gulf when we arrived, returned on the following day, laden with corn from Cea, purchased for a Venetian armed ship, captain Alexander, who was then come to an anchor within the cape. This being a contraband cargo, was to be delivered clandestinely, and we were informed the boats had given to the commander of a Turkish cruiser, which appeared in the offing, the sum of fifteen piasters each for his permission to fulfil their contract without molestation. Sunium was reckoned three hundred and thirty stadia, or forty one miles and a quarter, from the Piræus, or port of Athens.

OF THE ISLAND ÆGINA-WE SAIL BY THE ISLAND OF PATROCLUS-OUR MARINERS-WE ARRIVE AT ÆGINA VIEW FROM M. PANHELLENIUS-STORY OF EACUS-TEMPLE OF JUPITER-WE SET SAIL FOR THE CITY OF EGINA.

THE gulf included within the two promontories, Sunium and Scyllæum, contains several islands, of which Ægina is the principal. This island was surrounded by Attica, the Megaris, or territory of Megara, and the Peloponnesus; each distant about one hundred stadia, or twelve miles and a half. In circumference it was reckoned one hundred and eighty stadia, or twenty-two miles and a half. It was washed on the east and south by the Myrtoan and Cretan seas. It is now called Eyina or Egina; the g soft and the i short. "What occasion is there,"

i Strabo. In Pliny forty-two miles.

exclaims Strabo, "to mention, that this is one of the "islands which have been excessively renowned ? "since it was the country of Eacus; it has enjoyed "naval dominion, and has disputed with Athens the prize of superior glory, in the famous battle with "the Persian fleet off Salamis."

66

The distant hills continued hazy; but the wind being fair, we embarked on the second evening after our landing at Sunium, and setting sail, passed very near to a small island called Gaitharonesi, Asses Island, a naked rock, except a few bunches of thyme; not even a shrub growing on it; the clefts inhabited by wild pigeons. It once bore the name of Patroclus, by whom it was fortified with a wall and foss. He was sent, with some Egyptian triremes, to assist the Athenians against Antigonus, son of Demetrius. Sailing on, we had on our right hand the mountain Laurium, formerly noted for silver mines. The coast of Attica was bare, and of a parched aspect.

We had now sea-room and a prosperous gale. The genius of the Greek nation prevailed, and was displayed in the festivity of our mariners. One of the crew played on the violin and on the lyre; the latter, an ordinary instrument with three strings, differing from the kitara, which has two, and a much longer handle. The captain, though a bulky man, excelled, with two of his boys, in dancing. We had been frequently amused by these adepts. It mattered not whether the vessel was still in port, or rolling, as now, on the waves. They exerted an extraordinary degree of activity, and preserved their footing, for which a very small space on the deck sufficed, with wonderful dexterity. Their common

dance, which was performed by one couple, consisted chiefly in advancing and retiring, expanding the arms, snapping the fingers, and changing places; with feats, some ludicrous, and, to our apprehension, indecent.

The sun sat very beautifully, illuminating the mountain-tops, and was succeeded by a bright moon in a blue sky. We had a pleasant breeze, and the land in view, sailing, as it were, on a wide river. A smart gale following a short calm, and driving us along at a great rate, in the morning by sunrise we had reached Ægina, and were entering a bay; the mountain Panhellenius, covered with trees, sloping before us, and a temple on its summit, near an hour distant from the shore, appearing as in a wood. The water being shallow, a sailor leaped overboard, carrying a rope to be fastened, as usual, to some stone or crag by the seaside.

We set out for the temple, which was dedicated to Jupiter Panhellenius, on foot, with a servant and some of the crew bearing our umbrellas and other necessaries. One of the sailors had on a pair of sandals made of goat-skin, the hairy side outward. The ascent was steep, rough, and stony, between bushes of mastic, young cedars, and fir-trees, which scented the air very agreeably. Some tracts were quite bare. On the eminence our toil was rewarded by an extensive view of the Attic and Peloponnesian coasts, the remoter mountains inland, and the summits in the Egean sea; the bright surface, which intervened, being studded as it were with islands ; many lying round Ægina, toward the continent; and one, called anciently Belbina, stretching out toward the mouth of the gulf. We saw distinctly

the acropolis of Athens, seated on a hill near the middle of a plain, and encompassed with mountains, except toward the sea; a portion of its territory, covered with dusky olive-groves, looking black, as if under a dark cloud.

The name Panhellenius was probably given to this mountain from the temple, for which only it was noted. That fabric, as the Æginetans affirmed, was erected by acus, the renowned ancestor of the illustrious family of the Eacidæ. He was reputed the son of Ægina, the daughter of Asopus by Jupiter, who transported her into this island, then uninhabited, and called Enone. To omit the fabulous account of its population; in his time Hellas was terribly oppressed by drought; the god raining neither on the country without the isthmus, nor on the Peloponnesus. The Delphic oracle was consulted. The Pythia replied, that Jupiter must be rendered propitious by Eacus. The cities entreated him to be their mediator. He sacrificed and prayed to Jupiter Panhellenius, and procured rain. Pausanias relates, that he saw the statues of the persons deputed to attend him on that emergency, at the entrance of the Eaceum, a quadrangular wall of white stone, by the city, enclosing some ancient olive-trees, and a low altar; and also, that the other Greeks then concurred in assigning that reason for the embassy. On a summit of mount Sciron in Attica was a temple of Jupiter, surnamed Aphesius, from his remitting their calamity; and a statue of the Earth in a suppliant posture, requesting Jupiter to send her rain,

* Pausanias, p. 57. See Bryant's Mythology, p. 414.

which was in the acropolis at Athens, referred, it is most likely, to the same story.

trave, is fallen.

The temple of Jupiter Panhellenius is of the Doric order, and had six columns in front. It has twentyone of the exterior columns yet standing; with the two in the front of the pronaos and of the posticum ; and five of the number, which formed the ranges within the cell. The entablature, except the archiThe stone is of a light brownish colour, much eaten in many places, and by its decay witnessing a very great age. Some of the columns have been injured by boring to their centres for the metal. In several the junction of the parts is so exact, that each seems to consist of one piece. Digging by a column of the portico of the naos, we discovered a fragment of fine sculpture. It was the hindpart of a greyhound, of white marble, and belonged, it is probable, to the ornaments fixed on the frieze, which has a groove in it, as for their insertion. I searched afterwards for this remnant, but found only a small bit, with some spars; sufficient to shew, that the trunk had been broken and removed. The temple was enclosed by a peribolus, or wall, of which traces are extánt. We considered this ruin as a very curious article, scarcely to be paralleled in its claim to remote antiquity. The situation on a lonely mountain, at a distance from the sea, has preserved it from total demolition, amid all the changes and accidents of numerous centuries. Since the worship of Jupiter has been abolished, and Æacus forgotten,

1 on the frieze, which has a groove in it,] in the metops, which have grooves cut behind the triglyphs, and are sunk in. R.