marble; and were shewn at Athens a crystal found

in this quarry.

The marble of Pentele was esteemed both by the statuary and architect. Athens owed many of its splendid edifices to the vicinity of that mountain and of Hymettus, where also is a quarry in view from the town. After its decline, the ruins furnished plenty of materials for such buildings as were wanted. The lower quarry has, within the mouth, some ruined chapels, the walls painted with portraits of saints. Without it, high up, is a small square building or room, with a window, projecting from the steep side of the rock, which has been cut down perpendicularly, except a narrow ridge resembling a buttress. This is covered with thick and ancient ivy, and terminates some feet below, leaving the place inaccessible without a ladder, · which, it is likely, was placed there and occasionally removed. I should suppose it the cell of some hermit, but it seems to have been planned and erected when the quarry was worked. It was designed perhaps for a sentinel, to look out and regulate by signals the approach of the men and teams employed in conveying marble to the city.

We descended by a very bad track to the monastery of Pentele, a large and ordinary edifice, with the church in the middle of the quadrangle. The monks here were summoned to prayers by a tune, which is played on a piece of iron hoop suspended, They are numerous, but were now dispersed, having each his particular province or occupation. I was courteously received by the few who were resident; and enjoyed there the luxury of shade under some trees by a clear stream, with good wine, water, and

provisions. My carpet was spread in the area of the quadrangle, near a gateway, under which we slept at night. I inquired for the manuscripts which were shewn to sir George Wheler in 1676, but found no person who had knowledge of them. The monastery is one of the most capital in Greece, and enjoys a considerable revenue from bees, sheep, goats, and cattle, arable land, vineyards, and olivetrees. The protection of the Porte is purchased yearly, as the custom is, and at a price not inferior to its ability.

The next evening we descended from Pentele into the plain, and passed by Callandri, a village among olive-trees, to Angele-kipos, or Angele-gardens. This place is frequented in summer by the Greeks of Athens, who have their houses situated in a wood of olives, of cypresses, and of orange and lemontrees, with vineyards intermixed. The old name was Angele; and, it is related 8, the people of Pallene would not intermarry with the inhabitants because of some treachery which they had experienced in the time of Theseus. We rode on, leaving the road to port Raphti on our left; and, keeping the range of Anchesmus on our right, came near a monastery called Hagios Asomatos, standing among olive-trees not far from the junction of the two rivers, the Eridanus and Ilissus. The place, where water is collected to be conveyed in channels to the town, is at no great distance. From the monastery of Pentele to Athens is reckoned a journey of two hours.

: The old Athenians sanctified even their moun

Wheler, p. 450.

tains. Minerva had a statue at Pentele; Jupiter. on Anchesmus, which is mentioned as not a large mountain; and also on Hymettus, and on Parnes. The latter was made of brass. On Hymettus were altars likewise, of the showery Jupiter, and of Apollo the presager; and on Parnes was an altar of Jupiter the signifier, with one on which they sacrificed to him under different titles, styling him showery or innocent, as directed by the weather. The later citizen has equalled, if not surpassed, the piety of his heathen predecessor, and has scattered churches and convents over the whole country. They occur in the fields and olive-groves, in the nooks and the recesses of the mountains.

CHAP. XXXVIII.

THE NORTHERN BOUNDARY OF ATTICA-WHELER'S ROUTE

1

FROM MARATHON TO OROPUS-ELEUTHERE-DECELEIA

PHYLE-HARMA WHELER'S ROUTE FROM THEBES TO

ATHENS.

ATTICA was separated from Boeotia on the north by a range of mountains, many-named, extending westward from Oropus to the Megaris, or country of Megara. On the confines were Panactos, Hysiæ situated by the Asopus under mount Citharon, and Enoe by Eleutheræ. Oropus was forty-four miles from Athens, thirty-six from Thebes, and twentyfour from Chalcis in Eubœa h.

Wheler, leaving Marathon, ascended the mountain now called Nozea, and travelled by the river,

h Antonine Itinerary.

which has its course to the plain interrupted by little cataracts, or waterfalls. After an hour and a half he passed a ruined village, called Kalingi, on the side of the mountain; and, riding as long in the plain on the top, Capandritti or Capodritti, famous for good wine. He proceeded an hour farther, by an easy ascent, to the highest point of the mountain. He then descended an hour and more along a torrent, and arrived at a town on the side called Marcopoli, where he saw some ancient fragments. Lower down he came to the shore of Euripus, and, after riding by it two hours and a half, to the mouth of the Asopus, which river was then swelled by rain from mount Parnes, and not fordable on horseback. He travelled along the banks to Oropus, a town two or three miles from the sea.

The territory of Platea was contiguous with Attica more westward or on the side of Eleusis, and mount Citharon was the boundary of Boeotia; Eleutheræ having surrendered to Athens not from compulsion, but voluntarily, from a desire to be under its government, and from hatred of the Thebans. Ruins of the wall and of houses remained at Eleuthera in the time of Pausanias. In the plain before it was a temple and statue of Bacchus; and more remote, a small cave with a fountain of cold water; where, it was related, the twin brothers Zethus and Amphion were exposed by Antiope, their mother, and found by a shepherd.

Deceleia, a town visible from Athens, was toward Oropus. It was one hundred and twenty stadia, or fifteen miles, from the city, and equidistant from Boeotia. This place was respected by the Lacedæmonians; because, when Castor and Pollux were in

quest of their sister Helen, Decelus informed them, she was concealed by Theseus at Aphidna. They fortified it with a wall in the nineteenth year of the Peloponnesian war. It was the burying-place of Sophocles and his ancestors. When the poet died, it was said, Bacchus appeared to Lysander in his sleep, and bade him permit the body to be put into the sepulchre.

Phyle was a castle toward Boeotia, one hundred stadia, or twelve miles and a half, from Athens. It was reckoned impregnable, and was the place to which Thrasybulus fled from the thirty tyrants. It is now called Bigla-castro, the Watch-castle. The ancient fortress is almost entire 1, standing on a high rock in the way from Thebes, the top not half a mile in circumference, the walls of hewn stone well cemented. Athens may be seen from it.

An oracle had directed, that the victims, which the Athenians were accustomed to send to Delphi, should not depart until it lightened at Harma, a place on mount Parnes, by Phyle; and this signal was expected during three months, certain priests watching in each three days and nights. Their station was at the hearth of the lightning Jupiter, on the wall between the temple of Apollo Pythius and the Olympieum at Athens.

Wheler, with his companion, travelled southeastward from Thebes along the stream Ismenus, and ascending came to the source, a very large and clear spring. He continued to mount a mile or two, and then descending, crossed a bridge over the Asopus. He passed the top of a rocky hill, the way

Wheler, p. 334. Pococke, p. 160.