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the Venetians assisted, conveying stone and materials to the spot by sea, but on the approach of the enemy it was abandoned. Bajazet, in 1500, entered the country, unobstructed, at the isthmus. In 1679 the Venetians, who had subdued the whole peninsula, were busied in repairing the fence, to secure their conquests by land. The peace, concluded in the following year, made Hexmillia their boundary. A village on the western gulf is still called by that name. Pococke mentions great remains of a large square castle at the end of the wall by the sea. The passes of the mountains to the south of Corinth have also been secured with strong walls, which run high up the acclivities, and are of great extent.

The temple of the Isthmian Neptune was situated near the port of Schænus. On one side of the approach was a grove of pine-trees regularly planted; and on the other, statues of persons who had been victorious in the games. Tritons of brass were placed on the cell, which was not of the greater size, and at the entrance were two statues of Neptune, and an image of Amphitrite with the sea, likewise of brass. Among the offerings in the temple was one presented by Atticus Herodes; Neptune and Amphitrite in a chariot, and the boy Palæmon on a dolphin, all of ivory and gold; the four horses gilded, with ivory hoofs; and by them two golden Tritons, the lower parts ivory. The sculpture on the basement, beneath the chariot, represented the sea producing Venus attended by the Nereids. On the pedestal of the statue of Neptune were carved Castor and Pollux, deities propitious to vessels and mariners. On the left hand, within the inclosure, was a temple of Palæmon, in which was his image, and also Neptune and Leucothea. Another had a subterraneous passage, where they say, Palæmon was hid, and if any person,

whether a Corinthian or stranger, swore falsely, it was impossible for him to escape punishment. They sacrificed on an ancient altar to the Cyclopes. There was also a theatre and a stadium of white stone, worth seeing. The care of the games, which had been committed to the Sicyonians, was restored to the Roman city.

I visited the site of the Isthmian temple from the port of Schoenus. It is a large level area, nearly square, about half an hour from the sea. Some pieces of pillars with a Doric capital and other fragments much injured, lie on the spot. A ruinous church standing there had in it a pedestal, and the base of a column for the sacred table. I observed the vestiges of a thick wall of massive stones, which had descended from the rock on the side of the Saronic gulf; and, taking a sweep had formed two sides of the inclosure; beyond which it was continued on the margin of a wide and very deep water-course, but disappears on the brow. At the angle, toward the sea, is a semicircular basement. Wheler saw remains of a town and of the theatre, with several old churches. The building and the repairing of the numerous fortresses, with the wall across the Isthmus and that behind Corinth, has occasioned a great removal of ancient materials from all quarters. I enquired of the goatherds, and they conducted me to various places, but neither the theatre nor the stadium were visible. A marble half-buried in the ground, by a small ruined church, was copied here in 1676. The inscription records the munificence of a high-priest, in erecting new structures, and in restoring and decorating those, which had suffered from time and earthquakes.* I searched for it un

* Wheler, p. 438. See Museum Veronense, p. XXXIX.

successfully; and have since found, that it had been transported into Italy, and is now preserved in the museum at Verona.

CHAP. LIX.

The archbishop of Athens restored--We leave Corinth-Embark -Of Anticyra--The site. ·

WE were informed at Corinth, that soon after our departure from Athens the archbishop had arrived there from Constantinople, and been re-instated in his see by officers commissioned for that purpose; that the bey or vaiwode had received him kindly, and ordered his musicians to attend him at his palace; and that a complete revolution had happened in his favour. Lombardi was greatly distressed and embarrassed, his intrigues defeated, disappointed in his views of revenge, unincluded in the general amnesty, fearing to return, and not knowing whither to fly.

We hired a bark belonging to the island of Zante. The sailors assisted in transporting the marbles and our baggage across the Isthmus on horses and mules. Our weather-beaten captain left us, well satisfied. We took leave of our host and of Lombardi, whose services we requited with a handsome gratuity in money, besides various presents, some of which he requested. We descended to the sea, the plain, on each side of the way, covered with caper-bushes in flower. On the shore were several huts and sheds or ware-houses; and near it were barks and small vessels lying at anchor.

While our felucca waited at Epi-yatha, the Corfiote, tc

whom we had given a passage from Athens, seized an opportunity which offered to proceed to Corinth, where he re-joined us. We expected to find him again at the sea-side, but he was gone by land to Patræ, and we saw him no more. On embarking, we were saluted with a discharge of pop-guns or chambres. Our janizary and one of our Greeks left us with many friendly wishes of prosperity and a happy voyage, intending to return to Athens. In the evening we sailed, but had little wind, and the following day after noon we put into a bay in Phocis, on the north side of the gulf.

The Phocéans seizing the temple of Apollo at Delphi, a war, called the sacred, commenced, and lasted ten years; when Philip, father of Alexander the great, avenged the god by destroying many of the cities of the pillagers. Anticyra, one of the number, was situated in this bay, not far from the ruins of Medeon, which, with Ambrussus and Stiris suffered the same punishment. This place was again taken and subverted by Atilius, a Roman general, in the war with the Macedonians. It afterwards became famous for its hellebore. That drug was the root of a plant, the chief produce of the rocky mountains above the city, and of two kinds ; the black, which had a purgative quality; and the white, which was an emetic. Sick persons resorted to Anticyra to take the medicine, which was prepared there by a peculiar and very excellent recipe. By the port in the second century was a temple of Neptune, not large, built with selected stones, and the inside white-washed; the statue of brass. The agora, or market-place, was adorned with images of the same metal; and above it was a well with a spring, sheltered from the sun by a roof supported by columns. A little higher was a monument formed with such stones as occurred, and designed,

it was said, for the sons of Iphitus. One of these, Schedius, was killed by Hector, while fighting for the body of Patroclus, but his bones were transported to Anticyra; where his brother died after his return from Troy About two stadia, or a quarter of a mile distant, was a high rock, a portion of the mountain, on which a temple of Diana stood, the image bigger than a large woman, and made by Praxiteles.

The walls and other edifices at Anticyra, were probably erected, like the temple of Neptune, with stones or pebbles. The site is now called Asprospitia, or The White Houses; and some traces of the buildings, from which it was so named, remain. The port is land-locked, and frequented by vessels for corn. Some paces up from the sea is a fountain. At night it blew hard, but we could get no shelter from the wind on shore. Our carpets and coverlets were spread on the poop of our bark, and the men lay on the deck. From that time we began to be sickly; the gulf, with the coasts of the Morea, being infamous for a bad air, especially at this season, or toward autumn.

CHAP. LX.

At Dystomo-An insciption-Ambryssus-The road
to Anticyra.

On our arrival at Asprospitia, we dispatched men to Dystomo, a village two hours distant, to hire such beasts as the place afforded, to carry us to the monastery of St. Luke, and to Castri or Delphi. The people were busy at harvest, and declined sending any before the next morning, when a

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