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.

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 strawberrytree, 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.

On

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 Hesiod. 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 grove were houses. A festival was celebrated there by the Thespieans, with games called Musea. 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 BOOTIA-OF ORCHOMENUS AND CHERONEA-WE ARRIVE AT DELPHI.

WE set out from Dystomo early in the morning for Castri or Delphi. This city was on the south side of Parnassus, with an abrupt mountain named Cirphis 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 Bœotia. 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 pe rished 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 began to ascend an acclivity of Parnassus, the track stony and rough, difficult even to a person on foot. We passed the stream of the Pleistus, which turns an overshot mill, and after a wearisome ride of about five hours, alighted at a monastery of the Panagia, or Virgin Mary. We found there a caloyer, or monk, and an old woman, who supplied us with good wine. Our lodging was in

the portico of the church, which is supported by broken and ill-matched columns.

CHAP. LXVI.

SANCTITY OF DELPHI-THE AMPHICTYONIC ASSEMBLY THE ORACLE-THE TEMPLE-ITS RICHES-ITS DECLINE.

DELPHI was the chief and most illustrious city in Phocis. Its sanctity was deduced through a long succession of ages, from a period involved in fable and obscurity. The influence of its god has controlled the councils of states, directed the course of armies, and decided the fate of kingdoms. The ancient history of Greece is full of his energy, and an early register of his authority.

The circumjacent cities were the stewards and guardians of the god. Their deputies composed the famous Amphictyonic assembly, which once guided Greece. It was convened in spring and autumn at Delphi or Thermopylæ. The Romans abolished that and the Achæan congress, but both were revived. Pausanias, who wrote about the year of the Christian era one hundred and seventy-five, mentions the former as then consisting of thirty persons. They presided at the Pythian games, which were celebrated every fifth year at Delphi, and bestowed the reward of victory, a crown of laurel.

The oracular power was supposed to reside in a deep cavern, with a small and narrow mouth, said to have been discovered by goatherds, who were inspired by the vapour which arose out of it, and pro

phesied as from Apollo. A lofty tripod, decked with laurel, was placed over the aperture. The Pythia, or priestess, after washing her body, and especially her hair, in the cold water of Castalia, mounted on it, to receive the divine effluvia. She wore a crown of laurel, and shook a sacred tree, which grew by. Sometimes she chewed the leaves; and the phrensy, which followed, may with probability be attributed to this usage, and the gentler or more violent symptoms to the quantity taken. In one instance the paroxysm was so terrible, that the priests and suppliants ran away, and left her alone to expire, it was believed, of the god. Her part was unpleasant, but if she declined acting, they dragged her by force to the tripod. The habit of her order was that of virgins. The rules enjoined temperance and chastity, and prohibited luxury in apparel. The season of inquiry was in the spring, during the month called Busius, after which Apollo was supposed to visit the altars of the Hyperboreans. Delphi was conveniently situated for the conflux of votaries, lying in the centre of Greece, and, as was then imagined, of the universe. The god prospered in his business. His servants and priests feasted on the numerous victims which were sacrificed to him; and the riches of his temple were proverbial, even before the war of Troy.

The temple of Apollo, it is related, was at first a kind of cottage covered with boughs of laurel; but he was early provided with a better habitation. An edifice of stone was erected by Trophonius and Agamedes, which subsisted about seven hundred years, and was burned in the year six hundred and thirtysix after the taking of Troy, and five hundred