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seen removed from the sea in the same manner by the Achelous, as the bay of Myûs has been by the Mæander.

CHAP. LXXIII.

We sail--In the bay of Chiarenza-Cyllene-At Gastouni-At Elis-Its territory sacred-The city--Vestiges.

WE sailed at night with a strong wind and a high sea, which beating on the side of the vessel rolled us along toward Chiarenza. We passed cape Papa, called anciently Araxus, a promontory, which belonged to Elis, and was one thousand stadia, or a hundred and twenty-five miles from the isthmus. Dyme, a city without a port, the last of Achaia to the west, was sixty stadia, or seven miles and a half from the cape. Olenus, a deserted city, was forty stadia, or five miles from Dyme, and eighty stadia from Patræ.

We anchored soon after day-break in the bay of Chiarenza, which is frequented by small-craft from Zante and the places adjacent, chiefly for passengers and provisions. On the beach was a low cart, the only one we had seen since we left Sigeum, the form and wheels antique, drawn by two horses abreast. The buildings are a custom-house and a few sheds, or magazines.

Cyllene stood on a rough tongue of land on the south side of the bay, a hundred and twenty stadia, or fifteen miles from Elis. It was a middling village, and possessed two or three temples. In one was an ivory statue of Esculapius, wonderful to behold. The site under the Venetians was oc-‹

cupied by Chiarenza, a flourishing town. Sultan Morat in 1447 laid waste the Morea as far as this place, and carried off sixty thousand people. Some masses of wall and other vestiges remain. The port is choked up. Cyllene, which gave its name to Mercury, was a very high mountain in Arcadia, celebrated for his temple. Zante is opposite to the region of Elis.

We were informed here of a place called Palæopolis, which we agreed to visit, hoping to find ruins of the city of Elis. Horses, and men to attend them on foot, with an agoiatis, or guide, to Gastouni, were procured without difficulty. We dined at a Greek monastery, half an hour from the shore, and then proceeded through a plain. On our right hand was a town named Clemontzi or Clemouzzi, beyond which, on a hill distinctly visible from Zante, and about six miles from the shore, is a fortress commonly called Castle-Tornese. The Venetians under Morosini, appeared before it in 1687, after their victory at Patræ, and it surrendered. A barrow occurred on our left, and afterwards two near each other. then crossed the river Peneus, a shallow stream in a wide and deep bed. In about three hours we arrived at Gastouni, which is a large town.

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Our captain conducted us to the house of a Zantiote, who admitted us into his garden, in which we passed the night. We were detained, waiting for horses, until the following evening, when in four hours we reached Callivia, a small village near Palæopolis. By the way was a barrow. We saw large tracts of land overrun with tall thistles and the licoriceshrub; cotton-grounds and vineyards interspersed. The garden of a peasant was our lodging.

The city of Elis owed its origin to an union of small towns,

after the Persian war. It was not encompassed immediately with a wall; for it had the care of the temple at Olympia, and its territory was solemnly consecrated to Jupiter. To invade or not protect it was deemed impiety; and armies, if marching through, delivered up their weapons, which, on their quitting it, were restored. Amid warring states the city enjoyed repose, was resorted to by strangers, and flourished. The region round about it was called Cole, or Hollow, from the inequalities. The country was reckoned fertile, and particularly fit for the raising of flax. This, which grew no where else in Greece, equalled the produce of Judæa in fineness, but was not so yellow.

Elis was a school, as it were, for Olympia. The athletic exercises were proformed there, before the more solemn trial in a gymnasium, by which the Peneus ran. The Hellanodics or præfects of the games, paired the rival combatants by lot, in an area called Plethrium, or The Acre. Within the wall grew lofty plane-trees; and, in the court, which was called the Xystus, were separate courses marked for the foot-races. A smaller court was called the quadrangle. The præfects, when chosen, resided for ten months in a building erected for their use, to be instructed in the duties of their office. They attended before sun-rise, to preside at the races; and again at noon, the time appointed for the Pentathlum, or Five Sports. The horses were trained in the agora, or marketplace, which was called the Hippodrome. In the gymnasium were altars, and a cenotaph of Achilles. The women, besides other rites, beat their bosoms in honour of this hero, on a fixed day, toward sun-set. There also was the town-hall, in which extemporary harangues were spoken, and compositions recited. It was hung round with bucklers for orna

ments. A way led from it to the baths through the Street of Silence; and another to the market-place, which was planned with streets between porticoes of the doric order, adorned with altars and images. Among the temples one had a circular peristyle or colonnade, but the images had been removed, and the roof was fallen, in the time of Pausanias. The theatre was ancient, and was also a temple of Bacchus, one of the deities, principally adored at Elis. Minerva had a temple in the citadel, with an image of ivory and gold, made, it was said, by Phidias. At the gate leading to Olympia was the monument of a person, who was buried, as an oracle had commanded, neither within nor without the city.

The structures of Elis seem to have been raised with materials, far less elegant and durable than the produce of the Ionian and Attic quarries. The ruins are of brick, and not considerable, consisting of pieces of ordinary wall, and an octagon building with niches, which, it is supposed, was the temple with a circular perystile. These stand detached from each other, ranging in a vale southward from the wide bed of the river Peneus, which by the margin had several large stones, perhaps reliques of the gymnasium. The citadel was on a hill, which has on the top some remnants of wall. Olympia was distant about three hundred stadia, or thirty-seven miles and a half.

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CHAP. LXXIV.

Set out from Olympia-Arrangement of the coast At a monastery-The night-A tree frog-At Pyrgo-Pitch our tent by a ruin-Gnats.

We had been visited in the garden at Gastouni by a Turkish aga, called Muláh, or The Virtuoso Solyman, a person of some knowledge, uncommonly polite, and of a graceful deportment. He informed us, that he had seen ruins by Miraca, near the Rophia, a very large river. The site and distance agreeing with Olympia, it was hoped that spot would prove more important than Palæopolis. We left Callivia in the evening, and, passing by some barrows, which probably were not far from the gate next Olympia, and afterwards by one in the plain, travelled with Gastouni behind us toward the sea.

The arrangement of the coast to the south of Cyllene was as follows. After the mouth of the Peneus was Chelonatas, the most westerly promontory of the Peloponnesus, distant two miles from Cyllene; near which was a mountainous point, called Hormina, or Hyrmina. Next was point Pheia, with an inconsiderable river of the same name near it; and before it an islet; and a port, distant one hundred and twenty stadia, or fifteen miles from Olympia, going the nearest way from the sea. A cape succeeded, called Icthys, extending far out westward. This was one hundred and twenty stadia from the island Cephallenia, which was eighty stadia, or ten miles from Cyllene. After Icthys was the mouth of the river

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