN BELOW DELPHI +Courtesy Houghton, Mifflin Co.] + +[Illustration: THE ROAD NEAR DELPHI +Courtesy Houghton, Mifflin Co.] + +[Illustration: ENTRANCE TO THE STADIUM AT OLYMPIA +Courtesy Houghton, Mifflin Co.] + +[Illustration: THRONE OF MINOS IN CRETE +(Minoan civilization in Crete antedates the Homeric age--perhaps by many +centuries) Courtesy Houghton, Mifflin Co.] + + + + +SEGESTE[37] + +BY JOHANN WOLFGANG VON GOETHE + + +The temple of Segeste was never finished; the ground around it was never +even leveled; the space only being smoothed on which the peristyle was +to stand. For, in several places, the steps are from nine to ten feet in +the ground, and there is no hill near, from which the stone or mold +could have fallen. Besides, the stones lie in their natural position, +and no ruins are found near them. + +The columns are all standing; two which had fallen, have very recently +been raised again. How far the columns rested on a socle is hard to say; +and without an engraving it is difficult to give an idea of their +present state. At some points it would seem as if the pillars rested on +the fourth step. In that case to enter the temple you would have to go +down a step. In other places, however, the uppermost step is cut +through, and then it looks as if the columns had rested on bases; and +then again these spaces have been filled up, and so we have once more +the first case. An architect is necessary to determine this point. + +The sides have twelve columns, not reckoning the corner ones; the back +and front six, including them. The rollers on which the stones were +moved along, still lie around you on the steps. They have been left in +order to indicate that the temple was unfinished. But the strongest +evidence of this fact is the floor. In some spots (along the sides) the +pavement is laid down; in the middle, however, the red limestone rock +still projects higher than the level of the floor as partially laid; the +flooring, therefore, can not ever have been finished. There is also no +trace of an inner temple. Still less can the temple have ever been +overlaid with stucco; but that it was intended to do so, we may infer +from the fact that the abaci of the capitals have projecting points +probably for the purpose of holding the plaster. The whole is built of a +limestone, very similar to the travertine; only it is now much fretted. +The restoration which was carried on in 1781, has done much good to the +building. The cutting of the stone, with which the parts have been +reconnected, is simple, but beautiful. + +The site of the temple is singular; at the highest end of a broad and +long valley, it stands on an isolated hill. Surrounded, however, on all +sides by cliffs, it commands a very distant and extensive view of the +land, but takes in only just a corner of the sea. The district reposes +in a sort of melancholy fertility--every where well cultivated, but +scarce a dwelling to be seen. Flowering thistles were swarming with +countless butterflies, wild fennel stood here from eight to nine feet +high, dry and withered of the last year's growth, but so rich and in +such seeming order that one might almost take it to be an old +nursery-ground. A shrill wind whistled through the columns as if through +a wood, and screaming birds of prey hovered around the pediments. + + + + +TAORMINA[38] + +BY JOHANN WOLFGANG VON GOETHE + + +When you have ascended to the top of the wall of rocks [at Taormina], +which rise precipitously at no great distance from the sea, you find two +peaks, connected by a semicircle. Whatever shape this may have had +originally from Nature has been helped by the hand of man, which has +formed out of it an amphitheater for spectators. Walls and other +buildings have furnished the necessary passages and rooms. Right across, +at the foot of the semicircular range of seats, the scene was built, and +by this means the two rocks were joined together, and a most enormous +work of nature and art combined. + +Now, sitting down at the spot where formerly sat the uppermost +spectators, you confess at once that never did any audience, in any +theater, have before it such a spectacle as you there behold. On the +right, and on high rocks at the side, castles tower in the air--farther +on the city lies below you; and altho its buildings are all of modern +date, still similar ones, no doubt, stood of old on the same site. After +this the eye falls on the whole of the long ridge of Ætna, then on the +left it catches a view of the sea-shore, as far as Catania, and even +Syracuse, and then the wide and extensive view is closed by the immense +smoking volcano, but not horribly, for the atmosphere, with its +softening effect, makes it look more distinct, and milder than it +really is. + +If now you turn from this view toward the passage running at the back of +the spectators, you have on the left the whole wall of the rocks between +which and the sea runs the road to Messina. And then again you behold +vast groups of rocky ridges in the sea itself, with the coast of +Calabria in the far distance, which only a fixt and attentive gaze can +distinguish from the clouds which rise rapidly from it. + +We descended toward the theater, and tarried awhile among its ruins, on +which an accomplished architect would do well to employ, at least on +paper, his talent of restoration. After this I attempted to make a way +for myself through the gardens to the city. But I soon learned by +experience what an impenetrable bulwark is formed by a hedge of agaves +planted close together. You can see through their interlacing leaves, +and you think, therefore, it will be easy to force a way through them; +but the prickles on their leaves are very sensible obstacles. If you +step on these colossal leaves, in the hope that they will bear you, they +break off suddenly; and so, instead of getting out, you fall into the +arms of the next plant. When, however, at last we had wound our way out +of the labyrinth, we found but little to enjoy in the city; tho from the +neighboring country we felt it impossible to part before sunset. +Infinitely beautiful was it to observe this region, of which every point +had its interest, gradually enveloped in darkness. + + + + +MOUNT ÆTNA[39] + +BY WILL S. MONROE + + +By the ancients Ætna was supposed to be the prison of the mighty chained +giant Typhon, the flames proceeding from his breath and the noises from +his groans; and when he turned over earthquakes shook the island. Many +of the myths of the Greek poets were associated with the slopes of Ætna, +such as Demeter, torch in hand, seeking Persephone, Acis and Galatea, +Polyphemus and the Cyclops. + +Ætna was once a volcano in the Mediterranean and in the course of ages +it completely filled the surrounding sea with its lava. A remarkable +feature of the mountain is the large number of minor cones on its +sides--some seven hundred in all. Most of these subsidiary cones are +from three to six thousand feet in height and they make themselves most +strongly felt during periods of great activity. The summit merely serves +as a vent through which the vapors and gases make their escape. The +natural boundaries of Ætna are the Alcantara and Simeto rivers on the +north, west, and south, and the sea on the east. + +The most luxurious fertility characterizes the gradual slopes near the +base, the decomposed volcanic soil being almost entirely covered with +olives, figs, grapes, and prickly pears. Higher up is the timber zone. +Formerly there was a dense forest belt between the zone of cultivated +land and the tore of cinders and snow; but the work of forest +extermination was almost completed during the reign of the Spanish +Bourbons. One may still find scattered oak, ilex, chestnut, and pine +interspersed with ferns and aromatic herbs. Chestnut trees of surprizing +growth are found on the lower slopes. "The Chestnut Tree of the Hundred +Horses," for which the slopes of Ætna are famous, is not a single tree +but a group of several distinct trunks together forming a circle, under +whose spreading branches a hundred horses might find shelter. + +Above the wooded zone Ætna is covered with miniature cones thrown up by +different eruptions and regions of dreary plateau covered with scoriae +and ashes and buried under snow a part of the year. While the upper +portions of the volcano are covered with snow the greater portion of the +year, Ætna does not reach the limit of perpetual snow, and the heat +which is emitted from its sides prevents the formation of glaciers in +the hollows. One might expect that the quantities of snow and rain which +fall on the summit would give rise to numerous streams. But the small +stones and cinders absorb the moisture, and springs are found only on +the lower slopes. The cinders, however, retain sufficient moisture to +support a rich vegetation wherever the surface of the lava is not too +compact to be penetrated by roots. The surface of the more recent lava +streams is not, as might be supposed, smooth and level, but full of +yawning holes and rents. + +The regularity of the gradual slopes is broken on the eastern side by +the Valle del Bove, a vast amphitheater more than three thousand feet in +depth, three miles in width, and covering an area of ten square miles. +The bottom of the valley is dotted with craters which rise in gigantic +steps; and, when Ætna is in a state of eruption, these craters pour +forth fiery cascades of lava. The Monte Centenari rise from the Valle +del Bove to an elevation of 6,026 feet. At the head of the valley is the +Torre del Filosofo at an altitude of 9,570 feet. This is the reputed +site of the observatory of Empedocles, the poet and philosopher, who is +fabled to have thrown himself into the crater of Ætna to immortalize his +name. + +The lower slopes of Ætna--after the basin of Palermo--include the most +densely populated parts of Sicily. More than half a million people live +on the slopes of a mountain that might be expected to inspire terror. +"Towns succeed towns along its base like pearls in a necklace, and when +a stream of lava effects a breach in the chain of human habitations, it +is closed up again as soon as the lava has had time to cool." As soon as +the lava has decomposed, the soil produces an excellent yield and this +tempts the farmer and the fruit grower to take chances. Speaking of the +dual effect of Ætna, Freeman says: "He has been mighty to destroy, but +he has also been mighty to create and render fruitful. If his fiery +streams have swept away cities and covered fields, they have given the +cities a new material for their buildings and the fields a new soil rich +above all others." + + + + +SYRACUSE[40] + +BY RUFUS B. RICHARDSON + + +The ruins of Syracuse are not to the casual observer very imposing. But +even these ruins have great interest for the archeologist. There is, for +example, an old temple near the northern end of Ortygia, for the most +part embedded in the buildings of the modern city, yet with its east end +cleared and showing several entire columns with a part of the architrave +upon them. And what a surprize here awaits one who thinks of a Doric +temple as built on a stereotyped plan! Instead of the thirteen columns +on the long sides which one is apt to look for as going with a +six-column front, here are eighteen or nineteen, it is not yet quite +certain which. The columns stand less than their diameter apart, and the +abaci are so broad that they nearly touch. + +So small is the inter-columnar space that archeologists incline to the +belief that in this one Doric temple there were triglyphs only over the +columns, and not also between them as in all other known cases. +Everything about this temple stamps it as the oldest in Sicily. An +inscription on the top step, in very archaic letters, much worn and +difficult to read, contains the name of Apollo in the ancient form.... +The inscription may, of course, be later than the temple; but it is in +itself old enough to warrant the supposition that the temple was +erected soon after the first Corinthian colonists established themselves +in the island. While the inscription makes it reasonably certain that +the temple belonged to Apollo, the god under whose guiding hand all +these Dorians went out into these western seas, tradition, with strange +perversity, has given it the name of "Temple of Diana." But it is all in +the family. + +Another temple ruin on the edge of the plateau, which begins about two +miles south of the city, across the Anapos, one might also easily +overlook in a casual survey, because it consists only of two columns +without capitals, and a broad extent of the foundations from which the +accumulated earth has been only partially removed. This was the famous +temple of Olympian Zeus, built probably in the days of Hiero I., soon +after the Persian war, but on the site of a temple still more venerable. +One seeks a reason for the location of this holy place at such a +distance from the city. Holm, the German historian of Sicily, argues +with some plausibility that this was no mere suburb of Syracuse, but the +original Syracuse itself. In the first place, the list of the citizens +of Syracuse was kept here down at least to the time of the Athenian +invasion. In the second place, tradition, which, when rightly consulted, +tells so much, says that Archias, the founder of Syracuse, had two +daughters, Ortygia and Syracusa, which may point to two coordinate +settlements, Ortygia and Syracuse; the latter, which was on this temple +plateau, being subsequently merged in the former, but, as sometimes +happens in such cases, giving its name to the combined result. + +Besides these temple ruins there are many more foundations that tell a +more or less interesting story. Then there are remains of the ancient +city that can never be ruined--for instance, the great stone quarries, +pits over a hundred feet deep and acres broad, in some of which the +Athenian prisoners were penned up to waste away under the gaze of the +pitiless captors; the Greek theater cut out of the solid rock; the great +altar of Hiero II., six hundred feet long and about half as broad, also +of solid rock. Then there is a mighty Hexapylon, which closed the +fortifications of Dionysius at the northwest at the point where they +challenged attack from the land side. With its sally-ports and rock-hewn +passages, some capacious enough to quarter regiments of cavalry, showing +holes cut in the projecting corners of rock, through which the +hitch-reins of the horses were wont to be passed, and its great +magazines, it stands a lasting memorial to the energy of a tyrant. But +while this fortress is practically indestructible, an impregnable +fortress is a dream incapable of realization. Marcellus and his stout +Romans came in through these fortifications, not entirely, it is true, +by their own might, but by the aid of traitors, against whom no walls +are proof. + +One of the stone quarries, the Latomia del Paradiso, has an added +interest from its association with the tyrant who made himself hated as +well as feared, while Gelon was only feared without being hated. An +inner recess of the quarry is called the "Ear of Dionysius," and +tradition says that at the inner end of this recess either he or his +creatures sat and listened to the murmurs that the people uttered +against him, and that these murmurs were requited with swift and fatal +punishment. Certain it is that a whisper in this cave produces a +wonderful resonance, and a pistol shot is like the roar of a cannon; but +that people who had anything to say about the butcher should come up +within ear-shot of him to utter it is not very likely. Historians are +not quite sure that the connection of Dionysius with this recess is +altogether mythical, but that he shaped it with the fell purpose above +mentioned is not to be thought of, as the whole quarry is older than his +time, and was probably, with the Latomia dei Cappuccini, a prison for +the Athenians. + + + + +MALTA[41] + +BY THÉOPHILE GAUTIER + + +The city of Valetta, founded in 1566, by the grand master whose name it +bears, is the capital of Malta. The city of La Sangle, and the city of +Victoria, which occupy two points of land on the other side of the +harbor of the Marse, together with the suburbs of Floriana and Burmola, +complete the town; encircled by bastions, ramparts, counterscarps, +forts, and fortifications, to an extent which renders siege impossible! +If you follow one of the streets which surround the town, at each step +that you take, you find yourself face to face with a cannon. Gibraltar +itself does not bristle more completely with mouths of fire. The +inconvenience of these extended works is, that they enclose a vast +radius, and demand to defend them, in case of attack, an enormous +garrison; always difficult to maintain at a distance from the mother +country. + +From the height of the ramparts, one sees in the distance the blue and +transparent sea, broken into ripples by the breeze, and dotted with +snowy sails. The scarlet sentinels are on guard from point to point, and +the heat of the sun is so fierce upon the glacis, that a cloth stretched +upon a frame and turning upon a pivot at the top of a pole, forms a +shade for the soldiers, who, without this precaution, must inevitably be +roasted on their posts.... + +The city of Valetta, altho built with regularity, and, so to speak, all +in one "block," is not, therefore, the less picturesque. The decided +slope of the ground neutralizes what the accurate lines of the street +might otherwise have of monotony, and the town mounts by degrees and by +terraces the hillside, which it forms into an amphitheater. The houses, +built very high like those of Cadiz, terminate in flat roofs that their +inhabitants may the better enjoy the sea view. They are all of white +Maltese stone; a sort of sandstone easy to work, and with which, at +small expense, one can indulge various caprices of sculpture and +ornamentation. These rectilinear houses stand well, and have an air of +grandeur, which they owe to the absence of (visible) roofs, cornices, +and attics. They stand out sharply and squarely against the azure of the +heavens, which their dazzling whiteness renders only the more intense; +but that which chiefly gives them a character of originality is the +projecting balcony hung upon each front; like the "moucharabys" of the +East, or the "miradores" of Spain. + +The palace of the grand masters--to-day the palace of the +government--has nothing remarkable in the way of architecture. Its date +is recent, and it responds but imperfectly to the idea one would form of +the residence of Villiers de I'lle Adam, of Lavalette, and of their +warlike ancestors. Nevertheless, it has a certain monumental air, and +produces a fine effect upon the great Place, of which it forms one +entire side. Two doorways, with rustic columns, break the uniformity of +the long façade; while an immense balcony, supported by gigantic +sculptured brackets, encircles the building at the level of the first +floor, and gives to the edifice the stamp of Malta. This detail, so +strictly local in its character, relieves what might be heavy and flat +in this architecture; and this palace, otherwise vulgar, becomes thus +original. The interior, which I visited, presents a range of vast halls +and galleries, decorated with pictures representing battles by sea and +land, sieges, and combats between Turkish galleys and the galleys of the +"Religion." ... + +To finish with the knights, I turned my steps toward the Church of St. +John--the Pantheon of the Order. Its façade, with a triangular porch +flanked by two towers terminating in stone belfries, having for ornament +only four pillars, and pierced by a window and door, without sculpture +or decoration, by no means prepares the traveler for the splendor +within. + +The first thing which arrests the sight is an immense arch, painted in +fresco, which runs the whole length of the nave. This fresco, unhappily +much deteriorated by time, is the work of Matteo Preti, called the +Calabrese; one of those great second-rate masters, who, if they have +less genius, have often more talent than the princes of the art. What +there is of science, facility, spirit, expression, and abundant +resource, in this colossal picture, is beyond description. + +Each section of the arch contains a scene from the life of St. John, to +whom the church is dedicated, and who was the patron of the Order. +These sections are supported, at their descent, by groups of +captives--Saracens, Turks, Christians, and others--half naked, or clad +in the remains of shattered armor, and placed in positions of +humiliation or constraint, who form a species of barbaric caryatides +strikingly suited to the subject. All this part of the fresco is full of +character, and has a force of coloring very rare in this species of +picture. These solid and massive effects give additional strength to the +lighter tone of the arch, and throw the skies into a relief and distance +singularly profound. I know no similar work of equal grandeur except the +ceiling by Fumiana in the Church of St. Pantaleone at Venice, +representing the life, martyrdom, and apotheosis of that saint. But the +style of the decadence makes itself less felt in the work of the +Calabrese than in that of the Venetian. In recompense of this gigantic +work, the artist had the honor, like Carravaggio, to be made a Knight +of the Order. + +The pavement of the church is composed of four hundred tombs of knights, +incrusted with jasper, porphyry, verd-antique, and precious stones of +various kinds, which should form the most splendid sepulchral mosaics +conceivable. I say should form, because at the moment of my visit, the +whole floor was covered with those immense mats, so constantly used for +carpeting the southern churches--a usage which is explained by the +absence of pews or chairs, and the habit of kneeling upon the floor to +perform one's devotions. I regretted this exceedingly; but the crypt and +the chapel contain enough sepulchral wealth to offer some atonement. + + + + +VIII + +THE MAINLAND OF GREECE + + + + +ON ARRIVING IN ATHENS--THE ACROPOLIS[42] + +BY J. P. MAHAFFY + + +There is probably no more exciting voyage, to any educated man, than the +approach to Athens from the sea. Every promontory, every island, every +bay, has its history. If he knows the map of Greece, he needs no +guide-book or guide to distract him; if he does not, he needs little +Greek to ask of any one near him the name of this or that object; and +the mere names are sufficient to stir up all his classical +recollections. But he must make up his mind not to be shocked at "Ægina" +or "Phalrum," and even to be told that he is utterly wrong in his way of +pronouncing them. + +It was our fortune to come into Greece by night, with a splendid moon +shining upon the summer sea. The varied outlines of Sunium, on the one +side, and Ægina on the other, were very clear, but in the deep shadows +there was mystery enough to feed the burning impatience of seeing all in +the light of common day; and tho we had passed Ægina, and had come over +against the rocky Salamis, as yet there was no sign of Peiræus. Then +came the light on Psyttalea, and they told us that the harbor was right +opposite. Yet we came nearer and nearer, and no harbor could be seen. + +The barren rocks of the coast seemed to form one unbroken line, and +nowhere was there a sign of indentation or of break in the land. But +suddenly, as we turned from gazing on Psyttalea, where the flower of the +Persian nobles had once stood in despair, looking upon their fate +gathering about them, the vessel had turned eastward, and discovered to +us the crowded lights and thronging ships of the famous harbor. Small it +looked, very small, but evidently deep to the water's edge, for great +ships seemed touching the shore; and so narrow is the mouth, that we +almost wondered how they had made their entrance in safety. But we saw +it some weeks later, with nine men-of-war towering above all its +merchant shipping and its steamers, and among them crowds of ferryboats +skimming about in the breeze with their wing-like sails. Then we found +out that, like the rest of Greece, the Peiræus was far larger than it +looked. + +It differed little, alas! from more vulgar harbors in the noise and +confusion of disembarking; in the delays of its custom-house; in the +extortion and insolence of its boatmen. It is still, as in Plato's day, +"the haunt of sailors, where good manners are unknown." But when we had +escaped the turmoil, and were seated silently on the way to Athens, +almost along the very road of classical days, all our classical notions, +which had been seared away by vulgar bargaining and protesting, +regained their sway. + +We had sailed in through the narrow passage where almost every great +Greek that ever lived had some time passed; now we went along the line, +hardly less certain, which had seen all these great ones going to and +fro between the city and the port. The present road is shaded with great +silver poplars, and plane trees, and the moon had set, so that our +approach to Athens was even more mysterious than our approach to the +Peiræus. We were, moreover, perplexed at our carriage stopping under +some large plane trees, tho we had driven but two miles, and the night +was far spent. Our coachman would listen to no advice or persuasion. We +learned afterward that every carriage going to and from the Peiræus +stops at this half-way house, that the horses may drink, and the +coachman take "Turkish delight" and water. There is no exception made to +this custom, and the traveler is bound to submit. At last we entered the +unpretending ill-built streets at the west of Athens.... + +We rose at the break of dawn to see whether our window would afford any +prospect to serve as a requital for angry sleeplessness. And there, +right opposite, stood the rock which of all rocks in the world's history +has done most for literature and art--the rock which poets, and orators, +and architects, and historians have ever glorified, and can not stay +their praise--which is ever new and ever old, ever fresh in its decay, +ever perfect in its ruin, ever living in its death--the Acropolis of +Athens. + +When I saw my dream and longing of many years fulfilled, the first rays +of the rising sun had just touched the heights, while the town below was +still hid in gloom. Rock, and rampart, and ruined fanes--all were +colored in uniform tints; the lights were of a deep rich orange, and the +shadows of dark crimson, with the deeper lines of purple. There was no +variety in color between what nature and what man had set there. No +whiteness shone from the marble, no smoothness showed upon the hewn and +polished blocks; but the whole mass of orange and crimson stood out +together into the pale, pure Attic air. There it stood, surrounded by +lanes and hovels, still perpetuating the great old contrast in Greek +history, of magnificence and meanness--of loftiness and lowness--as well +in outer life as in inward motive. And, as it were in illustration of +that art of which it was the most perfect bloom, and which lasted in +perfection but a day of history, I saw it again and again, in sunlight +and in shade, in daylight and at night, but never again in this perfect +and singular beauty.... + +I suppose there can be no doubt whatever that the ruins on the Acropolis +of Athens are the most remarkable in the world. There are ruins far +larger, such as the Pyramids, and the remains of Karnak. There are ruins +far more perfectly preserved, such as the great Temple at Paestum. There +are ruins more picturesque, such as the ivy-clad walls of medieval +abbeys beside the rivers in the rich valleys of England. But there is no +ruin all the world over which combines so much striking beauty, so +distinct a type, so vast a volume of history, so great a pageant of +immortal memories. There is, in fact, no building on earth which can +sustain the burden of such greatness, and so the first visit to the +Acropolis is and must be disappointing. + +When the traveler reflects how all the Old World's culture culminated in +Greece--all Greece in Athens--all Athens in its Acropolis--all the +Acropolis in the Parthenon--so much crowds upon the mind confusedly that +we look for some enduring monument whereupon we can fasten our thoughts, +and from which we can pass as from a visible starting-point into all +this history and all this greatness. And at first we look in vain. The +shattered pillars and the torn pediments will not bear so great a +strain; and the traveler feels forced to admit a sense of +disappointment, sore against his will. He has come a long journey into +the remoter parts of Europe; he has reached at last what his soul had +longed for many years in vain; and as is wont to be the case with all +great human longings, the truth does not answer to his desire. The pang +of disappointment is all the greater when he sees that the tooth of time +and the shock of earthquake have done but little harm. It is the hand of +man--of reckless foe and ruthless lover--which has robbed him of his +hope.... + +Nothing is more vexatious than the reflection, how lately these splendid +remains have been reduced to their present state. The Parthenon, being +used as a Greek church, remained untouched and perfect all through the +Middle Ages. Then it became a mosque, and the Erechtheum a seraglio, and +in this way survived without damage till 1687, when, in the bombardment +by the Venetians under Morosini, a shell dropt into the Parthenon, where +the Turks had their powder stored, and blew out the whole center of the +building. Eight or nine pillars at each side have been thrown down, and +have left a large gap, which so severs the front and rear of the temple, +that from the city below they look like the remains of two different +buildings. The great drums of these pillars are yet lying there, in +their order, just as they fell, and some money and care might set them +all up again in their places; yet there is not in Greece the patriotism +or even the common sense to enrich the country by this restoration, +matchless in its certainty as well as in its splendor. + +But the Venetians were not content with their exploit. They were, about +this time, when they held possession of most of Greece, emulating the +Pisan taste for Greek sculptures; and the four fine lions standing at +the gate of the arsenal in Venice still testify to their zeal in +carrying home Greek trophies to adorn their capital. + +In its great day, and even as Pausanias saw it, the Acropolis was +covered with statues, as well as with shrines. It was not merely an Holy +of Holies in religion; it was also a palace and museum of art. At every +step and turn the traveler met new objects of interest. There were +archaic specimens, chiefly interesting to the antiquarian and the +devotee; there were the great masterpieces which were the joint +admiration of the artist and the vulgar. Even all the sides and slopes +of the great rock were honeycombed into sacred grottos, with their +altars and their gods, or studded with votive monuments. All these +lesser things are fallen away and gone; the sacred eaves are filled with +rubbish, and desecrated with worse than neglect. The grotto of Pan and +Apollo is difficult of access, and when reached, an object of disgust +rather than of interest. There are left but the remnants of the +surrounding wall, and the ruins of the three principal buildings, which +were the envy and wonder of all the civilized world. + +The beautiful little temple of Athena Nike, tho outside the +Propylæa--thrust out as it were on a sort of great buttress high on the +right--must still be called a part, and a very striking part, of the +Acropolis. It is only of late years that it has been cleared of rubbish +and modern stone-work, thus destroying, no doubt, some precious traces +of Turkish occupation which the fastidious historian may regret, but +realizing to us a beautiful Greek temple of the Ionic Order in some +completeness. The peculiarity of this building, which is perched upon a +platform of stone, and commands a splendid prospect, is that its tiny +peribolus, or sacred enclosure, was surrounded by a parapet of stone +slabs covered with exquisite reliefs of winged Victories, in various +attitudes. Some of these slabs are now in the Museum of the Acropolis, +and are of great interest--apparently less severe than the school of +Phidias, and therefore later in date, but still of the best epoch, and +of marvelous grace. The position of this temple also is not parallel +with the Propylæa, but turned slightly outward, so that the light +strikes it at moments when the other building is not illuminated. At the +opposite side is a very well-preserved chamber, and a fine colonnade at +right angles with the gate, which looks like a guard-room. This is the +chamber commonly called the Pinacotheca, where Pausanias saw pictures or +frescoes by Polygnotus. + + + + +A WINTER IN ATHENS HALF A CENTURY AGO[43] + +BY BAYARD TAYLOR + + +Our sitting-room fronted the south (with a view of the Acropolis and the +Areopagus), and could be kept warm without more labor or expense than +would be required for an entire dwelling at home. Our principal anxiety +was, that the supply of fuel, at any price, might become exhausted. We +burned the olive and the vine, the cypress and the pine, twigs of rose +trees and dead cabbage-stalks, for aught I know, to feed our one little +sheet-iron stove. For full two months we were obliged to keep up our +fire, from morning until night. Know ye the land of the cypress and +myrtle, where the flowers ever blossom, the beams ever shine? Here it +is, with almost snow enough in the streets for a sleighing party, with +the Ilissus frozen, and with a tolerable idea of Lapland, when you face +the gusts which drive across the Cephissian plain. + +As the other guests were Greek, our mode of living was similar to that +of most Greek families. We had coffee in the morning, a substantial +breakfast about noon, and dinner at six in the evening. The dishes were +constructed after French and Italian models, but the meat is mostly +goat's flesh. Beef, when it appears, is a phenomenon of toughness. +Vegetables are rather scarce. Cow's milk, and butter or cheese +therefrom, are substances unknown in Greece. The milk is from goats or +sheep, and the butter generally from the latter. It is a white, cheesy +material, with a slight flavor of tallow. The wine, when you get it +unmixed with resin, is very palatable. We drank that of Santorin, with +the addition of a little water, and found it an excellent beverage.... + +Except during the severely cold weather, Athens is as lively a town as +may be. One-fourth of the inhabitants, I should say, are always in the +streets, and many of the mechanics work, as is common in the Orient, in +open shops. The coffee-houses are always thronged, and every afternoon +crowds may be seen on the Patissia Road--a continuation of Eolus +Street--where the King and Queen take their daily exercise on horseback. +The national costume, both male and female, is gradually falling into +disuse in the cities, altho it is still universal in the country. The +islanders adhere to their hideous dress with the greatest persistence. +With sunrise the country people begin to appear in the streets with +laden donkeys and donkey-carts, bringing wood, grain, vegetables, and +milk, which they sell from house to house.... + +Venders of bread and coffee-rolls go about with circular trays on their +heads, calling attention to their wares by loud and long-drawn cries. +Later in the day, peddlers make their appearance, with packages of cheap +cotton stuffs, cloth, handkerchiefs, and the like, or baskets of pins, +needles, buttons, and tape. They proclaim loudly the character and price +of their articles, the latter, of course, subject to negotiation. The +same custom prevails as in Turkey, of demanding much more than the +seller expects to get. Foreigners are generally fleeced a little in the +beginning, tho much less so, I believe, than in Italy.... + +The winter of 1857-58 was the severest in the memory of any inhabitant. +For nearly eight weeks, we had an alternation of icy north winds and +snow-storms. The thermometer went down to 20 degrees of Fahrenheit--a +degree of cold which seriously affected the orange-, if not the +olive-trees. Winter is never so dreary as in those southern lands, where +you see the palm trees rocking despairingly in the biting gale, and the +snow lying thick on the sunny fruit of the orange groves. As for the +pepper trees, with their hanging tresses and their loose, misty foliage, +which line the broad avenues radiating from the palace, they were +touched beyond recovery. The people, who could not afford to purchase +wood or charcoal, at treble the usual price, even tho they had hearths, +which they have not, suffered greatly. They crouched at home, in cellars +and basements, wrapt in rough capotes, or hovering around a mangal, or +brazier of coals, the usual substitute for a stove. From Constantinople +we had still worse accounts. The snow lay deep everywhere; charcoal sold +at twelve piastres the oka (twenty cents a pound), and the famished +wolves, descending from the hills, devoured people almost at the gates +of the city. In Smyrna, Beyrout, and Alexandria, the winter was equally +severe, while in Odessa it was mild and agreeable, and in St. +Petersburg there was scarcely snow enough for sleighing. All Northern +Europe enjoyed a winter as remarkable for warmth as that of the South +for its cold. The line of division seemed to be about the parallel of +latitude 45 degrees. Whether this singular climatic phenomenon extended +further eastward, into Asia, I was not able to ascertain. I was actually +less sensitive to the cold in Lapland, during the previous winter, with +the mercury frozen, than in Attica, within the belt of semi-tropical +productions. + + + + +THE ACROPOLIS AS IT WAS[44] + +BY PAUSANIAS + + +To the Acropolis there is only one approach; it allows of no other, +being everywhere precipitous and walled off. The vestibules have a roof +of white marble, and even now are remarkable for both their beauty and +size. As to the statues of the horsemen, I can not say with precision +whether they are the sons of Xenophon, or merely put there for +decoration. On the right of the vestibules is the shrine of the Wingless +Victory. From it the sea is visible; and there Ægeus drowned himself, as +they say. For the ship which took his sons to Crete had black sails, but +Theseus told his father (for he knew there was some peril in attacking +the Minotaur) that he would have white sails if he should sail back a +conqueror. But he forgot this promise in his loss of Ariadne. And Ægeus, +seeing the ship with black sails, thinking his son was dead, threw +himself in and was drowned. And the Athenians have a hero-chapel to his +memory. And on the left of the vestibules is a building with paintings; +and among those that time has not destroyed are Diomedes and +Odysseus--the one taking away Philoctetes's bow in Lemnos, the other +taking the Palladium from Ilium. Among other paintings here is Ægisthus +being slain by Orestes; and Pylades slaying the sons of Nauplius that +came to Ægisthus's aid. And Polyxena about to have her throat cut near +the tomb of Achilles. Homer did well not to mention this savage act.... + +And there is a small stone such as a little man can sit on, on which +they say Silenus rested, when Dionysus came to the land. Silenus is the +name they give to all old Satyrs. About the Satyrs I have conversed with +many, wishing to know all about them. And Euphemus, a Carian, told me +that sailing once on a time to Italy he was driven out of his course by +the winds, and carried to a distant sea, where people no longer sail. +And he said that here were many desert islands, some inhabited by wild +men; and at these islands the sailors did not like to land, as they had +landed there before and had experience of the natives; but they were +obliged on that occasion. These islands he said were called by the +sailors Satyr-islands; the dwellers in them were red-haired, and had +tails at their loins not much smaller than horses.... + +And as regards the temple which they call the Parthenon, as you enter it +everything portrayed on the gables relates to the birth of Athene, and +behind is depicted the contest between Poseidon and Athene for the soil +of Attica. And this work of art is in ivory and gold. In the middle of +her helmet is an image of the Sphinx--about whom I shall give an account +when I come to Boeotia--and on each side of the helmet are griffins +worked. These griffins, says Aristus the Proconnesian, in his poems, +fought with the Arimaspians beyond the Issedones for the gold of the +soil which the griffins guarded. And the Arimaspians were all one-eyed +men from their birth; and the griffins were beasts like lions, with +wings and mouth like an eagle. Let so much suffice for these griffins. +But the statue of Athene is full length, with a tunic reaching to her +feet; and on her breast is the head of Medusa worked in ivory, and in +one hand she has a Victory four cubits high, in the other hand a spear, +and at her feet a shield; and near the spear a dragon which perhaps is +Erichthonius. And on the base of the statue is a representation of the +birth of Pandora--the first woman, according to Hesiod and other poets; +for before her there was no race of women. Here too I remember to have +seen the only statue here of the Emperor Adrian; and at the entrance one +of Iphicrates, the celebrated Athenian general. + +And outside the temple is a brazen Apollo said to be by Phidias; and +they call it Apollo, Averter of Locusts, because when the locusts +destroyed the land the god said he would drive them out of the country. +And they know that he did so, but they don't say how. I myself know of +locusts having been thrice destroyed on Mount Sipylus, but not in the +same way; for some were driven away by a violent wind that fell on them, +and others by a strong light that came on them after showers, and others +were frozen to death by a sudden frost. All this came under my own +notice. + +There is also a building called the Erechtheum, and in the vestibule is +an altar of Supreme Zeus, where they offer no living sacrifice, but +cakes without the usual libation of wine. And as you enter there are +three altars: one to Poseidon (on which they also sacrifice to +Erechtheus according to the oracle), one to the hero Butes, and the +third to Hephæstus. And on the walls are paintings of the family of +Butes. The building is a double one; and inside there is sea-water in a +well. And this is no great marvel; for even those who live in inland +parts have such wells, as notably Aphrodisienses in Caria. But this well +is represented as having a roar as of the sea when the south wind blows. +And in the rock is the figure of a trident. And this is said to have +been Poseidon's proof in regard to the territory Athene disputed with +him. + +Sacred to Athene is all the rest of Athens, and similarly all Attica; +for altho they worship different gods in different townships, none the +less do they honor Athene generally. And the most sacred of all is the +statue of Athene in what is now called the Acropolis, but was then +called the Polis (city) which was universally worshiped many years +before the various townships formed one city; and the rumor about it is +that it fell from heaven. As to this I shall not give an opinion, +whether it was so or not. And Callimachus made a golden lamp for the +goddess. And when they fill this lamp with oil it lasts for a whole +year, altho it burns continually night and day. And the wick is of a +particular kind of cotton flax, the only kind indestructible by fire. +And above the lamp is a palm tree of brass reaching to the roof and +carrying off the smoke. And Callimachus, the maker of this lamp, altho +he comes behind the first artificers, yet was remarkable for ingenuity, +and was the first who perforated stone, and got the name of +"Art-Critic," whether his own appellation or given him by others. + +In the temple of Athene Polias is a Hermes of wood (said to be a votive +offering of Cecrops), almost hidden by myrtle leaves. And of the antique +votive offerings worthy of record, is a folding-chair, the work of +Dædalus, and spoils taken from the Persians--as a coat of mail of +Masistius, who commanded the cavalry at Platæa, and a scimitar said to +have belonged to Mardonius. Masistius we know was killed by the Athenian +cavalry; but as Mardonius fought against the Lacedæmonians and was +killed by a Spartan, they could not have got it at first hand; nor is it +likely that the Lacedæmonians would have allowed the Athenians to carry +off such a trophy. And about the olive they have nothing else to tell +but that the goddess used it as a proof of her right to the country, +when it was contested by Poseidon. And they record also that this olive +was burnt when the Persians set fire to Athens; but tho burnt, it grew +the same day two cubits. + +And next to the temple of Athene is the temple of Pandrosus; who was the +only one of the three sisters who didn't peep into the forbidden chest. +Now the things I most marveled at are not universally known. I will +therefore write of them as they occur to me. Two maidens live not far +from the temple of Athene Polias, and the Athenians call them the +"carriers of the holy things"; for a certain time they live with the +goddess, but when her festival comes they act in the following way, by +night: Putting upon their heads what the priestess of Athene gives them +to carry (neither she nor they know what these things are), these +maidens descend, by a natural underground passage, from an inclosure in +the city sacred to Aphrodite of the Gardens. In the sanctuary below they +deposit what they carry, and bring back something else closely wrapt up. +And these maidens they henceforth dismiss, and other two they elect +instead of them for the Acropolis. + + + + +THE ELGIN MARBLES[45] + +BY J. P. MAHAFFY + + +Morosini[46] wished to take down the sculptures of Phidias from the +eastern pediment, but his workmen attempted it so clumsily that the +figures fell from their place and were dashed to pieces on the ground. + +An observing traveler[47] was present when a far more determined and +systematic attack was made upon the remaining ruins of the Parthenon. +While he was traveling in the interior, Lord Elgin had obtained his +famous firman from the Sultan, to take down and remove any antiquities +or sculptured stones he might require, and the infuriated Dodwell saw a +set of ignorant workmen, under equally ignorant overseers, let loose +upon the splendid ruins of the age of Pericles. He speaks with much good +sense and feeling of this proceeding. He is fully aware that the world +would derive inestimable benefit from the transplanting of these +splendid fragments to a more accessible place, but he can not find +language strong enough to express his disgust at the way in which the +thing was done. + +Incredible as it may appear, Lord Elgin himself seems not to have +superintended the work, but to have left it to paid contractors, who +undertook the job for a fixt sum. Little as either Turks or Greeks cared +for the ruins, he says that a pang of grief was felt through all Athens +at the desecration, and that the contractors were obliged to bribe +workmen with additional wages to undertake the ungrateful task. Dodwell +will not even mention Lord Elgin by name, but speaks of him with disgust +as "the person" who defaced the Parthenon. He believes that had this +person been at Athens himself, his underlings could hardly have behaved +in the reckless way they did, pulling down more than they wanted, and +taking no care to prop up and save the work from which they had taken +the support. + +He especially notices their scandalous proceeding upon taking up one of +the great white marble blocks which form the floor or stylobate of the +temple. They wanted to see what was underneath, and Dodwell, who was +there, saw the foundation--a substructure of Peiræic sandstone. But when +they had finished their inspection they actually left the block they had +removed, without putting it back into its place. So this beautiful +pavement, made merely of closely-fitting blocks, without any artificial +or foreign joinings, was ripped up, and the work of its destruction +began. I am happy to add that, tho a considerable rent was then made, +most of it is still intact, and the traveler of to-day may still walk on +the very stones which bore the tread of every great Athenian. + +The question has often been discust, whether Lord Elgin was justified in +carrying off this pediment, the metopes, and the friezes, from their +place; and the Greeks of to-day hope confidently that the day will come +when England will restore these treasures to their place. This is, of +course, absurd, and it may fairly be argued that people who would +bombard their antiquities in a revolution are not fit custodians of them +in the intervals of domestic quiet. This was my reply to an old Greek +gentleman who assailed the memory of Lord Elgin with reproaches. + +I confess I approved of this removal until I came home from Greece, and +went again to see the spoil in its place in our great museum. Tho there +treated with every care--tho shown to the best advantage, and explained +by excellent models of the whole building, and clear descriptions of +their place on it--notwithstanding all this, it was plain that these +wonderful fragments lost so terribly by being separated from their +place--they looked so unmeaning in an English room, away from their +temple, their country and their lovely atmosphere--that one earnestly +wished they had never been taken from their place, even at the risk of +being made a target by the Greeks or the Turks. I am convinced, too, +that the few who would have seen them, as intelligent travelers, on +their famous rock, would have gained in quality the advantage now +diffused among many, but weakened and almost destroyed by the wrench in +associations, when the ornament is severed from its surface, and the +decoration of a temple exhibited apart from the temple itself. We may +admit, then, that it had been better if Lord Elgin had never taken away +these marbles. Nevertheless, it would be absurd to send them back. But I +do think that the museum on the Acropolis should be provided with a +better set of casts of the figures than those which are now to be seen +there. They look very wretched, and carelessly prepared.... + + + + +THE THEATER OF DIONYSUS[48] + +BY J. P. MAHAFFY + + +Some ten or twelve years ago, a very extensive and splendidly successful +excavation was made when a party of German archeologists laid bare the +Theater of Dionysus--the great theater in which Æschylus, Sophocles, +and Euripides brought out their immortal plays before an immortal +audience. There is nothing more delightful than to descend from the +Acropolis, and rest awhile in the comfortable marble arm-chairs with +which the front row of the circuit is occupied. They are of the pattern +usual in the sitting portrait statues of the Greeks--very deep, and with +a curved back, which exceeds both in comfort and in grace any chairs +made by modern workmen.[49] Each chair has the name of a priest +inscribed on it, showing how the theater among the Greeks corresponded +to our cathedral, and this front row to the stalls of canons and +prebendaries. + +But unfortunately all this sacerdotal prominence is probably the work of +the later restorers of the theater. For after having been first +beautified and adorned with statues by Lycurgus (in Demosthenes' time), +it was again restored and embellished by Herodes Atticus, or about his +time, so that the theater, as we now have it, can only be called the +building of the second or third century after Christ. The front wall of +the stage, which is raised some feet above the level of the empty pit, +is adorned with a row of very elegant sculptures, among which one--a +shaggy old man, in a stooping posture, represented as coming out from +within, and holding up the stone above him--is particularly striking. +Some Greek is said to have knocked off, by way of amusement, the heads +of most of these figures since they were discovered, but this I do not +know upon any better authority than ordinary report. The pit or center +of the theater is empty, and was never in Greek days occupied by seats, +but a wooden structure was set up adjoining the stage, and on this the +chorus performed their dances, and sang their odes. But now there is a +circuit of upright slabs of stone close to the front seat, which can +hardly have been an arrangement of the old Greek theater. They are +generally supposed to have been added when the building was used for +contests of gladiators or of wild beasts; but the partition, being not +more than three feet high, would be no protection whatever from an +evil-disposed wild beast. + +All these later additions and details are, I fear, calculated to detract +from the reader's interest in this theater, which I should indeed +regret--for nothing can be more certain than that this is the veritable +stone theater which was built when the wooden one broke down, at the +great competition of Æschylus and Pratinas; and tho front seats may have +been added, and slight modifications introduced, the general structure +can never have required alteration. + +It is indeed very large, tho I think exaggerated statements have been +made about its size. I have heard it said that the enormous number of +30,000 people could fit into it--a statement I think incredible; for it +did not to me seem larger than, or as large as, other theaters I have +seen, at Syracuse, at Megalopolis, or even at Argos. But, no doubt, all +such open-air enclosures and sittings look far smaller than covered +rooms of the same size. This is certain, that any one speaking on the +stage, as it now is, can be easily and distinctly heard by people +sitting on the highest row of seats now visible, which can not, I fancy, +have been far from the original top of the house. And we may doubt that +any such thing were possible when 30,000 people, or a crowd approaching +that number, were seated. We hear, however, that the old actors had +recourse to various artificial means of increasing the range of their +voices. Yet there is hardly a place in Athens which forces back the mind +so strongly to the old days, when all the crowd came jostling in, and +settled down in their seats, to hear the great novelties of the year +from Sophocles or Euripides. No doubt there were cliques and cabals and +claqueurs, noisy admirers and cold critics, the supporters of the old, +and the lovers of the new, devotees and sceptics, wondering foreigners +and self-complacent citizens. They little thought how we should come, +not only to sit in the seats they occupied, but to reverse the judgments +which they pronounced, and correct with sober temper the errors of +prejudice, of passion, and of pride. + + + + +WHERE PAUL PREACHED TO THE ATHENIANS[50] + +BY J. P. MAHAFFY + + +It was on this very Areopagus, where we are now standing, that these +philosophers of fashion came into contact with the thorough earnestness, +the profound convictions, the red-hot zeal of the Apostle Paul. The +memory of that great scene still lingers about the place, and every +guide will show you the exact place where the Apostle stood, and in what +direction he addrest his audience. There are, I believe, even some +respectable commentators who transfer their own estimate of St. Paul's +importance to the Athenian public, and hold that it was before the court +of the Areopagus that he was asked to expound his views. This is more +than doubtful. The "blasés" philosophers, who probably yawned over their +own lectures, hearing of a new lay preacher, eager to teach and +apparently convinced of the truth of what he said, thought the novelty +too delicious to be neglected, and brought him forthwith out of the +chatter and bustle of the crowd, probably past the very orchestra where +Anaxagoras' books had been proselytizing before him, and where the stiff +old heroes of Athenian history stood, a monument of the escape from +political slavery. + +It is even possible that the curious knot of idlers did not bring him +higher than this platform, which might well be called part of Mars' +Hill. But if they chose to bring him to the top, there was no hindrance, +for the venerable court held its sittings in the open air, on stone +seats; and when not thus occupied, the top of the rock may well have +been a convenient place of retirement for people who did not want to be +disturbed by new acquaintances, and the constant eddies of new gossip in +the market-place. + +It is, however, of far less import to know on what spot of the Areopagus +Paul stood, than to understand clearly what he said, and how he sought +to conciliate as well as to refute the philosophers who, no doubt, +looked down upon him as an intellectual inferior. He starts naturally +enough from the extraordinary crowd of votive statues and offerings, for +which Athens was remarkable above all other cities of Greece. He says, +with a slight touch of irony, that he finds them very religious indeed, +so religious that he even found an altar to a God professedly unknown, +or perhaps unknowable.... + +Thus ended, to all appearance ignominiously, the first heralding of the +faith which was to supplant all the temples and altars and statues with +which Athens had earned renown as a beautiful city, which was to +overthrow the schools of the sneering philosophers, and even to remodel +all the society and the policy of the world. And yet, in spite of this +great and decisive triumph of Christianity, there was something +curiously prophetic in the contemptuous rejection of its apostle at +Athens. Was it not the first expression of the feeling which still +possesses the visitor who wanders through its ruins, and which still +dominates the educated world--the feeling that while other cities owe +to the triumph of Christianity all their beauty and their interest, +Athens has to this day resisted this influence; and that while the +Christian monuments of Athens would elsewhere excite no small attention, +here they are passed by as of no import compared with its heathen +splendor? + +There are very old and very beautiful little churches in Athens, +"delicious little Byzantine churches," as Renan calls them. They are +very peculiar, and unlike what one generally sees in Europe. They strike +the observer with their quaintness and smallness, and he fancies he here +sees the tiny model of that unique and splendid building, the cathedral +of St. Mark at Venice. But yet it is surprizing how little we notice +them at Athens. I was even told--I sincerely hope it was false--that +public opinion at Athens was gravitating toward the total removal of +one, and that the most perfect, of these churches, which stands in the +middle of a main street, and so breaks the regularity of the modern +boulevard! + + + + +FROM ATHENS TO DELPHI ON HORSEBACK[51] + +BY BAYARD TAYLOR + + +We left Athens on the 13th of April, for a journey to Parnassus and the +northern frontier of Greece. It was a teeming, dazzling day, with light +scarfs of cloud-crape in the sky, and a delicious breeze from the west +blowing through the pass of Daphne. The Gulf of Salamis was pure +ultramarine, covered with a velvety bloom, while the island and Mount +Kerata swam in transparent pink and violet tints. Crossing the sacred +plain of Eleusis, our road entered the mountains--lower offshoots of +Cithæron, which divide the plain from that of Boeotia.... + +We climbed the main ridge of the mountains; and, in less than an hour, +reached the highest point--whence the great Boeotian plain suddenly +opened upon our view. In the distance gleamed Lake Capaïs, and the hills +beyond; in the west, the snowy top of Parnassus, lifted clear and bright +above the morning vapors; and, at last, as we turned a shoulder of the +mountain in descending, the streaky top of Helicon appeared on the left, +completing the classic features of the landscape.... + +As we entered the plain, taking a rough path toward Platæa, the fields +were dotted, far and near, with the white Easter shirts of the people +working among the vines. Another hour, and our horses' hoofs were upon +the sacred soil of Platæa. The walls of the city are still to be traced +for nearly their entire extent. They are precisely similar in +construction to those of OEnoë--like which, also, they were +strengthened by square towers. There are the substructions of various +edifices--some of which may have been temples--and on the side next the +modern village lie four large sarcophagi, now used as vats for treading +out the grapes in vintage-time. A more harmless blood than once curdled +on the stones of Platæa now stains the empty sepulchers of the heroes. +We rode over the plain, fixt the features of the scene in our memories, +and then kept on toward the field of Leuktra, where the brutal power of +Sparta received its first check. The two fields are so near, that a part +of the fighting may have been done upon the same ground.... + +I then turned my horse's head toward Thebes, which we reached in two +hours. It was a pleasant scene, tho so different from that of two +thousand years ago. The town is built partly on the hill of the +Cadmeion, and partly on the plain below. An aqueduct, on mossy arches, +supplies it with water, and keeps its gardens green. The plain to the +north is itself one broad garden to the foot of the hill of the Sphinx, +beyond which is the blue gleam of a lake, then a chain of barren hills, +and over all the snowy cone of Mount Delphi, in Euboea. The only +remains of the ancient city are stones; for the massive square tower, +now used as a prison, can not be ascribed to an earlier date than the +reign of the Latin princes.... + +The next morning we rode down from the Cadmeion, and took the highway to +Livadia, leading straight across the Boeotian plain. It is one of the +finest alluvial bottoms in the world, a deep, dark, vegetable +mold--which would produce almost without limit, were it properly +cultivated. Before us, blue and dark under a weight of clouds, lay +Parnassus; and far across the immense plain the blue peaks of Mount +Oeta. In three hours we reached the foot of Helicon, and looked up at +the streaks of snow which melt into the Fountain of the Muses.... + +As we left Arachova, proceeding toward Delphi, the deep gorge opened, +disclosing a blue glimpse of the Gulf of Corinth and the Achaian +mountains. Tremendous cliffs of blue-gray limestone towered upon our +right, high over the slope of Delphi, which ere long appeared before us. +Our approach to the sacred spot was marked by tombs cut in the rock. A +sharp angle of the mountain was passed; and then, all at once, the +enormous walls, buttressing the upper region of Parnassus, stood +sublimely against the sky, cleft right through the middle by a terrible +split, dividing the twin peaks which gave a name to the place. At the +bottom of this chasm issue forth the waters of Castaly, and fill a stone +trough by the road-side. On a long, sloping mountain-terrace, facing the +east, stood once the town and temples of Delphi, and now the modern +village of Kastri. + +As you may imagine, our first walk was to the shrine of the Delphic +oracle, at the bottom of the cleft between the two peaks. The hewn face +of the rock, with a niche, supposed to be that where the Pythia sat upon +her tripod, and a secret passage under the floor of the sanctuary, are +all that remain. The Castalian fountain still gushes out at the bottom, +into a large square enclosure, called the Pythia's Bath, and now choked +up with mud, weeds, and stones. Among those weeds, I discerned one of +familiar aspect, plucked and tasted it. Watercress, of remarkable size +and flavor! We thought no more of Apollo and his shrine, but delving +wrist-deep into Castalian mud, gathered huge handfuls of the profane +herb, which we washed in the sacred front, and sent to François for a +salad.... + +As the sun sank, I sat on the marble blocks and sketched the immortal +landscape. High above me, on the left, soared the enormous twin peaks of +pale-blue rock, lying half in the shadow of the mountain slope upheaved +beneath, half bathed in the deep yellow luster of sunset. Before me +rolled wave after wave of the Parnassian chain, divided by deep lateral +valleys, while Helicon, in the distance, gloomed like a thunder-storm +under the weight of gathered clouds. Across this wild, vast view, the +breaking clouds threw broad belts of cold blue shadow, alternating with +zones of angry orange light, in which the mountains seemed to be heated +to a transparent glow. The furious wind hissed and howled over the piles +of ruin, and a few returning shepherds were the only persons to be seen. +And this spot, for a thousand years, was the shrine where spake the +awful oracle of Greece. + + + + +CORINTH[52] + +BY J. P. MAHAFFY + + +The gulf of Corinth is a very beautiful and narrow fiord, with chains of +mountains on either side, through the gaps of which you can see far into +the Morea on one side, and into Northern Greece on the other. But the +bays or harbors on either coast are few, and so there was no city able +to wrest the commerce of these waters from old Corinth, which held the +keys by land of the whole Peloponnesus, and commanded the passage from +sea to sea. It is, indeed, wonderful how Corinth did not acquire and +maintain the first position in Greece. + +But as soon as the greater powers of Greece decayed and fell away, we +find Corinth immediately taking the highest position in wealth, and even +in importance. The capture of Corinth, in 146 B.C., marks the +Roman conquest of all Greece, and the art-treasures carried to Rome seem +to have been as great and various as those which even Athens could have +produced. No sooner had Julius Cæsar restored and rebuilt the ruined +city, than it sprang at once again into importance, and among the +societies addrest in the Epistles of St. Paul, none seems to have lived +in greater wealth or luxury. It was, in fact, well-nigh impossible that +Corinth should die. Nature had marked out her site as one of the great +thoroughfares of the old world; and it was not till after centuries of +blighting misrule by the wretched Turks that she sank into the hopeless +decay from which not even another Julius Cæsar could rescue her. + +The traveler who expects to find any sufficient traces of the city of +Periander and of Timoleon, and, I may say, of St. Paul, will be +grievously disappointed. In the middle of the wretched straggling modern +village there stand up seven enormous rough stone pillars of the Doric +Order, evidently of the oldest and heaviest type; and these are the only +visible relic of the ancient city, looking altogether out of place, and +almost as if they had come there by mistake. These pillars, tho +insufficient to admit of our reconstructing the temple, are in +themselves profoundly interesting. Their shaft up to the capital is of +one block, about twenty-one feet high and six feet in diameter. It is to +be observed, that over these gigantic monoliths the architrave, in which +other Greek temples show the largest blocks, is not in one piece, but +two, and made of beams laid together longitudinally. The length of the +shafts (up to the neck of the capital) measures about four times their +diameter, on the photograph which I possess; I do not suppose that any +other Doric pillar known to us is so stout and short. + +Straight over the site of the town is the great rock known as the +Acro-Corinthus. A winding path leads up on the southwest side to the +Turkish drawbridge and gate, which are now deserted and open; nor is +there a single guard or soldier to watch a spot once the coveted prize +of contending empires. In the days of the Achæan League it was called +one of the fetters of Greece, and indeed it requires no military +experience to see the extraordinary importance of the place. + +Next to the view from the heights of Parnassus, I suppose the view from +this citadel is held the finest in Greece. I speak here of the large and +diverse views to be obtained from mountain heights. To me, personally, +such a view as that from the promontory of Sunium, or, above all, from +the harbor of Nauplia, exceeds in beauty and interest any bird's-eye +prospect. Any one who looks at the map of Greece will see how the +Acro-Corinthus commands coasts, islands, and bays. The day was too hazy +when we stood there to let us measure the real limits of the view, and I +can not say how near to Mount Olympus the eye may reach in a suitable +atmosphere. But a host of islands, the southern coasts of Attica and +Boeotia, the Acropolis of Athens, Salamis and Ægina, Helicon and +Parnassus, and endless Ætolian peaks were visible in one direction; +while, as we turned round, all the waving reaches of Arcadia and +Argolis, down to the approaches toward Mantinea and Karytena, lay +stretched out before us. The plain of Argos, and the sea at that side, +are hidden by the mountains. But without going into detail, this much +may be said, that if a man wants to realize the features of these +coasts, which he has long studied on maps, half an hour's walk about the +top of this rock will give him a geographical insight which no years of +study could attain. + + + + +OLYMPIA[53] + +BY PHILIP S. MARDEN + + +Olympia, like Delphi, is a place of memories chiefly. The visible +remains are numerous, but so flat that some little technical knowledge +is needed to restore them in mind. There is no village at the modern +Olympia at all--nothing but five or six little inns and a railway +station--so that Delphi really has the advantage of Olympia in this +regard. As a site connected with ancient Greek history and Greek +religion, the two places are as similar in nature as they are in general +ruin. The field in which the ancient structures stand lies just across +the tiny tributary river Cladeus, spanned by a footbridge. + +Even from the opposite bank, the ruins present a most interesting +picture, with its attractiveness greatly enhanced by the neighboring +pines, which scatter themselves through the precinct itself and cover +densely the little conical hill of Kronos close by, while the grasses of +the plain grow luxuriantly among the fallen stones of the former temples +and apartments of the athletes. The ruins are so numerous and so +prostrate that the non-technical visitor is seriously embarrassed to +describe them, as is the case with every site of the kind. + +All the ruins, practically, have been identified and explained, and +naturally they all have to do with the housing or with the contests of +the visiting athletes of ancient times, or with the worship of tutelary +divinities. Almost the first extensive ruin that we found on passing the +encircling precinct wall was the Prytaneum--a sort of ancient training +table at which victorious contestants were maintained gratis--while +beyond lay other equally extensive remnants of exercising places, such +as the Palæstra for the wrestlers. But all these were dominated, +evidently, by the two great temples, an ancient one of comparatively +small size sacred to Hera, and a mammoth edifice dedicated to Zeus, +which still gives evidence of its enormous extent, while the fallen +column-drums reveal some idea of the other proportions. It was in its +day the chief glory of the enclosure, and the statue of the god was even +reckoned among the seven wonders of the world. Unfortunately this +statue, like that of Athena at Athens, has been irretrievably lost. But +there is enough of the great shrine standing in the midst of the ruins +to inspire one with an idea of its greatness; and, in the museum above, +the heroic figures from its two pediments have been restored and set up +in such wise as to reproduce the external adornment of the temple with +remarkable success. + +Gathered around this central building, the remainder of the ancient +structures having to do with the peculiar uses of the spot present a +bewildering array of broken stones and marbles. An obtrusive remnant of +a Byzantine church is the one discordant feature. Aside from this the +precinct recalls only the distant time when the regular games called all +Greece to Olympia, while the "peace of God" prevailed throughout the +kingdom. Just at the foot of Kronos a long terrace and flight of steps +mark the position of a row of old treasuries, as at Delphi, while along +the eastern side of the precinct are to be seen the remains of a portico +once famous for its echoes, where sat the judges who distributed the +prizes. There is also a most graceful arch remaining to mark the +entrance to the ancient stadium, of which nothing else now remains. + +Of the later structures on the site, the "house of Nero" is the most +interesting and extensive. The Olympic games were still celebrated, even +after the Roman domination, and Nero himself entered the lists in his +own reign. He caused a palace to be erected for him on that +occasion--and of course he won a victory, for any other outcome would +have been most impolite, not to say dangerous. Nero was more fortunately +lodged than were the other ancient contestants, it appears, for there +were no hostelries in old Olympia in which the visiting multitudes could +be housed, and the athletes and spectators who came from all over the +land were accustomed to bring their own tents and pitch them roundabout, +many of them on the farther side of the Alpheios. + + + + +THE TEMPLE OF ZEUS AT OLYMPIA AS IT WAS[54] + +BY PAUSANIAS + + +Many various wonders may one see, or hear of, in Greece; but the +Eleusinian mysteries and Olympian games seem to exhibit more than +anything else the Divine purpose. And the sacred grove of Zeus they have +from old time called Altis, slightly changing the Greek word for grove; +it is, indeed, called Altis also by Pindar, in the ode he composed for a +victor at Olympia. And the temple and statue of Zeus were built out of +the spoils of Pisa, which the people of Elis razed to the ground, after +quelling the revolt of Pisa, and some of the neighboring towns that +revolted with Pisa. And that the statue of Zeus was the work of Phidias +is shown by the inscription written at the base of it: "Phidias the +Athenian, the son of Charmides, made me." + +The temple is a Doric building, and outside it is a colonnade. And the +temple is built of stone of the district. Its height up to the gable is +sixty-eight feet, and its length 2,300 feet. And its architect was +Libon, a native of Ellis. + +And the tiles on the roof are not of baked earth; but Pentelican marble, +to imitate tiles. They say such roofs are the invention of a man of +Naxos called Byzes, who made statues at Naxos with the inscription: +"Euergus of Naxos made me, the son of Byzes, and descended from Leto, +the first who made tiles of stone." + +This Byzes was a contemporary of Alyattes the Lydian, and Astyages (the +son of Cyaxares), the king of Persia. And there is a golden vase at each +end of the roof, and a golden Victory in the middle of the gable. And +underneath the Victory is a golden shield hung up as a votive offering, +with the Gorgon Medusa worked on it. The inscription on the shield +states who hung it up, and the reason why they did so. For this is what +it says: "This temple's golden shield is a votive offering from the +Lacedæmonians at Tanagra and their allies, a gift from the Argives, the +Athenians, and the Ionians, a tithe offering for success in war." + +The battle I mentioned in my account of Attica, when I described the +tombs at Athens. And in the same temple at Olympia, above the zone that +runs round the pillars on the outside, are twenty-one golden shields, +the offering of Mummius the Roman general, after he had beaten the +Achæans and taken Corinth, and expelled the Dorians from Corinth. And on +the gables in bas-relief is the chariot race between Pelops and +OEnomaus; and both chariots in motion. And in the middle of the gable +is a statue of Zeus; and on the right hand of Zeus is OEnomaus with a +helmet on his head; and beside him his wife Sterope, one of the +daughters of Atlas. And Myrtilus, who was the charioteer of OEnomaus, +is seated behind the four horses. And next to him are two men whose +names are not recorded, but they are doubtless OEnomaus's grooms, +whose duty was to take care of the horses.... + +The carvings on the gables in front are by Pæonius of Mende in Thracia; +those behind by Alcamenes, a contemporary of Phidias and second only to +him as statuary. And on the gables is a representation of the fight +between the Lapithæ and the Centaurs at the marriage of Pirithous. +Pirithous is in the center, and on one side of him is Eurytion trying to +carry off Pirithous's wife, and Cæneus coming to the rescue, and on the +other side Theseus laying about among the Centaurs with his battle-ax; +and one Centaur is carrying off a maiden, another a blooming boy. +Alcamenes has engraved this story, I imagine, because he learned from +the lines of Homer that Pirithous was the son of Zeus, and knew that +Theseus was fourth in descent from Pelops. There are also in bas-relief +at Olympia most of the Labors of Hercules. Above the doors of the temple +is the hunting of the Erymanthian boar, and Hercules taking the mares +of Diomede the Thracian, and robbing Geryon of his oxen in the island of +Erytheia, and supporting the load of Atlas, and clearing the land of +Elis of its dung.... + +The image of the god is in gold and ivory, seated on a throne. And a +crown is on his head imitating the foliage of the olive tree. In his +right hand he holds a Victory in ivory and gold, with a tiara and crown +on his head; and in his left hand a scepter adorned with all manner of +precious stones, and the bird seated on the scepter is an eagle. The +robes and sandals of the god are also of gold; and on his robes are +imitations of flowers, especially of lilies. And the throne is richly +adorned with gold and precious stones, and with ebony and ivory. And +there are imitations of animals painted on it, and models worked on it. +There are four Victories like dancers, one at each foot of the throne, +and two also at the instep of each foot; and at each of the front feet +are Theban boys carried off by Sphinxes, and below the Sphinxes, Apollo +and Artemis shooting down the children of Niobe. And between the feet of +the throne are four divisions formed by straight lines drawn from each +of the four feet. + +In the division nearest the entrance there are seven models--the eighth +has vanished no one knows where or how. And they are imitations of +ancient contests, for in the days of Phidias the contests for boys were +not yet established. And the figure with its head muffled up in a scarf +is, they say, Pantarcas, who was a native of Elis and the darling of +Phidias. This Pantarces won the wrestling-prize for boys in the 86th +Olympiad. And in the remaining divisions is the band of Hercules +fighting against the Amazons. The number on each side is twenty-nine, +and Theseus is on the side of Hercules. And the throne is supported not +only by the four feet, but also by four pillars between the feet. But +one can not get under the throne, as one can at Amyclæ, and pass inside; +for at Olympia there are panels like walls that keep one off. + +At the top of the throne, Phidias has represented above the head of Zeus +the three Graces and three Seasons. For these too, as we learn from the +poets, were daughters of Zeus. Homer in the Iliad has represented the +Seasons as having the care of Heaven, as a kind of guards of a royal +palace. And the base under the feet of Zeus (what is called in Attic +"thranion") has golden lions engraved on it, and the battle between +Theseus and the Amazons--the first famous exploit of the Athenians +beyond their own borders. And on the platform that supports the throne +there are various ornaments round Zeus, and gilt carving--the Sun seated +in his chariot, and Zeus and Hera; and near is Grace. Hermes is close to +her, and Vesta close to Hermes. And next to Vesta is Eros receiving +Aphrodite, who is just rising from the sea and being crowned by +Persuasion. And Apollo and Artemis, Athene and Hercules, are standing +by, and at the end of the platform Amphitrite and Poseidon, and Selene +apparently urging on her horse. And some say it is a mule and not a +horse that the goddess is riding upon; and there is a silly tale about +this mule. + +I know that the size of the Olympian Zeus both in height and breadth has +been stated; but I can not bestow praise on the measurers, for their +recorded measurement comes far short of what any one would infer from +looking at the statue. They make the god also to have testified to the +art of Phidias. For they say that when the statue was finished, Phidias +prayed him to signify if the work was to his mind; and immediately Zeus, +struck with lightning that part of the pavement where in our day is a +brazen urn with a lid. + +And all the pavement in front of the statue is not of white but of black +stone. And a border of Parian marble runs round this black stone, as a +preservative against spilled oil. For oil is good for the statue at +Olympia, as it prevents the ivory being harmed by the dampness of the +grove. But in the Acropolis at Athens, in regard to the statue of Athene +called the Maiden, it is not oil but water that is advantageously +employed to the ivory; for as the citadel is dry by reason of its great +height, the statue being made of ivory needs to be sprinkled with water +freely. And when I was at Epidaurus, and inquired why they use neither +water nor oil to the statue of Æsculapius, the sacristans of the temple +informed me that the statue of the god and its throne are over a well. + + + + +THERMOPYLÆ[55] + +BY RUFUS B. RICHARDSON + + +We took Thermopylæ at our leisure, passing out from Lamia over the +Spercheios on the bridge of Alamana, at which Diakos, famous in ballad, +resisted with a small band a Turkish army, until he was at last captured +and taken to Lamia to be impaled.... + +It may be taken as a well-known fact that the Spercheios has since the +time of Herodotus made so large an alluvial deposit around its mouth +that, if he himself should return to earth, he would hardly recognize +the spot which he has described so minutely. The western horn, which in +his time came down so near to the gulf as to leave space for a single +carriage-road only, is now separated from it by more than a mile of +plain. Each visit to Thermopylæ has, however, deepened my conviction +that Herodotus exaggerated the impregnability of this pass. The mountain +spur which formed it did not rise so abruptly from the sea as to form an +impassable barrier to the advance of a determined antagonist. It is of +course difficult ground to operate on, but certainly not impossible. + +The other narrow place, nearly two miles to the east of this, is still +more open, a fact that is to be emphasized, because many topographers, +including Colonel Leake, hold that the battle actually took place +there, as the great battle between the Romans and Antioches certainly +did. This eastern pass is, to be sure, no place where "a thousand may +well be stopt by three," and there can not have taken place any great +transformation here since classical times, inasmuch as this region is +practically out of reach of the Spercheios, and the deposit from the hot +sulfur streams, which has so broadened the theater-shaped area enclosed +by the two horns, can hardly have contributed to changing the shape of +the eastern horn itself. + +Artificial fortification was always needed here; but it is very +uncertain whether any of the stones that still remain can be claimed as +parts of such fortification. It is a fine position for an inferior force +to choose for defense against a superior one; but while it can not be +declared with absolute certainty that this is not the place where the +fighting took place, yet the western pass fits better the description of +Herodotus. Besides this, if the western pass had been abandoned to the +Persians at the outset the fact would have been worth mentioning. + +As to the heroic deed itself, the view that Leonidas threw away his own +life and that of the four thousand, that it was magnificent but not +strategy, not war, does not take into account the fact that Sparta had +for nearly half a century been looked to as the military leader of +Greece. It was audacious in the Athenians to fight the battle of +Marathon without them, and they did so only because the Spartans did not +come at their call. Sparta had not come to Thermopylæ in force, it is +true; but her king was there with three hundred of her best men. Only +by staying and fighting could he show that Sparta held by right the +place she had won. It had to be done. "So the glory of Sparta was not +blotted out." + +One may have read, and read often, the description of the battle in the +school-room, but he reads it with different eyes on the spot, when he +can look up at the hillock crowned with a ruined cavalry barrack just +inside the western pass and say to himself: "Here on this hill they +fought their last fight and fell to the last man. Here once stood the +monuments to Leonidas, to the three hundred, and to the four thousand." + +The very monuments have crumbled to dust, but the great deed lives on. +We rode back to Lamia under the spell of it. It was as if we had been in +church and been held by a great preacher who knows how to touch the +deepest chords of the heart. Euboea was already dark blue, while the +sky above it was shaded from pink to purple. Tymphrestos in the west was +bathed in the light of the sun that had gone down behind it. The whole +surrounding was most stirring, and there was ever sounding in our hearts +that deep bass note: "What they did here." + + + + +SALONICA[56] + +BY CHARLES DUDLEY WARNER + + +The city of Salonica lies on a fine bay, and presents an attractive +appearance from the harbor, rising up the hill in the form of an +amphitheater. On all sides, except the sea, ancient walls surround it, +fortified at the angles by large, round towers and crowned in the +center, on the hill, by a respectable citadel. I suppose that portions +of these walls are of Hellenic, and perhaps, Pelasgic date, but the most +are probably of the time of the Latin crusaders' occupation, patched and +repaired by Saracens and Turks. We had come to Thessalonica on St. +Paul's account, not expecting to see much that would excite us, and we +were not disappointed. When we went ashore we found ourselves in a city +of perhaps sixty thousand inhabitants, commonplace in aspect, altho its +bazaars are well filled with European goods, and a fair display of +Oriental stuffs and antiquities, and animated by considerable briskness +of trade. I presume there are more Jews here than there were in Paul's +time, but Turks and Greeks, in nearly equal numbers, form the bulk of +the population. + +In modern Salonica there is not much respect for pagan antiquities, and +one sees only the usual fragments of columns and sculptures worked into +walls or incorporated in Christian churches. But those curious in early +Byzantine architecture will find more to interest them here than in any +place in the world except Constantinople. We spent the day wandering +about the city, under the guidance of a young Jew, who was without +either prejudices or information. On our way to the Mosque of St. +Sophia, we passed through the quarter of the Jews, which is much cleaner +than is usual with them. These are the descendants of Spanish Jews, who +were expelled by Isabella, and they still retain, in a corrupt form, the +language of Spain. In the doors and windows were many pretty Jewesses; +banishment and vicissitude appear to agree with this elastic race, for +in all the countries of Europe Jewish women develop more beauty in form +and feature than in Palestine. We saw here and in other parts of the +city a novel head-dress, which may commend itself to America in the +revolutions of fashion. A great mass of hair, real or assumed, was +gathered into a long, slender, green bag, which hung down the back and +was terminated by a heavy fringe of silver. Otherwise, the dress of the +Jewish women does not differ much from that of the men; the latter wear +a fez or turban, and a tunic which reaches to the ankles, and is bound +about the waist by a gay sash or shawl. + +The Mosque of St. Sophia, once a church, and copied in its proportions +and style from its namesake in Constantinople, is retired, in a +delightful court, shaded by gigantic trees and cheered by a fountain. So +peaceful a spot we had not seen in many a day; birds sang in the trees +without disturbing the calm of the meditative pilgrim. In the portico +and also in the interior are noble columns of marble and verd-antique, +and in the dome is a wonderfully quaint mosaic of the Transfiguration. +We were shown also a magnificent pulpit of the latter beautiful stone +cut from a solid block, in which it is said St. Paul preached. As the +Apostle, according to his custom, reasoned with the people out of the +Scriptures in a synagogue, and this church was not built for centuries +after his visit, the statement needs confirmation; but pious ingenuity +suggests that the pulpit stood in a subterranean church underneath this. +I should like to believe that Paul sanctified this very spot with his +presence; but there is little in its quiet seclusion to remind one of +him who had the reputation when he was in Thessalonica of one of those +who turn the world upside down. + + + + +FROM THE PIERIAN PLAIN TO MARATHON[57] + +BY CHARLES DUDLEY WARNER + + +At early light of a cloudless morning we were going easily down the Gulf +of Thermæ or Salonica, having upon our right the Pierian plain; and I +tried to distinguish the two mounds which mark the place of the great +battle near Pydna, one hundred and sixty-eight years before Christ, +between Æmilius Paulus and King Perseus, which gave Macedonia to the +Roman Empire. Beyond, almost ten thousand feet in the air, towered +Olympus, upon whose "broad" summit Homer displays the ethereal palaces +and inaccessible abode of the Grecian gods. Shaggy forests still clothe +its sides, but snow now, and for the greater part of the year, covers +the wide surface of the height, which is a sterile, light-colored rock. +The gods did not want snow to cool the nectar at their banquets. + +This is the very center of the mythologic world; there between Olympus +and Ossa is the Vale of Tempe, where the Peneus, breaking through a +narrow gorge fringed with the sacred laurel, reaches the gulf, south of +ancient Heracleum. Into this charming but secluded retreat the gods and +goddesses, weary of the icy air, or the Pumblechookian deportment of the +court of Olympian Jove, descended to pass the sunny hours with the +youths and maidens of mortal mold; through this defile marks of +chariot-wheels still attest the passage of armies which flowed either +way, in invasion or retreat; and here Pompey, after a ride of forty +miles from the fatal field of Pharsalia, quenched his thirst. + +At six o'clock the Cape of Posilio was on our left, we were sinking +Olympus in the white haze of morning, Ossa, in its huge silver bulk, was +near us, and Pelion stretched its long white back below. The sharp cone +of Ossa might well ride upon the extended back of Pelion, and it seems a +pity that the Titans did not succeed in their attempt. We were leaving, +and looking our last on the Thracian coasts, once rimmed from Mt. Athos +to the Bosphorus with a wreath of prosperous cities. What must once +have been the splendor of the Ægean Sea and its islands, when every +island was the seat of a vigorous state, and every harbor the site of a +commercial town which sent forth adventurous galleys upon any errand of +trade or conquest!... + +We ascended Mt. Pentelicus. Hymettus and Pentelicus are about the same +height--thirty-five hundred feet--but the latter, ten miles to the +northeast of Athens, commands every foot of the Attic territory; if one +should sit on its summit and read a history of the little state, he +would need no map. + +Up to the highest quarries the road is steep, and strewn with broken +marble, and after that there is an hour's scramble through bushes and +over a rocky path. From these quarries was hewn the marble for the +Temple of Theseus, the Parthenon, the Propylæ, the theaters, and other +public buildings, to which age has now given a soft and creamy tone; the +Pentelic marble must have been too brilliant for the eye, and its +dazzling luster was, no doubt, softened by the judicious use of color. +Fragments which we broke off had the sparkle and crystalline grain of +loaf-sugar, and if they were placed upon the table one would +unhesitatingly take them to sweeten his tea. The whole mountain-side is +overgrown with laurel, and we found wild flowers all the way to the +summit.... + +We looked almost directly down upon Marathon. There is the bay and the +curving sandy shore where the Persian galleys landed; here upon a spur, +jutting out from the hill, the Athenians formed before they encountered +the host in the plain, and there--alas! it was hidden by a hill--is the +mound where the one hundred and ninety-two Athenian dead are buried. It +is only a small field, perhaps six miles along the shore and a mile and +a half deep, and there is a considerable marsh on the north and a small +one at the south end. The victory at so little cost, of ten thousand +over a hundred thousand, is partially explained by the nature of the +ground; the Persians had not room enough to maneuver, and must have been +thrown into confusion on the skirts of the northern swamp, and if over +six thousand of them were slain, they must have been killed on the shore +in the panic of their embarkation. But still the shore is broad, level, +and firm, and the Greeks must have been convinced that the gods +themselves terrified the hearts of the barbarians, and enabled them to +discomfit a host which had chosen this plain as the most feasible in all +Attica for the action of cavalry. + + + + +AN EXCURSION TO SPARTA AND MAINA[58] + +BY BAYARD TAYLOR + + +As we approached Sparta, the road descended to the banks of the Eurotas. +Traces of the ancient walls which restrained the river still remain in +places, but, in his shifting course, he has swept the most of them away, +and spread his gravelly deposits freely over the bottoms inclosed +between the spurs of the hills. Toward evening we saw, at a distance, +the white houses of modern Sparta, and presently some indications of the +ancient city. At first, the remains of terraces and ramparts, then the +unmistakable Hellenic walls, and, as the superb plain of the Eurotas +burst upon us, stretching, in garden-like beauty, to the foot of the +abrupt hills, over which towered the sun-touched snows of Taygetus, we +saw, close on our right, almost the only relic of the lost ages--the +theater. Riding across the field of wheat, which extended all over the +scene of the Spartan gymnastic exhibitions, we stood on the proscenium +and contemplated these silent ruins, and the broad, beautiful landscape. +It is one of the finest views in Greece--not so crowded with striking +points, not so splendid in associations as that of Athens, but larger, +grander, richer in coloring. Besides the theater, the only remains are +some masses of Roman brickwork, and the massive substructions of a small +temple which the natives call the tomb of Leonidas.... + +We spent the night in a comfortable house, which actually boasted of a +floor, glass windows, and muslin curtains. On returning to the theater +in the morning, we turned aside into a plowed field to inspect a +sarcophagus which had just been discovered. It still lay in the pit +where it was found, and was entire, with the exception of the lid. It +was ten feet long by four broad, and was remarkable in having a division +at one end, forming a smaller chamber, as if for the purpose of +receiving the bones of a child. From the theater I made a sketch of the +valley, with the dazzling ridge of Taygetus in the rear, and Mistra, the +medieval Sparta, hanging on the steep sides of one of his gorges. The +sun was intensely hot, and we were glad to descend again, making our way +through tall wheat, past walls of Roman brickwork and scattering blocks +of the older city, to the tomb of Leonidas. This is said to be a temple, +tho there are traces of vaults and passages beneath the pavement which +do not quite harmonize with such a conjecture. It is composed of huge +blocks of breccia, some of them thirteen feet long. + +I determined to make an excursion to Maina. This is a region rarely +visited by travelers, who are generally frightened off by the reputation +of its inhabitants, who are considered by the Greeks to be bandits and +cut-throats to a man. The Mainotes are, for the most part, lineal +descendants of the ancient Spartans, and, from the decline of the Roman +power up to the present century, have preserved a virtual independence +in their mountain fastnesses. The worship of the pagan deities existed +among them as late as the eighth century. They were never conquered by +the Turks, and it required considerable management to bring them under +the rule of Otho.... + +Starting at noon, we passed through the modern Sparta, which is well +laid out with broad streets. The site is superb, and in the course of +time the new town will take the place of Mistra. We rode southward, down +the valley of the Eurotas, through orchards of olive and mulberry. We +stopt for the night at the little khan of Levetzova. I saw some cows +pasturing here, quite a rare sight in Greece, where genuine butter is +unknown. That which is made from the milk of sheep and goats is no +better than mild tallow. The people informed me, however, that they make +cheese from cow's milk, but not during Lent. They are now occupied with +rearing Paschal lambs, a quarter of a million of which are slaughtered +in Greece on Easter Day. The next morning, we rode over hills covered +with real turf, a little thin, perhaps, but still a rare sight in +southern lands. In two hours we entered the territory of Maina, on the +crest of a hill, where we saw Marathonisi (the ancient Gythium), lying +warm upon the Laconian Gulf. The town is a steep, dirty, labyrinthine +place, and so rarely visited by strangers that our appearance created +quite a sensation.... + +A broad, rich valley opened before us, crossed by belts of poplar and +willow trees, and inclosed by a semicircle of hills, most of which were +crowned with the lofty towers of the Mainotes. In Maina almost every +house is a fortress. The law of blood revenge, the right of which is +transmitted from father to son, draws the whole population under its +bloody sway in the course of a few generations. Life is a running fight, +and every foe slain entails on the slayer a new penalty of retribution +for himself and his descendants for ever. + +Previous to the revolution most of the Mainote families lived in a state +of alternate attack and siege. Their houses are square towers, forty or +fifty feet high, with massive walls, and windows so narrow that they +may be used as loopholes for musketry. The first story is at a +considerable distance from the ground, and reached by a long ladder +which can be drawn up so as to cut off all communication. Some of the +towers are further strengthened by a semicircular bastion, projecting +from the side most liable to attack. The families supplied themselves +with telescopes, to look out for enemies in the distance, and always had +a store of provisions on hand, in case of a siege. Altho this private +warfare has been supprest, the law of revenge exists. + +From the summit of the first range we overlooked a wild, glorious +landscape. The hills, wooded with oak, and swimming in soft blue vapor, +interlocked far before us, inclosing the loveliest green dells in their +embraces, and melting away to the break in Taygetus, which yawned in the +distance. On the right towered the square, embrasured castle of Passava +on the summit of an almost inaccessible hill--the site of the ancient +Las. Far and near, the lower heights were crowned with tall, white +towers. + + + + +MESSENIA[59] + +BY BAYARD TAYLOR + + +The plain of Messenia is the richest part of the Morea. Altho its groves +of orange and olive, fig and mulberry, were entirely destroyed during +the Egyptian occupation, new and more vigorous shoots have sprung up +from the old stumps and the desolated country is a garden again, +apparently as fair and fruitful as when it excited the covetousness of +the Spartan thieves. Sloping to the gulf on the south, and protected +from the winds on all other sides by lofty mountains, it enjoys an +almost Egyptian warmth of climate. Here it was already summer, while at +Sparta, on the other side of Taygetus, spring had but just arrived, and +the central plain of Arcadia was still bleak and gray as in winter. As +it was market-day, we met hundreds of the country people going to +Kalamata with laden asses.... + +We crossed the rapid Pamisos with some difficulty, and ascended its +right bank, to the foot of Mount Evan, which we climbed, by rough paths +through thickets of mastic and furze, to the monastery of Vurkano. The +building has a magnificent situation, on a terrace between Mount Evan +and Mount Ithome, overlooking both the upper and lower plains of the +Pamisos--a glorious spread of landscape, green with spring, and touched +by the sun with the airiest prismatic tints through breaks of heavy +rain-clouds. Inside the courts is an old Byzantine chapel, with +fleurs-de-lis on the decorations, showing that it dates from the time of +the Latin princes. The monks received us very cordially, gave us a +clean, spacious room, and sent us a bottle of excellent wine for dinner. + +We ascended Ithome and visited the massive ruins of Messene the same +day. The great gate of the city, a portion of the wall, and four of the +towers of defense, are in tolerable condition. The name of Epaminondas +hallows these remains, which otherwise, grand as they are, do not +impress one like the cyclopean walls of Tiryns. The wonder is, that they +could have been built in so short a time--eighty-five days, says +history, which would appear incredible, had not still more marvelous +things of the kind been done in Russia. + +The next day, we rode across the head of the Messenian plain, crossed +the Mount Lycæus and the gorge of the Neda, and lodged at the little +village of Tragoge, on the frontiers of Arcadia. Our experience of +Grecian highways was pleasantly increased by finding fields plowed +directly across our road, fences of dried furze built over it, and +ditches cutting it at all angles. Sometimes all trace of it would be +lost for half a mile, and we were obliged to ride over the growing crops +until we could find a bit of fresh trail. + +The bridle-path over Mount Lycæus was steep and bad, but led us through +the heart of a beautiful region. The broad back of the mountain is +covered with a grove of superb oaks, centuries old, their long arms +muffled in golden moss, and adorned with a plumage of ferns. The turf at +their feet was studded with violets, filling the air with delicious +odors. This sylvan retreat was the birthplace of Pan, and no more +fitting home for the universal god can be imagined. On the northern side +we descended for some time through a forest of immense ilex trees, which +sprang from a floor of green moss and covered our pathway with summer +shade.... + +We were now in the heart of the wild mountain region of Messenia, in +whose fastnesses Aristomenes, the epic hero of the state, maintained +himself so long against the Spartans. The tremendous gorge below us was +the bed of the Neda, which we crossed in order to enter the lateral +valley of Phigalia, where lay Tragoge. The path was not only difficult +but dangerous--in some places a mere hand's-breath of gravel, on the +edge of a plane so steep that a single slip of a horse's foot would have +sent him headlong to the bottom. + +In the morning, a terrible sirocco levante was blowing, with an almost +freezing cold. The fury of the wind was so great that in crossing the +exposed ridges it was difficult to keep one's seat upon the horse. We +climbed toward the central peak of the Lycæan Hills, through a wild dell +between two ridges, which were covered to the summit with magnificent +groves of oak. Starry blue flowers, violets and pink crocuses spangled +the banks as we wound onward, between the great trunks. The temple of +Apollo Epicurius stands on a little platform between the two highest +peaks, about 3,500 feet above the sea. + +On the day of our visit, its pillars of pale bluish-gray limestone rose +against a wintry sky, its guardian oaks were leafless, and the wind +whistled over its heaps of ruin; yet its symmetry was like that of a +perfect statue, wherein you do not notice the absence of color, and I +felt that no sky and no season could make it more beautiful. For its +builder was Ictinus, who created the Parthenon. It was erected by the +Phigalians, out of gratitude to Apollo the Helper, who kept from their +city a plague which ravaged the rest of the Peloponnesus. Owing to its +secluded position, it has escaped the fate of other temples, and might +be restored from its own undestroyed materials. The cella had been +thrown down, but thirty-five out of thirty-eight columns are still +standing. Through the Doric shafts you look upon a wide panorama of gray +mountains, melting into purple in the distance, and crowned by arcs of +the far-off sea. On one hand is Ithome and the Messenian Gulf, on the +other the Ionian Sea and the Strophades.... + +We now trotted down the valley, over beautiful meadows, which were +uncultivated except in a few places where the peasants were plowing for +maize, and had destroyed every trace of the road. The hills on both +sides began to be fringed with pine, while the higher ridges on our +right were clothed with woods of oak. I was surprised at the luxuriant +vegetation of this region. The laurel and mastic became trees, the pine +shot to a height of one hundred feet, and the beech and sycamore began +to appear. Some of the pines had been cut for ship-timber, but in the +rudest and most wasteful way, only the limbs which had the proper curve +being chosen for ribs. I did not see a single sawmill in the +Peloponnesus; but I am told that there are a few in Euboea and +Acarnania.... + +As we approached Olympia, I could almost have believed myself among the +pine-hills of Germany or America. In the old times this must have been a +lovely, secluded region, well befitting the honored repose of Xenophon, +who wrote his works here. The sky became heavier as the day wore on, and +the rain, which had spared us so long, finally inclosed us in its misty +circle. Toward evening we reached a lonely little house, on the banks of +the Alpheus. Nobody was at home, but we succeeded in forcing a door and +getting shelter for our baggage. François had supper nearly ready before +the proprietor arrived. The latter had neither wife nor child, tho a few +chicks, and took our burglarious occupation very good-humoredly. We +shared the same leaky roof with our horses, and the abundant fleas with +the owner's dogs. + + + + +TIRYNS AND MYCENÆ[60] + +BY J. P. MAHAFFY + + +The fortress of Tiryns may fitly be commented on before approaching the +younger, or at least more artistically finished, Mycenæ. It stands +several miles nearer to the sea, in the center of the great plain of +Argos, and upon the only hillock which there affords any natural scope +for fortification. Instead of the square, or at least hewn, well-fitted +blocks of Mycenæ, we have here the older style of rude masses piled +together as best they would fit, the interstices being filled up with +smaller fragments. This is essentially cyclopean building. There is a +smaller fort, of rectangular shape, on the southern and highest part of +the oblong hillock, the whole of which is surrounded by a lower wall, +which takes in both this and the northern longer part of the ridge. It +looks, in fact, like a hill-fort, with a large inclosure for cattle +around it. + +Just below the northeast angle of the inner fort, and where the lower +circuit is about to leave it, there is an entrance, with a massive +projection of huge stones, looking like a square tower, on its right +side, so as to defend it from attack. The most remarkable feature in the +walls are the covered galleries, constructed within them at the +southeast angle. The whole thickness of the wall is often over twenty +feet, and in the center a rude arched way is made--or rather, I believe, +two parallel ways; but the inner gallery has fallen in, and is almost +untraceable--and this merely by piling together the great stones so as +to leave an opening, which narrows at the top in the form of a Gothic +arch. Within the passage, there are five niches in the outer side, made +of rude arches in the same way as the main passage. The length of the +gallery I measured, and found it twenty-five yards, at the end of which +it is regularly walled up, so that it evidently did not run all the way +round. The niches are now no longer open, but seem to have been once +windows, or at least to have had some lookout points into the hill +country. + +It is remarkable that, altho the walls are made of perfectly rude +stones, the builders have managed to use so many smooth surfaces looking +outward, that the face of the wall seems quite clean and well built. At +the southeast corner of the higher and inner fort, we found a large +block of red granite, quite different from the rough, gray stone of the +building, with its surface square and smooth, and all the four sides +neatly beveled, like the portal stones at the treasury of Atreus. I +found two other similar blocks close by, which were likewise cut smooth +on the surface. The intention of these stones we could not guess, but +they show that some ornament, and some more finished work, must have +once existed in the inner fort. Tho both the main entrances have massive +towers of stone raised on their right, there is a small postern at the +opposite or west side, not more than four feet wide, which has no +defenses whatever, and is a mere hole in the wall. + +The whole ruin is covered in summer with thistles, such as English +people can hardly imagine. The needles at the points of the leaves are +fully an inch long, extremely fine and strong, and sharper than any +two-edged sword. No clothes except a leather dress can resist them. They +pierce everywhere with the most stinging pain, and make antiquarian +research in this famous spot a veritable martyrdom, which can only be +supported by a very burning thirst for knowledge, or the sure hope of +future fame. The rough masses of stone are so loose that one's footing +is insecure, and when the traveler loses his balance, and falls among +the thistles, he will wish that he had gone to Jericho instead, or even +fallen among thieves on the way. + +It is impossible to approach Mycenæ from any side without being struck +with the picturesqueness of the site. If you come down over the +mountains from Corinth, as soon as you reach the head of the valley of +the Inachus, which is the plain of Argos, you turn aside to the left, or +east, into a secluded corner--"a recess of the horse-feeding Argos," as +Homer calls it--and then you find on the edge of the valley, and where +the hills begin to rise one behind the other, the village of Charváti. +When you ascend from this place, you find that the lofty Mount Elias is +separated from the plain by two nearly parallel waves of land, which are +indeed joined at the northern end by a curving saddle, but elsewhere are +divided by deep gorges. The loftier and shorter wave forms the rocky +citadel of Mycenæ--the Argion, as it was once called. + +I need not attempt a fresh description of the Great Treasury. It is in +no sense a rude building, or one of a helpless and barbarous age, but, +on the contrary, the product of enormous appliances, and of a perfect +knowledge of all the mechanical requirements for any building, if we +except the application of the arch. The stones are hewn square, or +curved to form the circular dome within, with admirable exactness. Above +the enormous lintel-stone, nearly twenty-seven feet long, and which is +doubly grooved, by way of ornament, all along its edge over the doorway, +there is now a triangular window or aperture, which was certainly filled +with some artistic carving like the analogous space over the lintel in +the gate of the Acropolis. Shortly after Lord Elgin had cleared the +entrance, Gell and Dodwell found various pieces of green and red marble +carved with geometrical patterns, some of which are reproduced in +Dodwell's book. Gell also found some fragments in a neighboring chapel, +and others are said to be built into a wall at Nauplia. There are +supposed to have been short columns standing on each side in front of +the gate, with some ornament surmounting them; but this seems to me to +rest on doubtful evidence, and on theoretical reconstruction. Dr. +Schliemann, however, asserts them to have been found at the entrance of +the second treasury which Mrs. Schliemann excavated, tho his account is +somewhat vague. There is the strongest architectural reason for the +triangular aperture over the door, as it diminishes the enormous weight +to be borne by the lintel; and here, no doubt, some ornament very like +lions on the other gate may have been applied. + +There has been much controversy about the use to which this building was +applied, and we can not now attempt to change the name, even if we could +prove its absurdity. Pausanias, who saw Mycenæ in the second century +A.D., found it in much the same state as we do, and was no +better informed than we, tho he tells us the popular belief that this +and its fellows were treasure-houses like that of the Minyæ at +Orchomenus, which was very much greater, and was, in his opinion, one of +the most wonderful things in all Greece. + +Standing at the entrance, you look out upon the scattered masonry of the +walls of Mycenæ, on the hillock over against you. Close behind this is a +dark and solemn chain of mountains. The view is narrow and confined, and +faces the north, so that, for most of the day, the gate is dark and in +shadow. We can conceive no fitter place for the burial of a king, +within sight of his citadel, in the heart of a deep natural hillock, +with a great solemn portal symbolizing the resistless strength of the +barrier which he had passed into an unknown land. But one more remark +seems necessary. This treasure-house is by no means a Greek building in +its features. It has the same perfection of construction which can be +seen at Eleutheræ, or any other Greek fort, but still the really +analogous buildings are to be found in far distant lands--in the raths +of Ireland, and the barrows of the Crimea. + + "And yet how lovely in thine age of woe, + Land of lost gods and godlike men, are thou! + Thy vales of evergreen, thy hills of snow, + Proclaim thee Nature's varied favourite now: + Thy fanes, thy temples to the surface bow, + Commingling slowly with heroic earth, + Broke by the share of every rustic plough: + + "Yet are thy skies as blue, thy crags as wild: + Sweet are thy groves, and verdant are thy fields, + Thine olives ripe as when Minerva smiled, + And still his honeyed wealth Hymettus yields; + There the blithe 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." + + --From Byron's "Childe Harold." + + + + +IX + +THE GREEK ISLANDS + + + + +A TOUR OF CRETE[61] + +BY BAYARD TAYLOR + + +Crete lies between the parallels of 35 degrees and 36 degrees, not much +farther removed from Africa than from Europe, and its climate, +consequently, is intermediate between that of Greece and that of +Alexandria. In the morning it was already visible, altho some thirty +miles distant, the magnificent snowy mass of the White Mountains +gleaming before us, under a bank of clouds. By ten o'clock, the long +blue line of the coast broke into irregular points, the Dictynnæan +promontory and that of Akroteri thrusting themselves out toward us so as +to give an amphitheatric character to that part of the island we were +approaching, while the broad, snowy dome of the Cretan Ida, standing +alone, far to the east, floated in a sea of soft, golden light. The +White Mountains were completely enveloped in snow to a distance of 4,000 +feet below their summits, and scarcely a rock pierced the luminous +covering. The shores of the Gulf of Khania, retaining their +amphitheatric form, rose gradually from the water, a rich panorama of +wheat-fields, vineyards and olive groves, crowded with sparkling +villages, while Khania, in the center, grew into distinctness--a +picturesque jumble of mosques, old Venetian arches and walls, pink and +yellow buildings, and palm trees. The character of the scene was Syrian +rather than Greek, being altogether richer and warmer than anything in +Greece. + +Khania occupies the site of the ancient Cydonia, by which name the Greek +bishopric is still called. The Venetian city was founded in 1252, and +any remnants of the older town which may have then remained, were quite +obliterated by it. The only ruins now are those of Venetian churches, +some of which have been converted into mosques, and a number of immense +arched vaults, opening on the harbor, built to shelter the galleys of +the Republic. Just beyond the point on which stands the Serai, I counted +fifteen of these, side by side, eleven of which are still entire. A +little further, there are three more, but all are choked up with sand, +and of no present use. The modern town is an exact picture of a Syrian +seaport, with its narrow, crooked streets, shaded bazaars, and turbaned +merchants. Its population is 9,500, including the garrison, according to +a census just completed at the time of our visit. It is walled, and the +gates are closed during the night.... + +Passing through the large Turkish cemetery, which was covered with an +early crop of blue anemones, we came upon the rich plain of Khania, +lying broad and fair, like a superb garden, at the foot of the White +Mountains, whose vast masses of shining snow filled up the entire +southern heaven. Eastward, the plain slopes to the deep Bay of Suda, +whose surface shone blue above the silvery line of the olive groves; +while, sixty miles away, rising high above the intermediate headlands, +the solitary peak of Mount Ida, bathed in a warm afternoon glow, gleamed +like an Olympian mount, not only the birthplace, but the throne of +immortal Jove. Immense olive trees from the dark-red, fertile earth; +cypresses and the canopied Italian pine interrupted their gray monotony, +and every garden hung the golden lamps of its oranges over the wall. The +plain is a paradise of fruitfulness.... + +In the morning, the horses were brought to us at an early hour, in +charge of a jolly old officer of gendarmes, who was to accompany us. As +far as the village of Kalepa, there is a carriage road; afterward, only +a stony path. From the spinal ridge of the promontory, which we crossed, +we overlooked all the plain of Khania, and beyond the Dictynnæan +peninsula, to the western extremity of Crete. The White Mountains, tho +less than seven thousand, feet in height, deceive the eye by the +contrast between their spotless snows and the summer at their base, and +seem to rival the Alps. The day was cloudless and balmy; birds sang on +every tree, and the grassy hollows were starred with anemones, white, +pink, violet and crimson. It was the first breath of the southern +spring, after a winter which had been as terrible for Crete as for +Greece. + +After a ride of three hours, we reached a broad valley, at the foot of +that barren mountain mass in which the promontory terminates. To the +eastward we saw the large monastery of Agia Triada (the Holy Trinity), +overlooking its fat sweep of vine and olive land.... In the deep, dry +mountain glen which we entered, I found numbers of carob-trees. Rocks of +dark-blue limestone, stained with bright orange oxydations, overhung us +as we followed the track of a torrent upward into the heart of this +bleak region, where, surrounded by the hot, arid peaks, is the Monastery +of Governato. + +We descended on foot to the Monastery of Katholiko, which we reached in +half an hour. Its situation is like that of San Saba in Palestine, at +the bottom of a split in the stony hills, and the sun rarely shines upon +it. Steps cut in the rock lead down the face of the precipice to the +deserted monastery, near which is a cavern 500 feet long, leading into +the rock. The ravine is spanned by an arch, nearly fifty feet high. + +At Agia Triada, as we rode up the stately avenue of cypresses, between +vineyards and almond trees in blossom, servants advanced to take our +horses, and the abbot shouted, "Welcome," from the top of the steps. We +were ushered into a clean room, furnished with a tolerable library of +orthodox volumes. A boy of fifteen, with a face like the young Raphael, +brought us glasses of a rich, dark wine, something like port, some jelly +and coffee. The size and substantial character of this monastery attests +its wealth, no less than the flourishing appearance of the lands +belonging to it. Its large courtyard is shaded with vine-bowers and +orange trees, and the chapel in the center has a façade supported by +Doric columns. + + + + +THE COLOSSAL RUINS OF CNOSSOS[62] + +BY PHILIP S. MARDEN + + +The ruins [of the Cnossos palace] lie at the east of the high road, in a +deep valley. Their excavation has been very complete and satisfactory, +and while some restorations have been attempted here and there, chiefly +because of absolute necessity to preserve portions of the structure, +they are not such restorations as to jar on one, but exhibit a fidelity +to tradition that saves them from the common fate of such efforts. +Little or no retouching was necessary in the case of the stupendous +flights of steps that were found leading up to the door of this +prehistoric royal residence, and which are the first of the many sights +the visitor of to-day may see. + +It is in the so-called "throne room of Minos" that the restoring hand is +first met. Here it has been found necessary to provide a roof, that +damage by weather be avoided; and to-day the throne room is a dusky +spot, rather below the general level of the place. Its chief treasure is +the throne itself, a stone chair, carved in rather rudimentary +ornamentation, and about the size of an ordinary chair. The roof is +supported by the curious, top-heavy-looking stone pillars, that are +known to have prevailed not only in the Minoan but in Mycenæan period; +monoliths noticeably larger at the top than at the bottom, reversing the +usual form of stone pillar with which later ages have made us more +familiar. This quite illogical inversion of what we now regard as the +proper form has been accounted for in theory, by assuming that it was +the natural successor of the sharpened wooden stake. When the ancients +adopted stone supports for their roofs, they simply took over the forms +they had been familiar with in the former use of wood, and the result +was a stone pillar that copied the earlier wooden one in shape. Time, of +course, served to show that the natural way of building demanded the +reversal of this custom; but in the Mycenæan age it had not been +discovered, for there are evidences that similar pillars existed in +buildings of that period, and the representation of a pillar that stands +between the two lions on Mycenæ's famous gate has this inverted form. + +Many hours may be spent in detailed examination of this colossal ruin, +testifying to what must have been in its day an enormous and impressive +palace. One can not go far in traversing it without noticing the traces +still evident enough of the fire that obviously destroyed it many +hundred, if not several thousand, years before Christ. Along the western +side have been discovered long corridors, from which scores of long and +narrow rooms were to be entered. These, in the published plans, serve to +give to the ruin a large share of its labyrinthine character. It seems +to be agreed now that these were the storerooms of the palace, and in +them may still be seen the huge earthen jars which once served to +contain the palace supplies. Long rows of them stand in the ancient +hallways and in the narrow cells that lead off them, each jar large +enough to hold a fair-sized man, and in number sufficient to have +accommodated Ali Baba and the immortal forty thieves. In the center of +the palace little remains; but in the southeastern corner, where the +land begins to slope abruptly to the valley below, there are to be seen +several stories of the ancient building. Here one comes upon the rooms +marked with the so-called "distaff" pattern, supposed to indicate that +they were the women's quarters. + +The restorer has been busy here, but not offensively so. Much of the +ancient wall is intact, and in one place is a bathroom with a very +diminutive bathtub still in place. Along the eastern side is also shown +the oil press, where olives were once made to yield their coveted +juices, and from the press proper a stone gutter conducted the fluid +down to the point where jars were placed to receive it. This discovery +of oil presses in ancient buildings, by the way, has served in more than +one case to arouse speculation as to the antiquity of oil lamps such as +were once supposed to belong only to a much later epoch. Whether in the +Minoan days they had such lamps or not, it is known that they had at +least an oil press and a good one. In the side of the hill below the +main palace of Minos has been unearthed a smaller structure, which they +now call the "villa," and in which several terraces, have been uncovered +rather similar to the larger building above. Here is another throne +room, cunningly contrived to be lighted by a long shaft of light from +above falling on the seat of justice itself, while the rest of the room +is in obscurity. + +It may be that it requires a stretch of the imagination to compare the +palace of Cnossos with Troy, but nevertheless there are one or two +features that seem not unlike the discoveries made by Dr. Schliemann on +that famous site. Notably so, it seems to me, are the traces of the +final fire, which are to be seen at Cnossos as at Troy, and the huge +jars, which may be compared with the receptacles the Trojan excavators +unearthed, and found still to contain dried peas and other things that +the Trojans left behind when they fled from their sacked and burning +city. Few are privileged to visit the site of Priam's city, which is +hard, indeed, to reach; but it is easy enough to make the excursion to +Candia and visit the palace of old King Minos, which is amply worth the +trouble, besides giving a glimpse of a civilization that is possibly +vastly older than even that of Troy and Mycenæ. For those who reverence +the great antiquities, Candia and its pre-classic suburb are distinctly +worth visiting, and are unique among the sights of the ancient Hellenic +and pre-Hellenic world. + + + + +CORFU[63] + +BY EDWARD A. FREEMAN + + +From whichever side our traveler draws near to Corfu, he comes from +lands where Greek influence and Greek colonization spread in ancient +times, but from which the Greek elements have been gradually driven out, +partly by the barbarism of the East, partly by the rival civilization of +the West. The land which we see is Hellenic in a sense in which not even +Sicily, not even the Great Hellas of Southern Italy, much less than the +Dalmatian archipelago, ever became Hellenic. Prom the first historic +glimpse which we get of Korkyra,[64] it is not merely a land fringed by +Hellenic colonies; it is a Hellenic island, the dominion of a single +Hellenic city, a territory the whole of whose inhabitants were, at the +beginning of recorded history, either actually Hellenic or so thoroughly +hellenized that no one thought of calling their Hellenic position in +question. Modern policy has restored it to its old position by making it +an integral portion of the modern Greek kingdom. + +To the south of the present town, connected with it by a favorite walk +of the inhabitants of Corfu, a long and broad peninsula stretches boldly +into the sea. Both from land and from sea, it chiefly strikes the eye as +a wooded mass, thickly covered with the aged olive trees which form so +marked a feature in the scenery of the island. A few houses skirt the +base, growing on the land side into the suburb of Kastrades, which may +pass for a kind of connecting link between the old and the new city. And +from the midst of the wood, on the side nearest to the modern town, +stands out the villa of the King of the Greeks, the chief modern +dwelling on the site of ancient Korkyra. This peninsular hill, still +known as Palaiopolis, was the site of the old Corinthian city whose name +is so familiar to every reader of Thucydides. On either side of it lies +one of its two forsaken harbors. Between the old and the new city lies +the so-called harbor of Alkinoos; beyond the peninsula, stretching far +inland, lies the old Hyllaic harbor, bearing the name of one of the +three tribes which seem to have been essential to the being of a Dorian +commonwealth.... + +This last is the Corfu whose fate seems to have been to become the +possession of every power which has ruled in that quarter of the world, +with one exception. For fourteen hundred years the history of the island +is the history of endless changes of masters. We see it first a nominal +ally, then a direct possession, of Rome and of Constantinople; we then +see it formed into a separate Byzantine principality, conquered by the +Norman lord of Sicily, again a possession of the Empire, then a +momentary possession of Venice, again a possession of the Sicilian +kingdom under its Angevin kings, till at last it came back to Venetian +rule, and abode for four hundred years under the Lion of Saint Mark. +Then it became part of that first strange Septinsular Republic of which +the Czar was to be the protector and the Sultan the overlord. Then it +was a possession of France; then a member of the second Septinsular +Republic under the hardly disguised sovereignty of England; now at last +it is the most distant, but one of the most valuable, of the provinces +of the modern Greek kingdom. + +Of the modern city there is but little to say. As becomes a city which +was so long a Venetian possession, the older part of it has much of the +character of an Italian town. It is rich in street arcades; but they +present but few architectural features; and we find none of those +various forms of ornamental window so common, not only in Venice and +Verona, but in Spalato, Cattaro, and Traü. The churches in the modern +city are architecturally worthless. They are interesting so far as they +will give to many their first impression of orthodox arrangement and +orthodox ritual. The few ecclesiastical antiquities of the place belong +to the elder city. The suburb of the lower slope of the hill contains +three churches, all of them small, but each of which has an interest of +its own. + + + + +RHODES[65] + +BY CHARLES DUDLEY WARNER + + +Coming on deck the next morning at the fresh hour of sunrise, I found we +were at Rhodes. We lay just off the semicircular harbor, which is +clasped by walls--partly shaken down by earthquakes--which have noble, +round towers at each embracing end. Rhodes is, from the sea, one of the +most picturesque cities in the Mediterranean, altho it has little +remains of that ancient splendor which caused Strabo to prefer it to +Rome or Alexandria. The harbor wall, which is flanked on each side by +stout and round, stone windmills, extends up the hill, and becoming +double, surrounds the old town; these massive fortifications of the +Knights of St. John have withstood the onsets of enemies and the tremors +of the earth, and, with the ancient moat, excite the curiosity of this +so-called peaceful age of iron-clads and monster cannon. The city +ascends the slope of the hill and passes beyond the wall. Outside and on +the right toward the sea are a picturesque group of a couple of dozen +stone windmills, and some minarets and a church-tower or two. Higher up +the hill is sprinkled a little foliage, a few mulberry trees, and an +isolated palm or two; and, beyond, the island is only a mass of broken, +bold, rocky mountains. Of its forty-five miles of length, running +southwesterly from the little point on which the city stands, we can see +but little. + +Whether or not Rhodes emerged from the sea at the command of Apollo, the +Greeks exprest by this tradition of its origin their appreciation of its +gracious climate, fertile soil, and exquisite scenery. From remote +antiquity it had fame as a seat of arts and letters, and of a vigorous +maritime power, and the romance of its early centuries was equaled if +not surpassed when it became the residence of the Knights of St. John. I +believe that the first impress of its civilization was given by the +Phoenicians; it was the home of the Dorian race before the time of the +Trojan War, and its three cities were members of the Dorian Hexapolis; +it was, in fact, a flourishing maritime confederacy strong enough to +send colonies to the distant Italian coast, and Sybaris and Parthenope +(modern Naples) perpetuated the luxurious refinement of their founders. +The city of Rhodes itself was founded about four hundred years before +Christ, and the splendor of its palaces, its statues and paintings gave +it a pre-eminence among the most magnificent cities of the ancient +world. If the earth of this island could be made to yield its buried +treasures as Cyprus has, we should doubtless have new proofs of the +influence of Asiatic civilization upon the Greeks, and be able to trace +in the early Doric arts and customs the superior civilization of the +Phoenicians, and of the masters of the latter in science and art, the +Egyptians. + +Naturally, every traveler who enters the harbor of Rhodes hopes to see +the site of one of the seven wonders of the world, the Colossus. He is +free to place it on either mole at the entrance of the harbor, but he +comprehends at once that a statue which was only one hundred and five +feet high could never have extended its legs across the port. The fame +of this colossal bronze statue of the sun is disproportioned to the +period of its existence; it stood only fifty-six years after its +erection, being shaken down by an earthquake in the year 224 B.C., and +encumbering the ground with its fragments till the advent of the Moslem +conquerors. + +Passing from the quay through a highly ornamented Gothic gateway, we +ascended the famous historic street, still called the Street of the +Knights, the massive houses of which have withstood the shocks of +earthquakes and the devastation of Saracenic and Turkish occupation. +This street, of whose palaces we have heard so much, is not imposing; it +is not wide, its solid stone houses are only two stories high, and their +fronts are now disfigured by cheap Arab balconies; but the façades are +gray with age. All along are remains of carved windows. Gothic +sculptured doorways and shields and coats of arms, crosses and armorial +legends, are set in the walls, partially defaced by time and the respect +of Suleiman for the Knights, have spared the mementos of their faith and +prowess. I saw no inscriptions that are intact, but made out upon one +shield the words "voluntas mei est." The carving is all beautiful. + +We went through the silent streets, waking only echoes of the past, out +to the ruins of the once elegant church of St. John, which was shaken +down by a powder-explosion some thirty years ago, and utterly flattened +by an earthquake some years afterward. Outside the ramparts we met, and +saluted, with the freedom of travelers, a gorgeous Turk who was taking +the morning air, and whom our guide in bated breath said was the +governor. In this part of the town is the Mosque of Suleiman; in the +portal are two lovely marble columns, rich with age; the lintels are +exquisitely carved with flowers, arms, casques, musical instruments, the +crossed sword and the torch, and the mandolin, perhaps the emblem of +some troubadour knight. Wherever we went we found bits of old carving, +remains of columns, sections of battlemented roofs. The town is +saturated with the old Knights. Near the mosque is a foundation of +charity, a public kitchen, at which the poor were fed or were free to +come and cook their food; it is in decay now, and the rooks were sailing +about its old, round-topped chimneys. + +There are no Hellenic remains in the city, and the only remembrance of +that past which we searched for was the antique coin, which has upon +one side the head of Medusa and upon the other the rose (rhoda) which +gave the town its name. The town was quiet; but in pursuit of this coin +in the Jews' quarter we started up swarms of traders, were sent from +Isaac to Jacob, and invaded dark shops and private houses where Jewish +women and children were just beginning to complain of the morning light. +Our guide was a jolly Greek, who was willing to awaken the whole town in +search of a silver coin. The traders, when we had routed them out, had +little to show in the way of antiquities. Perhaps the best +representative of the modern manufactures of Rhodes is the wooden shoe, +which is in form like the Damascus clog, but is inlaid with more taste. +The people whom we encountered in our morning walk were Greeks or Jews. +The morning atmosphere was delicious, and we could well believe that the +climate of Rhodes is the finest in the Mediterranean, and also that it +is the least exciting of cities. + + + + +MT. ATHOS[66] + +BY CHARLES DUDLEY WARNER + + +Beyond Thasos is the Thracian coast and Mt. Pangaus, and at the foot of +it Philippi, the Macedonian town where republican Rome fought its last +battle, where Cassius leaned upon his sword-point, believing everything +lost. Brutus transported the body of his comrade to Thasos and raised +for him a funeral pyre; and twenty days later, on the same field, met +again that specter of death which had summoned him to Philippi. It was +not many years after this victory of the Imperial power that a greater +triumph was won at Philippi, when Paul and Silas, cast into prison, sang +praises unto God at midnight, and an earthquake shook the house and +opened the prison doors. + +In the afternoon we came in sight of snowy Mt. Athos, an almost +perpendicular limestone rock, rising nearly six thousand four hundred +feet out of the sea. The slender promontory which this magnificent +mountain terminates is forty miles long and has only an average breadth +of four miles. The ancient canal of Xerxes quite severed it from the +mainland. The peninsula, level at the canal, is a jagged stretch of +mountains (seamed by chasms), which rise a thousand, two thousand, four +thousand feet, and at last front the sea with the sublime peak of Athos, +the site of the most conspicuous beacon-fire of Agamemnon. The entire +promontory is, and has been since the time of Constantine, ecclesiastic +ground; every mountain and valley has its convent; besides the twenty +great monasteries are many pious retreats. All the sects of the Greek +church are here represented; the communities pay a tribute to the +Sultan, but the government is in the hands of four presidents, chosen by +the synod, which holds weekly sessions and takes the presidents, +yearly, from the monasteries in rotation. Since their foundation these +religious houses have maintained against Christians and Saracens an +almost complete independence, and preserved in their primitive +simplicity the manners and usages of the earliest foundations. + +Here, as nowhere else in Europe or Asia, can one behold the +architecture, the dress, the habits of the Middle Ages. The good +devotees have been able to keep themselves thus in the darkness and +simplicity of the past by a rigorous exclusion of the sex always +impatient of monotony, to which all the changes of the world are due. No +woman, from the beginning till now, has ever been permitted to set foot +on the peninsula. Nor is this all; no female animal is suffered on the +holy mountain, not even a hen. I suppose, tho I do not know, that the +monks have an inspector of eggs, whose inherited instincts of aversion +to the feminine gender enable him to detect and reject all those in +which lurk the dangerous sex. Few of the monks eat meat, half the days +of the year are fast days, they practise occasionally abstinence from +food for two or three days, reducing their pulses to the feeblest +beating, and subduing their bodies to a point that destroys their value +even as spiritual tabernacles. The united community is permitted to keep +a guard of fifty Christian soldiers, and the only Moslem on the island +is the solitary Turkish officer who represents the Sultan; his position +can not be one generally coveted by the Turks, since the society of +women is absolutely denied him. The libraries of Mt. Athos are full of +unarranged manuscripts, which are probably mainly filled with the +theologic rubbish of the controversial ages, and can scarcely be +expected to yield again anything so valuable as the Tishendorf +Scriptures. + +At sunset we were close under Mt. Athos, and could distinguish the +buildings of the Laura Convent, amid the woods beneath the frowning +cliff. And now was produced the apparition of a sunset, with this +towering mountain cone for a centerpiece, that surpassed all our +experience and imagination. The sea was like satin for smoothness, +absolutely waveless, and shone with the colors of changeable silk, blue, +green, pink, and amethyst. Heavy clouds gathered about the sun, and from +behind them he exhibited burning spectacles, magnificent fireworks, vast +shadow-pictures, scarlet cities, and gigantic figures stalking across +the sky. From one crater of embers he shot up a fan-like flame that +spread to the zenith and was reflected on the water. His rays lay along +the sea in pink, and the water had the sheen of iridescent glass. The +whole sea for leagues was like this; even Lemnos and Samothrace lay in a +dim pink and purple light in the east. There were vast clouds in huge +walls, with towers and battlements, and in all fantastic shapes--one a +gigantic cat with a preternatural tail, a cat of doom four degrees long. +All this was piled about Mt. Athos, with its sharp summit of snow, its +dark sides of rock. + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[1] From "Pictures from Italy." Dickens made his trip to Italy in 1844. + +[2] From "Italy: Florence and Venice." By special arrangement with, and +by permission of, the publishers. Henry Holt & Co. Copyright, 1869. +Translated by John Durand. + +[3] Begun in 1386. Its architects were Germans and Frenchmen. + +[4] From "Italy: Florence and Venice." By special arrangement with, and +by permission of, the publishers, Henry Holt & Co. Copyright, 1869. +Translated by John Durand. + +[5] From "The Story of Pisa." Published by E. P. Dutton & Co. + +[6] From "Pictures From Italy." + +[7] From "Cities of Southern Italy and Sicily." + +[8] From "Travels in Italy." + +[9] A German friend with whom Goethe was traveling. + +[10] From "Pictures from Italy." + +[11] From "Italy: Rome and Naples." By special arrangement with, and by +permission of, the publishers, Henry Holt & Co. Copyright, 1869. +Translated by John Durand. + +[12] This term designates a road built along the rocky shore of a +seaside, being a figurative application of the architectural term +"cornice."--Translator's note. + +[13] From "Cities of Southern Italy and Sicily." + +[14] From a letter to Thomas Love Peacock, written in 1819. + +[15] From "Pictures from Italy." + +[16] From "Journeys in Italy." By special arrangement with, and by +permission of, the publishers, Brentano's. Copyright, 1902. + +[17] The memoir writer. + +[18] From "Journeys in Italy." By special arrangement with, and by +permission of, the publishers, Brentano's. Copyright, 1902. + +[19] From "Unknown Switzerland." Published by James Pott & Co. +Politically, Lake Lugano is part Swiss and part Italian. + +[20] The St. Gothard. + +[21] From a letter to Thomas Love Peacock, written in 1818. + +[22] From "The Spell of the Italian Lakes." By special arrangement with, +and by permission of, the publishers, L. C. Page & Co. Copyright, 1907. + +[23] From "Remarks on Several Parts of Italy in the Years 1701, 1702, +1703." + +[24] In the town are now about 1,500 people; in the whole territory of +the republic, 9,500. San Marino lies about fourteen miles southwest from +Rimini. + +[25] At the present time, fourteen hundred years; so that San Marino is +the oldest as well as the smallest republic in the world. + +[26] From "French and Italian Note-Books." By special arrangement with, +and by permission of, Houghton, Mifflin Co., publishers of Hawthorne's +works. Copyright, 1871, 1883, 1889. + +[27] The author's son, Julian Hawthorne. + +[28] From "Italian Cities." By special arrangement with, and by +permission of, the publishers, Charles Scribner's Sons. Copyright, 1900. + +[29] From "Italy: Florence and Venice." By special arrangement with, and +by permission of, the publishers, Henry Holt & Co. Copyright, 1869. + +[30] From "Historical and Architectural Sketches: Chiefly Italian." +Published by the Macmillan Co. + +[31] From "Cities of Southern Italy and Sicily." + +[32] From "Letters of a Traveler." + +[33] From "Historical and Architectural Sketches: Chiefly Italian." +Published by the Macmillan Co. + +[34] From "Sicily: The Garden of the Mediterranean." By special +arrangement with, and by permission of, the publishers, L. C. Page & Co. +Copyright, 1909. + +[35] From "The History of Sicily." Published by the Macmillan Co. + +[36] The Greek name for Girgenti. + +[37] From "Travels in Italy." + +[38] From "Travels in Italy." + +[39] From "Sicily: The Garden of the Mediterranean." By special +arrangement with, and by permission of, the publishers, L. C. Page & Co. +Copyright, 1909. + +[40] From "Vacation Days in Greece." By special arrangement with, and by +permission of, the publishers, Charles Scribner's Sons. Copyright, 1903. + +[41] From "Constantinople." By special arrangement with, and by +permission of, the publishers, Henry Holt & Co. Copyright, 1875. + +[42] From "Rambles and Studies in Greece." Published by the Macmillan +Co. + +[43] From "Travels in Greece and Russia." Published by G. P. Putnam's +Sons. + +[44] From the "Description of Greece." Pausanias was a Greek traveler +and geographer who lived in the second century A.D.--in the time of the +Roman emperors, Hadrian and Marcus Aurelius. + +[45] From "Rambles and Studies in Greece." Published by the Macmillan +Co. + +[46] The Venetian commander who bombarded the Parthenon in 1687. + +[47] Edward Dodwell (1767-1832), an English traveler and archeologist, +notable for his investigations in Greece when it had been little +explored, and author of various records of his work.--Author's note. + +[48] From "Rambles and Studies in Greece." Published by the Macmillan +Co. + +[49] This very pattern, in mahogany, with cane seats, and adapted, like +all Greek chairs, for loose cushions, was often used in Chippendale +work, and may still be found in old mansions furnished at that +epoch.--Author's note. + +[50] From "Rambles and Studies in Greece." Published by the Macmillan +Co. + +[51] From "Travels in Greece and Russia." Published by G. P. Putnam's +Sons. + +[52] From "Rambles and Studies in Greece." Published by the Macmillan +Co. + +[53] From "Greece and the Aegean Islands." By special arrangement with, +and by permission of, the publishers, Houghton, Mifflin Co. Copyright, +1907. + +[54] From the "Description of Greece." Pausanias wrote in the time of +Hadrian and Marcus Aurelius. + +[55] From "Vacation Days in Greece." By special arrangement with, and by +permission of, the publishers, Charles Scribner's Sons. Copyright, 1903. + +[56] From "In the Levant." By special arrangement with, and by +permission of, the publishers, Houghton, Mifflin Co. Copyright, 1875. +Salonica, formerly Turkish territory, was added to the territory of +Greece in 1913, under the terms of the treaty of peace that followed the +Balkan war against Turkey. + +[57] From "In the Levant." By special arrangement with, and by +permission of, the publishers, Houghton, Mifflin Co. Copyright, 1875. + +[58] From "Travels in Greece and Russia." Published by G. P. Putnam's +Sons. + +[59] From "Travels in Greece and Russia," Published by G. P. Putnam's +Sons. + +[60] From "Rambles and Studies in Greece." Published by the Macmillan +Co. + +[61] From "Travels in Greece and Russia." Published by G. P. Putnam's +Sons. + +[62] From "Greece and the Ægean Islands." By special arrangement with, +and by permission of, the publishers, Houghton, Mifflin Co. Copyright, +1907. + +[63] From "Sketches from the Subject and Neighbor Lands of Venice." +Published by the Macmillan Co. + +[64] The ancient Greek name of Corfu. + +[65] From "In the Levant." By special arrangement with, and by +permission of, the publishers, Houghton, Mifflin Co. Copyright, 1876. + +[66] From "In the Levant." By special arrangement with, and by +permission of, the publishers, Houghton, Mifflin Co. Copyright, 1876. As +one of the results of the Balkan war of 1912-1913, Mt. Athos, which had +formerly been under Turkish rule, was added to the territory of Greece. +Nature made Mt. Athos a part of the mainland, but a canal was cut by +Xerxes across the lowland at the base of the lofty promontory, making it +an island. Some parts of this canal still remain. + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Seeing Europe with Famous Authors, Vol +VIII, by Various + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SEEING EUROPE *** + +***** This file should be named 19061-8.txt or 19061-8.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/1/9/0/6/19061/ + +Produced by Janet Blenkinship and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Seeing Europe with Famous Authors, Vol VIII + Italy and Greece, Part Two + +Author: Various + +Editor: Francis W Halsey + +Release Date: August 16, 2006 [EBook #19061] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SEEING EUROPE *** + + + + +Produced by Janet Blenkinship and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + +</pre> + + +<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/imgcover.jpg" alt="Book Cover" title="Book Cover" /></div> + +<p><br /></p> +<p><a name="PARTHENON" id="PARTHENON"></a></p> +<div class="figcenter"> + <img src="images/img001-1.jpg" + alt="THE PARTHENON" /><br /> + <b>THE PARTHENON</b> + </div> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><br /><br /></p> + +<h1>SEEING EUROPE</h1> + +<h2>WITH FAMOUS</h2> + +<h2>AUTHORS</h2> + + + +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/img2a.jpg" alt="Front Page Illustration" title="Front Page Illustration" /></div> +<div class="figright"><img src="images/img2b.jpg" alt="Front Page Illustration" title="Front Page Illustration" /></div> + +<h4>SELECTED AND EDITED</h4> + +<h4>WITH</h4> + +<h4>INTRODUCTIONS, ETC.</h4> + +<h4>BY</h4> + +<h2>FRANCIS W. HALSEY</h2> + +<p class='center'> +<i>Editor of "Great Epochs in American History"<br /> +Associate Editor of "The Worlds Famous Orations"<br /> +and of "The Best of the World's Classics," etc.</i> +</p> + +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/img2c.jpg" alt="Front Page Illustration" title="Front Page Illustration" /></div> +<div class="figright"><img src="images/img2d.jpg" alt="Front Page Illustration" title="Front Page Illustration" /></div> + +<h4>IN TEN</h4> + + +<h4>VOLUMES</h4> + +<h4>ILLUSTRATED</h4> + +<h3>Vol. VIII</h3> + +<h3>ITALY, SICILY, AND GREECE</h3> + +<h3>Part Two</h3> + + +<p class='center'> +<span class="smcap">Copyright, 1914, by</span><br /> +FUNK & WAGNALLS COMPANY<br /> +[<i>Printed in the United States of America</i>]</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>CONTENTS OF VOLUME VIII</h2> + +<h3>Italy, Sicily, and Greece—Part Two</h3> + + +<table border="0" cellpadding="2" width="90%" cellspacing="0" summary="Contents"> +<tr><th colspan="2">IV. THREE FAMOUS CITIES</th></tr> +<tr><td colspan="2"> </td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'> </td><td align='left'>PAGE</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><span class="smcap">In the Streets of Genoa</span>—By Charles Dickens</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_1'><b>1</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><span class="smcap">Milan Cathedral</span>—By Hippolyte Adolphe Taine</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_4'><b>4</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><span class="smcap">Pisa's Four Glories</span>—By Hippolyte Adolphe Taine</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_7'><b>7</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><span class="smcap">The Walls and "skyscrapers" of Pisa</span>—By Janet Ross and Nelly Erichson</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_11'><b>11</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td colspan="2"> </td></tr> +<tr><th colspan="2">V. NAPLES AND ITS ENVIRONS</th></tr> +<tr><td colspan="2"> </td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><span class="smcap">In and About Naples</span>—By Charles Dickens</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_18'><b>18</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><span class="smcap">The Tomb of Virgil</span>—By Augustus J. C. Hare</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_24'><b>24</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><span class="smcap">Two Ascents of Vesuvius</span>—By Johann Wolfgang von Goethe</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_26'><b>26</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><span class="smcap">Another Ascent</span>—By Charles Dickens</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_31'><b>31</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><span class="smcap">Castellamare and Sorrento</span>—By Hippolyte Adolphe Taine</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_37'><b>37</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><span class="smcap">Capri</span>—By Augustus J. C. Hare</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_42'><b>42</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><span class="smcap">Pompeii</span>—By Percy Bysshe Shelley</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_45'><b>45</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td colspan="2"> </td></tr> +<tr><th colspan="2">VI. OTHER ITALIAN SCENES</th></tr> +<tr><td colspan="2"> </td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><span class="smcap">Verona</span>—By Charles Dickens</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_52'><b>52</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><span class="smcap">Padua</span>—By Theophile Gautier</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_55'><b>55</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><span class="smcap">Ferrara</span>—By Theophile Gautier</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_59'><b>59</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><span class="smcap">Lake Lugano</span>—By Victor Tissot</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_62'><b>62</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><span class="smcap">Lake Como</span>—By Percy Bysshe Shelley</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_64'><b>64</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><span class="smcap">Bellagio on Lake Como</span>—By W. D. M'Crackan</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_66'><b>66</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><span class="smcap">The Republic of San Marino</span>—By Joseph Addison</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_69'><b>69</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><span class="smcap">Perugia</span>—By Nathaniel Hawthorne</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_73'><b>73</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><span class="smcap">Siena</span>—-By Mr. and Mrs. Edwin H. Blashfield</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_75'><b>75</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><span class="smcap">The Assissi of St. Francis</span>—By Hippolyte Adolphe Taine</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_78'><b>78</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><span class="smcap">Ravenna</span>—By Edward A. Freeman</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_80'><b>80</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><span class="smcap">Benedictine Subiaco</span>—By Augustus J. C. Hare</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_83'><b>83</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><span class="smcap">Etruscan Volterra</span>—By William Cullen Bryant</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_86'><b>86</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><span class="smcap">The Paestum of the Greeks</span>—By Edward A. Freeman</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_88'><b>88</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td colspan="2"> </td></tr> +<tr><th colspan="2">VII. SICILIAN SCENES</th></tr> +<tr><td colspan="2"> </td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><span class="smcap">Palermo</span>—By Will S. Monroe</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_91'><b>91</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><span class="smcap">Girgenti</span>—By Edward A. Freeman</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_93'><b>93</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><span class="smcap">Segeste</span>—By Johann Wolfgang von Goethe</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_97'><b>97</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><span class="smcap">Taormina</span>—By Johann Wolfgang von Goethe</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_99'><b>99</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><span class="smcap">Mount Ætna</span>—By Will S. Monroe</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_101'><b>101</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><span class="smcap">Syracuse</span>—By Rufus B. Richardson</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_104'><b>104</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><span class="smcap">Malta</span>—By Theophile Gautier</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_107'><b>107</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td colspan="2"> </td></tr> +<tr><th colspan="2">VIII. THE MAINLAND OF GREECE</th></tr> +<tr><td colspan="2"> </td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><span class="smcap">On Arriving in Athens—The Acropolis</span>—By J. P. Mahaffy</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_112'><b>112</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><span class="smcap">A Winter in Athens Half a Century Ago</span>—By Bayard Taylor</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_119'><b>119</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><span class="smcap">The Acropolis As It Was</span>—By Pausanias</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_122'><b>122</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><span class="smcap">The Elgin Marbles</span>—By J. P. Mahaffy</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_127'><b>127</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><span class="smcap">The Theater of Dionysus</span>—By J. P. Mahaffy</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_130'><b>130</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><span class="smcap">Where St. Paul Preached</span>—By J. P. Mahaffy</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_134'><b>134</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><span class="smcap">From Athens To Delphi on Horseback</span>—By Bayard Taylor</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_136'><b>136</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><span class="smcap">Corinth</span>—By J. P. Mahaffy</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_140'><b>140</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><span class="smcap">Olympia</span>—By Philip S. Marden</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_143'><b>143</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><span class="smcap">The Temple of Zeus at Olympia As It Was</span>—By Pausanias</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_146'><b>146</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><span class="smcap">Thermopylæ</span>—By Rufus B. Richardson</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_152'><b>152</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><span class="smcap">Salonica</span>—By Charles Dudley Warner</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_155'><b>155</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><span class="smcap">From the Pierian Plain To Marathon</span>—By Charles Dudley Warner</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_157'><b>157</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><span class="smcap">Sparta and Maina</span>—By Bayard Taylor</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_160'><b>160</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><span class="smcap">Messenia</span>—By Bayard Taylor</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_164'><b>164</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><span class="smcap">Tiryns and Mycenæ</span>—By J. P. Mahaffy</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_169'><b>169</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td colspan="2"> </td></tr> +<tr><th colspan="2">IX. THE GREEK ISLANDS</th></tr> +<tr><td colspan="2"> </td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><span class="smcap">A Tour of Crete</span>—By Bayard Taylor</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_175'><b>175</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><span class="smcap">The Colossal Ruins at Cnossos</span>—By Philip S. Marden</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_179'><b>179</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><span class="smcap">Corfu</span>—By Edward A. Freeman</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_182'><b>182</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><span class="smcap">Rhodes</span>—By Charles Dudley Warner</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_185'><b>185</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><span class="smcap">Mt. Athos</span>—By Charles Dudley Warner</td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_189'><b>189</b></a></td></tr> +</table> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS</h2> + + + + +<table border="0" cellpadding="4" width="80%" cellspacing="0" summary="Illustrations"> +<tr><th>VOLUME VIII</th></tr> +<tr><td> </td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>FRONTISPIECE</td></tr> +<tr><td> </td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><a href="#PARTHENON"><span class="smcap">The Parthenon</span></a></td></tr> +<tr><td colspan="2"> </td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>PRECEDING PAGE <a href='#Page_1'><b>1</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td colspan="2"> </td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><a href="#SANTA_MARIA"><span class="smcap">Venice: Santa Maria Del Salute</span></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><a href="#THE_DOVES"><span class="smcap">Feeding the Doves in Front of St. Mark's</span></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><a href="#COLLEONI"><span class="smcap">Venice: Statue of Colleoni</span></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><a href="#PALACE"><span class="smcap">Palace in St. Mark's Place</span></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><a href="#GONDOLA"><span class="smcap">Gondola on the Grand Canal</span></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><a href="#FLORENCE"><span class="smcap">General View of Florence</span></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><a href="#DUKES_OF_ESTE"><span class="smcap">Palace of the Dukes of Este, Ferrara</span></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><a href="#LAKE_LUGANO"><span class="smcap">Lake Lugano</span></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><a href="#TITIAN"><span class="smcap">Titian's Birthplace at Cadore</span></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><a href="#SIGHS"><span class="smcap">The Bridge of Sighs</span></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><a href="#TOMB"><span class="smcap">Verona: Tomb of the Scaligers</span></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><a href="#MILAN_CATHEDRAL"><span class="smcap">Milan Cathedral</span></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><a href="#BAPTISTERY"><span class="smcap">Baptistery, Cathedral, and Leaning Tower of Pisa</span></a></td></tr> +<tr><td colspan="2"> </td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>FOLLOWING PAGE <a href='#Page_96'><b>96</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td colspan="2"> </td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><a href="#NAPLES"><span class="smcap">City and Bay of Naples With Vesuvius In the Distance</span></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><a href="#THESEUS"><span class="smcap">Temple of Theseus at Athens</span></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><a href="#PALERMO"><span class="smcap">Palermo, Sicily, From the Sea</span></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><a href="#SEGESTA"><span class="smcap">Greek Theater, Segesta, Sicily</span></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><a href="#CONCORD"><span class="smcap">Temple of Concord, Girgenti, Sicily</span></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><a href="#JUNO"><span class="smcap">Temple of Juno, Girgenti, Sicily</span></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><a href="#SYRACUSE"><span class="smcap">Amphitheater at Syracuse, Sicily</span></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><a href="#GREEK_TEMPLE"><span class="smcap">Greek Temple at Segesta, Sicily</span></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><a href="#HARBOR"><span class="smcap">Harbor of Syracuse, Sicily</span></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><a href="#ULYSSES"><span class="smcap">The So-Called "Ship of Ulysses," off Corfu</span></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><a href="#ZEUS"><span class="smcap">Temple of the Olympian Zeus at Athens</span></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><a href="#PLAIN_BELOW_DELPHI"><span class="smcap">The Plain Below Delphi</span></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><a href="#ROAD_NEAR_DELPHI"><span class="smcap">The Road Near Delphi</span></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><a href="#OLYMPIA"><span class="smcap">Entrance To the Stadium at Olympia</span></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><a href="#MINOS"><span class="smcap">Throne of Minos in Crete</span></a></td></tr> +</table> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><br /><br /></p> + +<p><a name="SANTA_MARIA" id="SANTA_MARIA"></a></p> +<div class="figcenter"> + <img src="images/img10-1.jpg" + alt="VENICE: SANTA MARIA DEL SALUTE" /><br /> + <b>VENICE: SANTA MARIA DEL SALUTE</b> + </div> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><br /><br /></p> + +<p><a name="THE_DOVES" id="THE_DOVES"></a></p> +<div class="figcenter"> + <img src="images/img11-1.jpg" + alt="FEEDING THE DOVES" /><br /> + <b>FEEDING THE DOVES IN FRONT OF ST. MARK'S<br />(See Vol. VII +for article on these doves)</b> + </div> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><br /><br /></p> + +<p><a name="COLLEONI" id="COLLEONI"></a></p> +<div class="figcenter"> + <img src="images/img11-2.jpg" + alt="COLLEONI" /><br /> + <b>VENICE: STATUE OF COLLEONI<br />Courtesy John C. Winston Co.</b> + </div> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><br /><br /></p> + +<p><a name="PALACE" id="PALACE"></a></p> +<div class="figcenter"> + <img src="images/img12-1.jpg" + alt="PALACE IN ST. MARK'S PLACE" /><br /> + <b>PALACE IN ST. MARK'S PLACE, VENICE<br />(Base of the old +Campanile at the right)</b> + </div> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><br /><br /></p> + +<p><a name="GONDOLA" id="GONDOLA"></a></p> +<div class="figcenter"> + <img src="images/img12-2.jpg" + alt="GONDOLA ON THE GRAND CANAL" /><br /> + <b>GONDOLA ON THE GRAND CANAL, VENICE</b> + </div> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><br /><br /></p> + +<p><a name="FLORENCE" id="FLORENCE"></a></p> +<div class="figcenter"> + <img src="images/img13-1.jpg" + alt="GENERAL VIEW OF FLORENCE" /><br /> + <b>GENERAL VIEW OF FLORENCE</b> + </div> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><br /><br /></p> + +<p><a name="DUKES_OF_ESTE" id="DUKES_OF_ESTE"></a></p> +<div class="figcenter"> + <img src="images/img13-2.jpg" + alt="PALACE OF THE DUKES OF ESTE" /><br /> + <b>PALACE OF THE DUKES OF ESTE. FERRARA</b> + </div> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><br /><br /></p> + +<p><a name="LAKE_LUGANO" id="LAKE_LUGANO"></a></p> +<div class="figcenter"> + <img src="images/img14-1.jpg" + alt="LAKE LUGANO" /><br /> + <b>LAKE LUGANO</b> + </div> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><br /><br /></p> + +<p><a name="TITIAN" id="TITIAN"></a></p> +<div class="figcenter"> + <img src="images/img14-2.jpg" + alt="TITIAN'S BIRTHPLACE AT CADORE" /><br /> + <b>TITIAN'S BIRTHPLACE AT CADORE<br />(Cadore is in the Italian part of the Dolomites)</b> + </div> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><br /><br /></p> + +<p><a name="SIGHS" id="SIGHS"></a></p> +<div class="figcenter"> + <img src="images/img15-1.jpg" + alt="THE BRIDGE OF SIGHS" /><br /> + <b>THE BRIDGE OF SIGHS, VENICE</b> + </div> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><br /><br /></p> + +<p><a name="TOMB" id="TOMB"></a></p> +<div class="figcenter"> + <img src="images/img15-2.jpg" + alt="TOMB OF THE SCALIGERS" /><br /> + <b>TOMB OF THE SCALÍGERS AT VERONA</b> + </div> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><br /><br /></p> + +<p><a name="MILAN_CATHEDRAL" id="MILAN_CATHEDRAL"></a></p> +<div class="figcenter"> + <img src="images/img16-1.jpg" + alt="MILAN CATHEDRAL" /><br /> + <b>MILAN CATHEDRAL<br />(See Vol. VII for article on Milan Cathedral)</b> + </div> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><br /><br /></p> + +<p><a name="BAPTISTERY" id="BAPTISTERY"></a></p> +<div class="figcenter"> + <img src="images/img17-1.jpg" + alt="BAPTISTERY" /><br /> + <b>BAPTISTERY, CATHEDRAL, AND LEANING TOWER OF PISA<br />(See Vol. VII for article on Pisa)</b> + </div> + + +<p><br /><br /></p> + + + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1" id="Page_1">[Pg 1]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>IV</h2> + +<h2>THREE FAMOUS CITIES</h2> + +<p><br /><br /></p> +<h3>IN THE STREETS OF GENOA<a name="FNanchor_1_1" id="FNanchor_1_1"></a><a href="#Footnote_1_1" class="fnanchor">[1]</a></h3> + +<h4>BY CHARLES DICKENS</h4> + + +<p>The great majority of the streets are as narrow as any thoroughfare can +well be, where people (even Italian people) are supposed to live and +walk about; being mere lanes, with here and there a kind of well, or +breathing-place. The houses are immensely high, painted in all sorts of +colors, and are in every stage and state of damage, dirt, and lack of +repair. They are commonly let off in floors, or flats, like the houses +in the old town of Edinburgh, or many houses in Paris....</p> + +<p>When shall I forget the Streets of Palaces: the Strada Nuova and the +Strada Baldi! The endless details of these rich palaces; the walls of +some of them, within, alive with masterpieces by Vandyke! The great, +heavy, stone balconies, one above another, and tier over tier; with here +and there, one larger than the rest, towering high up—a huge marble +platform; the doorless vestibules, massively barred lower windows, +immense public staircases, thick marble pillars, strong dungeon-like +arches, and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_2" id="Page_2">[Pg 2]</a></span> dreary, dreaming, echoing vaulted chambers; among which the +eye wanders again, and again, and again, as every palace is succeeded by +another—the terrace gardens between house and house, with green arches +of the vine, and groves of orange-trees, and blushing oleander in full +bloom, twenty, thirty, forty feet above the street—the painted halls, +moldering and blotting, and rotting in the damp corners, and still +shining out in beautiful colors and voluptuous designs, where the walls +are dry—the faded figures on the outsides of the houses, holding +wreaths, and crowns, and flying upward, and downward, and standing in +niches, and here and there looking fainter and more feeble than +elsewhere, by contrast with some fresh little Cupids, who on a more +recently decorated portion of the front, are stretching out what seems +to be the semblance of a blanket, but is, indeed, a sun-dial—the steep, +steep, up-hill streets of small palaces (but very large palaces for all +that), with marble terraces looking down into close by-ways—the +magnificent and innumerable churches; and the rapid passage from a +street of stately edifices, into a maze of the vilest squalor, steaming +with unwholesome stenches, and swarming with half-naked children and +whole worlds of dirty people—make up, altogether, such a scene of +wonder; so lively, and yet so dead; so noisy, and yet so quiet; so +obtrusive, and yet so shy and lowering; so wide-awake, and yet so fast +asleep; that it is a sort of intoxication to a stranger to walk on, and +on, and on, and look about him. A bewildering phantasmagoria, with all +the in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_3" id="Page_3">[Pg 3]</a></span>consistency of a dream, and all the pain and all the pleasure of +an extravagant reality!...</p> + +<p>In the streets of shops, the houses are much smaller, but of great size +notwithstanding, and extremely high. They are very dirty; quite +undrained, if my nose be at all reliable; and emit a peculiar fragrance, +like the smell of very bad cheese, kept in very hot blankets. +Notwithstanding the height of the houses, there would seem to have been +a lack of room in the city, for new houses are thrust in everywhere. +Wherever it has been possible to cram a tumble-down tenement into a +crack or corner, in it has gone. If there be a nook or angle in the wall +of a church, or a crevice in any other dead wall, of any sort, there you +are sure to find some kind of habitation; looking as if it had grown +there, like a fungus. Against the Government House, against the old +Senate House, round about any large building, little shops stick close, +like parasite vermin to the great carcass. And for all this, look where +you may; up steps, down steps, anywhere, everywhere; there are irregular +houses, receding, starting forward, tumbling down, leaning against their +neighbors, crippling themselves or their friends by some means or other, +until one, more irregular than the rest, chokes up the way, and you +can't see any further.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_4" id="Page_4">[Pg 4]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3>MILAN CATHEDRAL<a name="FNanchor_2_2" id="FNanchor_2_2"></a><a href="#Footnote_2_2" class="fnanchor">[2]</a></h3> + +<h4>BY HIPPOLYTE ADOLPHE TAINE</h4> + + +<p>The cathedral, at the first sight, is bewildering. Gothic art, +transported entire into Italy at the close of the Middle Ages,<a name="FNanchor_3_3" id="FNanchor_3_3"></a><a href="#Footnote_3_3" class="fnanchor">[3]</a> +attains at once its triumph and its extravagance. Never had it been seen +so pointed, so highly embroidered, so complex, so overcharged, so +strongly resembling a piece of jewelry; and as, instead of coarse and +lifeless stone, it here takes for its material the beautiful lustrous +Italian marble, it becomes a pure chased gem as precious through its +substance as through the labor bestowed on it. The whole church seems to +be a colossal and magnificent crystallization, so splendidly do its +forests of spires, its intersections of moldings, its population of +statues, its fringes of fretted, hollowed, embroidered and open +marblework, ascend in multiple and interminable bright forms against the +pure blue sky.</p> + +<p>Truly is it the mystic candelabra of visions and legends, with a hundred +thousand branches bristling and overflowing with sorrowing thorns and +ecstatic roses, with angels, virgins, and martyrs upon every flower and +on every thorn, with infinite myriads of the triumphant Church springing +from the ground pyramidically even into the azure, with its millions of +blended and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_5" id="Page_5">[Pg 5]</a></span> vibrating voices mounting upward in a single shout, +hosannah!...</p> + +<p>We enter, and the impression deepens. What a difference between the +religious power of such a church and that of St. Peter's at Rome! One +exclaims to himself, this is the true Christian temple! Four rows of +enormous eight-sided pillars, close together, seem like a serried hedge +of gigantic oaks. Their strange capitals, bristling with a fantastic +vegetation of pinnacles, canopies, foliated niches and statues, are like +venerable trunks crowned with delicate and pendent mosses. They spread +out in great branches meeting in the vault overhead, the intervals of +the arches being filled with an inextricable network of foliage, thorny +sprigs and light branches, twining and intertwining, and figuring the +aerial dome of a mighty forest. As in a great wood, the lateral aisles +are almost equal in height to that of the center, and, on all sides, at +equal distances apart, one sees ascending around him the secular +colonnades.</p> + +<p>Here truly is the ancient Germanic forest, as if a reminiscence of the +religious groves of Irmensul. Light pours in transformed by green, +yellow and purple panes, as if through the red and orange tints of +autumnal leaves. This, certainly, is a complete architecture like that +of Greece, having, like that of Greece, its root in vegetable forms. The +Greek takes the trunk of the tree, drest, for his type; the German the +entire tree with all its leaves and branches. True architecture, +perhaps, always springs out of vegetal nature, and each zone may have +its own edifices as well as plants; in this way<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_6" id="Page_6">[Pg 6]</a></span> oriental architectures +might be comprehended—the vague idea of the slender palm and of its +bouquet of leaves with the Arabs, and the vague idea of the colossal, +prolific, dilated and bristling vegetation of India.</p> + +<p>In any event I have never seen a church in which the aspect of northern +forests was more striking, or where one more involuntarily imagines long +alleys of trunks terminating in glimpses of daylight, curved branches +meeting in acute angles, domes of irregular and commingling foliage, +universal shade scattered with lights through colored and diaphanous +leaves. Sometimes a section of yellow panes, through which the sun +darts, launches into the obscurity its shower of rays and a portion of +the nave glows like a luminous glade. A vast rosace behind the choir, a +window with tortuous branchings above the entrance, shimmer with the +tints of amethyst, ruby, emerald and topaz like leafy labyrinths in +which lights from above break in and diffuse themselves in shifting +radiance. Near the sacristy a small door-top, fastened against the wall, +exposes an infinity of intersecting moldings similar to the delicate +meshes of some marvelous twining and climbing plant. A day might be +passed here as in a forest, in the presence of grandeurs as solemn as +those of nature, before caprices as fascinating, amid the same +intermingling of sublime monotony and inexhaustible fecundity, before +contrasts and metamorphoses of light as rich and as unexpected. A mystic +reverie, combined with a fresh sentiment of northern nature, such is the +source of Gothic architecture.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_7" id="Page_7">[Pg 7]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3>PISA'S FOUR GLORIES<a name="FNanchor_4_4" id="FNanchor_4_4"></a><a href="#Footnote_4_4" class="fnanchor">[4]</a></h3> + +<h4>BY HIPPOLYTE ADOLPHE TAINE</h4> + + +<p>There are two Pisas—one in which people have lapsed into ennui, and +live from hand to mouth since the decadence, which is in fact the entire +city, except a remote corner; the other is this corner, a marble +sepulcher where the Duomo, Baptistery, Leaning Tower and Campo-Santo +silently repose like beautiful dead beings. This is the genuine Pisa, +and in these relics of a departed life, one beholds a world.</p> + +<p>In 1083 in order to honor the Virgin, who had given them a victory over +the Saracens of Sardignia, they [the Pisans] laid the foundations of +their Duomo. This edifice is almost a Roman basilica, that is to say a +temple surmounted by another temple, or, if you prefer it, a house +having a gable for its façade which gable is cut off at the peak to +support another house of smaller dimensions. Five stories of columns +entirely cover the façade with their superposed porticos. Two by two +they stand coupled together to support small arcades; all these pretty +shapes of white marble under their dark arcades form an aerial +population of the utmost grace and novelty. Nowhere here are we +conscious of the dolorous reverie of the medieval north; it is the fête +of a young nation which is awakening, and, in the gladness of its recent +prosperity, honoring its gods. It<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_8" id="Page_8">[Pg 8]</a></span> has collected capitals, ornaments, +entire columns obtained on the distant shores to which its wars and its +commerce have led it, and these ancient fragments enter into its work +without incongruity; for it is instinctively cast in the ancient mold, +and only developed with a tinge of fancy on the side of finesse and the +pleasing. Every antique form reappears, but reshaped in the same sense +by a fresh and original impulse.</p> + +<p>The outer columns of the Greek temple are reduced, multiplied and +uplifted in the air, and from a support have become an ornament. The +Roman or Byzantine dome is elongated and its natural heaviness +diminished under a crown of slender columns with a miter ornament, which +girds it midway with its delicate promenade. On the two sides of the +great door two Corinthian columns are enveloped with luxurious foliage, +calyxes and twining or blooming acanthus; and from the threshold we see +the church with its files of intersecting columns, its alternate courses +of black and white marble and its multitude of slender and brilliant +forms, rising upward like an altar of candelabra. A new spirit appears +here, a more delicate sensibility; it is not excessive and disordered as +in the north, and yet it is not satisfied with the grave simplicity, the +robust nudity of antique architecture. It is the daughter of the pagan +mother, healthy and gay, but more womanly than its mother.</p> + +<p>She is not yet an adult, sure in all her steps—she is somewhat awkward. +The lateral façades on the exterior are monotonous; the cupola<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_9" id="Page_9">[Pg 9]</a></span> within +is a reversed funnel of a peculiar and disagreeable form. The junction +of the two arms of the cross is unsatisfactory and so many modernized +chapels dispel the charm due to purity, as at Sienna. At the second +glance however all this is forgotten, and we again regard it as a +complete whole. Four rows of Corinthian columns, surmounted with +arcades, divide the church into five naves, and form a forest. A second +passage, as richly crowded, traverses the former crosswise, and, above +the beautiful grove, files of still smaller columns prolong and +intersect each other in order to uphold in the air the prolongation and +intersection of the quadruple gallery. The ceiling is flat; the windows +are small, and for the most part, without sashes; they allow the walls +to retain the grandeur of their mass and the solidity of their position; +and among these long, straight and simple lines, in this natural light, +the innumerable shafts glow with the serenity of an antique temple....</p> + +<p>Nothing more can be added in relation to the Baptistery or the Leaning +Tower; the same ideas prevail in these, the same taste, the same style. +The former is a simple, isolated dome, the latter a cylinder, and each +has an outward dress of small columns. And yet each has its own distinct +and expressive physiognomy; but description and writing consume too much +time, and too many technical terms are requisite to define their +differences. I note, simply, the inclination of the Tower. Some suppose +that, when half constructed, the tower sank in the earth on one side, +and that the architects<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_10" id="Page_10">[Pg 10]</a></span> continued on; seeing that they did continue +this deflection was only a partial obstacle to them. In any event, there +are other leaning towers in Italy, at Bologna, for example; voluntarily +or involuntarily this feeling for oddness, this love of paradox, this +yielding to fancy is one of the characteristics of the Middle Ages.</p> + +<p>In the center of the Baptistery stands a superb font with eight panels; +each panel is incrusted with a rich complicated flower in full bloom, +and each flower is different. Around it a circle of large Corinthian +columns supports round-arch arcades; most of them are antique and are +ornamented with antique bas-reliefs; Meleager with his barking dogs, and +the nude torsos of his companions in attendance on Christian mysteries. +On the left stands a pulpit similar to that of Sienna, the first work of +Nicholas of Pisa (1260), a simple marble coffer supported by marble +columns and covered with sculptures. The sentiment of force and of +antique nudity comes out here in striking features. The sculptor +comprehended the postures and torsions of bodies. His figures, somewhat +massive, are grand and simple; he frequently reproduces the tunics and +folds of the Roman costume; one of his nude personages, a sort of +Hercules bearing a young lion on his shoulders, has the broad breast and +muscular tension which the sculptors of the sixteenth century admired.</p> + +<p>The last of these edifices, the Campo-Santo, is a cemetery, the soil of +which, brought from Palestine, is holy ground. Four high walls of +polished marble surround it with their white<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_11" id="Page_11">[Pg 11]</a></span> and crowded panels. +Inside, a square gallery forms a promenade opening into the court +through arcades trellised with ogive windows. It is filled with funereal +monuments, busts, inscriptions and statues of every form and of every +age. Nothing could be simpler and nobler. A framework of dark wood +supports the arch overhead, and the crest of the roof cuts sharp against +the crystal sky. At the angles are four rustling cypress trees, +tranquilly swayed by the breeze. Grass is growing in the court with a +wild freshness and luxuriance. Here and there a climbing flower twined +around a column, a small rosebush, or a shrub glows beneath a gleam of +sunshine. There is no noise; this quarter is deserted; only now and then +is heard the voice of some promenader which reverberates as under the +vault of a church. It is the veritable cemetery of a free and Christian +city; here, before the tombs of the great, people might well reflect +over death and public affairs.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3>THE WALLS AND "SKYSCRAPERS" OF PISA<a name="FNanchor_5_5" id="FNanchor_5_5"></a><a href="#Footnote_5_5" class="fnanchor">[5]</a></h3> + +<h4>BY JANET ROSS AND NELLY ERICHSON</h4> + + +<p>Few cities have preserved their medieval walls with such loving care as +Pisa. The circuit is complete save where the traveler enters the city; +and there, alas, a wide breach has been<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_12" id="Page_12">[Pg 12]</a></span> made by the restless spirit of +modernity. But once past the paltry barrier and the banal square, with +its inevitable statue of Victor Emanuel, that take the place of the old +Porta Romana, one quickly perceives that the city is a walled one. +Glimpses of battlements close the vistas of the streets, and green +fields peep through the open gates, marking that abrupt transition +between town and country peculiar to a fortified city.</p> + +<p>The walls are best seen from without. An admirable impression of them +can be had on leaving the city by the Porta Lucchese. Turning to the +left, after passing a crucifix overshadowed by cypresses, we come to the +edge of a stretch of level marshy meadows, gaily pied in spring with +orchids and grape hyacinths. Above our heads the high air vibrates with +the song of larks. Before us is the long line of the city walls. Strong, +grim and gray, they look with nothing to break the outline of square +battlements against the sky, but that majestic groups of domes and +towers for whose defense they were built. At the angle of the wall to +the right is a square watch-tower, backed by groups of cypresses that +rise into the air like dark flames. Its little windows command the flat +plain as far as the horizon. How easy to imagine the warning blast of +the warder's trumpet as he caught sight of a distant enemy, and the wall +springing into life at the sound. Armed men buckling on their harness +would swarm up ladders to the battlements, the catapult groan and squeak +as its lever was forced backward, and at the sharp word of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_13" id="Page_13">[Pg 13]</a></span> command the +first flight of arrows would be loosed.</p> + +<p>But the dream fades, and we pass on to the angle of the wall where the +cypresses stand. From the picturesque Jews' cemetery, to which access is +easy, the structure of the walls can be studied in detail because the +hand of the restorer has been perforce withheld within its gates. The +wall is some forty feet high, built of stone from the Pisan hills, +weathered for the most part to a grayish hue. The masonry of the lower +half is good. The blocks of stone are large and well laid. Those of the +upper half are smaller and the masonry is in places careless and +irregular. The red brick battlements are square. At short intervals +there are walled-up gateways, round-headed or ogival in form, and the +whole surface is rent and patched. Centuries of war and earthquakes, +rain and fire, have given it a pleasant irregularity, the record of +violent and troublous times.</p> + +<p>The city can be reentered by the Porta Nuova, only a few yards to the +left of the cemetery. So venerable do these battered walls look that we +need the full evidence of history to realize that they had more than one +predecessor. The memory even of the first walls of Pisa, an ancient city +when Rome was young, has been lost. The earliest record of which we know +anything appears on a map of the ninth century drawn by one Bonanno; a +map, we should rather say professing to be of the ninth century, for +churches of the thirteenth century are marked upon it, so it must either +have been made, or the churches inserted, then....<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_14" id="Page_14">[Pg 14]</a></span></p> + +<p>The ancient walls were practically swept away by the prosperity of Pisa. +Beside the Balearic Islands she had conquered Carthage, the Lipari +Islands, Elba, Corsica, and Palermo, and her galleys poured their spoils +into the Pisan port. She traded with the East, and was successful in +commerce as in war. Her inhabitants increased rapidly. They could no +longer be penned within the narrow limits of the old wall, but +overflowed in all directions beyond it. Not only was the Borgo thickly +populated, but a whole new region called Forisportae, sprang up.</p> + +<p>So masked was the wall by houses, built into it and huddling against it +both on the outside and the inside, that it seems to have been actually +invisible. So much so that contemporary chroniclers spoke of Pisa as +without walls, and attributed her safety to the valor of her citizens +and the multitude of her towers. The ancient wall was evidently so +hidden and decayed that Pisa must be regarded as a defenseless city in +the twelfth century. It is curious that her citizens should have +neglected their own safety at a time when they were masters of +fortification and defense; when their fame in these arts had reached as +far as Egypt and Syria, and when the Milanese came to them to beg for +engineers....</p> + +<p>The external appearance of an Italian city in the twelfth century was so +unlike anything we are accustomed to in modern times that a strong +effort of the imagination is needed to conceive it. Seen from a distance +the walls enclosed, not houses, but a forest of tall square<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_15" id="Page_15">[Pg 15]</a></span> shafts, +rising into the sky like the crowded chimney stacks in a manufacturing +town but far more thickly set together. The city appeared, to use a +graphic contemporary metaphor, like a sheaf of corn bound together by +its walls.</p> + + +<div class="figcenter"> + <img src="images/img32-1.jpg" + alt="PANEL IN THE CATHEDRAL" /><br /> + <b>PANEL IN THE CATHEDRAL, SHOWING PART OF THE MEDIEVAL WALL<br /> +AND TOWERS OF PISA</b> + </div> + +<p>San Gimignano, tho most of its towers have perished long ago, helps us +to imagine faintly what Italian towns were like in the days of Frederick +Barbarossa or his grandson Frederick II. For most of the houses were +actually towers, long rectangular columns, vying with each other in +height and crowded close together on either side of the narrow, airless, +darkened streets. Sometimes they were connected with one another by +wooden bridges, and all were furnished with wooden balconies used in +defensive and offensive warfare with their neighbors.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_16" id="Page_16">[Pg 16]</a></span></p> + +<p>Cities full of towers were common all over southern France and central +Italy, but Tuscany had more than any other state, and those of Pisa were +the most famous of all. The habit of building and dwelling in towers +rather than in houses may have arisen from the difficulty of expanding +laterally within an enclosed city; but a stronger reason may be found in +the dangers and uncertainty of life in a period when a man might be +attacked at any moment by his fellow-citizen, as well as by the enemy of +the state. It was a distinct military advantage to overlook one's +neighbor, who might be an enemy; and towers rose higher and higher. The +spirit of emulation entered, and rich nobles gloried in adding tower to +tower and in looking down on all rivals.</p> + +<p>But whatever the cause of their existence, they were picturesque, and +must have presented a gallant sight on the eve of a high festival. The +tall shafts were tinged with gold by the western sun, their battlements +crowned with three fluttering banners—the eagle of the Emperor, the +white cross of the Commune, and the device of the People—looking as tho +a cloud of many-colored butterflies were hovering over the city.</p> + +<p>Again, how dramatic the scene when the city was rent by one of the +perpetually recurring faction-fights. Light bridges with grappling-irons +were thrown from tower to tower, doors and windows were barricaded, +balconies and battlements lined with men in shining mail, bearing the +fantastic device of their leader on helm and shield. Mangonels, or +catapults,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_17" id="Page_17">[Pg 17]</a></span> huge engines stationed on the roofs of the towers, sent +masses of stone hurtling through the air, whistling arbelast bolts and +clothyard shafts flew in thick showers, boiling oil or lead rained down +on the heads of those who ventured down to attack the doors, and arrows, +with Greek fire attached, were shot with nice aim into the wooden +balconies and bridges. Vile insults were hurled where missiles failed to +strike. The shouts and shrieks of the combatants were mingled with the +crash of a falling tower or with the hissing of a fire-arrow. Where +those struck, a red glow arose and a thick cloud of smoke enveloped the +defenders.</p> + +<p>Altho it is evident that towers were very numerous in Pisa, it is +difficult to arrive at their precise number. The chroniclers differ +greatly in their estimates. Benjamin da Tudela, for instance, says that +there were 10,000 in the twelfth century; while Marangone puts the +number at 15,000 and Tronci at 16,000. These are round numbers such as +the medieval mind loved, but we have abundant evidence that they are not +much exaggerated. An intarsia panel in the Duomo, shows how closely the +towers were packed together, while the mass of legislation relating to +them was directed against abuses that could only have arisen if their +number was very large.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_18" id="Page_18">[Pg 18]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>V</h2> + +<h2>NAPLES AND ITS ENVIRONS</h2> +<p><br /><br /></p> + +<h3>IN AND ABOUT THE CITY<a name="FNanchor_6_6" id="FNanchor_6_6"></a><a href="#Footnote_6_6" class="fnanchor">[6]</a></h3> + +<h4>BY CHARLES DICKENS</h4> + + +<p>So we go, rattling down-hill, into Naples. A funeral is coming up the +street, toward us. The body, on an open bier, borne on a kind of +palanquin, covered with a gay cloth of crimson and gold. The mourners, +in white gowns and masks. If there be death abroad, life is well +represented too, for all Naples would seem to be out of doors, and +tearing to and fro in carriages. Some of these, the common Vetturino +vehicles, are drawn by three horses abreast, decked with smart trappings +and great abundance of brazen ornament, and always going very fast. Not +that their loads are light; for the smallest of them has at least six +people inside, four in front, four or five more hanging behind, and two +or three more, in a net or bag below the axle-tree, where they lie +half-suffocated with mud and dust.</p> + +<p>Exhibitors of Punch, buffo singers with guitars, reciters of poetry, +reciters of stories, a row of cheap exhibitions with clowns and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_19" id="Page_19">[Pg 19]</a></span> +showmen, drums, and trumpets, painted cloths representing the wonders +within, and admiring crowds assembled without, assist the whirl and +bustle. Ragged lazzaroni lie asleep in doorways, archways, and kennels; +the gentry, gaily drest, are dashing up and down in carriages on the +Chiaja, or walking in the Public Gardens; and quiet letter-writers, +perched behind their little desks and inkstands under the Portico of the +Great Theater of San Carlo, in the public street, are waiting for +clients.</p> + +<p>Why do the beggars rap their chins constantly, with their right hands, +when you look at them? Everything is done in pantomime in Naples, and +that is the conventional sign for hunger. A man who is quarreling with +another, yonder, lays the palm of his right hand on the back of his +left, and shakes the two thumbs—expressive of a donkey's ears—whereat +his adversary is goaded to desperation. Two people bargaining for fish, +the buyer empties an imaginary waistcoat pocket when he is told the +price, and walks away without a word, having thoroughly conveyed to the +seller that he considers it too dear. Two people in carriages, meeting, +one touches his lips, twice or thrice, holding up the five fingers of +his right hand, and gives a horizontal cut in the air with the palm. The +other nods briskly, and goes his way. He has been invited to a friendly +dinner at half-past five o'clock, and will certainly come.</p> + +<p>All over Italy, a peculiar shake of the right hand from the wrist, with +the forefinger stretched out, expresses a negative—the only negative<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_20" id="Page_20">[Pg 20]</a></span> +beggars will ever understand. But, in Naples, those five fingers are a +copious language. All this, and every other kind of out-door life and +stir, and maccaroni-eating at sunset, and flower-selling all day long, +and begging and stealing everywhere and at all hours, you see upon the +bright sea-shore, where the waves of the Bay sparkle merrily....</p> + +<p>Capri—once made odious by the deified beast Tiberius—Ischia, Procida, +and the thousand distant beauties of the Bay, lie in the blue sea +yonder, changing in the mist and sunshine twenty times a day; now close +at hand, now far off, now unseen. The fairest country in the world, is +spread about us. Whether we turn toward the Miseno shore of the splendid +watery amphitheater, and go by the Grotto of Posilipo to the Grotto del +Cane and away to Baiae, or take the other way, toward Vesuvius and +Sorrento, it is one succession of delights. In the last-named direction, +where, over doors and archways, there are countless little images of San +Gennaro, with this Canute's hand stretched out, to check the fury of the +burning Mountain, we are carried pleasantly, by a railroad on the +beautiful Sea Beach, past the town of Torre del Greco, built upon the +ashes of the former town destroyed by an eruption of Vesuvius, within a +hundred years; and past the flat-roofed houses, granaries, and maccaroni +manufacturies; to Castellamare, with its ruined castle, now inhabited by +fishermen, standing in the sea upon a heap of rocks.</p> + +<p>Here, the railroad terminates; but, hence we may ride on, by an unbroken +succession of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21">[Pg 21]</a></span> enchanting bays, and beautiful scenery, sloping from the +highest summit of Saint Angelo, the highest neighboring mountain, down +to the water's edge—among vineyards, olive-trees, gardens of oranges +and lemons, orchards, heaped-up rocks, green gorges in the hills—and by +the bases of snow-covered heights, and through small towns with +handsome, dark-haired women at the doors—and pass delicious summer +villas—to Sorrento, where the poet Tasso drew his inspiration from the +beauty surrounding him. Returning, we may climb the heights above +Castellamare, and looking down among the boughs and leaves, see the +crisp water glistening in the sun; and clusters of white houses in +distant Naples, dwindling, in the great extent of prospect, down to +dice. The coming back to the city, by the beach again, at sunset; with +the glowing sea on one side, and the darkening mountain (Vesuvius), with +its smoke and flame, upon the other, is a sublime conclusion to the +glory of the day.</p> + +<p>That church by the Porta Capuna—near the old fisher-market in the +dirtiest quarter of dirty Naples, where the revolt of Masaniello +began—is memorable for having been the scene of one of his earliest +proclamations to the people, and is particularly remarkable for nothing +else, unless it be its waxen and bejeweled Saint in a glass case, with +two odd hands; or the enormous number of beggars who are constantly +rapping their chins there, like a battery of castanets. The cathedral +with the beautiful door, and the columns of African and Egyptian granite +that once ornamented the temple of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_22" id="Page_22">[Pg 22]</a></span> Apollo, contains the famous sacred +blood of San Gennaro or Januarius, which is preserved in two phials in a +silver tabernacle, and miraculously liquefies three times a year, to the +great admiration of the people. At the same moment, the stone (distant +some miles) where the Saint suffered martyrdom, becomes faintly red. It +is said that the officiating priests turn faintly red also, sometimes, +when these miracles occur.</p> + +<p>The old, old men who live in hovels at the entrance of these ancient +catacombs, and who, in their age and infirmity, seem waiting here, to be +buried themselves, are members of a curious body, called the Royal +Hospital, who are the official attendants at funerals. Two of these old +specters totter away, with lighted tapers, to show the caverns of +death—as unconcerned as if they were immortal. They were used as +burying-places for three hundred years; and, in one part, is a large pit +full of skulls and bones, said to be the sad remains of a great +mortality occasioned by a plague. In the rest, there is nothing but +dust. They consist, chiefly, of great wide corridors and labyrinths, +hewn out of the rock. At the end of some of these long passages, are +unexpected glimpses of the daylight, shining down from above. It looks +as ghastly and as strange; among the torches, and the dust, and the dark +vaults; as if it, too, were dead and buried.</p> + +<p>The present burial-place lies out yonder, on a hill between the city and +Vesuvius. The old Campo Santo with its three hundred and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_23" id="Page_23">[Pg 23]</a></span> sixty-five +pits, is only used for those who die in hospitals, and prisons, and are +unclaimed by their friends. The graceful new cemetery, at no great +distance from it, tho yet unfinished, has already many graves among its +shrubs and flowers, and airy colonnades. It might be reasonably objected +elsewhere, that some of the tombs are meretricious and too fanciful; but +the general brightness seems to justify it here; and Mount Vesuvius, +separated from them by a lovely slope of ground, exalts and saddens the +scene.</p> + +<p>If it be solemn to behold from this new City of the Dead, with its dark +smoke hanging in the clear sky, how much more awful and impressive is +it, viewed from the ghostly ruins of Herculaneum and Pompeii!</p> + +<p>Stand at the bottom of the great market-place of Pompeii, and look up +the silent streets, through the ruined temples of Jupiter and Isis, over +the broken houses with their inmost sanctuaries open to the day, away to +Mount Vesuvius, bright and snowy in the peaceful distance; and lose all +count of time, and heed of other things, in the strange and melancholy +sensation of seeing the Destroyed and the Destroyer making this quiet +picture in the sun. Then, ramble on, and see, at every turn, the little +familiar tokens of human habitation and everyday pursuits, the chafing +of the bucket-rope in the stone rim of the exhausted well; the track of +carriage-wheels in the pavement of the street; the marks of +drinking-vessels on the stone counter of the wine-shop; the amphoræ in +private cellars, stored away so many hundred years ago, and undisturbed +to this hour<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_24" id="Page_24">[Pg 24]</a></span>—all rendering the solitude and deadly lonesomeness of the +place, ten thousand times more solemn, than if the volcano, in its fury, +had swept the city from the earth, and sunk it in the bottom of the sea.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3>THE TOMB OF VIRGIL<a name="FNanchor_7_7" id="FNanchor_7_7"></a><a href="#Footnote_7_7" class="fnanchor">[7]</a></h3> + +<h4>BY AUGUSTUS J. C. HARE</h4> + + +<p>A road to the right at the end of the Chiaja, leads to the mouth of the +Grotto of Posilipo, above which those who do not wish to leave their +carriages may see, high on the left, close above the grotto, the ruined +columbarium known as the Tomb of Virgil. A door in the wall, on the left +of the approach to the grotto, and a very steep staircase, lead to the +columbarium, which is situated in a pretty fruit-garden.</p> + +<p>Virgil desired that his body should be brought to Naples from +Brundusium, where he died, B.C. 19, and there is every probability that +he was buried on this spot, which was visited as Virgil's burial-place +little more than a century after his death by the poet Statius, who was +born at Naples, and who describes composing his own poems while seated +in the shadow of the tomb. If further confirmation were needed of the +story that Virgil was laid here, it would be found in the fact that +Silius Italicus, who lived at the same time with Statius, purchased the +tomb of Virgil, restored it from<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_25" id="Page_25">[Pg 25]</a></span> the neglect into which it had fallen, +and celebrated funeral rites before it.</p> + +<p>The tomb was originally shaded by a gigantic bay-tree, which is said to +have died on the death of Dante. Petrarch, who was brought hither by +King Robert, planted another, which existed in the time of Sannazaro, +but was destroyed by relic-collectors in the last century. A branch was +sent to Frederick the Great by the Margravine of Baireuth, with some +verses by Voltaire. If from no other cause, the tomb would be +interesting from its visitors; here Boccaccio renounced the career of a +merchant for that of a poet, and a well-known legend, that St. Paul +visited the sepulcher of Virgil at Naples, was long commemorated in the +verse of a hymn used in the service for St. Paul's Day at Mantua.</p> + +<p>The tomb is a small, square, vaulted chamber with three windows. Early +in the sixteenth century a funeral urn, containing the ashes of the +poet, stood in the center, supported by nine little marble pillars. Some +say that Robert of Anjou removed it, in 1326, for security to the Castel +Nuovo, others that it was given by the Government to a cardinal from +Mantua, who died at Genoa on his way home. In either event the urn is +now lost.</p> + +<p>It is just beneath the tomb that the road to Pozzuoli enters the famous +Grotto of Posilipo, a tunnel about half a mile long, in breadth from 25 +to 30 feet, and varying from about 90 feet in height near the entrance, +to little more than 20 feet at points of the interior. Petronius and +Seneca mention its narrow gloomy<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_26" id="Page_26">[Pg 26]</a></span> passage with horror, in the reign of +Nero, when it was so low that it could only be used for foot-passengers, +who were obliged to stoop in passing through.</p> + +<p>In the fifteenth century King Alphonso I. gave it height by lowering the +floor, which was paved by Don Pedro di Toledo a hundred years later. In +the Middle Ages the grotto was ascribed to the magic arts of Virgil. In +recent years it has been the chief means of communication between Naples +and Baiae, and is at all times filled with dust and noise, the +flickering lights and resounding echoes giving it a most weird effect. +However much one may abuse Neapolitans, we may consider in their favor, +as Swinburne observes, "what a terror this dark grotto would be in +London!"</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3>TWO ASCENTS OF VESUVIUS<a name="FNanchor_8_8" id="FNanchor_8_8"></a><a href="#Footnote_8_8" class="fnanchor">[8]</a></h3> + +<h4>BY JOHANN WOLGANG VON GOETHE</h4> + + +<p>At the foot of the steep ascent, we were received by two guides, one +old, the other young, but both active fellows. The first pulled me up +the path, the other Tischbein<a name="FNanchor_9_9" id="FNanchor_9_9"></a><a href="#Footnote_9_9" class="fnanchor">[9]</a>—pulled I say, for these guides are +girded round the waist with a leathern belt, which the traveler takes +hold of, and being drawn up by his guide, makes his way the easier with +foot and staff. In this manner we reached the flat from which<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_27" id="Page_27">[Pg 27]</a></span> the cone +rises; toward the north lay the ruins of the summit.</p> + +<p>A glance westward over the country beneath us, removed, as well as a +bath could, all feeling of exhaustion and fatigue, and we now went round +the ever-smoking cone, as it threw out its stones and ashes. Wherever +the space allowed of our viewing it at a sufficient distance, it +appeared a grand and elevating spectacle. In the first place, a violent +thundering toned forth from its deepest abyss, then stones of larger and +smaller sizes were showered into the air by thousands, and enveloped by +clouds of ashes. The greatest part fell again into the gorge; the rest +of the fragments, receiving a lateral inclination, and falling on the +outside of the crater, made a marvelous rumbling noise. First of all the +larger masses plumped against the side, and rebounded with a dull heavy +sound; then the smaller came rattling down; and last of all, drizzled a +shower of ashes. All this took place at regular intervals, which by +slowly counting, we were able to measure pretty accurately.</p> + +<p>Between the summit, however, and the cone the space is narrow enough; +moreover, several stones fell around us, and made the circuit anything +but agreeable. Tischbein now felt more disgusted than ever with +Vesuvius, as the monster, not content with being hateful, showed an +inclination to become mischievous also.</p> + +<p>As, however, the presence of danger generally exercises on man a kind of +attraction, and calls forth a spirit of opposition in the human<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_28" id="Page_28">[Pg 28]</a></span> breast +to defy it, I bethought myself that, in the interval of the eruptions, +it would be possible to climb up the cone to the crater, and to get back +before it broke out again. I held a council on this point with our +guides under one of the overhanging rocks of the summit, where, encamped +in safety, we refreshed ourselves with the provisions we had brought +with us. The younger guide was willing to run the risk with me; we +stuffed our hats full of linen and silk handkerchiefs, and, staff in +hand, we prepared to start, I holding on to his girdle.</p> + +<p>The little stones were yet rattling around us, and the ashes still +drizzling, as the stalwart youth hurried forth with me across the hot +glowing rubble. We soon stood on the brink of the vast chasm, the smoke +of which, altho a gentle air was bearing it away from us, unfortunately +veiled the interior of the crater, which smoked all round from a +thousand crannies. At intervals, however, we caught sight through the +smoke of the cracked walls of the rock. The view was neither instructive +nor delightful; but for the very reason that one saw nothing, one +lingered in the hope of catching a glimpse of something more; and so we +forgot our slow counting. We were standing on a narrow ridge of the +vast abyss; of a sudden the thunder pealed aloud; we ducked our heads +involuntarily, as if that would have rescued us from the precipitated +masses. The smaller stones soon rattled, and without considering that we +had again an interval of cessation before us, and only too much rejoiced +to have outstood the danger, we rushed down and reached the foot of the +hill together with the drizz<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_29" id="Page_29">[Pg 29]</a></span>ling ashes, which pretty thickly covered +our heads and shoulders....</p> + +<p>The news [two weeks later] that an eruption of lava had just commenced, +which, taking the direction of Ottajano, was invisible at Naples, +tempted me to visit Vesuvius for the third time. Scarcely had I jumped +out of my cabriolet at the foot of the mountain, when immediately +appeared the two guides who had accompanied us on our previous ascent. I +had no wish to do without either, but took one out of gratitude and +custom, the other for reliance on his judgment—and the two for the +greater convenience. Having ascended the summit, the older guide +remained with our cloaks and refreshment, while the younger followed me, +and we boldly went straight toward a dense volume of smoke, which broke +forth from the bottom of the funnel; then we quickly went downward by +the side of it, till at last, under the clear heaven, we distinctly saw +the lava emitted from the rolling clouds of smoke.</p> + +<p>We may hear an object spoken of a thousand times, but its peculiar +features will never be caught till we see it with our own eyes. The +stream of lava was small, not broader perhaps than ten feet, but the way +in which it flowed down a gentle and tolerably smooth plain was +remarkable. As it flowed along, it cooled both on the sides and on the +surface, so that it formed a sort of canal, the bed of which was +continually raised in consequence of the molten mass congealing even +beneath the fiery stream, which, with uniform action, precipitated right +and left the scoria which were floating on its surface. In this way a +regular dam was at length thrown up, in which the glowing stream<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_30" id="Page_30">[Pg 30]</a></span> flowed +on as quietly as any mill-stream. We passed along the tolerably high +dam, while the scoria rolled regularly off the sides at our feet. Some +cracks in the canal afforded opportunity of looking at the living +stream, from below, and as it rushed onward, we observed it from above.</p> + +<p>A very bright sun made the glowing lava look dull; but a moderate steam +rose from it into the pure air. I felt a great desire to go nearer to +the point where it broke out from the mountain; there my guide averred, +it at once formed vaults and roofs above itself, on which he had often +stood. To see and experience this phenomenon, we again ascended the +hill, in order to come from behind to this point. Fortunately at this +moment the place was cleared by a pretty strong wind, but not entirely, +for all round it the smoke eddied from a thousand crannies; and now at +last we stood on the top of the solid roof (which looked like a hardened +mass of twisted dough), but which, however, projected so far outward, +that it was impossible to see the welling lava.</p> + +<p>We ventured about twenty steps further, but the ground on which we stept +became hotter and hotter, while around us rolled an oppressive steam, +which obscured and hid the sun; the guide, who was a few steps in +advance of me, presently turned back, and seizing hold of me, hurried +out of this Stygian exhalation.</p> + +<p>After we had refreshed our eyes with the clear prospect, and washed our +gums and throat with wine, we went round again to notice any other +peculiarities which might characterize this peak of hell, thus rearing +itself in the midst of a Paradise. I again observed attentively some +chasms, in ap<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_31" id="Page_31">[Pg 31]</a></span>pearance like so many vulcanic forges, which emitted no +smoke, but continually shot out a steam of hot glowing air. They were +all tapestried, as it were, with a kind of stalactite, which covered the +funnel to the top, with its knobs and chintz-like variation of colors. +In consequence of the irregularity of the forges, I found many specimens +of this sublimation hanging within reach, so that, with our staves and a +little contrivance, we were able to hack off a few, and to secure them. +I saw in the shops of the dealers in lava similar specimens, labeled +simply "Lava"; and I was delighted to have discovered that it was +volcanic soot precipitated from the hot vapor, and distinctly exhibiting +the sublimated mineral particles which it contained.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3>ANOTHER ASCENT<a name="FNanchor_10_10" id="FNanchor_10_10"></a><a href="#Footnote_10_10" class="fnanchor">[10]</a></h3> + +<h4>BY CHARLES DICKENS</h4> + + +<p>No matter that the snow and ice lie thick upon the summit of Vesuvius, +or that we have been on foot all day at Pompeii, or that croakers +maintain that strangers should not be on the mountain by night, in such +unusual season. Let us take advantage of the fine weather; make the best +of our way to Resina, the little village at the foot of the mountain; +prepare ourselves, as well as we can, on so short a notice, at the +guide's house, ascend at once, and have sunset half-way up, moonlight at +the top, and midnight to come down in!</p> + +<p>At four o'clock in the afternoon, there is a ter<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_32" id="Page_32">[Pg 32]</a></span>rible uproar in the +little stable-yard of Signor Salvatore, the recognized head guide, with +the gold band round his cap; and thirty under-guides who are all +scuffling and screaming at once, are preparing half-a-dozen saddled +ponies, three litters, and some stout staves, for the journey. Every one +of the thirty quarrels with the other twenty-nine, and frightens the six +ponies; and as much of the village as can possibly squeeze itself into +the little stable-yard, participates in the tumult, and gets trodden on +by the cattle.</p> + +<p>After much violent skirmishing, and more noise than would suffice for +the storming of Naples, the procession starts. The head guide, who is +liberally paid for all the attendants, rides a little in advance of the +party; the other thirty guides proceed on foot. Eight go forward with +the litters that are to be used by and by; and the remaining +two-and-twenty beg. We ascend, gradually, by stony lanes like rough +broad flights of stairs, for some time. At length, we leave these, and +the vineyards on either side of them, and emerge upon a bleak, bare +region where the lava lies confusedly, in enormous rusty masses; as if +the earth had been plowed up by burning thunder-bolts. And now, we halt +to see the sunset. The change that falls upon the dreary region and on +the whole mountain, as its red light fades, and the night comes on—and +the unutterable solemnity and dreariness that reign around, who that has +witnessed it, can ever forget!</p> + +<p>It is dark, when after winding, for some time, over the broken ground, +we arrive at the foot of the cone, which is extremely steep, and seems +to rise, almost perpendicularly, from the spot where<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_33" id="Page_33">[Pg 33]</a></span> we dismount. The +only light is reflected from the snow, deep, hard, and white, with which +the cone is covered. It is now intensely cold, and the air is piercing. +The thirty-one have brought no torches, knowing that the moon will rise +before we reach the top. Two of the litters are devoted to the two +ladies; the third, to a rather heavy gentleman from Naples, whose +hospitality and good-nature have attached him to the expedition, and +determined him to assist in doing the honors of the mountain. The rather +heavy gentleman is carried by fifteen men; each of the ladies by +half-a-dozen. We who walk, make the best use of our staves; and so the +whole party begin to labor upward over the snow—as if they were toiling +to the summit of an antediluvian Twelfth-cake.</p> + +<p>We are a long time toiling up; and the head guide looks oddly about him +when one of the company—not an Italian, tho an habitué of the mountain +for many years: whom we will call, for our present purpose, Mr. Pickle +of Portici—suggests that, as it is freezing hard, and the usual footing +of ashes is covered by the snow and ice, it will surely be difficult to +descend. But the sight of the litters above, tilting up, and down, and +jerking from this side to that, as the bearers continually slip, and +tumble, diverts our attention, more especially as the whole length of +the rather heavy gentleman is, at that moment, presented to us +alarmingly foreshortened, with his head downward.</p> + +<p>The rising of the moon soon afterward, revives the flagging spirits of +the bearers. Stimulating each other with their usual watchword, +"Courage, friend! It is to eat maccaroni!" they press on, gallantly, for +the summit.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_34" id="Page_34">[Pg 34]</a></span></p> + +<p>From tingeing the top of the snow above us with a band of light, and +pouring it in a stream through the valley below, while we have been +ascending in the dark, the moon soon lights the whole white mountain +side, and the broad sea down below, and tiny Naples in the distance, and +every village in the country round. The whole prospect is in this lovely +state, when we come upon the platform on the mountain-top—the region of +fire—an exhausted crater formed of great masses of gigantic cinders, +like blocks of stone from some tremendous waterfall, burned up; from +every chink and crevice of which, hot, sulfurous smoke is pouring out; +while, from another conical-shaped hill, the present crater, rising +abruptly from this platform at the end, great sheets of fire are +streaming forth; reddening the night with flame, blackening it with +smoke, and spotting it with red-hot stones and cinders, that fly up into +the air like feathers, and fall down like lead. What words can paint the +gloom and grandeur of this scene!</p> + +<p>The broken ground; the smoke; the sense of suffocation from the sulfur; +the fear of falling down through the crevices in the yawning ground; the +stopping, every now and then, for somebody who is missing in the dark +(for the dense smoke now obscures the moon); the intolerable noise of +the thirty; and the hoarse roaring of the mountain; make it a scene of +such confusion, at the same time, that we reel again. But, dragging the +ladies through it, and across another exhausted crater to the foot of +the present volcano, we approach close to it on the windy side, and then +sit down among the hot ashes at its foot, and look up<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_35" id="Page_35">[Pg 35]</a></span> in silence; +faintly estimating the action that is going on within, from its being +full a hundred feet higher, at this minute, than it was six weeks ago.</p> + +<p>There is something in the fire and roar, that generates an irresistible +desire to get nearer to it. We can not rest long, without starting off, +two of us on our hands and knees, accompanied by the head guide, to +climb to the brim of the flaming crater, and try to look in. Meanwhile, +the thirty yell, as with one voice, that it is a dangerous proceeding, +and call to us to come back; frightening the rest of the party out of +their wits.</p> + +<p>What with their noise, and what with the trembling of the thin crust of +ground, that seems about to open underneath our feet and plunge us in +the burning gulf below (which is the real danger, if there be any); and +what with the flashing of the fire in our faces, and the shower of +red-hot ashes that is raining down, and the choking smoke and sulfur; we +may well feel giddy and irrational, like drunken men. But, we contrive +to climb up to the brim, and look down, for a moment, into the hell of +boiling fire below. Then, we all three come rolling down; blackened, and +singed, and scorched, and hot, and giddy; and each with his dress alight +in half-a-dozen places.</p> + +<p>You have read, a thousand times, that the usual way of descending, is, +by sliding down the ashes; which, forming a gradually-increasing ledge +below the feet, prevent too rapid a descent. But, when we have crossed +the two exhausted craters on our way back, and are come to this +precipitous place, there is (as Mr. Pickle has foretold) no vestige of +ashes to be seen; the whole being a smooth sheet of ice.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_36" id="Page_36">[Pg 36]</a></span></p> + +<p>In this dilemma, ten or a dozen of the guides cautiously join hands, and +make a chain of men; of whom the foremost beat, as well as they can, a +rough track with their sticks, down which we prepare to follow. The way +being fearfully steep, and none of the party—even of the thirty—being +able to keep their feet for six paces together, the ladies are taken out +of their litters, and placed, each between two careful persons; while +others of the thirty hold by their skirts, to prevent their falling +forward—a necessary precaution, tending to the immediate and hopeless +dilapidation of their apparel. The rather heavy gentleman is abjured to +leave his litter too, and be escorted in a similar manner; but he +resolves to be brought down as he was brought up, on the principle that +his fifteen bearers are not likely to tumble all at once, and that he is +safer so, than trusting to his own legs.</p> + +<p>In this order, we begin the descent; sometimes on foot, sometimes +shuffling on the ice; always proceeding much more quietly and slowly +than on our upward way; and constantly alarmed by the falling among us +of somebody from behind, who endangers the footing of the whole party, +and clings pertinaciously to anybody's ankles. It is impossible for the +litter to be in advance, too, as the track has to be made; and its +appearance behind us, overhead—with some one or other of the bearers +always down, and the rather heavy gentleman with his legs always in the +air—is very threatening and frightful. We have gone on thus, a very +little way, painfully and anxiously, but quite merrily, and regarding it +as a great success—and have all fallen several times, and have all been +stopt, somehow or other, as we were sliding away<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_37" id="Page_37">[Pg 37]</a></span> when Mr. Pickle of +Portici, in the act of remarking on these uncommon circumstances as +quite beyond his experience, stumbles, falls, disengages himself, with +quick presence of mind, from those about him, plunges away head +foremost, and rolls, over and over, down the whole surface of the cone!</p> + +<p>Giddy, and bloody, and a mere bundle of rags, is Pickle of Portici when +we reach the place where we dismounted, and where the horses are +waiting; but, thank God, sound in limb! And never are we likely to be +more glad to see a man alive and on his feet, than to see him +now—making light of it too, tho sorely bruised and in great pain. The +boy is brought into the Hermitage on the Mountain, while we are at +supper, with his head tied up; and the man is heard of, some hours +afterward. He, too, is bruised and stunned, but has broken no bones; the +snow having, fortunately, covered all the larger blocks of rock and +stone, and rendered them harmless.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3>CASTELLAMARE AND SORRENTO<a name="FNanchor_11_11" id="FNanchor_11_11"></a><a href="#Footnote_11_11" class="fnanchor">[11]</a></h3> + +<h4>BY HIPPOLYTE ADOLPHE TAINE</h4> + + +<p>The sky is almost clear. Only above Naples hangs a bank of clouds, and +around Vesuvius huge white masses of smoke, moving and stationary. I +never yet saw, even in summer at Marseilles, the blue of the sea so +deep, bordering even on hardness. Above this powerful lustrous<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_38" id="Page_38">[Pg 38]</a></span> azure, +absorbing three-quarters of the visible space, the white sky seems to be +a firmament of crystal. As we recede we obtain a better view of the +undulating coast, embraced in one grand mountain form, all its parts +uniting like the members of one body. Ischia and the naked promontories +on the extreme end repose in their lilac envelop, like a slumbering +Pompeiian nymph under her veil. Veritably, to paint such nature as this, +this violet continent extending around this broad luminous water, one +must employ the terms of the ancient poets, and represent the great +fertile goddess embraced and beset by the eternal ocean, and above them +the serene effulgence of the dazzling Jupiter.</p> + +<p>We encounter on the road some fine faces with long elegant features, +quite Grecian; some intelligent noble-looking girls, and here and there +hideous mendicants cleaning their hairy breasts. But the race is much +superior to that of Naples, where it is deformed and diminutive, the +young girls there appearing like stunted, pallid grisets. The railroad +skirts the sea a few paces off and almost on a level with it. A harbor +appears blackened with lines of rigging, and then a mole, consisting of +a small half-ruined fort, reflecting a clear sharp shadow in the +luminous expanse. Surrounding this rise square houses, gray as if +charred, and heaped together like tortoises under round roofs, serving +them as a sort of thick shell.</p> + +<p>On this fertile soil, full of cinders, cultivation extends to the shore +and forms gardens; a simple reed hedge protects them from the sea and +the wind; the Indian fig with its clumsy thorny leaves clings to the +slopes; verdure begins to appear on<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_39" id="Page_39">[Pg 39]</a></span> the branches of the trees, the +apricots showing their smiling pink blossoms; half-naked men work the +friable soil without apparent effort; a few square gardens contain +columns and small statues of white marble. Everywhere you behold traces +of antique beauty and joyousness. And why wonder at this when you feel +that you have the divine vernal sun for a companion, and on the right, +whenever you turn to the sea, its flaming golden waves.</p> + +<p>With what facility you here forget all ugly objects! I believe I passed +at Castellamare some unsightly modern structures, a railroad station, +hotels, a guard-house, and a number of rickety vehicles hurrying along +in quest of fares. This is all effaced from my mind; nothing remains but +impressions of obscure porches with glimpses of bright courts filled +with glossy oranges and spring verdure, of esplanades with children +playing on them and nets drying, and happy idlers snuffing the breeze +and contemplating the capricious heaving of the tossing sea.</p> + +<p>On leaving Castellamare the road forms a corniche<a name="FNanchor_12_12" id="FNanchor_12_12"></a><a href="#Footnote_12_12" class="fnanchor">[12]</a> winding along the +bank. Huge white rocks, split off from the cliffs above, lie below in +the midst of the eternally besieging waves. On the left the mountains +lift their shattered pinnacles, fretted walls, and projecting crags, all +that scaffolding of indentations which strike you as the ruins of a line +of rocked and tottering fortresses. Each projection, each mass throws +its shadow on the surrounding white surfaces, the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_40" id="Page_40">[Pg 40]</a></span> entire range being +peopled with tints and forms.</p> + +<p>Sometimes the mountain is rent in twain, and the sides of the chasm are +lined with cultivation, descending in successive stages. Sorrento is +thus built on three deep ravines. All these hollows contain gardens, +crowded with masses of trees overhanging each other. Nut-trees, already +lively with sap, project their white branches like gnarled fingers; +everything else is green; winter lays no hand on this eternal spring. +The thick lustrous leaf of the orange-tree rises from amid the foliage +of the olive, and its golden apples glisten in the sun by thousands, +interspersed with gleams of the pale lemon; often in these shady lanes +do its glittering leaves flash out above the crest of the walls. This is +the land of the orange. It grows even in miserable court-yards, +alongside of dilapidated steps, spreading its luxuriant tops everywhere +in the bright sunlight. The delicate aromatic odor of all these opening +buds and blossoms is a luxury of kings, which here a beggar enjoys for +nothing.</p> + +<p>I passed an hour in the garden of the hotel, a terrace overlooking the +sea about half-way up the bank. A scene like this fills the imagination +with a dream of perfect bliss. The house stands in a luxurious garden, +filled with orange and lemon-trees, as heavily laden with fruit as those +of a Normandy orchard; the ground at the foot of the trees is covered +with it. Clusters of foliage and shrubbery of a pale green, bordering on +blue, occupy intermediate spaces. The rosy blossoms of the peach, so +tender and delicate, bloom on its naked branches. The walks are of +bright blue porcelain, and the terrace displays its round<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_41" id="Page_41">[Pg 41]</a></span> verdant +masses overhanging the sea, of which the lovely azure fills all space.</p> + +<p>I have not yet spoken of my impressions after leaving Castellamare. The +charm was only too great. The pure sky, the pale azure almost +transparent, the radiant blue sea as chaste and tender as a virgin +bride, this infinite expanse so exquisitely adorned as if for a festival +of rare delight, is a sensation that has no equal. Capri and Ischia on +the line of the sky lie white in their soft vapory tissue, and the +divine azure gently fades away surrounded by this border of brightness.</p> + +<p>Where find words to express all this? The gulf seemed like a marble vase +purposely rounded to receive the sea. The satin sheen of a flower, the +soft luminous petals of the velvet orris with shimmering sunshine on +their pearly borders, such are the images that fill the mind, and which +accumulate in vain and are ever inadequate. The water at the base of +these rocks is now a transparent emerald, reflecting the tints of topaz +and amethyst; again a liquid diamond, changing its hue according to the +shifting influences of rock and depth; or again a flashing diadem, +glittering with the splendor of this divine effulgence.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_42" id="Page_42">[Pg 42]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3>CAPRI<a name="FNanchor_13_13" id="FNanchor_13_13"></a><a href="#Footnote_13_13" class="fnanchor">[13]</a></h3> + +<h4>BY AUGUSTUS J. C. HARE</h4> + + +<p>The Island of Capri (in the dialect of the people Crapi), the ancient +Capreae, is a huge limestone rock, a continuation of the mountain range +which forms the southern boundary of the Bay of Naples. Legend says that +it was once inhabited by a people called Teleboae, subject to a king +called Telon. Augustus took possession of Capreae as part of the +imperial domains, and repeatedly visited it. His stepson Tiberius (A.D. +27) established his permanent residence on the island, and spent the +latter years of his life there, abandoning himself to the voluptuous +excesses which gave him the name of Caprineus....</p> + +<p>The first point usually visited in Capri is the Blue Grotto (Grotta +Azzurra), which is entered from the sea by an arch under the wall of +limestone cliff, only available when the sea is perfectly calm. Visitors +have to lie flat down in the boat, which is carried in by the wave and +is almost level with the top of the arch. Then they suddenly find +themselves in a magical scene. The water is liquid sapphire, and the +whole rocky vaulting of the cavern shimmers to its inmost recesses with +a pale blue light of marvelous beauty. A man stands ready to plunge into +the water when the boats from the steamers arrive, and to swim about; +his body, in the water, then sparkles like a sea-god with phosphorescent +silver; his head, out of the water, is black like that of a Moor. +Nothing can exaggerate the beauty of the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_43" id="Page_43">[Pg 43]</a></span> Blue Grotto, and perhaps the +effect is rather enhanced than spoiled by the shouting of the boatmen, +the rush of boats to the entrance, the confusion on leaving and reaching +the steamers.</p> + +<p>That the Grotta Azzurra was known to the Romans is evinced by the +existence of a subterranean passage, leading to it from the upper +heights, and now blocked up; it was also well known in the seventeenth +century, when it was described by Capraanica. There are other beautiful +grottoes in the cliffs surrounding the island, the most remarkable being +the natural tunnel called the Green Grotto (Grotta Verde), under the +southern rocks, quite as splendid in color as the Grotta Azzurra +itself—a passage through the rocks, into which the boat glides (through +no hole, as in the case of the Grotta Azzurra) into water of the most +exquisite emerald. The late afternoon is the best time for visiting this +grotto. Occasionally a small steamer makes the round of the island, +stopping at the different caverns.</p> + +<p>On landing at the Marina, a number of donkey women offer their services, +and it will be well to accept them, for the ascent of about one mile, to +the village of Capri is very hot and tiring. On the left we pass the +Church of St. Costanzo, a very curious building with apse, cupola, stone +pulpit, and several ancient marble pillars and other fragments taken +from the palaces of Tiberius.</p> + +<p>The little town of Capri, overhung on one side by great purple rocks, +occupies a terrace on the high ridge between the two rocky promontories +of the island. Close above the piazza stands the many-domed ancient +church, like a mosque, and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_44" id="Page_44">[Pg 44]</a></span> so many of the houses—sometimes of dazzling +whiteness, sometimes painted in gay colors—have their own little domes, +that the appearance is quite that of an oriental village, which is +enhanced by the palm-trees which flourish here and there. In the piazza +is a tablet to Major Hamill, who is buried in the church. He fell under +French bayonets, when the troops of Murat, landing at Orico, recaptured +the island, which had been taken from the French two years and a half +before (May, 1806) by Sir Sidney Smith.</p> + +<p>Through a low wide arch in the piazza is the approach to the principal +hotels. There is a tiny English chapel. An ascent of half an hour by +stony donkey-paths leads from Capri to the ruins called the Villa +Tiberiana, on the west of the island, above a precipitous rock 700 feet +high, which still bears the name of Il Salto....</p> + +<p>The visitor who lingers in Capri may interest himself in tracing out the +remains of all the twelve villas of Tiberius. A relief exhibiting +Tiberius riding a led donkey, as modern travelers do now, was found on +the island, and is now in the museum at Naples. Capri has a delightful +winter climate, and is most comfortable as a residence. The natives are +quite unlike the Neapolitans, pleasant and civil in their manners, and +full of courtesies to strangers. The women are frequently beautiful.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_45" id="Page_45">[Pg 45]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3>POMPEII<a name="FNanchor_14_14" id="FNanchor_14_14"></a><a href="#Footnote_14_14" class="fnanchor">[14]</a></h3> + +<h4>BY PERCY BYSSHE SHELLEY</h4> + + +<p>We have been to see Pompeii, and are waiting now for the return of +spring weather, to visit, first, Paestum, and then the islands; after +which we shall return to Rome. I was astonished at the remains of this +city; I had no conception of anything so perfect yet remaining. My idea +of the mode of its destruction was this: First, an earthquake shattered +it, and unroofed almost all its temples, and split its columns; then a +rain of light small pumice-stones fell; then torrents of boiling water, +mixed with ashes, filled up all its crevices. A wide, flat hill, from +which the city was excavated, is now covered by thick woods, and you see +the tombs and the theaters, the temples and the houses, surrounded by +the uninhabited wilderness.</p> + +<p>We entered the town from the side toward the sea, and first saw two +theaters; one more magnificent than the other, strewn with the ruins of +the white marble which formed their seats and cornices, wrought with +deep, bold sculpture. In the front, between the stage and the seats, is +the circular space, occasionally occupied by the chorus. The stage is +very narrow, but long, and divided from this space by a narrow enclosure +parallel to it, I suppose for the orchestra. On each side are the +consuls' boxes, and below, in the theater at Herculaneum, were found two +equestrian statues of admirable workmanship, occupy<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_46" id="Page_46">[Pg 46]</a></span>ing the same place +as the great bronze lamps did at Drury Lane. The smallest of the +theaters is said to have been comic, tho I should doubt. From both you +see, as you sit on the seats, a prospect of the most wonderful beauty.</p> + +<p>You then pass through the ancient streets; they are very narrow, and the +houses rather small, but all constructed on an admirable plan, +especially for this climate. The rooms are built round a court, or +sometimes two, according to the extent of the house. In the midst is a +fountain, sometimes surrounded with a portico, supported on fluted +columns of white stucco; the floor is paved with mosaic, sometimes +wrought in imitation of vine leaves, sometimes in quaint figures, and +more or less beautiful, according to the rank of the inhabitant. There +were paintings on all, but most of them have been removed to decorate +the royal museums. Little winged figures, and small ornaments of +exquisite elegance, yet remain. There is an ideal life in the forms of +these paintings of an incomparable loveliness, tho most are evidently +the work of very inferior artists. It seems as if, from the atmosphere +of mental beauty which surrounded them, every human being caught a +splendor not his own.</p> + +<p>In one house you see how the bed-rooms were managed; a small sofa was +built up, where the cushions were placed; two pictures, one representing +Diana and Endymion, the other Venus and Mars, decorate the chamber; and +a little niche, which contains the statue of a domestic god. The floor +is composed of a rich mosaic of the rarest marbles, agate, jasper, and +porphyry; it looks to the marble fountain and the snow-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_47" id="Page_47">[Pg 47]</a></span>white columns, +whose entablatures strew the floor of the portico they supported. The +houses have only one story, and the apartments, tho not large, are very +lofty. A great advantage results from this, wholly unknown in our +cities.</p> + +<p>The public buildings, whose ruins are now forests, as it were, of white +fluted columns, and which then supported entablatures, loaded with +sculptures, were seen on all sides over the roofs of the houses. This +was the excellence of the ancients. Their private expenses were +comparatively moderate; the dwelling of one of the chief senators of +Pompeii is elegant indeed, and adorned with most beautiful specimens of +art, but small. But their public buildings are everywhere marked by the +bold and grand designs of an unsparing magnificence. In the little town +of Pompeii (it contained about twenty thousand inhabitants), it is +wonderful to see the number and the grandeur of their public buildings. +Another advantage, too, is that, in the present case, the glorious +scenery around is not shut out, and that, unlike the inhabitants of the +Cimmerian ravines of modern cities, the ancient Pompeiians could +contemplate the clouds and the lamps of heaven; could see the moon rise +high behind Vesuvius, and the sun set in the sea, tremulous with an +atmosphere of golden vapor, between Inarime and Misenum.</p> + +<p>We next saw the temples. Of the temples of Aesculapius little remains +but an altar of black stone, adorned with a cornice imitating the scales +of a serpent. His statue, in terra-cotta, was found in the cell. The +temple of Isis is more perfect. It is surrounded by a portico of fluted<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_48" id="Page_48">[Pg 48]</a></span> +columns, and in the area around it are two altars, and many ceppi for +statues; and a little chapel of white stucco, as hard as stone, of the +most exquisite proportion; its panels are adorned with figures in +bas-relief, slightly indicated, but of a workmanship the most delicate +and perfect that can be conceived.</p> + +<p>They are Egyptian subjects, executed by a Greek artist, who has +harmonized all the unnatural extravagances of the original conception +into the supernatural loveliness of his country's genius. They scarcely +touch the ground with their feet, and their wind-uplifted robes seem in +the place of wings. The temple in the midst raised on a high platform, +and approached by steps, was decorated with exquisite paintings, some of +which we saw in the museum at Portici. It is small, of the same +materials as the chapel, with a pavement of mosaic, and fluted Ionic +columns of white stucco, so white that it dazzles you to look at it.</p> + +<p>Thence through the other porticos and labyrinths of walls and columns +(for I can not hope to detail everything to you), we came to the Forum. +This is a large square, surrounded by lofty porticos of fluted columns, +some broken, some entire, their entablatures strewed under them. The +temple of Jupiter, of Venus, and another temple, the Tribunal, and the +Hall of Public Justice, with their forest of lofty columns, surround the +Forum. Two pedestals or altars of an enormous size (for, whether they +supported equestrian statues, or were the altars of the temple of Venus, +before which they stand, the guide could not tell), occupy the lower end +of the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_49" id="Page_49">[Pg 49]</a></span> Forum. At the upper end, supported on an elevated platform, +stands the temple of Jupiter. Under the colonnade of its portico we sat +and pulled out our oranges, and figs, and bread, and medlars (sorry +fare, you will say), and rested to eat.</p> + +<p>Here was a magnificent spectacle. Above and between the multitudinous +shafts of the sun-shining columns was seen the sea, reflecting the +purple heaven of noon above it, and supporting, as it were, on its line +the dark lofty mountains of Sorrento, of a blue inexpressibly deep, and +tinged toward their summits with streaks of new-fallen snow. Between was +one small green island. To the right was Capreae, Inarime, Prochyta, and +Misenum. Behind was the single summit of Vesuvius, rolling forth volumes +of thick white smoke, whose foam-like column was sometimes darted into +the clear dark sky, and fell in little streaks along the wind. Between +Vesuvius and the nearer mountains, as through a chasm, was seen the main +line of the loftiest Apennines, to the east.</p> + +<p>The day was radiant and warm. Every now and then we heard the +subterranean thunder of Vesuvius; its distant deep peals seemed to shake +the very air and light of day, which interpenetrated our frames with the +sullen and tremendous sound. This sound was what the Greeks beheld +(Pompeii, you know, was a Greek city). They lived in harmony with +nature; and the interstices of their incomparable columns were portals, +as it were, to admit the spirit of beauty which animates this glorious +universe to visit those whom it inspired. If such is Pompeii,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_50" id="Page_50">[Pg 50]</a></span> what was +Athens? What scene was exhibited from the Acropolis, the Parthenon, and +the temples of Hercules, and Theseus, and the Winds? The island and the +Ægean sea, the mountains of Argolis, and the peaks of Pindus and +Olympus, and the darkness of the Boeotian forests interspersed?</p> + +<p>From the Forum we went to another public place; a triangular portico, +half enclosing the ruins of an enormous temple. It is built on the edge +of the hill overlooking the sea. That black point is the temple. In the +apex of the triangle stands an altar and a fountain, and before the +altar once stood the statue of the builder of the portico. Returning +hence, and following the consular road, we came to the eastern gate of +the city. The walls are of an enormous strength, and enclose a space of +three miles. On each side of the road beyond the gate are built the +tombs. How unlike ours! They seem not so much hiding-places for that +which must decay, as voluptuous chambers for immortal spirits. They are +of marble, radiantly white; and two, especially beautiful, are loaded +with exquisite bas-reliefs. On the stucco-wall that encloses them are +little emblematic figures, of a relief exceedingly low, of dead and +dying animals, and little winged genii, and female forms bending in +groups in some funereal office. The high reliefs represent, one a +nautical subject, and the other a Bacchanalian one.</p> + +<p>Within the cell stand the cinerary urns, sometimes one, sometimes more. +It is said that paintings were found within, which are now, as has been +everything movable in Pompeii, removed,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_51" id="Page_51">[Pg 51]</a></span> and scattered about in royal +museums. These tombs were the most impressive things of all. The wild +woods surround them on either side; and along the broad stones of the +paved road which divides them, you hear the late leaves of autumn shiver +and rustle in the stream of the inconstant wind, as it were, like the +step of ghosts. The radiance and magnificence of these dwellings of the +dead, the white freshness of the scarcely-finished marble, the +impassioned or imaginative life of the figures which adorn them, +contrast strangely with the simplicity of the houses of those who were +living when Vesuvius overwhelmed them.</p> + +<p>I have forgotten the amphitheater, which is of great magnitude, tho much +inferior to the Coliseum. I now understand why the Greeks were such +great poets; and, above all, I can account, it seems to me, for the +harmony, the unity, the perfection, the uniform excellence, of all their +works of art. They lived in a perpetual commerce with external nature, +and nourished themselves upon the spirit of its forms. Their theaters +were all open to the mountains and the sky. Their columns, the ideal +types of a sacred forest, with its roof of interwoven tracery, admitted +the light and wind; the odor and the freshness of the country penetrated +the cities. Their temples were mostly upaithric; and the flying clouds, +the stars, or the deep sky, were seen above.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_52" id="Page_52">[Pg 52]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>VI</h2> + +<h2>OTHER ITALIAN SCENES</h2> +<p><br /><br /></p> + +<h3>VERONA<a name="FNanchor_15_15" id="FNanchor_15_15"></a><a href="#Footnote_15_15" class="fnanchor">[15]</a></h3> + +<h4>BY CHARLES DICKENS</h4> + + +<p>I had been half afraid to go to Verona, lest it should at all put me out +of conceit with Romeo and Juliet. But, I was no sooner come into the old +Market-place, than the misgiving vanished. It is so fanciful, quaint, +and picturesque a place, formed by such an extraordinary and rich +variety of fantastic buildings, that there could be nothing better at +the core of even this romantic town; scene of one of the most romantic +and beautiful of stories.</p> + +<p>It was natural enough, to go straight from the Market-place, to the +House of the Capulets, now degenerated into a most miserable little inn. +Noisy vetturini and muddy market-carts were disputing possession of the +yard, which was ankle-deep in dirt, with a brood of splashed and +bespattered geese; and there was a grim-visaged dog, viciously panting +in a doorway, who would certainly have had Romeo by the leg, the moment +he put it over the wall, if he had existed and been at large in those +times. The orchard fell into other hands, and was parted off many years +ago; but there used to be one attached to the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_53" id="Page_53">[Pg 53]</a></span> house—or at all events +there may have been—and the Hat (Cappello), the ancient cognizance of +the family, may still be seen, carved in stone, over the gateway of the +yard. The geese, the market-carts, their drivers, and the dog, were +somewhat in the way of the story, it must be confessed; and it would +have been pleasanter to have found the house empty, and to have been +able to walk through the disused rooms. But the Hat was unspeakably +comfortable; and the place where the garden used to be, hardly less so. +Besides, the house is a distrustful, jealous-looking house as one would +desire to see, tho of a very moderate size. So I was quite satisfied +with it, as the veritable mansion of old Capulet, and was +correspondingly grateful in my acknowledgments to an extremely +unsentimental middle-aged lady, the Padrona of the Hotel, who was +lounging on the threshold looking at the geese.</p> + +<p>From Juliet's home, to Juliet's tomb, is a transition as natural to the +visitor, as to fair Juliet herself, or to the proudest Juliet that ever +has taught the torches to burn bright in any time. So, I went off, with +a guide, to an old, old garden, once belonging to an old, old convent, I +suppose; and being admitted, at a shattered gate, by a bright-eyed woman +who was washing clothes, went down some walks where fresh plants and +young flowers were prettily growing among fragments of old wall, and +ivy-covered mounds; and was shown a little tank, or water-trough, which +the bright-eyed woman—drying her arms upon her 'kerchief—called "La +tomba di Giulietta la sfortunáta." With the best disposition in the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_54" id="Page_54">[Pg 54]</a></span> +world to believe, I could do no more than believe that the bright-eyed +woman believed; so I gave her that much credit, and her customary fee in +ready money. It was a pleasure, rather than a disappointment, that +Juliet's resting-place was forgotten. However consolatory it may have +been to Yorick's Ghost, to hear the feet upon the pavement overhead, +and, twenty times a day, the repetition of his name, it is better for +Juliet to lie out of the track of tourists, and to have no visitors but +such as come to graves in spring-rain, and sweet air, and sunshine.</p> + +<p>Pleasant Verona! With its beautiful old palaces, and charming country in +the distance, seen from terrace walks, and stately, balustraded +galleries. With its Roman gates, still spanning the fair street, and +casting, on the sunlight of to-day, the shade of fifteen hundred years +ago. With its marble-fitted churches, lofty towers, rich architecture, +and quaint old quiet thoroughfares, where shouts of Montagues and +Capulets once resounded.</p> + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">And made Verona's ancient citizens</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Cast by their grave, beseeming ornaments,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">To wield old partisans.</span><br /> +</p> + +<p>With its fast-rushing river, picturesque old bridge, great castle, +waving cypresses, and prospect so delightful, and so cheerful! Pleasant +Verona! In the midst of it, in the Piazza di Brá—a spirit of old time +among the familiar realities of the passing hour—is the great Roman +Amphitheater. So well preserved, and carefully maintained, that every +row of seats is there, unbroken. Over cer<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_55" id="Page_55">[Pg 55]</a></span>tain of the arches, the old +Roman numerals may yet be seen; and there are corridors, and staircases, +and subterranean passages for beasts, and winding ways, above ground and +below, as when the fierce thousands hurried in and out, intent upon the +bloody shows of the arena. Nestling in some of the shadows and hollow +places of the walls, now, are smiths with their forges, and a few small +dealers of one kind or other; and there are green weeds, and leaves, and +grass, upon the parapet. But little else is greatly changed.</p> + +<p>When I had traversed all about it, with great interest, and had gone up +to the topmost round of seats, and turning from the lovely panorama +closed in by the distant Alps, looked down into the building, it seemed +to lie before me like the inside of a prodigious hat of plaited straw, +with an enormously broad brim and a shallow crown; the plaits being +represented by the four-and-forty rows of seats. The comparison is a +homely and fantastic one, in sober remembrance and on paper, but it was +irresistibly suggested at the moment, nevertheless.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3>PADUA<a name="FNanchor_16_16" id="FNanchor_16_16"></a><a href="#Footnote_16_16" class="fnanchor">[16]</a></h3> + +<h4>BY THÉOPHILE GAUTIER</h4> + + +<p>Padua is an ancient city and exhibits a rather respectable appearance +against the horizon with its bell-turrets, its domes, and its old walls +upon<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_56" id="Page_56">[Pg 56]</a></span> which myriads of lizards run and frisk in the sun. Situated near a +center which attracts life to itself, Padua is a dead city with an +almost deserted air. Its streets, bordered by two rows of low arcades, +in nowise recall the elegant and charming architecture of Venice. The +heavy, massive structures have a serious, somewhat crabbed aspect, and +its somber porticos in the lower stories of the houses resemble black +mouths which yawn with ennui.</p> + +<p>We were conducted to a big inn, established probably in some ancient +palace, and whose great halls, dishonored by vulgar uses, had formerly +seen better company. It was a real journey to go from the vestibule to +our room by a host of stairways and corridors; a map of Ariadne's thread +would have been needed to find one's way back. Our windows opened upon a +very pleasant view; a river flows at the foot of the wall—the Brenta or +the Bacchiglione, I know not which, for both water Padua. The banks of +this watercourse were adorned with old houses and long walls, and trees, +too, overhung the banks; some rather picturesque rows of piles, from +which the fishermen cast their lines with that patience characteristic +of them in all countries; huts with nets and linen hanging from the +windows to dry, formed under the sun's rays a very pretty subject for a +water-color.</p> + +<p>After dinner we went to the Café Pedrocchi, celebrated throughout all +Italy for its magnificence. Nothing could be more monumentally classic. +There are nothing but pillars, columnets, ovolos, and palm leaves of the +Percier and Fontain kind, the whole very fine and lavish of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_57" id="Page_57">[Pg 57]</a></span> marble. +What was most curious was some immense maps forming a tapestry and +representing the different divisions of the world on an enormous scale. +This somewhat pedantic decoration gives to the hall an academic air; and +one is surprized not to see a chair in place of the bar, with a +professor in his gown in place of a dispenser of lemonade.</p> + +<p>The University of Padua was formerly famous. In the thirteenth century +eighteen thousand young men, a whole people of scholars, followed the +lessons of the learned professors, among whom later Galileo figured, one +of whose bones is preserved there as a relic, a relic of a martyr who +suffered for the truth. The façade of the University is very beautiful; +four Doric columns give it a severe and monumental air; but solitude +reigns in the class-rooms where to-day scarcely a thousand students can +be reckoned....</p> + +<p>We paid a visit to the Cathedral dedicated to Saint Anthony, who enjoys +at Padua the same reputation as Saint Januarius at Naples. He is the +"genius loci," the Saint venerated above all others. He used to perform +not less than thirty miracles each day, if Casanova<a name="FNanchor_17_17" id="FNanchor_17_17"></a><a href="#Footnote_17_17" class="fnanchor">[17]</a> is to be +believed. Such a performance fairly earned for him his surname of +Thaumaturge, but this prodigious zeal has fallen off greatly. +Nevertheless, the reputation of the saint has not suffered, and so many +masses are paid for at his altar that the number of the priests of the +cathedral and of days in the year are not sufficient. To liquidate the +accounts, the Pope has granted permission, at the end of the year, for +masses to be said, each, one<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_58" id="Page_58">[Pg 58]</a></span> of which is of the value of a thousand; in +this fashion Saint Anthony is saved from being bankrupt to his faithful +devotees.</p> + +<p>On the place which adjoins the cathedral, a beautiful equestrian statue +by Donatello, in bronze, rises to view, the first which had been cast +since the days of antiquity, representing a leader of banditti: +Gattamelata, a brigand who surely did not deserve that honor. But the +artist has given him a superb bearing and a spirited figure with his +baton of a Roman emperor, and it is entirely sufficient....</p> + +<p>One thing which must not be neglected in passing through Padua is a +visit to the old Church of the Arena, situated at the rear of a garden +of luxuriant vegetation, where it would certainly not be conjectured to +be located unless one were advised of the fact. It is entirely painted +in its interior by Giotto. Not a single column, not a single rib, nor +architectural division interrupts that vast tapestry of frescoes. The +general aspect is soft, azure, starry, like a beautiful, calm sky; +ultramarine dominates; thirty compartments of large dimensions, +indicated by simple lines, contain the life of the Virgin and of her +Divine Son in all their details; they might be called illustrations in +miniature of a gigantic missal. The personages, by naïve anachronisms +very precious for history, are clothed in the mode of the times in which +Giotto painted.</p> + +<p>Below these compositions of the purest religious feeling, a painted +plinth shows the seven deadly sins symbolized in an ingenious manner, +and other allegorical figures of a very good style; a Paradise and a +Hell, subjects which<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_59" id="Page_59">[Pg 59]</a></span> greatly imprest the minds of the artists of that +epoch, complete this marvelous whole. There are in these paintings weird +and touching details; children issue from their little coffins to mount +to Paradise with a joyous ardor, and launch themselves forth to go to +play upon the blossoming turf of the celestial garden; others stretch +forth their hands to their half-resurrected mothers. The remark may also +be made that all the devils and vices are obese, while the angels and +virtues are thin and slender. The painter wishes to mark the +preponderance of matter in the one class and of spirit in the other.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3>FERRARA<a name="FNanchor_18_18" id="FNanchor_18_18"></a><a href="#Footnote_18_18" class="fnanchor">[18]</a></h3> + +<h4>BY THÉOPHILE GAUTIER</h4> + + +<p>Ferrara rises solitary in the midst of a flat country more rich than +picturesque. When one enters it by the broad street which leads to the +square, the aspect of the city is imposing and monumental. A palace with +a grand staircase occupies a corner of this vast square; it might be a +court-house or a town hall, for people of all classes were entering and +departing through its wide doors....</p> + +<p>The castle of the ancient dukes of Ferrara, which is to be found a +little farther on, has a fine feudal aspect. It is a vast collection of +towers joined together by high walls crowned<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_60" id="Page_60">[Pg 60]</a></span> with a battlement forming +a cornice, and which emerge from a great moat full of water, over which +one enters by a protected bridge. The castle, built wholly of brick or +of stones reddened by the sun, has a vermilion tint which deprives it of +its imposing effect. It is too much like a decoration of a melodrama.</p> + +<p>It was in this castle that the famous Lucretia Borgia lived, whom Victor +Hugo has made such a monster for us, and whom Ariosto depicts as a model +of chastity, grace and virtue; that blonde Lucretia who wrote letters +breathing the purest love, and some of whose hair, fine as silk and +shining as gold, Byron possest. It was there that the dramas of Tasso +and Ariosto and Guarini were played; there that those brilliant orgies +took place, mingled with poisonings and assassinations, which +characterized that learned and artistic, refined and criminal, period of +Italy.</p> + +<p>It is the custom to pay a pious visit to the problematical dungeon in +which Tasso, mad with love and grief, passed so many years, according to +the poetic legend which grew up concerning his misfortune. We did not +have time to spare and we regretted it very little. This dungeon, a +perfectly correct sketch of which we have before our eyes, consists only +of four walls, ceiled by a low arch. At the back is to be seen a window +grated by heavy bars and a door with big bolts. It is quite unlikely +that in this obscure hole, tapestried with cobwebs, Tasso could have +worked and retouched his poem, composed sonnets, and occupied himself +with small details of toilet,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_61" id="Page_61">[Pg 61]</a></span> such as the quality of the velvet of his +cap and the silk of his stockings, and with kitchen details, such as +with what kind of sugar he ought to powder his salad, that which he had +not being fine enough for his liking. Neither did we see the house of +Ariosto, another required pilgrimage. Not to speak of the little faith +which one should place in these unauthenticated traditions, in these +relics without character, we prefer to seek Ariosto in the "Orlando +Furioso," and Tasso in the "Jerusalem Délivrée" or in the fine drama of +Goethe.</p> + +<p>The life of Ferrara is concentrated on the Plaza Nuova, in front of the +church and in the neighborhood of the castle. Life has not yet abandoned +this heart of the city; but in proportion as one moves away from it, it +becomes more feeble, paralysis begins, death gains; silence, solitude, +and grass invade the streets; one feels that one is wandering about a +Thebes peopled with ghosts of the past and from which the living have +evaporated like water which has dried up. There is nothing more sad than +to see the corpse of a dead city slowly falling into dust in the sun and +rain. One at least buries human bodies.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_62" id="Page_62">[Pg 62]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3>LAKE LUGANO<a name="FNanchor_19_19" id="FNanchor_19_19"></a><a href="#Footnote_19_19" class="fnanchor">[19]</a></h3> + +<h4>BY VICTOR TISSOT</h4> + + +<p>On emerging from the second tunnel,<a name="FNanchor_20_20" id="FNanchor_20_20"></a><a href="#Footnote_20_20" class="fnanchor">[20]</a> beyond a wild and narrow gorge, +there lies suddenly before us, as in a gorgeous fairyland or in the +landscape of a dream, the blue expanse of Lake Lugano, with its setting +of green meadows and purple mountains, with the many-colored village +spires, and the great white fronts of the hotels and villas. Oh, what a +wonderful picture!</p> + +<p>We feel as if we were going down into an enchanted garden that has been +hidden by the great snowy walls of the Alps. The air is full of the +perfume of roses and jessamine. The hedges are in flower, butterflies +are dancing, insects are humming, birds are singing. Up above, in the +mountain, is snow, ice, winter, and silence; here there is sunshine, +life, joy, love—all the living delights of spring and summer. Golden +harvests are shining on the plains, and the lake in the distance is like +a piece of the sky brought down to earth.</p> + +<p>Lugano is already Italy, not only because of the richness of the soil +and the magnificence of the vegetation, but also as regards the +language, the manners, and the picturesque costumes. In each valley the +dress is different; in one place the women wear a short skirt, an<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_63" id="Page_63">[Pg 63]</a></span> apron +held in by a girdle, and a bright colored bodice; in another they wear a +cap above which is a large shady hat; in the Val Maroblio they have a +woolen dress not very different from that of the Capuchins.</p> + +<p>The men have not the square figure, the slow, heavy walk of the people +of Basle and Lucerne; they are brisk, vigorous, easy; and the women have +something of the wavy suppleness of vine branches twining among the +trees. These people have the happy, childlike joyousness, the frank +good-nature, of those who live in the open air, who do not shut +themselves up in their houses, but grow freely like the flowers under +the strong, glowing sunshine.</p> + +<p>At every street corner sellers are sitting behind baskets of +extraordinary vegetables and magnificent fruit; and under the arcades +that run along the houses, big grocers in shirt sleeves come at +intervals to their shop doors to take breath, like hippopotami coming +out of the water for the same purpose. In this town, ultramontane in its +piety, the bells of churches and convents are sounding all day long, and +women are seen going to make their evening prayer together in the +nearest chapel.</p> + +<p>But if the fair sex in Lugano are diligent in frequenting the churches, +they by no means scorn the cafés. After sunset the little tables that +are all over the great square are surrounded by an entire population of +men and women. How gay and amusing those Italian cafés are! full of +sound and color, with their red and blue striped awnings, their advance +guard of little tables under the shade of the orange-trees, and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_64" id="Page_64">[Pg 64]</a></span> their +babbling, stirring, gesticulating company. The waiters, in black vests +and leather slippers, a corner of their apron tucked up in their belt, +run with the speed of kangaroos, carrying on metal plates syrups of +every shade, ices, sweets in red, yellow, or green pyramids. Between +seven and nine o'clock the whole society of Lugano defiles before you. +There are lawyers with their wives, doctors with their daughters, +bankers, professors, merchants, public officials, with whom are +sometimes misted stout, comfortable, jovial-looking canons, wrapping +themselves in the bitter smoke of a regalia, as in a cloud of incense.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3>LAKE COMO<a name="FNanchor_21_21" id="FNanchor_21_21"></a><a href="#Footnote_21_21" class="fnanchor">[21]</a></h3> + +<h4>BY PERCY BYSSHE SHELLEY</h4> + + +<p>We have been to Como, looking for a house. This lake exceeds anything I +ever beheld in beauty, with the exception of the arbutus islands of +Killarney. It is long and narrow, and has the appearance of a mighty +river winding among the mountains and the forests. We sailed from the +town of Como to a tract of country called the Tremezina, and saw the +various aspects presented by that part of the lake. The mountains +between Como and that village, or rather cluster of villages, are +covered on high with chestnut forests (the eating chestnuts, on which +the inhabitants of the country subsist in time of scarcity), which +sometimes<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_65" id="Page_65">[Pg 65]</a></span> descend to the very verge of the lake, overhanging it with +their hoary branches. But usually the immediate border of this shore is +composed of laurel-trees, and bay, and myrtle, and wild fig-trees, and +olives which grow in the crevices of the rocks, and overhang the +caverns, and shadow the deep glens, which are filled with the flashing +light of the waterfalls. Other flowering shrubs, which I can not name, +grow there also. On high, the towers of village churches are seen white +among the dark forests.</p> + +<p>Beyond, on the opposite shore, which faces the south, the mountains +descend less precipitously to the lake, and altho they are much higher, +and some covered with perpetual snow, there intervenes between them and +the lake a range of lower hills, which have glens and rifts opening to +the other, such as I should fancy the abysses of Ida or Parnassus. Here +are plantations of olive, and orange, and lemon trees, which are now so +loaded with fruit, that there is more fruit than leaves—and vineyards. +This shore of the lake is one continued village, and the Milanese +nobility have their villas here. The union of culture and the untameable +profusion and loveliness of nature is here so close, that the line where +they are divided can hardly be discovered.</p> + +<p>But the finest scenery is that of the Villa Pliniana; so called from a +fountain which ebbs and flows every three hours, described by the +younger Pliny, which is in the courtyard. This house, which was once a +magnificent palace, and is now half in ruins, we are endeavoring to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_66" id="Page_66">[Pg 66]</a></span> +procure. It is built upon terraces raised from the bottom of the lake, +together with its garden, at the foot of a semicircular precipice, +overshadowed by profound forests of chestnut. The scene from the +colonnade is the most extraordinary, at once, and the most lovely that +eye ever beheld. On one side is the mountain, and immediately over you +are clusters of cypress-trees, of an astonishing height, which seem to +pierce the sky.</p> + +<p>Above you, from among the clouds, as it were, descends a waterfall of +immense size, broken by the woody rocks into a thousand channels to the +lake. On the other side is seen the blue extent of the lake and the +mountains, speckled with sails and spires. The apartments of the +Pliniana are immensely large, but ill-furnished and antique. The +terraces, which overlook the lake, and conduct under the shade of such +immense laurel-trees as deserve the epithet of Pythian, are most +delightful.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3>BELLAGIO ON LAKE COMO<a name="FNanchor_22_22" id="FNanchor_22_22"></a><a href="#Footnote_22_22" class="fnanchor">[22]</a></h3> + +<h4>BY W. D. M'CRACKEN</h4> + + +<p>The picture of the promontory of Bellagio is so beautiful as a whole +that the traveler had better stand off for awhile to admire it at a +distance and at his leisure. Indeed it is a question whether the lasting +impressions<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_67" id="Page_67">[Pg 67]</a></span> which we treasure of Bellagio are not, after all, those +derived from across the lake, from the shore-fronts of Tremezzo, +Cadenabbia, Menaggio, or Varenna.</p> + +<p>A colossal, conquering geological lion appears to have come up from the +south in times immemorial, bound for the north, and finding further +progress stopt by the great sheet of water in front of him, seems to +have halted and to be now crouching there with his noble head between +his paws and his eyes fixt on the snow-covered Alps. The big white house +on the lion's neck is the Villa Serbelloni, now used as the annex of a +hotel, and the park of noble trees belonging to the villa forms the +lion's mane. Hotels, both large and small, line the quay at the water's +edge; then comes a break in the houses, and stately Villa Melzi is seen +to stand off at one side. Villa Trotti gleams from among its bowers +farther south; on the slope Villa Trivulzio, formerly Poldi, shows +bravely, and Villa Giulia has cut for itself a wide prospect over both +arms of the lake. At the back of this lion couchant, in the middle +ground, sheer mountain walls tower protectingly, culminating in Monte +Grigna.</p> + +<p>The picture varies from hour to hour, from day to day, and from season +to season. Its color-scheme changes with wind and sun, its sparkle comes +and goes from sunrise to sunset; only its form remains untouched through +the night and lives to delight us another day. As the evening wears on, +lights appear one by one on the quay of Bellagio, until there is a line +of fire along the base of the dark<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_68" id="Page_68">[Pg 68]</a></span> peninsula. The hotel windows catch +the glare, the villas light their storied corridors, and presently +Bellagio, all aglow, presents the spectacle of a Venetian night mirrored +in the lake.</p> + +<p>By this time the mountains have turned black and the sky has faded. It +grows so still on the water that the tinkle of a little Italian band +reaches across the lake to Cadenabbia, a laugh rings out into the quiet +air from one of the merry little rowboats, and even the slight clatter +made by the fishermen, in putting their boats to rights for the night +and in carrying their nets indoors, can be distinguished as one of many +indications that the day is done.</p> + +<p>When we land at Bellagio by daylight, we find it to be very much of a +bazaar of souvenirs along the water-front, and everybody determined to +carry away a keepsake. There is so much to buy—ornamental olive wood +and tortoise-shell articles, Como blankets, lace, and what may be +described in general terms as modern antiquities. These abound from shop +to shop; even English groceries are available. Bellagio's principal +street is suddenly converted at its northern end into a delightful +arcade, after the arrangement which constitutes a characteristic charm +of the villages and smaller towns on the Italian lakes; moreover, the +vista up its side street is distinctly original. This mounts steeply +from the waterside, like the streets of Algiers, is narrow and +constructed in long steps to break the incline.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_69" id="Page_69">[Pg 69]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3>THE REPUBLIC OF SAN MARINO<a name="FNanchor_23_23" id="FNanchor_23_23"></a><a href="#Footnote_23_23" class="fnanchor">[23]</a></h3> + +<h4>BY JOSEPH ADDISON</h4> + + +<p>The town and republic of St. Marino stands on the top of a very high and +craggy mountain. It is generally hid among the clouds, and lay under +snow when I saw it, though it was clear and warm weather in all the +country about it. There is not a spring or fountain, that I could hear +of, in the whole dominions; but they are always well provided with huge +cisterns and reservoirs of rain and snow water. The wine that grows on +the sides of their mountain is extraordinarily good, much better than +any I met with on the cold side of the Apennines.</p> + +<p>This mountain, and a few neighboring hillocks that lie scattered about +the bottom of it, is the whole circuit of these dominions. They have +what they call three castles, three convents, and five churches and can +reckon about five thousand souls in their community.<a name="FNanchor_24_24" id="FNanchor_24_24"></a><a href="#Footnote_24_24" class="fnanchor">[24]</a> The +inhabitants, as well as the historians who mention this little republic, +give the following account of its origin. St. Marino was its founder, a +Dalmatian by birth, and by trade a mason. He was employed above thirteen +hundred years ago in the reparation of Rimini, and after he had finished +his work, retired to this solitary mountain, as finding it very proper +for the life of a hermit, which he led in the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_70" id="Page_70">[Pg 70]</a></span> greatest rigors and +austerities of religion. He had not been long here before he wrought a +reputed miracle, which, joined with his extraordinary sanctity, gained +him so great an esteem, that the princess of the country made him a +present of the mountain, to dispose of at his own discretion. His +reputation quickly peopled it, and gave rise to the republic which calls +itself after his name.</p> + +<p>So that the commonwealth of Marino may boast, at least, of a nobler +original than that of Rome, the one having been at first an asylum for +robbers and murderers, and the other a resort of persons eminent for +their piety and devotion. The best of their churches is dedicated to the +saint, and holds his ashes. His statue stands over the high altar, with +the figure of a mountain in its hands, crowned with three castles, which +is likewise the arms of the commonwealth. They attribute to his +protection the long duration of their state, and look on him as the +greatest saint next the blessed virgin. I saw in their statute-book a +law against such as speak disrespectfully of him, who are to be punished +in the same manner as those convicted of blasphemy.</p> + +<p>This petty republic has now lasted thirteen hundred years,<a name="FNanchor_25_25" id="FNanchor_25_25"></a><a href="#Footnote_25_25" class="fnanchor">[25]</a> while all +the other states of Italy have several times changed their masters and +forms of government. Their whole history is comprised in two purchases, +which they made of a neighboring prince, and in a war in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_71" id="Page_71">[Pg 71]</a></span> which they +assisted the pope against a lord of Rimini. In the year 1100 they bought +a castle in the neighborhood, as they did another in the year 1170. The +papers of the conditions are preserved in their archives, where it is +very remarkable that the name of the agent for the commonwealth, of the +seller, of the notary, and the witnesses, are the same in both the +instruments, tho drawn up at seventy years' distance from each other. +Nor can it be any mistake in the date, because the popes' and emperors' +names, with the year of their respective reigns, are both punctually set +down. About two hundred and ninety years after this they assisted Pope +Pius the Second against one of the Malatestas, who was then, lord of +Rimini; and when they had helped to conquer him, received from the pope, +as a reward for their assistance, four little castles. This they +represent as the flourishing time of the commonwealth, when their +dominions reached half-way up a neighboring hill; but at present they +are reduced to their old extent....</p> + +<p>The chief officers of the commonwealth are the two capitaneos, who have +such a power as the old Roman consuls had, but are chosen every six +months. I talked with some that had been capitaneos six or seven times, +tho the office is never to be continued to the same persons twice +successively. The third officer is the commissary, who judges in all +civil and criminal matters. But because the many alliances, friendships, +and intermarriages, as well as the personal feuds and animosities, that +happen among<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_72" id="Page_72">[Pg 72]</a></span> so small a people might obstruct the course of justice, if +one of their own number had the distribution of it, they have always a +foreigner for this employ, whom they choose for three years, and +maintain out of the public stock. He must be a doctor of law, and a man +of known integrity. He is joined in commission with the capitaneos, and +acts something like the recorder of London under the lord mayor. The +commonwealth of Genoa was forced to make use of a foreign judge for many +years, while their republic was torn into the divisions of Guelphs and +Ghibelines. The fourth man in the state is the physician, who must +likewise be a stranger, and is maintained by a public salary. He is +obliged to keep a horse, to visit the sick, and to inspect all drugs +that are imported. He must be at least thirty-five years old, a doctor +of the faculty, and eminent for his religion and honesty, that his +rashness or ignorance may not unpeople the commonwealth. And, that they +may not suffer long under any bad choice, he is elected only for three +years.</p> + +<p>The people are esteemed very honest and rigorous in the execution of +justice, and seem to live more happy and contented among their rocks and +snows, than others of the Italians do in the pleasantest valleys of the +world. Nothing, indeed, can be a greater instance of the natural love +that mankind has for liberty, and of their aversion to an arbitrary +government, than such a savage mountain covered with people, and the +Campania of Rome, which lies in the same country, almost destitute of +inhabitants.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_73" id="Page_73">[Pg 73]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3>PERUGIA<a name="FNanchor_26_26" id="FNanchor_26_26"></a><a href="#Footnote_26_26" class="fnanchor">[26]</a></h3> + +<h4>BY NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE</h4> + + +<p>We pursued our way, and came, by and by, to the foot of the high hill on +which stands Perugia, and which is so long and steep that Gaetano took a +yoke of oxen to aid his horses in the ascent. We all, except my wife, +walked a part of the way up, and I myself, with J——<a name="FNanchor_27_27" id="FNanchor_27_27"></a><a href="#Footnote_27_27" class="fnanchor">[27]</a> for my +companion, kept on even to the city gate, a distance, I should think, of +two or three miles, at least. The lower part of the road was on the edge +of the hill, with a narrow valley on our left; and as the sun had now +broken out, its verdure and fertility, its foliage and cultivation, +shone forth in miraculous beauty, as green as England, as bright as only +Italy.</p> + +<p>Perugia appeared above us, crowning a mighty hill, the most picturesque +of cities; and the higher we ascended, the more the view opened before +us, as we looked back on the course that we had traversed, and saw the +wide valley, sweeping down and spreading out, bounded afar by mountains, +and sleeping in sun and shadow. No language nor any art of the pencil +can give an idea of the scene....</p> + +<p>We plunged from the upper city down through some of the strangest +passages that ever were<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_74" id="Page_74">[Pg 74]</a></span> called streets; some of them, indeed, being +arched all over, and, going down into the unknown darkness, looked like +caverns; and we followed one of them doubtfully, till it opened, out +upon the light. The houses on each side were divided only by a pace or +two, and communicated with one another, here and there, by arched +passages. They looked very ancient, and may have been inhabited by +Etruscan princes, judging from the massiveness of some of the foundation +stones. The present inhabitants, nevertheless, are by no means princely, +shabby men, and the careworn wives and mothers of the people, one of +whom was guiding a child in leading-strings through these antique +alleys, where hundreds of generations have trod before those little +feet. Finally we came out through a gateway, the same gateway at which +we entered last night.</p> + +<p>The best part of Perugia, that in which the grand piazzas and the +principal public edifices stand, seems to be a nearly level plateau on +the summit of the hill; but it is of no very great extent, and the +streets rapidly run downward on either side. J—— and I followed one of +these descending streets, and were led a long way by it, till we at last +emerged from one of the gates of the city, and had another view of the +mountains and valleys, the fertile and sunny wilderness in which this +ancient civilization stands.</p> + +<p>On the right of the gate there was a rude country path, partly overgrown +with grass, bordered by a hedge on one side, and on the other by the +gray city wall, at the base of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_75" id="Page_75">[Pg 75]</a></span> which the tract kept onward. We followed +it, hoping that it would lead us to some other gate by which we might +reenter the city; but it soon grew so indistinct and broken, that it was +evidently on the point of melting into somebody's olive-orchard or +wheat-fields or vineyards, all of which lay on the other side of the +hedge; and a kindly old woman of whom I inquired told me (if I rightly +understood her Italian) that I should find no further passage in that +direction. So we turned back, much broiled in the hot sun, and only now +and then relieved by the shadow of an angle or a tower.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3>SIENA<a name="FNanchor_28_28" id="FNanchor_28_28"></a><a href="#Footnote_28_28" class="fnanchor">[28]</a></h3> + +<h4>BY MR. AND MRS. EDWIN H. BLASHFIELD</h4> + + +<p>That admirers of minute designs and florid detail could appreciate +grandeur as well, no one can doubt who has seen the plans of the Sienese +cathedral. Its history is one of a grand result, and of far grander, tho +thwarted endeavor, and it is hard to realize to-day, that the church as +it stands is but a fragment, the transept only, of what Siena willed. +From the state of the existing works no one can doubt that the brave +little republic would have finished it had she not met an enemy before +whom the sword of Monteaperto was useless. The plague of 1348 stalked +across Tuscany, and the chill of thirty thou<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_76" id="Page_76">[Pg 76]</a></span>sand Sienese graves numbed +the hand of master and workman, sweeping away the architect who planned, +the masons who built, the magistrates who ordered, it left but the +yellowed parchment in the archives which conferred upon Maestro Lorenzo +Maitani the superintendence of the works.</p> + +<p>The façade of the present church is amazing in its richness, undoubtedly +possesses some grand and much lovely detail, and is as undoubtedly +suggestive, with its white marble ornaments upon a pink marble ground, +of a huge, sugared cake. It is impossible to look at this restored +whiteness with the sun upon it; the dazzled eyes close involuntarily and +one sees in retrospect the great, gray church front at Rheims, or the +solemn façade of Notre Dame de Paris. It is like remembering an organ +burst of Handel after hearing the florid roulades of the mass within the +cathedral.</p> + +<p>The interior is rich in color and fine in effect, but the northerner is +painfully imprest by the black and white horizontal stripes which, +running from vaulting to pavement, seem to blur and confuse the vision, +and the closely set bars of the piers are positively irritating. In the +hexagonal lantern, however, they are less offensive than elsewhere, +because the fan-like radiation of the bars above the great gilded +statues breaks up the horizontal effect. The decoration of the +stone-work is not happy; the use of cold red and cold blue with gilt +bosses in relief does much to vulgarize, and there is constant sally in +small masses which<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_77" id="Page_77">[Pg 77]</a></span> belittles the general effect. It is evident that the +Sienese tendency to floridity is answerable for much of this, and that +having added some piece of big and bad decoration, the cornice of papal +head, for instance, they felt forced to do away with it or continue it +throughout.</p> + +<p>But this fault and many others are forgotten when we examine the detail +with which later men have filled the church. Other Italian cathedrals +possess art-objects of a higher order; perhaps no other one is so rich +in these treasures. The great masters are disappointing here. Raphael, +as the co-laborer of Pinturicchio, is dainty, rather than great, and +Michelangelo passes unnoticed in the huge and coldly elaborate +altar-front of the Piccolomini. But Marrina, with his doors of the +library; Barili, with his marvelous casing of the choir-stalls; +Beccafumi, with his bronze and neillo—these are the artists whom one +wonders at; these wood-carvers and bronze-founders, creators of the +microcosmic detail of the Renaissance which had at last burst +triumphantly into Siena.</p> + +<p>This treasure is cumulative, as we walk eastward from the main door, +where the pillars are a maze of scroll-work in deepest cutting, and by +the time we reach the choir the head fairly swims with the play of light +and color. We wander from point to point, we finger and caress the +lustrous stalls of Barili, and turn with a kind of confusion of vision +from panel to panel; above our heads the tabernacle of Vecchietta, the +lamp bearing angels of Bec<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_78" id="Page_78">[Pg 78]</a></span>cafumi make spots of bituminous color, with +glittering high-lights, strangely emphasizing their modeling; from these +youths, who might be pages to some Roman prefect, the eye travels upward +still further, along the golden convolutions of the heavily stuccoed +pilasters to the huge, gilded cherubs' heads that frame the eastern +rose....</p> + +<p>It is incredible that these frescoes are four hundred years old. Surely +Pinturicchio came down from his scaffolding but yesterday. This is how +the hardly dried plaster must have looked to pope and cardinal and +princes when the boards were removed, and when the very figures on these +walls—smart youths in tights and slashes, bright-robed scholars, +ecclesiastics caped in ermine, ladies with long braids bound in nets of +silk—crowded to see themselves embalmed in tempera for curious +after-centuries to gaze upon.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3>THE ASSISSI OF ST. FRANCIS<a name="FNanchor_29_29" id="FNanchor_29_29"></a><a href="#Footnote_29_29" class="fnanchor">[29]</a></h3> + +<h4>BY HIPPOLYTE ADOLPHE TAINE</h4> + + +<p>On the summit of an abrupt height, over a double row of arcades, appears +the monastery; at its base a torrent plows the soil, winding off in the +distance between banks of boulders; beyond is the old town prolonging +itself on the ridge of the mountain. We ascend slowly under the burning +sun, and suddenly, at the end of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_79" id="Page_79">[Pg 79]</a></span> a court surrounded by slender columns, +enter within the obscurity of the cathedral. It is unequalled; before +having seen it one has no idea of the art and the genius of the Middle +Ages. Append to it Dante and the "Fioretti" of St. Francis, and it +becomes the masterpiece of mystic Christianity.</p> + +<p>There are three churches, one above the other, all of them arranged +around the tomb of St. Francis. Over this venerated body, which the +people regard as ever living and absorbed in prayer at the bottom of an +inaccessible cave, the edifice has arisen and gloriously flowered like +an architectural shrine. The lowest is a crypt, dark as a sepulcher, +into which the visitors descend with torches; pilgrims keep close to the +dripping walls and grope along in order to reach the grating.</p> + +<p>Here is the tomb, in a pale, dim light, similar to that of limbo. A few +brass lamps, almost without lights, burn here eternally like stars lost +in mournful obscurity. The ascending smoke clings to the arches, and the +heavy odor of the tapers mingles with that of the cave. The guide trims +his torch; and the sudden flash in this horrible darkness, above the +bones of a corpse, is like one of Dante's visions. Here is the mystic +grave of a saint who, in the midst of corruption and worms, beholds his +slimy dungeon of earth filled with the supernatural radiance of the +Savior.</p> + +<p>But that which can not be represented by words is the middle church, a +long, low spiracle supported by small, round arches curving in the +half-shadow, and whose voluntary de<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_80" id="Page_80">[Pg 80]</a></span>pression makes one instinctively +bend his knees. A coating of somber blue and of reddish bands starred +with gold, a marvelous embroidery of ornaments, wreaths, delicate +scroll-work, leaves, and painted figures, covers the arches and ceilings +with its harmonious multitude; the eye is overwhelmed by it; a +population of forms and tints lives on its vaults; I would not exchange +this cavern for all the churches of Rome!</p> + +<p>On the summit, the upper church shoots up as brilliant, as aerial, as +triumphant, as this is low and grave. Really, if one were to give way to +conjecture, he might suppose that in these three sanctuaries the +architect meant to represent the three worlds; below, the gloom of death +and the horrors of the infernal tomb; in the middle, the impassioned +anxiety of the beseeching Christian who strives and hopes in this world +of trial; aloft, the bliss and dazzling glory of Paradise.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3>RAVENNA<a name="FNanchor_30_30" id="FNanchor_30_30"></a><a href="#Footnote_30_30" class="fnanchor">[30]</a></h3> + +<h4>BY EDWARD A. FREEMAN</h4> + + +<p>With exceptions, all the monuments of Ravenna belong to the days of +transition from Roman to Medieval times, and the greater part of them +come within the fifth and sixth centuries. It was then that Ravenna +became, for a season, the head of Italy and of the Western world.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_81" id="Page_81">[Pg 81]</a></span> The +sea had made Ravenna a great haven: the falling back of the sea made her +the ruling city of the earth. Augustus had called into being the port of +Caesarea as the Peiraieus of the Old Thessalian or Umbrian Ravenna. +Haven and city grew and became one; but the faithless element again fell +back; the haven of Augustus became dry land covered by orchards, and +Classis arose as the third station, leaving Ravenna itself an inland +city.</p> + +<p>Again has the sea fallen back; Caesarea has utterly perished; Classis +survives only in one venerable church; the famous pine forest has grown +up between the third haven and the now distant Hadriatic. Out of all +this grew the momentary greatness of Ravenna. The city, girded with the +three fold zone of marshes, causeways, and strong walls, became the +impregnable shelter of the later Emperors; and the earliest Teutonic +Kings naturally fixt their royal seat in the city of their Imperial +predecessors. When this immediate need had passed away, the city +naturally fell into insignificance, and it plays hardly any part in the +history of Medieval Italy. Hence it is that the city is crowded with the +monuments of an age which has left hardly any monuments elsewhere.</p> + +<p>In Britain, indeed, if Dr. Merivale be right in the date which he gives +to the great Northern wall, we have a wonderful relic of those times; +but it is the work, not of the architect, but of the military engineers. +In other parts of Europe also works of this date are found here and +there; but nowhere save at Ravenna is there a whole city, so to speak, +made up of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_82" id="Page_82">[Pg 82]</a></span> them. Nowhere but at Ravenna can we find, thickly scattered +around us, the churches, the tombs, perhaps the palaces, of the last +Roman and the first Teutonic rulers of Italy. In the Old and in the New +Rome, and in Milan also, works of the same date exist; but either they +do not form the chief objects of the city, or they have lost their +character and position through later changes. If Ravenna boasts of the +tombs of Honorius and Theodoric, Milan boasts also, truly or falsely, of +the tombs of Stilicho and Athaulf. But at Milan we have to seek for the +so-called tomb of Athaulf in a side-chapel of a church which has lost +all ancient character, and the so-called tomb of Stilicho, tho placed in +the most venerable church of the city, stands in a strange position as +the support of a pulpit.</p> + +<p>At Ravenna, on the other hand, the mighty mausoleum of Theodoric, and +the chapel which contains the tombs of Galla Placidia, her brother, and +her second husband, are among the best known and best preserved +monuments of the city. Ravenna, in the days of its Exarchs, could never +have dared to set up its own St. Vital as a rival to Imperial St. +Sophia. But at St. Sophia, changed into the temple of another faith, the +most characteristic ornaments have been hidden or torn away, while at +St. Vital Hebrew patriarchs and Christian saints, and the Imperial forms +of Justinian and his strangely-chosen Empress, still look down, as they +did thirteen hundred years back, upon the altars of Christian worship. +Ravenna, in short, seems, as it were, to have been preserved all<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_83" id="Page_83">[Pg 83]</a></span> but +untouched to keep up the memory of the days which were alike Roman, +Christian, and Imperial.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3>BENEDICTINE SUBIACO<a name="FNanchor_31_31" id="FNanchor_31_31"></a><a href="#Footnote_31_31" class="fnanchor">[31]</a></h3> + +<h4>BY AUGUSTUS J. C. HARE</h4> + + +<p>One of the excellent mountain roads constructed by Pius IX. leads +through a wild district from Olevano to Subiaco. A few miles before +reaching Subiaco we skirt a lake, probably one of the Simbrivii Lacus +which Nero is believed to have made by damming up the Anio. Here he +fished for trout with a golden net, and here he built the mountain villa +which he called Sublaqueum—a name which still exists in Subiaco.</p> + +<p>Four centuries after the valley had witnessed the orgies of Nero, a +young patrician of the family of the Anicii-Benedictus, or "the blessed +one," being only fourteen at the time, fled from the seductions of the +capital to the rocks of Mentorella, but, being followed thither, sought +a more complete solitude in a cave above the falls of the Anio. Here he +lived unknown to any except the hermit Romanus, who daily let down food +to him, half of his own loaf, by a cord from the top of the cliff. At +length the hiding-place was revealed to the village priest in a vision, +and pilgrims flocked from all quarters to the valley. Through the +disciples who gathered around Benedict, this desolate ravine<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_84" id="Page_84">[Pg 84]</a></span> became the +cradle of monastic life in the West, and twelve monasteries rose amid +its peaks under the Benedictine rule....</p> + +<p>Nothing can exceed the solemn grandeur of the situation of the convent +dedicated to St. Scholastica, the sainted sister of St. Benedict, which +was founded in the fifth century, and which, till quite lately, included +as many as sixteen towns and villages among its possessions. The scenery +becomes more romantic and savage at every step as we ascend the winding +path after leaving St. Scholastica, till a small gate admits us to the +famous immemorial Ilex Grove of St. Benedict, which is said to date from +the fifth century, and which has never been profaned by ax or hatchet. +Beyond it the path narrows, and a steep winding stair, just wide enough +to admit one person at a time, leads to the platform before the second +convent, which up to that moment is entirely concealed. Its name, Sacro +Speco, commemorates the holy cave of St. Benedict.</p> + +<p>At the portal, the thrilling interest of the place is suggested by the +inscription—"Here is the patriarchal cradle of the monks of the West +Order of St. Benedict." The entrance corridor, built on arches over the +abyss, has frescoes of four sainted popes, and ends in an ante-chamber +with beautiful Umbrian frescoes, and a painted statue of St. Benedict. +Here we enter the all-glorious church of 1116, completely covered with +ancient frescoes. A number of smaller chapels, hewn out of the rock, are +dedicated to the sainted followers of the founder. Some of the paintings +are by the rare<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_85" id="Page_85">[Pg 85]</a></span> Umbrian master Concioli. A staircase in front of the +high altar leads to the lower church. At the foot of the first flight of +steps, above the charter of 1213, setting forth all its privileges, is +the frescoed figure of Innocent III., who first raised Subiaco into an +abbacy; in the same fresco is represented Abbot John of Tagliacozzo, +under whom (1217-1277) many of the paintings were executed.</p> + +<p>On the second landing, the figure of Benedict faces us on a window with +his finger on his lips, imposing silence. On the left is the coro, on +the right the cave where Benedict is said to have passed three years in +darkness. A statue by Raggi commemorates his presence here; a basket is +a memorial of that lowered with his food by St. Romanus; an ancient bell +is shown as that which rang to announce its approach. As we descend the +Scala Santa trodden by the feet of Benedict, and ascended by the monks +upon their knees, the solemn beauty of the place increases at every +step. On the right is a powerful fresco of Death mowing down the young +and sparing the old; on the left, the Preacher shows the young and +thoughtless the three states to which the body is reduced after death. +Lastly, we reach the Holy of Holies, the second cave, in which Benedict +laid down the rule of his order, making its basis the twelve degrees of +humility. Here also an inscription enumerates the wonderful series of +saints, who, issuing from Subiaco, founded the Benedictine Order +throughout the world.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_86" id="Page_86">[Pg 86]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3>ETRUSCAN VOLTERRA<a name="FNanchor_32_32" id="FNanchor_32_32"></a><a href="#Footnote_32_32" class="fnanchor">[32]</a></h3> + +<h4>BY WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT</h4> + + +<p>For several miles before reaching Volterra, our attention was fixt by +the extraordinary aspect of the country through which we were passing. +The road gradually ascended, and we found ourselves among deep ravines +and steep, high, broken banks, principally of clay, barren, and in most +places wholly bare of herbage, a scene of complete desolation, were it +not for a cottage here and there perched upon the heights, a few sheep +attended by a boy and a dog grazing on the brink of one of the +precipices, or a solitary patch of bright green wheat in some spot where +the rains had not yet carried away the vegetable mold.</p> + +<p>In the midst of this desolate tract, which is, however, here and there +interspersed with fertile spots, rises the mountain on which Volterra is +situated, where the inhabitants breathe a pure and keen atmosphere, +almost perpetually cool, and only die of pleurisies and apoplexies; +while below, on the banks of the Cecina, which in full sight winds its +way to the sea, they die of fevers. One of the ravines of which I have +spoken—the "balza," they call it at Volterra—has plowed a deep chasm +on the north side of this mountain, and is every year rapidly +approaching the city on its summit. I stood on its edge and looked down +a bank of soft, red earth five hundred feet in height. A few rods in +front of me I saw where<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_87" id="Page_87">[Pg 87]</a></span> a road had crossed the spot in which the gulf +now yawned; the tracks of the last year's carriages were seen reaching +to the edge on both sides. The ruins of a convent were close at hand, +the inmates of which, two or three years since, had been removed by the +Government to the town for safety....</p> + +<p>The antiquities of Volterra consist of an Etruscan burial-ground, in +which the tombs still remain, pieces of the old and incredibly massive +Etruscan wall, including a far larger circuit than the present city, two +Etruscan gates of immemorial antiquity, older, doubtless, than any thing +at Rome, built of enormous stones, one of them serving even yet as an +entrance to the town, and a multitude of cinerary vessels, mostly of +alabaster, sculptured with numerous figures in "alto relievo." These +figures are sometimes allegorical representations, and sometimes embody +the fables of the Greek mythology. Among them are many in the most +perfect style of Grecian art, the subjects of which are taken from the +poems of Homer; groups representing the besiegers of Troy and its +defenders, or Ulysses with his companions and his ships. I gazed with +exceeding delight on these works of forgotten artists, who had the +verses of Homer by heart—works just drawn from the tombs where they had +been buried for thousands of years, and looking as if fresh from the +chisel.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_88" id="Page_88">[Pg 88]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3>THE PAESTUM OF THE GREEKS<a name="FNanchor_33_33" id="FNanchor_33_33"></a><a href="#Footnote_33_33" class="fnanchor">[33]</a></h3> + +<h4>BY EDWARD A. FREEMAN</h4> + + +<p>Few buildings are more familiar than the temples of Paestum; yet the +moment when the traveler first comes in sight of works of untouched +Hellenic skill is one which is simply overwhelming. Suddenly, by the +side of a dreary road, in a spot backed indeed by noble mountains, but +having no charm of its own, we come on these works, unrivaled on our +side of the Hadriatic and the Messenian strait, standing in all their +solitary grandeur, shattered indeed, but far more perfect than the mass +of ruined buildings of later days. The feeling of being brought near to +Hellenic days and Hellenic men, of standing face to face with the +fathers of the world's civilization, is one which can never pass away. +Descriptions, pictures, models, all fail; they give us the outward form; +they can not give us the true life.</p> + +<p>The thought comes upon us that we have passed away from that Roman world +out of which our own world has sprung into that earlier and fresher and +brighter world by which Rome and ourselves have been so deeply +influenced, but out of which neither the Roman nor the modern world can +be said to spring. There is the true Doric in its earliest form, in all +its unmixed and simple majesty. The ground is strewed with shells and +covered with acanthus-leaves; but no shell had suggested the Ionic<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_89" id="Page_89">[Pg 89]</a></span> +volute, no acanthus-leaf had suggested the Corinthian foliage. The vast +columns, with the sudden tapering, the overhanging capitals, the stern, +square abacus, all betoken the infancy of art. But it is an infancy like +that of their own Hêraklês; the strength which clutched the serpent in +his cradle is there in every stone. Later improvements, the improvements +of Attic skill, may have added grace; the perfection of art may be found +in the city which the vote of the divine Assembly decreed to Athênê; but +for the sense of power, of simplicity without rudeness, the city of +Poseidon holds her own. Unlike in every detail, there is in these +wonderful works of early Greek art a spirit akin to some of the great +churches of Romanesque date, simple, massive, unadorned, like the +Poseidônian Doric.</p> + +<p>And they show, too, how far the ancient architects were from any slavish +bondage to those minute rules which moderns have invented for them. In +each of the three temples of Paestum differences both of detail and of +arrangement may be marked, differences partly of age, but also partly of +taste. And some other thoughts are brought forcibly upon the mind. Here +indeed we feel that the wonders of Hellenic architecture are things to +kindle our admiration, even our reverence; but that, as the expression +of a state of things which has wholly passed away, nothing can be less +fit for reproduction in modern times.</p> + +<p>And again, we may be sure that the admiration and reverence which they +may awaken in the mind of the mere classical purist is cold<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_90" id="Page_90">[Pg 90]</a></span> beside that +which they kindle in the mind which can give them their true place in +the history of art. The temples of Paestum are great and noble from any +point of view. But they become greater and nobler as we run over the +successive steps in the long series by which their massive columns and +entablatures grew into the tall clusters and soaring arches of +Westminster and Amiens.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_91" id="Page_91">[Pg 91]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>VII</h2> + +<h2>SICILIAN SCENES</h2> + +<p><br /><br /></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3>PALERMO<a name="FNanchor_34_34" id="FNanchor_34_34"></a><a href="#Footnote_34_34" class="fnanchor">[34]</a></h3> + +<h4>BY WILL S. MONROE</h4> + + +<p>While not one of the original Hellenic city-states, Palermo has a superb +location on the northern shores of the central island of the central +sea; its harbor is guarded by the two picturesque cliffs and the fertile +plain that forms the "compagne" is hemmed in by a semicircular cord of +rugged mountains. "Perhaps there are few spots upon the surface of the +globe more beautiful than Palermo," writes Arthur Symonds. "The hills on +either hand descend upon the sea with long-drawn delicately broken +outlines, so delicately tinted with aerial hues at early dawn or beneath +the blue light of a full moon the panorama seems to be some fabric of +fancy, that must fade away, 'like shapes of clouds we form,' to nothing. +Within the cradle of these hills, and close upon the tideless water, +lies the city. Behind and around on every side stretches the famous +Conco d'Oro, or golden shell, a plain of marvelous fertility, so called +because of its richness and also be<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_92" id="Page_92">[Pg 92]</a></span>cause of its shape; for it tapers to +a fine point where the mountains meet, and spreads abroad, where they +diverge, like a cornucopia. The whole of this long vega is a garden, +thick with olive-groves and orange trees, with orchards of nespole and +palms and almonds, with fig-trees and locust-trees, with judas-trees +that blush in spring, and with flowers as multitudinously brilliant as +the fretwork of sunset clouds."</p> + +<p>During the days of Phœnician and Carthagenian supremacy Palermo was a +busy mart—a great clearing-house for the commerce of the island and +that part of the Mediterranean. But during the days of the Saracens it +became not only a very busy city but also a very beautiful city. The +Arabian poets extolled its charms in terms that sound to us exceedingly +extravagant. One of them wrote: "Oh how beautiful is the lakelet of the +twin palms and the island where the spacious palace stands. The limpid +waters of the double springs resemble liquid pearls, and their basin is +a sea; you would say that the branches of the trees stretched down to +see the fishes in the pool and smile at them. The great fishes in those +clear waters, and the birds among the gardens tune their songs. The ripe +oranges of the island are like fire that burns on boughs of emerald; the +pale lemon reminds me of a lover who has passed the night in weeping for +his absent darling. The two palms may be compared to lovers who have +gained an inaccessible retreat against their enemies, or raise +themselves erect in pride to confound the murmurs and the ill thoughts +of jealous men. O palms of two lakelets of Palermo, ceaseless, +undis<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_93" id="Page_93">[Pg 93]</a></span>turbed, and plenteous days for ever keep your freshness."</p> + +<p>With the coming of the Normans Palermo enjoyed even greater prosperity +than had been experienced under the liberal rule of the Saracens. This +was the most brilliant period in the history of the city. The population +was even more mixed than during Moslem supremacy. Besides the Greeks, +Normans, Saracens, and Hebrews, there were commercial colonies of Slavs, +Venetians, Lombardians, Catalans, and Pisans.</p> + +<p>The most interesting public monuments at Palermo date from the Norman +period; and while many of the buildings are strikingly Saracenic in +character and recall similar structures erected by the Arabs in Spain, +it will be remembered that the Normans brought no trained architects to +the island, but employed the Arabs, Greeks, and Hebrews who had already +been in the service of the Saracen emirs. But the Arab influence in +architecture was dominant, and it survived well into the fourteenth +century.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3>GIRGENTI<a name="FNanchor_35_35" id="FNanchor_35_35"></a><a href="#Footnote_35_35" class="fnanchor">[35]</a></h3> + +<h4>BY EDWARD A. FREEMAN</h4> + + +<p>The reported luxury of the Sikeliot cities in this age is, in the +double-edged saying of Empedocles, connected with one of their noblest +tastes. They built their houses as if they were<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_94" id="Page_94">[Pg 94]</a></span> going to live for ever. +And if their houses, how much more their temples and other public +buildings? In some of the Sikeliot cities, this was the most brilliant +time of architectural splendor. At Syracuse indeed the greatest +buildings which remain to tell their own story belong either to an +earlier or to a later time. It is the theater alone, as in its first +estate a probable work of the first Hierôn, which at all connects itself +with our present time. But at Akragas<a name="FNanchor_36_36" id="FNanchor_36_36"></a><a href="#Footnote_36_36" class="fnanchor">[36]</a> and at Selinous the greatest +of the existing buildings belong to the days of republican freedom and +independence. At Akragas what the tyrant began the democracy went on +with. The series of temples that line the southern wall are due to an +impulse which began under Thêrôn and went on to the days of the +Carthaginian siege.</p> + +<p>Of the greatest among them, the temple of Olympian Zeus, this is +literally true. There can be little doubt that it was begun as one of +the thank-offerings after the victory of Himera, and it is certain that +at the coming of Hannibal and Hamilkôn it was still so far imperfect +that the roof was not yet added. It was therefore in building during a +time of more than seventy years, years which take in the whole of the +brilliant days of Akragantine freedom and well-being.</p> + +<p>To the same period also belong the other temples in the lower city, +temples which abide above ground either standing or in ruins, while the +older temples in the akropolis have to be looked for underneath +buildings of later ages.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_95" id="Page_95">[Pg 95]</a></span> It was a grand conception to line the southern +wall, the wall most open to the attacks of mortal enemies, with this +wonderful series of holy places of the divine protectors of the city. It +was a conception due, we may believe, in the first instance, to Thêrôn, +but which the democracy fully entered into and carried out. The two best +preserved of the range stand to the east; one indeed occupies the +southeastern corner of the fortified enclosure.</p> + +<p>Next in order to the west comes the temple which bears a name not +unlikely, but altogether impossible and unmeaning, the so-called temple +of Concord. No reasonable guess can be made at its pagan dedication; in +the fifteenth century of our era it followed the far earlier precedent +of the temples in the akropolis. It became the church of Saint Gregory, +not of any of the great pontiffs and doctors of the Church, but of the +local bishop whose full description as Saint Gregory of the Turnips can +hardly be written without a smile. The peristyle was walled up, and +arches were cut through the walls of the cella, exactly as in the great +church of Syracuse. Saint Gregory of Girgenti plays no such part in the +world's history as was played by the Panagia of Syracuse; we may +therefore be more inclined to extend some mercy to the Bourbon king who +set free the columns as we now see them. When he had gone so far, one +might even wish that he had gone on to wall up the arches. In each of +the former states of the building there was a solid wall somewhere to +give shelter from the blasts which sweep round this exposed spot. As the +building now stands, it is, after the Athenian<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_96" id="Page_96">[Pg 96]</a></span> house of Theseus and +Saint George, the best preserved Greek temple in being. Like its fellow +to the east, it is a building of moderate size, of the middle stage of +Doric, with columns less massive than those of Syracuse and Corinth, +less slender than those of Nemea.</p> + +<p>Again to the west stood a temple of greater size, nearly ranging in +scale with the Athenian Parthenon, which is assigned, with far more of +likelihood than the other names, to Hêraklês. Save one patched-up column +standing amid the general ruin, it has, in the language of the prophet, +become heaps. All that is left is a mass of huge stones, among which we +can see the mighty columns, fallen, each in its place, overthrown, it is +clear, by no hand of man but by those powers of the nether world whose +sway is felt in every corner of Sicilian soil.</p> + +<p>These three temples form a continuous range along the eastern part of +the southern wall of the city. To the west of them, parted from them by +a gate, which, in Roman times at least, bore, as at Constantinople and +Spalato, the name of Golden, rose the mightiest work of Akragantine +splendor and devotion, the great Olympieion itself. Of this gigantic +building, the vastest Greek temple in Europe, we happily have somewhat +full descriptions from men who had looked at it, if not in the days of +its full glory, yet at least when it was a house standing up, and not a +ruin. As it now lies, a few fragments of wall still standing amid +confused heaps of fallen stones, of broken columns and capitals, no +building kindles a more earnest desire to see it as it stood in the days +of its perfection.</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><br /><br /></p> + +<p><a name="NAPLES" id="NAPLES"></a></p> +<div class="figcenter"> + <img src="images/img114-1.jpg" + alt="CITY AND BAY OF NAPLES" /><br /> + <b>CITY AND BAY OF NAPLES WITH VESUVIUS IN THE DISTANCE<br />Courtesy International Mercantile Marine Co.</b> + </div> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><br /><br /></p> + +<p><a name="THESEUS" id="THESEUS"></a></p> +<div class="figcenter"> + <img src="images/img115-1.jpg" + alt="TEMPLE OF THESEUS" /><br /> + <b>TEMPLE OF THESEUS AT ATHENS<br />Courtesy L. C. Page & Co.</b> + </div> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><br /><br /></p> + +<p><a name="PALERMO" id="PALERMO"></a></p> +<div class="figcenter"> + <img src="images/img115-2.jpg" + alt="PALERMO, SICILY" /><br /> + <b>PALERMO, SICILY, FROM THE SEA</b> + </div> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><br /><br /></p> + +<p><a name="SEGESTA" id="SEGESTA"></a></p> +<div class="figcenter"> + <img src="images/img116-1.jpg" + alt="GREEK THEATER AT SEGESTA" /><br /> + <b>GREEK THEATER AT SEGESTA, SICILY</b> + </div> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><br /><br /></p> + +<p><a name="CONCORD" id="CONCORD"></a></p> +<div class="figcenter"> + <img src="images/img116-2.jpg" + alt="TEMPLE OF CONCORD" /><br /> + <b>TEMPLE OF CONCORD, GIRGENTI, SICILY</b> + </div> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><br /><br /></p> + +<p><a name="JUNO" id="JUNO"></a></p> +<div class="figcenter"> + <img src="images/img117-1.jpg" + alt="TEMPLE OF JUNO" /><br /> + <b>TEMPLE OF JUNO AT GIRGENTI, SICILY</b> + </div> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><br /><br /></p> + +<p><a name="SYRACUSE" id="SYRACUSE"></a></p> +<div class="figcenter"> + <img src="images/img117-2.jpg" + alt="AMPHITHEATER AT SYRACUSE" /><br /> + <b>AMPHITHEATER AT SYRACUSE, SICILY<br />Courtesy L. C. Page & Co.</b> + </div> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><br /><br /></p> + +<p><a name="GREEK_TEMPLE" id="GREEK_TEMPLE"></a></p> +<div class="figcenter"> + <img src="images/img118-1.jpg" + alt="GREEK TEMPLE AT SEGESTA" /><br /> + <b>GREEK TEMPLE AT SEGESTA, SICILY<br />Courtesy L. C. Page & Co.</b> + </div> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><br /><br /></p> + +<p><a name="HARBOR" id="HARBOR"></a></p> +<div class="figcenter"> + <img src="images/img118-2.jpg" + alt="HARBOR OF SYRACUSE" /><br /> + <b>HARBOR OF SYRACUSE, SICILY<br />Courtesy Houghton, Mifflin Co.</b> + </div> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><br /><br /></p> + +<p><a name="ULYSSES" id="ULYSSES"></a></p> +<div class="figcenter"> + <img src="images/img119-1.jpg" + alt="SHIP OF ULYSSES" /><br /> + <b>THE SO-CALLED "SHIP OF ULYSSES" OFF CORFU<br />Courtesy Houghton, Mifflin Co.</b> + </div> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><br /><br /></p> + +<p><a name="ZEUS" id="ZEUS"></a></p> +<div class="figcenter"> + <img src="images/img119-2.jpg" + alt="TEMPLE OF THE OLYMPIAN ZEUS" /><br /> + <b>TEMPLE OF THE OLYMPIAN ZEUS AT ATHENS<br />Courtesy Houghton, Mifflin Co.</b> + </div> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><br /><br /></p> + +<p><a name="PLAIN_BELOW_DELPHI" id="PLAIN_BELOW_DELPHI"></a></p> +<div class="figcenter"> + <img src="images/img120-1.jpg" + alt="THE PLAIN BELOW DELPHI" /><br /> + <b>THE PLAIN BELOW DELPHI<br />Courtesy Houghton, Mifflin Co.</b> + </div> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><br /><br /></p> + +<p><a name="ROAD_NEAR_DELPHI" id="ROAD_NEAR_DELPHI"></a></p> +<div class="figcenter"> + <img src="images/img120-2.jpg" + alt=" ROAD NEAR DELPHI" /><br /> + <b> ROAD NEAR DELPHI<br />Courtesy Houghton, Mifflin Co.</b> + </div> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><br /><br /></p> + +<p><a name="OLYMPIA" id="OLYMPIA"></a></p> +<div class="figcenter"> + <img src="images/img121-1.jpg" + alt="THE STADIUM AT OLYMPIA" /><br /> + <b>ENTRANCE TO THE STADIUM AT OLYMPIA<br />Courtesy Houghton, Mifflin Co.</b> + </div> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><br /><br /></p> + +<p><a name="MINOS" id="MINOS"></a></p> +<div class="figcenter"> + <img src="images/img121-2.jpg" + alt="THRONE OF MINOS" /><br /> + <b>THRONE OF MINOS IN CRETE<br />(Minoan civilization in Crete antedates the Homeric age—perhaps by many +centuries</b> + </div> + +<p><br /><br /></p> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_97" id="Page_97">[Pg 97]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3>SEGESTE<a name="FNanchor_37_37" id="FNanchor_37_37"></a><a href="#Footnote_37_37" class="fnanchor">[37]</a></h3> + +<h4>BY JOHANN WOLFGANG VON GOETHE</h4> + + +<p>The temple of Segeste was never finished; the ground around it was never +even leveled; the space only being smoothed on which the peristyle was +to stand. For, in several places, the steps are from nine to ten feet in +the ground, and there is no hill near, from which the stone or mold +could have fallen. Besides, the stones lie in their natural position, +and no ruins are found near them.</p> + +<p>The columns are all standing; two which had fallen, have very recently +been raised again. How far the columns rested on a socle is hard to say; +and without an engraving it is difficult to give an idea of their +present state. At some points it would seem as if the pillars rested on +the fourth step. In that case to enter the temple you would have to go +down a step. In other places, however, the uppermost step is cut +through, and then it looks as if the columns had rested on bases; and +then again these spaces have been filled up, and so we have once more +the first case. An architect is necessary to determine this point.</p> + +<p>The sides have twelve columns, not reckoning the corner ones; the back +and front six, including them. The rollers on which the stones were +moved along, still lie around you on the steps. They have been left in +order to indicate that the temple was unfinished. But the strongest +evidence of this fact is the floor. In some<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_98" id="Page_98">[Pg 98]</a></span> spots (along the sides) the +pavement is laid down; in the middle, however, the red limestone rock +still projects higher than the level of the floor as partially laid; the +flooring, therefore, can not ever have been finished. There is also no +trace of an inner temple. Still less can the temple have ever been +overlaid with stucco; but that it was intended to do so, we may infer +from the fact that the abaci of the capitals have projecting points +probably for the purpose of holding the plaster. The whole is built of a +limestone, very similar to the travertine; only it is now much fretted. +The restoration which was carried on in 1781, has done much good to the +building. The cutting of the stone, with which the parts have been +reconnected, is simple, but beautiful.</p> + +<p>The site of the temple is singular; at the highest end of a broad and +long valley, it stands on an isolated hill. Surrounded, however, on all +sides by cliffs, it commands a very distant and extensive view of the +land, but takes in only just a corner of the sea. The district reposes +in a sort of melancholy fertility—every where well cultivated, but +scarce a dwelling to be seen. Flowering thistles were swarming with +countless butterflies, wild fennel stood here from eight to nine feet +high, dry and withered of the last year's growth, but so rich and in +such seeming order that one might almost take it to be an old +nursery-ground. A shrill wind whistled through the columns as if through +a wood, and screaming birds of prey hovered around the pediments.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_99" id="Page_99">[Pg 99]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3>TAORMINA<a name="FNanchor_38_38" id="FNanchor_38_38"></a><a href="#Footnote_38_38" class="fnanchor">[38]</a></h3> + +<h4>BY JOHANN WOLFGANG VON GOETHE</h4> + + +<p>When you have ascended to the top of the wall of rocks [at Taormina], +which rise precipitously at no great distance from the sea, you find two +peaks, connected by a semicircle. Whatever shape this may have had +originally from Nature has been helped by the hand of man, which has +formed out of it an amphitheater for spectators. Walls and other +buildings have furnished the necessary passages and rooms. Right across, +at the foot of the semicircular range of seats, the scene was built, and +by this means the two rocks were joined together, and a most enormous +work of nature and art combined.</p> + +<p>Now, sitting down at the spot where formerly sat the uppermost +spectators, you confess at once that never did any audience, in any +theater, have before it such a spectacle as you there behold. On the +right, and on high rocks at the side, castles tower in the air—farther +on the city lies below you; and altho its buildings are all of modern +date, still similar ones, no doubt, stood of old on the same site. After +this the eye falls on the whole of the long ridge of Ætna, then on the +left it catches a view of the sea-shore, as far as Catania, and even +Syracuse, and then the wide and extensive view is closed by the immense +smoking volcano, but not horribly, for the atmosphere, with its +softening effect,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_100" id="Page_100">[Pg 100]</a></span> makes it look more distinct, and milder than it +really is.</p> + +<p>If now you turn from this view toward the passage running at the back of +the spectators, you have on the left the whole wall of the rocks between +which and the sea runs the road to Messina. And then again you behold +vast groups of rocky ridges in the sea itself, with the coast of +Calabria in the far distance, which only a fixt and attentive gaze can +distinguish from the clouds which rise rapidly from it.</p> + +<p>We descended toward the theater, and tarried awhile among its ruins, on +which an accomplished architect would do well to employ, at least on +paper, his talent of restoration. After this I attempted to make a way +for myself through the gardens to the city. But I soon learned by +experience what an impenetrable bulwark is formed by a hedge of agaves +planted close together. You can see through their interlacing leaves, +and you think, therefore, it will be easy to force a way through them; +but the prickles on their leaves are very sensible obstacles. If you +step on these colossal leaves, in the hope that they will bear you, they +break off suddenly; and so, instead of getting out, you fall into the +arms of the next plant. When, however, at last we had wound our way out +of the labyrinth, we found but little to enjoy in the city; tho from the +neighboring country we felt it impossible to part before sunset. +Infinitely beautiful was it to observe this region, of which every point +had its interest, gradually enveloped in darkness.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_101" id="Page_101">[Pg 101]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3>MOUNT ÆTNA<a name="FNanchor_39_39" id="FNanchor_39_39"></a><a href="#Footnote_39_39" class="fnanchor">[39]</a></h3> + +<h4>BY WILL S. MONROE</h4> + + +<p>By the ancients Ætna was supposed to be the prison of the mighty chained +giant Typhon, the flames proceeding from his breath and the noises from +his groans; and when he turned over earthquakes shook the island. Many +of the myths of the Greek poets were associated with the slopes of Ætna, +such as Demeter, torch in hand, seeking Persephone, Acis and Galatea, +Polyphemus and the Cyclops.</p> + +<p>Ætna was once a volcano in the Mediterranean and in the course of ages +it completely filled the surrounding sea with its lava. A remarkable +feature of the mountain is the large number of minor cones on its +sides—some seven hundred in all. Most of these subsidiary cones are +from three to six thousand feet in height and they make themselves most +strongly felt during periods of great activity. The summit merely serves +as a vent through which the vapors and gases make their escape. The +natural boundaries of Ætna are the Alcantara and Simeto rivers on the +north, west, and south, and the sea on the east.</p> + +<p>The most luxurious fertility characterizes the gradual slopes near the +base, the decomposed volcanic soil being almost entirely covered with +olives, figs, grapes, and prickly pears. Higher up is the timber zone. +Formerly there was a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_102" id="Page_102">[Pg 102]</a></span> dense forest belt between the zone of cultivated +land and the tore of cinders and snow; but the work of forest +extermination was almost completed during the reign of the Spanish +Bourbons. One may still find scattered oak, ilex, chestnut, and pine +interspersed with ferns and aromatic herbs. Chestnut trees of surprizing +growth are found on the lower slopes. "The Chestnut Tree of the Hundred +Horses," for which the slopes of Ætna are famous, is not a single tree +but a group of several distinct trunks together forming a circle, under +whose spreading branches a hundred horses might find shelter.</p> + +<p>Above the wooded zone Ætna is covered with miniature cones thrown up by +different eruptions and regions of dreary plateau covered with scoriae +and ashes and buried under snow a part of the year. While the upper +portions of the volcano are covered with snow the greater portion of the +year, Ætna does not reach the limit of perpetual snow, and the heat +which is emitted from its sides prevents the formation of glaciers in +the hollows. One might expect that the quantities of snow and rain which +fall on the summit would give rise to numerous streams. But the small +stones and cinders absorb the moisture, and springs are found only on +the lower slopes. The cinders, however, retain sufficient moisture to +support a rich vegetation wherever the surface of the lava is not too +compact to be penetrated by roots. The surface of the more recent lava +streams is not, as might be supposed, smooth and level, but full of +yawning holes and rents.</p> + +<p>The regularity of the gradual slopes is broken<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_103" id="Page_103">[Pg 103]</a></span> on the eastern side by +the Valle del Bove, a vast amphitheater more than three thousand feet in +depth, three miles in width, and covering an area of ten square miles. +The bottom of the valley is dotted with craters which rise in gigantic +steps; and, when Ætna is in a state of eruption, these craters pour +forth fiery cascades of lava. The Monte Centenari rise from the Valle +del Bove to an elevation of 6,026 feet. At the head of the valley is the +Torre del Filosofo at an altitude of 9,570 feet. This is the reputed +site of the observatory of Empedocles, the poet and philosopher, who is +fabled to have thrown himself into the crater of Ætna to immortalize his +name.</p> + +<p>The lower slopes of Ætna—after the basin of Palermo—include the most +densely populated parts of Sicily. More than half a million people live +on the slopes of a mountain that might be expected to inspire terror. +"Towns succeed towns along its base like pearls in a necklace, and when +a stream of lava effects a breach in the chain of human habitations, it +is closed up again as soon as the lava has had time to cool." As soon as +the lava has decomposed, the soil produces an excellent yield and this +tempts the farmer and the fruit grower to take chances. Speaking of the +dual effect of Ætna, Freeman says: "He has been mighty to destroy, but +he has also been mighty to create and render fruitful. If his fiery +streams have swept away cities and covered fields, they have given the +cities a new material for their buildings and the fields a new soil rich +above all others."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_104" id="Page_104">[Pg 104]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3>SYRACUSE<a name="FNanchor_40_40" id="FNanchor_40_40"></a><a href="#Footnote_40_40" class="fnanchor">[40]</a></h3> + +<h4>BY RUFUS B. RICHARDSON</h4> + + +<p>The ruins of Syracuse are not to the casual observer very imposing. But +even these ruins have great interest for the archeologist. There is, for +example, an old temple near the northern end of Ortygia, for the most +part embedded in the buildings of the modern city, yet with its east end +cleared and showing several entire columns with a part of the architrave +upon them. And what a surprize here awaits one who thinks of a Doric +temple as built on a stereotyped plan! Instead of the thirteen columns +on the long sides which one is apt to look for as going with a +six-column front, here are eighteen or nineteen, it is not yet quite +certain which. The columns stand less than their diameter apart, and the +abaci are so broad that they nearly touch.</p> + +<p>So small is the inter-columnar space that archeologists incline to the +belief that in this one Doric temple there were triglyphs only over the +columns, and not also between them as in all other known cases. +Everything about this temple stamps it as the oldest in Sicily. An +inscription on the top step, in very archaic letters, much worn and +difficult to read, contains the name of Apollo in the ancient form.... +The inscription may, of course, be later than the temple; but it is in +itself old enough to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_105" id="Page_105">[Pg 105]</a></span> warrant the supposition that the temple was +erected soon after the first Corinthian colonists established themselves +in the island. While the inscription makes it reasonably certain that +the temple belonged to Apollo, the god under whose guiding hand all +these Dorians went out into these western seas, tradition, with strange +perversity, has given it the name of "Temple of Diana." But it is all in +the family.</p> + +<p>Another temple ruin on the edge of the plateau, which begins about two +miles south of the city, across the Anapos, one might also easily +overlook in a casual survey, because it consists only of two columns +without capitals, and a broad extent of the foundations from which the +accumulated earth has been only partially removed. This was the famous +temple of Olympian Zeus, built probably in the days of Hiero I., soon +after the Persian war, but on the site of a temple still more venerable. +One seeks a reason for the location of this holy place at such a +distance from the city. Holm, the German historian of Sicily, argues +with some plausibility that this was no mere suburb of Syracuse, but the +original Syracuse itself. In the first place, the list of the citizens +of Syracuse was kept here down at least to the time of the Athenian +invasion. In the second place, tradition, which, when rightly consulted, +tells so much, says that Archias, the founder of Syracuse, had two +daughters, Ortygia and Syracusa, which may point to two coordinate +settlements, Ortygia and Syracuse; the latter, which was on this temple +plateau, being subsequently merged in the former, but, as sometimes +happens in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_106" id="Page_106">[Pg 106]</a></span> such cases, giving its name to the combined result.</p> + +<p>Besides these temple ruins there are many more foundations that tell a +more or less interesting story. Then there are remains of the ancient +city that can never be ruined—for instance, the great stone quarries, +pits over a hundred feet deep and acres broad, in some of which the +Athenian prisoners were penned up to waste away under the gaze of the +pitiless captors; the Greek theater cut out of the solid rock; the great +altar of Hiero II., six hundred feet long and about half as broad, also +of solid rock. Then there is a mighty Hexapylon, which closed the +fortifications of Dionysius at the northwest at the point where they +challenged attack from the land side. With its sally-ports and rock-hewn +passages, some capacious enough to quarter regiments of cavalry, showing +holes cut in the projecting corners of rock, through which the +hitch-reins of the horses were wont to be passed, and its great +magazines, it stands a lasting memorial to the energy of a tyrant. But +while this fortress is practically indestructible, an impregnable +fortress is a dream incapable of realization. Marcellus and his stout +Romans came in through these fortifications, not entirely, it is true, +by their own might, but by the aid of traitors, against whom no walls +are proof.</p> + +<p>One of the stone quarries, the Latomia del Paradiso, has an added +interest from its association with the tyrant who made himself hated as +well as feared, while Gelon was only feared without being hated. An +inner recess of the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_107" id="Page_107">[Pg 107]</a></span> quarry is called the "Ear of Dionysius," and +tradition says that at the inner end of this recess either he or his +creatures sat and listened to the murmurs that the people uttered +against him, and that these murmurs were requited with swift and fatal +punishment. Certain it is that a whisper in this cave produces a +wonderful resonance, and a pistol shot is like the roar of a cannon; but +that people who had anything to say about the butcher should come up +within ear-shot of him to utter it is not very likely. Historians are +not quite sure that the connection of Dionysius with this recess is +altogether mythical, but that he shaped it with the fell purpose above +mentioned is not to be thought of, as the whole quarry is older than his +time, and was probably, with the Latomia dei Cappuccini, a prison for +the Athenians.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3>MALTA<a name="FNanchor_41_41" id="FNanchor_41_41"></a><a href="#Footnote_41_41" class="fnanchor">[41]</a></h3> + +<h4>BY THÉOPHILE GAUTIER</h4> + + +<p>The city of Valetta, founded in 1566, by the grand master whose name it +bears, is the capital of Malta. The city of La Sangle, and the city of +Victoria, which occupy two points of land on the other side of the +harbor of the Marse, together with the suburbs of Floriana and Burmola, +complete the town; encircled by bastions, ramparts, counterscarps, +forts, and fortifications, to an ex<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_108" id="Page_108">[Pg 108]</a></span>tent which renders siege impossible! +If you follow one of the streets which surround the town, at each step +that you take, you find yourself face to face with a cannon. Gibraltar +itself does not bristle more completely with mouths of fire. The +inconvenience of these extended works is, that they enclose a vast +radius, and demand to defend them, in case of attack, an enormous +garrison; always difficult to maintain at a distance from the mother +country.</p> + +<p>From the height of the ramparts, one sees in the distance the blue and +transparent sea, broken into ripples by the breeze, and dotted with +snowy sails. The scarlet sentinels are on guard from point to point, and +the heat of the sun is so fierce upon the glacis, that a cloth stretched +upon a frame and turning upon a pivot at the top of a pole, forms a +shade for the soldiers, who, without this precaution, must inevitably be +roasted on their posts....</p> + +<p>The city of Valetta, altho built with regularity, and, so to speak, all +in one "block," is not, therefore, the less picturesque. The decided +slope of the ground neutralizes what the accurate lines of the street +might otherwise have of monotony, and the town mounts by degrees and by +terraces the hillside, which it forms into an amphitheater. The houses, +built very high like those of Cadiz, terminate in flat roofs that their +inhabitants may the better enjoy the sea view. They are all of white +Maltese stone; a sort of sandstone easy to work, and with which, at +small expense, one can indulge various caprices of sculpture and +ornamentation. These rectilinear houses stand well, and have an air of +grandeur, which they owe to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_109" id="Page_109">[Pg 109]</a></span> the absence of (visible) roofs, cornices, +and attics. They stand out sharply and squarely against the azure of the +heavens, which their dazzling whiteness renders only the more intense; +but that which chiefly gives them a character of originality is the +projecting balcony hung upon each front; like the "moucharabys" of the +East, or the "miradores" of Spain.</p> + +<p>The palace of the grand masters—to-day the palace of the +government—has nothing remarkable in the way of architecture. Its date +is recent, and it responds but imperfectly to the idea one would form of +the residence of Villiers de I'lle Adam, of Lavalette, and of their +warlike ancestors. Nevertheless, it has a certain monumental air, and +produces a fine effect upon the great Place, of which it forms one +entire side. Two doorways, with rustic columns, break the uniformity of +the long façade; while an immense balcony, supported by gigantic +sculptured brackets, encircles the building at the level of the first +floor, and gives to the edifice the stamp of Malta. This detail, so +strictly local in its character, relieves what might be heavy and flat +in this architecture; and this palace, otherwise vulgar, becomes thus +original. The interior, which I visited, presents a range of vast halls +and galleries, decorated with pictures representing battles by sea and +land, sieges, and combats between Turkish galleys and the galleys of the +"Religion." ...</p> + +<p>To finish with the knights, I turned my steps toward the Church of St. +John—the Pantheon of the Order. Its façade, with a triangular porch +flanked by two towers terminating in stone belfries, having for ornament +only four pillars, and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_110" id="Page_110">[Pg 110]</a></span> pierced by a window and door, without sculpture +or decoration, by no means prepares the traveler for the splendor +within.</p> + +<p>The first thing which arrests the sight is an immense arch, painted in +fresco, which runs the whole length of the nave. This fresco, unhappily +much deteriorated by time, is the work of Matteo Preti, called the +Calabrese; one of those great second-rate masters, who, if they have +less genius, have often more talent than the princes of the art. What +there is of science, facility, spirit, expression, and abundant +resource, in this colossal picture, is beyond description.</p> + +<p>Each section of the arch contains a scene from the life of St. John, to +whom the church is dedicated, and who was the patron of the Order. +These sections are supported, at their descent, by groups of +captives—Saracens, Turks, Christians, and others—half naked, or clad +in the remains of shattered armor, and placed in positions of +humiliation or constraint, who form a species of barbaric caryatides +strikingly suited to the subject. All this part of the fresco is full of +character, and has a force of coloring very rare in this species of +picture. These solid and massive effects give additional strength to the +lighter tone of the arch, and throw the skies into a relief and distance +singularly profound. I know no similar work of equal grandeur except the +ceiling by Fumiana in the Church of St. Pantaleone at Venice, +representing the life, martyrdom, and apotheosis of that saint. But the +style of the decadence makes itself less felt in the work of the +Calabrese than in that of the Venetian. In recompense of this gigantic +work, the artist had the honor, like<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_111" id="Page_111">[Pg 111]</a></span> Carravaggio, to be made a Knight +of the Order.</p> + +<p>The pavement of the church is composed of four hundred tombs of knights, +incrusted with jasper, porphyry, verd-antique, and precious stones of +various kinds, which should form the most splendid sepulchral mosaics +conceivable. I say should form, because at the moment of my visit, the +whole floor was covered with those immense mats, so constantly used for +carpeting the southern churches—a usage which is explained by the +absence of pews or chairs, and the habit of kneeling upon the floor to +perform one's devotions. I regretted this exceedingly; but the crypt and +the chapel contain enough sepulchral wealth to offer some atonement.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_112" id="Page_112">[Pg 112]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>VIII</h2> + +<h2>THE MAINLAND OF GREECE</h2> + +<p><br /><br /></p> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3>ON ARRIVING IN ATHENS—THE ACROPOLIS<a name="FNanchor_42_42" id="FNanchor_42_42"></a><a href="#Footnote_42_42" class="fnanchor">[42]</a></h3> + +<h4>BY J. P. MAHAFFY</h4> + + +<p>There is probably no more exciting voyage, to any educated man, than the +approach to Athens from the sea. Every promontory, every island, every +bay, has its history. If he knows the map of Greece, he needs no +guide-book or guide to distract him; if he does not, he needs little +Greek to ask of any one near him the name of this or that object; and +the mere names are sufficient to stir up all his classical +recollections. But he must make up his mind not to be shocked at "Ægina" +or "Phalrum," and even to be told that he is utterly wrong in his way of +pronouncing them.</p> + +<p>It was our fortune to come into Greece by night, with a splendid moon +shining upon the summer sea. The varied outlines of Sunium, on the one +side, and Ægina on the other, were very clear, but in the deep shadows +there was mystery enough to feed the burning impatience of seeing all in +the light of common day; and tho we had passed Ægina, and had come over +against<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_113" id="Page_113">[Pg 113]</a></span> the rocky Salamis, as yet there was no sign of Peiræus. Then +came the light on Psyttalea, and they told us that the harbor was right +opposite. Yet we came nearer and nearer, and no harbor could be seen.</p> + +<p>The barren rocks of the coast seemed to form one unbroken line, and +nowhere was there a sign of indentation or of break in the land. But +suddenly, as we turned from gazing on Psyttalea, where the flower of the +Persian nobles had once stood in despair, looking upon their fate +gathering about them, the vessel had turned eastward, and discovered to +us the crowded lights and thronging ships of the famous harbor. Small it +looked, very small, but evidently deep to the water's edge, for great +ships seemed touching the shore; and so narrow is the mouth, that we +almost wondered how they had made their entrance in safety. But we saw +it some weeks later, with nine men-of-war towering above all its +merchant shipping and its steamers, and among them crowds of ferryboats +skimming about in the breeze with their wing-like sails. Then we found +out that, like the rest of Greece, the Peiræus was far larger than it +looked.</p> + +<p>It differed little, alas! from more vulgar harbors in the noise and +confusion of disembarking; in the delays of its custom-house; in the +extortion and insolence of its boatmen. It is still, as in Plato's day, +"the haunt of sailors, where good manners are unknown." But when we had +escaped the turmoil, and were seated silently on the way to Athens, +almost along the very road of classical days, all our classical notions, +which<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_114" id="Page_114">[Pg 114]</a></span> had been seared away by vulgar bargaining and protesting, +regained their sway.</p> + +<p>We had sailed in through the narrow passage where almost every great +Greek that ever lived had some time passed; now we went along the line, +hardly less certain, which had seen all these great ones going to and +fro between the city and the port. The present road is shaded with great +silver poplars, and plane trees, and the moon had set, so that our +approach to Athens was even more mysterious than our approach to the +Peiræus. We were, moreover, perplexed at our carriage stopping under +some large plane trees, tho we had driven but two miles, and the night +was far spent. Our coachman would listen to no advice or persuasion. We +learned afterward that every carriage going to and from the Peiræus +stops at this half-way house, that the horses may drink, and the +coachman take "Turkish delight" and water. There is no exception made to +this custom, and the traveler is bound to submit. At last we entered the +unpretending ill-built streets at the west of Athens....</p> + +<p>We rose at the break of dawn to see whether our window would afford any +prospect to serve as a requital for angry sleeplessness. And there, +right opposite, stood the rock which of all rocks in the world's history +has done most for literature and art—the rock which poets, and orators, +and architects, and historians have ever glorified, and can not stay +their praise—which is ever new and ever old, ever fresh in its decay, +ever perfect in its ruin, ever living in its death—the Acropolis of +Athens.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_115" id="Page_115">[Pg 115]</a></span></p> + +<p>When I saw my dream and longing of many years fulfilled, the first rays +of the rising sun had just touched the heights, while the town below was +still hid in gloom. Rock, and rampart, and ruined fanes—all were +colored in uniform tints; the lights were of a deep rich orange, and the +shadows of dark crimson, with the deeper lines of purple. There was no +variety in color between what nature and what man had set there. No +whiteness shone from the marble, no smoothness showed upon the hewn and +polished blocks; but the whole mass of orange and crimson stood out +together into the pale, pure Attic air. There it stood, surrounded by +lanes and hovels, still perpetuating the great old contrast in Greek +history, of magnificence and meanness—of loftiness and lowness—as well +in outer life as in inward motive. And, as it were in illustration of +that art of which it was the most perfect bloom, and which lasted in +perfection but a day of history, I saw it again and again, in sunlight +and in shade, in daylight and at night, but never again in this perfect +and singular beauty....</p> + +<p>I suppose there can be no doubt whatever that the ruins on the Acropolis +of Athens are the most remarkable in the world. There are ruins far +larger, such as the Pyramids, and the remains of Karnak. There are ruins +far more perfectly preserved, such as the great Temple at Paestum. There +are ruins more picturesque, such as the ivy-clad walls of medieval +abbeys beside the rivers in the rich valleys of England. But there is no +ruin all the world over which combines so much striking beauty, so +distinct a type,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_116" id="Page_116">[Pg 116]</a></span> so vast a volume of history, so great a pageant of +immortal memories. There is, in fact, no building on earth which can +sustain the burden of such greatness, and so the first visit to the +Acropolis is and must be disappointing.</p> + +<p>When the traveler reflects how all the Old World's culture culminated in +Greece—all Greece in Athens—all Athens in its Acropolis—all the +Acropolis in the Parthenon—so much crowds upon the mind confusedly that +we look for some enduring monument whereupon we can fasten our thoughts, +and from which we can pass as from a visible starting-point into all +this history and all this greatness. And at first we look in vain. The +shattered pillars and the torn pediments will not bear so great a +strain; and the traveler feels forced to admit a sense of +disappointment, sore against his will. He has come a long journey into +the remoter parts of Europe; he has reached at last what his soul had +longed for many years in vain; and as is wont to be the case with all +great human longings, the truth does not answer to his desire. The pang +of disappointment is all the greater when he sees that the tooth of time +and the shock of earthquake have done but little harm. It is the hand of +man—of reckless foe and ruthless lover—which has robbed him of his +hope....</p> + +<p>Nothing is more vexatious than the reflection, how lately these splendid +remains have been reduced to their present state. The Parthenon, being +used as a Greek church, remained untouched and perfect all through the +Middle Ages. Then it became a mosque, and the Erechtheum a seraglio, and +in this way sur<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_117" id="Page_117">[Pg 117]</a></span>vived without damage till 1687, when, in the bombardment +by the Venetians under Morosini, a shell dropt into the Parthenon, where +the Turks had their powder stored, and blew out the whole center of the +building. Eight or nine pillars at each side have been thrown down, and +have left a large gap, which so severs the front and rear of the temple, +that from the city below they look like the remains of two different +buildings. The great drums of these pillars are yet lying there, in +their order, just as they fell, and some money and care might set them +all up again in their places; yet there is not in Greece the patriotism +or even the common sense to enrich the country by this restoration, +matchless in its certainty as well as in its splendor.</p> + +<p>But the Venetians were not content with their exploit. They were, about +this time, when they held possession of most of Greece, emulating the +Pisan taste for Greek sculptures; and the four fine lions standing at +the gate of the arsenal in Venice still testify to their zeal in +carrying home Greek trophies to adorn their capital.</p> + +<p>In its great day, and even as Pausanias saw it, the Acropolis was +covered with statues, as well as with shrines. It was not merely an Holy +of Holies in religion; it was also a palace and museum of art. At every +step and turn the traveler met new objects of interest. There were +archaic specimens, chiefly interesting to the antiquarian and the +devotee; there were the great masterpieces which were the joint +admiration of the artist and the vulgar. Even all the sides and slopes +of the great rock were honeycombed into sacred grottos, with their +altars and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_118" id="Page_118">[Pg 118]</a></span> their gods, or studded with votive monuments. All these +lesser things are fallen away and gone; the sacred eaves are filled with +rubbish, and desecrated with worse than neglect. The grotto of Pan and +Apollo is difficult of access, and when reached, an object of disgust +rather than of interest. There are left but the remnants of the +surrounding wall, and the ruins of the three principal buildings, which +were the envy and wonder of all the civilized world.</p> + +<p>The beautiful little temple of Athena Nike, tho outside the +Propylæa—thrust out as it were on a sort of great buttress high on the +right—must still be called a part, and a very striking part, of the +Acropolis. It is only of late years that it has been cleared of rubbish +and modern stone-work, thus destroying, no doubt, some precious traces +of Turkish occupation which the fastidious historian may regret, but +realizing to us a beautiful Greek temple of the Ionic Order in some +completeness. The peculiarity of this building, which is perched upon a +platform of stone, and commands a splendid prospect, is that its tiny +peribolus, or sacred enclosure, was surrounded by a parapet of stone +slabs covered with exquisite reliefs of winged Victories, in various +attitudes. Some of these slabs are now in the Museum of the Acropolis, +and are of great interest—apparently less severe than the school of +Phidias, and therefore later in date, but still of the best epoch, and +of marvelous grace. The position of this temple also is not parallel +with the Propylæa, but turned slightly outward, so that the light +strikes it at moments when the other building is not illuminated. At the +oppo<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_119" id="Page_119">[Pg 119]</a></span>site side is a very well-preserved chamber, and a fine colonnade at +right angles with the gate, which looks like a guard-room. This is the +chamber commonly called the Pinacotheca, where Pausanias saw pictures or +frescoes by Polygnotus.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3>A WINTER IN ATHENS HALF A CENTURY AGO<a name="FNanchor_43_43" id="FNanchor_43_43"></a><a href="#Footnote_43_43" class="fnanchor">[43]</a></h3> + +<h4>BY BAYARD TAYLOR</h4> + + +<p>Our sitting-room fronted the south (with a view of the Acropolis and the +Areopagus), and could be kept warm without more labor or expense than +would be required for an entire dwelling at home. Our principal anxiety +was, that the supply of fuel, at any price, might become exhausted. We +burned the olive and the vine, the cypress and the pine, twigs of rose +trees and dead cabbage-stalks, for aught I know, to feed our one little +sheet-iron stove. For full two months we were obliged to keep up our +fire, from morning until night. Know ye the land of the cypress and +myrtle, where the flowers ever blossom, the beams ever shine? Here it +is, with almost snow enough in the streets for a sleighing party, with +the Ilissus frozen, and with a tolerable idea of Lapland, when you face +the gusts which drive across the Cephissian plain.</p> + +<p>As the other guests were Greek, our mode of living was similar to that +of most Greek families. We had coffee in the morning, a substantial +break<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_120" id="Page_120">[Pg 120]</a></span>fast about noon, and dinner at six in the evening. The dishes were +constructed after French and Italian models, but the meat is mostly +goat's flesh. Beef, when it appears, is a phenomenon of toughness. +Vegetables are rather scarce. Cow's milk, and butter or cheese +therefrom, are substances unknown in Greece. The milk is from goats or +sheep, and the butter generally from the latter. It is a white, cheesy +material, with a slight flavor of tallow. The wine, when you get it +unmixed with resin, is very palatable. We drank that of Santorin, with +the addition of a little water, and found it an excellent beverage....</p> + +<p>Except during the severely cold weather, Athens is as lively a town as +may be. One-fourth of the inhabitants, I should say, are always in the +streets, and many of the mechanics work, as is common in the Orient, in +open shops. The coffee-houses are always thronged, and every afternoon +crowds may be seen on the Patissia Road—a continuation of Eolus +Street—where the King and Queen take their daily exercise on horseback. +The national costume, both male and female, is gradually falling into +disuse in the cities, altho it is still universal in the country. The +islanders adhere to their hideous dress with the greatest persistence. +With sunrise the country people begin to appear in the streets with +laden donkeys and donkey-carts, bringing wood, grain, vegetables, and +milk, which they sell from house to house....</p> + +<p>Venders of bread and coffee-rolls go about with circular trays on their +heads, calling attention to their wares by loud and long-drawn cries. +Later in the day, peddlers make their appearance, with packages of cheap +cotton stuffs, cloth, handker<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_121" id="Page_121">[Pg 121]</a></span>chiefs, and the like, or baskets of pins, +needles, buttons, and tape. They proclaim loudly the character and price +of their articles, the latter, of course, subject to negotiation. The +same custom prevails as in Turkey, of demanding much more than the +seller expects to get. Foreigners are generally fleeced a little in the +beginning, tho much less so, I believe, than in Italy....</p> + +<p>The winter of 1857-58 was the severest in the memory of any inhabitant. +For nearly eight weeks, we had an alternation of icy north winds and +snow-storms. The thermometer went down to 20 degrees of Fahrenheit—a +degree of cold which seriously affected the orange-, if not the +olive-trees. Winter is never so dreary as in those southern lands, where +you see the palm trees rocking despairingly in the biting gale, and the +snow lying thick on the sunny fruit of the orange groves. As for the +pepper trees, with their hanging tresses and their loose, misty foliage, +which line the broad avenues radiating from the palace, they were +touched beyond recovery. The people, who could not afford to purchase +wood or charcoal, at treble the usual price, even tho they had hearths, +which they have not, suffered greatly. They crouched at home, in cellars +and basements, wrapt in rough capotes, or hovering around a mangal, or +brazier of coals, the usual substitute for a stove. From Constantinople +we had still worse accounts. The snow lay deep everywhere; charcoal sold +at twelve piastres the oka (twenty cents a pound), and the famished +wolves, descending from the hills, devoured people almost at the gates +of the city. In Smyrna, Beyrout, and Alexandria, the winter was equally +severe, while<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_122" id="Page_122">[Pg 122]</a></span> in Odessa it was mild and agreeable, and in St. +Petersburg there was scarcely snow enough for sleighing. All Northern +Europe enjoyed a winter as remarkable for warmth as that of the South +for its cold. The line of division seemed to be about the parallel of +latitude 45 degrees. Whether this singular climatic phenomenon extended +further eastward, into Asia, I was not able to ascertain. I was actually +less sensitive to the cold in Lapland, during the previous winter, with +the mercury frozen, than in Attica, within the belt of semi-tropical +productions.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3>THE ACROPOLIS AS IT WAS<a name="FNanchor_44_44" id="FNanchor_44_44"></a><a href="#Footnote_44_44" class="fnanchor">[44]</a></h3> + +<h4>BY PAUSANIAS</h4> + + +<p>To the Acropolis there is only one approach; it allows of no other, +being everywhere precipitous and walled off. The vestibules have a roof +of white marble, and even now are remarkable for both their beauty and +size. As to the statues of the horsemen, I can not say with precision +whether they are the sons of Xenophon, or merely put there for +decoration. On the right of the vestibules is the shrine of the Wingless +Victory. From it the sea is visible; and there Ægeus drowned himself, as +they say. For the ship which took his sons to Crete had black sails, but +Theseus told his father (for he knew there was some peril<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_123" id="Page_123">[Pg 123]</a></span> in attacking +the Minotaur) that he would have white sails if he should sail back a +conqueror. But he forgot this promise in his loss of Ariadne. And Ægeus, +seeing the ship with black sails, thinking his son was dead, threw +himself in and was drowned. And the Athenians have a hero-chapel to his +memory. And on the left of the vestibules is a building with paintings; +and among those that time has not destroyed are Diomedes and +Odysseus—the one taking away Philoctetes's bow in Lemnos, the other +taking the Palladium from Ilium. Among other paintings here is Ægisthus +being slain by Orestes; and Pylades slaying the sons of Nauplius that +came to Ægisthus's aid. And Polyxena about to have her throat cut near +the tomb of Achilles. Homer did well not to mention this savage act....</p> + +<p>And there is a small stone such as a little man can sit on, on which +they say Silenus rested, when Dionysus came to the land. Silenus is the +name they give to all old Satyrs. About the Satyrs I have conversed with +many, wishing to know all about them. And Euphemus, a Carian, told me +that sailing once on a time to Italy he was driven out of his course by +the winds, and carried to a distant sea, where people no longer sail. +And he said that here were many desert islands, some inhabited by wild +men; and at these islands the sailors did not like to land, as they had +landed there before and had experience of the natives; but they were +obliged on that occasion. These islands he said were called by the +sailors Satyr-islands; the dwellers in them were red-haired, and had +tails at their loins not much smaller than horses....<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_124" id="Page_124">[Pg 124]</a></span></p> + +<p>And as regards the temple which they call the Parthenon, as you enter it +everything portrayed on the gables relates to the birth of Athene, and +behind is depicted the contest between Poseidon and Athene for the soil +of Attica. And this work of art is in ivory and gold. In the middle of +her helmet is an image of the Sphinx—about whom I shall give an account +when I come to Bœotia—and on each side of the helmet are griffins +worked. These griffins, says Aristus the Proconnesian, in his poems, +fought with the Arimaspians beyond the Issedones for the gold of the +soil which the griffins guarded. And the Arimaspians were all one-eyed +men from their birth; and the griffins were beasts like lions, with +wings and mouth like an eagle. Let so much suffice for these griffins. +But the statue of Athene is full length, with a tunic reaching to her +feet; and on her breast is the head of Medusa worked in ivory, and in +one hand she has a Victory four cubits high, in the other hand a spear, +and at her feet a shield; and near the spear a dragon which perhaps is +Erichthonius. And on the base of the statue is a representation of the +birth of Pandora—the first woman, according to Hesiod and other poets; +for before her there was no race of women. Here too I remember to have +seen the only statue here of the Emperor Adrian; and at the entrance one +of Iphicrates, the celebrated Athenian general.</p> + +<p>And outside the temple is a brazen Apollo said to be by Phidias; and +they call it Apollo, Averter of Locusts, because when the locusts +destroyed the land the god said he would drive them out of the country. +And they know that he did so, but they don't say how. I myself know of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_125" id="Page_125">[Pg 125]</a></span> +locusts having been thrice destroyed on Mount Sipylus, but not in the +same way; for some were driven away by a violent wind that fell on them, +and others by a strong light that came on them after showers, and others +were frozen to death by a sudden frost. All this came under my own +notice.</p> + +<p>There is also a building called the Erechtheum, and in the vestibule is +an altar of Supreme Zeus, where they offer no living sacrifice, but +cakes without the usual libation of wine. And as you enter there are +three altars: one to Poseidon (on which they also sacrifice to +Erechtheus according to the oracle), one to the hero Butes, and the +third to Hephæstus. And on the walls are paintings of the family of +Butes. The building is a double one; and inside there is sea-water in a +well. And this is no great marvel; for even those who live in inland +parts have such wells, as notably Aphrodisienses in Caria. But this well +is represented as having a roar as of the sea when the south wind blows. +And in the rock is the figure of a trident. And this is said to have +been Poseidon's proof in regard to the territory Athene disputed with +him.</p> + +<p>Sacred to Athene is all the rest of Athens, and similarly all Attica; +for altho they worship different gods in different townships, none the +less do they honor Athene generally. And the most sacred of all is the +statue of Athene in what is now called the Acropolis, but was then +called the Polis (city) which was universally worshiped many years +before the various townships formed one city; and the rumor about it is +that it fell from heaven. As to this I shall not give an opinion, +whether it was so or not. And Callimachus made<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_126" id="Page_126">[Pg 126]</a></span> a golden lamp for the +goddess. And when they fill this lamp with oil it lasts for a whole +year, altho it burns continually night and day. And the wick is of a +particular kind of cotton flax, the only kind indestructible by fire. +And above the lamp is a palm tree of brass reaching to the roof and +carrying off the smoke. And Callimachus, the maker of this lamp, altho +he comes behind the first artificers, yet was remarkable for ingenuity, +and was the first who perforated stone, and got the name of +"Art-Critic," whether his own appellation or given him by others.</p> + +<p>In the temple of Athene Polias is a Hermes of wood (said to be a votive +offering of Cecrops), almost hidden by myrtle leaves. And of the antique +votive offerings worthy of record, is a folding-chair, the work of +Dædalus, and spoils taken from the Persians—as a coat of mail of +Masistius, who commanded the cavalry at Platæa, and a scimitar said to +have belonged to Mardonius. Masistius we know was killed by the Athenian +cavalry; but as Mardonius fought against the Lacedæmonians and was +killed by a Spartan, they could not have got it at first hand; nor is it +likely that the Lacedæmonians would have allowed the Athenians to carry +off such a trophy. And about the olive they have nothing else to tell +but that the goddess used it as a proof of her right to the country, +when it was contested by Poseidon. And they record also that this olive +was burnt when the Persians set fire to Athens; but tho burnt, it grew +the same day two cubits.</p> + +<p>And next to the temple of Athene is the temple of Pandrosus; who was the +only one of the three sisters who didn't peep into the forbidden chest.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_127" id="Page_127">[Pg 127]</a></span> +Now the things I most marveled at are not universally known. I will +therefore write of them as they occur to me. Two maidens live not far +from the temple of Athene Polias, and the Athenians call them the +"carriers of the holy things"; for a certain time they live with the +goddess, but when her festival comes they act in the following way, by +night: Putting upon their heads what the priestess of Athene gives them +to carry (neither she nor they know what these things are), these +maidens descend, by a natural underground passage, from an inclosure in +the city sacred to Aphrodite of the Gardens. In the sanctuary below they +deposit what they carry, and bring back something else closely wrapt up. +And these maidens they henceforth dismiss, and other two they elect +instead of them for the Acropolis.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3>THE ELGIN MARBLES<a name="FNanchor_45_45" id="FNanchor_45_45"></a><a href="#Footnote_45_45" class="fnanchor">[45]</a></h3> + +<h4>BY J. P. MAHAFFY</h4> + + +<p>Morosini<a name="FNanchor_46_46" id="FNanchor_46_46"></a><a href="#Footnote_46_46" class="fnanchor">[46]</a> wished to take down the sculptures of Phidias from the +eastern pediment, but his workmen attempted it so clumsily that the +figures fell from their place and were dashed to pieces on the ground.</p> + +<p>An observing traveler<a name="FNanchor_47_47" id="FNanchor_47_47"></a><a href="#Footnote_47_47" class="fnanchor">[47]</a> was present when a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_128" id="Page_128">[Pg 128]</a></span> far more determined and +systematic attack was made upon the remaining ruins of the Parthenon. +While he was traveling in the interior, Lord Elgin had obtained his +famous firman from the Sultan, to take down and remove any antiquities +or sculptured stones he might require, and the infuriated Dodwell saw a +set of ignorant workmen, under equally ignorant overseers, let loose +upon the splendid ruins of the age of Pericles. He speaks with much good +sense and feeling of this proceeding. He is fully aware that the world +would derive inestimable benefit from the transplanting of these +splendid fragments to a more accessible place, but he can not find +language strong enough to express his disgust at the way in which the +thing was done.</p> + +<p>Incredible as it may appear, Lord Elgin himself seems not to have +superintended the work, but to have left it to paid contractors, who +undertook the job for a fixt sum. Little as either Turks or Greeks cared +for the ruins, he says that a pang of grief was felt through all Athens +at the desecration, and that the contractors were obliged to bribe +workmen with additional wages to undertake the ungrateful task. Dodwell +will not even mention Lord Elgin by name, but speaks of him with disgust +as "the person" who defaced the Parthenon. He believes that had this +person been at Athens himself, his underlings could hardly have behaved +in the reckless way they did, pulling down more than they wanted, and +taking no care to prop up and save the work from which they had taken +the support.</p> + +<p>He especially notices their scandalous proceed<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_129" id="Page_129">[Pg 129]</a></span>ing upon taking up one of +the great white marble blocks which form the floor or stylobate of the +temple. They wanted to see what was underneath, and Dodwell, who was +there, saw the foundation—a substructure of Peiræic sandstone. But when +they had finished their inspection they actually left the block they had +removed, without putting it back into its place. So this beautiful +pavement, made merely of closely-fitting blocks, without any artificial +or foreign joinings, was ripped up, and the work of its destruction +began. I am happy to add that, tho a considerable rent was then made, +most of it is still intact, and the traveler of to-day may still walk on +the very stones which bore the tread of every great Athenian.</p> + +<p>The question has often been discust, whether Lord Elgin was justified in +carrying off this pediment, the metopes, and the friezes, from their +place; and the Greeks of to-day hope confidently that the day will come +when England will restore these treasures to their place. This is, of +course, absurd, and it may fairly be argued that people who would +bombard their antiquities in a revolution are not fit custodians of them +in the intervals of domestic quiet. This was my reply to an old Greek +gentleman who assailed the memory of Lord Elgin with reproaches.</p> + +<p>I confess I approved of this removal until I came home from Greece, and +went again to see the spoil in its place in our great museum. Tho there +treated with every care—tho shown to the best advantage, and explained +by excellent models of the whole building, and clear descriptions of +their place on it—notwithstanding all<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_130" id="Page_130">[Pg 130]</a></span> this, it was plain that these +wonderful fragments lost so terribly by being separated from their +place—they looked so unmeaning in an English room, away from their +temple, their country and their lovely atmosphere—that one earnestly +wished they had never been taken from their place, even at the risk of +being made a target by the Greeks or the Turks. I am convinced, too, +that the few who would have seen them, as intelligent travelers, on +their famous rock, would have gained in quality the advantage now +diffused among many, but weakened and almost destroyed by the wrench in +associations, when the ornament is severed from its surface, and the +decoration of a temple exhibited apart from the temple itself. We may +admit, then, that it had been better if Lord Elgin had never taken away +these marbles. Nevertheless, it would be absurd to send them back. But I +do think that the museum on the Acropolis should be provided with a +better set of casts of the figures than those which are now to be seen +there. They look very wretched, and carelessly prepared....</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3>THE THEATER OF DIONYSUS<a name="FNanchor_48_48" id="FNanchor_48_48"></a><a href="#Footnote_48_48" class="fnanchor">[48]</a></h3> + +<h4>BY J. P. MAHAFFY</h4> + + +<p>Some ten or twelve years ago, a very extensive and splendidly successful +excavation was made when a party of German archeologists laid bare the +Theater of Dionysus—the great theater in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_131" id="Page_131">[Pg 131]</a></span> which Æschylus, Sophocles, +and Euripides brought out their immortal plays before an immortal +audience. There is nothing more delightful than to descend from the +Acropolis, and rest awhile in the comfortable marble arm-chairs with +which the front row of the circuit is occupied. They are of the pattern +usual in the sitting portrait statues of the Greeks—very deep, and with +a curved back, which exceeds both in comfort and in grace any chairs +made by modern workmen.<a name="FNanchor_49_49" id="FNanchor_49_49"></a><a href="#Footnote_49_49" class="fnanchor">[49]</a> Each chair has the name of a priest +inscribed on it, showing how the theater among the Greeks corresponded +to our cathedral, and this front row to the stalls of canons and +prebendaries.</p> + +<p>But unfortunately all this sacerdotal prominence is probably the work of +the later restorers of the theater. For after having been first +beautified and adorned with statues by Lycurgus (in Demosthenes' time), +it was again restored and embellished by Herodes Atticus, or about his +time, so that the theater, as we now have it, can only be called the +building of the second or third century after Christ. The front wall of +the stage, which is raised some feet above the level of the empty pit, +is adorned with a row of very elegant sculptures, among which one—a +shaggy old man, in a stooping posture, represented as coming out from +within, and holding up the stone above him—is par<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_132" id="Page_132">[Pg 132]</a></span>ticularly striking. +Some Greek is said to have knocked off, by way of amusement, the heads +of most of these figures since they were discovered, but this I do not +know upon any better authority than ordinary report. The pit or center +of the theater is empty, and was never in Greek days occupied by seats, +but a wooden structure was set up adjoining the stage, and on this the +chorus performed their dances, and sang their odes. But now there is a +circuit of upright slabs of stone close to the front seat, which can +hardly have been an arrangement of the old Greek theater. They are +generally supposed to have been added when the building was used for +contests of gladiators or of wild beasts; but the partition, being not +more than three feet high, would be no protection whatever from an +evil-disposed wild beast.</p> + +<p>All these later additions and details are, I fear, calculated to detract +from the reader's interest in this theater, which I should indeed +regret—for nothing can be more certain than that this is the veritable +stone theater which was built when the wooden one broke down, at the +great competition of Æschylus and Pratinas; and tho front seats may have +been added, and slight modifications introduced, the general structure +can never have required alteration.</p> + +<p>It is indeed very large, tho I think exaggerated statements have been +made about its size. I have heard it said that the enormous number of +30,000 people could fit into it—a statement I think incredible; for it +did not to me seem larger than, or as large as, other theaters I have +seen, at Syracuse, at Megalopolis,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_133" id="Page_133">[Pg 133]</a></span> or even at Argos. But, no doubt, all +such open-air enclosures and sittings look far smaller than covered +rooms of the same size. This is certain, that any one speaking on the +stage, as it now is, can be easily and distinctly heard by people +sitting on the highest row of seats now visible, which can not, I fancy, +have been far from the original top of the house. And we may doubt that +any such thing were possible when 30,000 people, or a crowd approaching +that number, were seated. We hear, however, that the old actors had +recourse to various artificial means of increasing the range of their +voices. Yet there is hardly a place in Athens which forces back the mind +so strongly to the old days, when all the crowd came jostling in, and +settled down in their seats, to hear the great novelties of the year +from Sophocles or Euripides. No doubt there were cliques and cabals and +claqueurs, noisy admirers and cold critics, the supporters of the old, +and the lovers of the new, devotees and sceptics, wondering foreigners +and self-complacent citizens. They little thought how we should come, +not only to sit in the seats they occupied, but to reverse the judgments +which they pronounced, and correct with sober temper the errors of +prejudice, of passion, and of pride.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_134" id="Page_134">[Pg 134]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3>WHERE PAUL PREACHED TO THE ATHENIANS<a name="FNanchor_50_50" id="FNanchor_50_50"></a><a href="#Footnote_50_50" class="fnanchor">[50]</a></h3> + +<h4>BY J. P. MAHAFFY</h4> + + +<p>It was on this very Areopagus, where we are now standing, that these +philosophers of fashion came into contact with the thorough earnestness, +the profound convictions, the red-hot zeal of the Apostle Paul. The +memory of that great scene still lingers about the place, and every +guide will show you the exact place where the Apostle stood, and in what +direction he addrest his audience. There are, I believe, even some +respectable commentators who transfer their own estimate of St. Paul's +importance to the Athenian public, and hold that it was before the court +of the Areopagus that he was asked to expound his views. This is more +than doubtful. The "blasés" philosophers, who probably yawned over their +own lectures, hearing of a new lay preacher, eager to teach and +apparently convinced of the truth of what he said, thought the novelty +too delicious to be neglected, and brought him forthwith out of the +chatter and bustle of the crowd, probably past the very orchestra where +Anaxagoras' books had been proselytizing before him, and where the stiff +old heroes of Athenian history stood, a monument of the escape from +political slavery.</p> + +<p>It is even possible that the curious knot of idlers did not bring him +higher than this platform, which might well be called part of Mars'<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_135" id="Page_135">[Pg 135]</a></span> +Hill. But if they chose to bring him to the top, there was no hindrance, +for the venerable court held its sittings in the open air, on stone +seats; and when not thus occupied, the top of the rock may well have +been a convenient place of retirement for people who did not want to be +disturbed by new acquaintances, and the constant eddies of new gossip in +the market-place.</p> + +<p>It is, however, of far less import to know on what spot of the Areopagus +Paul stood, than to understand clearly what he said, and how he sought +to conciliate as well as to refute the philosophers who, no doubt, +looked down upon him as an intellectual inferior. He starts naturally +enough from the extraordinary crowd of votive statues and offerings, for +which Athens was remarkable above all other cities of Greece. He says, +with a slight touch of irony, that he finds them very religious indeed, +so religious that he even found an altar to a God professedly unknown, +or perhaps unknowable....</p> + +<p>Thus ended, to all appearance ignominiously, the first heralding of the +faith which was to supplant all the temples and altars and statues with +which Athens had earned renown as a beautiful city, which was to +overthrow the schools of the sneering philosophers, and even to remodel +all the society and the policy of the world. And yet, in spite of this +great and decisive triumph of Christianity, there was something +curiously prophetic in the contemptuous rejection of its apostle at +Athens. Was it not the first expression of the feeling which still +possesses the visitor who wanders through its ruins, and which still +dominates the educated<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_136" id="Page_136">[Pg 136]</a></span> world—the feeling that while other cities owe +to the triumph of Christianity all their beauty and their interest, +Athens has to this day resisted this influence; and that while the +Christian monuments of Athens would elsewhere excite no small attention, +here they are passed by as of no import compared with its heathen +splendor?</p> + +<p>There are very old and very beautiful little churches in Athens, +"delicious little Byzantine churches," as Renan calls them. They are +very peculiar, and unlike what one generally sees in Europe. They strike +the observer with their quaintness and smallness, and he fancies he here +sees the tiny model of that unique and splendid building, the cathedral +of St. Mark at Venice. But yet it is surprizing how little we notice +them at Athens. I was even told—I sincerely hope it was false—that +public opinion at Athens was gravitating toward the total removal of +one, and that the most perfect, of these churches, which stands in the +middle of a main street, and so breaks the regularity of the modern +boulevard!</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3>FROM ATHENS TO DELPHI ON HORSEBACK<a name="FNanchor_51_51" id="FNanchor_51_51"></a><a href="#Footnote_51_51" class="fnanchor">[51]</a></h3> + +<h4>BY BAYARD TAYLOR</h4> + + +<p>We left Athens on the 13th of April, for a journey to Parnassus and the +northern frontier of Greece. It was a teeming, dazzling day, with<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_137" id="Page_137">[Pg 137]</a></span> light +scarfs of cloud-crape in the sky, and a delicious breeze from the west +blowing through the pass of Daphne. The Gulf of Salamis was pure +ultramarine, covered with a velvety bloom, while the island and Mount +Kerata swam in transparent pink and violet tints. Crossing the sacred +plain of Eleusis, our road entered the mountains—lower offshoots of +Cithæron, which divide the plain from that of Bœotia....</p> + +<p>We climbed the main ridge of the mountains; and, in less than an hour, +reached the highest point—whence the great Bœotian plain suddenly +opened upon our view. In the distance gleamed Lake Capaïs, and the hills +beyond; in the west, the snowy top of Parnassus, lifted clear and bright +above the morning vapors; and, at last, as we turned a shoulder of the +mountain in descending, the streaky top of Helicon appeared on the left, +completing the classic features of the landscape....</p> + +<p>As we entered the plain, taking a rough path toward Platæa, the fields +were dotted, far and near, with the white Easter shirts of the people +working among the vines. Another hour, and our horses' hoofs were upon +the sacred soil of Platæa. The walls of the city are still to be traced +for nearly their entire extent. They are precisely similar in +construction to those of Œnoë—like which, also, they were +strengthened by square towers. There are the substructions of various +edifices—some of which may have been temples—and on the side next the +modern village lie four large sarcophagi, now used as vats for treading +out the grapes in vintage-time. A more harmless blood than once curdled +on<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_138" id="Page_138">[Pg 138]</a></span> the stones of Platæa now stains the empty sepulchers of the heroes. +We rode over the plain, fixt the features of the scene in our memories, +and then kept on toward the field of Leuktra, where the brutal power of +Sparta received its first check. The two fields are so near, that a part +of the fighting may have been done upon the same ground....</p> + +<p>I then turned my horse's head toward Thebes, which we reached in two +hours. It was a pleasant scene, tho so different from that of two +thousand years ago. The town is built partly on the hill of the +Cadmeion, and partly on the plain below. An aqueduct, on mossy arches, +supplies it with water, and keeps its gardens green. The plain to the +north is itself one broad garden to the foot of the hill of the Sphinx, +beyond which is the blue gleam of a lake, then a chain of barren hills, +and over all the snowy cone of Mount Delphi, in Eubœa. The only +remains of the ancient city are stones; for the massive square tower, +now used as a prison, can not be ascribed to an earlier date than the +reign of the Latin princes....</p> + +<p>The next morning we rode down from the Cadmeion, and took the highway to +Livadia, leading straight across the Bœotian plain. It is one of the +finest alluvial bottoms in the world, a deep, dark, vegetable +mold—which would produce almost without limit, were it properly +cultivated. Before us, blue and dark under a weight of clouds, lay +Parnassus; and far across the immense plain the blue peaks of Mount +Oeta. In three hours we reached the foot of Helicon, and looked up at +the streaks of snow<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_139" id="Page_139">[Pg 139]</a></span> which melt into the Fountain of the Muses....</p> + +<p>As we left Arachova, proceeding toward Delphi, the deep gorge opened, +disclosing a blue glimpse of the Gulf of Corinth and the Achaian +mountains. Tremendous cliffs of blue-gray limestone towered upon our +right, high over the slope of Delphi, which ere long appeared before us. +Our approach to the sacred spot was marked by tombs cut in the rock. A +sharp angle of the mountain was passed; and then, all at once, the +enormous walls, buttressing the upper region of Parnassus, stood +sublimely against the sky, cleft right through the middle by a terrible +split, dividing the twin peaks which gave a name to the place. At the +bottom of this chasm issue forth the waters of Castaly, and fill a stone +trough by the road-side. On a long, sloping mountain-terrace, facing the +east, stood once the town and temples of Delphi, and now the modern +village of Kastri.</p> + +<p>As you may imagine, our first walk was to the shrine of the Delphic +oracle, at the bottom of the cleft between the two peaks. The hewn face +of the rock, with a niche, supposed to be that where the Pythia sat upon +her tripod, and a secret passage under the floor of the sanctuary, are +all that remain. The Castalian fountain still gushes out at the bottom, +into a large square enclosure, called the Pythia's Bath, and now choked +up with mud, weeds, and stones. Among those weeds, I discerned one of +familiar aspect, plucked and tasted it. Watercress, of remarkable size +and flavor! We thought no more of Apollo and his shrine, but delving +wrist-deep into Castalian mud, gathered huge handfuls of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_140" id="Page_140">[Pg 140]</a></span> the profane +herb, which we washed in the sacred front, and sent to François for a +salad....</p> + +<p>As the sun sank, I sat on the marble blocks and sketched the immortal +landscape. High above me, on the left, soared the enormous twin peaks of +pale-blue rock, lying half in the shadow of the mountain slope upheaved +beneath, half bathed in the deep yellow luster of sunset. Before me +rolled wave after wave of the Parnassian chain, divided by deep lateral +valleys, while Helicon, in the distance, gloomed like a thunder-storm +under the weight of gathered clouds. Across this wild, vast view, the +breaking clouds threw broad belts of cold blue shadow, alternating with +zones of angry orange light, in which the mountains seemed to be heated +to a transparent glow. The furious wind hissed and howled over the piles +of ruin, and a few returning shepherds were the only persons to be seen. +And this spot, for a thousand years, was the shrine where spake the +awful oracle of Greece.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3>CORINTH<a name="FNanchor_52_52" id="FNanchor_52_52"></a><a href="#Footnote_52_52" class="fnanchor">[52]</a></h3> + +<h4>BY J. P. MAHAFFY</h4> + + +<p>The gulf of Corinth is a very beautiful and narrow fiord, with chains of +mountains on either side, through the gaps of which you can see far into +the Morea on one side, and into Northern Greece on the other. But the +bays or harbors on either coast are few, and so there was no<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_141" id="Page_141">[Pg 141]</a></span> city able +to wrest the commerce of these waters from old Corinth, which held the +keys by land of the whole Peloponnesus, and commanded the passage from +sea to sea. It is, indeed, wonderful how Corinth did not acquire and +maintain the first position in Greece.</p> + +<p>But as soon as the greater powers of Greece decayed and fell away, we +find Corinth immediately taking the highest position in wealth, and even +in importance. The capture of Corinth, in 146 B.C., marks the +Roman conquest of all Greece, and the art-treasures carried to Rome seem +to have been as great and various as those which even Athens could have +produced. No sooner had Julius Cæsar restored and rebuilt the ruined +city, than it sprang at once again into importance, and among the +societies addrest in the Epistles of St. Paul, none seems to have lived +in greater wealth or luxury. It was, in fact, well-nigh impossible that +Corinth should die. Nature had marked out her site as one of the great +thoroughfares of the old world; and it was not till after centuries of +blighting misrule by the wretched Turks that she sank into the hopeless +decay from which not even another Julius Cæsar could rescue her.</p> + +<p>The traveler who expects to find any sufficient traces of the city of +Periander and of Timoleon, and, I may say, of St. Paul, will be +grievously disappointed. In the middle of the wretched straggling modern +village there stand up seven enormous rough stone pillars of the Doric +Order, evidently of the oldest and heaviest type; and these are the only +visible relic of the ancient city, looking altogether out of place,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_142" id="Page_142">[Pg 142]</a></span> and +almost as if they had come there by mistake. These pillars, tho +insufficient to admit of our reconstructing the temple, are in +themselves profoundly interesting. Their shaft up to the capital is of +one block, about twenty-one feet high and six feet in diameter. It is to +be observed, that over these gigantic monoliths the architrave, in which +other Greek temples show the largest blocks, is not in one piece, but +two, and made of beams laid together longitudinally. The length of the +shafts (up to the neck of the capital) measures about four times their +diameter, on the photograph which I possess; I do not suppose that any +other Doric pillar known to us is so stout and short.</p> + +<p>Straight over the site of the town is the great rock known as the +Acro-Corinthus. A winding path leads up on the southwest side to the +Turkish drawbridge and gate, which are now deserted and open; nor is +there a single guard or soldier to watch a spot once the coveted prize +of contending empires. In the days of the Achæan League it was called +one of the fetters of Greece, and indeed it requires no military +experience to see the extraordinary importance of the place.</p> + +<p>Next to the view from the heights of Parnassus, I suppose the view from +this citadel is held the finest in Greece. I speak here of the large and +diverse views to be obtained from mountain heights. To me, personally, +such a view as that from the promontory of Sunium, or, above all, from +the harbor of Nauplia, exceeds in beauty and interest any bird's-eye +prospect. Any one who looks at the map of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_143" id="Page_143">[Pg 143]</a></span> Greece will see how the +Acro-Corinthus commands coasts, islands, and bays. The day was too hazy +when we stood there to let us measure the real limits of the view, and I +can not say how near to Mount Olympus the eye may reach in a suitable +atmosphere. But a host of islands, the southern coasts of Attica and +Bœotia, the Acropolis of Athens, Salamis and Ægina, Helicon and +Parnassus, and endless Ætolian peaks were visible in one direction; +while, as we turned round, all the waving reaches of Arcadia and +Argolis, down to the approaches toward Mantinea and Karytena, lay +stretched out before us. The plain of Argos, and the sea at that side, +are hidden by the mountains. But without going into detail, this much +may be said, that if a man wants to realize the features of these +coasts, which he has long studied on maps, half an hour's walk about the +top of this rock will give him a geographical insight which no years of +study could attain.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3>OLYMPIA<a name="FNanchor_53_53" id="FNanchor_53_53"></a><a href="#Footnote_53_53" class="fnanchor">[53]</a></h3> + +<h4>BY PHILIP S. MARDEN</h4> + + +<p>Olympia, like Delphi, is a place of memories chiefly. The visible +remains are numerous, but so flat that some little technical knowledge +is needed to restore them in mind. There is no village at the modern +Olympia at all—nothing<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_144" id="Page_144">[Pg 144]</a></span> but five or six little inns and a railway +station—so that Delphi really has the advantage of Olympia in this +regard. As a site connected with ancient Greek history and Greek +religion, the two places are as similar in nature as they are in general +ruin. The field in which the ancient structures stand lies just across +the tiny tributary river Cladeus, spanned by a footbridge.</p> + +<p>Even from the opposite bank, the ruins present a most interesting +picture, with its attractiveness greatly enhanced by the neighboring +pines, which scatter themselves through the precinct itself and cover +densely the little conical hill of Kronos close by, while the grasses of +the plain grow luxuriantly among the fallen stones of the former temples +and apartments of the athletes. The ruins are so numerous and so +prostrate that the non-technical visitor is seriously embarrassed to +describe them, as is the case with every site of the kind.</p> + +<p>All the ruins, practically, have been identified and explained, and +naturally they all have to do with the housing or with the contests of +the visiting athletes of ancient times, or with the worship of tutelary +divinities. Almost the first extensive ruin that we found on passing the +encircling precinct wall was the Prytaneum—a sort of ancient training +table at which victorious contestants were maintained gratis—while +beyond lay other equally extensive remnants of exercising places, such +as the Palæstra for the wrestlers. But all these were dominated, +evidently, by the two great temples, an ancient one of comparatively +small size sacred to Hera, and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_145" id="Page_145">[Pg 145]</a></span> a mammoth edifice dedicated to Zeus, +which still gives evidence of its enormous extent, while the fallen +column-drums reveal some idea of the other proportions. It was in its +day the chief glory of the enclosure, and the statue of the god was even +reckoned among the seven wonders of the world. Unfortunately this +statue, like that of Athena at Athens, has been irretrievably lost. But +there is enough of the great shrine standing in the midst of the ruins +to inspire one with an idea of its greatness; and, in the museum above, +the heroic figures from its two pediments have been restored and set up +in such wise as to reproduce the external adornment of the temple with +remarkable success.</p> + +<p>Gathered around this central building, the remainder of the ancient +structures having to do with the peculiar uses of the spot present a +bewildering array of broken stones and marbles. An obtrusive remnant of +a Byzantine church is the one discordant feature. Aside from this the +precinct recalls only the distant time when the regular games called all +Greece to Olympia, while the "peace of God" prevailed throughout the +kingdom. Just at the foot of Kronos a long terrace and flight of steps +mark the position of a row of old treasuries, as at Delphi, while along +the eastern side of the precinct are to be seen the remains of a portico +once famous for its echoes, where sat the judges who distributed the +prizes. There is also a most graceful arch remaining to mark the +entrance to the ancient stadium, of which nothing else now remains.</p> + +<p>Of the later structures on the site, the "house<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_146" id="Page_146">[Pg 146]</a></span> of Nero" is the most +interesting and extensive. The Olympic games were still celebrated, even +after the Roman domination, and Nero himself entered the lists in his +own reign. He caused a palace to be erected for him on that +occasion—and of course he won a victory, for any other outcome would +have been most impolite, not to say dangerous. Nero was more fortunately +lodged than were the other ancient contestants, it appears, for there +were no hostelries in old Olympia in which the visiting multitudes could +be housed, and the athletes and spectators who came from all over the +land were accustomed to bring their own tents and pitch them roundabout, +many of them on the farther side of the Alpheios.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3>THE TEMPLE OF ZEUS AT OLYMPIA AS IT WAS<a name="FNanchor_54_54" id="FNanchor_54_54"></a><a href="#Footnote_54_54" class="fnanchor">[54]</a></h3> + +<h4>BY PAUSANIAS</h4> + + +<p>Many various wonders may one see, or hear of, in Greece; but the +Eleusinian mysteries and Olympian games seem to exhibit more than +anything else the Divine purpose. And the sacred grove of Zeus they have +from old time called Altis, slightly changing the Greek word for grove; +it is, indeed, called Altis also by Pindar, in the ode he composed for a +victor at Olympia. And the temple and statue of Zeus were built out of +the spoils of Pisa, which the people of Elis razed<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_147" id="Page_147">[Pg 147]</a></span> to the ground, after +quelling the revolt of Pisa, and some of the neighboring towns that +revolted with Pisa. And that the statue of Zeus was the work of Phidias +is shown by the inscription written at the base of it: "Phidias the +Athenian, the son of Charmides, made me."</p> + +<p>The temple is a Doric building, and outside it is a colonnade. And the +temple is built of stone of the district. Its height up to the gable is +sixty-eight feet, and its length 2,300 feet. And its architect was +Libon, a native of Ellis.</p> + +<p>And the tiles on the roof are not of baked earth; but Pentelican marble, +to imitate tiles. They say such roofs are the invention of a man of +Naxos called Byzes, who made statues at Naxos with the inscription: +"Euergus of Naxos made me, the son of Byzes, and descended from Leto, +the first who made tiles of stone."</p> + +<p>This Byzes was a contemporary of Alyattes the Lydian, and Astyages (the +son of Cyaxares), the king of Persia. And there is a golden vase at each +end of the roof, and a golden Victory in the middle of the gable. And +underneath the Victory is a golden shield hung up as a votive offering, +with the Gorgon Medusa worked on it. The inscription on the shield +states who hung it up, and the reason why they did so. For this is what +it says: "This temple's golden shield is a votive offering from the +Lacedæmonians at Tanagra and their allies, a gift from the Argives, the +Athenians, and the Ionians, a tithe offering for success in war."</p> + +<p>The battle I mentioned in my account of Attica, when I described the +tombs at Athens. And in the same temple at Olympia, above the zone that<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_148" id="Page_148">[Pg 148]</a></span> +runs round the pillars on the outside, are twenty-one golden shields, +the offering of Mummius the Roman general, after he had beaten the +Achæans and taken Corinth, and expelled the Dorians from Corinth. And on +the gables in bas-relief is the chariot race between Pelops and +Œnomaus; and both chariots in motion. And in the middle of the gable +is a statue of Zeus; and on the right hand of Zeus is Œnomaus with a +helmet on his head; and beside him his wife Sterope, one of the +daughters of Atlas. And Myrtilus, who was the charioteer of Œnomaus, +is seated behind the four horses. And next to him are two men whose +names are not recorded, but they are doubtless Œnomaus's grooms, +whose duty was to take care of the horses....</p> + +<p>The carvings on the gables in front are by Pæonius of Mende in Thracia; +those behind by Alcamenes, a contemporary of Phidias and second only to +him as statuary. And on the gables is a representation of the fight +between the Lapithæ and the Centaurs at the marriage of Pirithous. +Pirithous is in the center, and on one side of him is Eurytion trying to +carry off Pirithous's wife, and Cæneus coming to the rescue, and on the +other side Theseus laying about among the Centaurs with his battle-ax; +and one Centaur is carrying off a maiden, another a blooming boy. +Alcamenes has engraved this story, I imagine, because he learned from +the lines of Homer that Pirithous was the son of Zeus, and knew that +Theseus was fourth in descent from Pelops. There are also in bas-relief +at Olympia most of the Labors of Hercules. Above the doors of the temple +is the hunting of the Erymanthian boar, and Hercules<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_149" id="Page_149">[Pg 149]</a></span> taking the mares +of Diomede the Thracian, and robbing Geryon of his oxen in the island of +Erytheia, and supporting the load of Atlas, and clearing the land of +Elis of its dung....</p> + +<p>The image of the god is in gold and ivory, seated on a throne. And a +crown is on his head imitating the foliage of the olive tree. In his +right hand he holds a Victory in ivory and gold, with a tiara and crown +on his head; and in his left hand a scepter adorned with all manner of +precious stones, and the bird seated on the scepter is an eagle. The +robes and sandals of the god are also of gold; and on his robes are +imitations of flowers, especially of lilies. And the throne is richly +adorned with gold and precious stones, and with ebony and ivory. And +there are imitations of animals painted on it, and models worked on it. +There are four Victories like dancers, one at each foot of the throne, +and two also at the instep of each foot; and at each of the front feet +are Theban boys carried off by Sphinxes, and below the Sphinxes, Apollo +and Artemis shooting down the children of Niobe. And between the feet of +the throne are four divisions formed by straight lines drawn from each +of the four feet.</p> + +<p>In the division nearest the entrance there are seven models—the eighth +has vanished no one knows where or how. And they are imitations of +ancient contests, for in the days of Phidias the contests for boys were +not yet established. And the figure with its head muffled up in a scarf +is, they say, Pantarcas, who was a native of Elis and the darling of +Phidias. This Pantarces won the wrestling-prize for boys in the 86th +Olympiad. And in the remaining divisions is the band of Her<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_150" id="Page_150">[Pg 150]</a></span>cules +fighting against the Amazons. The number on each side is twenty-nine, +and Theseus is on the side of Hercules. And the throne is supported not +only by the four feet, but also by four pillars between the feet. But +one can not get under the throne, as one can at Amyclæ, and pass inside; +for at Olympia there are panels like walls that keep one off.</p> + +<p>At the top of the throne, Phidias has represented above the head of Zeus +the three Graces and three Seasons. For these too, as we learn from the +poets, were daughters of Zeus. Homer in the Iliad has represented the +Seasons as having the care of Heaven, as a kind of guards of a royal +palace. And the base under the feet of Zeus (what is called in Attic +"thranion") has golden lions engraved on it, and the battle between +Theseus and the Amazons—the first famous exploit of the Athenians +beyond their own borders. And on the platform that supports the throne +there are various ornaments round Zeus, and gilt carving—the Sun seated +in his chariot, and Zeus and Hera; and near is Grace. Hermes is close to +her, and Vesta close to Hermes. And next to Vesta is Eros receiving +Aphrodite, who is just rising from the sea and being crowned by +Persuasion. And Apollo and Artemis, Athene and Hercules, are standing +by, and at the end of the platform Amphitrite and Poseidon, and Selene +apparently urging on her horse. And some say it is a mule and not a +horse that the goddess is riding upon; and there is a silly tale about +this mule.</p> + +<p>I know that the size of the Olympian Zeus both in height and breadth has +been stated; but I can<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_151" id="Page_151">[Pg 151]</a></span> not bestow praise on the measurers, for their +recorded measurement comes far short of what any one would infer from +looking at the statue. They make the god also to have testified to the +art of Phidias. For they say that when the statue was finished, Phidias +prayed him to signify if the work was to his mind; and immediately Zeus, +struck with lightning that part of the pavement where in our day is a +brazen urn with a lid.</p> + +<p>And all the pavement in front of the statue is not of white but of black +stone. And a border of Parian marble runs round this black stone, as a +preservative against spilled oil. For oil is good for the statue at +Olympia, as it prevents the ivory being harmed by the dampness of the +grove. But in the Acropolis at Athens, in regard to the statue of Athene +called the Maiden, it is not oil but water that is advantageously +employed to the ivory; for as the citadel is dry by reason of its great +height, the statue being made of ivory needs to be sprinkled with water +freely. And when I was at Epidaurus, and inquired why they use neither +water nor oil to the statue of Æsculapius, the sacristans of the temple +informed me that the statue of the god and its throne are over a well.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_152" id="Page_152">[Pg 152]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3>THERMOPYLÆ<a name="FNanchor_55_55" id="FNanchor_55_55"></a><a href="#Footnote_55_55" class="fnanchor">[55]</a></h3> + +<h4>BY RUFUS B. RICHARDSON</h4> + + +<p>We took Thermopylæ at our leisure, passing out from Lamia over the +Spercheios on the bridge of Alamana, at which Diakos, famous in ballad, +resisted with a small band a Turkish army, until he was at last captured +and taken to Lamia to be impaled....</p> + +<p>It may be taken as a well-known fact that the Spercheios has since the +time of Herodotus made so large an alluvial deposit around its mouth +that, if he himself should return to earth, he would hardly recognize +the spot which he has described so minutely. The western horn, which in +his time came down so near to the gulf as to leave space for a single +carriage-road only, is now separated from it by more than a mile of +plain. Each visit to Thermopylæ has, however, deepened my conviction +that Herodotus exaggerated the impregnability of this pass. The mountain +spur which formed it did not rise so abruptly from the sea as to form an +impassable barrier to the advance of a determined antagonist. It is of +course difficult ground to operate on, but certainly not impossible.</p> + +<p>The other narrow place, nearly two miles to the east of this, is still +more open, a fact that is to be emphasized, because many topographers, +including Colonel Leake, hold that the battle<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_153" id="Page_153">[Pg 153]</a></span> actually took place +there, as the great battle between the Romans and Antioches certainly +did. This eastern pass is, to be sure, no place where "a thousand may +well be stopt by three," and there can not have taken place any great +transformation here since classical times, inasmuch as this region is +practically out of reach of the Spercheios, and the deposit from the hot +sulfur streams, which has so broadened the theater-shaped area enclosed +by the two horns, can hardly have contributed to changing the shape of +the eastern horn itself.</p> + +<p>Artificial fortification was always needed here; but it is very +uncertain whether any of the stones that still remain can be claimed as +parts of such fortification. It is a fine position for an inferior force +to choose for defense against a superior one; but while it can not be +declared with absolute certainty that this is not the place where the +fighting took place, yet the western pass fits better the description of +Herodotus. Besides this, if the western pass had been abandoned to the +Persians at the outset the fact would have been worth mentioning.</p> + +<p>As to the heroic deed itself, the view that Leonidas threw away his own +life and that of the four thousand, that it was magnificent but not +strategy, not war, does not take into account the fact that Sparta had +for nearly half a century been looked to as the military leader of +Greece. It was audacious in the Athenians to fight the battle of +Marathon without them, and they did so only because the Spartans did not +come at their call. Sparta had not come to Thermopylæ in force, it is +true; but her king<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_154" id="Page_154">[Pg 154]</a></span> was there with three hundred of her best men. Only +by staying and fighting could he show that Sparta held by right the +place she had won. It had to be done. "So the glory of Sparta was not +blotted out."</p> + +<p>One may have read, and read often, the description of the battle in the +school-room, but he reads it with different eyes on the spot, when he +can look up at the hillock crowned with a ruined cavalry barrack just +inside the western pass and say to himself: "Here on this hill they +fought their last fight and fell to the last man. Here once stood the +monuments to Leonidas, to the three hundred, and to the four thousand."</p> + +<p>The very monuments have crumbled to dust, but the great deed lives on. +We rode back to Lamia under the spell of it. It was as if we had been in +church and been held by a great preacher who knows how to touch the +deepest chords of the heart. Eubœa was already dark blue, while the +sky above it was shaded from pink to purple. Tymphrestos in the west was +bathed in the light of the sun that had gone down behind it. The whole +surrounding was most stirring, and there was ever sounding in our hearts +that deep bass note: "What they did here."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_155" id="Page_155">[Pg 155]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3>SALONICA<a name="FNanchor_56_56" id="FNanchor_56_56"></a><a href="#Footnote_56_56" class="fnanchor">[56]</a></h3> + +<h4>BY CHARLES DUDLEY WARNER</h4> + + +<p>The city of Salonica lies on a fine bay, and presents an attractive +appearance from the harbor, rising up the hill in the form of an +amphitheater. On all sides, except the sea, ancient walls surround it, +fortified at the angles by large, round towers and crowned in the +center, on the hill, by a respectable citadel. I suppose that portions +of these walls are of Hellenic, and perhaps, Pelasgic date, but the most +are probably of the time of the Latin crusaders' occupation, patched and +repaired by Saracens and Turks. We had come to Thessalonica on St. +Paul's account, not expecting to see much that would excite us, and we +were not disappointed. When we went ashore we found ourselves in a city +of perhaps sixty thousand inhabitants, commonplace in aspect, altho its +bazaars are well filled with European goods, and a fair display of +Oriental stuffs and antiquities, and animated by considerable briskness +of trade. I presume there are more Jews here than there were in Paul's +time, but Turks and Greeks, in nearly equal numbers, form the bulk of +the population.</p> + +<p>In modern Salonica there is not much respect for pagan antiquities, and +one sees only the usual fragments of columns and sculptures worked into<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_156" id="Page_156">[Pg 156]</a></span> +walls or incorporated in Christian churches. But those curious in early +Byzantine architecture will find more to interest them here than in any +place in the world except Constantinople. We spent the day wandering +about the city, under the guidance of a young Jew, who was without +either prejudices or information. On our way to the Mosque of St. +Sophia, we passed through the quarter of the Jews, which is much cleaner +than is usual with them. These are the descendants of Spanish Jews, who +were expelled by Isabella, and they still retain, in a corrupt form, the +language of Spain. In the doors and windows were many pretty Jewesses; +banishment and vicissitude appear to agree with this elastic race, for +in all the countries of Europe Jewish women develop more beauty in form +and feature than in Palestine. We saw here and in other parts of the +city a novel head-dress, which may commend itself to America in the +revolutions of fashion. A great mass of hair, real or assumed, was +gathered into a long, slender, green bag, which hung down the back and +was terminated by a heavy fringe of silver. Otherwise, the dress of the +Jewish women does not differ much from that of the men; the latter wear +a fez or turban, and a tunic which reaches to the ankles, and is bound +about the waist by a gay sash or shawl.</p> + +<p>The Mosque of St. Sophia, once a church, and copied in its proportions +and style from its namesake in Constantinople, is retired, in a +delightful court, shaded by gigantic trees and cheered by a fountain. So +peaceful a spot we had not seen in many a day; birds sang in the trees +without disturbing the calm of the meditative pilgrim. In<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_157" id="Page_157">[Pg 157]</a></span> the portico +and also in the interior are noble columns of marble and verd-antique, +and in the dome is a wonderfully quaint mosaic of the Transfiguration. +We were shown also a magnificent pulpit of the latter beautiful stone +cut from a solid block, in which it is said St. Paul preached. As the +Apostle, according to his custom, reasoned with the people out of the +Scriptures in a synagogue, and this church was not built for centuries +after his visit, the statement needs confirmation; but pious ingenuity +suggests that the pulpit stood in a subterranean church underneath this. +I should like to believe that Paul sanctified this very spot with his +presence; but there is little in its quiet seclusion to remind one of +him who had the reputation when he was in Thessalonica of one of those +who turn the world upside down.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3>FROM THE PIERIAN PLAIN TO MARATHON<a name="FNanchor_57_57" id="FNanchor_57_57"></a><a href="#Footnote_57_57" class="fnanchor">[57]</a></h3> + +<h4>BY CHARLES DUDLEY WARNER</h4> + + +<p>At early light of a cloudless morning we were going easily down the Gulf +of Thermæ or Salonica, having upon our right the Pierian plain; and I +tried to distinguish the two mounds which mark the place of the great +battle near Pydna, one hundred and sixty-eight years before Christ, +between Æmilius Paulus and King<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_158" id="Page_158">[Pg 158]</a></span> Perseus, which gave Macedonia to the +Roman Empire. Beyond, almost ten thousand feet in the air, towered +Olympus, upon whose "broad" summit Homer displays the ethereal palaces +and inaccessible abode of the Grecian gods. Shaggy forests still clothe +its sides, but snow now, and for the greater part of the year, covers +the wide surface of the height, which is a sterile, light-colored rock. +The gods did not want snow to cool the nectar at their banquets.</p> + +<p>This is the very center of the mythologic world; there between Olympus +and Ossa is the Vale of Tempe, where the Peneus, breaking through a +narrow gorge fringed with the sacred laurel, reaches the gulf, south of +ancient Heracleum. Into this charming but secluded retreat the gods and +goddesses, weary of the icy air, or the Pumblechookian deportment of the +court of Olympian Jove, descended to pass the sunny hours with the +youths and maidens of mortal mold; through this defile marks of +chariot-wheels still attest the passage of armies which flowed either +way, in invasion or retreat; and here Pompey, after a ride of forty +miles from the fatal field of Pharsalia, quenched his thirst.</p> + +<p>At six o'clock the Cape of Posilio was on our left, we were sinking +Olympus in the white haze of morning, Ossa, in its huge silver bulk, was +near us, and Pelion stretched its long white back below. The sharp cone +of Ossa might well ride upon the extended back of Pelion, and it seems a +pity that the Titans did not succeed in their attempt. We were leaving, +and looking our last on the Thracian coasts, once rimmed from Mt. Athos +to the Bosphorus with a wreath of pros<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_159" id="Page_159">[Pg 159]</a></span>perous cities. What must once +have been the splendor of the Ægean Sea and its islands, when every +island was the seat of a vigorous state, and every harbor the site of a +commercial town which sent forth adventurous galleys upon any errand of +trade or conquest!...</p> + +<p>We ascended Mt. Pentelicus. Hymettus and Pentelicus are about the same +height—thirty-five hundred feet—but the latter, ten miles to the +northeast of Athens, commands every foot of the Attic territory; if one +should sit on its summit and read a history of the little state, he +would need no map.</p> + +<p>Up to the highest quarries the road is steep, and strewn with broken +marble, and after that there is an hour's scramble through bushes and +over a rocky path. From these quarries was hewn the marble for the +Temple of Theseus, the Parthenon, the Propylæ, the theaters, and other +public buildings, to which age has now given a soft and creamy tone; the +Pentelic marble must have been too brilliant for the eye, and its +dazzling luster was, no doubt, softened by the judicious use of color. +Fragments which we broke off had the sparkle and crystalline grain of +loaf-sugar, and if they were placed upon the table one would +unhesitatingly take them to sweeten his tea. The whole mountain-side is +overgrown with laurel, and we found wild flowers all the way to the +summit....</p> + +<p>We looked almost directly down upon Marathon. There is the bay and the +curving sandy shore where the Persian galleys landed; here upon a spur, +jutting out from the hill, the Athenians formed before they encountered +the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_160" id="Page_160">[Pg 160]</a></span> host in the plain, and there—alas! it was hidden by a hill—is the +mound where the one hundred and ninety-two Athenian dead are buried. It +is only a small field, perhaps six miles along the shore and a mile and +a half deep, and there is a considerable marsh on the north and a small +one at the south end. The victory at so little cost, of ten thousand +over a hundred thousand, is partially explained by the nature of the +ground; the Persians had not room enough to maneuver, and must have been +thrown into confusion on the skirts of the northern swamp, and if over +six thousand of them were slain, they must have been killed on the shore +in the panic of their embarkation. But still the shore is broad, level, +and firm, and the Greeks must have been convinced that the gods +themselves terrified the hearts of the barbarians, and enabled them to +discomfit a host which had chosen this plain as the most feasible in all +Attica for the action of cavalry.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3>AN EXCURSION TO SPARTA AND MAINA<a name="FNanchor_58_58" id="FNanchor_58_58"></a><a href="#Footnote_58_58" class="fnanchor">[58]</a></h3> + +<h4>BY BAYARD TAYLOR</h4> + + +<p>As we approached Sparta, the road descended to the banks of the Eurotas. +Traces of the ancient walls which restrained the river still remain in +places, but, in his shifting course, he has swept the most of them away, +and spread his gravelly deposits freely over the bottoms<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_161" id="Page_161">[Pg 161]</a></span> inclosed +between the spurs of the hills. Toward evening we saw, at a distance, +the white houses of modern Sparta, and presently some indications of the +ancient city. At first, the remains of terraces and ramparts, then the +unmistakable Hellenic walls, and, as the superb plain of the Eurotas +burst upon us, stretching, in garden-like beauty, to the foot of the +abrupt hills, over which towered the sun-touched snows of Taygetus, we +saw, close on our right, almost the only relic of the lost ages—the +theater. Riding across the field of wheat, which extended all over the +scene of the Spartan gymnastic exhibitions, we stood on the proscenium +and contemplated these silent ruins, and the broad, beautiful landscape. +It is one of the finest views in Greece—not so crowded with striking +points, not so splendid in associations as that of Athens, but larger, +grander, richer in coloring. Besides the theater, the only remains are +some masses of Roman brickwork, and the massive substructions of a small +temple which the natives call the tomb of Leonidas....</p> + +<p>We spent the night in a comfortable house, which actually boasted of a +floor, glass windows, and muslin curtains. On returning to the theater +in the morning, we turned aside into a plowed field to inspect a +sarcophagus which had just been discovered. It still lay in the pit +where it was found, and was entire, with the exception of the lid. It +was ten feet long by four broad, and was remarkable in having a division +at one end, forming a smaller chamber, as if for the purpose of +receiving the bones of a child. From the theater I made a sketch of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_162" id="Page_162">[Pg 162]</a></span> the +valley, with the dazzling ridge of Taygetus in the rear, and Mistra, the +medieval Sparta, hanging on the steep sides of one of his gorges. The +sun was intensely hot, and we were glad to descend again, making our way +through tall wheat, past walls of Roman brickwork and scattering blocks +of the older city, to the tomb of Leonidas. This is said to be a temple, +tho there are traces of vaults and passages beneath the pavement which +do not quite harmonize with such a conjecture. It is composed of huge +blocks of breccia, some of them thirteen feet long.</p> + +<p>I determined to make an excursion to Maina. This is a region rarely +visited by travelers, who are generally frightened off by the reputation +of its inhabitants, who are considered by the Greeks to be bandits and +cut-throats to a man. The Mainotes are, for the most part, lineal +descendants of the ancient Spartans, and, from the decline of the Roman +power up to the present century, have preserved a virtual independence +in their mountain fastnesses. The worship of the pagan deities existed +among them as late as the eighth century. They were never conquered by +the Turks, and it required considerable management to bring them under +the rule of Otho....</p> + +<p>Starting at noon, we passed through the modern Sparta, which is well +laid out with broad streets. The site is superb, and in the course of +time the new town will take the place of Mistra. We rode southward, down +the valley of the Eurotas, through orchards of olive and mulberry. We +stopt for the night at the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_163" id="Page_163">[Pg 163]</a></span> little khan of Levetzova. I saw some cows +pasturing here, quite a rare sight in Greece, where genuine butter is +unknown. That which is made from the milk of sheep and goats is no +better than mild tallow. The people informed me, however, that they make +cheese from cow's milk, but not during Lent. They are now occupied with +rearing Paschal lambs, a quarter of a million of which are slaughtered +in Greece on Easter Day. The next morning, we rode over hills covered +with real turf, a little thin, perhaps, but still a rare sight in +southern lands. In two hours we entered the territory of Maina, on the +crest of a hill, where we saw Marathonisi (the ancient Gythium), lying +warm upon the Laconian Gulf. The town is a steep, dirty, labyrinthine +place, and so rarely visited by strangers that our appearance created +quite a sensation....</p> + +<p>A broad, rich valley opened before us, crossed by belts of poplar and +willow trees, and inclosed by a semicircle of hills, most of which were +crowned with the lofty towers of the Mainotes. In Maina almost every +house is a fortress. The law of blood revenge, the right of which is +transmitted from father to son, draws the whole population under its +bloody sway in the course of a few generations. Life is a running fight, +and every foe slain entails on the slayer a new penalty of retribution +for himself and his descendants for ever.</p> + +<p>Previous to the revolution most of the Mainote families lived in a state +of alternate attack and siege. Their houses are square towers, forty or +fifty feet high, with massive walls, and win<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_164" id="Page_164">[Pg 164]</a></span>dows so narrow that they +may be used as loopholes for musketry. The first story is at a +considerable distance from the ground, and reached by a long ladder +which can be drawn up so as to cut off all communication. Some of the +towers are further strengthened by a semicircular bastion, projecting +from the side most liable to attack. The families supplied themselves +with telescopes, to look out for enemies in the distance, and always had +a store of provisions on hand, in case of a siege. Altho this private +warfare has been supprest, the law of revenge exists.</p> + +<p>From the summit of the first range we overlooked a wild, glorious +landscape. The hills, wooded with oak, and swimming in soft blue vapor, +interlocked far before us, inclosing the loveliest green dells in their +embraces, and melting away to the break in Taygetus, which yawned in the +distance. On the right towered the square, embrasured castle of Passava +on the summit of an almost inaccessible hill—the site of the ancient +Las. Far and near, the lower heights were crowned with tall, white +towers.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3>MESSENIA<a name="FNanchor_59_59" id="FNanchor_59_59"></a><a href="#Footnote_59_59" class="fnanchor">[59]</a></h3> + +<h4>BY BAYARD TAYLOR</h4> + + +<p>The plain of Messenia is the richest part of the Morea. Altho its groves +of orange and olive, fig and mulberry, were entirely destroyed during +the Egyptian occupation, new and more<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_165" id="Page_165">[Pg 165]</a></span> vigorous shoots have sprung up +from the old stumps and the desolated country is a garden again, +apparently as fair and fruitful as when it excited the covetousness of +the Spartan thieves. Sloping to the gulf on the south, and protected +from the winds on all other sides by lofty mountains, it enjoys an +almost Egyptian warmth of climate. Here it was already summer, while at +Sparta, on the other side of Taygetus, spring had but just arrived, and +the central plain of Arcadia was still bleak and gray as in winter. As +it was market-day, we met hundreds of the country people going to +Kalamata with laden asses....</p> + +<p>We crossed the rapid Pamisos with some difficulty, and ascended its +right bank, to the foot of Mount Evan, which we climbed, by rough paths +through thickets of mastic and furze, to the monastery of Vurkano. The +building has a magnificent situation, on a terrace between Mount Evan +and Mount Ithome, overlooking both the upper and lower plains of the +Pamisos—a glorious spread of landscape, green with spring, and touched +by the sun with the airiest prismatic tints through breaks of heavy +rain-clouds. Inside the courts is an old Byzantine chapel, with +fleurs-de-lis on the decorations, showing that it dates from the time of +the Latin princes. The monks received us very cordially, gave us a +clean, spacious room, and sent us a bottle of excellent wine for dinner.</p> + +<p>We ascended Ithome and visited the massive ruins of Messene the same +day. The great gate of the city, a portion of the wall, and four of the +towers of defense, are in tolerable condition.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_166" id="Page_166">[Pg 166]</a></span> The name of Epaminondas +hallows these remains, which otherwise, grand as they are, do not +impress one like the cyclopean walls of Tiryns. The wonder is, that they +could have been built in so short a time—eighty-five days, says +history, which would appear incredible, had not still more marvelous +things of the kind been done in Russia.</p> + +<p>The next day, we rode across the head of the Messenian plain, crossed +the Mount Lycæus and the gorge of the Neda, and lodged at the little +village of Tragoge, on the frontiers of Arcadia. Our experience of +Grecian highways was pleasantly increased by finding fields plowed +directly across our road, fences of dried furze built over it, and +ditches cutting it at all angles. Sometimes all trace of it would be +lost for half a mile, and we were obliged to ride over the growing crops +until we could find a bit of fresh trail.</p> + +<p>The bridle-path over Mount Lycæus was steep and bad, but led us through +the heart of a beautiful region. The broad back of the mountain is +covered with a grove of superb oaks, centuries old, their long arms +muffled in golden moss, and adorned with a plumage of ferns. The turf at +their feet was studded with violets, filling the air with delicious +odors. This sylvan retreat was the birthplace of Pan, and no more +fitting home for the universal god can be imagined. On the northern side +we descended for some time through a forest of immense ilex trees, which +sprang from a floor of green moss and covered our pathway with summer +shade....<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_167" id="Page_167">[Pg 167]</a></span></p> + +<p>We were now in the heart of the wild mountain region of Messenia, in +whose fastnesses Aristomenes, the epic hero of the state, maintained +himself so long against the Spartans. The tremendous gorge below us was +the bed of the Neda, which we crossed in order to enter the lateral +valley of Phigalia, where lay Tragoge. The path was not only difficult +but dangerous—in some places a mere hand's-breath of gravel, on the +edge of a plane so steep that a single slip of a horse's foot would have +sent him headlong to the bottom.</p> + +<p>In the morning, a terrible sirocco levante was blowing, with an almost +freezing cold. The fury of the wind was so great that in crossing the +exposed ridges it was difficult to keep one's seat upon the horse. We +climbed toward the central peak of the Lycæan Hills, through a wild dell +between two ridges, which were covered to the summit with magnificent +groves of oak. Starry blue flowers, violets and pink crocuses spangled +the banks as we wound onward, between the great trunks. The temple of +Apollo Epicurius stands on a little platform between the two highest +peaks, about 3,500 feet above the sea.</p> + +<p>On the day of our visit, its pillars of pale bluish-gray limestone rose +against a wintry sky, its guardian oaks were leafless, and the wind +whistled over its heaps of ruin; yet its symmetry was like that of a +perfect statue, wherein you do not notice the absence of color, and I +felt that no sky and no season could make it more beautiful. For its +builder was Ictinus, who created the Parthenon. It was erected by the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_168" id="Page_168">[Pg 168]</a></span> +Phigalians, out of gratitude to Apollo the Helper, who kept from their +city a plague which ravaged the rest of the Peloponnesus. Owing to its +secluded position, it has escaped the fate of other temples, and might +be restored from its own undestroyed materials. The cella had been +thrown down, but thirty-five out of thirty-eight columns are still +standing. Through the Doric shafts you look upon a wide panorama of gray +mountains, melting into purple in the distance, and crowned by arcs of +the far-off sea. On one hand is Ithome and the Messenian Gulf, on the +other the Ionian Sea and the Strophades....</p> + +<p>We now trotted down the valley, over beautiful meadows, which were +uncultivated except in a few places where the peasants were plowing for +maize, and had destroyed every trace of the road. The hills on both +sides began to be fringed with pine, while the higher ridges on our +right were clothed with woods of oak. I was surprised at the luxuriant +vegetation of this region. The laurel and mastic became trees, the pine +shot to a height of one hundred feet, and the beech and sycamore began +to appear. Some of the pines had been cut for ship-timber, but in the +rudest and most wasteful way, only the limbs which had the proper curve +being chosen for ribs. I did not see a single sawmill in the +Peloponnesus; but I am told that there are a few in Euboea and +Acarnania....</p> + +<p>As we approached Olympia, I could almost have believed myself among the +pine-hills of Germany or America. In the old times this must have been a +lovely, secluded region, well<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_169" id="Page_169">[Pg 169]</a></span> befitting the honored repose of Xenophon, +who wrote his works here. The sky became heavier as the day wore on, and +the rain, which had spared us so long, finally inclosed us in its misty +circle. Toward evening we reached a lonely little house, on the banks of +the Alpheus. Nobody was at home, but we succeeded in forcing a door and +getting shelter for our baggage. François had supper nearly ready before +the proprietor arrived. The latter had neither wife nor child, tho a few +chicks, and took our burglarious occupation very good-humoredly. We +shared the same leaky roof with our horses, and the abundant fleas with +the owner's dogs.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3>TIRYNS AND MYCENÆ<a name="FNanchor_60_60" id="FNanchor_60_60"></a><a href="#Footnote_60_60" class="fnanchor">[60]</a></h3> + +<h4>BY J. P. MAHAFFY</h4> + + +<p>The fortress of Tiryns may fitly be commented on before approaching the +younger, or at least more artistically finished, Mycenæ. It stands +several miles nearer to the sea, in the center of the great plain of +Argos, and upon the only hillock which there affords any natural scope +for fortification. Instead of the square, or at least hewn, well-fitted +blocks of Mycenæ, we have here the older style of rude masses piled +together as best they would fit, the interstices being filled up with +smaller fragments. This is essentially cyclopean building. There is a +smaller fort, of rectangular shape, on the south<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_170" id="Page_170">[Pg 170]</a></span>ern and highest part of +the oblong hillock, the whole of which is surrounded by a lower wall, +which takes in both this and the northern longer part of the ridge. It +looks, in fact, like a hill-fort, with a large inclosure for cattle +around it.</p> + +<p>Just below the northeast angle of the inner fort, and where the lower +circuit is about to leave it, there is an entrance, with a massive +projection of huge stones, looking like a square tower, on its right +side, so as to defend it from attack. The most remarkable feature in the +walls are the covered galleries, constructed within them at the +southeast angle. The whole thickness of the wall is often over twenty +feet, and in the center a rude arched way is made—or rather, I believe, +two parallel ways; but the inner gallery has fallen in, and is almost +untraceable—and this merely by piling together the great stones so as +to leave an opening, which narrows at the top in the form of a Gothic +arch. Within the passage, there are five niches in the outer side, made +of rude arches in the same way as the main passage. The length of the +gallery I measured, and found it twenty-five yards, at the end of which +it is regularly walled up, so that it evidently did not run all the way +round. The niches are now no longer open, but seem to have been once +windows, or at least to have had some lookout points into the hill +country.</p> + +<p>It is remarkable that, altho the walls are made of perfectly rude +stones, the builders have managed to use so many smooth surfaces looking +outward, that the face of the wall seems quite clean and well built. At +the southeast corner<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_171" id="Page_171">[Pg 171]</a></span> of the higher and inner fort, we found a large +block of red granite, quite different from the rough, gray stone of the +building, with its surface square and smooth, and all the four sides +neatly beveled, like the portal stones at the treasury of Atreus. I +found two other similar blocks close by, which were likewise cut smooth +on the surface. The intention of these stones we could not guess, but +they show that some ornament, and some more finished work, must have +once existed in the inner fort. Tho both the main entrances have massive +towers of stone raised on their right, there is a small postern at the +opposite or west side, not more than four feet wide, which has no +defenses whatever, and is a mere hole in the wall.</p> + +<p>The whole ruin is covered in summer with thistles, such as English +people can hardly imagine. The needles at the points of the leaves are +fully an inch long, extremely fine and strong, and sharper than any +two-edged sword. No clothes except a leather dress can resist them. They +pierce everywhere with the most stinging pain, and make antiquarian +research in this famous spot a veritable martyrdom, which can only be +supported by a very burning thirst for knowledge, or the sure hope of +future fame. The rough masses of stone are so loose that one's footing +is insecure, and when the traveler loses his balance, and falls among +the thistles, he will wish that he had gone to Jericho instead, or even +fallen among thieves on the way.</p> + +<p>It is impossible to approach Mycenæ from any side without being struck +with the picturesqueness of the site. If you come down over<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_172" id="Page_172">[Pg 172]</a></span> the +mountains from Corinth, as soon as you reach the head of the valley of +the Inachus, which is the plain of Argos, you turn aside to the left, or +east, into a secluded corner—"a recess of the horse-feeding Argos," as +Homer calls it—and then you find on the edge of the valley, and where +the hills begin to rise one behind the other, the village of Charváti. +When you ascend from this place, you find that the lofty Mount Elias is +separated from the plain by two nearly parallel waves of land, which are +indeed joined at the northern end by a curving saddle, but elsewhere are +divided by deep gorges. The loftier and shorter wave forms the rocky +citadel of Mycenæ—the Argion, as it was once called.</p> + +<p>I need not attempt a fresh description of the Great Treasury. It is in +no sense a rude building, or one of a helpless and barbarous age, but, +on the contrary, the product of enormous appliances, and of a perfect +knowledge of all the mechanical requirements for any building, if we +except the application of the arch. The stones are hewn square, or +curved to form the circular dome within, with admirable exactness. Above +the enormous lintel-stone, nearly twenty-seven feet long, and which is +doubly grooved, by way of ornament, all along its edge over the doorway, +there is now a triangular window or aperture, which was certainly filled +with some artistic carving like the analogous space over the lintel in +the gate of the Acropolis. Shortly after Lord Elgin had cleared the +entrance, Gell and Dodwell found various pieces of green and red marble +carved with geometrical patterns, some of which are reproduced in +Dodwell's book. Gell also<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_173" id="Page_173">[Pg 173]</a></span> found some fragments in a neighboring chapel, +and others are said to be built into a wall at Nauplia. There are +supposed to have been short columns standing on each side in front of +the gate, with some ornament surmounting them; but this seems to me to +rest on doubtful evidence, and on theoretical reconstruction. Dr. +Schliemann, however, asserts them to have been found at the entrance of +the second treasury which Mrs. Schliemann excavated, tho his account is +somewhat vague. There is the strongest architectural reason for the +triangular aperture over the door, as it diminishes the enormous weight +to be borne by the lintel; and here, no doubt, some ornament very like +lions on the other gate may have been applied.</p> + +<p>There has been much controversy about the use to which this building was +applied, and we can not now attempt to change the name, even if we could +prove its absurdity. Pausanias, who saw Mycenæ in the second century +A.D., found it in much the same state as we do, and was no +better informed than we, tho he tells us the popular belief that this +and its fellows were treasure-houses like that of the Minyæ at +Orchomenus, which was very much greater, and was, in his opinion, one of +the most wonderful things in all Greece.</p> + +<p>Standing at the entrance, you look out upon the scattered masonry of the +walls of Mycenæ, on the hillock over against you. Close behind this is a +dark and solemn chain of mountains. The view is narrow and confined, and +faces the north, so that, for most of the day, the gate is dark and in +shadow. We can conceive no fitter<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_174" id="Page_174">[Pg 174]</a></span> place for the burial of a king, +within sight of his citadel, in the heart of a deep natural hillock, +with a great solemn portal symbolizing the resistless strength of the +barrier which he had passed into an unknown land. But one more remark +seems necessary. This treasure-house is by no means a Greek building in +its features. It has the same perfection of construction which can be +seen at Eleutheræ, or any other Greek fort, but still the really +analogous buildings are to be found in far distant lands—in the raths +of Ireland, and the barrows of the Crimea.</p> + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">"And yet how lovely in thine age of woe,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Land of lost gods and godlike men, are thou!</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Thy vales of evergreen, thy hills of snow,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Proclaim thee Nature's varied favourite now:</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Thy fanes, thy temples to the surface bow,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Commingling slowly with heroic earth,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Broke by the share of every rustic plough:</span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">"Yet are thy skies as blue, thy crags as wild:</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Sweet are thy groves, and verdant are thy fields,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Thine olives ripe as when Minerva smiled,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">And still his honeyed wealth Hymettus yields;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">There the blithe bee his fragrant fortress builds,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">The freeborn wanderer of thy mountain air;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Apollo still thy long, long summer gilds,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Still in his beam Mendeli's marbles glare;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Art, Glory, Freedom fail, but Nature still is fair."</span><br /> +</p> + +<p class='center'>—From Byron's "Childe Harold."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_175" id="Page_175">[Pg 175]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>IX</h2> + +<h2>THE GREEK ISLANDS</h2> + +<p><br /><br /></p> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3>A TOUR OF CRETE<a name="FNanchor_61_61" id="FNanchor_61_61"></a><a href="#Footnote_61_61" class="fnanchor">[61]</a></h3> + +<h4>BY BAYARD TAYLOR</h4> + + +<p>Crete lies between the parallels of 35 degrees and 36 degrees, not much +farther removed from Africa than from Europe, and its climate, +consequently, is intermediate between that of Greece and that of +Alexandria. In the morning it was already visible, altho some thirty +miles distant, the magnificent snowy mass of the White Mountains +gleaming before us, under a bank of clouds. By ten o'clock, the long +blue line of the coast broke into irregular points, the Dictynnæan +promontory and that of Akroteri thrusting themselves out toward us so as +to give an amphitheatric character to that part of the island we were +approaching, while the broad, snowy dome of the Cretan Ida, standing +alone, far to the east, floated in a sea of soft, golden light. The +White Mountains were completely enveloped in snow to a distance of 4,000 +feet below their summits, and scarcely a rock pierced the luminous +covering. The shores of the Gulf of Khania, retaining their +amphitheatric form, rose gradually from the water, a rich panorama of +wheat-fields, vineyards and olive groves, crowded<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_176" id="Page_176">[Pg 176]</a></span> with sparkling +villages, while Khania, in the center, grew into distinctness—a +picturesque jumble of mosques, old Venetian arches and walls, pink and +yellow buildings, and palm trees. The character of the scene was Syrian +rather than Greek, being altogether richer and warmer than anything in +Greece.</p> + +<p>Khania occupies the site of the ancient Cydonia, by which name the Greek +bishopric is still called. The Venetian city was founded in 1252, and +any remnants of the older town which may have then remained, were quite +obliterated by it. The only ruins now are those of Venetian churches, +some of which have been converted into mosques, and a number of immense +arched vaults, opening on the harbor, built to shelter the galleys of +the Republic. Just beyond the point on which stands the Serai, I counted +fifteen of these, side by side, eleven of which are still entire. A +little further, there are three more, but all are choked up with sand, +and of no present use. The modern town is an exact picture of a Syrian +seaport, with its narrow, crooked streets, shaded bazaars, and turbaned +merchants. Its population is 9,500, including the garrison, according to +a census just completed at the time of our visit. It is walled, and the +gates are closed during the night....</p> + +<p>Passing through the large Turkish cemetery, which was covered with an +early crop of blue anemones, we came upon the rich plain of Khania, +lying broad and fair, like a superb garden, at the foot of the White +Mountains, whose vast masses of shining snow filled up the entire +southern heaven. Eastward, the plain<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_177" id="Page_177">[Pg 177]</a></span> slopes to the deep Bay of Suda, +whose surface shone blue above the silvery line of the olive groves; +while, sixty miles away, rising high above the intermediate headlands, +the solitary peak of Mount Ida, bathed in a warm afternoon glow, gleamed +like an Olympian mount, not only the birthplace, but the throne of +immortal Jove. Immense olive trees from the dark-red, fertile earth; +cypresses and the canopied Italian pine interrupted their gray monotony, +and every garden hung the golden lamps of its oranges over the wall. The +plain is a paradise of fruitfulness....</p> + +<p>In the morning, the horses were brought to us at an early hour, in +charge of a jolly old officer of gendarmes, who was to accompany us. As +far as the village of Kalepa, there is a carriage road; afterward, only +a stony path. From the spinal ridge of the promontory, which we crossed, +we overlooked all the plain of Khania, and beyond the Dictynnæan +peninsula, to the western extremity of Crete. The White Mountains, tho +less than seven thousand, feet in height, deceive the eye by the +contrast between their spotless snows and the summer at their base, and +seem to rival the Alps. The day was cloudless and balmy; birds sang on +every tree, and the grassy hollows were starred with anemones, white, +pink, violet and crimson. It was the first breath of the southern +spring, after a winter which had been as terrible for Crete as for +Greece.</p> + +<p>After a ride of three hours, we reached a broad valley, at the foot of +that barren mountain mass in which the promontory terminates.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_178" id="Page_178">[Pg 178]</a></span> To the +eastward we saw the large monastery of Agia Triada (the Holy Trinity), +overlooking its fat sweep of vine and olive land.... In the deep, dry +mountain glen which we entered, I found numbers of carob-trees. Rocks of +dark-blue limestone, stained with bright orange oxydations, overhung us +as we followed the track of a torrent upward into the heart of this +bleak region, where, surrounded by the hot, arid peaks, is the Monastery +of Governato.</p> + +<p>We descended on foot to the Monastery of Katholiko, which we reached in +half an hour. Its situation is like that of San Saba in Palestine, at +the bottom of a split in the stony hills, and the sun rarely shines upon +it. Steps cut in the rock lead down the face of the precipice to the +deserted monastery, near which is a cavern 500 feet long, leading into +the rock. The ravine is spanned by an arch, nearly fifty feet high.</p> + +<p>At Agia Triada, as we rode up the stately avenue of cypresses, between +vineyards and almond trees in blossom, servants advanced to take our +horses, and the abbot shouted, "Welcome," from the top of the steps. We +were ushered into a clean room, furnished with a tolerable library of +orthodox volumes. A boy of fifteen, with a face like the young Raphael, +brought us glasses of a rich, dark wine, something like port, some jelly +and coffee. The size and substantial character of this monastery attests +its wealth, no less than the flourishing appearance of the lands +belonging to it. Its large courtyard is shaded with vine-bowers and +orange trees, and the chapel in the center has a façade supported by +Doric columns.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_179" id="Page_179">[Pg 179]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3>THE COLOSSAL RUINS OF CNOSSOS<a name="FNanchor_62_62" id="FNanchor_62_62"></a><a href="#Footnote_62_62" class="fnanchor">[62]</a></h3> + +<h4>BY PHILIP S. MARDEN</h4> + + +<p>The ruins [of the Cnossos palace] lie at the east of the high road, in a +deep valley. Their excavation has been very complete and satisfactory, +and while some restorations have been attempted here and there, chiefly +because of absolute necessity to preserve portions of the structure, +they are not such restorations as to jar on one, but exhibit a fidelity +to tradition that saves them from the common fate of such efforts. +Little or no retouching was necessary in the case of the stupendous +flights of steps that were found leading up to the door of this +prehistoric royal residence, and which are the first of the many sights +the visitor of to-day may see.</p> + +<p>It is in the so-called "throne room of Minos" that the restoring hand is +first met. Here it has been found necessary to provide a roof, that +damage by weather be avoided; and to-day the throne room is a dusky +spot, rather below the general level of the place. Its chief treasure is +the throne itself, a stone chair, carved in rather rudimentary +ornamentation, and about the size of an ordinary chair. The roof is +supported by the curious, top-heavy-looking stone pillars, that are +known to have prevailed not only in the Minoan but in Mycenæan period; +monoliths noticeably larger at the top than at the bottom, reversing the +usual form of stone<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_180" id="Page_180">[Pg 180]</a></span> pillar with which later ages have made us more +familiar. This quite illogical inversion of what we now regard as the +proper form has been accounted for in theory, by assuming that it was +the natural successor of the sharpened wooden stake. When the ancients +adopted stone supports for their roofs, they simply took over the forms +they had been familiar with in the former use of wood, and the result +was a stone pillar that copied the earlier wooden one in shape. Time, of +course, served to show that the natural way of building demanded the +reversal of this custom; but in the Mycenæan age it had not been +discovered, for there are evidences that similar pillars existed in +buildings of that period, and the representation of a pillar that stands +between the two lions on Mycenæ's famous gate has this inverted form.</p> + +<p>Many hours may be spent in detailed examination of this colossal ruin, +testifying to what must have been in its day an enormous and impressive +palace. One can not go far in traversing it without noticing the traces +still evident enough of the fire that obviously destroyed it many +hundred, if not several thousand, years before Christ. Along the western +side have been discovered long corridors, from which scores of long and +narrow rooms were to be entered. These, in the published plans, serve to +give to the ruin a large share of its labyrinthine character. It seems +to be agreed now that these were the storerooms of the palace, and in +them may still be seen the huge earthen jars which once served to +contain the palace supplies. Long rows of them stand in the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_181" id="Page_181">[Pg 181]</a></span> ancient +hallways and in the narrow cells that lead off them, each jar large +enough to hold a fair-sized man, and in number sufficient to have +accommodated Ali Baba and the immortal forty thieves. In the center of +the palace little remains; but in the southeastern corner, where the +land begins to slope abruptly to the valley below, there are to be seen +several stories of the ancient building. Here one comes upon the rooms +marked with the so-called "distaff" pattern, supposed to indicate that +they were the women's quarters.</p> + +<p>The restorer has been busy here, but not offensively so. Much of the +ancient wall is intact, and in one place is a bathroom with a very +diminutive bathtub still in place. Along the eastern side is also shown +the oil press, where olives were once made to yield their coveted +juices, and from the press proper a stone gutter conducted the fluid +down to the point where jars were placed to receive it. This discovery +of oil presses in ancient buildings, by the way, has served in more than +one case to arouse speculation as to the antiquity of oil lamps such as +were once supposed to belong only to a much later epoch. Whether in the +Minoan days they had such lamps or not, it is known that they had at +least an oil press and a good one. In the side of the hill below the +main palace of Minos has been unearthed a smaller structure, which they +now call the "villa," and in which several terraces, have been uncovered +rather similar to the larger building above. Here is another throne +room, cunningly contrived to be lighted by a long shaft of light from +above<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_182" id="Page_182">[Pg 182]</a></span> falling on the seat of justice itself, while the rest of the room +is in obscurity.</p> + +<p>It may be that it requires a stretch of the imagination to compare the +palace of Cnossos with Troy, but nevertheless there are one or two +features that seem not unlike the discoveries made by Dr. Schliemann on +that famous site. Notably so, it seems to me, are the traces of the +final fire, which are to be seen at Cnossos as at Troy, and the huge +jars, which may be compared with the receptacles the Trojan excavators +unearthed, and found still to contain dried peas and other things that +the Trojans left behind when they fled from their sacked and burning +city. Few are privileged to visit the site of Priam's city, which is +hard, indeed, to reach; but it is easy enough to make the excursion to +Candia and visit the palace of old King Minos, which is amply worth the +trouble, besides giving a glimpse of a civilization that is possibly +vastly older than even that of Troy and Mycenæ. For those who reverence +the great antiquities, Candia and its pre-classic suburb are distinctly +worth visiting, and are unique among the sights of the ancient Hellenic +and pre-Hellenic world.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3>CORFU<a name="FNanchor_63_63" id="FNanchor_63_63"></a><a href="#Footnote_63_63" class="fnanchor">[63]</a></h3> + +<h4>BY EDWARD A. FREEMAN</h4> + + +<p>From whichever side our traveler draws near to Corfu, he comes from +lands where Greek<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_183" id="Page_183">[Pg 183]</a></span> influence and Greek colonization spread in ancient +times, but from which the Greek elements have been gradually driven out, +partly by the barbarism of the East, partly by the rival civilization of +the West. The land which we see is Hellenic in a sense in which not even +Sicily, not even the Great Hellas of Southern Italy, much less than the +Dalmatian archipelago, ever became Hellenic. Prom the first historic +glimpse which we get of Korkyra,<a name="FNanchor_64_64" id="FNanchor_64_64"></a><a href="#Footnote_64_64" class="fnanchor">[64]</a> it is not merely a land fringed by +Hellenic colonies; it is a Hellenic island, the dominion of a single +Hellenic city, a territory the whole of whose inhabitants were, at the +beginning of recorded history, either actually Hellenic or so thoroughly +hellenized that no one thought of calling their Hellenic position in +question. Modern policy has restored it to its old position by making it +an integral portion of the modern Greek kingdom.</p> + +<p>To the south of the present town, connected with it by a favorite walk +of the inhabitants of Corfu, a long and broad peninsula stretches boldly +into the sea. Both from land and from sea, it chiefly strikes the eye as +a wooded mass, thickly covered with the aged olive trees which form so +marked a feature in the scenery of the island. A few houses skirt the +base, growing on the land side into the suburb of Kastrades, which may +pass for a kind of connecting link between the old and the new city. And +from the midst of the wood, on the side nearest to the modern town, +stands out the villa of the King of the Greeks, the chief modern +dwelling on the site of ancient Korkyra. This peninsu<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_184" id="Page_184">[Pg 184]</a></span>lar hill, still +known as Palaiopolis, was the site of the old Corinthian city whose name +is so familiar to every reader of Thucydides. On either side of it lies +one of its two forsaken harbors. Between the old and the new city lies +the so-called harbor of Alkinoos; beyond the peninsula, stretching far +inland, lies the old Hyllaic harbor, bearing the name of one of the +three tribes which seem to have been essential to the being of a Dorian +commonwealth....</p> + +<p>This last is the Corfu whose fate seems to have been to become the +possession of every power which has ruled in that quarter of the world, +with one exception. For fourteen hundred years the history of the island +is the history of endless changes of masters. We see it first a nominal +ally, then a direct possession, of Rome and of Constantinople; we then +see it formed into a separate Byzantine principality, conquered by the +Norman lord of Sicily, again a possession of the Empire, then a +momentary possession of Venice, again a possession of the Sicilian +kingdom under its Angevin kings, till at last it came back to Venetian +rule, and abode for four hundred years under the Lion of Saint Mark. +Then it became part of that first strange Septinsular Republic of which +the Czar was to be the protector and the Sultan the overlord. Then it +was a possession of France; then a member of the second Septinsular +Republic under the hardly disguised sovereignty of England; now at last +it is the most distant, but one of the most valuable, of the provinces +of the modern Greek kingdom.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_185" id="Page_185">[Pg 185]</a></span></p> + +<p>Of the modern city there is but little to say. As becomes a city which +was so long a Venetian possession, the older part of it has much of the +character of an Italian town. It is rich in street arcades; but they +present but few architectural features; and we find none of those +various forms of ornamental window so common, not only in Venice and +Verona, but in Spalato, Cattaro, and Traü. The churches in the modern +city are architecturally worthless. They are interesting so far as they +will give to many their first impression of orthodox arrangement and +orthodox ritual. The few ecclesiastical antiquities of the place belong +to the elder city. The suburb of the lower slope of the hill contains +three churches, all of them small, but each of which has an interest of +its own.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3>RHODES<a name="FNanchor_65_65" id="FNanchor_65_65"></a><a href="#Footnote_65_65" class="fnanchor">[65]</a></h3> + +<h4>BY CHARLES DUDLEY WARNER</h4> + + +<p>Coming on deck the next morning at the fresh hour of sunrise, I found we +were at Rhodes. We lay just off the semicircular harbor, which is +clasped by walls—partly shaken down by earthquakes—which have noble, +round towers at each embracing end. Rhodes is, from the sea, one of the +most picturesque cities in the Mediterranean, altho it has little +remains of that ancient splendor which caused Strabo to prefer it to +Rome or Alexandria. The harbor wall, which is flanked on each side by<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_186" id="Page_186">[Pg 186]</a></span> +stout and round, stone windmills, extends up the hill, and becoming +double, surrounds the old town; these massive fortifications of the +Knights of St. John have withstood the onsets of enemies and the tremors +of the earth, and, with the ancient moat, excite the curiosity of this +so-called peaceful age of iron-clads and monster cannon. The city +ascends the slope of the hill and passes beyond the wall. Outside and on +the right toward the sea are a picturesque group of a couple of dozen +stone windmills, and some minarets and a church-tower or two. Higher up +the hill is sprinkled a little foliage, a few mulberry trees, and an +isolated palm or two; and, beyond, the island is only a mass of broken, +bold, rocky mountains. Of its forty-five miles of length, running +southwesterly from the little point on which the city stands, we can see +but little.</p> + +<p>Whether or not Rhodes emerged from the sea at the command of Apollo, the +Greeks exprest by this tradition of its origin their appreciation of its +gracious climate, fertile soil, and exquisite scenery. From remote +antiquity it had fame as a seat of arts and letters, and of a vigorous +maritime power, and the romance of its early centuries was equaled if +not surpassed when it became the residence of the Knights of St. John. I +believe that the first impress of its civilization was given by the +Phœnicians; it was the home of the Dorian race before the time of the +Trojan War, and its three cities were members of the Dorian Hexapolis; +it was, in fact, a flourishing maritime confederacy strong enough to +send colonies to the distant Italian coast, and Sybaris and Parthenope +(modern Naples) perpetuated the luxurious refinement<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_187" id="Page_187">[Pg 187]</a></span> of their founders. +The city of Rhodes itself was founded about four hundred years before +Christ, and the splendor of its palaces, its statues and paintings gave +it a pre-eminence among the most magnificent cities of the ancient +world. If the earth of this island could be made to yield its buried +treasures as Cyprus has, we should doubtless have new proofs of the +influence of Asiatic civilization upon the Greeks, and be able to trace +in the early Doric arts and customs the superior civilization of the +Phœnicians, and of the masters of the latter in science and art, the +Egyptians.</p> + +<p>Naturally, every traveler who enters the harbor of Rhodes hopes to see +the site of one of the seven wonders of the world, the Colossus. He is +free to place it on either mole at the entrance of the harbor, but he +comprehends at once that a statue which was only one hundred and five +feet high could never have extended its legs across the port. The fame +of this colossal bronze statue of the sun is disproportioned to the +period of its existence; it stood only fifty-six years after its +erection, being shaken down by an earthquake in the year 224 B.C., and +encumbering the ground with its fragments till the advent of the Moslem +conquerors.</p> + +<p>Passing from the quay through a highly ornamented Gothic gateway, we +ascended the famous historic street, still called the Street of the +Knights, the massive houses of which have withstood the shocks of +earthquakes and the devastation of Saracenic and Turkish occupation. +This street, of whose palaces we have heard so much, is not imposing; it +is not wide, its solid stone houses are only two stories high, and their +fronts are now disfigured by cheap Arab bal<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_188" id="Page_188">[Pg 188]</a></span>conies; but the façades are +gray with age. All along are remains of carved windows. Gothic +sculptured doorways and shields and coats of arms, crosses and armorial +legends, are set in the walls, partially defaced by time and the respect +of Suleiman for the Knights, have spared the mementos of their faith and +prowess. I saw no inscriptions that are intact, but made out upon one +shield the words "voluntas mei est." The carving is all beautiful.</p> + +<p>We went through the silent streets, waking only echoes of the past, out +to the ruins of the once elegant church of St. John, which was shaken +down by a powder-explosion some thirty years ago, and utterly flattened +by an earthquake some years afterward. Outside the ramparts we met, and +saluted, with the freedom of travelers, a gorgeous Turk who was taking +the morning air, and whom our guide in bated breath said was the +governor. In this part of the town is the Mosque of Suleiman; in the +portal are two lovely marble columns, rich with age; the lintels are +exquisitely carved with flowers, arms, casques, musical instruments, the +crossed sword and the torch, and the mandolin, perhaps the emblem of +some troubadour knight. Wherever we went we found bits of old carving, +remains of columns, sections of battlemented roofs. The town is +saturated with the old Knights. Near the mosque is a foundation of +charity, a public kitchen, at which the poor were fed or were free to +come and cook their food; it is in decay now, and the rooks were sailing +about its old, round-topped chimneys.</p> + +<p>There are no Hellenic remains in the city, and the only remembrance of +that past which we<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_189" id="Page_189">[Pg 189]</a></span> searched for was the antique coin, which has upon +one side the head of Medusa and upon the other the rose (rhoda) which +gave the town its name. The town was quiet; but in pursuit of this coin +in the Jews' quarter we started up swarms of traders, were sent from +Isaac to Jacob, and invaded dark shops and private houses where Jewish +women and children were just beginning to complain of the morning light. +Our guide was a jolly Greek, who was willing to awaken the whole town in +search of a silver coin. The traders, when we had routed them out, had +little to show in the way of antiquities. Perhaps the best +representative of the modern manufactures of Rhodes is the wooden shoe, +which is in form like the Damascus clog, but is inlaid with more taste. +The people whom we encountered in our morning walk were Greeks or Jews. +The morning atmosphere was delicious, and we could well believe that the +climate of Rhodes is the finest in the Mediterranean, and also that it +is the least exciting of cities.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3>MT. ATHOS<a name="FNanchor_66_66" id="FNanchor_66_66"></a><a href="#Footnote_66_66" class="fnanchor">[66]</a></h3> + +<h4>BY CHARLES DUDLEY WARNER</h4> + + +<p>Beyond Thasos is the Thracian coast and Mt. Pangaus, and at the foot of +it Philippi, the Ma<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_190" id="Page_190">[Pg 190]</a></span>cedonian town where republican Rome fought its last +battle, where Cassius leaned upon his sword-point, believing everything +lost. Brutus transported the body of his comrade to Thasos and raised +for him a funeral pyre; and twenty days later, on the same field, met +again that specter of death which had summoned him to Philippi. It was +not many years after this victory of the Imperial power that a greater +triumph was won at Philippi, when Paul and Silas, cast into prison, sang +praises unto God at midnight, and an earthquake shook the house and +opened the prison doors.</p> + +<p>In the afternoon we came in sight of snowy Mt. Athos, an almost +perpendicular limestone rock, rising nearly six thousand four hundred +feet out of the sea. The slender promontory which this magnificent +mountain terminates is forty miles long and has only an average breadth +of four miles. The ancient canal of Xerxes quite severed it from the +mainland. The peninsula, level at the canal, is a jagged stretch of +mountains (seamed by chasms), which rise a thousand, two thousand, four +thousand feet, and at last front the sea with the sublime peak of Athos, +the site of the most conspicuous beacon-fire of Agamemnon. The entire +promontory is, and has been since the time of Constantine, ecclesiastic +ground; every mountain and valley has its convent; besides the twenty +great monasteries are many pious retreats. All the sects of the Greek +church are here represented; the communities pay a tribute to the +Sultan, but the government is in the hands of four presidents, chosen by +the synod, which holds weekly sessions and takes the presidents,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_191" id="Page_191">[Pg 191]</a></span> +yearly, from the monasteries in rotation. Since their foundation these +religious houses have maintained against Christians and Saracens an +almost complete independence, and preserved in their primitive +simplicity the manners and usages of the earliest foundations.</p> + +<p>Here, as nowhere else in Europe or Asia, can one behold the +architecture, the dress, the habits of the Middle Ages. The good +devotees have been able to keep themselves thus in the darkness and +simplicity of the past by a rigorous exclusion of the sex always +impatient of monotony, to which all the changes of the world are due. No +woman, from the beginning till now, has ever been permitted to set foot +on the peninsula. Nor is this all; no female animal is suffered on the +holy mountain, not even a hen. I suppose, tho I do not know, that the +monks have an inspector of eggs, whose inherited instincts of aversion +to the feminine gender enable him to detect and reject all those in +which lurk the dangerous sex. Few of the monks eat meat, half the days +of the year are fast days, they practise occasionally abstinence from +food for two or three days, reducing their pulses to the feeblest +beating, and subduing their bodies to a point that destroys their value +even as spiritual tabernacles. The united community is permitted to keep +a guard of fifty Christian soldiers, and the only Moslem on the island +is the solitary Turkish officer who represents the Sultan; his position +can not be one generally coveted by the Turks, since the society of +women is absolutely denied him. The libraries of Mt. Athos are full of +unarranged manuscripts, which are probably mainly filled with the +theo<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_192" id="Page_192">[Pg 192]</a></span>logic rubbish of the controversial ages, and can scarcely be +expected to yield again anything so valuable as the Tishendorf +Scriptures.</p> + +<p>At sunset we were close under Mt. Athos, and could distinguish the +buildings of the Laura Convent, amid the woods beneath the frowning +cliff. And now was produced the apparition of a sunset, with this +towering mountain cone for a centerpiece, that surpassed all our +experience and imagination. The sea was like satin for smoothness, +absolutely waveless, and shone with the colors of changeable silk, blue, +green, pink, and amethyst. Heavy clouds gathered about the sun, and from +behind them he exhibited burning spectacles, magnificent fireworks, vast +shadow-pictures, scarlet cities, and gigantic figures stalking across +the sky. From one crater of embers he shot up a fan-like flame that +spread to the zenith and was reflected on the water. His rays lay along +the sea in pink, and the water had the sheen of iridescent glass. The +whole sea for leagues was like this; even Lemnos and Samothrace lay in a +dim pink and purple light in the east. There were vast clouds in huge +walls, with towers and battlements, and in all fantastic shapes—one a +gigantic cat with a preternatural tail, a cat of doom four degrees long. +All this was piled about Mt. Athos, with its sharp summit of snow, its +dark sides of rock.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_193" id="Page_193">[Pg 193]</a></span></p> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><br /></p> +<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_1_1" id="Footnote_1_1"></a><a href="#FNanchor_1_1"><span class="label">[1]</span></a> From "Pictures from Italy." Dickens made his trip to Italy +in 1844.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_2_2" id="Footnote_2_2"></a><a href="#FNanchor_2_2"><span class="label">[2]</span></a> From "Italy: Florence and Venice." By special arrangement +with, and by permission of, the publishers. Henry Holt & Co. Copyright, +1869. Translated by John Durand.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_3_3" id="Footnote_3_3"></a><a href="#FNanchor_3_3"><span class="label">[3]</span></a> Begun in 1386. Its architects were Germans and Frenchmen.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_4_4" id="Footnote_4_4"></a><a href="#FNanchor_4_4"><span class="label">[4]</span></a> From "Italy: Florence and Venice." By special arrangement +with, and by permission of, the publishers, Henry Holt & Co. Copyright, +1869. Translated by John Durand.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_5_5" id="Footnote_5_5"></a><a href="#FNanchor_5_5"><span class="label">[5]</span></a> From "The Story of Pisa." Published by E. P. Dutton & Co.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_6_6" id="Footnote_6_6"></a><a href="#FNanchor_6_6"><span class="label">[6]</span></a> From "Pictures From Italy."</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_7_7" id="Footnote_7_7"></a><a href="#FNanchor_7_7"><span class="label">[7]</span></a> From "Cities of Southern Italy and Sicily."</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_8_8" id="Footnote_8_8"></a><a href="#FNanchor_8_8"><span class="label">[8]</span></a> From "Travels in Italy."</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_9_9" id="Footnote_9_9"></a><a href="#FNanchor_9_9"><span class="label">[9]</span></a> A German friend with whom Goethe was traveling.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_10_10" id="Footnote_10_10"></a><a href="#FNanchor_10_10"><span class="label">[10]</span></a> From "Pictures from Italy."</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_11_11" id="Footnote_11_11"></a><a href="#FNanchor_11_11"><span class="label">[11]</span></a> From "Italy: Rome and Naples." By special arrangement +with, and by permission of, the publishers, Henry Holt & Co. Copyright, +1869. Translated by John Durand.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_12_12" id="Footnote_12_12"></a><a href="#FNanchor_12_12"><span class="label">[12]</span></a> This term designates a road built along the rocky shore of +a seaside, being a figurative application of the architectural term +"cornice."—Translator's note.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_13_13" id="Footnote_13_13"></a><a href="#FNanchor_13_13"><span class="label">[13]</span></a> From "Cities of Southern Italy and Sicily."</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_14_14" id="Footnote_14_14"></a><a href="#FNanchor_14_14"><span class="label">[14]</span></a> From a letter to Thomas Love Peacock, written in 1819.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_15_15" id="Footnote_15_15"></a><a href="#FNanchor_15_15"><span class="label">[15]</span></a> From "Pictures from Italy."</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_16_16" id="Footnote_16_16"></a><a href="#FNanchor_16_16"><span class="label">[16]</span></a> From "Journeys in Italy." By special arrangement with, and +by permission of, the publishers, Brentano's. Copyright, 1902.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_17_17" id="Footnote_17_17"></a><a href="#FNanchor_17_17"><span class="label">[17]</span></a> The memoir writer.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_18_18" id="Footnote_18_18"></a><a href="#FNanchor_18_18"><span class="label">[18]</span></a> From "Journeys in Italy." By special arrangement with, and +by permission of, the publishers, Brentano's. Copyright, 1902.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_19_19" id="Footnote_19_19"></a><a href="#FNanchor_19_19"><span class="label">[19]</span></a> From "Unknown Switzerland." Published by James Pott & Co. +Politically, Lake Lugano is part Swiss and part Italian.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_20_20" id="Footnote_20_20"></a><a href="#FNanchor_20_20"><span class="label">[20]</span></a> The St. Gothard.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_21_21" id="Footnote_21_21"></a><a href="#FNanchor_21_21"><span class="label">[21]</span></a> From a letter to Thomas Love Peacock, written in 1818.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_22_22" id="Footnote_22_22"></a><a href="#FNanchor_22_22"><span class="label">[22]</span></a> From "The Spell of the Italian Lakes." By special +arrangement with, and by permission of, the publishers, L. C. Page & Co. +Copyright, 1907.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_23_23" id="Footnote_23_23"></a><a href="#FNanchor_23_23"><span class="label">[23]</span></a> From "Remarks on Several Parts of Italy in the Years 1701, +1702, 1703."</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_24_24" id="Footnote_24_24"></a><a href="#FNanchor_24_24"><span class="label">[24]</span></a> In the town are now about 1,500 people; in the whole +territory of the republic, 9,500. San Marino lies about fourteen miles +southwest from Rimini.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_25_25" id="Footnote_25_25"></a><a href="#FNanchor_25_25"><span class="label">[25]</span></a> At the present time, fourteen hundred years; so that San +Marino is the oldest as well as the smallest republic in the world.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_26_26" id="Footnote_26_26"></a><a href="#FNanchor_26_26"><span class="label">[26]</span></a> From "French and Italian Note-Books." By special +arrangement with, and by permission of, Houghton, Mifflin Co., +publishers of Hawthorne's works. Copyright, 1871, 1883, 1889.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_27_27" id="Footnote_27_27"></a><a href="#FNanchor_27_27"><span class="label">[27]</span></a> The author's son, Julian Hawthorne.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_28_28" id="Footnote_28_28"></a><a href="#FNanchor_28_28"><span class="label">[28]</span></a> From "Italian Cities." By special arrangement with, and by +permission of, the publishers, Charles Scribner's Sons. Copyright, +1900.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_29_29" id="Footnote_29_29"></a><a href="#FNanchor_29_29"><span class="label">[29]</span></a> From "Italy: Florence and Venice." By special arrangement +with, and by permission of, the publishers, Henry Holt & Co. Copyright, +1869.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_30_30" id="Footnote_30_30"></a><a href="#FNanchor_30_30"><span class="label">[30]</span></a> From "Historical and Architectural Sketches: Chiefly +Italian." Published by the Macmillan Co.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_31_31" id="Footnote_31_31"></a><a href="#FNanchor_31_31"><span class="label">[31]</span></a> From "Cities of Southern Italy and Sicily."</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_32_32" id="Footnote_32_32"></a><a href="#FNanchor_32_32"><span class="label">[32]</span></a> From "Letters of a Traveler."</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_33_33" id="Footnote_33_33"></a><a href="#FNanchor_33_33"><span class="label">[33]</span></a> From "Historical and Architectural Sketches: Chiefly +Italian." Published by the Macmillan Co.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_34_34" id="Footnote_34_34"></a><a href="#FNanchor_34_34"><span class="label">[34]</span></a> From "Sicily: The Garden of the Mediterranean." By special +arrangement with, and by permission of, the publishers, L. C. Page & Co. +Copyright, 1909.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_35_35" id="Footnote_35_35"></a><a href="#FNanchor_35_35"><span class="label">[35]</span></a> From "The History of Sicily." Published by the Macmillan +Co.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_36_36" id="Footnote_36_36"></a><a href="#FNanchor_36_36"><span class="label">[36]</span></a> The Greek name for Girgenti.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_37_37" id="Footnote_37_37"></a><a href="#FNanchor_37_37"><span class="label">[37]</span></a> From "Travels in Italy."</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_38_38" id="Footnote_38_38"></a><a href="#FNanchor_38_38"><span class="label">[38]</span></a> From "Travels in Italy."</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_39_39" id="Footnote_39_39"></a><a href="#FNanchor_39_39"><span class="label">[39]</span></a> From "Sicily: The Garden of the Mediterranean." By special +arrangement with, and by permission of, the publishers, L. C. Page & Co. +Copyright, 1909.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_40_40" id="Footnote_40_40"></a><a href="#FNanchor_40_40"><span class="label">[40]</span></a> From "Vacation Days in Greece." By special arrangement +with, and by permission of, the publishers, Charles Scribner's Sons. +Copyright, 1903.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_41_41" id="Footnote_41_41"></a><a href="#FNanchor_41_41"><span class="label">[41]</span></a> From "Constantinople." By special arrangement with, and by +permission of, the publishers, Henry Holt & Co. Copyright, 1875.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_42_42" id="Footnote_42_42"></a><a href="#FNanchor_42_42"><span class="label">[42]</span></a> From "Rambles and Studies in Greece." Published by the +Macmillan Co.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_43_43" id="Footnote_43_43"></a><a href="#FNanchor_43_43"><span class="label">[43]</span></a> From "Travels in Greece and Russia." Published by G. P. +Putnam's Sons.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_44_44" id="Footnote_44_44"></a><a href="#FNanchor_44_44"><span class="label">[44]</span></a> From the "Description of Greece." Pausanias was a Greek +traveler and geographer who lived in the second century A.D.—in the +time of the Roman emperors, Hadrian and Marcus Aurelius.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_45_45" id="Footnote_45_45"></a><a href="#FNanchor_45_45"><span class="label">[45]</span></a> From "Rambles and Studies in Greece." Published by the +Macmillan Co.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_46_46" id="Footnote_46_46"></a><a href="#FNanchor_46_46"><span class="label">[46]</span></a> The Venetian commander who bombarded the Parthenon in +1687.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_47_47" id="Footnote_47_47"></a><a href="#FNanchor_47_47"><span class="label">[47]</span></a> Edward Dodwell (1767-1832), an English traveler and +archeologist, notable for his investigations in Greece when it had been +little explored, and author of various records of his work.—Author's +note.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_48_48" id="Footnote_48_48"></a><a href="#FNanchor_48_48"><span class="label">[48]</span></a> From "Rambles and Studies in Greece." Published by the +Macmillan Co.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_49_49" id="Footnote_49_49"></a><a href="#FNanchor_49_49"><span class="label">[49]</span></a> This very pattern, in mahogany, with cane seats, and +adapted, like all Greek chairs, for loose cushions, was often used in +Chippendale work, and may still be found in old mansions furnished at +that epoch.—Author's note.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_50_50" id="Footnote_50_50"></a><a href="#FNanchor_50_50"><span class="label">[50]</span></a> From "Rambles and Studies in Greece." Published by the +Macmillan Co.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_51_51" id="Footnote_51_51"></a><a href="#FNanchor_51_51"><span class="label">[51]</span></a> From "Travels in Greece and Russia." Published by G. P. +Putnam's Sons.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_52_52" id="Footnote_52_52"></a><a href="#FNanchor_52_52"><span class="label">[52]</span></a> From "Rambles and Studies in Greece." Published by the +Macmillan Co.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_53_53" id="Footnote_53_53"></a><a href="#FNanchor_53_53"><span class="label">[53]</span></a> From "Greece and the Aegean Islands." By special +arrangement with, and by permission of, the publishers, Houghton, +Mifflin Co. Copyright, 1907.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_54_54" id="Footnote_54_54"></a><a href="#FNanchor_54_54"><span class="label">[54]</span></a> From the "Description of Greece." Pausanias wrote in the +time of Hadrian and Marcus Aurelius.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_55_55" id="Footnote_55_55"></a><a href="#FNanchor_55_55"><span class="label">[55]</span></a> From "Vacation Days in Greece." By special arrangement +with, and by permission of, the publishers, Charles Scribner's Sons. +Copyright, 1903.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_56_56" id="Footnote_56_56"></a><a href="#FNanchor_56_56"><span class="label">[56]</span></a> From "In the Levant." By special arrangement with, and by +permission of, the publishers, Houghton, Mifflin Co. Copyright, 1875. +Salonica, formerly Turkish territory, was added to the territory of +Greece in 1913, under the terms of the treaty of peace that followed the +Balkan war against Turkey.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_57_57" id="Footnote_57_57"></a><a href="#FNanchor_57_57"><span class="label">[57]</span></a> From "In the Levant." By special arrangement with, and by +permission of, the publishers, Houghton, Mifflin Co. Copyright, 1875.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_58_58" id="Footnote_58_58"></a><a href="#FNanchor_58_58"><span class="label">[58]</span></a> From "Travels in Greece and Russia." Published by G. P. +Putnam's Sons.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_59_59" id="Footnote_59_59"></a><a href="#FNanchor_59_59"><span class="label">[59]</span></a> From "Travels in Greece and Russia," Published by G. P. +Putnam's Sons.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_60_60" id="Footnote_60_60"></a><a href="#FNanchor_60_60"><span class="label">[60]</span></a> From "Rambles and Studies in Greece." Published by the +Macmillan Co.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_61_61" id="Footnote_61_61"></a><a href="#FNanchor_61_61"><span class="label">[61]</span></a> From "Travels in Greece and Russia." Published by G. P. +Putnam's Sons.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_62_62" id="Footnote_62_62"></a><a href="#FNanchor_62_62"><span class="label">[62]</span></a> From "Greece and the Ægean Islands." By special +arrangement with, and by permission of, the publishers, Houghton, +Mifflin Co. Copyright, 1907.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_63_63" id="Footnote_63_63"></a><a href="#FNanchor_63_63"><span class="label">[63]</span></a> From "Sketches from the Subject and Neighbor Lands of +Venice." Published by the Macmillan Co.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_64_64" id="Footnote_64_64"></a><a href="#FNanchor_64_64"><span class="label">[64]</span></a> The ancient Greek name of Corfu.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_65_65" id="Footnote_65_65"></a><a href="#FNanchor_65_65"><span class="label">[65]</span></a> From "In the Levant." By special arrangement with, and by +permission of, the publishers, Houghton, Mifflin Co. Copyright, 1876.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_66_66" id="Footnote_66_66"></a><a href="#FNanchor_66_66"><span class="label">[66]</span></a> From "In the Levant." By special arrangement with, and by +permission of, the publishers, Houghton, Mifflin Co. Copyright, 1876. As +one of the results of the Balkan war of 1912-1913, Mt. Athos, which had +formerly been under Turkish rule, was added to the territory of Greece. +Nature made Mt. Athos a part of the mainland, but a canal was cut by +Xerxes across the lowland at the base of the lofty promontory, making it +an island. Some parts of this canal still remain.</p></div> + +</div> + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Seeing Europe with Famous Authors, Vol +VIII, by Various + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SEEING EUROPE *** + +***** This file should be named 19061-h.htm or 19061-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/1/9/0/6/19061/ + +Produced by Janet Blenkinship and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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Europe with Famous Authors, Vol VIII, by Various + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Seeing Europe with Famous Authors, Vol VIII + Italy and Greece, Part Two + +Author: Various + +Editor: Francis W Halsey + +Release Date: August 16, 2006 [EBook #19061] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SEEING EUROPE *** + + + + +Produced by Janet Blenkinship and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + + + [Illustration: THE PARTHENON] + + + SEEING EUROPE + + WITH FAMOUS + AUTHORS + + + SELECTED AND EDITED + + WITH + INTRODUCTIONS, ETC. + + BY + + FRANCIS W. HALSEY + + _Editor of "Great Epochs in American History" + Associate Editor of "The World's Famous Orations" + and of "The Best of the World's Classics," etc._ + + + IN TEN + + VOLUMES + + ILLUSTRATED + + Vol. VIII + + ITALY, SICILY, AND GREECE + + PART TWO + + + FUNK & WAGNALLS COMPANY + NEW YORK AND LONDON + + + + + COPYRIGHT, 1914, BY + FUNK & WAGNALLS COMPANY + [_Printed in the United States of America_] + + + + + CONTENTS OF VOLUME VIII + + Italy, Sicily, and Greece--Part Two + + + IV. THREE FAMOUS CITIES + + PAGE + + IN THE STREETS OF GENOA--By Charles Dickens 1 + + MILAN CATHEDRAL--By Hippolyte Adolphe Taine 4 + + PISA'S FOUR GLORIES--By Hippolyte Adolphe Taine 7 + + THE WALLS AND "SKYSCRAPERS" OF PISA--By Janet Ross and + Nelly Erichson 11 + + + V. NAPLES AND ITS ENVIRONS + + + IN AND ABOUT NAPLES--By Charles Dickens 18 + + THE TOMB OF VIRGIL--By Augustus J. C. Hare 24 + + TWO ASCENTS OF VESUVIUS--By Johann Wolfgang von Goethe 26 + + ANOTHER ASCENT--By Charles Dickens 31 + + CASTELLAMARE AND SORRENTO--By Hippolyte Adolphe Taine 37 + + CAPRI--By Augustus J. C. Hare 42 + + POMPEII--By Percy Bysshe Shelley 45 + + + VI. OTHER ITALIAN SCENES + + + VERONA--By Charles Dickens 52 + + PADUA--By Theophile Gautier 55 + + FERRARA--By Theophile Gautier 59 + + LAKE LUGANO--By Victor Tissot 62 + + LAKE COMO--By Percy Bysshe Shelley 64 + + BELLAGIO ON LAKE COMO--By W. D. M'Crackan 66 + + THE REPUBLIC OF SAN MARINO--By Joseph Addison 69 + + PERUGIA--By Nathaniel Hawthorne 73 + + SIENA---By Mr. and Mrs. Edwin H. Blashfield 75 + + THE ASSISSI OF ST. FRANCIS--By Hippolyte Adolphe Taine 78 + + RAVENNA--By Edward A. Freeman 80 + + BENEDICTINE SUBIACO--By Augustus J. C. Hare 83 + + ETRUSCAN VOLTERRA--By William Cullen Bryant 86 + + THE PAESTUM OF THE GREEKS--By Edward A. Freeman 88 + + + VII. SICILIAN SCENES + + + PALERMO--By Will S. Monroe 91 + + GIRGENTI--By Edward A. Freeman 93 + + SEGESTE--By Johann Wolfgang von Goethe 97 + + TAORMINA--By Johann Wolfgang von Goethe 99 + + MOUNT AETNA--By Will S. Monroe 101 + + SYRACUSE--By Rufus B. Richardson 104 + + MALTA--By Theophile Gautier 107 + + + VIII. THE MAINLAND OF GREECE + + + ARRIVING IN ATHENS--THE ACROPOLIS--By J. P. Mahaffy 112 + + A WINTER IN ATHENS HALF A CENTURY AGO--By Bayard Taylor 119 + + THE ACROPOLIS AS IT WAS--By Pausanias 122 + + THE ELGIN MARBLES--By J. P. Mahaffy 127 + + THE THEATER OF DIONYSUS--By J. P. Mahaffy 130 + + WHERE ST. PAUL PREACHED--By J. P. Mahaffy 134 + + FROM ATHENS TO DELPHI ON HORSEBACK--By Bayard Taylor 136 + + CORINTH--By J. P. Mahaffy 140 + + OLYMPIA--By Philip S. Marden 143 + + THE TEMPLE OF ZEUS AT OLYMPIA AS IT WAS--By Pausanias 146 + + THERMOPYLAE--By Rufus B. Richardson 152 + + SALONICA--By Charles Dudley Warner 155 + + FROM THE PIERIAN PLAIN TO MARATHON--By Charles Dudley Warner 157 + + SPARTA AND MAINA--By Bayard Taylor 160 + + MESSENIA--By Bayard Taylor 164 + + TIRYNS AND MYCENAE--By J. P. Mahaffy 169 + + + IX. THE GREEK ISLANDS + + A TOUR OF CRETE--By Bayard Taylor 175 + + THE COLOSSAL RUINS AT CNOSSOS--By Philip S. Marden 179 + + CORFU--By Edward A. Freeman 182 + + RHODES--By Charles Dudley Warner 185 + + MT. ATHOS--By Charles Dudley Warner 189 + + + + + LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS + + VOLUME VIII + + + FRONTISPIECE + + + THE PARTHENON + + + PRECEDING PAGE 1 + + + VENICE: SANTA MARIA DEL SALUTE + + FEEDING THE DOVES IN FRONT OF ST. MARK'S + + VENICE: STATUE OF COLLEONI + + PALACE IN ST. MARK'S PLACE + + GONDOLA ON THE GRAND CANAL + + GENERAL VIEW OF FLORENCE + + PALACE OF THE DUKES OF ESTE, FERRARA + + LAKE LUGANO + + TITIAN'S BIRTHPLACE AT CADORE + + THE BRIDGE OF SIGHS + + VERONA: TOMB OF THE SCALIGERS + + MILAN CATHEDRAL + + BAPTISTERY, CATHEDRAL, AND LEANING TOWER OF PISA + + + FOLLOWING PAGE 96 + + + CITY AND BAY OF NAPLES WITH VESUVIUS + + IN THE DISTANCE + + TEMPLE OF THESEUS AT ATHENS + + PALERMO, SICILY, FROM THE SEA + + GREEK THEATER, SEGESTA, SICILY + + TEMPLE OF CONCORD, GIRGENTI, SICILY + + TEMPLE OF JUNO, GIRGENTI, SICILY + + AMPHITHEATER AT SYRACUSE, SICILY + + GREEK TEMPLE AT SEGESTA, SICILY + + HARBOR OF SYRACUSE, SICILY + + THE SO-CALLED "SHIP OF ULYSSES," OFF CORFU + + TEMPLE OF THE OLYMPIAN ZEUS AT ATHENS + + THE PLAIN BELOW DELPHI + + THE ROAD NEAR DELPHI + + ENTRANCE TO THE STADIUM AT OLYMPIA + + THRONE OF MINOS IN CRETE + + + + +[Illustration: VENICE: SANTA MARIA DEL SALUTE] + +[Illustration: FEEDING THE DOVES IN FRONT OF ST. MARK'S +(See Vol. VII for article on these doves)] + +[Illustration: VENICE: STATUE OF COLLEONI +Courtesy John C. Winston Co.] + +[Illustration: PALACE IN ST. MARK'S PLACE, VENICE +(Base of the old Campanile at the right)] + +[Illustration: GONDOLA ON THE GRAND CANAL, VENICE] + +[Illustration: GENERAL VIEW OF FLORENCE] + +[Illustration: PALACE OF THE DUKES OF ESTE. FERRARA] + +[Illustration: LAKE LUGANO] + +[Illustration: TITIAN'S BIRTHPLACE AT CADORE +(Cadore is in the Italian part of the Dolomites)] + +[Illustration: THE BRIDGE OF SIGHS, VENICE] + +[Illustration: TOMB OF THE SCALIGERS AT VERONA] + +[Illustration: MILAN CATHEDRAL +(See Vol. VII for article on Milan Cathedral)] + +[Illustration: BAPTISTERY, CATHEDRAL, AND LEANING TOWER OF PISA +(See Vol. VII for article on Pisa)] + + + + +IV + +THREE FAMOUS CITIES + + + + +IN THE STREETS OF GENOA[1] + +BY CHARLES DICKENS + + +The great majority of the streets are as narrow as any thoroughfare can +well be, where people (even Italian people) are supposed to live and +walk about; being mere lanes, with here and there a kind of well, or +breathing-place. The houses are immensely high, painted in all sorts of +colors, and are in every stage and state of damage, dirt, and lack of +repair. They are commonly let off in floors, or flats, like the houses +in the old town of Edinburgh, or many houses in Paris.... + +When shall I forget the Streets of Palaces: the Strada Nuova and the +Strada Baldi! The endless details of these rich palaces; the walls of +some of them, within, alive with masterpieces by Vandyke! The great, +heavy, stone balconies, one above another, and tier over tier; with here +and there, one larger than the rest, towering high up--a huge marble +platform; the doorless vestibules, massively barred lower windows, +immense public staircases, thick marble pillars, strong dungeon-like +arches, and dreary, dreaming, echoing vaulted chambers; among which the +eye wanders again, and again, and again, as every palace is succeeded by +another--the terrace gardens between house and house, with green arches +of the vine, and groves of orange-trees, and blushing oleander in full +bloom, twenty, thirty, forty feet above the street--the painted halls, +moldering and blotting, and rotting in the damp corners, and still +shining out in beautiful colors and voluptuous designs, where the walls +are dry--the faded figures on the outsides of the houses, holding +wreaths, and crowns, and flying upward, and downward, and standing in +niches, and here and there looking fainter and more feeble than +elsewhere, by contrast with some fresh little Cupids, who on a more +recently decorated portion of the front, are stretching out what seems +to be the semblance of a blanket, but is, indeed, a sun-dial--the steep, +steep, up-hill streets of small palaces (but very large palaces for all +that), with marble terraces looking down into close by-ways--the +magnificent and innumerable churches; and the rapid passage from a +street of stately edifices, into a maze of the vilest squalor, steaming +with unwholesome stenches, and swarming with half-naked children and +whole worlds of dirty people--make up, altogether, such a scene of +wonder; so lively, and yet so dead; so noisy, and yet so quiet; so +obtrusive, and yet so shy and lowering; so wide-awake, and yet so fast +asleep; that it is a sort of intoxication to a stranger to walk on, and +on, and on, and look about him. A bewildering phantasmagoria, with all +the inconsistency of a dream, and all the pain and all the pleasure of +an extravagant reality!... + +In the streets of shops, the houses are much smaller, but of great size +notwithstanding, and extremely high. They are very dirty; quite +undrained, if my nose be at all reliable; and emit a peculiar fragrance, +like the smell of very bad cheese, kept in very hot blankets. +Notwithstanding the height of the houses, there would seem to have been +a lack of room in the city, for new houses are thrust in everywhere. +Wherever it has been possible to cram a tumble-down tenement into a +crack or corner, in it has gone. If there be a nook or angle in the wall +of a church, or a crevice in any other dead wall, of any sort, there you +are sure to find some kind of habitation; looking as if it had grown +there, like a fungus. Against the Government House, against the old +Senate House, round about any large building, little shops stick close, +like parasite vermin to the great carcass. And for all this, look where +you may; up steps, down steps, anywhere, everywhere; there are irregular +houses, receding, starting forward, tumbling down, leaning against their +neighbors, crippling themselves or their friends by some means or other, +until one, more irregular than the rest, chokes up the way, and you +can't see any further. + + + + +MILAN CATHEDRAL[2] + +BY HIPPOLYTE ADOLPHE TAINE + + +The cathedral, at the first sight, is bewildering. Gothic art, +transported entire into Italy at the close of the Middle Ages,[3] +attains at once its triumph and its extravagance. Never had it been seen +so pointed, so highly embroidered, so complex, so overcharged, so +strongly resembling a piece of jewelry; and as, instead of coarse and +lifeless stone, it here takes for its material the beautiful lustrous +Italian marble, it becomes a pure chased gem as precious through its +substance as through the labor bestowed on it. The whole church seems to +be a colossal and magnificent crystallization, so splendidly do its +forests of spires, its intersections of moldings, its population of +statues, its fringes of fretted, hollowed, embroidered and open +marblework, ascend in multiple and interminable bright forms against the +pure blue sky. + +Truly is it the mystic candelabra of visions and legends, with a hundred +thousand branches bristling and overflowing with sorrowing thorns and +ecstatic roses, with angels, virgins, and martyrs upon every flower and +on every thorn, with infinite myriads of the triumphant Church springing +from the ground pyramidically even into the azure, with its millions of +blended and vibrating voices mounting upward in a single shout, +hosannah!... + +We enter, and the impression deepens. What a difference between the +religious power of such a church and that of St. Peter's at Rome! One +exclaims to himself, this is the true Christian temple! Four rows of +enormous eight-sided pillars, close together, seem like a serried hedge +of gigantic oaks. Their strange capitals, bristling with a fantastic +vegetation of pinnacles, canopies, foliated niches and statues, are like +venerable trunks crowned with delicate and pendent mosses. They spread +out in great branches meeting in the vault overhead, the intervals of +the arches being filled with an inextricable network of foliage, thorny +sprigs and light branches, twining and intertwining, and figuring the +aerial dome of a mighty forest. As in a great wood, the lateral aisles +are almost equal in height to that of the center, and, on all sides, at +equal distances apart, one sees ascending around him the secular +colonnades. + +Here truly is the ancient Germanic forest, as if a reminiscence of the +religious groves of Irmensul. Light pours in transformed by green, +yellow and purple panes, as if through the red and orange tints of +autumnal leaves. This, certainly, is a complete architecture like that +of Greece, having, like that of Greece, its root in vegetable forms. The +Greek takes the trunk of the tree, drest, for his type; the German the +entire tree with all its leaves and branches. True architecture, +perhaps, always springs out of vegetal nature, and each zone may have +its own edifices as well as plants; in this way oriental architectures +might be comprehended--the vague idea of the slender palm and of its +bouquet of leaves with the Arabs, and the vague idea of the colossal, +prolific, dilated and bristling vegetation of India. + +In any event I have never seen a church in which the aspect of northern +forests was more striking, or where one more involuntarily imagines long +alleys of trunks terminating in glimpses of daylight, curved branches +meeting in acute angles, domes of irregular and commingling foliage, +universal shade scattered with lights through colored and diaphanous +leaves. Sometimes a section of yellow panes, through which the sun +darts, launches into the obscurity its shower of rays and a portion of +the nave glows like a luminous glade. A vast rosace behind the choir, a +window with tortuous branchings above the entrance, shimmer with the +tints of amethyst, ruby, emerald and topaz like leafy labyrinths in +which lights from above break in and diffuse themselves in shifting +radiance. Near the sacristy a small door-top, fastened against the wall, +exposes an infinity of intersecting moldings similar to the delicate +meshes of some marvelous twining and climbing plant. A day might be +passed here as in a forest, in the presence of grandeurs as solemn as +those of nature, before caprices as fascinating, amid the same +intermingling of sublime monotony and inexhaustible fecundity, before +contrasts and metamorphoses of light as rich and as unexpected. A mystic +reverie, combined with a fresh sentiment of northern nature, such is the +source of Gothic architecture. + + + + +PISA'S FOUR GLORIES[4] + +BY HIPPOLYTE ADOLPHE TAINE + + +There are two Pisas--one in which people have lapsed into ennui, and +live from hand to mouth since the decadence, which is in fact the entire +city, except a remote corner; the other is this corner, a marble +sepulcher where the Duomo, Baptistery, Leaning Tower and Campo-Santo +silently repose like beautiful dead beings. This is the genuine Pisa, +and in these relics of a departed life, one beholds a world. + +In 1083 in order to honor the Virgin, who had given them a victory over +the Saracens of Sardignia, they [the Pisans] laid the foundations of +their Duomo. This edifice is almost a Roman basilica, that is to say a +temple surmounted by another temple, or, if you prefer it, a house +having a gable for its facade which gable is cut off at the peak to +support another house of smaller dimensions. Five stories of columns +entirely cover the facade with their superposed porticos. Two by two +they stand coupled together to support small arcades; all these pretty +shapes of white marble under their dark arcades form an aerial +population of the utmost grace and novelty. Nowhere here are we +conscious of the dolorous reverie of the medieval north; it is the fete +of a young nation which is awakening, and, in the gladness of its recent +prosperity, honoring its gods. It has collected capitals, ornaments, +entire columns obtained on the distant shores to which its wars and its +commerce have led it, and these ancient fragments enter into its work +without incongruity; for it is instinctively cast in the ancient mold, +and only developed with a tinge of fancy on the side of finesse and the +pleasing. Every antique form reappears, but reshaped in the same sense +by a fresh and original impulse. + +The outer columns of the Greek temple are reduced, multiplied and +uplifted in the air, and from a support have become an ornament. The +Roman or Byzantine dome is elongated and its natural heaviness +diminished under a crown of slender columns with a miter ornament, which +girds it midway with its delicate promenade. On the two sides of the +great door two Corinthian columns are enveloped with luxurious foliage, +calyxes and twining or blooming acanthus; and from the threshold we see +the church with its files of intersecting columns, its alternate courses +of black and white marble and its multitude of slender and brilliant +forms, rising upward like an altar of candelabra. A new spirit appears +here, a more delicate sensibility; it is not excessive and disordered as +in the north, and yet it is not satisfied with the grave simplicity, the +robust nudity of antique architecture. It is the daughter of the pagan +mother, healthy and gay, but more womanly than its mother. + +She is not yet an adult, sure in all her steps--she is somewhat awkward. +The lateral facades on the exterior are monotonous; the cupola within +is a reversed funnel of a peculiar and disagreeable form. The junction +of the two arms of the cross is unsatisfactory and so many modernized +chapels dispel the charm due to purity, as at Sienna. At the second +glance however all this is forgotten, and we again regard it as a +complete whole. Four rows of Corinthian columns, surmounted with +arcades, divide the church into five naves, and form a forest. A second +passage, as richly crowded, traverses the former crosswise, and, above +the beautiful grove, files of still smaller columns prolong and +intersect each other in order to uphold in the air the prolongation and +intersection of the quadruple gallery. The ceiling is flat; the windows +are small, and for the most part, without sashes; they allow the walls +to retain the grandeur of their mass and the solidity of their position; +and among these long, straight and simple lines, in this natural light, +the innumerable shafts glow with the serenity of an antique temple.... + +Nothing more can be added in relation to the Baptistery or the Leaning +Tower; the same ideas prevail in these, the same taste, the same style. +The former is a simple, isolated dome, the latter a cylinder, and each +has an outward dress of small columns. And yet each has its own distinct +and expressive physiognomy; but description and writing consume too much +time, and too many technical terms are requisite to define their +differences. I note, simply, the inclination of the Tower. Some suppose +that, when half constructed, the tower sank in the earth on one side, +and that the architects continued on; seeing that they did continue +this deflection was only a partial obstacle to them. In any event, there +are other leaning towers in Italy, at Bologna, for example; voluntarily +or involuntarily this feeling for oddness, this love of paradox, this +yielding to fancy is one of the characteristics of the Middle Ages. + +In the center of the Baptistery stands a superb font with eight panels; +each panel is incrusted with a rich complicated flower in full bloom, +and each flower is different. Around it a circle of large Corinthian +columns supports round-arch arcades; most of them are antique and are +ornamented with antique bas-reliefs; Meleager with his barking dogs, and +the nude torsos of his companions in attendance on Christian mysteries. +On the left stands a pulpit similar to that of Sienna, the first work of +Nicholas of Pisa (1260), a simple marble coffer supported by marble +columns and covered with sculptures. The sentiment of force and of +antique nudity comes out here in striking features. The sculptor +comprehended the postures and torsions of bodies. His figures, somewhat +massive, are grand and simple; he frequently reproduces the tunics and +folds of the Roman costume; one of his nude personages, a sort of +Hercules bearing a young lion on his shoulders, has the broad breast and +muscular tension which the sculptors of the sixteenth century admired. + +The last of these edifices, the Campo-Santo, is a cemetery, the soil of +which, brought from Palestine, is holy ground. Four high walls of +polished marble surround it with their white and crowded panels. +Inside, a square gallery forms a promenade opening into the court +through arcades trellised with ogive windows. It is filled with funereal +monuments, busts, inscriptions and statues of every form and of every +age. Nothing could be simpler and nobler. A framework of dark wood +supports the arch overhead, and the crest of the roof cuts sharp against +the crystal sky. At the angles are four rustling cypress trees, +tranquilly swayed by the breeze. Grass is growing in the court with a +wild freshness and luxuriance. Here and there a climbing flower twined +around a column, a small rosebush, or a shrub glows beneath a gleam of +sunshine. There is no noise; this quarter is deserted; only now and then +is heard the voice of some promenader which reverberates as under the +vault of a church. It is the veritable cemetery of a free and Christian +city; here, before the tombs of the great, people might well reflect +over death and public affairs. + + + + +THE WALLS AND "SKYSCRAPERS" OF PISA[5] + +BY JANET ROSS AND NELLY ERICHSON + + +Few cities have preserved their medieval walls with such loving care as +Pisa. The circuit is complete save where the traveler enters the city; +and there, alas, a wide breach has been made by the restless spirit of +modernity. But once past the paltry barrier and the banal square, with +its inevitable statue of Victor Emanuel, that take the place of the old +Porta Romana, one quickly perceives that the city is a walled one. +Glimpses of battlements close the vistas of the streets, and green +fields peep through the open gates, marking that abrupt transition +between town and country peculiar to a fortified city. + +The walls are best seen from without. An admirable impression of them +can be had on leaving the city by the Porta Lucchese. Turning to the +left, after passing a crucifix overshadowed by cypresses, we come to the +edge of a stretch of level marshy meadows, gaily pied in spring with +orchids and grape hyacinths. Above our heads the high air vibrates with +the song of larks. Before us is the long line of the city walls. Strong, +grim and gray, they look with nothing to break the outline of square +battlements against the sky, but that majestic groups of domes and +towers for whose defense they were built. At the angle of the wall to +the right is a square watch-tower, backed by groups of cypresses that +rise into the air like dark flames. Its little windows command the flat +plain as far as the horizon. How easy to imagine the warning blast of +the warder's trumpet as he caught sight of a distant enemy, and the wall +springing into life at the sound. Armed men buckling on their harness +would swarm up ladders to the battlements, the catapult groan and squeak +as its lever was forced backward, and at the sharp word of command the +first flight of arrows would be loosed. + +But the dream fades, and we pass on to the angle of the wall where the +cypresses stand. From the picturesque Jews' cemetery, to which access is +easy, the structure of the walls can be studied in detail because the +hand of the restorer has been perforce withheld within its gates. The +wall is some forty feet high, built of stone from the Pisan hills, +weathered for the most part to a grayish hue. The masonry of the lower +half is good. The blocks of stone are large and well laid. Those of the +upper half are smaller and the masonry is in places careless and +irregular. The red brick battlements are square. At short intervals +there are walled-up gateways, round-headed or ogival in form, and the +whole surface is rent and patched. Centuries of war and earthquakes, +rain and fire, have given it a pleasant irregularity, the record of +violent and troublous times. + +The city can be reentered by the Porta Nuova, only a few yards to the +left of the cemetery. So venerable do these battered walls look that we +need the full evidence of history to realize that they had more than one +predecessor. The memory even of the first walls of Pisa, an ancient city +when Rome was young, has been lost. The earliest record of which we know +anything appears on a map of the ninth century drawn by one Bonanno; a +map, we should rather say professing to be of the ninth century, for +churches of the thirteenth century are marked upon it, so it must either +have been made, or the churches inserted, then.... + +The ancient walls were practically swept away by the prosperity of Pisa. +Beside the Balearic Islands she had conquered Carthage, the Lipari +Islands, Elba, Corsica, and Palermo, and her galleys poured their spoils +into the Pisan port. She traded with the East, and was successful in +commerce as in war. Her inhabitants increased rapidly. They could no +longer be penned within the narrow limits of the old wall, but +overflowed in all directions beyond it. Not only was the Borgo thickly +populated, but a whole new region called Forisportae, sprang up. + +So masked was the wall by houses, built into it and huddling against it +both on the outside and the inside, that it seems to have been actually +invisible. So much so that contemporary chroniclers spoke of Pisa as +without walls, and attributed her safety to the valor of her citizens +and the multitude of her towers. The ancient wall was evidently so +hidden and decayed that Pisa must be regarded as a defenseless city in +the twelfth century. It is curious that her citizens should have +neglected their own safety at a time when they were masters of +fortification and defense; when their fame in these arts had reached as +far as Egypt and Syria, and when the Milanese came to them to beg for +engineers.... + +The external appearance of an Italian city in the twelfth century was so +unlike anything we are accustomed to in modern times that a strong +effort of the imagination is needed to conceive it. Seen from a distance +the walls enclosed, not houses, but a forest of tall square shafts, +rising into the sky like the crowded chimney stacks in a manufacturing +town but far more thickly set together. The city appeared, to use a +graphic contemporary metaphor, like a sheaf of corn bound together by +its walls. + +[Illustration: PANEL IN THE CATHEDRAL, SHOWING PART OF THE MEDIEVAL WALL +AND TOWERS OF PISA] + +San Gimignano, tho most of its towers have perished long ago, helps us +to imagine faintly what Italian towns were like in the days of Frederick +Barbarossa or his grandson Frederick II. For most of the houses were +actually towers, long rectangular columns, vying with each other in +height and crowded close together on either side of the narrow, airless, +darkened streets. Sometimes they were connected with one another by +wooden bridges, and all were furnished with wooden balconies used in +defensive and offensive warfare with their neighbors. + +Cities full of towers were common all over southern France and central +Italy, but Tuscany had more than any other state, and those of Pisa were +the most famous of all. The habit of building and dwelling in towers +rather than in houses may have arisen from the difficulty of expanding +laterally within an enclosed city; but a stronger reason may be found in +the dangers and uncertainty of life in a period when a man might be +attacked at any moment by his fellow-citizen, as well as by the enemy of +the state. It was a distinct military advantage to overlook one's +neighbor, who might be an enemy; and towers rose higher and higher. The +spirit of emulation entered, and rich nobles gloried in adding tower to +tower and in looking down on all rivals. + +But whatever the cause of their existence, they were picturesque, and +must have presented a gallant sight on the eve of a high festival. The +tall shafts were tinged with gold by the western sun, their battlements +crowned with three fluttering banners--the eagle of the Emperor, the +white cross of the Commune, and the device of the People--looking as tho +a cloud of many-colored butterflies were hovering over the city. + +Again, how dramatic the scene when the city was rent by one of the +perpetually recurring faction-fights. Light bridges with grappling-irons +were thrown from tower to tower, doors and windows were barricaded, +balconies and battlements lined with men in shining mail, bearing the +fantastic device of their leader on helm and shield. Mangonels, or +catapults, huge engines stationed on the roofs of the towers, sent +masses of stone hurtling through the air, whistling arbelast bolts and +clothyard shafts flew in thick showers, boiling oil or lead rained down +on the heads of those who ventured down to attack the doors, and arrows, +with Greek fire attached, were shot with nice aim into the wooden +balconies and bridges. Vile insults were hurled where missiles failed to +strike. The shouts and shrieks of the combatants were mingled with the +crash of a falling tower or with the hissing of a fire-arrow. Where +those struck, a red glow arose and a thick cloud of smoke enveloped the +defenders. + +Altho it is evident that towers were very numerous in Pisa, it is +difficult to arrive at their precise number. The chroniclers differ +greatly in their estimates. Benjamin da Tudela, for instance, says that +there were 10,000 in the twelfth century; while Marangone puts the +number at 15,000 and Tronci at 16,000. These are round numbers such as +the medieval mind loved, but we have abundant evidence that they are not +much exaggerated. An intarsia panel in the Duomo, shows how closely the +towers were packed together, while the mass of legislation relating to +them was directed against abuses that could only have arisen if their +number was very large. + + + + +V + +NAPLES AND ITS ENVIRONS + + + + +IN AND ABOUT THE CITY[6] + +BY CHARLES DICKENS + + +So we go, rattling down-hill, into Naples. A funeral is coming up the +street, toward us. The body, on an open bier, borne on a kind of +palanquin, covered with a gay cloth of crimson and gold. The mourners, +in white gowns and masks. If there be death abroad, life is well +represented too, for all Naples would seem to be out of doors, and +tearing to and fro in carriages. Some of these, the common Vetturino +vehicles, are drawn by three horses abreast, decked with smart trappings +and great abundance of brazen ornament, and always going very fast. Not +that their loads are light; for the smallest of them has at least six +people inside, four in front, four or five more hanging behind, and two +or three more, in a net or bag below the axle-tree, where they lie +half-suffocated with mud and dust. + +Exhibitors of Punch, buffo singers with guitars, reciters of poetry, +reciters of stories, a row of cheap exhibitions with clowns and +showmen, drums, and trumpets, painted cloths representing the wonders +within, and admiring crowds assembled without, assist the whirl and +bustle. Ragged lazzaroni lie asleep in doorways, archways, and kennels; +the gentry, gaily drest, are dashing up and down in carriages on the +Chiaja, or walking in the Public Gardens; and quiet letter-writers, +perched behind their little desks and inkstands under the Portico of the +Great Theater of San Carlo, in the public street, are waiting for +clients. + +Why do the beggars rap their chins constantly, with their right hands, +when you look at them? Everything is done in pantomime in Naples, and +that is the conventional sign for hunger. A man who is quarreling with +another, yonder, lays the palm of his right hand on the back of his +left, and shakes the two thumbs--expressive of a donkey's ears--whereat +his adversary is goaded to desperation. Two people bargaining for fish, +the buyer empties an imaginary waistcoat pocket when he is told the +price, and walks away without a word, having thoroughly conveyed to the +seller that he considers it too dear. Two people in carriages, meeting, +one touches his lips, twice or thrice, holding up the five fingers of +his right hand, and gives a horizontal cut in the air with the palm. The +other nods briskly, and goes his way. He has been invited to a friendly +dinner at half-past five o'clock, and will certainly come. + +All over Italy, a peculiar shake of the right hand from the wrist, with +the forefinger stretched out, expresses a negative--the only negative +beggars will ever understand. But, in Naples, those five fingers are a +copious language. All this, and every other kind of out-door life and +stir, and maccaroni-eating at sunset, and flower-selling all day long, +and begging and stealing everywhere and at all hours, you see upon the +bright sea-shore, where the waves of the Bay sparkle merrily.... + +Capri--once made odious by the deified beast Tiberius--Ischia, Procida, +and the thousand distant beauties of the Bay, lie in the blue sea +yonder, changing in the mist and sunshine twenty times a day; now close +at hand, now far off, now unseen. The fairest country in the world, is +spread about us. Whether we turn toward the Miseno shore of the splendid +watery amphitheater, and go by the Grotto of Posilipo to the Grotto del +Cane and away to Baiae, or take the other way, toward Vesuvius and +Sorrento, it is one succession of delights. In the last-named direction, +where, over doors and archways, there are countless little images of San +Gennaro, with this Canute's hand stretched out, to check the fury of the +burning Mountain, we are carried pleasantly, by a railroad on the +beautiful Sea Beach, past the town of Torre del Greco, built upon the +ashes of the former town destroyed by an eruption of Vesuvius, within a +hundred years; and past the flat-roofed houses, granaries, and maccaroni +manufacturies; to Castellamare, with its ruined castle, now inhabited by +fishermen, standing in the sea upon a heap of rocks. + +Here, the railroad terminates; but, hence we may ride on, by an unbroken +succession of enchanting bays, and beautiful scenery, sloping from the +highest summit of Saint Angelo, the highest neighboring mountain, down +to the water's edge--among vineyards, olive-trees, gardens of oranges +and lemons, orchards, heaped-up rocks, green gorges in the hills--and by +the bases of snow-covered heights, and through small towns with +handsome, dark-haired women at the doors--and pass delicious summer +villas--to Sorrento, where the poet Tasso drew his inspiration from the +beauty surrounding him. Returning, we may climb the heights above +Castellamare, and looking down among the boughs and leaves, see the +crisp water glistening in the sun; and clusters of white houses in +distant Naples, dwindling, in the great extent of prospect, down to +dice. The coming back to the city, by the beach again, at sunset; with +the glowing sea on one side, and the darkening mountain (Vesuvius), with +its smoke and flame, upon the other, is a sublime conclusion to the +glory of the day. + +That church by the Porta Capuna--near the old fisher-market in the +dirtiest quarter of dirty Naples, where the revolt of Masaniello +began--is memorable for having been the scene of one of his earliest +proclamations to the people, and is particularly remarkable for nothing +else, unless it be its waxen and bejeweled Saint in a glass case, with +two odd hands; or the enormous number of beggars who are constantly +rapping their chins there, like a battery of castanets. The cathedral +with the beautiful door, and the columns of African and Egyptian granite +that once ornamented the temple of Apollo, contains the famous sacred +blood of San Gennaro or Januarius, which is preserved in two phials in a +silver tabernacle, and miraculously liquefies three times a year, to the +great admiration of the people. At the same moment, the stone (distant +some miles) where the Saint suffered martyrdom, becomes faintly red. It +is said that the officiating priests turn faintly red also, sometimes, +when these miracles occur. + +The old, old men who live in hovels at the entrance of these ancient +catacombs, and who, in their age and infirmity, seem waiting here, to be +buried themselves, are members of a curious body, called the Royal +Hospital, who are the official attendants at funerals. Two of these old +specters totter away, with lighted tapers, to show the caverns of +death--as unconcerned as if they were immortal. They were used as +burying-places for three hundred years; and, in one part, is a large pit +full of skulls and bones, said to be the sad remains of a great +mortality occasioned by a plague. In the rest, there is nothing but +dust. They consist, chiefly, of great wide corridors and labyrinths, +hewn out of the rock. At the end of some of these long passages, are +unexpected glimpses of the daylight, shining down from above. It looks +as ghastly and as strange; among the torches, and the dust, and the dark +vaults; as if it, too, were dead and buried. + +The present burial-place lies out yonder, on a hill between the city and +Vesuvius. The old Campo Santo with its three hundred and sixty-five +pits, is only used for those who die in hospitals, and prisons, and are +unclaimed by their friends. The graceful new cemetery, at no great +distance from it, tho yet unfinished, has already many graves among its +shrubs and flowers, and airy colonnades. It might be reasonably objected +elsewhere, that some of the tombs are meretricious and too fanciful; but +the general brightness seems to justify it here; and Mount Vesuvius, +separated from them by a lovely slope of ground, exalts and saddens the +scene. + +If it be solemn to behold from this new City of the Dead, with its dark +smoke hanging in the clear sky, how much more awful and impressive is +it, viewed from the ghostly ruins of Herculaneum and Pompeii! + +Stand at the bottom of the great market-place of Pompeii, and look up +the silent streets, through the ruined temples of Jupiter and Isis, over +the broken houses with their inmost sanctuaries open to the day, away to +Mount Vesuvius, bright and snowy in the peaceful distance; and lose all +count of time, and heed of other things, in the strange and melancholy +sensation of seeing the Destroyed and the Destroyer making this quiet +picture in the sun. Then, ramble on, and see, at every turn, the little +familiar tokens of human habitation and everyday pursuits, the chafing +of the bucket-rope in the stone rim of the exhausted well; the track of +carriage-wheels in the pavement of the street; the marks of +drinking-vessels on the stone counter of the wine-shop; the amphorae in +private cellars, stored away so many hundred years ago, and undisturbed +to this hour--all rendering the solitude and deadly lonesomeness of the +place, ten thousand times more solemn, than if the volcano, in its fury, +had swept the city from the earth, and sunk it in the bottom of the sea. + + + + +THE TOMB OF VIRGIL[7] + +BY AUGUSTUS J. C. HARE + + +A road to the right at the end of the Chiaja, leads to the mouth of the +Grotto of Posilipo, above which those who do not wish to leave their +carriages may see, high on the left, close above the grotto, the ruined +columbarium known as the Tomb of Virgil. A door in the wall, on the left +of the approach to the grotto, and a very steep staircase, lead to the +columbarium, which is situated in a pretty fruit-garden. + +Virgil desired that his body should be brought to Naples from +Brundusium, where he died, B.C. 19, and there is every probability that +he was buried on this spot, which was visited as Virgil's burial-place +little more than a century after his death by the poet Statius, who was +born at Naples, and who describes composing his own poems while seated +in the shadow of the tomb. If further confirmation were needed of the +story that Virgil was laid here, it would be found in the fact that +Silius Italicus, who lived at the same time with Statius, purchased the +tomb of Virgil, restored it from the neglect into which it had fallen, +and celebrated funeral rites before it. + +The tomb was originally shaded by a gigantic bay-tree, which is said to +have died on the death of Dante. Petrarch, who was brought hither by +King Robert, planted another, which existed in the time of Sannazaro, +but was destroyed by relic-collectors in the last century. A branch was +sent to Frederick the Great by the Margravine of Baireuth, with some +verses by Voltaire. If from no other cause, the tomb would be +interesting from its visitors; here Boccaccio renounced the career of a +merchant for that of a poet, and a well-known legend, that St. Paul +visited the sepulcher of Virgil at Naples, was long commemorated in the +verse of a hymn used in the service for St. Paul's Day at Mantua. + +The tomb is a small, square, vaulted chamber with three windows. Early +in the sixteenth century a funeral urn, containing the ashes of the +poet, stood in the center, supported by nine little marble pillars. Some +say that Robert of Anjou removed it, in 1326, for security to the Castel +Nuovo, others that it was given by the Government to a cardinal from +Mantua, who died at Genoa on his way home. In either event the urn is +now lost. + +It is just beneath the tomb that the road to Pozzuoli enters the famous +Grotto of Posilipo, a tunnel about half a mile long, in breadth from 25 +to 30 feet, and varying from about 90 feet in height near the entrance, +to little more than 20 feet at points of the interior. Petronius and +Seneca mention its narrow gloomy passage with horror, in the reign of +Nero, when it was so low that it could only be used for foot-passengers, +who were obliged to stoop in passing through. + +In the fifteenth century King Alphonso I. gave it height by lowering the +floor, which was paved by Don Pedro di Toledo a hundred years later. In +the Middle Ages the grotto was ascribed to the magic arts of Virgil. In +recent years it has been the chief means of communication between Naples +and Baiae, and is at all times filled with dust and noise, the +flickering lights and resounding echoes giving it a most weird effect. +However much one may abuse Neapolitans, we may consider in their favor, +as Swinburne observes, "what a terror this dark grotto would be in +London!" + + + + +TWO ASCENTS OF VESUVIUS[8] + +BY JOHANN WOLGANG VON GOETHE + + +At the foot of the steep ascent, we were received by two guides, one +old, the other young, but both active fellows. The first pulled me up +the path, the other Tischbein[9]--pulled I say, for these guides are +girded round the waist with a leathern belt, which the traveler takes +hold of, and being drawn up by his guide, makes his way the easier with +foot and staff. In this manner we reached the flat from which the cone +rises; toward the north lay the ruins of the summit. + +A glance westward over the country beneath us, removed, as well as a +bath could, all feeling of exhaustion and fatigue, and we now went round +the ever-smoking cone, as it threw out its stones and ashes. Wherever +the space allowed of our viewing it at a sufficient distance, it +appeared a grand and elevating spectacle. In the first place, a violent +thundering toned forth from its deepest abyss, then stones of larger and +smaller sizes were showered into the air by thousands, and enveloped by +clouds of ashes. The greatest part fell again into the gorge; the rest +of the fragments, receiving a lateral inclination, and falling on the +outside of the crater, made a marvelous rumbling noise. First of all the +larger masses plumped against the side, and rebounded with a dull heavy +sound; then the smaller came rattling down; and last of all, drizzled a +shower of ashes. All this took place at regular intervals, which by +slowly counting, we were able to measure pretty accurately. + +Between the summit, however, and the cone the space is narrow enough; +moreover, several stones fell around us, and made the circuit anything +but agreeable. Tischbein now felt more disgusted than ever with +Vesuvius, as the monster, not content with being hateful, showed an +inclination to become mischievous also. + +As, however, the presence of danger generally exercises on man a kind of +attraction, and calls forth a spirit of opposition in the human breast +to defy it, I bethought myself that, in the interval of the eruptions, +it would be possible to climb up the cone to the crater, and to get back +before it broke out again. I held a council on this point with our +guides under one of the overhanging rocks of the summit, where, encamped +in safety, we refreshed ourselves with the provisions we had brought +with us. The younger guide was willing to run the risk with me; we +stuffed our hats full of linen and silk handkerchiefs, and, staff in +hand, we prepared to start, I holding on to his girdle. + +The little stones were yet rattling around us, and the ashes still +drizzling, as the stalwart youth hurried forth with me across the hot +glowing rubble. We soon stood on the brink of the vast chasm, the smoke +of which, altho a gentle air was bearing it away from us, unfortunately +veiled the interior of the crater, which smoked all round from a +thousand crannies. At intervals, however, we caught sight through the +smoke of the cracked walls of the rock. The view was neither instructive +nor delightful; but for the very reason that one saw nothing, one +lingered in the hope of catching a glimpse of something more; and so we +forgot our slow counting. We were standing on a narrow ridge of the +vast abyss; of a sudden the thunder pealed aloud; we ducked our heads +involuntarily, as if that would have rescued us from the precipitated +masses. The smaller stones soon rattled, and without considering that we +had again an interval of cessation before us, and only too much rejoiced +to have outstood the danger, we rushed down and reached the foot of the +hill together with the drizzling ashes, which pretty thickly covered +our heads and shoulders.... + +The news [two weeks later] that an eruption of lava had just commenced, +which, taking the direction of Ottajano, was invisible at Naples, +tempted me to visit Vesuvius for the third time. Scarcely had I jumped +out of my cabriolet at the foot of the mountain, when immediately +appeared the two guides who had accompanied us on our previous ascent. I +had no wish to do without either, but took one out of gratitude and +custom, the other for reliance on his judgment--and the two for the +greater convenience. Having ascended the summit, the older guide +remained with our cloaks and refreshment, while the younger followed me, +and we boldly went straight toward a dense volume of smoke, which broke +forth from the bottom of the funnel; then we quickly went downward by +the side of it, till at last, under the clear heaven, we distinctly saw +the lava emitted from the rolling clouds of smoke. + +We may hear an object spoken of a thousand times, but its peculiar +features will never be caught till we see it with our own eyes. The +stream of lava was small, not broader perhaps than ten feet, but the way +in which it flowed down a gentle and tolerably smooth plain was +remarkable. As it flowed along, it cooled both on the sides and on the +surface, so that it formed a sort of canal, the bed of which was +continually raised in consequence of the molten mass congealing even +beneath the fiery stream, which, with uniform action, precipitated right +and left the scoria which were floating on its surface. In this way a +regular dam was at length thrown up, in which the glowing stream flowed +on as quietly as any mill-stream. We passed along the tolerably high +dam, while the scoria rolled regularly off the sides at our feet. Some +cracks in the canal afforded opportunity of looking at the living +stream, from below, and as it rushed onward, we observed it from above. + +A very bright sun made the glowing lava look dull; but a moderate steam +rose from it into the pure air. I felt a great desire to go nearer to +the point where it broke out from the mountain; there my guide averred, +it at once formed vaults and roofs above itself, on which he had often +stood. To see and experience this phenomenon, we again ascended the +hill, in order to come from behind to this point. Fortunately at this +moment the place was cleared by a pretty strong wind, but not entirely, +for all round it the smoke eddied from a thousand crannies; and now at +last we stood on the top of the solid roof (which looked like a hardened +mass of twisted dough), but which, however, projected so far outward, +that it was impossible to see the welling lava. + +We ventured about twenty steps further, but the ground on which we stept +became hotter and hotter, while around us rolled an oppressive steam, +which obscured and hid the sun; the guide, who was a few steps in +advance of me, presently turned back, and seizing hold of me, hurried +out of this Stygian exhalation. + +After we had refreshed our eyes with the clear prospect, and washed our +gums and throat with wine, we went round again to notice any other +peculiarities which might characterize this peak of hell, thus rearing +itself in the midst of a Paradise. I again observed attentively some +chasms, in appearance like so many vulcanic forges, which emitted no +smoke, but continually shot out a steam of hot glowing air. They were +all tapestried, as it were, with a kind of stalactite, which covered the +funnel to the top, with its knobs and chintz-like variation of colors. +In consequence of the irregularity of the forges, I found many specimens +of this sublimation hanging within reach, so that, with our staves and a +little contrivance, we were able to hack off a few, and to secure them. +I saw in the shops of the dealers in lava similar specimens, labeled +simply "Lava"; and I was delighted to have discovered that it was +volcanic soot precipitated from the hot vapor, and distinctly exhibiting +the sublimated mineral particles which it contained. + + + + +ANOTHER ASCENT[10] + +BY CHARLES DICKENS + + +No matter that the snow and ice lie thick upon the summit of Vesuvius, +or that we have been on foot all day at Pompeii, or that croakers +maintain that strangers should not be on the mountain by night, in such +unusual season. Let us take advantage of the fine weather; make the best +of our way to Resina, the little village at the foot of the mountain; +prepare ourselves, as well as we can, on so short a notice, at the +guide's house, ascend at once, and have sunset half-way up, moonlight at +the top, and midnight to come down in! + +At four o'clock in the afternoon, there is a terrible uproar in the +little stable-yard of Signor Salvatore, the recognized head guide, with +the gold band round his cap; and thirty under-guides who are all +scuffling and screaming at once, are preparing half-a-dozen saddled +ponies, three litters, and some stout staves, for the journey. Every one +of the thirty quarrels with the other twenty-nine, and frightens the six +ponies; and as much of the village as can possibly squeeze itself into +the little stable-yard, participates in the tumult, and gets trodden on +by the cattle. + +After much violent skirmishing, and more noise than would suffice for +the storming of Naples, the procession starts. The head guide, who is +liberally paid for all the attendants, rides a little in advance of the +party; the other thirty guides proceed on foot. Eight go forward with +the litters that are to be used by and by; and the remaining +two-and-twenty beg. We ascend, gradually, by stony lanes like rough +broad flights of stairs, for some time. At length, we leave these, and +the vineyards on either side of them, and emerge upon a bleak, bare +region where the lava lies confusedly, in enormous rusty masses; as if +the earth had been plowed up by burning thunder-bolts. And now, we halt +to see the sunset. The change that falls upon the dreary region and on +the whole mountain, as its red light fades, and the night comes on--and +the unutterable solemnity and dreariness that reign around, who that has +witnessed it, can ever forget! + +It is dark, when after winding, for some time, over the broken ground, +we arrive at the foot of the cone, which is extremely steep, and seems +to rise, almost perpendicularly, from the spot where we dismount. The +only light is reflected from the snow, deep, hard, and white, with which +the cone is covered. It is now intensely cold, and the air is piercing. +The thirty-one have brought no torches, knowing that the moon will rise +before we reach the top. Two of the litters are devoted to the two +ladies; the third, to a rather heavy gentleman from Naples, whose +hospitality and good-nature have attached him to the expedition, and +determined him to assist in doing the honors of the mountain. The rather +heavy gentleman is carried by fifteen men; each of the ladies by +half-a-dozen. We who walk, make the best use of our staves; and so the +whole party begin to labor upward over the snow--as if they were toiling +to the summit of an antediluvian Twelfth-cake. + +We are a long time toiling up; and the head guide looks oddly about him +when one of the company--not an Italian, tho an habitue of the mountain +for many years: whom we will call, for our present purpose, Mr. Pickle +of Portici--suggests that, as it is freezing hard, and the usual footing +of ashes is covered by the snow and ice, it will surely be difficult to +descend. But the sight of the litters above, tilting up, and down, and +jerking from this side to that, as the bearers continually slip, and +tumble, diverts our attention, more especially as the whole length of +the rather heavy gentleman is, at that moment, presented to us +alarmingly foreshortened, with his head downward. + +The rising of the moon soon afterward, revives the flagging spirits of +the bearers. Stimulating each other with their usual watchword, +"Courage, friend! It is to eat maccaroni!" they press on, gallantly, for +the summit. + +From tingeing the top of the snow above us with a band of light, and +pouring it in a stream through the valley below, while we have been +ascending in the dark, the moon soon lights the whole white mountain +side, and the broad sea down below, and tiny Naples in the distance, and +every village in the country round. The whole prospect is in this lovely +state, when we come upon the platform on the mountain-top--the region of +fire--an exhausted crater formed of great masses of gigantic cinders, +like blocks of stone from some tremendous waterfall, burned up; from +every chink and crevice of which, hot, sulfurous smoke is pouring out; +while, from another conical-shaped hill, the present crater, rising +abruptly from this platform at the end, great sheets of fire are +streaming forth; reddening the night with flame, blackening it with +smoke, and spotting it with red-hot stones and cinders, that fly up into +the air like feathers, and fall down like lead. What words can paint the +gloom and grandeur of this scene! + +The broken ground; the smoke; the sense of suffocation from the sulfur; +the fear of falling down through the crevices in the yawning ground; the +stopping, every now and then, for somebody who is missing in the dark +(for the dense smoke now obscures the moon); the intolerable noise of +the thirty; and the hoarse roaring of the mountain; make it a scene of +such confusion, at the same time, that we reel again. But, dragging the +ladies through it, and across another exhausted crater to the foot of +the present volcano, we approach close to it on the windy side, and then +sit down among the hot ashes at its foot, and look up in silence; +faintly estimating the action that is going on within, from its being +full a hundred feet higher, at this minute, than it was six weeks ago. + +There is something in the fire and roar, that generates an irresistible +desire to get nearer to it. We can not rest long, without starting off, +two of us on our hands and knees, accompanied by the head guide, to +climb to the brim of the flaming crater, and try to look in. Meanwhile, +the thirty yell, as with one voice, that it is a dangerous proceeding, +and call to us to come back; frightening the rest of the party out of +their wits. + +What with their noise, and what with the trembling of the thin crust of +ground, that seems about to open underneath our feet and plunge us in +the burning gulf below (which is the real danger, if there be any); and +what with the flashing of the fire in our faces, and the shower of +red-hot ashes that is raining down, and the choking smoke and sulfur; we +may well feel giddy and irrational, like drunken men. But, we contrive +to climb up to the brim, and look down, for a moment, into the hell of +boiling fire below. Then, we all three come rolling down; blackened, and +singed, and scorched, and hot, and giddy; and each with his dress alight +in half-a-dozen places. + +You have read, a thousand times, that the usual way of descending, is, +by sliding down the ashes; which, forming a gradually-increasing ledge +below the feet, prevent too rapid a descent. But, when we have crossed +the two exhausted craters on our way back, and are come to this +precipitous place, there is (as Mr. Pickle has foretold) no vestige of +ashes to be seen; the whole being a smooth sheet of ice. + +In this dilemma, ten or a dozen of the guides cautiously join hands, and +make a chain of men; of whom the foremost beat, as well as they can, a +rough track with their sticks, down which we prepare to follow. The way +being fearfully steep, and none of the party--even of the thirty--being +able to keep their feet for six paces together, the ladies are taken out +of their litters, and placed, each between two careful persons; while +others of the thirty hold by their skirts, to prevent their falling +forward--a necessary precaution, tending to the immediate and hopeless +dilapidation of their apparel. The rather heavy gentleman is abjured to +leave his litter too, and be escorted in a similar manner; but he +resolves to be brought down as he was brought up, on the principle that +his fifteen bearers are not likely to tumble all at once, and that he is +safer so, than trusting to his own legs. + +In this order, we begin the descent; sometimes on foot, sometimes +shuffling on the ice; always proceeding much more quietly and slowly +than on our upward way; and constantly alarmed by the falling among us +of somebody from behind, who endangers the footing of the whole party, +and clings pertinaciously to anybody's ankles. It is impossible for the +litter to be in advance, too, as the track has to be made; and its +appearance behind us, overhead--with some one or other of the bearers +always down, and the rather heavy gentleman with his legs always in the +air--is very threatening and frightful. We have gone on thus, a very +little way, painfully and anxiously, but quite merrily, and regarding it +as a great success--and have all fallen several times, and have all been +stopt, somehow or other, as we were sliding away when Mr. Pickle of +Portici, in the act of remarking on these uncommon circumstances as +quite beyond his experience, stumbles, falls, disengages himself, with +quick presence of mind, from those about him, plunges away head +foremost, and rolls, over and over, down the whole surface of the cone! + +Giddy, and bloody, and a mere bundle of rags, is Pickle of Portici when +we reach the place where we dismounted, and where the horses are +waiting; but, thank God, sound in limb! And never are we likely to be +more glad to see a man alive and on his feet, than to see him +now--making light of it too, tho sorely bruised and in great pain. The +boy is brought into the Hermitage on the Mountain, while we are at +supper, with his head tied up; and the man is heard of, some hours +afterward. He, too, is bruised and stunned, but has broken no bones; the +snow having, fortunately, covered all the larger blocks of rock and +stone, and rendered them harmless. + + + + +CASTELLAMARE AND SORRENTO[11] + +BY HIPPOLYTE ADOLPHE TAINE + + +The sky is almost clear. Only above Naples hangs a bank of clouds, and +around Vesuvius huge white masses of smoke, moving and stationary. I +never yet saw, even in summer at Marseilles, the blue of the sea so +deep, bordering even on hardness. Above this powerful lustrous azure, +absorbing three-quarters of the visible space, the white sky seems to be +a firmament of crystal. As we recede we obtain a better view of the +undulating coast, embraced in one grand mountain form, all its parts +uniting like the members of one body. Ischia and the naked promontories +on the extreme end repose in their lilac envelop, like a slumbering +Pompeiian nymph under her veil. Veritably, to paint such nature as this, +this violet continent extending around this broad luminous water, one +must employ the terms of the ancient poets, and represent the great +fertile goddess embraced and beset by the eternal ocean, and above them +the serene effulgence of the dazzling Jupiter. + +We encounter on the road some fine faces with long elegant features, +quite Grecian; some intelligent noble-looking girls, and here and there +hideous mendicants cleaning their hairy breasts. But the race is much +superior to that of Naples, where it is deformed and diminutive, the +young girls there appearing like stunted, pallid grisets. The railroad +skirts the sea a few paces off and almost on a level with it. A harbor +appears blackened with lines of rigging, and then a mole, consisting of +a small half-ruined fort, reflecting a clear sharp shadow in the +luminous expanse. Surrounding this rise square houses, gray as if +charred, and heaped together like tortoises under round roofs, serving +them as a sort of thick shell. + +On this fertile soil, full of cinders, cultivation extends to the shore +and forms gardens; a simple reed hedge protects them from the sea and +the wind; the Indian fig with its clumsy thorny leaves clings to the +slopes; verdure begins to appear on the branches of the trees, the +apricots showing their smiling pink blossoms; half-naked men work the +friable soil without apparent effort; a few square gardens contain +columns and small statues of white marble. Everywhere you behold traces +of antique beauty and joyousness. And why wonder at this when you feel +that you have the divine vernal sun for a companion, and on the right, +whenever you turn to the sea, its flaming golden waves. + +With what facility you here forget all ugly objects! I believe I passed +at Castellamare some unsightly modern structures, a railroad station, +hotels, a guard-house, and a number of rickety vehicles hurrying along +in quest of fares. This is all effaced from my mind; nothing remains but +impressions of obscure porches with glimpses of bright courts filled +with glossy oranges and spring verdure, of esplanades with children +playing on them and nets drying, and happy idlers snuffing the breeze +and contemplating the capricious heaving of the tossing sea. + +On leaving Castellamare the road forms a corniche[12] winding along the +bank. Huge white rocks, split off from the cliffs above, lie below in +the midst of the eternally besieging waves. On the left the mountains +lift their shattered pinnacles, fretted walls, and projecting crags, all +that scaffolding of indentations which strike you as the ruins of a line +of rocked and tottering fortresses. Each projection, each mass throws +its shadow on the surrounding white surfaces, the entire range being +peopled with tints and forms. + +Sometimes the mountain is rent in twain, and the sides of the chasm are +lined with cultivation, descending in successive stages. Sorrento is +thus built on three deep ravines. All these hollows contain gardens, +crowded with masses of trees overhanging each other. Nut-trees, already +lively with sap, project their white branches like gnarled fingers; +everything else is green; winter lays no hand on this eternal spring. +The thick lustrous leaf of the orange-tree rises from amid the foliage +of the olive, and its golden apples glisten in the sun by thousands, +interspersed with gleams of the pale lemon; often in these shady lanes +do its glittering leaves flash out above the crest of the walls. This is +the land of the orange. It grows even in miserable court-yards, +alongside of dilapidated steps, spreading its luxuriant tops everywhere +in the bright sunlight. The delicate aromatic odor of all these opening +buds and blossoms is a luxury of kings, which here a beggar enjoys for +nothing. + +I passed an hour in the garden of the hotel, a terrace overlooking the +sea about half-way up the bank. A scene like this fills the imagination +with a dream of perfect bliss. The house stands in a luxurious garden, +filled with orange and lemon-trees, as heavily laden with fruit as those +of a Normandy orchard; the ground at the foot of the trees is covered +with it. Clusters of foliage and shrubbery of a pale green, bordering on +blue, occupy intermediate spaces. The rosy blossoms of the peach, so +tender and delicate, bloom on its naked branches. The walks are of +bright blue porcelain, and the terrace displays its round verdant +masses overhanging the sea, of which the lovely azure fills all space. + +I have not yet spoken of my impressions after leaving Castellamare. The +charm was only too great. The pure sky, the pale azure almost +transparent, the radiant blue sea as chaste and tender as a virgin +bride, this infinite expanse so exquisitely adorned as if for a festival +of rare delight, is a sensation that has no equal. Capri and Ischia on +the line of the sky lie white in their soft vapory tissue, and the +divine azure gently fades away surrounded by this border of brightness. + +Where find words to express all this? The gulf seemed like a marble vase +purposely rounded to receive the sea. The satin sheen of a flower, the +soft luminous petals of the velvet orris with shimmering sunshine on +their pearly borders, such are the images that fill the mind, and which +accumulate in vain and are ever inadequate. The water at the base of +these rocks is now a transparent emerald, reflecting the tints of topaz +and amethyst; again a liquid diamond, changing its hue according to the +shifting influences of rock and depth; or again a flashing diadem, +glittering with the splendor of this divine effulgence. + + + + +CAPRI[13] + +BY AUGUSTUS J. C. HARE + + +The Island of Capri (in the dialect of the people Crapi), the ancient +Capreae, is a huge limestone rock, a continuation of the mountain range +which forms the southern boundary of the Bay of Naples. Legend says that +it was once inhabited by a people called Teleboae, subject to a king +called Telon. Augustus took possession of Capreae as part of the +imperial domains, and repeatedly visited it. His stepson Tiberius (A.D. +27) established his permanent residence on the island, and spent the +latter years of his life there, abandoning himself to the voluptuous +excesses which gave him the name of Caprineus.... + +The first point usually visited in Capri is the Blue Grotto (Grotta +Azzurra), which is entered from the sea by an arch under the wall of +limestone cliff, only available when the sea is perfectly calm. Visitors +have to lie flat down in the boat, which is carried in by the wave and +is almost level with the top of the arch. Then they suddenly find +themselves in a magical scene. The water is liquid sapphire, and the +whole rocky vaulting of the cavern shimmers to its inmost recesses with +a pale blue light of marvelous beauty. A man stands ready to plunge into +the water when the boats from the steamers arrive, and to swim about; +his body, in the water, then sparkles like a sea-god with phosphorescent +silver; his head, out of the water, is black like that of a Moor. +Nothing can exaggerate the beauty of the Blue Grotto, and perhaps the +effect is rather enhanced than spoiled by the shouting of the boatmen, +the rush of boats to the entrance, the confusion on leaving and reaching +the steamers. + +That the Grotta Azzurra was known to the Romans is evinced by the +existence of a subterranean passage, leading to it from the upper +heights, and now blocked up; it was also well known in the seventeenth +century, when it was described by Capraanica. There are other beautiful +grottoes in the cliffs surrounding the island, the most remarkable being +the natural tunnel called the Green Grotto (Grotta Verde), under the +southern rocks, quite as splendid in color as the Grotta Azzurra +itself--a passage through the rocks, into which the boat glides (through +no hole, as in the case of the Grotta Azzurra) into water of the most +exquisite emerald. The late afternoon is the best time for visiting this +grotto. Occasionally a small steamer makes the round of the island, +stopping at the different caverns. + +On landing at the Marina, a number of donkey women offer their services, +and it will be well to accept them, for the ascent of about one mile, to +the village of Capri is very hot and tiring. On the left we pass the +Church of St. Costanzo, a very curious building with apse, cupola, stone +pulpit, and several ancient marble pillars and other fragments taken +from the palaces of Tiberius. + +The little town of Capri, overhung on one side by great purple rocks, +occupies a terrace on the high ridge between the two rocky promontories +of the island. Close above the piazza stands the many-domed ancient +church, like a mosque, and so many of the houses--sometimes of dazzling +whiteness, sometimes painted in gay colors--have their own little domes, +that the appearance is quite that of an oriental village, which is +enhanced by the palm-trees which flourish here and there. In the piazza +is a tablet to Major Hamill, who is buried in the church. He fell under +French bayonets, when the troops of Murat, landing at Orico, recaptured +the island, which had been taken from the French two years and a half +before (May, 1806) by Sir Sidney Smith. + +Through a low wide arch in the piazza is the approach to the principal +hotels. There is a tiny English chapel. An ascent of half an hour by +stony donkey-paths leads from Capri to the ruins called the Villa +Tiberiana, on the west of the island, above a precipitous rock 700 feet +high, which still bears the name of Il Salto.... + +The visitor who lingers in Capri may interest himself in tracing out the +remains of all the twelve villas of Tiberius. A relief exhibiting +Tiberius riding a led donkey, as modern travelers do now, was found on +the island, and is now in the museum at Naples. Capri has a delightful +winter climate, and is most comfortable as a residence. The natives are +quite unlike the Neapolitans, pleasant and civil in their manners, and +full of courtesies to strangers. The women are frequently beautiful. + + + + +POMPEII[14] + +BY PERCY BYSSHE SHELLEY + + +We have been to see Pompeii, and are waiting now for the return of +spring weather, to visit, first, Paestum, and then the islands; after +which we shall return to Rome. I was astonished at the remains of this +city; I had no conception of anything so perfect yet remaining. My idea +of the mode of its destruction was this: First, an earthquake shattered +it, and unroofed almost all its temples, and split its columns; then a +rain of light small pumice-stones fell; then torrents of boiling water, +mixed with ashes, filled up all its crevices. A wide, flat hill, from +which the city was excavated, is now covered by thick woods, and you see +the tombs and the theaters, the temples and the houses, surrounded by +the uninhabited wilderness. + +We entered the town from the side toward the sea, and first saw two +theaters; one more magnificent than the other, strewn with the ruins of +the white marble which formed their seats and cornices, wrought with +deep, bold sculpture. In the front, between the stage and the seats, is +the circular space, occasionally occupied by the chorus. The stage is +very narrow, but long, and divided from this space by a narrow enclosure +parallel to it, I suppose for the orchestra. On each side are the +consuls' boxes, and below, in the theater at Herculaneum, were found two +equestrian statues of admirable workmanship, occupying the same place +as the great bronze lamps did at Drury Lane. The smallest of the +theaters is said to have been comic, tho I should doubt. From both you +see, as you sit on the seats, a prospect of the most wonderful beauty. + +You then pass through the ancient streets; they are very narrow, and the +houses rather small, but all constructed on an admirable plan, +especially for this climate. The rooms are built round a court, or +sometimes two, according to the extent of the house. In the midst is a +fountain, sometimes surrounded with a portico, supported on fluted +columns of white stucco; the floor is paved with mosaic, sometimes +wrought in imitation of vine leaves, sometimes in quaint figures, and +more or less beautiful, according to the rank of the inhabitant. There +were paintings on all, but most of them have been removed to decorate +the royal museums. Little winged figures, and small ornaments of +exquisite elegance, yet remain. There is an ideal life in the forms of +these paintings of an incomparable loveliness, tho most are evidently +the work of very inferior artists. It seems as if, from the atmosphere +of mental beauty which surrounded them, every human being caught a +splendor not his own. + +In one house you see how the bed-rooms were managed; a small sofa was +built up, where the cushions were placed; two pictures, one representing +Diana and Endymion, the other Venus and Mars, decorate the chamber; and +a little niche, which contains the statue of a domestic god. The floor +is composed of a rich mosaic of the rarest marbles, agate, jasper, and +porphyry; it looks to the marble fountain and the snow-white columns, +whose entablatures strew the floor of the portico they supported. The +houses have only one story, and the apartments, tho not large, are very +lofty. A great advantage results from this, wholly unknown in our +cities. + +The public buildings, whose ruins are now forests, as it were, of white +fluted columns, and which then supported entablatures, loaded with +sculptures, were seen on all sides over the roofs of the houses. This +was the excellence of the ancients. Their private expenses were +comparatively moderate; the dwelling of one of the chief senators of +Pompeii is elegant indeed, and adorned with most beautiful specimens of +art, but small. But their public buildings are everywhere marked by the +bold and grand designs of an unsparing magnificence. In the little town +of Pompeii (it contained about twenty thousand inhabitants), it is +wonderful to see the number and the grandeur of their public buildings. +Another advantage, too, is that, in the present case, the glorious +scenery around is not shut out, and that, unlike the inhabitants of the +Cimmerian ravines of modern cities, the ancient Pompeiians could +contemplate the clouds and the lamps of heaven; could see the moon rise +high behind Vesuvius, and the sun set in the sea, tremulous with an +atmosphere of golden vapor, between Inarime and Misenum. + +We next saw the temples. Of the temples of Aesculapius little remains +but an altar of black stone, adorned with a cornice imitating the scales +of a serpent. His statue, in terra-cotta, was found in the cell. The +temple of Isis is more perfect. It is surrounded by a portico of fluted +columns, and in the area around it are two altars, and many ceppi for +statues; and a little chapel of white stucco, as hard as stone, of the +most exquisite proportion; its panels are adorned with figures in +bas-relief, slightly indicated, but of a workmanship the most delicate +and perfect that can be conceived. + +They are Egyptian subjects, executed by a Greek artist, who has +harmonized all the unnatural extravagances of the original conception +into the supernatural loveliness of his country's genius. They scarcely +touch the ground with their feet, and their wind-uplifted robes seem in +the place of wings. The temple in the midst raised on a high platform, +and approached by steps, was decorated with exquisite paintings, some of +which we saw in the museum at Portici. It is small, of the same +materials as the chapel, with a pavement of mosaic, and fluted Ionic +columns of white stucco, so white that it dazzles you to look at it. + +Thence through the other porticos and labyrinths of walls and columns +(for I can not hope to detail everything to you), we came to the Forum. +This is a large square, surrounded by lofty porticos of fluted columns, +some broken, some entire, their entablatures strewed under them. The +temple of Jupiter, of Venus, and another temple, the Tribunal, and the +Hall of Public Justice, with their forest of lofty columns, surround the +Forum. Two pedestals or altars of an enormous size (for, whether they +supported equestrian statues, or were the altars of the temple of Venus, +before which they stand, the guide could not tell), occupy the lower end +of the Forum. At the upper end, supported on an elevated platform, +stands the temple of Jupiter. Under the colonnade of its portico we sat +and pulled out our oranges, and figs, and bread, and medlars (sorry +fare, you will say), and rested to eat. + +Here was a magnificent spectacle. Above and between the multitudinous +shafts of the sun-shining columns was seen the sea, reflecting the +purple heaven of noon above it, and supporting, as it were, on its line +the dark lofty mountains of Sorrento, of a blue inexpressibly deep, and +tinged toward their summits with streaks of new-fallen snow. Between was +one small green island. To the right was Capreae, Inarime, Prochyta, and +Misenum. Behind was the single summit of Vesuvius, rolling forth volumes +of thick white smoke, whose foam-like column was sometimes darted into +the clear dark sky, and fell in little streaks along the wind. Between +Vesuvius and the nearer mountains, as through a chasm, was seen the main +line of the loftiest Apennines, to the east. + +The day was radiant and warm. Every now and then we heard the +subterranean thunder of Vesuvius; its distant deep peals seemed to shake +the very air and light of day, which interpenetrated our frames with the +sullen and tremendous sound. This sound was what the Greeks beheld +(Pompeii, you know, was a Greek city). They lived in harmony with +nature; and the interstices of their incomparable columns were portals, +as it were, to admit the spirit of beauty which animates this glorious +universe to visit those whom it inspired. If such is Pompeii, what was +Athens? What scene was exhibited from the Acropolis, the Parthenon, and +the temples of Hercules, and Theseus, and the Winds? The island and the +AEgean sea, the mountains of Argolis, and the peaks of Pindus and +Olympus, and the darkness of the Boeotian forests interspersed? + +From the Forum we went to another public place; a triangular portico, +half enclosing the ruins of an enormous temple. It is built on the edge +of the hill overlooking the sea. That black point is the temple. In the +apex of the triangle stands an altar and a fountain, and before the +altar once stood the statue of the builder of the portico. Returning +hence, and following the consular road, we came to the eastern gate of +the city. The walls are of an enormous strength, and enclose a space of +three miles. On each side of the road beyond the gate are built the +tombs. How unlike ours! They seem not so much hiding-places for that +which must decay, as voluptuous chambers for immortal spirits. They are +of marble, radiantly white; and two, especially beautiful, are loaded +with exquisite bas-reliefs. On the stucco-wall that encloses them are +little emblematic figures, of a relief exceedingly low, of dead and +dying animals, and little winged genii, and female forms bending in +groups in some funereal office. The high reliefs represent, one a +nautical subject, and the other a Bacchanalian one. + +Within the cell stand the cinerary urns, sometimes one, sometimes more. +It is said that paintings were found within, which are now, as has been +everything movable in Pompeii, removed, and scattered about in royal +museums. These tombs were the most impressive things of all. The wild +woods surround them on either side; and along the broad stones of the +paved road which divides them, you hear the late leaves of autumn shiver +and rustle in the stream of the inconstant wind, as it were, like the +step of ghosts. The radiance and magnificence of these dwellings of the +dead, the white freshness of the scarcely-finished marble, the +impassioned or imaginative life of the figures which adorn them, +contrast strangely with the simplicity of the houses of those who were +living when Vesuvius overwhelmed them. + +I have forgotten the amphitheater, which is of great magnitude, tho much +inferior to the Coliseum. I now understand why the Greeks were such +great poets; and, above all, I can account, it seems to me, for the +harmony, the unity, the perfection, the uniform excellence, of all their +works of art. They lived in a perpetual commerce with external nature, +and nourished themselves upon the spirit of its forms. Their theaters +were all open to the mountains and the sky. Their columns, the ideal +types of a sacred forest, with its roof of interwoven tracery, admitted +the light and wind; the odor and the freshness of the country penetrated +the cities. Their temples were mostly upaithric; and the flying clouds, +the stars, or the deep sky, were seen above. + + + + +VI + +OTHER ITALIAN SCENES + + + + +VERONA[15] + +BY CHARLES DICKENS + + +I had been half afraid to go to Verona, lest it should at all put me out +of conceit with Romeo and Juliet. But, I was no sooner come into the old +Market-place, than the misgiving vanished. It is so fanciful, quaint, +and picturesque a place, formed by such an extraordinary and rich +variety of fantastic buildings, that there could be nothing better at +the core of even this romantic town; scene of one of the most romantic +and beautiful of stories. + +It was natural enough, to go straight from the Market-place, to the +House of the Capulets, now degenerated into a most miserable little inn. +Noisy vetturini and muddy market-carts were disputing possession of the +yard, which was ankle-deep in dirt, with a brood of splashed and +bespattered geese; and there was a grim-visaged dog, viciously panting +in a doorway, who would certainly have had Romeo by the leg, the moment +he put it over the wall, if he had existed and been at large in those +times. The orchard fell into other hands, and was parted off many years +ago; but there used to be one attached to the house--or at all events +there may have been--and the Hat (Cappello), the ancient cognizance of +the family, may still be seen, carved in stone, over the gateway of the +yard. The geese, the market-carts, their drivers, and the dog, were +somewhat in the way of the story, it must be confessed; and it would +have been pleasanter to have found the house empty, and to have been +able to walk through the disused rooms. But the Hat was unspeakably +comfortable; and the place where the garden used to be, hardly less so. +Besides, the house is a distrustful, jealous-looking house as one would +desire to see, tho of a very moderate size. So I was quite satisfied +with it, as the veritable mansion of old Capulet, and was +correspondingly grateful in my acknowledgments to an extremely +unsentimental middle-aged lady, the Padrona of the Hotel, who was +lounging on the threshold looking at the geese. + +From Juliet's home, to Juliet's tomb, is a transition as natural to the +visitor, as to fair Juliet herself, or to the proudest Juliet that ever +has taught the torches to burn bright in any time. So, I went off, with +a guide, to an old, old garden, once belonging to an old, old convent, I +suppose; and being admitted, at a shattered gate, by a bright-eyed woman +who was washing clothes, went down some walks where fresh plants and +young flowers were prettily growing among fragments of old wall, and +ivy-covered mounds; and was shown a little tank, or water-trough, which +the bright-eyed woman--drying her arms upon her 'kerchief--called "La +tomba di Giulietta la sfortunata." With the best disposition in the +world to believe, I could do no more than believe that the bright-eyed +woman believed; so I gave her that much credit, and her customary fee in +ready money. It was a pleasure, rather than a disappointment, that +Juliet's resting-place was forgotten. However consolatory it may have +been to Yorick's Ghost, to hear the feet upon the pavement overhead, +and, twenty times a day, the repetition of his name, it is better for +Juliet to lie out of the track of tourists, and to have no visitors but +such as come to graves in spring-rain, and sweet air, and sunshine. + +Pleasant Verona! With its beautiful old palaces, and charming country in +the distance, seen from terrace walks, and stately, balustraded +galleries. With its Roman gates, still spanning the fair street, and +casting, on the sunlight of to-day, the shade of fifteen hundred years +ago. With its marble-fitted churches, lofty towers, rich architecture, +and quaint old quiet thoroughfares, where shouts of Montagues and +Capulets once resounded. + + And made Verona's ancient citizens + Cast by their grave, beseeming ornaments, + To wield old partisans. + +With its fast-rushing river, picturesque old bridge, great castle, +waving cypresses, and prospect so delightful, and so cheerful! Pleasant +Verona! In the midst of it, in the Piazza di Bra--a spirit of old time +among the familiar realities of the passing hour--is the great Roman +Amphitheater. So well preserved, and carefully maintained, that every +row of seats is there, unbroken. Over certain of the arches, the old +Roman numerals may yet be seen; and there are corridors, and staircases, +and subterranean passages for beasts, and winding ways, above ground and +below, as when the fierce thousands hurried in and out, intent upon the +bloody shows of the arena. Nestling in some of the shadows and hollow +places of the walls, now, are smiths with their forges, and a few small +dealers of one kind or other; and there are green weeds, and leaves, and +grass, upon the parapet. But little else is greatly changed. + +When I had traversed all about it, with great interest, and had gone up +to the topmost round of seats, and turning from the lovely panorama +closed in by the distant Alps, looked down into the building, it seemed +to lie before me like the inside of a prodigious hat of plaited straw, +with an enormously broad brim and a shallow crown; the plaits being +represented by the four-and-forty rows of seats. The comparison is a +homely and fantastic one, in sober remembrance and on paper, but it was +irresistibly suggested at the moment, nevertheless. + + + + +PADUA[16] + +BY THEOPHILE GAUTIER + + +Padua is an ancient city and exhibits a rather respectable appearance +against the horizon with its bell-turrets, its domes, and its old walls +upon which myriads of lizards run and frisk in the sun. Situated near a +center which attracts life to itself, Padua is a dead city with an +almost deserted air. Its streets, bordered by two rows of low arcades, +in nowise recall the elegant and charming architecture of Venice. The +heavy, massive structures have a serious, somewhat crabbed aspect, and +its somber porticos in the lower stories of the houses resemble black +mouths which yawn with ennui. + +We were conducted to a big inn, established probably in some ancient +palace, and whose great halls, dishonored by vulgar uses, had formerly +seen better company. It was a real journey to go from the vestibule to +our room by a host of stairways and corridors; a map of Ariadne's thread +would have been needed to find one's way back. Our windows opened upon a +very pleasant view; a river flows at the foot of the wall--the Brenta or +the Bacchiglione, I know not which, for both water Padua. The banks of +this watercourse were adorned with old houses and long walls, and trees, +too, overhung the banks; some rather picturesque rows of piles, from +which the fishermen cast their lines with that patience characteristic +of them in all countries; huts with nets and linen hanging from the +windows to dry, formed under the sun's rays a very pretty subject for a +water-color. + +After dinner we went to the Cafe Pedrocchi, celebrated throughout all +Italy for its magnificence. Nothing could be more monumentally classic. +There are nothing but pillars, columnets, ovolos, and palm leaves of the +Percier and Fontain kind, the whole very fine and lavish of marble. +What was most curious was some immense maps forming a tapestry and +representing the different divisions of the world on an enormous scale. +This somewhat pedantic decoration gives to the hall an academic air; and +one is surprized not to see a chair in place of the bar, with a +professor in his gown in place of a dispenser of lemonade. + +The University of Padua was formerly famous. In the thirteenth century +eighteen thousand young men, a whole people of scholars, followed the +lessons of the learned professors, among whom later Galileo figured, one +of whose bones is preserved there as a relic, a relic of a martyr who +suffered for the truth. The facade of the University is very beautiful; +four Doric columns give it a severe and monumental air; but solitude +reigns in the class-rooms where to-day scarcely a thousand students can +be reckoned.... + +We paid a visit to the Cathedral dedicated to Saint Anthony, who enjoys +at Padua the same reputation as Saint Januarius at Naples. He is the +"genius loci," the Saint venerated above all others. He used to perform +not less than thirty miracles each day, if Casanova[17] is to be +believed. Such a performance fairly earned for him his surname of +Thaumaturge, but this prodigious zeal has fallen off greatly. +Nevertheless, the reputation of the saint has not suffered, and so many +masses are paid for at his altar that the number of the priests of the +cathedral and of days in the year are not sufficient. To liquidate the +accounts, the Pope has granted permission, at the end of the year, for +masses to be said, each, one of which is of the value of a thousand; in +this fashion Saint Anthony is saved from being bankrupt to his faithful +devotees. + +On the place which adjoins the cathedral, a beautiful equestrian statue +by Donatello, in bronze, rises to view, the first which had been cast +since the days of antiquity, representing a leader of banditti: +Gattamelata, a brigand who surely did not deserve that honor. But the +artist has given him a superb bearing and a spirited figure with his +baton of a Roman emperor, and it is entirely sufficient.... + +One thing which must not be neglected in passing through Padua is a +visit to the old Church of the Arena, situated at the rear of a garden +of luxuriant vegetation, where it would certainly not be conjectured to +be located unless one were advised of the fact. It is entirely painted +in its interior by Giotto. Not a single column, not a single rib, nor +architectural division interrupts that vast tapestry of frescoes. The +general aspect is soft, azure, starry, like a beautiful, calm sky; +ultramarine dominates; thirty compartments of large dimensions, +indicated by simple lines, contain the life of the Virgin and of her +Divine Son in all their details; they might be called illustrations in +miniature of a gigantic missal. The personages, by naive anachronisms +very precious for history, are clothed in the mode of the times in which +Giotto painted. + +Below these compositions of the purest religious feeling, a painted +plinth shows the seven deadly sins symbolized in an ingenious manner, +and other allegorical figures of a very good style; a Paradise and a +Hell, subjects which greatly imprest the minds of the artists of that +epoch, complete this marvelous whole. There are in these paintings weird +and touching details; children issue from their little coffins to mount +to Paradise with a joyous ardor, and launch themselves forth to go to +play upon the blossoming turf of the celestial garden; others stretch +forth their hands to their half-resurrected mothers. The remark may also +be made that all the devils and vices are obese, while the angels and +virtues are thin and slender. The painter wishes to mark the +preponderance of matter in the one class and of spirit in the other. + + + + +FERRARA[18] + +BY THEOPHILE GAUTIER + + +Ferrara rises solitary in the midst of a flat country more rich than +picturesque. When one enters it by the broad street which leads to the +square, the aspect of the city is imposing and monumental. A palace with +a grand staircase occupies a corner of this vast square; it might be a +court-house or a town hall, for people of all classes were entering and +departing through its wide doors.... + +The castle of the ancient dukes of Ferrara, which is to be found a +little farther on, has a fine feudal aspect. It is a vast collection of +towers joined together by high walls crowned with a battlement forming +a cornice, and which emerge from a great moat full of water, over which +one enters by a protected bridge. The castle, built wholly of brick or +of stones reddened by the sun, has a vermilion tint which deprives it of +its imposing effect. It is too much like a decoration of a melodrama. + +It was in this castle that the famous Lucretia Borgia lived, whom Victor +Hugo has made such a monster for us, and whom Ariosto depicts as a model +of chastity, grace and virtue; that blonde Lucretia who wrote letters +breathing the purest love, and some of whose hair, fine as silk and +shining as gold, Byron possest. It was there that the dramas of Tasso +and Ariosto and Guarini were played; there that those brilliant orgies +took place, mingled with poisonings and assassinations, which +characterized that learned and artistic, refined and criminal, period of +Italy. + +It is the custom to pay a pious visit to the problematical dungeon in +which Tasso, mad with love and grief, passed so many years, according to +the poetic legend which grew up concerning his misfortune. We did not +have time to spare and we regretted it very little. This dungeon, a +perfectly correct sketch of which we have before our eyes, consists only +of four walls, ceiled by a low arch. At the back is to be seen a window +grated by heavy bars and a door with big bolts. It is quite unlikely +that in this obscure hole, tapestried with cobwebs, Tasso could have +worked and retouched his poem, composed sonnets, and occupied himself +with small details of toilet, such as the quality of the velvet of his +cap and the silk of his stockings, and with kitchen details, such as +with what kind of sugar he ought to powder his salad, that which he had +not being fine enough for his liking. Neither did we see the house of +Ariosto, another required pilgrimage. Not to speak of the little faith +which one should place in these unauthenticated traditions, in these +relics without character, we prefer to seek Ariosto in the "Orlando +Furioso," and Tasso in the "Jerusalem Delivree" or in the fine drama of +Goethe. + +The life of Ferrara is concentrated on the Plaza Nuova, in front of the +church and in the neighborhood of the castle. Life has not yet abandoned +this heart of the city; but in proportion as one moves away from it, it +becomes more feeble, paralysis begins, death gains; silence, solitude, +and grass invade the streets; one feels that one is wandering about a +Thebes peopled with ghosts of the past and from which the living have +evaporated like water which has dried up. There is nothing more sad than +to see the corpse of a dead city slowly falling into dust in the sun and +rain. One at least buries human bodies. + + + + +LAKE LUGANO[19] + +BY VICTOR TISSOT + + +On emerging from the second tunnel,[20] beyond a wild and narrow gorge, +there lies suddenly before us, as in a gorgeous fairyland or in the +landscape of a dream, the blue expanse of Lake Lugano, with its setting +of green meadows and purple mountains, with the many-colored village +spires, and the great white fronts of the hotels and villas. Oh, what a +wonderful picture! + +We feel as if we were going down into an enchanted garden that has been +hidden by the great snowy walls of the Alps. The air is full of the +perfume of roses and jessamine. The hedges are in flower, butterflies +are dancing, insects are humming, birds are singing. Up above, in the +mountain, is snow, ice, winter, and silence; here there is sunshine, +life, joy, love--all the living delights of spring and summer. Golden +harvests are shining on the plains, and the lake in the distance is like +a piece of the sky brought down to earth. + +Lugano is already Italy, not only because of the richness of the soil +and the magnificence of the vegetation, but also as regards the +language, the manners, and the picturesque costumes. In each valley the +dress is different; in one place the women wear a short skirt, an apron +held in by a girdle, and a bright colored bodice; in another they wear a +cap above which is a large shady hat; in the Val Maroblio they have a +woolen dress not very different from that of the Capuchins. + +The men have not the square figure, the slow, heavy walk of the people +of Basle and Lucerne; they are brisk, vigorous, easy; and the women have +something of the wavy suppleness of vine branches twining among the +trees. These people have the happy, childlike joyousness, the frank +good-nature, of those who live in the open air, who do not shut +themselves up in their houses, but grow freely like the flowers under +the strong, glowing sunshine. + +At every street corner sellers are sitting behind baskets of +extraordinary vegetables and magnificent fruit; and under the arcades +that run along the houses, big grocers in shirt sleeves come at +intervals to their shop doors to take breath, like hippopotami coming +out of the water for the same purpose. In this town, ultramontane in its +piety, the bells of churches and convents are sounding all day long, and +women are seen going to make their evening prayer together in the +nearest chapel. + +But if the fair sex in Lugano are diligent in frequenting the churches, +they by no means scorn the cafes. After sunset the little tables that +are all over the great square are surrounded by an entire population of +men and women. How gay and amusing those Italian cafes are! full of +sound and color, with their red and blue striped awnings, their advance +guard of little tables under the shade of the orange-trees, and their +babbling, stirring, gesticulating company. The waiters, in black vests +and leather slippers, a corner of their apron tucked up in their belt, +run with the speed of kangaroos, carrying on metal plates syrups of +every shade, ices, sweets in red, yellow, or green pyramids. Between +seven and nine o'clock the whole society of Lugano defiles before you. +There are lawyers with their wives, doctors with their daughters, +bankers, professors, merchants, public officials, with whom are +sometimes misted stout, comfortable, jovial-looking canons, wrapping +themselves in the bitter smoke of a regalia, as in a cloud of incense. + + + + +LAKE COMO[21] + +BY PERCY BYSSHE SHELLEY + + +We have been to Como, looking for a house. This lake exceeds anything I +ever beheld in beauty, with the exception of the arbutus islands of +Killarney. It is long and narrow, and has the appearance of a mighty +river winding among the mountains and the forests. We sailed from the +town of Como to a tract of country called the Tremezina, and saw the +various aspects presented by that part of the lake. The mountains +between Como and that village, or rather cluster of villages, are +covered on high with chestnut forests (the eating chestnuts, on which +the inhabitants of the country subsist in time of scarcity), which +sometimes descend to the very verge of the lake, overhanging it with +their hoary branches. But usually the immediate border of this shore is +composed of laurel-trees, and bay, and myrtle, and wild fig-trees, and +olives which grow in the crevices of the rocks, and overhang the +caverns, and shadow the deep glens, which are filled with the flashing +light of the waterfalls. Other flowering shrubs, which I can not name, +grow there also. On high, the towers of village churches are seen white +among the dark forests. + +Beyond, on the opposite shore, which faces the south, the mountains +descend less precipitously to the lake, and altho they are much higher, +and some covered with perpetual snow, there intervenes between them and +the lake a range of lower hills, which have glens and rifts opening to +the other, such as I should fancy the abysses of Ida or Parnassus. Here +are plantations of olive, and orange, and lemon trees, which are now so +loaded with fruit, that there is more fruit than leaves--and vineyards. +This shore of the lake is one continued village, and the Milanese +nobility have their villas here. The union of culture and the untameable +profusion and loveliness of nature is here so close, that the line where +they are divided can hardly be discovered. + +But the finest scenery is that of the Villa Pliniana; so called from a +fountain which ebbs and flows every three hours, described by the +younger Pliny, which is in the courtyard. This house, which was once a +magnificent palace, and is now half in ruins, we are endeavoring to +procure. It is built upon terraces raised from the bottom of the lake, +together with its garden, at the foot of a semicircular precipice, +overshadowed by profound forests of chestnut. The scene from the +colonnade is the most extraordinary, at once, and the most lovely that +eye ever beheld. On one side is the mountain, and immediately over you +are clusters of cypress-trees, of an astonishing height, which seem to +pierce the sky. + +Above you, from among the clouds, as it were, descends a waterfall of +immense size, broken by the woody rocks into a thousand channels to the +lake. On the other side is seen the blue extent of the lake and the +mountains, speckled with sails and spires. The apartments of the +Pliniana are immensely large, but ill-furnished and antique. The +terraces, which overlook the lake, and conduct under the shade of such +immense laurel-trees as deserve the epithet of Pythian, are most +delightful. + + + + +BELLAGIO ON LAKE COMO[22] + +BY W. D. M'CRACKEN + + +The picture of the promontory of Bellagio is so beautiful as a whole +that the traveler had better stand off for awhile to admire it at a +distance and at his leisure. Indeed it is a question whether the lasting +impressions which we treasure of Bellagio are not, after all, those +derived from across the lake, from the shore-fronts of Tremezzo, +Cadenabbia, Menaggio, or Varenna. + +A colossal, conquering geological lion appears to have come up from the +south in times immemorial, bound for the north, and finding further +progress stopt by the great sheet of water in front of him, seems to +have halted and to be now crouching there with his noble head between +his paws and his eyes fixt on the snow-covered Alps. The big white house +on the lion's neck is the Villa Serbelloni, now used as the annex of a +hotel, and the park of noble trees belonging to the villa forms the +lion's mane. Hotels, both large and small, line the quay at the water's +edge; then comes a break in the houses, and stately Villa Melzi is seen +to stand off at one side. Villa Trotti gleams from among its bowers +farther south; on the slope Villa Trivulzio, formerly Poldi, shows +bravely, and Villa Giulia has cut for itself a wide prospect over both +arms of the lake. At the back of this lion couchant, in the middle +ground, sheer mountain walls tower protectingly, culminating in Monte +Grigna. + +The picture varies from hour to hour, from day to day, and from season +to season. Its color-scheme changes with wind and sun, its sparkle comes +and goes from sunrise to sunset; only its form remains untouched through +the night and lives to delight us another day. As the evening wears on, +lights appear one by one on the quay of Bellagio, until there is a line +of fire along the base of the dark peninsula. The hotel windows catch +the glare, the villas light their storied corridors, and presently +Bellagio, all aglow, presents the spectacle of a Venetian night mirrored +in the lake. + +By this time the mountains have turned black and the sky has faded. It +grows so still on the water that the tinkle of a little Italian band +reaches across the lake to Cadenabbia, a laugh rings out into the quiet +air from one of the merry little rowboats, and even the slight clatter +made by the fishermen, in putting their boats to rights for the night +and in carrying their nets indoors, can be distinguished as one of many +indications that the day is done. + +When we land at Bellagio by daylight, we find it to be very much of a +bazaar of souvenirs along the water-front, and everybody determined to +carry away a keepsake. There is so much to buy--ornamental olive wood +and tortoise-shell articles, Como blankets, lace, and what may be +described in general terms as modern antiquities. These abound from shop +to shop; even English groceries are available. Bellagio's principal +street is suddenly converted at its northern end into a delightful +arcade, after the arrangement which constitutes a characteristic charm +of the villages and smaller towns on the Italian lakes; moreover, the +vista up its side street is distinctly original. This mounts steeply +from the waterside, like the streets of Algiers, is narrow and +constructed in long steps to break the incline. + + + + +THE REPUBLIC OF SAN MARINO[23] + +BY JOSEPH ADDISON + + +The town and republic of St. Marino stands on the top of a very high and +craggy mountain. It is generally hid among the clouds, and lay under +snow when I saw it, though it was clear and warm weather in all the +country about it. There is not a spring or fountain, that I could hear +of, in the whole dominions; but they are always well provided with huge +cisterns and reservoirs of rain and snow water. The wine that grows on +the sides of their mountain is extraordinarily good, much better than +any I met with on the cold side of the Apennines. + +This mountain, and a few neighboring hillocks that lie scattered about +the bottom of it, is the whole circuit of these dominions. They have +what they call three castles, three convents, and five churches and can +reckon about five thousand souls in their community.[24] The +inhabitants, as well as the historians who mention this little republic, +give the following account of its origin. St. Marino was its founder, a +Dalmatian by birth, and by trade a mason. He was employed above thirteen +hundred years ago in the reparation of Rimini, and after he had finished +his work, retired to this solitary mountain, as finding it very proper +for the life of a hermit, which he led in the greatest rigors and +austerities of religion. He had not been long here before he wrought a +reputed miracle, which, joined with his extraordinary sanctity, gained +him so great an esteem, that the princess of the country made him a +present of the mountain, to dispose of at his own discretion. His +reputation quickly peopled it, and gave rise to the republic which calls +itself after his name. + +So that the commonwealth of Marino may boast, at least, of a nobler +original than that of Rome, the one having been at first an asylum for +robbers and murderers, and the other a resort of persons eminent for +their piety and devotion. The best of their churches is dedicated to the +saint, and holds his ashes. His statue stands over the high altar, with +the figure of a mountain in its hands, crowned with three castles, which +is likewise the arms of the commonwealth. They attribute to his +protection the long duration of their state, and look on him as the +greatest saint next the blessed virgin. I saw in their statute-book a +law against such as speak disrespectfully of him, who are to be punished +in the same manner as those convicted of blasphemy. + +This petty republic has now lasted thirteen hundred years,[25] while all +the other states of Italy have several times changed their masters and +forms of government. Their whole history is comprised in two purchases, +which they made of a neighboring prince, and in a war in which they +assisted the pope against a lord of Rimini. In the year 1100 they bought +a castle in the neighborhood, as they did another in the year 1170. The +papers of the conditions are preserved in their archives, where it is +very remarkable that the name of the agent for the commonwealth, of the +seller, of the notary, and the witnesses, are the same in both the +instruments, tho drawn up at seventy years' distance from each other. +Nor can it be any mistake in the date, because the popes' and emperors' +names, with the year of their respective reigns, are both punctually set +down. About two hundred and ninety years after this they assisted Pope +Pius the Second against one of the Malatestas, who was then, lord of +Rimini; and when they had helped to conquer him, received from the pope, +as a reward for their assistance, four little castles. This they +represent as the flourishing time of the commonwealth, when their +dominions reached half-way up a neighboring hill; but at present they +are reduced to their old extent.... + +The chief officers of the commonwealth are the two capitaneos, who have +such a power as the old Roman consuls had, but are chosen every six +months. I talked with some that had been capitaneos six or seven times, +tho the office is never to be continued to the same persons twice +successively. The third officer is the commissary, who judges in all +civil and criminal matters. But because the many alliances, friendships, +and intermarriages, as well as the personal feuds and animosities, that +happen among so small a people might obstruct the course of justice, if +one of their own number had the distribution of it, they have always a +foreigner for this employ, whom they choose for three years, and +maintain out of the public stock. He must be a doctor of law, and a man +of known integrity. He is joined in commission with the capitaneos, and +acts something like the recorder of London under the lord mayor. The +commonwealth of Genoa was forced to make use of a foreign judge for many +years, while their republic was torn into the divisions of Guelphs and +Ghibelines. The fourth man in the state is the physician, who must +likewise be a stranger, and is maintained by a public salary. He is +obliged to keep a horse, to visit the sick, and to inspect all drugs +that are imported. He must be at least thirty-five years old, a doctor +of the faculty, and eminent for his religion and honesty, that his +rashness or ignorance may not unpeople the commonwealth. And, that they +may not suffer long under any bad choice, he is elected only for three +years. + +The people are esteemed very honest and rigorous in the execution of +justice, and seem to live more happy and contented among their rocks and +snows, than others of the Italians do in the pleasantest valleys of the +world. Nothing, indeed, can be a greater instance of the natural love +that mankind has for liberty, and of their aversion to an arbitrary +government, than such a savage mountain covered with people, and the +Campania of Rome, which lies in the same country, almost destitute of +inhabitants. + + + + +PERUGIA[26] + +BY NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE + + +We pursued our way, and came, by and by, to the foot of the high hill on +which stands Perugia, and which is so long and steep that Gaetano took a +yoke of oxen to aid his horses in the ascent. We all, except my wife, +walked a part of the way up, and I myself, with J----[27] for my +companion, kept on even to the city gate, a distance, I should think, of +two or three miles, at least. The lower part of the road was on the edge +of the hill, with a narrow valley on our left; and as the sun had now +broken out, its verdure and fertility, its foliage and cultivation, +shone forth in miraculous beauty, as green as England, as bright as only +Italy. + +Perugia appeared above us, crowning a mighty hill, the most picturesque +of cities; and the higher we ascended, the more the view opened before +us, as we looked back on the course that we had traversed, and saw the +wide valley, sweeping down and spreading out, bounded afar by mountains, +and sleeping in sun and shadow. No language nor any art of the pencil +can give an idea of the scene.... + +We plunged from the upper city down through some of the strangest +passages that ever were called streets; some of them, indeed, being +arched all over, and, going down into the unknown darkness, looked like +caverns; and we followed one of them doubtfully, till it opened, out +upon the light. The houses on each side were divided only by a pace or +two, and communicated with one another, here and there, by arched +passages. They looked very ancient, and may have been inhabited by +Etruscan princes, judging from the massiveness of some of the foundation +stones. The present inhabitants, nevertheless, are by no means princely, +shabby men, and the careworn wives and mothers of the people, one of +whom was guiding a child in leading-strings through these antique +alleys, where hundreds of generations have trod before those little +feet. Finally we came out through a gateway, the same gateway at which +we entered last night. + +The best part of Perugia, that in which the grand piazzas and the +principal public edifices stand, seems to be a nearly level plateau on +the summit of the hill; but it is of no very great extent, and the +streets rapidly run downward on either side. J---- and I followed one of +these descending streets, and were led a long way by it, till we at last +emerged from one of the gates of the city, and had another view of the +mountains and valleys, the fertile and sunny wilderness in which this +ancient civilization stands. + +On the right of the gate there was a rude country path, partly overgrown +with grass, bordered by a hedge on one side, and on the other by the +gray city wall, at the base of which the tract kept onward. We followed +it, hoping that it would lead us to some other gate by which we might +reenter the city; but it soon grew so indistinct and broken, that it was +evidently on the point of melting into somebody's olive-orchard or +wheat-fields or vineyards, all of which lay on the other side of the +hedge; and a kindly old woman of whom I inquired told me (if I rightly +understood her Italian) that I should find no further passage in that +direction. So we turned back, much broiled in the hot sun, and only now +and then relieved by the shadow of an angle or a tower. + + + + +SIENA[28] + +BY MR. AND MRS. EDWIN H. BLASHFIELD + + +That admirers of minute designs and florid detail could appreciate +grandeur as well, no one can doubt who has seen the plans of the Sienese +cathedral. Its history is one of a grand result, and of far grander, tho +thwarted endeavor, and it is hard to realize to-day, that the church as +it stands is but a fragment, the transept only, of what Siena willed. +From the state of the existing works no one can doubt that the brave +little republic would have finished it had she not met an enemy before +whom the sword of Monteaperto was useless. The plague of 1348 stalked +across Tuscany, and the chill of thirty thousand Sienese graves numbed +the hand of master and workman, sweeping away the architect who planned, +the masons who built, the magistrates who ordered, it left but the +yellowed parchment in the archives which conferred upon Maestro Lorenzo +Maitani the superintendence of the works. + +The facade of the present church is amazing in its richness, undoubtedly +possesses some grand and much lovely detail, and is as undoubtedly +suggestive, with its white marble ornaments upon a pink marble ground, +of a huge, sugared cake. It is impossible to look at this restored +whiteness with the sun upon it; the dazzled eyes close involuntarily and +one sees in retrospect the great, gray church front at Rheims, or the +solemn facade of Notre Dame de Paris. It is like remembering an organ +burst of Handel after hearing the florid roulades of the mass within the +cathedral. + +The interior is rich in color and fine in effect, but the northerner is +painfully imprest by the black and white horizontal stripes which, +running from vaulting to pavement, seem to blur and confuse the vision, +and the closely set bars of the piers are positively irritating. In the +hexagonal lantern, however, they are less offensive than elsewhere, +because the fan-like radiation of the bars above the great gilded +statues breaks up the horizontal effect. The decoration of the +stone-work is not happy; the use of cold red and cold blue with gilt +bosses in relief does much to vulgarize, and there is constant sally in +small masses which belittles the general effect. It is evident that the +Sienese tendency to floridity is answerable for much of this, and that +having added some piece of big and bad decoration, the cornice of papal +head, for instance, they felt forced to do away with it or continue it +throughout. + +But this fault and many others are forgotten when we examine the detail +with which later men have filled the church. Other Italian cathedrals +possess art-objects of a higher order; perhaps no other one is so rich +in these treasures. The great masters are disappointing here. Raphael, +as the co-laborer of Pinturicchio, is dainty, rather than great, and +Michelangelo passes unnoticed in the huge and coldly elaborate +altar-front of the Piccolomini. But Marrina, with his doors of the +library; Barili, with his marvelous casing of the choir-stalls; +Beccafumi, with his bronze and neillo--these are the artists whom one +wonders at; these wood-carvers and bronze-founders, creators of the +microcosmic detail of the Renaissance which had at last burst +triumphantly into Siena. + +This treasure is cumulative, as we walk eastward from the main door, +where the pillars are a maze of scroll-work in deepest cutting, and by +the time we reach the choir the head fairly swims with the play of light +and color. We wander from point to point, we finger and caress the +lustrous stalls of Barili, and turn with a kind of confusion of vision +from panel to panel; above our heads the tabernacle of Vecchietta, the +lamp bearing angels of Beccafumi make spots of bituminous color, with +glittering high-lights, strangely emphasizing their modeling; from these +youths, who might be pages to some Roman prefect, the eye travels upward +still further, along the golden convolutions of the heavily stuccoed +pilasters to the huge, gilded cherubs' heads that frame the eastern +rose.... + +It is incredible that these frescoes are four hundred years old. Surely +Pinturicchio came down from his scaffolding but yesterday. This is how +the hardly dried plaster must have looked to pope and cardinal and +princes when the boards were removed, and when the very figures on these +walls--smart youths in tights and slashes, bright-robed scholars, +ecclesiastics caped in ermine, ladies with long braids bound in nets of +silk--crowded to see themselves embalmed in tempera for curious +after-centuries to gaze upon. + + + + +THE ASSISSI OF ST. FRANCIS[29] + +BY HIPPOLYTE ADOLPHE TAINE + + +On the summit of an abrupt height, over a double row of arcades, appears +the monastery; at its base a torrent plows the soil, winding off in the +distance between banks of boulders; beyond is the old town prolonging +itself on the ridge of the mountain. We ascend slowly under the burning +sun, and suddenly, at the end of a court surrounded by slender columns, +enter within the obscurity of the cathedral. It is unequalled; before +having seen it one has no idea of the art and the genius of the Middle +Ages. Append to it Dante and the "Fioretti" of St. Francis, and it +becomes the masterpiece of mystic Christianity. + +There are three churches, one above the other, all of them arranged +around the tomb of St. Francis. Over this venerated body, which the +people regard as ever living and absorbed in prayer at the bottom of an +inaccessible cave, the edifice has arisen and gloriously flowered like +an architectural shrine. The lowest is a crypt, dark as a sepulcher, +into which the visitors descend with torches; pilgrims keep close to the +dripping walls and grope along in order to reach the grating. + +Here is the tomb, in a pale, dim light, similar to that of limbo. A few +brass lamps, almost without lights, burn here eternally like stars lost +in mournful obscurity. The ascending smoke clings to the arches, and the +heavy odor of the tapers mingles with that of the cave. The guide trims +his torch; and the sudden flash in this horrible darkness, above the +bones of a corpse, is like one of Dante's visions. Here is the mystic +grave of a saint who, in the midst of corruption and worms, beholds his +slimy dungeon of earth filled with the supernatural radiance of the +Savior. + +But that which can not be represented by words is the middle church, a +long, low spiracle supported by small, round arches curving in the +half-shadow, and whose voluntary depression makes one instinctively +bend his knees. A coating of somber blue and of reddish bands starred +with gold, a marvelous embroidery of ornaments, wreaths, delicate +scroll-work, leaves, and painted figures, covers the arches and ceilings +with its harmonious multitude; the eye is overwhelmed by it; a +population of forms and tints lives on its vaults; I would not exchange +this cavern for all the churches of Rome! + +On the summit, the upper church shoots up as brilliant, as aerial, as +triumphant, as this is low and grave. Really, if one were to give way to +conjecture, he might suppose that in these three sanctuaries the +architect meant to represent the three worlds; below, the gloom of death +and the horrors of the infernal tomb; in the middle, the impassioned +anxiety of the beseeching Christian who strives and hopes in this world +of trial; aloft, the bliss and dazzling glory of Paradise. + + + + +RAVENNA[30] + +BY EDWARD A. FREEMAN + + +With exceptions, all the monuments of Ravenna belong to the days of +transition from Roman to Medieval times, and the greater part of them +come within the fifth and sixth centuries. It was then that Ravenna +became, for a season, the head of Italy and of the Western world. The +sea had made Ravenna a great haven: the falling back of the sea made her +the ruling city of the earth. Augustus had called into being the port of +Caesarea as the Peiraieus of the Old Thessalian or Umbrian Ravenna. +Haven and city grew and became one; but the faithless element again fell +back; the haven of Augustus became dry land covered by orchards, and +Classis arose as the third station, leaving Ravenna itself an inland +city. + +Again has the sea fallen back; Caesarea has utterly perished; Classis +survives only in one venerable church; the famous pine forest has grown +up between the third haven and the now distant Hadriatic. Out of all +this grew the momentary greatness of Ravenna. The city, girded with the +three fold zone of marshes, causeways, and strong walls, became the +impregnable shelter of the later Emperors; and the earliest Teutonic +Kings naturally fixt their royal seat in the city of their Imperial +predecessors. When this immediate need had passed away, the city +naturally fell into insignificance, and it plays hardly any part in the +history of Medieval Italy. Hence it is that the city is crowded with the +monuments of an age which has left hardly any monuments elsewhere. + +In Britain, indeed, if Dr. Merivale be right in the date which he gives +to the great Northern wall, we have a wonderful relic of those times; +but it is the work, not of the architect, but of the military engineers. +In other parts of Europe also works of this date are found here and +there; but nowhere save at Ravenna is there a whole city, so to speak, +made up of them. Nowhere but at Ravenna can we find, thickly scattered +around us, the churches, the tombs, perhaps the palaces, of the last +Roman and the first Teutonic rulers of Italy. In the Old and in the New +Rome, and in Milan also, works of the same date exist; but either they +do not form the chief objects of the city, or they have lost their +character and position through later changes. If Ravenna boasts of the +tombs of Honorius and Theodoric, Milan boasts also, truly or falsely, of +the tombs of Stilicho and Athaulf. But at Milan we have to seek for the +so-called tomb of Athaulf in a side-chapel of a church which has lost +all ancient character, and the so-called tomb of Stilicho, tho placed in +the most venerable church of the city, stands in a strange position as +the support of a pulpit. + +At Ravenna, on the other hand, the mighty mausoleum of Theodoric, and +the chapel which contains the tombs of Galla Placidia, her brother, and +her second husband, are among the best known and best preserved +monuments of the city. Ravenna, in the days of its Exarchs, could never +have dared to set up its own St. Vital as a rival to Imperial St. +Sophia. But at St. Sophia, changed into the temple of another faith, the +most characteristic ornaments have been hidden or torn away, while at +St. Vital Hebrew patriarchs and Christian saints, and the Imperial forms +of Justinian and his strangely-chosen Empress, still look down, as they +did thirteen hundred years back, upon the altars of Christian worship. +Ravenna, in short, seems, as it were, to have been preserved all but +untouched to keep up the memory of the days which were alike Roman, +Christian, and Imperial. + + + + +BENEDICTINE SUBIACO[31] + +BY AUGUSTUS J. C. HARE + + +One of the excellent mountain roads constructed by Pius IX. leads +through a wild district from Olevano to Subiaco. A few miles before +reaching Subiaco we skirt a lake, probably one of the Simbrivii Lacus +which Nero is believed to have made by damming up the Anio. Here he +fished for trout with a golden net, and here he built the mountain villa +which he called Sublaqueum--a name which still exists in Subiaco. + +Four centuries after the valley had witnessed the orgies of Nero, a +young patrician of the family of the Anicii-Benedictus, or "the blessed +one," being only fourteen at the time, fled from the seductions of the +capital to the rocks of Mentorella, but, being followed thither, sought +a more complete solitude in a cave above the falls of the Anio. Here he +lived unknown to any except the hermit Romanus, who daily let down food +to him, half of his own loaf, by a cord from the top of the cliff. At +length the hiding-place was revealed to the village priest in a vision, +and pilgrims flocked from all quarters to the valley. Through the +disciples who gathered around Benedict, this desolate ravine became the +cradle of monastic life in the West, and twelve monasteries rose amid +its peaks under the Benedictine rule.... + +Nothing can exceed the solemn grandeur of the situation of the convent +dedicated to St. Scholastica, the sainted sister of St. Benedict, which +was founded in the fifth century, and which, till quite lately, included +as many as sixteen towns and villages among its possessions. The scenery +becomes more romantic and savage at every step as we ascend the winding +path after leaving St. Scholastica, till a small gate admits us to the +famous immemorial Ilex Grove of St. Benedict, which is said to date from +the fifth century, and which has never been profaned by ax or hatchet. +Beyond it the path narrows, and a steep winding stair, just wide enough +to admit one person at a time, leads to the platform before the second +convent, which up to that moment is entirely concealed. Its name, Sacro +Speco, commemorates the holy cave of St. Benedict. + +At the portal, the thrilling interest of the place is suggested by the +inscription--"Here is the patriarchal cradle of the monks of the West +Order of St. Benedict." The entrance corridor, built on arches over the +abyss, has frescoes of four sainted popes, and ends in an ante-chamber +with beautiful Umbrian frescoes, and a painted statue of St. Benedict. +Here we enter the all-glorious church of 1116, completely covered with +ancient frescoes. A number of smaller chapels, hewn out of the rock, are +dedicated to the sainted followers of the founder. Some of the paintings +are by the rare Umbrian master Concioli. A staircase in front of the +high altar leads to the lower church. At the foot of the first flight of +steps, above the charter of 1213, setting forth all its privileges, is +the frescoed figure of Innocent III., who first raised Subiaco into an +abbacy; in the same fresco is represented Abbot John of Tagliacozzo, +under whom (1217-1277) many of the paintings were executed. + +On the second landing, the figure of Benedict faces us on a window with +his finger on his lips, imposing silence. On the left is the coro, on +the right the cave where Benedict is said to have passed three years in +darkness. A statue by Raggi commemorates his presence here; a basket is +a memorial of that lowered with his food by St. Romanus; an ancient bell +is shown as that which rang to announce its approach. As we descend the +Scala Santa trodden by the feet of Benedict, and ascended by the monks +upon their knees, the solemn beauty of the place increases at every +step. On the right is a powerful fresco of Death mowing down the young +and sparing the old; on the left, the Preacher shows the young and +thoughtless the three states to which the body is reduced after death. +Lastly, we reach the Holy of Holies, the second cave, in which Benedict +laid down the rule of his order, making its basis the twelve degrees of +humility. Here also an inscription enumerates the wonderful series of +saints, who, issuing from Subiaco, founded the Benedictine Order +throughout the world. + + + + +ETRUSCAN VOLTERRA[32] + +BY WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT + + +For several miles before reaching Volterra, our attention was fixt by +the extraordinary aspect of the country through which we were passing. +The road gradually ascended, and we found ourselves among deep ravines +and steep, high, broken banks, principally of clay, barren, and in most +places wholly bare of herbage, a scene of complete desolation, were it +not for a cottage here and there perched upon the heights, a few sheep +attended by a boy and a dog grazing on the brink of one of the +precipices, or a solitary patch of bright green wheat in some spot where +the rains had not yet carried away the vegetable mold. + +In the midst of this desolate tract, which is, however, here and there +interspersed with fertile spots, rises the mountain on which Volterra is +situated, where the inhabitants breathe a pure and keen atmosphere, +almost perpetually cool, and only die of pleurisies and apoplexies; +while below, on the banks of the Cecina, which in full sight winds its +way to the sea, they die of fevers. One of the ravines of which I have +spoken--the "balza," they call it at Volterra--has plowed a deep chasm +on the north side of this mountain, and is every year rapidly +approaching the city on its summit. I stood on its edge and looked down +a bank of soft, red earth five hundred feet in height. A few rods in +front of me I saw where a road had crossed the spot in which the gulf +now yawned; the tracks of the last year's carriages were seen reaching +to the edge on both sides. The ruins of a convent were close at hand, +the inmates of which, two or three years since, had been removed by the +Government to the town for safety.... + +The antiquities of Volterra consist of an Etruscan burial-ground, in +which the tombs still remain, pieces of the old and incredibly massive +Etruscan wall, including a far larger circuit than the present city, two +Etruscan gates of immemorial antiquity, older, doubtless, than any thing +at Rome, built of enormous stones, one of them serving even yet as an +entrance to the town, and a multitude of cinerary vessels, mostly of +alabaster, sculptured with numerous figures in "alto relievo." These +figures are sometimes allegorical representations, and sometimes embody +the fables of the Greek mythology. Among them are many in the most +perfect style of Grecian art, the subjects of which are taken from the +poems of Homer; groups representing the besiegers of Troy and its +defenders, or Ulysses with his companions and his ships. I gazed with +exceeding delight on these works of forgotten artists, who had the +verses of Homer by heart--works just drawn from the tombs where they had +been buried for thousands of years, and looking as if fresh from the +chisel. + + + + +THE PAESTUM OF THE GREEKS[33] + +BY EDWARD A. FREEMAN + + +Few buildings are more familiar than the temples of Paestum; yet the +moment when the traveler first comes in sight of works of untouched +Hellenic skill is one which is simply overwhelming. Suddenly, by the +side of a dreary road, in a spot backed indeed by noble mountains, but +having no charm of its own, we come on these works, unrivaled on our +side of the Hadriatic and the Messenian strait, standing in all their +solitary grandeur, shattered indeed, but far more perfect than the mass +of ruined buildings of later days. The feeling of being brought near to +Hellenic days and Hellenic men, of standing face to face with the +fathers of the world's civilization, is one which can never pass away. +Descriptions, pictures, models, all fail; they give us the outward form; +they can not give us the true life. + +The thought comes upon us that we have passed away from that Roman world +out of which our own world has sprung into that earlier and fresher and +brighter world by which Rome and ourselves have been so deeply +influenced, but out of which neither the Roman nor the modern world can +be said to spring. There is the true Doric in its earliest form, in all +its unmixed and simple majesty. The ground is strewed with shells and +covered with acanthus-leaves; but no shell had suggested the Ionic +volute, no acanthus-leaf had suggested the Corinthian foliage. The vast +columns, with the sudden tapering, the overhanging capitals, the stern, +square abacus, all betoken the infancy of art. But it is an infancy like +that of their own Herakles; the strength which clutched the serpent in +his cradle is there in every stone. Later improvements, the improvements +of Attic skill, may have added grace; the perfection of art may be found +in the city which the vote of the divine Assembly decreed to Athene; but +for the sense of power, of simplicity without rudeness, the city of +Poseidon holds her own. Unlike in every detail, there is in these +wonderful works of early Greek art a spirit akin to some of the great +churches of Romanesque date, simple, massive, unadorned, like the +Poseidonian Doric. + +And they show, too, how far the ancient architects were from any slavish +bondage to those minute rules which moderns have invented for them. In +each of the three temples of Paestum differences both of detail and of +arrangement may be marked, differences partly of age, but also partly of +taste. And some other thoughts are brought forcibly upon the mind. Here +indeed we feel that the wonders of Hellenic architecture are things to +kindle our admiration, even our reverence; but that, as the expression +of a state of things which has wholly passed away, nothing can be less +fit for reproduction in modern times. + +And again, we may be sure that the admiration and reverence which they +may awaken in the mind of the mere classical purist is cold beside that +which they kindle in the mind which can give them their true place in +the history of art. The temples of Paestum are great and noble from any +point of view. But they become greater and nobler as we run over the +successive steps in the long series by which their massive columns and +entablatures grew into the tall clusters and soaring arches of +Westminster and Amiens. + + + + +VII + +SICILIAN SCENES + + + + +PALERMO[34] + +BY WILL S. MONROE + + +While not one of the original Hellenic city-states, Palermo has a superb +location on the northern shores of the central island of the central +sea; its harbor is guarded by the two picturesque cliffs and the fertile +plain that forms the "compagne" is hemmed in by a semicircular cord of +rugged mountains. "Perhaps there are few spots upon the surface of the +globe more beautiful than Palermo," writes Arthur Symonds. "The hills on +either hand descend upon the sea with long-drawn delicately broken +outlines, so delicately tinted with aerial hues at early dawn or beneath +the blue light of a full moon the panorama seems to be some fabric of +fancy, that must fade away, 'like shapes of clouds we form,' to nothing. +Within the cradle of these hills, and close upon the tideless water, +lies the city. Behind and around on every side stretches the famous +Conco d'Oro, or golden shell, a plain of marvelous fertility, so called +because of its richness and also because of its shape; for it tapers to +a fine point where the mountains meet, and spreads abroad, where they +diverge, like a cornucopia. The whole of this long vega is a garden, +thick with olive-groves and orange trees, with orchards of nespole and +palms and almonds, with fig-trees and locust-trees, with judas-trees +that blush in spring, and with flowers as multitudinously brilliant as +the fretwork of sunset clouds." + +During the days of Phoenician and Carthagenian supremacy Palermo was a +busy mart--a great clearing-house for the commerce of the island and +that part of the Mediterranean. But during the days of the Saracens it +became not only a very busy city but also a very beautiful city. The +Arabian poets extolled its charms in terms that sound to us exceedingly +extravagant. One of them wrote: "Oh how beautiful is the lakelet of the +twin palms and the island where the spacious palace stands. The limpid +waters of the double springs resemble liquid pearls, and their basin is +a sea; you would say that the branches of the trees stretched down to +see the fishes in the pool and smile at them. The great fishes in those +clear waters, and the birds among the gardens tune their songs. The ripe +oranges of the island are like fire that burns on boughs of emerald; the +pale lemon reminds me of a lover who has passed the night in weeping for +his absent darling. The two palms may be compared to lovers who have +gained an inaccessible retreat against their enemies, or raise +themselves erect in pride to confound the murmurs and the ill thoughts +of jealous men. O palms of two lakelets of Palermo, ceaseless, +undisturbed, and plenteous days for ever keep your freshness." + +With the coming of the Normans Palermo enjoyed even greater prosperity +than had been experienced under the liberal rule of the Saracens. This +was the most brilliant period in the history of the city. The population +was even more mixed than during Moslem supremacy. Besides the Greeks, +Normans, Saracens, and Hebrews, there were commercial colonies of Slavs, +Venetians, Lombardians, Catalans, and Pisans. + +The most interesting public monuments at Palermo date from the Norman +period; and while many of the buildings are strikingly Saracenic in +character and recall similar structures erected by the Arabs in Spain, +it will be remembered that the Normans brought no trained architects to +the island, but employed the Arabs, Greeks, and Hebrews who had already +been in the service of the Saracen emirs. But the Arab influence in +architecture was dominant, and it survived well into the fourteenth +century. + + + + +GIRGENTI[35] + +BY EDWARD A. FREEMAN + + +The reported luxury of the Sikeliot cities in this age is, in the +double-edged saying of Empedocles, connected with one of their noblest +tastes. They built their houses as if they were going to live for ever. +And if their houses, how much more their temples and other public +buildings? In some of the Sikeliot cities, this was the most brilliant +time of architectural splendor. At Syracuse indeed the greatest +buildings which remain to tell their own story belong either to an +earlier or to a later time. It is the theater alone, as in its first +estate a probable work of the first Hieron, which at all connects itself +with our present time. But at Akragas[36] and at Selinous the greatest +of the existing buildings belong to the days of republican freedom and +independence. At Akragas what the tyrant began the democracy went on +with. The series of temples that line the southern wall are due to an +impulse which began under Theron and went on to the days of the +Carthaginian siege. + +Of the greatest among them, the temple of Olympian Zeus, this is +literally true. There can be little doubt that it was begun as one of +the thank-offerings after the victory of Himera, and it is certain that +at the coming of Hannibal and Hamilkon it was still so far imperfect +that the roof was not yet added. It was therefore in building during a +time of more than seventy years, years which take in the whole of the +brilliant days of Akragantine freedom and well-being. + +To the same period also belong the other temples in the lower city, +temples which abide above ground either standing or in ruins, while the +older temples in the akropolis have to be looked for underneath +buildings of later ages. It was a grand conception to line the southern +wall, the wall most open to the attacks of mortal enemies, with this +wonderful series of holy places of the divine protectors of the city. It +was a conception due, we may believe, in the first instance, to Theron, +but which the democracy fully entered into and carried out. The two best +preserved of the range stand to the east; one indeed occupies the +southeastern corner of the fortified enclosure. + +Next in order to the west comes the temple which bears a name not +unlikely, but altogether impossible and unmeaning, the so-called temple +of Concord. No reasonable guess can be made at its pagan dedication; in +the fifteenth century of our era it followed the far earlier precedent +of the temples in the akropolis. It became the church of Saint Gregory, +not of any of the great pontiffs and doctors of the Church, but of the +local bishop whose full description as Saint Gregory of the Turnips can +hardly be written without a smile. The peristyle was walled up, and +arches were cut through the walls of the cella, exactly as in the great +church of Syracuse. Saint Gregory of Girgenti plays no such part in the +world's history as was played by the Panagia of Syracuse; we may +therefore be more inclined to extend some mercy to the Bourbon king who +set free the columns as we now see them. When he had gone so far, one +might even wish that he had gone on to wall up the arches. In each of +the former states of the building there was a solid wall somewhere to +give shelter from the blasts which sweep round this exposed spot. As the +building now stands, it is, after the Athenian house of Theseus and +Saint George, the best preserved Greek temple in being. Like its fellow +to the east, it is a building of moderate size, of the middle stage of +Doric, with columns less massive than those of Syracuse and Corinth, +less slender than those of Nemea. + +Again to the west stood a temple of greater size, nearly ranging in +scale with the Athenian Parthenon, which is assigned, with far more of +likelihood than the other names, to Herakles. Save one patched-up column +standing amid the general ruin, it has, in the language of the prophet, +become heaps. All that is left is a mass of huge stones, among which we +can see the mighty columns, fallen, each in its place, overthrown, it is +clear, by no hand of man but by those powers of the nether world whose +sway is felt in every corner of Sicilian soil. + +These three temples form a continuous range along the eastern part of +the southern wall of the city. To the west of them, parted from them by +a gate, which, in Roman times at least, bore, as at Constantinople and +Spalato, the name of Golden, rose the mightiest work of Akragantine +splendor and devotion, the great Olympieion itself. Of this gigantic +building, the vastest Greek temple in Europe, we happily have somewhat +full descriptions from men who had looked at it, if not in the days of +its full glory, yet at least when it was a house standing up, and not a +ruin. As it now lies, a few fragments of wall still standing amid +confused heaps of fallen stones, of broken columns and capitals, no +building kindles a more earnest desire to see it as it stood in the days +of its perfection. + +[Illustration: CITY AND BAY OF NAPLES WITH VESUVIUS IN THE DISTANCE + Courtesy International Mercantile Marine Co.] + +[Illustration: TEMPLE OF THESEUS AT ATHENS] + +[Illustration: PALERMO, SICILY, FROM THE SEA +Courtesy L. C. Page & Co.] + +[Illustration: GREEK THEATER AT SEGESTA, SICILY] + +[Illustration: TEMPLE OF CONCORD, GIRGENTI, SICILY] + +[Illustration: TEMPLE OF JUNO AT GIRGENTI, SICILY] + +[Illustration: AMPHITHEATER AT SYRACUSE, SICILY] + +[Illustration: GREEK TEMPLE AT SEGESTA, SICILY + Courtesy L. C. Page & Co.] + +[Illustration: HARBOR OF SYRACUSE, SICILY + Courtesy L. C. Page & Co.] + +[Illustration: THE SO-CALLED "SHIP OF ULYSSES" OFF CORFU + Courtesy Houghton, Mifflin Co.] + +[Illustration: TEMPLE OF THE OLYMPIAN ZEUS AT ATHENS +Courtesy Houghton, Mifflin Co.] + +[Illustration: THE PLAIN BELOW DELPHI +Courtesy Houghton, Mifflin Co.] + +[Illustration: THE ROAD NEAR DELPHI +Courtesy Houghton, Mifflin Co.] + +[Illustration: ENTRANCE TO THE STADIUM AT OLYMPIA +Courtesy Houghton, Mifflin Co.] + +[Illustration: THRONE OF MINOS IN CRETE +(Minoan civilization in Crete antedates the Homeric age--perhaps by many +centuries) Courtesy Houghton, Mifflin Co.] + + + + +SEGESTE[37] + +BY JOHANN WOLFGANG VON GOETHE + + +The temple of Segeste was never finished; the ground around it was never +even leveled; the space only being smoothed on which the peristyle was +to stand. For, in several places, the steps are from nine to ten feet in +the ground, and there is no hill near, from which the stone or mold +could have fallen. Besides, the stones lie in their natural position, +and no ruins are found near them. + +The columns are all standing; two which had fallen, have very recently +been raised again. How far the columns rested on a socle is hard to say; +and without an engraving it is difficult to give an idea of their +present state. At some points it would seem as if the pillars rested on +the fourth step. In that case to enter the temple you would have to go +down a step. In other places, however, the uppermost step is cut +through, and then it looks as if the columns had rested on bases; and +then again these spaces have been filled up, and so we have once more +the first case. An architect is necessary to determine this point. + +The sides have twelve columns, not reckoning the corner ones; the back +and front six, including them. The rollers on which the stones were +moved along, still lie around you on the steps. They have been left in +order to indicate that the temple was unfinished. But the strongest +evidence of this fact is the floor. In some spots (along the sides) the +pavement is laid down; in the middle, however, the red limestone rock +still projects higher than the level of the floor as partially laid; the +flooring, therefore, can not ever have been finished. There is also no +trace of an inner temple. Still less can the temple have ever been +overlaid with stucco; but that it was intended to do so, we may infer +from the fact that the abaci of the capitals have projecting points +probably for the purpose of holding the plaster. The whole is built of a +limestone, very similar to the travertine; only it is now much fretted. +The restoration which was carried on in 1781, has done much good to the +building. The cutting of the stone, with which the parts have been +reconnected, is simple, but beautiful. + +The site of the temple is singular; at the highest end of a broad and +long valley, it stands on an isolated hill. Surrounded, however, on all +sides by cliffs, it commands a very distant and extensive view of the +land, but takes in only just a corner of the sea. The district reposes +in a sort of melancholy fertility--every where well cultivated, but +scarce a dwelling to be seen. Flowering thistles were swarming with +countless butterflies, wild fennel stood here from eight to nine feet +high, dry and withered of the last year's growth, but so rich and in +such seeming order that one might almost take it to be an old +nursery-ground. A shrill wind whistled through the columns as if through +a wood, and screaming birds of prey hovered around the pediments. + + + + +TAORMINA[38] + +BY JOHANN WOLFGANG VON GOETHE + + +When you have ascended to the top of the wall of rocks [at Taormina], +which rise precipitously at no great distance from the sea, you find two +peaks, connected by a semicircle. Whatever shape this may have had +originally from Nature has been helped by the hand of man, which has +formed out of it an amphitheater for spectators. Walls and other +buildings have furnished the necessary passages and rooms. Right across, +at the foot of the semicircular range of seats, the scene was built, and +by this means the two rocks were joined together, and a most enormous +work of nature and art combined. + +Now, sitting down at the spot where formerly sat the uppermost +spectators, you confess at once that never did any audience, in any +theater, have before it such a spectacle as you there behold. On the +right, and on high rocks at the side, castles tower in the air--farther +on the city lies below you; and altho its buildings are all of modern +date, still similar ones, no doubt, stood of old on the same site. After +this the eye falls on the whole of the long ridge of AEtna, then on the +left it catches a view of the sea-shore, as far as Catania, and even +Syracuse, and then the wide and extensive view is closed by the immense +smoking volcano, but not horribly, for the atmosphere, with its +softening effect, makes it look more distinct, and milder than it +really is. + +If now you turn from this view toward the passage running at the back of +the spectators, you have on the left the whole wall of the rocks between +which and the sea runs the road to Messina. And then again you behold +vast groups of rocky ridges in the sea itself, with the coast of +Calabria in the far distance, which only a fixt and attentive gaze can +distinguish from the clouds which rise rapidly from it. + +We descended toward the theater, and tarried awhile among its ruins, on +which an accomplished architect would do well to employ, at least on +paper, his talent of restoration. After this I attempted to make a way +for myself through the gardens to the city. But I soon learned by +experience what an impenetrable bulwark is formed by a hedge of agaves +planted close together. You can see through their interlacing leaves, +and you think, therefore, it will be easy to force a way through them; +but the prickles on their leaves are very sensible obstacles. If you +step on these colossal leaves, in the hope that they will bear you, they +break off suddenly; and so, instead of getting out, you fall into the +arms of the next plant. When, however, at last we had wound our way out +of the labyrinth, we found but little to enjoy in the city; tho from the +neighboring country we felt it impossible to part before sunset. +Infinitely beautiful was it to observe this region, of which every point +had its interest, gradually enveloped in darkness. + + + + +MOUNT AETNA[39] + +BY WILL S. MONROE + + +By the ancients AEtna was supposed to be the prison of the mighty chained +giant Typhon, the flames proceeding from his breath and the noises from +his groans; and when he turned over earthquakes shook the island. Many +of the myths of the Greek poets were associated with the slopes of AEtna, +such as Demeter, torch in hand, seeking Persephone, Acis and Galatea, +Polyphemus and the Cyclops. + +AEtna was once a volcano in the Mediterranean and in the course of ages +it completely filled the surrounding sea with its lava. A remarkable +feature of the mountain is the large number of minor cones on its +sides--some seven hundred in all. Most of these subsidiary cones are +from three to six thousand feet in height and they make themselves most +strongly felt during periods of great activity. The summit merely serves +as a vent through which the vapors and gases make their escape. The +natural boundaries of AEtna are the Alcantara and Simeto rivers on the +north, west, and south, and the sea on the east. + +The most luxurious fertility characterizes the gradual slopes near the +base, the decomposed volcanic soil being almost entirely covered with +olives, figs, grapes, and prickly pears. Higher up is the timber zone. +Formerly there was a dense forest belt between the zone of cultivated +land and the tore of cinders and snow; but the work of forest +extermination was almost completed during the reign of the Spanish +Bourbons. One may still find scattered oak, ilex, chestnut, and pine +interspersed with ferns and aromatic herbs. Chestnut trees of surprizing +growth are found on the lower slopes. "The Chestnut Tree of the Hundred +Horses," for which the slopes of AEtna are famous, is not a single tree +but a group of several distinct trunks together forming a circle, under +whose spreading branches a hundred horses might find shelter. + +Above the wooded zone AEtna is covered with miniature cones thrown up by +different eruptions and regions of dreary plateau covered with scoriae +and ashes and buried under snow a part of the year. While the upper +portions of the volcano are covered with snow the greater portion of the +year, AEtna does not reach the limit of perpetual snow, and the heat +which is emitted from its sides prevents the formation of glaciers in +the hollows. One might expect that the quantities of snow and rain which +fall on the summit would give rise to numerous streams. But the small +stones and cinders absorb the moisture, and springs are found only on +the lower slopes. The cinders, however, retain sufficient moisture to +support a rich vegetation wherever the surface of the lava is not too +compact to be penetrated by roots. The surface of the more recent lava +streams is not, as might be supposed, smooth and level, but full of +yawning holes and rents. + +The regularity of the gradual slopes is broken on the eastern side by +the Valle del Bove, a vast amphitheater more than three thousand feet in +depth, three miles in width, and covering an area of ten square miles. +The bottom of the valley is dotted with craters which rise in gigantic +steps; and, when AEtna is in a state of eruption, these craters pour +forth fiery cascades of lava. The Monte Centenari rise from the Valle +del Bove to an elevation of 6,026 feet. At the head of the valley is the +Torre del Filosofo at an altitude of 9,570 feet. This is the reputed +site of the observatory of Empedocles, the poet and philosopher, who is +fabled to have thrown himself into the crater of AEtna to immortalize his +name. + +The lower slopes of AEtna--after the basin of Palermo--include the most +densely populated parts of Sicily. More than half a million people live +on the slopes of a mountain that might be expected to inspire terror. +"Towns succeed towns along its base like pearls in a necklace, and when +a stream of lava effects a breach in the chain of human habitations, it +is closed up again as soon as the lava has had time to cool." As soon as +the lava has decomposed, the soil produces an excellent yield and this +tempts the farmer and the fruit grower to take chances. Speaking of the +dual effect of AEtna, Freeman says: "He has been mighty to destroy, but +he has also been mighty to create and render fruitful. If his fiery +streams have swept away cities and covered fields, they have given the +cities a new material for their buildings and the fields a new soil rich +above all others." + + + + +SYRACUSE[40] + +BY RUFUS B. RICHARDSON + + +The ruins of Syracuse are not to the casual observer very imposing. But +even these ruins have great interest for the archeologist. There is, for +example, an old temple near the northern end of Ortygia, for the most +part embedded in the buildings of the modern city, yet with its east end +cleared and showing several entire columns with a part of the architrave +upon them. And what a surprize here awaits one who thinks of a Doric +temple as built on a stereotyped plan! Instead of the thirteen columns +on the long sides which one is apt to look for as going with a +six-column front, here are eighteen or nineteen, it is not yet quite +certain which. The columns stand less than their diameter apart, and the +abaci are so broad that they nearly touch. + +So small is the inter-columnar space that archeologists incline to the +belief that in this one Doric temple there were triglyphs only over the +columns, and not also between them as in all other known cases. +Everything about this temple stamps it as the oldest in Sicily. An +inscription on the top step, in very archaic letters, much worn and +difficult to read, contains the name of Apollo in the ancient form.... +The inscription may, of course, be later than the temple; but it is in +itself old enough to warrant the supposition that the temple was +erected soon after the first Corinthian colonists established themselves +in the island. While the inscription makes it reasonably certain that +the temple belonged to Apollo, the god under whose guiding hand all +these Dorians went out into these western seas, tradition, with strange +perversity, has given it the name of "Temple of Diana." But it is all in +the family. + +Another temple ruin on the edge of the plateau, which begins about two +miles south of the city, across the Anapos, one might also easily +overlook in a casual survey, because it consists only of two columns +without capitals, and a broad extent of the foundations from which the +accumulated earth has been only partially removed. This was the famous +temple of Olympian Zeus, built probably in the days of Hiero I., soon +after the Persian war, but on the site of a temple still more venerable. +One seeks a reason for the location of this holy place at such a +distance from the city. Holm, the German historian of Sicily, argues +with some plausibility that this was no mere suburb of Syracuse, but the +original Syracuse itself. In the first place, the list of the citizens +of Syracuse was kept here down at least to the time of the Athenian +invasion. In the second place, tradition, which, when rightly consulted, +tells so much, says that Archias, the founder of Syracuse, had two +daughters, Ortygia and Syracusa, which may point to two coordinate +settlements, Ortygia and Syracuse; the latter, which was on this temple +plateau, being subsequently merged in the former, but, as sometimes +happens in such cases, giving its name to the combined result. + +Besides these temple ruins there are many more foundations that tell a +more or less interesting story. Then there are remains of the ancient +city that can never be ruined--for instance, the great stone quarries, +pits over a hundred feet deep and acres broad, in some of which the +Athenian prisoners were penned up to waste away under the gaze of the +pitiless captors; the Greek theater cut out of the solid rock; the great +altar of Hiero II., six hundred feet long and about half as broad, also +of solid rock. Then there is a mighty Hexapylon, which closed the +fortifications of Dionysius at the northwest at the point where they +challenged attack from the land side. With its sally-ports and rock-hewn +passages, some capacious enough to quarter regiments of cavalry, showing +holes cut in the projecting corners of rock, through which the +hitch-reins of the horses were wont to be passed, and its great +magazines, it stands a lasting memorial to the energy of a tyrant. But +while this fortress is practically indestructible, an impregnable +fortress is a dream incapable of realization. Marcellus and his stout +Romans came in through these fortifications, not entirely, it is true, +by their own might, but by the aid of traitors, against whom no walls +are proof. + +One of the stone quarries, the Latomia del Paradiso, has an added +interest from its association with the tyrant who made himself hated as +well as feared, while Gelon was only feared without being hated. An +inner recess of the quarry is called the "Ear of Dionysius," and +tradition says that at the inner end of this recess either he or his +creatures sat and listened to the murmurs that the people uttered +against him, and that these murmurs were requited with swift and fatal +punishment. Certain it is that a whisper in this cave produces a +wonderful resonance, and a pistol shot is like the roar of a cannon; but +that people who had anything to say about the butcher should come up +within ear-shot of him to utter it is not very likely. Historians are +not quite sure that the connection of Dionysius with this recess is +altogether mythical, but that he shaped it with the fell purpose above +mentioned is not to be thought of, as the whole quarry is older than his +time, and was probably, with the Latomia dei Cappuccini, a prison for +the Athenians. + + + + +MALTA[41] + +BY THEOPHILE GAUTIER + + +The city of Valetta, founded in 1566, by the grand master whose name it +bears, is the capital of Malta. The city of La Sangle, and the city of +Victoria, which occupy two points of land on the other side of the +harbor of the Marse, together with the suburbs of Floriana and Burmola, +complete the town; encircled by bastions, ramparts, counterscarps, +forts, and fortifications, to an extent which renders siege impossible! +If you follow one of the streets which surround the town, at each step +that you take, you find yourself face to face with a cannon. Gibraltar +itself does not bristle more completely with mouths of fire. The +inconvenience of these extended works is, that they enclose a vast +radius, and demand to defend them, in case of attack, an enormous +garrison; always difficult to maintain at a distance from the mother +country. + +From the height of the ramparts, one sees in the distance the blue and +transparent sea, broken into ripples by the breeze, and dotted with +snowy sails. The scarlet sentinels are on guard from point to point, and +the heat of the sun is so fierce upon the glacis, that a cloth stretched +upon a frame and turning upon a pivot at the top of a pole, forms a +shade for the soldiers, who, without this precaution, must inevitably be +roasted on their posts.... + +The city of Valetta, altho built with regularity, and, so to speak, all +in one "block," is not, therefore, the less picturesque. The decided +slope of the ground neutralizes what the accurate lines of the street +might otherwise have of monotony, and the town mounts by degrees and by +terraces the hillside, which it forms into an amphitheater. The houses, +built very high like those of Cadiz, terminate in flat roofs that their +inhabitants may the better enjoy the sea view. They are all of white +Maltese stone; a sort of sandstone easy to work, and with which, at +small expense, one can indulge various caprices of sculpture and +ornamentation. These rectilinear houses stand well, and have an air of +grandeur, which they owe to the absence of (visible) roofs, cornices, +and attics. They stand out sharply and squarely against the azure of the +heavens, which their dazzling whiteness renders only the more intense; +but that which chiefly gives them a character of originality is the +projecting balcony hung upon each front; like the "moucharabys" of the +East, or the "miradores" of Spain. + +The palace of the grand masters--to-day the palace of the +government--has nothing remarkable in the way of architecture. Its date +is recent, and it responds but imperfectly to the idea one would form of +the residence of Villiers de I'lle Adam, of Lavalette, and of their +warlike ancestors. Nevertheless, it has a certain monumental air, and +produces a fine effect upon the great Place, of which it forms one +entire side. Two doorways, with rustic columns, break the uniformity of +the long facade; while an immense balcony, supported by gigantic +sculptured brackets, encircles the building at the level of the first +floor, and gives to the edifice the stamp of Malta. This detail, so +strictly local in its character, relieves what might be heavy and flat +in this architecture; and this palace, otherwise vulgar, becomes thus +original. The interior, which I visited, presents a range of vast halls +and galleries, decorated with pictures representing battles by sea and +land, sieges, and combats between Turkish galleys and the galleys of the +"Religion." ... + +To finish with the knights, I turned my steps toward the Church of St. +John--the Pantheon of the Order. Its facade, with a triangular porch +flanked by two towers terminating in stone belfries, having for ornament +only four pillars, and pierced by a window and door, without sculpture +or decoration, by no means prepares the traveler for the splendor +within. + +The first thing which arrests the sight is an immense arch, painted in +fresco, which runs the whole length of the nave. This fresco, unhappily +much deteriorated by time, is the work of Matteo Preti, called the +Calabrese; one of those great second-rate masters, who, if they have +less genius, have often more talent than the princes of the art. What +there is of science, facility, spirit, expression, and abundant +resource, in this colossal picture, is beyond description. + +Each section of the arch contains a scene from the life of St. John, to +whom the church is dedicated, and who was the patron of the Order. +These sections are supported, at their descent, by groups of +captives--Saracens, Turks, Christians, and others--half naked, or clad +in the remains of shattered armor, and placed in positions of +humiliation or constraint, who form a species of barbaric caryatides +strikingly suited to the subject. All this part of the fresco is full of +character, and has a force of coloring very rare in this species of +picture. These solid and massive effects give additional strength to the +lighter tone of the arch, and throw the skies into a relief and distance +singularly profound. I know no similar work of equal grandeur except the +ceiling by Fumiana in the Church of St. Pantaleone at Venice, +representing the life, martyrdom, and apotheosis of that saint. But the +style of the decadence makes itself less felt in the work of the +Calabrese than in that of the Venetian. In recompense of this gigantic +work, the artist had the honor, like Carravaggio, to be made a Knight +of the Order. + +The pavement of the church is composed of four hundred tombs of knights, +incrusted with jasper, porphyry, verd-antique, and precious stones of +various kinds, which should form the most splendid sepulchral mosaics +conceivable. I say should form, because at the moment of my visit, the +whole floor was covered with those immense mats, so constantly used for +carpeting the southern churches--a usage which is explained by the +absence of pews or chairs, and the habit of kneeling upon the floor to +perform one's devotions. I regretted this exceedingly; but the crypt and +the chapel contain enough sepulchral wealth to offer some atonement. + + + + +VIII + +THE MAINLAND OF GREECE + + + + +ON ARRIVING IN ATHENS--THE ACROPOLIS[42] + +BY J. P. MAHAFFY + + +There is probably no more exciting voyage, to any educated man, than the +approach to Athens from the sea. Every promontory, every island, every +bay, has its history. If he knows the map of Greece, he needs no +guide-book or guide to distract him; if he does not, he needs little +Greek to ask of any one near him the name of this or that object; and +the mere names are sufficient to stir up all his classical +recollections. But he must make up his mind not to be shocked at "AEgina" +or "Phalrum," and even to be told that he is utterly wrong in his way of +pronouncing them. + +It was our fortune to come into Greece by night, with a splendid moon +shining upon the summer sea. The varied outlines of Sunium, on the one +side, and AEgina on the other, were very clear, but in the deep shadows +there was mystery enough to feed the burning impatience of seeing all in +the light of common day; and tho we had passed AEgina, and had come over +against the rocky Salamis, as yet there was no sign of Peiraeus. Then +came the light on Psyttalea, and they told us that the harbor was right +opposite. Yet we came nearer and nearer, and no harbor could be seen. + +The barren rocks of the coast seemed to form one unbroken line, and +nowhere was there a sign of indentation or of break in the land. But +suddenly, as we turned from gazing on Psyttalea, where the flower of the +Persian nobles had once stood in despair, looking upon their fate +gathering about them, the vessel had turned eastward, and discovered to +us the crowded lights and thronging ships of the famous harbor. Small it +looked, very small, but evidently deep to the water's edge, for great +ships seemed touching the shore; and so narrow is the mouth, that we +almost wondered how they had made their entrance in safety. But we saw +it some weeks later, with nine men-of-war towering above all its +merchant shipping and its steamers, and among them crowds of ferryboats +skimming about in the breeze with their wing-like sails. Then we found +out that, like the rest of Greece, the Peiraeus was far larger than it +looked. + +It differed little, alas! from more vulgar harbors in the noise and +confusion of disembarking; in the delays of its custom-house; in the +extortion and insolence of its boatmen. It is still, as in Plato's day, +"the haunt of sailors, where good manners are unknown." But when we had +escaped the turmoil, and were seated silently on the way to Athens, +almost along the very road of classical days, all our classical notions, +which had been seared away by vulgar bargaining and protesting, +regained their sway. + +We had sailed in through the narrow passage where almost every great +Greek that ever lived had some time passed; now we went along the line, +hardly less certain, which had seen all these great ones going to and +fro between the city and the port. The present road is shaded with great +silver poplars, and plane trees, and the moon had set, so that our +approach to Athens was even more mysterious than our approach to the +Peiraeus. We were, moreover, perplexed at our carriage stopping under +some large plane trees, tho we had driven but two miles, and the night +was far spent. Our coachman would listen to no advice or persuasion. We +learned afterward that every carriage going to and from the Peiraeus +stops at this half-way house, that the horses may drink, and the +coachman take "Turkish delight" and water. There is no exception made to +this custom, and the traveler is bound to submit. At last we entered the +unpretending ill-built streets at the west of Athens.... + +We rose at the break of dawn to see whether our window would afford any +prospect to serve as a requital for angry sleeplessness. And there, +right opposite, stood the rock which of all rocks in the world's history +has done most for literature and art--the rock which poets, and orators, +and architects, and historians have ever glorified, and can not stay +their praise--which is ever new and ever old, ever fresh in its decay, +ever perfect in its ruin, ever living in its death--the Acropolis of +Athens. + +When I saw my dream and longing of many years fulfilled, the first rays +of the rising sun had just touched the heights, while the town below was +still hid in gloom. Rock, and rampart, and ruined fanes--all were +colored in uniform tints; the lights were of a deep rich orange, and the +shadows of dark crimson, with the deeper lines of purple. There was no +variety in color between what nature and what man had set there. No +whiteness shone from the marble, no smoothness showed upon the hewn and +polished blocks; but the whole mass of orange and crimson stood out +together into the pale, pure Attic air. There it stood, surrounded by +lanes and hovels, still perpetuating the great old contrast in Greek +history, of magnificence and meanness--of loftiness and lowness--as well +in outer life as in inward motive. And, as it were in illustration of +that art of which it was the most perfect bloom, and which lasted in +perfection but a day of history, I saw it again and again, in sunlight +and in shade, in daylight and at night, but never again in this perfect +and singular beauty.... + +I suppose there can be no doubt whatever that the ruins on the Acropolis +of Athens are the most remarkable in the world. There are ruins far +larger, such as the Pyramids, and the remains of Karnak. There are ruins +far more perfectly preserved, such as the great Temple at Paestum. There +are ruins more picturesque, such as the ivy-clad walls of medieval +abbeys beside the rivers in the rich valleys of England. But there is no +ruin all the world over which combines so much striking beauty, so +distinct a type, so vast a volume of history, so great a pageant of +immortal memories. There is, in fact, no building on earth which can +sustain the burden of such greatness, and so the first visit to the +Acropolis is and must be disappointing. + +When the traveler reflects how all the Old World's culture culminated in +Greece--all Greece in Athens--all Athens in its Acropolis--all the +Acropolis in the Parthenon--so much crowds upon the mind confusedly that +we look for some enduring monument whereupon we can fasten our thoughts, +and from which we can pass as from a visible starting-point into all +this history and all this greatness. And at first we look in vain. The +shattered pillars and the torn pediments will not bear so great a +strain; and the traveler feels forced to admit a sense of +disappointment, sore against his will. He has come a long journey into +the remoter parts of Europe; he has reached at last what his soul had +longed for many years in vain; and as is wont to be the case with all +great human longings, the truth does not answer to his desire. The pang +of disappointment is all the greater when he sees that the tooth of time +and the shock of earthquake have done but little harm. It is the hand of +man--of reckless foe and ruthless lover--which has robbed him of his +hope.... + +Nothing is more vexatious than the reflection, how lately these splendid +remains have been reduced to their present state. The Parthenon, being +used as a Greek church, remained untouched and perfect all through the +Middle Ages. Then it became a mosque, and the Erechtheum a seraglio, and +in this way survived without damage till 1687, when, in the bombardment +by the Venetians under Morosini, a shell dropt into the Parthenon, where +the Turks had their powder stored, and blew out the whole center of the +building. Eight or nine pillars at each side have been thrown down, and +have left a large gap, which so severs the front and rear of the temple, +that from the city below they look like the remains of two different +buildings. The great drums of these pillars are yet lying there, in +their order, just as they fell, and some money and care might set them +all up again in their places; yet there is not in Greece the patriotism +or even the common sense to enrich the country by this restoration, +matchless in its certainty as well as in its splendor. + +But the Venetians were not content with their exploit. They were, about +this time, when they held possession of most of Greece, emulating the +Pisan taste for Greek sculptures; and the four fine lions standing at +the gate of the arsenal in Venice still testify to their zeal in +carrying home Greek trophies to adorn their capital. + +In its great day, and even as Pausanias saw it, the Acropolis was +covered with statues, as well as with shrines. It was not merely an Holy +of Holies in religion; it was also a palace and museum of art. At every +step and turn the traveler met new objects of interest. There were +archaic specimens, chiefly interesting to the antiquarian and the +devotee; there were the great masterpieces which were the joint +admiration of the artist and the vulgar. Even all the sides and slopes +of the great rock were honeycombed into sacred grottos, with their +altars and their gods, or studded with votive monuments. All these +lesser things are fallen away and gone; the sacred eaves are filled with +rubbish, and desecrated with worse than neglect. The grotto of Pan and +Apollo is difficult of access, and when reached, an object of disgust +rather than of interest. There are left but the remnants of the +surrounding wall, and the ruins of the three principal buildings, which +were the envy and wonder of all the civilized world. + +The beautiful little temple of Athena Nike, tho outside the +Propylaea--thrust out as it were on a sort of great buttress high on the +right--must still be called a part, and a very striking part, of the +Acropolis. It is only of late years that it has been cleared of rubbish +and modern stone-work, thus destroying, no doubt, some precious traces +of Turkish occupation which the fastidious historian may regret, but +realizing to us a beautiful Greek temple of the Ionic Order in some +completeness. The peculiarity of this building, which is perched upon a +platform of stone, and commands a splendid prospect, is that its tiny +peribolus, or sacred enclosure, was surrounded by a parapet of stone +slabs covered with exquisite reliefs of winged Victories, in various +attitudes. Some of these slabs are now in the Museum of the Acropolis, +and are of great interest--apparently less severe than the school of +Phidias, and therefore later in date, but still of the best epoch, and +of marvelous grace. The position of this temple also is not parallel +with the Propylaea, but turned slightly outward, so that the light +strikes it at moments when the other building is not illuminated. At the +opposite side is a very well-preserved chamber, and a fine colonnade at +right angles with the gate, which looks like a guard-room. This is the +chamber commonly called the Pinacotheca, where Pausanias saw pictures or +frescoes by Polygnotus. + + + + +A WINTER IN ATHENS HALF A CENTURY AGO[43] + +BY BAYARD TAYLOR + + +Our sitting-room fronted the south (with a view of the Acropolis and the +Areopagus), and could be kept warm without more labor or expense than +would be required for an entire dwelling at home. Our principal anxiety +was, that the supply of fuel, at any price, might become exhausted. We +burned the olive and the vine, the cypress and the pine, twigs of rose +trees and dead cabbage-stalks, for aught I know, to feed our one little +sheet-iron stove. For full two months we were obliged to keep up our +fire, from morning until night. Know ye the land of the cypress and +myrtle, where the flowers ever blossom, the beams ever shine? Here it +is, with almost snow enough in the streets for a sleighing party, with +the Ilissus frozen, and with a tolerable idea of Lapland, when you face +the gusts which drive across the Cephissian plain. + +As the other guests were Greek, our mode of living was similar to that +of most Greek families. We had coffee in the morning, a substantial +breakfast about noon, and dinner at six in the evening. The dishes were +constructed after French and Italian models, but the meat is mostly +goat's flesh. Beef, when it appears, is a phenomenon of toughness. +Vegetables are rather scarce. Cow's milk, and butter or cheese +therefrom, are substances unknown in Greece. The milk is from goats or +sheep, and the butter generally from the latter. It is a white, cheesy +material, with a slight flavor of tallow. The wine, when you get it +unmixed with resin, is very palatable. We drank that of Santorin, with +the addition of a little water, and found it an excellent beverage.... + +Except during the severely cold weather, Athens is as lively a town as +may be. One-fourth of the inhabitants, I should say, are always in the +streets, and many of the mechanics work, as is common in the Orient, in +open shops. The coffee-houses are always thronged, and every afternoon +crowds may be seen on the Patissia Road--a continuation of Eolus +Street--where the King and Queen take their daily exercise on horseback. +The national costume, both male and female, is gradually falling into +disuse in the cities, altho it is still universal in the country. The +islanders adhere to their hideous dress with the greatest persistence. +With sunrise the country people begin to appear in the streets with +laden donkeys and donkey-carts, bringing wood, grain, vegetables, and +milk, which they sell from house to house.... + +Venders of bread and coffee-rolls go about with circular trays on their +heads, calling attention to their wares by loud and long-drawn cries. +Later in the day, peddlers make their appearance, with packages of cheap +cotton stuffs, cloth, handkerchiefs, and the like, or baskets of pins, +needles, buttons, and tape. They proclaim loudly the character and price +of their articles, the latter, of course, subject to negotiation. The +same custom prevails as in Turkey, of demanding much more than the +seller expects to get. Foreigners are generally fleeced a little in the +beginning, tho much less so, I believe, than in Italy.... + +The winter of 1857-58 was the severest in the memory of any inhabitant. +For nearly eight weeks, we had an alternation of icy north winds and +snow-storms. The thermometer went down to 20 degrees of Fahrenheit--a +degree of cold which seriously affected the orange-, if not the +olive-trees. Winter is never so dreary as in those southern lands, where +you see the palm trees rocking despairingly in the biting gale, and the +snow lying thick on the sunny fruit of the orange groves. As for the +pepper trees, with their hanging tresses and their loose, misty foliage, +which line the broad avenues radiating from the palace, they were +touched beyond recovery. The people, who could not afford to purchase +wood or charcoal, at treble the usual price, even tho they had hearths, +which they have not, suffered greatly. They crouched at home, in cellars +and basements, wrapt in rough capotes, or hovering around a mangal, or +brazier of coals, the usual substitute for a stove. From Constantinople +we had still worse accounts. The snow lay deep everywhere; charcoal sold +at twelve piastres the oka (twenty cents a pound), and the famished +wolves, descending from the hills, devoured people almost at the gates +of the city. In Smyrna, Beyrout, and Alexandria, the winter was equally +severe, while in Odessa it was mild and agreeable, and in St. +Petersburg there was scarcely snow enough for sleighing. All Northern +Europe enjoyed a winter as remarkable for warmth as that of the South +for its cold. The line of division seemed to be about the parallel of +latitude 45 degrees. Whether this singular climatic phenomenon extended +further eastward, into Asia, I was not able to ascertain. I was actually +less sensitive to the cold in Lapland, during the previous winter, with +the mercury frozen, than in Attica, within the belt of semi-tropical +productions. + + + + +THE ACROPOLIS AS IT WAS[44] + +BY PAUSANIAS + + +To the Acropolis there is only one approach; it allows of no other, +being everywhere precipitous and walled off. The vestibules have a roof +of white marble, and even now are remarkable for both their beauty and +size. As to the statues of the horsemen, I can not say with precision +whether they are the sons of Xenophon, or merely put there for +decoration. On the right of the vestibules is the shrine of the Wingless +Victory. From it the sea is visible; and there AEgeus drowned himself, as +they say. For the ship which took his sons to Crete had black sails, but +Theseus told his father (for he knew there was some peril in attacking +the Minotaur) that he would have white sails if he should sail back a +conqueror. But he forgot this promise in his loss of Ariadne. And AEgeus, +seeing the ship with black sails, thinking his son was dead, threw +himself in and was drowned. And the Athenians have a hero-chapel to his +memory. And on the left of the vestibules is a building with paintings; +and among those that time has not destroyed are Diomedes and +Odysseus--the one taking away Philoctetes's bow in Lemnos, the other +taking the Palladium from Ilium. Among other paintings here is AEgisthus +being slain by Orestes; and Pylades slaying the sons of Nauplius that +came to AEgisthus's aid. And Polyxena about to have her throat cut near +the tomb of Achilles. Homer did well not to mention this savage act.... + +And there is a small stone such as a little man can sit on, on which +they say Silenus rested, when Dionysus came to the land. Silenus is the +name they give to all old Satyrs. About the Satyrs I have conversed with +many, wishing to know all about them. And Euphemus, a Carian, told me +that sailing once on a time to Italy he was driven out of his course by +the winds, and carried to a distant sea, where people no longer sail. +And he said that here were many desert islands, some inhabited by wild +men; and at these islands the sailors did not like to land, as they had +landed there before and had experience of the natives; but they were +obliged on that occasion. These islands he said were called by the +sailors Satyr-islands; the dwellers in them were red-haired, and had +tails at their loins not much smaller than horses.... + +And as regards the temple which they call the Parthenon, as you enter it +everything portrayed on the gables relates to the birth of Athene, and +behind is depicted the contest between Poseidon and Athene for the soil +of Attica. And this work of art is in ivory and gold. In the middle of +her helmet is an image of the Sphinx--about whom I shall give an account +when I come to Boeotia--and on each side of the helmet are griffins +worked. These griffins, says Aristus the Proconnesian, in his poems, +fought with the Arimaspians beyond the Issedones for the gold of the +soil which the griffins guarded. And the Arimaspians were all one-eyed +men from their birth; and the griffins were beasts like lions, with +wings and mouth like an eagle. Let so much suffice for these griffins. +But the statue of Athene is full length, with a tunic reaching to her +feet; and on her breast is the head of Medusa worked in ivory, and in +one hand she has a Victory four cubits high, in the other hand a spear, +and at her feet a shield; and near the spear a dragon which perhaps is +Erichthonius. And on the base of the statue is a representation of the +birth of Pandora--the first woman, according to Hesiod and other poets; +for before her there was no race of women. Here too I remember to have +seen the only statue here of the Emperor Adrian; and at the entrance one +of Iphicrates, the celebrated Athenian general. + +And outside the temple is a brazen Apollo said to be by Phidias; and +they call it Apollo, Averter of Locusts, because when the locusts +destroyed the land the god said he would drive them out of the country. +And they know that he did so, but they don't say how. I myself know of +locusts having been thrice destroyed on Mount Sipylus, but not in the +same way; for some were driven away by a violent wind that fell on them, +and others by a strong light that came on them after showers, and others +were frozen to death by a sudden frost. All this came under my own +notice. + +There is also a building called the Erechtheum, and in the vestibule is +an altar of Supreme Zeus, where they offer no living sacrifice, but +cakes without the usual libation of wine. And as you enter there are +three altars: one to Poseidon (on which they also sacrifice to +Erechtheus according to the oracle), one to the hero Butes, and the +third to Hephaestus. And on the walls are paintings of the family of +Butes. The building is a double one; and inside there is sea-water in a +well. And this is no great marvel; for even those who live in inland +parts have such wells, as notably Aphrodisienses in Caria. But this well +is represented as having a roar as of the sea when the south wind blows. +And in the rock is the figure of a trident. And this is said to have +been Poseidon's proof in regard to the territory Athene disputed with +him. + +Sacred to Athene is all the rest of Athens, and similarly all Attica; +for altho they worship different gods in different townships, none the +less do they honor Athene generally. And the most sacred of all is the +statue of Athene in what is now called the Acropolis, but was then +called the Polis (city) which was universally worshiped many years +before the various townships formed one city; and the rumor about it is +that it fell from heaven. As to this I shall not give an opinion, +whether it was so or not. And Callimachus made a golden lamp for the +goddess. And when they fill this lamp with oil it lasts for a whole +year, altho it burns continually night and day. And the wick is of a +particular kind of cotton flax, the only kind indestructible by fire. +And above the lamp is a palm tree of brass reaching to the roof and +carrying off the smoke. And Callimachus, the maker of this lamp, altho +he comes behind the first artificers, yet was remarkable for ingenuity, +and was the first who perforated stone, and got the name of +"Art-Critic," whether his own appellation or given him by others. + +In the temple of Athene Polias is a Hermes of wood (said to be a votive +offering of Cecrops), almost hidden by myrtle leaves. And of the antique +votive offerings worthy of record, is a folding-chair, the work of +Daedalus, and spoils taken from the Persians--as a coat of mail of +Masistius, who commanded the cavalry at Plataea, and a scimitar said to +have belonged to Mardonius. Masistius we know was killed by the Athenian +cavalry; but as Mardonius fought against the Lacedaemonians and was +killed by a Spartan, they could not have got it at first hand; nor is it +likely that the Lacedaemonians would have allowed the Athenians to carry +off such a trophy. And about the olive they have nothing else to tell +but that the goddess used it as a proof of her right to the country, +when it was contested by Poseidon. And they record also that this olive +was burnt when the Persians set fire to Athens; but tho burnt, it grew +the same day two cubits. + +And next to the temple of Athene is the temple of Pandrosus; who was the +only one of the three sisters who didn't peep into the forbidden chest. +Now the things I most marveled at are not universally known. I will +therefore write of them as they occur to me. Two maidens live not far +from the temple of Athene Polias, and the Athenians call them the +"carriers of the holy things"; for a certain time they live with the +goddess, but when her festival comes they act in the following way, by +night: Putting upon their heads what the priestess of Athene gives them +to carry (neither she nor they know what these things are), these +maidens descend, by a natural underground passage, from an inclosure in +the city sacred to Aphrodite of the Gardens. In the sanctuary below they +deposit what they carry, and bring back something else closely wrapt up. +And these maidens they henceforth dismiss, and other two they elect +instead of them for the Acropolis. + + + + +THE ELGIN MARBLES[45] + +BY J. P. MAHAFFY + + +Morosini[46] wished to take down the sculptures of Phidias from the +eastern pediment, but his workmen attempted it so clumsily that the +figures fell from their place and were dashed to pieces on the ground. + +An observing traveler[47] was present when a far more determined and +systematic attack was made upon the remaining ruins of the Parthenon. +While he was traveling in the interior, Lord Elgin had obtained his +famous firman from the Sultan, to take down and remove any antiquities +or sculptured stones he might require, and the infuriated Dodwell saw a +set of ignorant workmen, under equally ignorant overseers, let loose +upon the splendid ruins of the age of Pericles. He speaks with much good +sense and feeling of this proceeding. He is fully aware that the world +would derive inestimable benefit from the transplanting of these +splendid fragments to a more accessible place, but he can not find +language strong enough to express his disgust at the way in which the +thing was done. + +Incredible as it may appear, Lord Elgin himself seems not to have +superintended the work, but to have left it to paid contractors, who +undertook the job for a fixt sum. Little as either Turks or Greeks cared +for the ruins, he says that a pang of grief was felt through all Athens +at the desecration, and that the contractors were obliged to bribe +workmen with additional wages to undertake the ungrateful task. Dodwell +will not even mention Lord Elgin by name, but speaks of him with disgust +as "the person" who defaced the Parthenon. He believes that had this +person been at Athens himself, his underlings could hardly have behaved +in the reckless way they did, pulling down more than they wanted, and +taking no care to prop up and save the work from which they had taken +the support. + +He especially notices their scandalous proceeding upon taking up one of +the great white marble blocks which form the floor or stylobate of the +temple. They wanted to see what was underneath, and Dodwell, who was +there, saw the foundation--a substructure of Peiraeic sandstone. But when +they had finished their inspection they actually left the block they had +removed, without putting it back into its place. So this beautiful +pavement, made merely of closely-fitting blocks, without any artificial +or foreign joinings, was ripped up, and the work of its destruction +began. I am happy to add that, tho a considerable rent was then made, +most of it is still intact, and the traveler of to-day may still walk on +the very stones which bore the tread of every great Athenian. + +The question has often been discust, whether Lord Elgin was justified in +carrying off this pediment, the metopes, and the friezes, from their +place; and the Greeks of to-day hope confidently that the day will come +when England will restore these treasures to their place. This is, of +course, absurd, and it may fairly be argued that people who would +bombard their antiquities in a revolution are not fit custodians of them +in the intervals of domestic quiet. This was my reply to an old Greek +gentleman who assailed the memory of Lord Elgin with reproaches. + +I confess I approved of this removal until I came home from Greece, and +went again to see the spoil in its place in our great museum. Tho there +treated with every care--tho shown to the best advantage, and explained +by excellent models of the whole building, and clear descriptions of +their place on it--notwithstanding all this, it was plain that these +wonderful fragments lost so terribly by being separated from their +place--they looked so unmeaning in an English room, away from their +temple, their country and their lovely atmosphere--that one earnestly +wished they had never been taken from their place, even at the risk of +being made a target by the Greeks or the Turks. I am convinced, too, +that the few who would have seen them, as intelligent travelers, on +their famous rock, would have gained in quality the advantage now +diffused among many, but weakened and almost destroyed by the wrench in +associations, when the ornament is severed from its surface, and the +decoration of a temple exhibited apart from the temple itself. We may +admit, then, that it had been better if Lord Elgin had never taken away +these marbles. Nevertheless, it would be absurd to send them back. But I +do think that the museum on the Acropolis should be provided with a +better set of casts of the figures than those which are now to be seen +there. They look very wretched, and carelessly prepared.... + + + + +THE THEATER OF DIONYSUS[48] + +BY J. P. MAHAFFY + + +Some ten or twelve years ago, a very extensive and splendidly successful +excavation was made when a party of German archeologists laid bare the +Theater of Dionysus--the great theater in which AEschylus, Sophocles, +and Euripides brought out their immortal plays before an immortal +audience. There is nothing more delightful than to descend from the +Acropolis, and rest awhile in the comfortable marble arm-chairs with +which the front row of the circuit is occupied. They are of the pattern +usual in the sitting portrait statues of the Greeks--very deep, and with +a curved back, which exceeds both in comfort and in grace any chairs +made by modern workmen.[49] Each chair has the name of a priest +inscribed on it, showing how the theater among the Greeks corresponded +to our cathedral, and this front row to the stalls of canons and +prebendaries. + +But unfortunately all this sacerdotal prominence is probably the work of +the later restorers of the theater. For after having been first +beautified and adorned with statues by Lycurgus (in Demosthenes' time), +it was again restored and embellished by Herodes Atticus, or about his +time, so that the theater, as we now have it, can only be called the +building of the second or third century after Christ. The front wall of +the stage, which is raised some feet above the level of the empty pit, +is adorned with a row of very elegant sculptures, among which one--a +shaggy old man, in a stooping posture, represented as coming out from +within, and holding up the stone above him--is particularly striking. +Some Greek is said to have knocked off, by way of amusement, the heads +of most of these figures since they were discovered, but this I do not +know upon any better authority than ordinary report. The pit or center +of the theater is empty, and was never in Greek days occupied by seats, +but a wooden structure was set up adjoining the stage, and on this the +chorus performed their dances, and sang their odes. But now there is a +circuit of upright slabs of stone close to the front seat, which can +hardly have been an arrangement of the old Greek theater. They are +generally supposed to have been added when the building was used for +contests of gladiators or of wild beasts; but the partition, being not +more than three feet high, would be no protection whatever from an +evil-disposed wild beast. + +All these later additions and details are, I fear, calculated to detract +from the reader's interest in this theater, which I should indeed +regret--for nothing can be more certain than that this is the veritable +stone theater which was built when the wooden one broke down, at the +great competition of AEschylus and Pratinas; and tho front seats may have +been added, and slight modifications introduced, the general structure +can never have required alteration. + +It is indeed very large, tho I think exaggerated statements have been +made about its size. I have heard it said that the enormous number of +30,000 people could fit into it--a statement I think incredible; for it +did not to me seem larger than, or as large as, other theaters I have +seen, at Syracuse, at Megalopolis, or even at Argos. But, no doubt, all +such open-air enclosures and sittings look far smaller than covered +rooms of the same size. This is certain, that any one speaking on the +stage, as it now is, can be easily and distinctly heard by people +sitting on the highest row of seats now visible, which can not, I fancy, +have been far from the original top of the house. And we may doubt that +any such thing were possible when 30,000 people, or a crowd approaching +that number, were seated. We hear, however, that the old actors had +recourse to various artificial means of increasing the range of their +voices. Yet there is hardly a place in Athens which forces back the mind +so strongly to the old days, when all the crowd came jostling in, and +settled down in their seats, to hear the great novelties of the year +from Sophocles or Euripides. No doubt there were cliques and cabals and +claqueurs, noisy admirers and cold critics, the supporters of the old, +and the lovers of the new, devotees and sceptics, wondering foreigners +and self-complacent citizens. They little thought how we should come, +not only to sit in the seats they occupied, but to reverse the judgments +which they pronounced, and correct with sober temper the errors of +prejudice, of passion, and of pride. + + + + +WHERE PAUL PREACHED TO THE ATHENIANS[50] + +BY J. P. MAHAFFY + + +It was on this very Areopagus, where we are now standing, that these +philosophers of fashion came into contact with the thorough earnestness, +the profound convictions, the red-hot zeal of the Apostle Paul. The +memory of that great scene still lingers about the place, and every +guide will show you the exact place where the Apostle stood, and in what +direction he addrest his audience. There are, I believe, even some +respectable commentators who transfer their own estimate of St. Paul's +importance to the Athenian public, and hold that it was before the court +of the Areopagus that he was asked to expound his views. This is more +than doubtful. The "blases" philosophers, who probably yawned over their +own lectures, hearing of a new lay preacher, eager to teach and +apparently convinced of the truth of what he said, thought the novelty +too delicious to be neglected, and brought him forthwith out of the +chatter and bustle of the crowd, probably past the very orchestra where +Anaxagoras' books had been proselytizing before him, and where the stiff +old heroes of Athenian history stood, a monument of the escape from +political slavery. + +It is even possible that the curious knot of idlers did not bring him +higher than this platform, which might well be called part of Mars' +Hill. But if they chose to bring him to the top, there was no hindrance, +for the venerable court held its sittings in the open air, on stone +seats; and when not thus occupied, the top of the rock may well have +been a convenient place of retirement for people who did not want to be +disturbed by new acquaintances, and the constant eddies of new gossip in +the market-place. + +It is, however, of far less import to know on what spot of the Areopagus +Paul stood, than to understand clearly what he said, and how he sought +to conciliate as well as to refute the philosophers who, no doubt, +looked down upon him as an intellectual inferior. He starts naturally +enough from the extraordinary crowd of votive statues and offerings, for +which Athens was remarkable above all other cities of Greece. He says, +with a slight touch of irony, that he finds them very religious indeed, +so religious that he even found an altar to a God professedly unknown, +or perhaps unknowable.... + +Thus ended, to all appearance ignominiously, the first heralding of the +faith which was to supplant all the temples and altars and statues with +which Athens had earned renown as a beautiful city, which was to +overthrow the schools of the sneering philosophers, and even to remodel +all the society and the policy of the world. And yet, in spite of this +great and decisive triumph of Christianity, there was something +curiously prophetic in the contemptuous rejection of its apostle at +Athens. Was it not the first expression of the feeling which still +possesses the visitor who wanders through its ruins, and which still +dominates the educated world--the feeling that while other cities owe +to the triumph of Christianity all their beauty and their interest, +Athens has to this day resisted this influence; and that while the +Christian monuments of Athens would elsewhere excite no small attention, +here they are passed by as of no import compared with its heathen +splendor? + +There are very old and very beautiful little churches in Athens, +"delicious little Byzantine churches," as Renan calls them. They are +very peculiar, and unlike what one generally sees in Europe. They strike +the observer with their quaintness and smallness, and he fancies he here +sees the tiny model of that unique and splendid building, the cathedral +of St. Mark at Venice. But yet it is surprizing how little we notice +them at Athens. I was even told--I sincerely hope it was false--that +public opinion at Athens was gravitating toward the total removal of +one, and that the most perfect, of these churches, which stands in the +middle of a main street, and so breaks the regularity of the modern +boulevard! + + + + +FROM ATHENS TO DELPHI ON HORSEBACK[51] + +BY BAYARD TAYLOR + + +We left Athens on the 13th of April, for a journey to Parnassus and the +northern frontier of Greece. It was a teeming, dazzling day, with light +scarfs of cloud-crape in the sky, and a delicious breeze from the west +blowing through the pass of Daphne. The Gulf of Salamis was pure +ultramarine, covered with a velvety bloom, while the island and Mount +Kerata swam in transparent pink and violet tints. Crossing the sacred +plain of Eleusis, our road entered the mountains--lower offshoots of +Cithaeron, which divide the plain from that of Boeotia.... + +We climbed the main ridge of the mountains; and, in less than an hour, +reached the highest point--whence the great Boeotian plain suddenly +opened upon our view. In the distance gleamed Lake Capais, and the hills +beyond; in the west, the snowy top of Parnassus, lifted clear and bright +above the morning vapors; and, at last, as we turned a shoulder of the +mountain in descending, the streaky top of Helicon appeared on the left, +completing the classic features of the landscape.... + +As we entered the plain, taking a rough path toward Plataea, the fields +were dotted, far and near, with the white Easter shirts of the people +working among the vines. Another hour, and our horses' hoofs were upon +the sacred soil of Plataea. The walls of the city are still to be traced +for nearly their entire extent. They are precisely similar in +construction to those of OEnoe--like which, also, they were +strengthened by square towers. There are the substructions of various +edifices--some of which may have been temples--and on the side next the +modern village lie four large sarcophagi, now used as vats for treading +out the grapes in vintage-time. A more harmless blood than once curdled +on the stones of Plataea now stains the empty sepulchers of the heroes. +We rode over the plain, fixt the features of the scene in our memories, +and then kept on toward the field of Leuktra, where the brutal power of +Sparta received its first check. The two fields are so near, that a part +of the fighting may have been done upon the same ground.... + +I then turned my horse's head toward Thebes, which we reached in two +hours. It was a pleasant scene, tho so different from that of two +thousand years ago. The town is built partly on the hill of the +Cadmeion, and partly on the plain below. An aqueduct, on mossy arches, +supplies it with water, and keeps its gardens green. The plain to the +north is itself one broad garden to the foot of the hill of the Sphinx, +beyond which is the blue gleam of a lake, then a chain of barren hills, +and over all the snowy cone of Mount Delphi, in Euboea. The only +remains of the ancient city are stones; for the massive square tower, +now used as a prison, can not be ascribed to an earlier date than the +reign of the Latin princes.... + +The next morning we rode down from the Cadmeion, and took the highway to +Livadia, leading straight across the Boeotian plain. It is one of the +finest alluvial bottoms in the world, a deep, dark, vegetable +mold--which would produce almost without limit, were it properly +cultivated. Before us, blue and dark under a weight of clouds, lay +Parnassus; and far across the immense plain the blue peaks of Mount +Oeta. In three hours we reached the foot of Helicon, and looked up at +the streaks of snow which melt into the Fountain of the Muses.... + +As we left Arachova, proceeding toward Delphi, the deep gorge opened, +disclosing a blue glimpse of the Gulf of Corinth and the Achaian +mountains. Tremendous cliffs of blue-gray limestone towered upon our +right, high over the slope of Delphi, which ere long appeared before us. +Our approach to the sacred spot was marked by tombs cut in the rock. A +sharp angle of the mountain was passed; and then, all at once, the +enormous walls, buttressing the upper region of Parnassus, stood +sublimely against the sky, cleft right through the middle by a terrible +split, dividing the twin peaks which gave a name to the place. At the +bottom of this chasm issue forth the waters of Castaly, and fill a stone +trough by the road-side. On a long, sloping mountain-terrace, facing the +east, stood once the town and temples of Delphi, and now the modern +village of Kastri. + +As you may imagine, our first walk was to the shrine of the Delphic +oracle, at the bottom of the cleft between the two peaks. The hewn face +of the rock, with a niche, supposed to be that where the Pythia sat upon +her tripod, and a secret passage under the floor of the sanctuary, are +all that remain. The Castalian fountain still gushes out at the bottom, +into a large square enclosure, called the Pythia's Bath, and now choked +up with mud, weeds, and stones. Among those weeds, I discerned one of +familiar aspect, plucked and tasted it. Watercress, of remarkable size +and flavor! We thought no more of Apollo and his shrine, but delving +wrist-deep into Castalian mud, gathered huge handfuls of the profane +herb, which we washed in the sacred front, and sent to Francois for a +salad.... + +As the sun sank, I sat on the marble blocks and sketched the immortal +landscape. High above me, on the left, soared the enormous twin peaks of +pale-blue rock, lying half in the shadow of the mountain slope upheaved +beneath, half bathed in the deep yellow luster of sunset. Before me +rolled wave after wave of the Parnassian chain, divided by deep lateral +valleys, while Helicon, in the distance, gloomed like a thunder-storm +under the weight of gathered clouds. Across this wild, vast view, the +breaking clouds threw broad belts of cold blue shadow, alternating with +zones of angry orange light, in which the mountains seemed to be heated +to a transparent glow. The furious wind hissed and howled over the piles +of ruin, and a few returning shepherds were the only persons to be seen. +And this spot, for a thousand years, was the shrine where spake the +awful oracle of Greece. + + + + +CORINTH[52] + +BY J. P. MAHAFFY + + +The gulf of Corinth is a very beautiful and narrow fiord, with chains of +mountains on either side, through the gaps of which you can see far into +the Morea on one side, and into Northern Greece on the other. But the +bays or harbors on either coast are few, and so there was no city able +to wrest the commerce of these waters from old Corinth, which held the +keys by land of the whole Peloponnesus, and commanded the passage from +sea to sea. It is, indeed, wonderful how Corinth did not acquire and +maintain the first position in Greece. + +But as soon as the greater powers of Greece decayed and fell away, we +find Corinth immediately taking the highest position in wealth, and even +in importance. The capture of Corinth, in 146 B.C., marks the +Roman conquest of all Greece, and the art-treasures carried to Rome seem +to have been as great and various as those which even Athens could have +produced. No sooner had Julius Caesar restored and rebuilt the ruined +city, than it sprang at once again into importance, and among the +societies addrest in the Epistles of St. Paul, none seems to have lived +in greater wealth or luxury. It was, in fact, well-nigh impossible that +Corinth should die. Nature had marked out her site as one of the great +thoroughfares of the old world; and it was not till after centuries of +blighting misrule by the wretched Turks that she sank into the hopeless +decay from which not even another Julius Caesar could rescue her. + +The traveler who expects to find any sufficient traces of the city of +Periander and of Timoleon, and, I may say, of St. Paul, will be +grievously disappointed. In the middle of the wretched straggling modern +village there stand up seven enormous rough stone pillars of the Doric +Order, evidently of the oldest and heaviest type; and these are the only +visible relic of the ancient city, looking altogether out of place, and +almost as if they had come there by mistake. These pillars, tho +insufficient to admit of our reconstructing the temple, are in +themselves profoundly interesting. Their shaft up to the capital is of +one block, about twenty-one feet high and six feet in diameter. It is to +be observed, that over these gigantic monoliths the architrave, in which +other Greek temples show the largest blocks, is not in one piece, but +two, and made of beams laid together longitudinally. The length of the +shafts (up to the neck of the capital) measures about four times their +diameter, on the photograph which I possess; I do not suppose that any +other Doric pillar known to us is so stout and short. + +Straight over the site of the town is the great rock known as the +Acro-Corinthus. A winding path leads up on the southwest side to the +Turkish drawbridge and gate, which are now deserted and open; nor is +there a single guard or soldier to watch a spot once the coveted prize +of contending empires. In the days of the Achaean League it was called +one of the fetters of Greece, and indeed it requires no military +experience to see the extraordinary importance of the place. + +Next to the view from the heights of Parnassus, I suppose the view from +this citadel is held the finest in Greece. I speak here of the large and +diverse views to be obtained from mountain heights. To me, personally, +such a view as that from the promontory of Sunium, or, above all, from +the harbor of Nauplia, exceeds in beauty and interest any bird's-eye +prospect. Any one who looks at the map of Greece will see how the +Acro-Corinthus commands coasts, islands, and bays. The day was too hazy +when we stood there to let us measure the real limits of the view, and I +can not say how near to Mount Olympus the eye may reach in a suitable +atmosphere. But a host of islands, the southern coasts of Attica and +Boeotia, the Acropolis of Athens, Salamis and AEgina, Helicon and +Parnassus, and endless AEtolian peaks were visible in one direction; +while, as we turned round, all the waving reaches of Arcadia and +Argolis, down to the approaches toward Mantinea and Karytena, lay +stretched out before us. The plain of Argos, and the sea at that side, +are hidden by the mountains. But without going into detail, this much +may be said, that if a man wants to realize the features of these +coasts, which he has long studied on maps, half an hour's walk about the +top of this rock will give him a geographical insight which no years of +study could attain. + + + + +OLYMPIA[53] + +BY PHILIP S. MARDEN + + +Olympia, like Delphi, is a place of memories chiefly. The visible +remains are numerous, but so flat that some little technical knowledge +is needed to restore them in mind. There is no village at the modern +Olympia at all--nothing but five or six little inns and a railway +station--so that Delphi really has the advantage of Olympia in this +regard. As a site connected with ancient Greek history and Greek +religion, the two places are as similar in nature as they are in general +ruin. The field in which the ancient structures stand lies just across +the tiny tributary river Cladeus, spanned by a footbridge. + +Even from the opposite bank, the ruins present a most interesting +picture, with its attractiveness greatly enhanced by the neighboring +pines, which scatter themselves through the precinct itself and cover +densely the little conical hill of Kronos close by, while the grasses of +the plain grow luxuriantly among the fallen stones of the former temples +and apartments of the athletes. The ruins are so numerous and so +prostrate that the non-technical visitor is seriously embarrassed to +describe them, as is the case with every site of the kind. + +All the ruins, practically, have been identified and explained, and +naturally they all have to do with the housing or with the contests of +the visiting athletes of ancient times, or with the worship of tutelary +divinities. Almost the first extensive ruin that we found on passing the +encircling precinct wall was the Prytaneum--a sort of ancient training +table at which victorious contestants were maintained gratis--while +beyond lay other equally extensive remnants of exercising places, such +as the Palaestra for the wrestlers. But all these were dominated, +evidently, by the two great temples, an ancient one of comparatively +small size sacred to Hera, and a mammoth edifice dedicated to Zeus, +which still gives evidence of its enormous extent, while the fallen +column-drums reveal some idea of the other proportions. It was in its +day the chief glory of the enclosure, and the statue of the god was even +reckoned among the seven wonders of the world. Unfortunately this +statue, like that of Athena at Athens, has been irretrievably lost. But +there is enough of the great shrine standing in the midst of the ruins +to inspire one with an idea of its greatness; and, in the museum above, +the heroic figures from its two pediments have been restored and set up +in such wise as to reproduce the external adornment of the temple with +remarkable success. + +Gathered around this central building, the remainder of the ancient +structures having to do with the peculiar uses of the spot present a +bewildering array of broken stones and marbles. An obtrusive remnant of +a Byzantine church is the one discordant feature. Aside from this the +precinct recalls only the distant time when the regular games called all +Greece to Olympia, while the "peace of God" prevailed throughout the +kingdom. Just at the foot of Kronos a long terrace and flight of steps +mark the position of a row of old treasuries, as at Delphi, while along +the eastern side of the precinct are to be seen the remains of a portico +once famous for its echoes, where sat the judges who distributed the +prizes. There is also a most graceful arch remaining to mark the +entrance to the ancient stadium, of which nothing else now remains. + +Of the later structures on the site, the "house of Nero" is the most +interesting and extensive. The Olympic games were still celebrated, even +after the Roman domination, and Nero himself entered the lists in his +own reign. He caused a palace to be erected for him on that +occasion--and of course he won a victory, for any other outcome would +have been most impolite, not to say dangerous. Nero was more fortunately +lodged than were the other ancient contestants, it appears, for there +were no hostelries in old Olympia in which the visiting multitudes could +be housed, and the athletes and spectators who came from all over the +land were accustomed to bring their own tents and pitch them roundabout, +many of them on the farther side of the Alpheios. + + + + +THE TEMPLE OF ZEUS AT OLYMPIA AS IT WAS[54] + +BY PAUSANIAS + + +Many various wonders may one see, or hear of, in Greece; but the +Eleusinian mysteries and Olympian games seem to exhibit more than +anything else the Divine purpose. And the sacred grove of Zeus they have +from old time called Altis, slightly changing the Greek word for grove; +it is, indeed, called Altis also by Pindar, in the ode he composed for a +victor at Olympia. And the temple and statue of Zeus were built out of +the spoils of Pisa, which the people of Elis razed to the ground, after +quelling the revolt of Pisa, and some of the neighboring towns that +revolted with Pisa. And that the statue of Zeus was the work of Phidias +is shown by the inscription written at the base of it: "Phidias the +Athenian, the son of Charmides, made me." + +The temple is a Doric building, and outside it is a colonnade. And the +temple is built of stone of the district. Its height up to the gable is +sixty-eight feet, and its length 2,300 feet. And its architect was +Libon, a native of Ellis. + +And the tiles on the roof are not of baked earth; but Pentelican marble, +to imitate tiles. They say such roofs are the invention of a man of +Naxos called Byzes, who made statues at Naxos with the inscription: +"Euergus of Naxos made me, the son of Byzes, and descended from Leto, +the first who made tiles of stone." + +This Byzes was a contemporary of Alyattes the Lydian, and Astyages (the +son of Cyaxares), the king of Persia. And there is a golden vase at each +end of the roof, and a golden Victory in the middle of the gable. And +underneath the Victory is a golden shield hung up as a votive offering, +with the Gorgon Medusa worked on it. The inscription on the shield +states who hung it up, and the reason why they did so. For this is what +it says: "This temple's golden shield is a votive offering from the +Lacedaemonians at Tanagra and their allies, a gift from the Argives, the +Athenians, and the Ionians, a tithe offering for success in war." + +The battle I mentioned in my account of Attica, when I described the +tombs at Athens. And in the same temple at Olympia, above the zone that +runs round the pillars on the outside, are twenty-one golden shields, +the offering of Mummius the Roman general, after he had beaten the +Achaeans and taken Corinth, and expelled the Dorians from Corinth. And on +the gables in bas-relief is the chariot race between Pelops and +OEnomaus; and both chariots in motion. And in the middle of the gable +is a statue of Zeus; and on the right hand of Zeus is OEnomaus with a +helmet on his head; and beside him his wife Sterope, one of the +daughters of Atlas. And Myrtilus, who was the charioteer of OEnomaus, +is seated behind the four horses. And next to him are two men whose +names are not recorded, but they are doubtless OEnomaus's grooms, +whose duty was to take care of the horses.... + +The carvings on the gables in front are by Paeonius of Mende in Thracia; +those behind by Alcamenes, a contemporary of Phidias and second only to +him as statuary. And on the gables is a representation of the fight +between the Lapithae and the Centaurs at the marriage of Pirithous. +Pirithous is in the center, and on one side of him is Eurytion trying to +carry off Pirithous's wife, and Caeneus coming to the rescue, and on the +other side Theseus laying about among the Centaurs with his battle-ax; +and one Centaur is carrying off a maiden, another a blooming boy. +Alcamenes has engraved this story, I imagine, because he learned from +the lines of Homer that Pirithous was the son of Zeus, and knew that +Theseus was fourth in descent from Pelops. There are also in bas-relief +at Olympia most of the Labors of Hercules. Above the doors of the temple +is the hunting of the Erymanthian boar, and Hercules taking the mares +of Diomede the Thracian, and robbing Geryon of his oxen in the island of +Erytheia, and supporting the load of Atlas, and clearing the land of +Elis of its dung.... + +The image of the god is in gold and ivory, seated on a throne. And a +crown is on his head imitating the foliage of the olive tree. In his +right hand he holds a Victory in ivory and gold, with a tiara and crown +on his head; and in his left hand a scepter adorned with all manner of +precious stones, and the bird seated on the scepter is an eagle. The +robes and sandals of the god are also of gold; and on his robes are +imitations of flowers, especially of lilies. And the throne is richly +adorned with gold and precious stones, and with ebony and ivory. And +there are imitations of animals painted on it, and models worked on it. +There are four Victories like dancers, one at each foot of the throne, +and two also at the instep of each foot; and at each of the front feet +are Theban boys carried off by Sphinxes, and below the Sphinxes, Apollo +and Artemis shooting down the children of Niobe. And between the feet of +the throne are four divisions formed by straight lines drawn from each +of the four feet. + +In the division nearest the entrance there are seven models--the eighth +has vanished no one knows where or how. And they are imitations of +ancient contests, for in the days of Phidias the contests for boys were +not yet established. And the figure with its head muffled up in a scarf +is, they say, Pantarcas, who was a native of Elis and the darling of +Phidias. This Pantarces won the wrestling-prize for boys in the 86th +Olympiad. And in the remaining divisions is the band of Hercules +fighting against the Amazons. The number on each side is twenty-nine, +and Theseus is on the side of Hercules. And the throne is supported not +only by the four feet, but also by four pillars between the feet. But +one can not get under the throne, as one can at Amyclae, and pass inside; +for at Olympia there are panels like walls that keep one off. + +At the top of the throne, Phidias has represented above the head of Zeus +the three Graces and three Seasons. For these too, as we learn from the +poets, were daughters of Zeus. Homer in the Iliad has represented the +Seasons as having the care of Heaven, as a kind of guards of a royal +palace. And the base under the feet of Zeus (what is called in Attic +"thranion") has golden lions engraved on it, and the battle between +Theseus and the Amazons--the first famous exploit of the Athenians +beyond their own borders. And on the platform that supports the throne +there are various ornaments round Zeus, and gilt carving--the Sun seated +in his chariot, and Zeus and Hera; and near is Grace. Hermes is close to +her, and Vesta close to Hermes. And next to Vesta is Eros receiving +Aphrodite, who is just rising from the sea and being crowned by +Persuasion. And Apollo and Artemis, Athene and Hercules, are standing +by, and at the end of the platform Amphitrite and Poseidon, and Selene +apparently urging on her horse. And some say it is a mule and not a +horse that the goddess is riding upon; and there is a silly tale about +this mule. + +I know that the size of the Olympian Zeus both in height and breadth has +been stated; but I can not bestow praise on the measurers, for their +recorded measurement comes far short of what any one would infer from +looking at the statue. They make the god also to have testified to the +art of Phidias. For they say that when the statue was finished, Phidias +prayed him to signify if the work was to his mind; and immediately Zeus, +struck with lightning that part of the pavement where in our day is a +brazen urn with a lid. + +And all the pavement in front of the statue is not of white but of black +stone. And a border of Parian marble runs round this black stone, as a +preservative against spilled oil. For oil is good for the statue at +Olympia, as it prevents the ivory being harmed by the dampness of the +grove. But in the Acropolis at Athens, in regard to the statue of Athene +called the Maiden, it is not oil but water that is advantageously +employed to the ivory; for as the citadel is dry by reason of its great +height, the statue being made of ivory needs to be sprinkled with water +freely. And when I was at Epidaurus, and inquired why they use neither +water nor oil to the statue of AEsculapius, the sacristans of the temple +informed me that the statue of the god and its throne are over a well. + + + + +THERMOPYLAE[55] + +BY RUFUS B. RICHARDSON + + +We took Thermopylae at our leisure, passing out from Lamia over the +Spercheios on the bridge of Alamana, at which Diakos, famous in ballad, +resisted with a small band a Turkish army, until he was at last captured +and taken to Lamia to be impaled.... + +It may be taken as a well-known fact that the Spercheios has since the +time of Herodotus made so large an alluvial deposit around its mouth +that, if he himself should return to earth, he would hardly recognize +the spot which he has described so minutely. The western horn, which in +his time came down so near to the gulf as to leave space for a single +carriage-road only, is now separated from it by more than a mile of +plain. Each visit to Thermopylae has, however, deepened my conviction +that Herodotus exaggerated the impregnability of this pass. The mountain +spur which formed it did not rise so abruptly from the sea as to form an +impassable barrier to the advance of a determined antagonist. It is of +course difficult ground to operate on, but certainly not impossible. + +The other narrow place, nearly two miles to the east of this, is still +more open, a fact that is to be emphasized, because many topographers, +including Colonel Leake, hold that the battle actually took place +there, as the great battle between the Romans and Antioches certainly +did. This eastern pass is, to be sure, no place where "a thousand may +well be stopt by three," and there can not have taken place any great +transformation here since classical times, inasmuch as this region is +practically out of reach of the Spercheios, and the deposit from the hot +sulfur streams, which has so broadened the theater-shaped area enclosed +by the two horns, can hardly have contributed to changing the shape of +the eastern horn itself. + +Artificial fortification was always needed here; but it is very +uncertain whether any of the stones that still remain can be claimed as +parts of such fortification. It is a fine position for an inferior force +to choose for defense against a superior one; but while it can not be +declared with absolute certainty that this is not the place where the +fighting took place, yet the western pass fits better the description of +Herodotus. Besides this, if the western pass had been abandoned to the +Persians at the outset the fact would have been worth mentioning. + +As to the heroic deed itself, the view that Leonidas threw away his own +life and that of the four thousand, that it was magnificent but not +strategy, not war, does not take into account the fact that Sparta had +for nearly half a century been looked to as the military leader of +Greece. It was audacious in the Athenians to fight the battle of +Marathon without them, and they did so only because the Spartans did not +come at their call. Sparta had not come to Thermopylae in force, it is +true; but her king was there with three hundred of her best men. Only +by staying and fighting could he show that Sparta held by right the +place she had won. It had to be done. "So the glory of Sparta was not +blotted out." + +One may have read, and read often, the description of the battle in the +school-room, but he reads it with different eyes on the spot, when he +can look up at the hillock crowned with a ruined cavalry barrack just +inside the western pass and say to himself: "Here on this hill they +fought their last fight and fell to the last man. Here once stood the +monuments to Leonidas, to the three hundred, and to the four thousand." + +The very monuments have crumbled to dust, but the great deed lives on. +We rode back to Lamia under the spell of it. It was as if we had been in +church and been held by a great preacher who knows how to touch the +deepest chords of the heart. Euboea was already dark blue, while the +sky above it was shaded from pink to purple. Tymphrestos in the west was +bathed in the light of the sun that had gone down behind it. The whole +surrounding was most stirring, and there was ever sounding in our hearts +that deep bass note: "What they did here." + + + + +SALONICA[56] + +BY CHARLES DUDLEY WARNER + + +The city of Salonica lies on a fine bay, and presents an attractive +appearance from the harbor, rising up the hill in the form of an +amphitheater. On all sides, except the sea, ancient walls surround it, +fortified at the angles by large, round towers and crowned in the +center, on the hill, by a respectable citadel. I suppose that portions +of these walls are of Hellenic, and perhaps, Pelasgic date, but the most +are probably of the time of the Latin crusaders' occupation, patched and +repaired by Saracens and Turks. We had come to Thessalonica on St. +Paul's account, not expecting to see much that would excite us, and we +were not disappointed. When we went ashore we found ourselves in a city +of perhaps sixty thousand inhabitants, commonplace in aspect, altho its +bazaars are well filled with European goods, and a fair display of +Oriental stuffs and antiquities, and animated by considerable briskness +of trade. I presume there are more Jews here than there were in Paul's +time, but Turks and Greeks, in nearly equal numbers, form the bulk of +the population. + +In modern Salonica there is not much respect for pagan antiquities, and +one sees only the usual fragments of columns and sculptures worked into +walls or incorporated in Christian churches. But those curious in early +Byzantine architecture will find more to interest them here than in any +place in the world except Constantinople. We spent the day wandering +about the city, under the guidance of a young Jew, who was without +either prejudices or information. On our way to the Mosque of St. +Sophia, we passed through the quarter of the Jews, which is much cleaner +than is usual with them. These are the descendants of Spanish Jews, who +were expelled by Isabella, and they still retain, in a corrupt form, the +language of Spain. In the doors and windows were many pretty Jewesses; +banishment and vicissitude appear to agree with this elastic race, for +in all the countries of Europe Jewish women develop more beauty in form +and feature than in Palestine. We saw here and in other parts of the +city a novel head-dress, which may commend itself to America in the +revolutions of fashion. A great mass of hair, real or assumed, was +gathered into a long, slender, green bag, which hung down the back and +was terminated by a heavy fringe of silver. Otherwise, the dress of the +Jewish women does not differ much from that of the men; the latter wear +a fez or turban, and a tunic which reaches to the ankles, and is bound +about the waist by a gay sash or shawl. + +The Mosque of St. Sophia, once a church, and copied in its proportions +and style from its namesake in Constantinople, is retired, in a +delightful court, shaded by gigantic trees and cheered by a fountain. So +peaceful a spot we had not seen in many a day; birds sang in the trees +without disturbing the calm of the meditative pilgrim. In the portico +and also in the interior are noble columns of marble and verd-antique, +and in the dome is a wonderfully quaint mosaic of the Transfiguration. +We were shown also a magnificent pulpit of the latter beautiful stone +cut from a solid block, in which it is said St. Paul preached. As the +Apostle, according to his custom, reasoned with the people out of the +Scriptures in a synagogue, and this church was not built for centuries +after his visit, the statement needs confirmation; but pious ingenuity +suggests that the pulpit stood in a subterranean church underneath this. +I should like to believe that Paul sanctified this very spot with his +presence; but there is little in its quiet seclusion to remind one of +him who had the reputation when he was in Thessalonica of one of those +who turn the world upside down. + + + + +FROM THE PIERIAN PLAIN TO MARATHON[57] + +BY CHARLES DUDLEY WARNER + + +At early light of a cloudless morning we were going easily down the Gulf +of Thermae or Salonica, having upon our right the Pierian plain; and I +tried to distinguish the two mounds which mark the place of the great +battle near Pydna, one hundred and sixty-eight years before Christ, +between AEmilius Paulus and King Perseus, which gave Macedonia to the +Roman Empire. Beyond, almost ten thousand feet in the air, towered +Olympus, upon whose "broad" summit Homer displays the ethereal palaces +and inaccessible abode of the Grecian gods. Shaggy forests still clothe +its sides, but snow now, and for the greater part of the year, covers +the wide surface of the height, which is a sterile, light-colored rock. +The gods did not want snow to cool the nectar at their banquets. + +This is the very center of the mythologic world; there between Olympus +and Ossa is the Vale of Tempe, where the Peneus, breaking through a +narrow gorge fringed with the sacred laurel, reaches the gulf, south of +ancient Heracleum. Into this charming but secluded retreat the gods and +goddesses, weary of the icy air, or the Pumblechookian deportment of the +court of Olympian Jove, descended to pass the sunny hours with the +youths and maidens of mortal mold; through this defile marks of +chariot-wheels still attest the passage of armies which flowed either +way, in invasion or retreat; and here Pompey, after a ride of forty +miles from the fatal field of Pharsalia, quenched his thirst. + +At six o'clock the Cape of Posilio was on our left, we were sinking +Olympus in the white haze of morning, Ossa, in its huge silver bulk, was +near us, and Pelion stretched its long white back below. The sharp cone +of Ossa might well ride upon the extended back of Pelion, and it seems a +pity that the Titans did not succeed in their attempt. We were leaving, +and looking our last on the Thracian coasts, once rimmed from Mt. Athos +to the Bosphorus with a wreath of prosperous cities. What must once +have been the splendor of the AEgean Sea and its islands, when every +island was the seat of a vigorous state, and every harbor the site of a +commercial town which sent forth adventurous galleys upon any errand of +trade or conquest!... + +We ascended Mt. Pentelicus. Hymettus and Pentelicus are about the same +height--thirty-five hundred feet--but the latter, ten miles to the +northeast of Athens, commands every foot of the Attic territory; if one +should sit on its summit and read a history of the little state, he +would need no map. + +Up to the highest quarries the road is steep, and strewn with broken +marble, and after that there is an hour's scramble through bushes and +over a rocky path. From these quarries was hewn the marble for the +Temple of Theseus, the Parthenon, the Propylae, the theaters, and other +public buildings, to which age has now given a soft and creamy tone; the +Pentelic marble must have been too brilliant for the eye, and its +dazzling luster was, no doubt, softened by the judicious use of color. +Fragments which we broke off had the sparkle and crystalline grain of +loaf-sugar, and if they were placed upon the table one would +unhesitatingly take them to sweeten his tea. The whole mountain-side is +overgrown with laurel, and we found wild flowers all the way to the +summit.... + +We looked almost directly down upon Marathon. There is the bay and the +curving sandy shore where the Persian galleys landed; here upon a spur, +jutting out from the hill, the Athenians formed before they encountered +the host in the plain, and there--alas! it was hidden by a hill--is the +mound where the one hundred and ninety-two Athenian dead are buried. It +is only a small field, perhaps six miles along the shore and a mile and +a half deep, and there is a considerable marsh on the north and a small +one at the south end. The victory at so little cost, of ten thousand +over a hundred thousand, is partially explained by the nature of the +ground; the Persians had not room enough to maneuver, and must have been +thrown into confusion on the skirts of the northern swamp, and if over +six thousand of them were slain, they must have been killed on the shore +in the panic of their embarkation. But still the shore is broad, level, +and firm, and the Greeks must have been convinced that the gods +themselves terrified the hearts of the barbarians, and enabled them to +discomfit a host which had chosen this plain as the most feasible in all +Attica for the action of cavalry. + + + + +AN EXCURSION TO SPARTA AND MAINA[58] + +BY BAYARD TAYLOR + + +As we approached Sparta, the road descended to the banks of the Eurotas. +Traces of the ancient walls which restrained the river still remain in +places, but, in his shifting course, he has swept the most of them away, +and spread his gravelly deposits freely over the bottoms inclosed +between the spurs of the hills. Toward evening we saw, at a distance, +the white houses of modern Sparta, and presently some indications of the +ancient city. At first, the remains of terraces and ramparts, then the +unmistakable Hellenic walls, and, as the superb plain of the Eurotas +burst upon us, stretching, in garden-like beauty, to the foot of the +abrupt hills, over which towered the sun-touched snows of Taygetus, we +saw, close on our right, almost the only relic of the lost ages--the +theater. Riding across the field of wheat, which extended all over the +scene of the Spartan gymnastic exhibitions, we stood on the proscenium +and contemplated these silent ruins, and the broad, beautiful landscape. +It is one of the finest views in Greece--not so crowded with striking +points, not so splendid in associations as that of Athens, but larger, +grander, richer in coloring. Besides the theater, the only remains are +some masses of Roman brickwork, and the massive substructions of a small +temple which the natives call the tomb of Leonidas.... + +We spent the night in a comfortable house, which actually boasted of a +floor, glass windows, and muslin curtains. On returning to the theater +in the morning, we turned aside into a plowed field to inspect a +sarcophagus which had just been discovered. It still lay in the pit +where it was found, and was entire, with the exception of the lid. It +was ten feet long by four broad, and was remarkable in having a division +at one end, forming a smaller chamber, as if for the purpose of +receiving the bones of a child. From the theater I made a sketch of the +valley, with the dazzling ridge of Taygetus in the rear, and Mistra, the +medieval Sparta, hanging on the steep sides of one of his gorges. The +sun was intensely hot, and we were glad to descend again, making our way +through tall wheat, past walls of Roman brickwork and scattering blocks +of the older city, to the tomb of Leonidas. This is said to be a temple, +tho there are traces of vaults and passages beneath the pavement which +do not quite harmonize with such a conjecture. It is composed of huge +blocks of breccia, some of them thirteen feet long. + +I determined to make an excursion to Maina. This is a region rarely +visited by travelers, who are generally frightened off by the reputation +of its inhabitants, who are considered by the Greeks to be bandits and +cut-throats to a man. The Mainotes are, for the most part, lineal +descendants of the ancient Spartans, and, from the decline of the Roman +power up to the present century, have preserved a virtual independence +in their mountain fastnesses. The worship of the pagan deities existed +among them as late as the eighth century. They were never conquered by +the Turks, and it required considerable management to bring them under +the rule of Otho.... + +Starting at noon, we passed through the modern Sparta, which is well +laid out with broad streets. The site is superb, and in the course of +time the new town will take the place of Mistra. We rode southward, down +the valley of the Eurotas, through orchards of olive and mulberry. We +stopt for the night at the little khan of Levetzova. I saw some cows +pasturing here, quite a rare sight in Greece, where genuine butter is +unknown. That which is made from the milk of sheep and goats is no +better than mild tallow. The people informed me, however, that they make +cheese from cow's milk, but not during Lent. They are now occupied with +rearing Paschal lambs, a quarter of a million of which are slaughtered +in Greece on Easter Day. The next morning, we rode over hills covered +with real turf, a little thin, perhaps, but still a rare sight in +southern lands. In two hours we entered the territory of Maina, on the +crest of a hill, where we saw Marathonisi (the ancient Gythium), lying +warm upon the Laconian Gulf. The town is a steep, dirty, labyrinthine +place, and so rarely visited by strangers that our appearance created +quite a sensation.... + +A broad, rich valley opened before us, crossed by belts of poplar and +willow trees, and inclosed by a semicircle of hills, most of which were +crowned with the lofty towers of the Mainotes. In Maina almost every +house is a fortress. The law of blood revenge, the right of which is +transmitted from father to son, draws the whole population under its +bloody sway in the course of a few generations. Life is a running fight, +and every foe slain entails on the slayer a new penalty of retribution +for himself and his descendants for ever. + +Previous to the revolution most of the Mainote families lived in a state +of alternate attack and siege. Their houses are square towers, forty or +fifty feet high, with massive walls, and windows so narrow that they +may be used as loopholes for musketry. The first story is at a +considerable distance from the ground, and reached by a long ladder +which can be drawn up so as to cut off all communication. Some of the +towers are further strengthened by a semicircular bastion, projecting +from the side most liable to attack. The families supplied themselves +with telescopes, to look out for enemies in the distance, and always had +a store of provisions on hand, in case of a siege. Altho this private +warfare has been supprest, the law of revenge exists. + +From the summit of the first range we overlooked a wild, glorious +landscape. The hills, wooded with oak, and swimming in soft blue vapor, +interlocked far before us, inclosing the loveliest green dells in their +embraces, and melting away to the break in Taygetus, which yawned in the +distance. On the right towered the square, embrasured castle of Passava +on the summit of an almost inaccessible hill--the site of the ancient +Las. Far and near, the lower heights were crowned with tall, white +towers. + + + + +MESSENIA[59] + +BY BAYARD TAYLOR + + +The plain of Messenia is the richest part of the Morea. Altho its groves +of orange and olive, fig and mulberry, were entirely destroyed during +the Egyptian occupation, new and more vigorous shoots have sprung up +from the old stumps and the desolated country is a garden again, +apparently as fair and fruitful as when it excited the covetousness of +the Spartan thieves. Sloping to the gulf on the south, and protected +from the winds on all other sides by lofty mountains, it enjoys an +almost Egyptian warmth of climate. Here it was already summer, while at +Sparta, on the other side of Taygetus, spring had but just arrived, and +the central plain of Arcadia was still bleak and gray as in winter. As +it was market-day, we met hundreds of the country people going to +Kalamata with laden asses.... + +We crossed the rapid Pamisos with some difficulty, and ascended its +right bank, to the foot of Mount Evan, which we climbed, by rough paths +through thickets of mastic and furze, to the monastery of Vurkano. The +building has a magnificent situation, on a terrace between Mount Evan +and Mount Ithome, overlooking both the upper and lower plains of the +Pamisos--a glorious spread of landscape, green with spring, and touched +by the sun with the airiest prismatic tints through breaks of heavy +rain-clouds. Inside the courts is an old Byzantine chapel, with +fleurs-de-lis on the decorations, showing that it dates from the time of +the Latin princes. The monks received us very cordially, gave us a +clean, spacious room, and sent us a bottle of excellent wine for dinner. + +We ascended Ithome and visited the massive ruins of Messene the same +day. The great gate of the city, a portion of the wall, and four of the +towers of defense, are in tolerable condition. The name of Epaminondas +hallows these remains, which otherwise, grand as they are, do not +impress one like the cyclopean walls of Tiryns. The wonder is, that they +could have been built in so short a time--eighty-five days, says +history, which would appear incredible, had not still more marvelous +things of the kind been done in Russia. + +The next day, we rode across the head of the Messenian plain, crossed +the Mount Lycaeus and the gorge of the Neda, and lodged at the little +village of Tragoge, on the frontiers of Arcadia. Our experience of +Grecian highways was pleasantly increased by finding fields plowed +directly across our road, fences of dried furze built over it, and +ditches cutting it at all angles. Sometimes all trace of it would be +lost for half a mile, and we were obliged to ride over the growing crops +until we could find a bit of fresh trail. + +The bridle-path over Mount Lycaeus was steep and bad, but led us through +the heart of a beautiful region. The broad back of the mountain is +covered with a grove of superb oaks, centuries old, their long arms +muffled in golden moss, and adorned with a plumage of ferns. The turf at +their feet was studded with violets, filling the air with delicious +odors. This sylvan retreat was the birthplace of Pan, and no more +fitting home for the universal god can be imagined. On the northern side +we descended for some time through a forest of immense ilex trees, which +sprang from a floor of green moss and covered our pathway with summer +shade.... + +We were now in the heart of the wild mountain region of Messenia, in +whose fastnesses Aristomenes, the epic hero of the state, maintained +himself so long against the Spartans. The tremendous gorge below us was +the bed of the Neda, which we crossed in order to enter the lateral +valley of Phigalia, where lay Tragoge. The path was not only difficult +but dangerous--in some places a mere hand's-breath of gravel, on the +edge of a plane so steep that a single slip of a horse's foot would have +sent him headlong to the bottom. + +In the morning, a terrible sirocco levante was blowing, with an almost +freezing cold. The fury of the wind was so great that in crossing the +exposed ridges it was difficult to keep one's seat upon the horse. We +climbed toward the central peak of the Lycaean Hills, through a wild dell +between two ridges, which were covered to the summit with magnificent +groves of oak. Starry blue flowers, violets and pink crocuses spangled +the banks as we wound onward, between the great trunks. The temple of +Apollo Epicurius stands on a little platform between the two highest +peaks, about 3,500 feet above the sea. + +On the day of our visit, its pillars of pale bluish-gray limestone rose +against a wintry sky, its guardian oaks were leafless, and the wind +whistled over its heaps of ruin; yet its symmetry was like that of a +perfect statue, wherein you do not notice the absence of color, and I +felt that no sky and no season could make it more beautiful. For its +builder was Ictinus, who created the Parthenon. It was erected by the +Phigalians, out of gratitude to Apollo the Helper, who kept from their +city a plague which ravaged the rest of the Peloponnesus. Owing to its +secluded position, it has escaped the fate of other temples, and might +be restored from its own undestroyed materials. The cella had been +thrown down, but thirty-five out of thirty-eight columns are still +standing. Through the Doric shafts you look upon a wide panorama of gray +mountains, melting into purple in the distance, and crowned by arcs of +the far-off sea. On one hand is Ithome and the Messenian Gulf, on the +other the Ionian Sea and the Strophades.... + +We now trotted down the valley, over beautiful meadows, which were +uncultivated except in a few places where the peasants were plowing for +maize, and had destroyed every trace of the road. The hills on both +sides began to be fringed with pine, while the higher ridges on our +right were clothed with woods of oak. I was surprised at the luxuriant +vegetation of this region. The laurel and mastic became trees, the pine +shot to a height of one hundred feet, and the beech and sycamore began +to appear. Some of the pines had been cut for ship-timber, but in the +rudest and most wasteful way, only the limbs which had the proper curve +being chosen for ribs. I did not see a single sawmill in the +Peloponnesus; but I am told that there are a few in Euboea and +Acarnania.... + +As we approached Olympia, I could almost have believed myself among the +pine-hills of Germany or America. In the old times this must have been a +lovely, secluded region, well befitting the honored repose of Xenophon, +who wrote his works here. The sky became heavier as the day wore on, and +the rain, which had spared us so long, finally inclosed us in its misty +circle. Toward evening we reached a lonely little house, on the banks of +the Alpheus. Nobody was at home, but we succeeded in forcing a door and +getting shelter for our baggage. Francois had supper nearly ready before +the proprietor arrived. The latter had neither wife nor child, tho a few +chicks, and took our burglarious occupation very good-humoredly. We +shared the same leaky roof with our horses, and the abundant fleas with +the owner's dogs. + + + + +TIRYNS AND MYCENAE[60] + +BY J. P. MAHAFFY + + +The fortress of Tiryns may fitly be commented on before approaching the +younger, or at least more artistically finished, Mycenae. It stands +several miles nearer to the sea, in the center of the great plain of +Argos, and upon the only hillock which there affords any natural scope +for fortification. Instead of the square, or at least hewn, well-fitted +blocks of Mycenae, we have here the older style of rude masses piled +together as best they would fit, the interstices being filled up with +smaller fragments. This is essentially cyclopean building. There is a +smaller fort, of rectangular shape, on the southern and highest part of +the oblong hillock, the whole of which is surrounded by a lower wall, +which takes in both this and the northern longer part of the ridge. It +looks, in fact, like a hill-fort, with a large inclosure for cattle +around it. + +Just below the northeast angle of the inner fort, and where the lower +circuit is about to leave it, there is an entrance, with a massive +projection of huge stones, looking like a square tower, on its right +side, so as to defend it from attack. The most remarkable feature in the +walls are the covered galleries, constructed within them at the +southeast angle. The whole thickness of the wall is often over twenty +feet, and in the center a rude arched way is made--or rather, I believe, +two parallel ways; but the inner gallery has fallen in, and is almost +untraceable--and this merely by piling together the great stones so as +to leave an opening, which narrows at the top in the form of a Gothic +arch. Within the passage, there are five niches in the outer side, made +of rude arches in the same way as the main passage. The length of the +gallery I measured, and found it twenty-five yards, at the end of which +it is regularly walled up, so that it evidently did not run all the way +round. The niches are now no longer open, but seem to have been once +windows, or at least to have had some lookout points into the hill +country. + +It is remarkable that, altho the walls are made of perfectly rude +stones, the builders have managed to use so many smooth surfaces looking +outward, that the face of the wall seems quite clean and well built. At +the southeast corner of the higher and inner fort, we found a large +block of red granite, quite different from the rough, gray stone of the +building, with its surface square and smooth, and all the four sides +neatly beveled, like the portal stones at the treasury of Atreus. I +found two other similar blocks close by, which were likewise cut smooth +on the surface. The intention of these stones we could not guess, but +they show that some ornament, and some more finished work, must have +once existed in the inner fort. Tho both the main entrances have massive +towers of stone raised on their right, there is a small postern at the +opposite or west side, not more than four feet wide, which has no +defenses whatever, and is a mere hole in the wall. + +The whole ruin is covered in summer with thistles, such as English +people can hardly imagine. The needles at the points of the leaves are +fully an inch long, extremely fine and strong, and sharper than any +two-edged sword. No clothes except a leather dress can resist them. They +pierce everywhere with the most stinging pain, and make antiquarian +research in this famous spot a veritable martyrdom, which can only be +supported by a very burning thirst for knowledge, or the sure hope of +future fame. The rough masses of stone are so loose that one's footing +is insecure, and when the traveler loses his balance, and falls among +the thistles, he will wish that he had gone to Jericho instead, or even +fallen among thieves on the way. + +It is impossible to approach Mycenae from any side without being struck +with the picturesqueness of the site. If you come down over the +mountains from Corinth, as soon as you reach the head of the valley of +the Inachus, which is the plain of Argos, you turn aside to the left, or +east, into a secluded corner--"a recess of the horse-feeding Argos," as +Homer calls it--and then you find on the edge of the valley, and where +the hills begin to rise one behind the other, the village of Charvati. +When you ascend from this place, you find that the lofty Mount Elias is +separated from the plain by two nearly parallel waves of land, which are +indeed joined at the northern end by a curving saddle, but elsewhere are +divided by deep gorges. The loftier and shorter wave forms the rocky +citadel of Mycenae--the Argion, as it was once called. + +I need not attempt a fresh description of the Great Treasury. It is in +no sense a rude building, or one of a helpless and barbarous age, but, +on the contrary, the product of enormous appliances, and of a perfect +knowledge of all the mechanical requirements for any building, if we +except the application of the arch. The stones are hewn square, or +curved to form the circular dome within, with admirable exactness. Above +the enormous lintel-stone, nearly twenty-seven feet long, and which is +doubly grooved, by way of ornament, all along its edge over the doorway, +there is now a triangular window or aperture, which was certainly filled +with some artistic carving like the analogous space over the lintel in +the gate of the Acropolis. Shortly after Lord Elgin had cleared the +entrance, Gell and Dodwell found various pieces of green and red marble +carved with geometrical patterns, some of which are reproduced in +Dodwell's book. Gell also found some fragments in a neighboring chapel, +and others are said to be built into a wall at Nauplia. There are +supposed to have been short columns standing on each side in front of +the gate, with some ornament surmounting them; but this seems to me to +rest on doubtful evidence, and on theoretical reconstruction. Dr. +Schliemann, however, asserts them to have been found at the entrance of +the second treasury which Mrs. Schliemann excavated, tho his account is +somewhat vague. There is the strongest architectural reason for the +triangular aperture over the door, as it diminishes the enormous weight +to be borne by the lintel; and here, no doubt, some ornament very like +lions on the other gate may have been applied. + +There has been much controversy about the use to which this building was +applied, and we can not now attempt to change the name, even if we could +prove its absurdity. Pausanias, who saw Mycenae in the second century +A.D., found it in much the same state as we do, and was no +better informed than we, tho he tells us the popular belief that this +and its fellows were treasure-houses like that of the Minyae at +Orchomenus, which was very much greater, and was, in his opinion, one of +the most wonderful things in all Greece. + +Standing at the entrance, you look out upon the scattered masonry of the +walls of Mycenae, on the hillock over against you. Close behind this is a +dark and solemn chain of mountains. The view is narrow and confined, and +faces the north, so that, for most of the day, the gate is dark and in +shadow. We can conceive no fitter place for the burial of a king, +within sight of his citadel, in the heart of a deep natural hillock, +with a great solemn portal symbolizing the resistless strength of the +barrier which he had passed into an unknown land. But one more remark +seems necessary. This treasure-house is by no means a Greek building in +its features. It has the same perfection of construction which can be +seen at Eleutherae, or any other Greek fort, but still the really +analogous buildings are to be found in far distant lands--in the raths +of Ireland, and the barrows of the Crimea. + + "And yet how lovely in thine age of woe, + Land of lost gods and godlike men, are thou! + Thy vales of evergreen, thy hills of snow, + Proclaim thee Nature's varied favourite now: + Thy fanes, thy temples to the surface bow, + Commingling slowly with heroic earth, + Broke by the share of every rustic plough: + + "Yet are thy skies as blue, thy crags as wild: + Sweet are thy groves, and verdant are thy fields, + Thine olives ripe as when Minerva smiled, + And still his honeyed wealth Hymettus yields; + There the blithe 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." + + --From Byron's "Childe Harold." + + + + +IX + +THE GREEK ISLANDS + + + + +A TOUR OF CRETE[61] + +BY BAYARD TAYLOR + + +Crete lies between the parallels of 35 degrees and 36 degrees, not much +farther removed from Africa than from Europe, and its climate, +consequently, is intermediate between that of Greece and that of +Alexandria. In the morning it was already visible, altho some thirty +miles distant, the magnificent snowy mass of the White Mountains +gleaming before us, under a bank of clouds. By ten o'clock, the long +blue line of the coast broke into irregular points, the Dictynnaean +promontory and that of Akroteri thrusting themselves out toward us so as +to give an amphitheatric character to that part of the island we were +approaching, while the broad, snowy dome of the Cretan Ida, standing +alone, far to the east, floated in a sea of soft, golden light. The +White Mountains were completely enveloped in snow to a distance of 4,000 +feet below their summits, and scarcely a rock pierced the luminous +covering. The shores of the Gulf of Khania, retaining their +amphitheatric form, rose gradually from the water, a rich panorama of +wheat-fields, vineyards and olive groves, crowded with sparkling +villages, while Khania, in the center, grew into distinctness--a +picturesque jumble of mosques, old Venetian arches and walls, pink and +yellow buildings, and palm trees. The character of the scene was Syrian +rather than Greek, being altogether richer and warmer than anything in +Greece. + +Khania occupies the site of the ancient Cydonia, by which name the Greek +bishopric is still called. The Venetian city was founded in 1252, and +any remnants of the older town which may have then remained, were quite +obliterated by it. The only ruins now are those of Venetian churches, +some of which have been converted into mosques, and a number of immense +arched vaults, opening on the harbor, built to shelter the galleys of +the Republic. Just beyond the point on which stands the Serai, I counted +fifteen of these, side by side, eleven of which are still entire. A +little further, there are three more, but all are choked up with sand, +and of no present use. The modern town is an exact picture of a Syrian +seaport, with its narrow, crooked streets, shaded bazaars, and turbaned +merchants. Its population is 9,500, including the garrison, according to +a census just completed at the time of our visit. It is walled, and the +gates are closed during the night.... + +Passing through the large Turkish cemetery, which was covered with an +early crop of blue anemones, we came upon the rich plain of Khania, +lying broad and fair, like a superb garden, at the foot of the White +Mountains, whose vast masses of shining snow filled up the entire +southern heaven. Eastward, the plain slopes to the deep Bay of Suda, +whose surface shone blue above the silvery line of the olive groves; +while, sixty miles away, rising high above the intermediate headlands, +the solitary peak of Mount Ida, bathed in a warm afternoon glow, gleamed +like an Olympian mount, not only the birthplace, but the throne of +immortal Jove. Immense olive trees from the dark-red, fertile earth; +cypresses and the canopied Italian pine interrupted their gray monotony, +and every garden hung the golden lamps of its oranges over the wall. The +plain is a paradise of fruitfulness.... + +In the morning, the horses were brought to us at an early hour, in +charge of a jolly old officer of gendarmes, who was to accompany us. As +far as the village of Kalepa, there is a carriage road; afterward, only +a stony path. From the spinal ridge of the promontory, which we crossed, +we overlooked all the plain of Khania, and beyond the Dictynnaean +peninsula, to the western extremity of Crete. The White Mountains, tho +less than seven thousand, feet in height, deceive the eye by the +contrast between their spotless snows and the summer at their base, and +seem to rival the Alps. The day was cloudless and balmy; birds sang on +every tree, and the grassy hollows were starred with anemones, white, +pink, violet and crimson. It was the first breath of the southern +spring, after a winter which had been as terrible for Crete as for +Greece. + +After a ride of three hours, we reached a broad valley, at the foot of +that barren mountain mass in which the promontory terminates. To the +eastward we saw the large monastery of Agia Triada (the Holy Trinity), +overlooking its fat sweep of vine and olive land.... In the deep, dry +mountain glen which we entered, I found numbers of carob-trees. Rocks of +dark-blue limestone, stained with bright orange oxydations, overhung us +as we followed the track of a torrent upward into the heart of this +bleak region, where, surrounded by the hot, arid peaks, is the Monastery +of Governato. + +We descended on foot to the Monastery of Katholiko, which we reached in +half an hour. Its situation is like that of San Saba in Palestine, at +the bottom of a split in the stony hills, and the sun rarely shines upon +it. Steps cut in the rock lead down the face of the precipice to the +deserted monastery, near which is a cavern 500 feet long, leading into +the rock. The ravine is spanned by an arch, nearly fifty feet high. + +At Agia Triada, as we rode up the stately avenue of cypresses, between +vineyards and almond trees in blossom, servants advanced to take our +horses, and the abbot shouted, "Welcome," from the top of the steps. We +were ushered into a clean room, furnished with a tolerable library of +orthodox volumes. A boy of fifteen, with a face like the young Raphael, +brought us glasses of a rich, dark wine, something like port, some jelly +and coffee. The size and substantial character of this monastery attests +its wealth, no less than the flourishing appearance of the lands +belonging to it. Its large courtyard is shaded with vine-bowers and +orange trees, and the chapel in the center has a facade supported by +Doric columns. + + + + +THE COLOSSAL RUINS OF CNOSSOS[62] + +BY PHILIP S. MARDEN + + +The ruins [of the Cnossos palace] lie at the east of the high road, in a +deep valley. Their excavation has been very complete and satisfactory, +and while some restorations have been attempted here and there, chiefly +because of absolute necessity to preserve portions of the structure, +they are not such restorations as to jar on one, but exhibit a fidelity +to tradition that saves them from the common fate of such efforts. +Little or no retouching was necessary in the case of the stupendous +flights of steps that were found leading up to the door of this +prehistoric royal residence, and which are the first of the many sights +the visitor of to-day may see. + +It is in the so-called "throne room of Minos" that the restoring hand is +first met. Here it has been found necessary to provide a roof, that +damage by weather be avoided; and to-day the throne room is a dusky +spot, rather below the general level of the place. Its chief treasure is +the throne itself, a stone chair, carved in rather rudimentary +ornamentation, and about the size of an ordinary chair. The roof is +supported by the curious, top-heavy-looking stone pillars, that are +known to have prevailed not only in the Minoan but in Mycenaean period; +monoliths noticeably larger at the top than at the bottom, reversing the +usual form of stone pillar with which later ages have made us more +familiar. This quite illogical inversion of what we now regard as the +proper form has been accounted for in theory, by assuming that it was +the natural successor of the sharpened wooden stake. When the ancients +adopted stone supports for their roofs, they simply took over the forms +they had been familiar with in the former use of wood, and the result +was a stone pillar that copied the earlier wooden one in shape. Time, of +course, served to show that the natural way of building demanded the +reversal of this custom; but in the Mycenaean age it had not been +discovered, for there are evidences that similar pillars existed in +buildings of that period, and the representation of a pillar that stands +between the two lions on Mycenae's famous gate has this inverted form. + +Many hours may be spent in detailed examination of this colossal ruin, +testifying to what must have been in its day an enormous and impressive +palace. One can not go far in traversing it without noticing the traces +still evident enough of the fire that obviously destroyed it many +hundred, if not several thousand, years before Christ. Along the western +side have been discovered long corridors, from which scores of long and +narrow rooms were to be entered. These, in the published plans, serve to +give to the ruin a large share of its labyrinthine character. It seems +to be agreed now that these were the storerooms of the palace, and in +them may still be seen the huge earthen jars which once served to +contain the palace supplies. Long rows of them stand in the ancient +hallways and in the narrow cells that lead off them, each jar large +enough to hold a fair-sized man, and in number sufficient to have +accommodated Ali Baba and the immortal forty thieves. In the center of +the palace little remains; but in the southeastern corner, where the +land begins to slope abruptly to the valley below, there are to be seen +several stories of the ancient building. Here one comes upon the rooms +marked with the so-called "distaff" pattern, supposed to indicate that +they were the women's quarters. + +The restorer has been busy here, but not offensively so. Much of the +ancient wall is intact, and in one place is a bathroom with a very +diminutive bathtub still in place. Along the eastern side is also shown +the oil press, where olives were once made to yield their coveted +juices, and from the press proper a stone gutter conducted the fluid +down to the point where jars were placed to receive it. This discovery +of oil presses in ancient buildings, by the way, has served in more than +one case to arouse speculation as to the antiquity of oil lamps such as +were once supposed to belong only to a much later epoch. Whether in the +Minoan days they had such lamps or not, it is known that they had at +least an oil press and a good one. In the side of the hill below the +main palace of Minos has been unearthed a smaller structure, which they +now call the "villa," and in which several terraces, have been uncovered +rather similar to the larger building above. Here is another throne +room, cunningly contrived to be lighted by a long shaft of light from +above falling on the seat of justice itself, while the rest of the room +is in obscurity. + +It may be that it requires a stretch of the imagination to compare the +palace of Cnossos with Troy, but nevertheless there are one or two +features that seem not unlike the discoveries made by Dr. Schliemann on +that famous site. Notably so, it seems to me, are the traces of the +final fire, which are to be seen at Cnossos as at Troy, and the huge +jars, which may be compared with the receptacles the Trojan excavators +unearthed, and found still to contain dried peas and other things that +the Trojans left behind when they fled from their sacked and burning +city. Few are privileged to visit the site of Priam's city, which is +hard, indeed, to reach; but it is easy enough to make the excursion to +Candia and visit the palace of old King Minos, which is amply worth the +trouble, besides giving a glimpse of a civilization that is possibly +vastly older than even that of Troy and Mycenae. For those who reverence +the great antiquities, Candia and its pre-classic suburb are distinctly +worth visiting, and are unique among the sights of the ancient Hellenic +and pre-Hellenic world. + + + + +CORFU[63] + +BY EDWARD A. FREEMAN + + +From whichever side our traveler draws near to Corfu, he comes from +lands where Greek influence and Greek colonization spread in ancient +times, but from which the Greek elements have been gradually driven out, +partly by the barbarism of the East, partly by the rival civilization of +the West. The land which we see is Hellenic in a sense in which not even +Sicily, not even the Great Hellas of Southern Italy, much less than the +Dalmatian archipelago, ever became Hellenic. Prom the first historic +glimpse which we get of Korkyra,[64] it is not merely a land fringed by +Hellenic colonies; it is a Hellenic island, the dominion of a single +Hellenic city, a territory the whole of whose inhabitants were, at the +beginning of recorded history, either actually Hellenic or so thoroughly +hellenized that no one thought of calling their Hellenic position in +question. Modern policy has restored it to its old position by making it +an integral portion of the modern Greek kingdom. + +To the south of the present town, connected with it by a favorite walk +of the inhabitants of Corfu, a long and broad peninsula stretches boldly +into the sea. Both from land and from sea, it chiefly strikes the eye as +a wooded mass, thickly covered with the aged olive trees which form so +marked a feature in the scenery of the island. A few houses skirt the +base, growing on the land side into the suburb of Kastrades, which may +pass for a kind of connecting link between the old and the new city. And +from the midst of the wood, on the side nearest to the modern town, +stands out the villa of the King of the Greeks, the chief modern +dwelling on the site of ancient Korkyra. This peninsular hill, still +known as Palaiopolis, was the site of the old Corinthian city whose name +is so familiar to every reader of Thucydides. On either side of it lies +one of its two forsaken harbors. Between the old and the new city lies +the so-called harbor of Alkinoos; beyond the peninsula, stretching far +inland, lies the old Hyllaic harbor, bearing the name of one of the +three tribes which seem to have been essential to the being of a Dorian +commonwealth.... + +This last is the Corfu whose fate seems to have been to become the +possession of every power which has ruled in that quarter of the world, +with one exception. For fourteen hundred years the history of the island +is the history of endless changes of masters. We see it first a nominal +ally, then a direct possession, of Rome and of Constantinople; we then +see it formed into a separate Byzantine principality, conquered by the +Norman lord of Sicily, again a possession of the Empire, then a +momentary possession of Venice, again a possession of the Sicilian +kingdom under its Angevin kings, till at last it came back to Venetian +rule, and abode for four hundred years under the Lion of Saint Mark. +Then it became part of that first strange Septinsular Republic of which +the Czar was to be the protector and the Sultan the overlord. Then it +was a possession of France; then a member of the second Septinsular +Republic under the hardly disguised sovereignty of England; now at last +it is the most distant, but one of the most valuable, of the provinces +of the modern Greek kingdom. + +Of the modern city there is but little to say. As becomes a city which +was so long a Venetian possession, the older part of it has much of the +character of an Italian town. It is rich in street arcades; but they +present but few architectural features; and we find none of those +various forms of ornamental window so common, not only in Venice and +Verona, but in Spalato, Cattaro, and Traue. The churches in the modern +city are architecturally worthless. They are interesting so far as they +will give to many their first impression of orthodox arrangement and +orthodox ritual. The few ecclesiastical antiquities of the place belong +to the elder city. The suburb of the lower slope of the hill contains +three churches, all of them small, but each of which has an interest of +its own. + + + + +RHODES[65] + +BY CHARLES DUDLEY WARNER + + +Coming on deck the next morning at the fresh hour of sunrise, I found we +were at Rhodes. We lay just off the semicircular harbor, which is +clasped by walls--partly shaken down by earthquakes--which have noble, +round towers at each embracing end. Rhodes is, from the sea, one of the +most picturesque cities in the Mediterranean, altho it has little +remains of that ancient splendor which caused Strabo to prefer it to +Rome or Alexandria. The harbor wall, which is flanked on each side by +stout and round, stone windmills, extends up the hill, and becoming +double, surrounds the old town; these massive fortifications of the +Knights of St. John have withstood the onsets of enemies and the tremors +of the earth, and, with the ancient moat, excite the curiosity of this +so-called peaceful age of iron-clads and monster cannon. The city +ascends the slope of the hill and passes beyond the wall. Outside and on +the right toward the sea are a picturesque group of a couple of dozen +stone windmills, and some minarets and a church-tower or two. Higher up +the hill is sprinkled a little foliage, a few mulberry trees, and an +isolated palm or two; and, beyond, the island is only a mass of broken, +bold, rocky mountains. Of its forty-five miles of length, running +southwesterly from the little point on which the city stands, we can see +but little. + +Whether or not Rhodes emerged from the sea at the command of Apollo, the +Greeks exprest by this tradition of its origin their appreciation of its +gracious climate, fertile soil, and exquisite scenery. From remote +antiquity it had fame as a seat of arts and letters, and of a vigorous +maritime power, and the romance of its early centuries was equaled if +not surpassed when it became the residence of the Knights of St. John. I +believe that the first impress of its civilization was given by the +Phoenicians; it was the home of the Dorian race before the time of the +Trojan War, and its three cities were members of the Dorian Hexapolis; +it was, in fact, a flourishing maritime confederacy strong enough to +send colonies to the distant Italian coast, and Sybaris and Parthenope +(modern Naples) perpetuated the luxurious refinement of their founders. +The city of Rhodes itself was founded about four hundred years before +Christ, and the splendor of its palaces, its statues and paintings gave +it a pre-eminence among the most magnificent cities of the ancient +world. If the earth of this island could be made to yield its buried +treasures as Cyprus has, we should doubtless have new proofs of the +influence of Asiatic civilization upon the Greeks, and be able to trace +in the early Doric arts and customs the superior civilization of the +Phoenicians, and of the masters of the latter in science and art, the +Egyptians. + +Naturally, every traveler who enters the harbor of Rhodes hopes to see +the site of one of the seven wonders of the world, the Colossus. He is +free to place it on either mole at the entrance of the harbor, but he +comprehends at once that a statue which was only one hundred and five +feet high could never have extended its legs across the port. The fame +of this colossal bronze statue of the sun is disproportioned to the +period of its existence; it stood only fifty-six years after its +erection, being shaken down by an earthquake in the year 224 B.C., and +encumbering the ground with its fragments till the advent of the Moslem +conquerors. + +Passing from the quay through a highly ornamented Gothic gateway, we +ascended the famous historic street, still called the Street of the +Knights, the massive houses of which have withstood the shocks of +earthquakes and the devastation of Saracenic and Turkish occupation. +This street, of whose palaces we have heard so much, is not imposing; it +is not wide, its solid stone houses are only two stories high, and their +fronts are now disfigured by cheap Arab balconies; but the facades are +gray with age. All along are remains of carved windows. Gothic +sculptured doorways and shields and coats of arms, crosses and armorial +legends, are set in the walls, partially defaced by time and the respect +of Suleiman for the Knights, have spared the mementos of their faith and +prowess. I saw no inscriptions that are intact, but made out upon one +shield the words "voluntas mei est." The carving is all beautiful. + +We went through the silent streets, waking only echoes of the past, out +to the ruins of the once elegant church of St. John, which was shaken +down by a powder-explosion some thirty years ago, and utterly flattened +by an earthquake some years afterward. Outside the ramparts we met, and +saluted, with the freedom of travelers, a gorgeous Turk who was taking +the morning air, and whom our guide in bated breath said was the +governor. In this part of the town is the Mosque of Suleiman; in the +portal are two lovely marble columns, rich with age; the lintels are +exquisitely carved with flowers, arms, casques, musical instruments, the +crossed sword and the torch, and the mandolin, perhaps the emblem of +some troubadour knight. Wherever we went we found bits of old carving, +remains of columns, sections of battlemented roofs. The town is +saturated with the old Knights. Near the mosque is a foundation of +charity, a public kitchen, at which the poor were fed or were free to +come and cook their food; it is in decay now, and the rooks were sailing +about its old, round-topped chimneys. + +There are no Hellenic remains in the city, and the only remembrance of +that past which we searched for was the antique coin, which has upon +one side the head of Medusa and upon the other the rose (rhoda) which +gave the town its name. The town was quiet; but in pursuit of this coin +in the Jews' quarter we started up swarms of traders, were sent from +Isaac to Jacob, and invaded dark shops and private houses where Jewish +women and children were just beginning to complain of the morning light. +Our guide was a jolly Greek, who was willing to awaken the whole town in +search of a silver coin. The traders, when we had routed them out, had +little to show in the way of antiquities. Perhaps the best +representative of the modern manufactures of Rhodes is the wooden shoe, +which is in form like the Damascus clog, but is inlaid with more taste. +The people whom we encountered in our morning walk were Greeks or Jews. +The morning atmosphere was delicious, and we could well believe that the +climate of Rhodes is the finest in the Mediterranean, and also that it +is the least exciting of cities. + + + + +MT. ATHOS[66] + +BY CHARLES DUDLEY WARNER + + +Beyond Thasos is the Thracian coast and Mt. Pangaus, and at the foot of +it Philippi, the Macedonian town where republican Rome fought its last +battle, where Cassius leaned upon his sword-point, believing everything +lost. Brutus transported the body of his comrade to Thasos and raised +for him a funeral pyre; and twenty days later, on the same field, met +again that specter of death which had summoned him to Philippi. It was +not many years after this victory of the Imperial power that a greater +triumph was won at Philippi, when Paul and Silas, cast into prison, sang +praises unto God at midnight, and an earthquake shook the house and +opened the prison doors. + +In the afternoon we came in sight of snowy Mt. Athos, an almost +perpendicular limestone rock, rising nearly six thousand four hundred +feet out of the sea. The slender promontory which this magnificent +mountain terminates is forty miles long and has only an average breadth +of four miles. The ancient canal of Xerxes quite severed it from the +mainland. The peninsula, level at the canal, is a jagged stretch of +mountains (seamed by chasms), which rise a thousand, two thousand, four +thousand feet, and at last front the sea with the sublime peak of Athos, +the site of the most conspicuous beacon-fire of Agamemnon. The entire +promontory is, and has been since the time of Constantine, ecclesiastic +ground; every mountain and valley has its convent; besides the twenty +great monasteries are many pious retreats. All the sects of the Greek +church are here represented; the communities pay a tribute to the +Sultan, but the government is in the hands of four presidents, chosen by +the synod, which holds weekly sessions and takes the presidents, +yearly, from the monasteries in rotation. Since their foundation these +religious houses have maintained against Christians and Saracens an +almost complete independence, and preserved in their primitive +simplicity the manners and usages of the earliest foundations. + +Here, as nowhere else in Europe or Asia, can one behold the +architecture, the dress, the habits of the Middle Ages. The good +devotees have been able to keep themselves thus in the darkness and +simplicity of the past by a rigorous exclusion of the sex always +impatient of monotony, to which all the changes of the world are due. No +woman, from the beginning till now, has ever been permitted to set foot +on the peninsula. Nor is this all; no female animal is suffered on the +holy mountain, not even a hen. I suppose, tho I do not know, that the +monks have an inspector of eggs, whose inherited instincts of aversion +to the feminine gender enable him to detect and reject all those in +which lurk the dangerous sex. Few of the monks eat meat, half the days +of the year are fast days, they practise occasionally abstinence from +food for two or three days, reducing their pulses to the feeblest +beating, and subduing their bodies to a point that destroys their value +even as spiritual tabernacles. The united community is permitted to keep +a guard of fifty Christian soldiers, and the only Moslem on the island +is the solitary Turkish officer who represents the Sultan; his position +can not be one generally coveted by the Turks, since the society of +women is absolutely denied him. The libraries of Mt. Athos are full of +unarranged manuscripts, which are probably mainly filled with the +theologic rubbish of the controversial ages, and can scarcely be +expected to yield again anything so valuable as the Tishendorf +Scriptures. + +At sunset we were close under Mt. Athos, and could distinguish the +buildings of the Laura Convent, amid the woods beneath the frowning +cliff. And now was produced the apparition of a sunset, with this +towering mountain cone for a centerpiece, that surpassed all our +experience and imagination. The sea was like satin for smoothness, +absolutely waveless, and shone with the colors of changeable silk, blue, +green, pink, and amethyst. Heavy clouds gathered about the sun, and from +behind them he exhibited burning spectacles, magnificent fireworks, vast +shadow-pictures, scarlet cities, and gigantic figures stalking across +the sky. From one crater of embers he shot up a fan-like flame that +spread to the zenith and was reflected on the water. His rays lay along +the sea in pink, and the water had the sheen of iridescent glass. The +whole sea for leagues was like this; even Lemnos and Samothrace lay in a +dim pink and purple light in the east. There were vast clouds in huge +walls, with towers and battlements, and in all fantastic shapes--one a +gigantic cat with a preternatural tail, a cat of doom four degrees long. +All this was piled about Mt. Athos, with its sharp summit of snow, its +dark sides of rock. + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[1] From "Pictures from Italy." Dickens made his trip to Italy in 1844. + +[2] From "Italy: Florence and Venice." By special arrangement with, and +by permission of, the publishers. Henry Holt & Co. Copyright, 1869. +Translated by John Durand. + +[3] Begun in 1386. Its architects were Germans and Frenchmen. + +[4] From "Italy: Florence and Venice." By special arrangement with, and +by permission of, the publishers, Henry Holt & Co. Copyright, 1869. +Translated by John Durand. + +[5] From "The Story of Pisa." Published by E. P. Dutton & Co. + +[6] From "Pictures From Italy." + +[7] From "Cities of Southern Italy and Sicily." + +[8] From "Travels in Italy." + +[9] A German friend with whom Goethe was traveling. + +[10] From "Pictures from Italy." + +[11] From "Italy: Rome and Naples." By special arrangement with, and by +permission of, the publishers, Henry Holt & Co. Copyright, 1869. +Translated by John Durand. + +[12] This term designates a road built along the rocky shore of a +seaside, being a figurative application of the architectural term +"cornice."--Translator's note. + +[13] From "Cities of Southern Italy and Sicily." + +[14] From a letter to Thomas Love Peacock, written in 1819. + +[15] From "Pictures from Italy." + +[16] From "Journeys in Italy." By special arrangement with, and by +permission of, the publishers, Brentano's. Copyright, 1902. + +[17] The memoir writer. + +[18] From "Journeys in Italy." By special arrangement with, and by +permission of, the publishers, Brentano's. Copyright, 1902. + +[19] From "Unknown Switzerland." Published by James Pott & Co. +Politically, Lake Lugano is part Swiss and part Italian. + +[20] The St. Gothard. + +[21] From a letter to Thomas Love Peacock, written in 1818. + +[22] From "The Spell of the Italian Lakes." By special arrangement with, +and by permission of, the publishers, L. C. Page & Co. Copyright, 1907. + +[23] From "Remarks on Several Parts of Italy in the Years 1701, 1702, +1703." + +[24] In the town are now about 1,500 people; in the whole territory of +the republic, 9,500. San Marino lies about fourteen miles southwest from +Rimini. + +[25] At the present time, fourteen hundred years; so that San Marino is +the oldest as well as the smallest republic in the world. + +[26] From "French and Italian Note-Books." By special arrangement with, +and by permission of, Houghton, Mifflin Co., publishers of Hawthorne's +works. Copyright, 1871, 1883, 1889. + +[27] The author's son, Julian Hawthorne. + +[28] From "Italian Cities." By special arrangement with, and by +permission of, the publishers, Charles Scribner's Sons. Copyright, 1900. + +[29] From "Italy: Florence and Venice." By special arrangement with, and +by permission of, the publishers, Henry Holt & Co. Copyright, 1869. + +[30] From "Historical and Architectural Sketches: Chiefly Italian." +Published by the Macmillan Co. + +[31] From "Cities of Southern Italy and Sicily." + +[32] From "Letters of a Traveler." + +[33] From "Historical and Architectural Sketches: Chiefly Italian." +Published by the Macmillan Co. + +[34] From "Sicily: The Garden of the Mediterranean." By special +arrangement with, and by permission of, the publishers, L. C. Page & Co. +Copyright, 1909. + +[35] From "The History of Sicily." Published by the Macmillan Co. + +[36] The Greek name for Girgenti. + +[37] From "Travels in Italy." + +[38] From "Travels in Italy." + +[39] From "Sicily: The Garden of the Mediterranean." By special +arrangement with, and by permission of, the publishers, L. C. Page & Co. +Copyright, 1909. + +[40] From "Vacation Days in Greece." By special arrangement with, and by +permission of, the publishers, Charles Scribner's Sons. Copyright, 1903. + +[41] From "Constantinople." By special arrangement with, and by +permission of, the publishers, Henry Holt & Co. Copyright, 1875. + +[42] From "Rambles and Studies in Greece." Published by the Macmillan +Co. + +[43] From "Travels in Greece and Russia." Published by G. P. Putnam's +Sons. + +[44] From the "Description of Greece." Pausanias was a Greek traveler +and geographer who lived in the second century A.D.--in the time of the +Roman emperors, Hadrian and Marcus Aurelius. + +[45] From "Rambles and Studies in Greece." Published by the Macmillan +Co. + +[46] The Venetian commander who bombarded the Parthenon in 1687. + +[47] Edward Dodwell (1767-1832), an English traveler and archeologist, +notable for his investigations in Greece when it had been little +explored, and author of various records of his work.--Author's note. + +[48] From "Rambles and Studies in Greece." Published by the Macmillan +Co. + +[49] This very pattern, in mahogany, with cane seats, and adapted, like +all Greek chairs, for loose cushions, was often used in Chippendale +work, and may still be found in old mansions furnished at that +epoch.--Author's note. + +[50] From "Rambles and Studies in Greece." Published by the Macmillan +Co. + +[51] From "Travels in Greece and Russia." Published by G. P. Putnam's +Sons. + +[52] From "Rambles and Studies in Greece." Published by the Macmillan +Co. + +[53] From "Greece and the Aegean Islands." By special arrangement with, +and by permission of, the publishers, Houghton, Mifflin Co. Copyright, +1907. + +[54] From the "Description of Greece." Pausanias wrote in the time of +Hadrian and Marcus Aurelius. + +[55] From "Vacation Days in Greece." By special arrangement with, and by +permission of, the publishers, Charles Scribner's Sons. Copyright, 1903. + +[56] From "In the Levant." By special arrangement with, and by +permission of, the publishers, Houghton, Mifflin Co. Copyright, 1875. +Salonica, formerly Turkish territory, was added to the territory of +Greece in 1913, under the terms of the treaty of peace that followed the +Balkan war against Turkey. + +[57] From "In the Levant." By special arrangement with, and by +permission of, the publishers, Houghton, Mifflin Co. Copyright, 1875. + +[58] From "Travels in Greece and Russia." Published by G. P. Putnam's +Sons. + +[59] From "Travels in Greece and Russia," Published by G. P. Putnam's +Sons. + +[60] From "Rambles and Studies in Greece." Published by the Macmillan +Co. + +[61] From "Travels in Greece and Russia." Published by G. P. Putnam's +Sons. + +[62] From "Greece and the AEgean Islands." By special arrangement with, +and by permission of, the publishers, Houghton, Mifflin Co. Copyright, +1907. + +[63] From "Sketches from the Subject and Neighbor Lands of Venice." +Published by the Macmillan Co. + +[64] The ancient Greek name of Corfu. + +[65] From "In the Levant." By special arrangement with, and by +permission of, the publishers, Houghton, Mifflin Co. Copyright, 1876. + +[66] From "In the Levant." By special arrangement with, and by +permission of, the publishers, Houghton, Mifflin Co. Copyright, 1876. As +one of the results of the Balkan war of 1912-1913, Mt. Athos, which had +formerly been under Turkish rule, was added to the territory of Greece. +Nature made Mt. Athos a part of the mainland, but a canal was cut by +Xerxes across the lowland at the base of the lofty promontory, making it +an island. Some parts of this canal still remain. + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Seeing Europe with Famous Authors, Vol +VIII, by Various + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SEEING EUROPE *** + +***** This file should be named 19061.txt or 19061.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/1/9/0/6/19061/ + +Produced by Janet Blenkinship and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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