CHAP. I. found in the Plain of Marathon; where, amidst the wreck of generations, and the graves of antient heroes, we elevate our thoughts towards HIM "in whose sight a thousand years are but as yesterday," where the stillness of Nature, harmonizing with the calm solitude of that illustrious region which was once a scene of the most agitated passions, enables us, by the past, to determine of the future. In those moments, indeed, we may be said to live for ages; -a single instant, by the multiplied impressions it conveys, seems to anticipate for us a sense of that Eternity, "when time shall be no more;" when the fitful dream of human existence, with all its turbulent illusions, shall be dispelled; and the last sun having set in the last night of the world, a brighter dawn than ever gladdened the universe shall renovate the dominions of darkness and of death. Austin So CHAP. II. MARATHON TO THEBES. Present Village of Marathon-Cave of Pan-Charadra- CHAP. EXCEPTING one or two houses belonging to Present MARATHON II. Cave of Pan. CHAP. Albanians. Some remains, as of a more antient settlement, may be observed behind these buildings, towards the north-west. We made a vain inquiry after the Cave of Pan; being well convinced that so accurate a writer as Pausanias would not have mentioned a natural curiosity of this kind, without good proof of its existence in his time; and from its nature, it is not probable that any lapse of time should have caused its disappearance. Our Albanian guides, however, either did not know that any such cave existed, or they did not choose to accompany us thither; and we have since learned, that we passed close to it, before our arrival at Marathon, in our road from Athens. Other travellers have found it; and they describe it to be a stalactite grotto, similar, in its nature, to the several caves of Parnassus, Hymettus, and Antiparos, although upon a smaller scale': and this circumstance in its history of course explains all that Pausanias has written concerning the various phænomena with which that cavern abounds2; the eccentric shapes which the (1) It has been recently visited by Mr. Hughes, of St. John's College, Cambridge; who gave to the author this account of its situation. (2) Ολίγον δὲ ἀπωτέρου τοῦ πεδίου, Πανός ἐστιν ὄρος, καὶ σπήλαιον θέας ἄξιον· εἴσοδος μὲν ἐς αὐτὸ στενὴ, παρελθοῦσι δέ εἰσιν οἶκοι, καὶ λουτρὰ, καὶ τὸ καλούμενον Πανὸς αἰπόλιον, πέτραι τὰ πολλὰ αἰξὶν εἰκασμέναι. Pausania Aitica, c. 52. p. 80. edit. Kuhnii, II. stalactites had assumed in the second century, CHAP. being, by him, referred to animal and other forms; as Joseph Pitton de Tournefort, in the first year of the eighteenth century, with equal gravity, refers the ramifications of alabaster, in the Grotto of Antiparos, to cauliflowers and trees, as proofs of the vegetation of stones'. We left Marathon on the morning of the third of December, being accompanied by our friend Lusieri as far as the mill, where the road to Athens separates from that which leads to Kalingi and to Thebes; and here we saw him for the last time. At this mill there are the remains of an aqueduct, with arches, covered with ivy. From hence we began to ascend a part of the mountain Parnes, now called Noziu, with a strong accent upon the last syllable. the same manner, the modern name of the island Ceos is not pronounced, as written, Zia, but Zia. Our ascent was along the course of In (3) "Il n'est pas possible encore un coup que cela se soit fait par la chute des gouttes d'eau, comme le prétendent ceux qui expliquent la formation des congélations dans les grottes. Il y a beaucoup plus d'apparence que les autres congélations dont nous parlons, et qui pendent du haut en bas, ou qui poussent en différent sens, ont été produites par le même principe, C'EST-A-DIRE PAR LA VEGETATION.” Voyage du Levant, tom. I. p. 229. à Lyon, 1717. II. Charadra. Plants. CHAP. the Charadrus, which we were surprised to hear the Albanians call, in this part, Charadra; a different name being given to it in its passage across the plain. The scenery around us now became mountainous, and broken into masses; resembling that which is so frequently represented in the pictures of Gaspar Poussin. The soil was covered with a beautiful Heath, together with the gaudy blossoms of the Crocus which we had found in the Plain of Marathon: and a variety of the evergreen Oak, or Quercus Ilex, with prickly leaves. We saw also, everywhere, the Velanida, or Quercus Egilops. Of the Ilex the Romans first made their civic crowns; but they afterwards used the Esculus for that purpose'. A noble race of dogs is found over all this district; and the same may be said of almost all wild and mountainous territories. The animal appears to degenerate in proportion as he is removed to more cultivated regions, and among a civilized people. Even the common mastiff appears no where of such Dogs. (1) "Civica Iligno prima fuit, postea magis placuit ex Esculo, Jovi sacrâ." (Pliny.) The Esculus also furnished a wreath of honour in the Games: "His juvenum quicunque manu, pedibusve, rotâve Vicerat; Esculea capiebat frondis honorem." Ovid. Metamorph. I. 448. |