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cluded with wild singing and rustic dancing. We passed the night round a fire, having no mountain, as before, to shelter us, and the air getting cold.

In the morning the falconer, after placing a piece of raw meat in a tree at a distance, unhooded and dismissed a hawk, which immediately flew towards it; but, stooping mid-way, seized a small speckled owl, lurking among the few green tufts, scattered on the surface of the soil. The ravenous bird was easily deceived by a bit of flesh, which the falconer substituted, as usual, in the room of his prey, and loosed the owl alive from his talons. We likewise saw a partridge chased, taken on the wing, and carried into a thicket.

The purple hills of Hymettus were the scene of the famous story of Cephalus and Procris.* The fatal mistake of the husband was said to have happened among some thickets, near a sacred spring or fountain. This seems the spot called Pera, where was a temple of Venus, and a water, which was believed to conduce to pregnancy, and to an easy delivery. The same, it is probable, is now occupied by the monastery of Cyriani. In many instances the temple, or its site, with the consecrated portion, have changed their owners, and the deity been dispossessed by the saint. The convent is an old irregular building, on the side of the greater Hymettus, in view from Athens, encompassed by a wall with battlements, and entered by a low iron door. The Greek women repair to it at particular seasons, and near it is a fountain much extolled for its virtues. The papas, or priest, affirmed, that a dove is seen to fly down from heaven to drink of it yearly, at the feast of Pentecost. I ascended to the top of the mountain, where I

* Ovid. de Arte Amandi, 1. 3. v. 687.

enjoyed a fine prospect of the country, and of the islands in the Ægean Sea, near the coast of Attica.

CHAP. XXXI.

Towns between Phalerum and Sunium-Capes and islands— Barrows by Alopece-Vestiges af Exone and Anagyrus— Entertained by a Greek abbot-A Panéum or sacred caveWheler's route from Sunium to Athens-Remarks.

THE towns on the coast, going from Phalerum toward Sunium, were Alimus, Exone, Alæ of Exone, Anagyrus, Thoræ, Lampra, Ægilia, Anaphlystus, Azenia. Alimus was at the same distance as Phalerum from Athens, and had a temple of Ceres and Proserpine. Lampra was the place to which Cranaus the successor of Cecrops fled from Amphictyon. His monument remained in the time of Pausanias, above sixteen hundred years after his death, and, if a barrow, is perhaps still extant.

The long promontory, the first after Exone, was named Zoster, because, it was said, Latona had loosed her zone there in her way to Delos, whither she was conducted by Minerva. On the shore was an altar. After Thoræ was Astypalæa. Before one of the capes was the island Phaura; before the other, Eleusa; and opposite to Exone, Hydrusa. Toward Anaphlystus* was a Paneum or cave of Pan, and the temple of Venus Colias. The west wind scattered the wrecks of the Persian fleet, after the battle of Salamis, along the shore as far as Colias. Before these places lay Belbina, at no

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*TEρ de Avapλvcov-Strabo, p. 398. There was a temple of Ceres.

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great distance, and the fosse of Patroclus, but most of the islands were desert. Pausanias mentions cape Colias, with the image of Venus, as twenty stadia, or two miles and a half, from Phalerum. Colias was famous for earthen ware, tinged with vermilion,

Some information, received soon after our return from Mount Hymettus, induced us to go, in the following month, to Vary, a metochi, or farm, belonging to a Greek monastery at Athens, on the sea-coast, and distant about four hours. The road led us, as before, to the vestiges of Alopece, beyond which we saw several small barrows, the soil poor and stony. Their origin may be deduced from early history. The Lacedæmonians sent an army, under Anchimolius, to free Athens from the tyranny of the sons of Pisistratus. He landed at Phalerum, encamped, was attacked and killed with many of his men. Their graves, or barrows, says Herodotus, are by Alopece.*

On our approach to the shore, some vestiges occurred, it is likely, of Æxone. We then turned, and travelled toward Sunium, through a gap in Mount Hymettus, which running out forms the promontory once called Zoster. Within the gap, near the end, we came to the site of a considerable town, some terrace walls, of the species called Incertum, remaining. Beyond these is a church. We found some fragments of inscriptions fixed in the wall; and one of my companions afterwards copied a sepulchral marble, recording a person of Anagyrus, which, it is probable, was the name of the place. The terrace, perhaps, was the site of the temple of the mother of the gods.

* 1. v. c. 6. Pisistratus died in the year before Christ, 528.

The convent stands on a knoll above the sea, with Lampra, the promontories Sunium and Scyllæum, and the fosse of Patroclus, Belbina, and other islands, in view. We found there the hegumenos, or abbot, who was come from Athens to receive us, and two or three caloyers, or monks,' who manage the farm. We were entertained with boiled fowls, olives, cheese, and the like fare. The sky, as usual, was our canopy, and, after sun-set, we lay down to sleep, some under a shed, some in the court, and one of my companions in a tree, where a man had watched the alóni, or corn floor, which was close by, during the harvest.

We ascended, early in the morning, to a cave or grotto, which was the object of our journey, distant about three quarters of an hour, inland, in the mountain. This, which appears to be the Panéum mentioned by Strabo, will be the subject of the following chapter. It affords shelter to the goat-herds in winter, and is frequented at all seasons for water by those, who have their occupation on the mountain. Our men made a fire in it to purify the air, and we tarried all day, dining again on a sheep roasted whole.

An abstract of the journey of Sir George Wheler, from Sunium to Athens, will illustrate this portion of the geography of Attica. He directed his course along the shore of the Saronic gulf, and passed the night with some shepherds near Metropis, a town on a hill. Ten or twelve miles farther on, he came to ruins on a rock, near a bay. These were called Enneapyrgæ, the Nine Towers. From Lampra, three or four miles more inland, he travelled north-westward, in a cultivated plain, to a very few houses, called Fillia. He then turned more north-westward into the way to Athens, and entered between two ridges of Mount Hymettus, one called Lam

pra-vouni, the other Telo-vouni. This descended with a sharp point into the sea, making a promontory named Halikes, before which are four small islands or rocks, called Cambonisia, the Button Islands. He then arrived in the plain of Athens.

Of these places, Metropis may have been, as he supposes, Azenia. Enneapуrge was Anaphlystus. The next village was Upper Lampra; and Fillia perhaps was that, of which the people were once called Philaida. Halikes, with the Cambonisia, was Zoster with the islets about it. Lampra-vouni was on his left hand. He appears to have quitted the coast, and to have entered the plain of Athens through the gap, dividing the greater from the lesser Hymettus.

CHAP. XXXII.

Distinct provinces of the heathen gods-Their characters and places of worship-A Panéum or nymphæum, with inscriptions-Of Archidamus and the age when he lived-Of the nymphs-Of Nympholepsy Of sacred caves-Of a cave in Ithaca-In Paphlagonia Of the two entrances-The offerings-Design of the cave.

THE pious Athenian was anciently furnished with patrongods for every occupation, situation, and pursuit. He who ventured to sea first propitiated Neptune, Amphitrite, and the Nereids. The artist sacrificed to Minerva and Vulcan; the student to the Muses, Apollo their leader, Memory, and Mercury; the lover to Venus and Cupid, Persuasion and the Graces; the husbandman to Ceres and her son Bacchus ;

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