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idea of enjoying perfect peace and innocence, that, as he relates, he was near resolving to bid adieu to a vain world, and like another Cosmas, to fix his abode there.

CHAP. LXIV.

Of Bulis-Places on the coast between Bulis and the isthmusThe bay of Livadostro-Ascra-Mount Helicon-The grove of the Muses-Of the site, &c.

ANTICYRA had on the east, or the side next to the isthmus, the town of Bulis. The mountains, which intervened, were scarcely passable. The port was one hundred stadia, or twelve miles and a half on the way to Lechæum. The town was seated on high, at the distance of about seven stadia, or near a mile. By the track, ascending to it, was a torrent river, called Heraclius, running into the sea. A fountain was called Saunium. The inhabitants were mostly employed in procuring the shell-fish, which yielded a purple colour. Bulis as well as Stiris was abandoned in the tenth century, and both the cell and garden of Luke had ruin and desolation in their vicinity.

Bulis was on the confines of Boeotia and Phocis. Mychus, the last harbour of Phocis, was in a bay or recess, the deepest of any in the gulf. Beyond it was Mount Helicon, and Ascra and Thespiæ, with its port Creusa: and more within Page and Oenoe, one bounding the Megaris, the other Corinthia. Page and the port of Schoenus were nearly equidistant from the Piræus. Between Page and Lechæum was Olmiæ, a promontory opposite to Sicyon, making the

recess; once the seat of an oracle of Juno. From thence the passage over to Corinth was about seven miles and a half.

The course of vessels crossing from the Peloponnesus to the port of Thespia was crooked, with a rough sea broken by capes and liable to violent gusts and eddies of wind from the mountains. Sailing from thence, not up the bay, but along the coast or toward Phocis, you came to the port of Thisbe; and, crossing a mountain by the sea, entered a plain, beyond which was another mountain, with the city at its feet, on the borders of Thespiæ and Coronea. The plain would have been a lake, but a strong mound was made across it, and by confining the waters, rescued a portion, which was cultivated. Thisbe was eighty stadia, or ten miles from Bulis, and its port one hundred and sixty stadia, or twenty miles from Sicyon. The rocks near it abounded in doves. Sailing on as before, you come to Tipha, a small town by the sea.

Farther on westward, a after which is a port and Helicon begins there to

The gulf or recess within Olmiæ is now called the bay of Livadostro. It is overlooked on the north by Mount Elatea or Citharon, which ends by the harbour of St. Basilio, once Creusa. Beyond a ridge, which commences there, is the harbour of Livadostro, or of Thisbe. very high rock runs into the sea; town called Cacos, once Typha. soar aloft, until its head reaches above the clouds. By the promontory, which lies west-south-west from St. Basilio, are four islands, called Calanesia, or The good islands. From St. Basilio, Wheler arrived in about an hour at the town of that name, which had been recently ruined by pirates. The remains of antiquity, and the situation, as connected with the port, render it probable that was Thespiæ. He descended

from a lofty village named Rimocastri to Castri, or the ruins. of Thisbe, near a large plain and a stagnant lake. At Livadostro was an old tower and a church, frequented by mariners.*

Áscra, the birth-place of Hesiod, was in the territory of Thespiæ, on the right side of Helicon, distant from the city about forty stadia, or five miles. It stood on a high and rough spot, and is characterized by the poet as a wretched village, not pleasant in any part of the year; but the soil produced corn. A tower only remained there in the second century.

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Helicon was one of the most fertile and woody mountains in Greece. On it the fruit of the adrachnus, a species of arbutus, or of the strawberry tree, was uncommonly sweet; and the inhabitants affirmed, that the plants and roots were all friendly to man; and that even the serpents had their poison weakened by the innoxious qualities of their food. It approached Parnassus on the north, where it touched on Phocis; and resembled that mountain in loftiness, extent, and magnitude.

The Muses were the proprietors of Helicon. There was their shady grove, and their images; with statues of Apollo and Bacchus, and Linus and Orpheus, and the illustrious poets, who had recited their verses to the harp. Among the tripods, in the second century, was that consecrated by He

* Wheler found ruins, as he supposes, of Thespiæ, on a hill about four miles from Rimocastri westward, and five or six from Cacos; but this site cannot be reconciled with the geographers. It seems to have been Coronea. See Strabo, p. 411.

The ruins beyond St. Basilio called Palæocastro, on the way to Thebes, were, it is likely, Haliartus. See Pausanias, p. 306.

grove

siod. On the left hand, going to the grove, was the fountain Aganippe; and about twenty stadia, or two miles and a half higher up, the violet-coloured Hippocrene. Round the were houses. A festival was celebrated there by the Thespiéans, with games called Muséa. The valleys of Helicon are described by Wheler as green and flowery in the spring; and enlivened by pleasing cascades and streams, and by fountains and wells of clear water.

The Boeotian cities in general, two or three excepted, were reduced to inconsiderable villages in the time of Strabo. The grove of the Muses was plundered under the auspices of Constantine the Great. The Heliconian goddesses were afterwards consumed in a fire at Constantinople, to which city they had been removed. Their ancient seat on the mountain, Aganippe, and Hippocrene, are unascertained. Narcissus too is forgotten. The limpid basin, in which he gazed, was shewn in the Thespian territory, and the flower, into which he was changed, continues to love and to adorn its native soil. It abounded in that region, and was very fragrant in the month of April.

CHAP. LXV.

We leave Dystomo-The way called Schiste-The road into Phocis from Baotia-Of Orchomenus and Charonea-We arrive at Delphi.

WE set out from Dystomo early in the morning for Castri or Delphi. The city was on the south side of Parnassus, with an abrupt mountain named Cerphis before it; and a river called the Pleistus running through a grove beneath.

We travelled some time with the sea behind us, and afterwards, turning to the left, came on the road anciently called Schiste, or The Rent, lying between the lofty mountains Cirphis and Parnassus, and once deemed to be polluted with the blood of Laius, who was killed there by Edipus; a principal event in his renowned and tragical story.

A road led into Phocis and to Delphi from Boeotia. On this stood Chæronea, near which were the cities of Orchomenus and Lebadea. Panopeus was distant twenty stadia, or two miles and a half from Chæronea, and Daulis seven stadia more, or near a mile; after which was Schiste. The bodies of Laius and his servant were buried where three ways met, or where the road from Dystomo branches off to Daulis and to Delphi. Their graves were marked with heaps of stones, perhaps still to be seen.

The treasury of Minyas, a fabric of remote antiquity, remained entire at Orchomenus in the second century. It is described as a circular edifice of stone, with a roof artfully constructed, and as a wonder not inferior to any in Greece or elsewhere. By Charonea was a barrow with a lion on the top, beneath which the Thebans were interred, who perished in the battle with Philip. A traveller into these countries, under the guidance of Pausanias, will discover classical monuments, natural and artificial curiosities, and vestiges of remarkable buildings and places not hitherto explored.

It was now the beginning of July, but the summits of the mountains were white with snow. Many rills descend, and fertilize a few spots bearing grain, vines, and the cotton-plant. We saw snakes near the water by the road-side, and peasants reaping with green wreaths to defend their heads from the sun. At length, leaving Schiste, we turned to the right, and

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