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Hymettus, and on Parnes. The latter was made of brass. On Hymettus were altars, likewise, of the showery Jupiter, and of Apollo the presager; and on Parnes was an altar of Jupiter the signifier, with one on which they sacrificed to him under different titles, styling him showery or innocent as directed by the weather. The later citizen has equalled, if not surpassed, the piety of his heathen predecessor, and has scattered churches and convents over the whole country. They occur in the fields, and olive-groves, in the nooks and the recesses of the mountains.

CHAP. XXXVIII.

The northern boundary of Attica-Wheler's route from Marathon to Oropus-Eleuthera-Deceleia-Phyle-Harma― Wheler's route from Thebes to Athens.

ATTICA was separated from Boeotia on the north by a range of mountains, many-named, extending westward from Oropus, to the Megaris or county of Negara. On the confines were Panactos, Hysiæ situated by the Asopus under Mount Citharon, and Oenoe by Eleutheræ. Oropus was forty-four miles from Athens, thirty-six from Thebes, and twenty-four from Chalcis in Eubœa.*

Wheler, leaving Marathon, ascended the mountain now called Nozea, and travelled by the river, which has its course to the plain interrupted by little cataracts or water-falls. After an hour and a half he passed a ruined village, called Kalingi, on the side of the mountain; and, riding as long in

* Antonine Itinerary.

the plain on the top, Capandritti or Capodritti, famous for good wine. He proceeded an hour farther, by an easy ascent, to the highest point of the mountain, He then descended an hour and more along a torrent, and arrived at a town, on the side called Marcopoli, where he saw some ancient fragments. Lower down he came to the shore of Euripus, and, after riding by it two hours and a half, to the mouth of the Asopus, which river was then swelled by rain from Mount Parnes, and not fordable on horseback. He travelled along the banks to Oropus, a town two or three miles from the sea.

The territory of Plataa was contiguous with Attica, more westward, or on the side of Eleusis, and Mount Citharon was the boundary of Boeotia; Eleuthera having surrendered to Athens, not from compulsion but voluntarily, from a desire to be under its government, and from hatred of the Thebans. Ruins of the wall and of houses remained at Eleutheræ in the time of Pausanias. In the plain before it was a temple and statue of Bacchus; and, more remote, a small cave with a fountain of cold water; where, it was related, the twin brothers Zethus and Amphion were exposed by Antiope, their mother, and found by a shepherd.

Deceleia, a town visible from Athens, was toward Oropus. It was one hundred and twenty stadia, or fifteen miles, from the city, and equidistant from Boeotia. This place was respected by the Lacedæmonians; because when Castor and Pollux were in quest of their sister Helen, Decelus informed them, she was concealed by Theseus at Aphidna. They fortified it with a wall in the nineteenth year of the PeloponneIt was the burying-place of Sophocles and his When the poet died, it was said, Bacchus ap

sian war.

ancestors.

peared to Lysander in his sleep, and bade him permit the body to be put into the sepulchre.

Phyle was a castle toward Boeotia, one hundred stadia, or twelve miles and a half, from Athens. It was reckoned impregnable, and was the place to which Thrasybulus fled from the thirty tyrants. It is now called Bigla-castro, the Watchcastle. The ancient fortress is almost entire,* standing on a high rock in the way from Thebes, the top not half a mile in circumference, the walls of hewn stone well cemented. Athens may be seen from it.

An oracle had directed, that the victims, which the Athenians were accustomed to send to Delphi, should not depart until it lightened at Harma, a place on Mount Parnes, by Phyle; and this signal. was expected during three months, certain priests watching in each three days and nights. Their station was at the hearth of the lightning Jupiter, on the wall between the temple of Apollo Pythius and the Olympiéum

at Athens.

Wheler, with his companion, travelled south-eastward from Thebes, along the stream Ismenus, and ascending came to the source, a very large and clear spring. He continued to mount a mile or two, and then descending crossed a bridge over the Asopus. He passed the top of a rocky hill, the way bad, to Vlachi a village of Albanians, where he observed some ancient walls, and caves underground. On the summit was a little tower, from which Thebes might be seen. This was on a ridge of Citharon, which runs eastward toward Oropus. He went on two hours and a half in a plain, and saw several ponds,† with plenty of wild ducks and teal, and

* Wheler, p. 334. Pococke, p. 160.

+ See Strabo, p. 406.

many low oaks, of the species which produces the large acorns. He then ascended Parnes, a great and high mountain almost covered with pine-trees, now called Casha, from a village on the side in the way down toward Attica. He passed the night in a ruined khan by a very curious fountain, resorted to by wolves, and bears, and wild boars, which abound. Phyle was just by this place. From the eminence he looked down, as he relates, with unspeakable pleasure and content on the celebrated Athens, and the noble plains, so famous in ancient story. A narrow dangerous track led by Casha to the foot of the mountain; and a level road from thence to Athens; passing by a wood of olive-trees, with several pleasant villages in it, watered by a river. Every shepherd they met here bade them welcome, and wished them a good journey.

CHAP. XXXIX.

Excursions by sea-The straits of Salamis-Manner of fishing with a light-Mode of living-Arrive at Eleusis.

I VISITED the principal places of the Saronic gulf in two excursions by sea from Athens. One was in a caicque, or wherry, with Lombardi and a couple of fishermen. We were off Ægina on the twenty-ninth of March, O. S. and observed about sun-set a staff of light near the horizon, in the south-west, which appeared again the next evening. We returned sooner than was intended, finding our little boat too much incumbered with provisions and necessaries to proceed with comfort or safety. Another wherry with two men was

hired, to carry luggage and an Albanian servant; and, in the evening, April the seventh, we left Athens on horseback, passing by some cotton-grounds to the sea shore.

The creek, in which our wherries waited, is to the west of the Piræus, and was anciently named port Phoron or Thieves' Port. By the coast is a low naked range of mountains, once called, with a town, Corydallus. The partridges, between it and the city, were observed to have a different note from those beyond.* Farther on was Ægaleos, a woody mountain, and a ferry over to the island of Salamis, by which stood anciently an Heracléum, or temple of Hercules. Amphiale was a root running out into the sea, with a quarry above it. Two rocky islets near the cape were named Pharmacuse, and on the greater was shewn the burying-place of Circe, perhaps a barrow. After Amphiale was the town named Thria, the Thriasian coast and plain, and Eleusis; beyond which are the two mountains Kerata, or The Horns, which divided Attica from Megaris. The island Salamis, now called Coluri, is opposite and a long, narrow, rocky point called anciently Cynosura, or The Dog's Tail, extends toward port Phoron. The channel in several places is narrow and intricate. It is land-locked by Amphiale and the opposite cape. The width, at the ferry, was only two stadia, or a quarter of a mile.

After supping on a turkey, which our men roasted on the shore, we lay down to sleep among the bare rocks, waiting until the moon was set. We embarked with a rougher sea than was pleasing, and rowed out in the dark toward the island, intending to fish. We joined our two seines, and the boats parted, moving each a different way, a man letting

* Toward the city κακκαβίζωσιν. Beyond the mountain τιττυβίζωσιν.

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