On a part

The monastery

body, some covered with slabs. Farther on is a niche cut in the rock, with a seat, intended, it seems, for the accommodation of travellers wearied with the rugged track and the long ascent. smoothed is engraved a large cross. is on the site of the gymnasium. walls, and other traces of a large In the wall of the church was a marble, inscribed, AIAKIAAXAIPE, Æacides farewell; and on another, within an olive crown,

ΟΔΗΜΟΣΟ ΑΘΗΝΑΙΟΣ

ΠΥΘΙΟΙΣ.

Strong terrace

edifice, remain.

In the pavement within was a long inscription, the letters effaced. We found also several architectural fragments. The village is at a distance. Castalia is on the right hand as you ascend to it, the water coming from on high, and crossing the road; a steep precipice, above which the mountain still rises immensely, continuing on in that direction. The village consists of a few poor cottages of Albanians, covering the site of the temple and oracle. Beneath it, to the south, is a church of St. Elias, with areas, terrace-walls, arches, and vestiges of the buildings once within the court. The concavity of the rock in this part gave to the site the resemblance of a theatre. Turning to the left hand, as it were toward the extremity of one of the wings, you come again to sepulchres hewn in the rock, and to a semicircular recess, or niche, with a seat as on the other side. Higher up than the village is the hollow of the stadium, in which were some seats and scattered fragments.

At the village we searched for a piece of wall, of

the masonry termed incertum, from which Mr. Wood had copied several inscriptions. We discovered a stone of it, containing, besides some other lines, a decree in honour of an Athenian living in Ætolia, the sacred herald of the Amphictyons; giving him from the god a crown of laurel, with various privileges, one of which is precedence at the games. The letters were fair, but with gaps between them, the surface appearing as eaten by time, and resembling honeycomb, of a white colour. This, it is likely, was the stone called Porus. A specimen of it may be seen in the collection of marbles at Oxford. The remnant of wall was probably a portion of the cell of the temple, which fronted the road from Castalia.

Higher up, within the village, is a piece of ancient wall, concealed from view by a shed, which it supports. The stone is brown, rough, and ordinary, probably that of Parnassus. On the south side are many inscriptions, with wide gaps between the letters, which are negligently and faintly cut; all nearly of the same tenor, and very difficult to copy. They register the purchase of slaves, who had intrusted the price of their freedom to the god; containing the contract between Apollo and their owners, witnessed by his priests and by some of the archons. This remnant seems to be part of the wall before Cassotis; as above it is still a fountain, which supplies the village with excellent water, it is likely, from the ancient source.

The water of Castalia, from which the Pythia and the poets, who versified her answers, were believed to derive a large share of their inspiration, descends through a cleft of Parnassus; the rock on each side

high and steep, ending in two summits, of which one was called Hyampeia, and had beneath it the sacred portion of Autonous, a local hero, as distinguished as Phylacus. From this precipice the Delphians threw down the famous Esop. By the stream, within the cleft, are small broken stairs leading to a cavity, in which is water, and once perhaps up to the top. Grooves have been cut, and the marks of tools are visible on the rock; but the current, instead of supplying a fountain, now passes over its native bed, and hastens down a course deep-worn, to join the Pleistus. Close by, at the foot of the eastern precipice, is a basin, with steps on the margin, once, it is likely, the bath used by the Pythia. Above, in the side of the mountain, is a petty church dedicated to St. John, within which are excavations resembling niches, partly concealed from view by a tree. The water is limpid, and exceedingly cold. Returning from the village in the evening, I began to wash my hands in it, but was instantly chilled, and seized with a tremor, which rendered me unable to stand or walk without support. On reaching the monastery, I was wrapped in a garment lined with warm fur, and, drinking freely of wine, fell into a most profuse perspiration. This incident, when Apollo was dreaded, might have been embellished with a superstitious interpretation. Perhaps the Pythia, who bathed in this icy fluid, mistook her shivering for the god.

CHAP. LXVIII.

OF MOUNT PARNASSUS-THE CORYCIAN CAVE-WHELER'S
JOURNEY ON MOUNT PARNASSUS-REMARKS-SOME AL-
BANIANS ARRIVE AT THE MONASTERY.

PARNASSUS was the western boundary of Phocis,
and stretching northward from about Delphi toward
the Etæan mountains, separated the western Locri
from those who possessed the sea-coast before Eu-
boea. It was a place of refuge to the Delphians in
times of danger. In the deluge, which happened
under Deucalion, the natives were saved on it by
following the cry of wolves. On the invasion by
Xerxes some transported their families over to
Achaia, but many concealed them in the mountain
and in Corycium, a grotto of the nymphs.

All Parnassus was renowned for sanctity, but Corycium was the most noted among the hallowed caves and places. "On the way to the summits "of Parnassus," says Pausanias, "as much as sixty "stadiad beyond Delphi, is a brasen image; and "from thence the ascent to Corycium is easier for a "man on foot, and for mules and horses.-Of all the "caves, in which I have been, this appeared to me "the best worth seeing. On the coasts, and by the "sea-side, are more than can be numbered; but "some are very famous both in Greece and in other "countries.-The Corycian cave exceeds in magni"tude those I have mentioned, and for the most "part may be passed through without a light. It "is sufficiently high; and has water, some springing up, and yet more from the roof, which petri

d Seven miles and a half.

1

"fies; so that the bottom of the whole cave is covered with sparry icicles. The inhabitants of Par

66

nassus esteem it sacred to the Corycian nymphs, " and particularly to Pan. From the cave to reach "the summits of the mountain is difficult, even to

66

a man on foot. The summits are above the clouds, " and the women called Thyades madden on them "in the rites of Bacchus and Apollo." Their frantic orgies were performed yearly.

Wheler and his company ascended Parnassus from Delphi, some on horses, by a track between the stadium and the clefts of the mountain. Stairs were cut in the rock, with a strait channel, perhaps a water-duct. In a long hour, after many traverses, they gained the top, and entering a plain turned to the right, toward the summits of Castalia, which are divided by deep precipices. From this eminence they had a fine prospect of the gulf of Corinth and of the coast; mount Cirphis appearing beneath them as a plain, bounded on the east by the bay of Asprospitia, and on the west by that of Salona. A few shepherds had huts there. They returned to the way which they had quitted, and crossed a hill covered with pines and snow. On their left was a lake, and beyond it a pike, exceedingly high, white with snow. They travelled to the foot of it through a valley four or five miles in compass; and rested by a plentiful fountain called Drosonigo, the stream boiling up, a foot in diameter, and nearly as much above the surface of the ground. It runs into the lake, which is about a quarter of a mile distant to the south-east. They did not discover Corycium, or proceed farther on, but, keeping the lake on their right, came again to the brink of