little parts, would call such capitals, unfinished; although the grandeur of design, when viewed at the distance in which such objects were intended to be seen, especially in the majestic temples of Greece, be thereby considerably augmented. It is to this cause that the Doric, in buildings of so much vastness, owes its superiority over all the other orders of architecture-to that simplicity which is the very soul of grandeur; where nothing that is little can be tolerated for an instant. Excessive minuteness of design, and of execution, may suit the puny imitations of Grecian architecture seen in the buildings of modern cities; upon the same principle that it is allowable in a piece of Chinese carving in ivory; because works of this kind are fitted for a small scope of observation; but when such minuteness is introduced into the vast features of a gigantic style, it becomes superfluous and contemptible.

THEBES, TO THE GROVE OF THE MUSES IN MOUNT HELICON.

Population of Thebes - Female inhabitants-Antient Gates of Thebes - Other antiquities- Medals - Remarkable Soros - Albanian Market

Journey to ⚫ Citharon and Platea-View of the Cadmæan Citadel— Platănă Village-Asopus-Source of the RiverTraditions of the Battle of Platea-Condition of the Inhabitants-Camp of Mardonius-Situation of the Sacred Well-Platean Territory-Ruins of the City of Platea-Medals observed upon the spot-Mural Turrets of the Citadel-Cocla-Remains of LEUCTRA-Ruins at Phria Helicon Village of Neocorio - Doubts respecting the supposed Situation of Thespia- Medals -Discovery of the old Route over Helicon-Further Account of the Albanian Peasants-Journey over Mount

Helicon

-Monastery of St. Nicholo Antiquities discovered there-Situation of the Fountain Aganippe and Grove of the Muses ascertained-River Permessus-Inscription relating to the Games called MOYZEIA-Extraordinary beauty of the scenery-Situation of the Fountain Hippocrene.

Including

III

of Thebes.

THEBES HEBES Contains about three hundred houses', CHAP. and it is governed by a Waiwode. the inhabitants of its suburbs, it has a numerous Population population; but no accurate calculation of this can be made, because no reliance can be placed upon the contradictory statements which are given to travellers. Du Loir, in the middle of the seventeenth century, affirmed that he found THEBES as well peopled as Athens, and better provided with the necessaries of life. Spon computed its population at three or four thousand souls'; but he was not one entire day in the town, and his information could only have been obtained from the Greek with whom he lodged'. THEBES has one advantage over

(1) Five hundred, according to Mr. Hobhouse (Trav.p. 278. Lond. 1814.); two mosques; and four churches.

(2) "Trois ou quatre mille ames, en comprenant les faux-bourgs." Voyage en Grèce, tom. II. p. 55. à la Haye, 1724. Mr. Haygarth also makes the number of inhabitants "about 4000." See Notes, &c. to Part. I. of Haygarth's Greece, a Poem, p. 166. Lond. 1814. (3) Wheler says, they left Livadia, about eleven in the morning," and Thebes by day-break Jan. 26; bat

January the twenty-fifth,

this

III.

CHAP. Athens, in being well watered'; and to this circumstance, in former times, might be attributed the number and beauty of its gardens, and the plantations now decorating its suburbs. At present, however, we must consider the remains of this city as almost unknown: the travellers who have passed through it, and who possessed abilities for the undertaking, wanting the leisure or the liberty of exploring it, rather teach us to despair of reaping any information upon the spot, than to expect discoveries among the ruins. One of the earliest writers by whom it is mentioned in modern times, with the true gallantry of a Frenchman, supplies the absence of literary intelligence, by a lively encomium upon the exFemale In- traordinary charms of its living beauties; and especially of its Jewesses, which, in his opinion, he says, “valent bien des pierres et des tombeaux.” We could neither dispute nor confirm the accuracy of his observations respecting the Theban

habitants.

this must be an error; for he also states, that they passed the night, after leaving Livadia, at a place called Megalo-molci, before they reached Thebes, where they arrived at noon. See Wheler's Journey into Greece, pp. 330, 331, 333. Lond. 1682.

(1) Ἡ δὲ πόλις (τῶν ̓Αθηναίων) ξηρὰ πᾶσα, οὐκ εὔνδρος. Dicearchi Status Gracia, p. 9. ap. Geog. Vet. tom. II. Oxon. 1803.

(2) Κάλυδρος πᾶσα, κλωρά τε καὶ γεώλοφος· καπεύματα ἔχουσα πλεῖστα τῶν iv cÿ'Eλλáði wéλswy. Dicæarch. ibid. p. 15.

(3) Voyage du Sieur Du Leir, p. 330. Paris, 1654.

women, since nothing can be more difficult than to obtain a sight of them; and of this indeed he complained'. The same reserve and jealousy with respect to its female inhabitants was perhaps characteristic of Thebes in the first periods of its decline. Its women are mentioned by Dicæarchus, as being remarkable for the dignity and decorum of their carriage'; and he describes their antient costume as corresponding with the same disguise in which alone we were constrained to view them; passing the streets like so many mute and moving spectres, veiled from head to foot, leaving nothing visible of their features but their eyes, and these peering indistinctly through two holes in the drapery covering their faces". The time cannot be far distant when society will be upon a different establishment in this country; when the hidden treasures of Greece, of every description, will at least become liable to observation; and Thebes,

(4) Ibid. p. 331.

(5) Αἱ δὲ γυναῖκες αὐτῶν τοῖς μεγέθεσι πορείας ῥυθμοῖς (sic enim legit Steph. Pro πορείαις ῥυθμοῖς) εὐσχημονέσταταί τε καὶ εὐπρεπέσταται τῶν ἐν τῇ Ἑλλάδι yuraiza. Diæarchi Status Græciæ, p. 16.

(6) Τὸ τῶν ἱματίων ἐπὶ τῆς κεφαλῆς κάλυμμα τοιοῦτόν ἐστιν, ὥσπερ προσο επιδίῳ δοκεῖν πᾶν τὸ πρόσωπον κατειλῆφθαι. οἱ γὰρ ὀφθαλμοὶ διαφαίνονται μόνον, τὰ δὲ λοιπὰ μέρη τοῦ προσώπου πάντα κατέχεται τοῖς ἱματίοις. φοροῦσι δ ̓ αὐτὰ Tugas Asuná. Ibid.

CHAP

III.