CHAPTER VII. Larissaan Acropolis-View from thence-Reflections thereon-Plain of Argos-Excursion to Tiryns-Cotton Harvest-Description of Tiryns -Cyclopéan Masonry-Historical Inquiry into the Origin and Character of the Cyclopes, &c.-Architecture introduced by them, with its subsequent Improvements-Nauplia-Kind Reception by the Pasha-Manners of the Turks-Feast of the Bairam-Curious Incident in the Street of Argos-Visit to the Vaivode-Investigation of Argos-Theatre— Statue of Telesilla-History of that Heroine-Endeavour to explain the strange confusion of Argos and Mycena by ancient AuthorsAlbanian Inhabitants of Argos-Custom of the Girls carrying Coins upon their Heads-Visit to Mycena-Acropolis-Gate of the Lions— Homeric Age and Poems-Treasuries of Atreus-Defence of the Argive Character. NEXT morning I was up morning I was up before the sun, which scarcely appeared above the horizon when I stood upon the summit of the Larissæan acropolis. This lofty rock, domineering over the city, is crowned with the castellated remains of a large Venetian fortress, built upon the massive substruction of its Cyclopéan walls. The view from hence was transcendantly beautiful; but even more interesting by its associations than by its natural magnificence. Before me lay that plain where knowledge was first transplanted into Europe from the prolific regions of the east; a plain so identified with the earliest ages of Grecian story that every object upon which my eye rested might have formed a subject for the muse: the very cradle of demi-gods and * Παλαίτερα δὲ τῶν Ἑλληνικῶν τὰ ̓Αργολικὰ τὰ ἀπὸ Ἰνάχω λέγω, &c. Cl. Alex. Strom. l. i. 138, VOL. I. D D 202 REFLECTIONS ON THE VIEW FROM LARISSA. heroes, the scene of the most impassioned writings of the Grecian poets. Long before the ship Argo transported its heroic freight over the Ægean waves, or the Egyptian Neith*, the divine Minerva, occupied her Cecropian citadel, Danaus brought hither the dark rudiments of Memphian mythology and science. But the smiling plains, the sunny hills, and transparent atmosphere of Greece, soon cast their own bright tints over the gloomy institutions of her Egyptian colonists: to their mournful rites and wailing sacrifices succeeded the brilliant pomp, the festive dance, and the animating choir; to their frightful catacombs, the purifying fire of the funeral pile; to their ponderous architecture, the light elegance of the dipteral temple; to the unbending forms of their stiff square sculpture, the grace and swell of more than human beauty; to their uncouth dialect, a language that combined sweetness with strength and copiousness with precision. The mysteries of the ancient helio-arkite worship were soon confined to the bosoms of the initiated, whilst all the characters, attributes, and passions that could be ascribed to the Supreme Deity, were personified * The Egyptian Neith. Αιγυπτιεὶ μὲν τὔνομα Νηΐθ, Ἑλληνισὶ δὲ ὡς ὁ ἐκείνων λόγος, Αθηνά. Plato in Timæo. The worship of this goddess was very early introduced into Thebes as one of the seven gates denoted, being called NHITAI after its patroness: there was also a city of Boeotia named Athenæ. Pausan. l. iii. 73. 2. The colony of Danaus, though not the first inhabitants, appear to have instructed very early the rude barbarians already possessed of Argos in the arts of civil life and the ceremonies of religious worship. Ὦ γῆν Ἰνάχει κεκτημένοι Πάλαι Πελασγδι Δανάιδαι δὲ δευτέρον, says Orestes. (Eurip. Or. 931.) Danaus is said by Polybius (1. xxxiv. c. 2), to have instructed them in the art of digging wells, as particularly necessary in this thirsty plain. All ancient authors confess that the religious rites, &c. of Greece came originally from Egypt. Σχεδὸν δὲ πάντα τὰ ὀυνόματα τῶν θεῶν ἐξ ̓Αιγύπτε ἐλήλυθε ἐς τὴν 'EXλáda, says Herodotus (lib. ii. c. 50). Even in the time of Pausanias the Argive women sung their 'mournful elegies in celebrating the rites of the Syrian Adonis, the Thammuz of Ezekiel. Paus. Cor. c. xx. 5. It was the intimate connexion of the Greek rites and ceremonies with those of Egypt, that makes Heliodorus so naturally observe in his Ethiopics (lib. ii.) that the philosophers at Delphi hung with delight upon the discourse of Calasiris when it related to Egypt, and that they were never weary of asking him questions relating to the customs of the Egyptians. Αιγύπτιον γὰρ ἄκεσμα και διήγημα πᾶν Ἑλληνικῆς ἀκοῆς ἐπαγωγότατον. Egyptiaca numinum fana plena plangoribus Græca plerumque choreis. Apul. de genio Soc. The Argives retained only the melancholy rites of Adonis out of all those which they had received from their Egyptian colonists. REFLECTIONS ON THE VIEW FROM LARISSA. 203 in a thousand forms. Hence Neptune calmed the raging ocean with his trident; Pluto took possession of his infernal palace and ruled thẹ shades; Apollo occupied his oracular shrines, and Diana became the huntress of the silver bow; warriors ranged themselves under the banner of Mars, and the successful lover raised an altar to the Cytherean queen the woods became peopled with satyrs, fauns, and dryads; every fountain had its protecting naiad, and every river flowed from the urn of its sedge-crowned deity: illustrious mortals too were raised by the gratitude of posterity to the rank of celestial beings: the lyre and the harp resounded with the praises both of gods and heroes: the most beautiful and picturesque sites were occupied with ornaments of temples, altars, porticoes and statues; whilst the pomp of processions, the elegance of rural fêtes, and the contests of the theatre, fed the flame of that brilliant imagination, that love of the beautiful, that electrifying sensibility, which vibrating on the nerves of its population made Greece the land of taste and sentiment*. Such reflections is the view from Larissa calculated to inspire into the mind, whilst the eye is almost equally delighted with the soft features of the surrounding landscape: amidst the retreating folds of that fine semicircle of mountains which enclose the plain, my eye caught the majestic summits of Arcadian Cyllene, the parent of the Grecian lyre; from thence passing over two conical peaks which tower aloft behind imperial Mycena, (μux "Agyeos) it rested upon the heights of Arachnæum, where that last light gleamed in the beacon-train† which announced * If we credit the account of the Egyptian character as given by Ammianus Marcellinus, we can scarcely help agreeing with Quintus Curtius that the genius of men is formed by the situation of their countries. They are described as dusky in their complexions, and inclined to melancholy, so tenacious of their opinion that no force of torture could be invented which should compel an Egyptian to declare his name if he wished to conceal it. It was the opinion of Aristotle, that the climate of Greece was the best possible for the production of great men. The Greeks, said that philosopher, held a middle place in physical and moral qualities, as well as topographical situation, between the northern Europeans and the southern Asiatics; possessing the courage of the former without their torpor of intellect; the ingenuity of the latter without their abject disposition. Arist. Pol. 1. 7. c. 7. The first beacon was lighted upon Mount Ida, and successively upon Hermæus, Athos, Macistus, Messapius, Citharon, Ægiplanctus, and Arachnæum, Æsch. Agam. 272, &c. I believe this is the first instance of telegraphic signals upon record. the fall of Troy and gave the signal for an adulterous queen to whet the murderous axe against the royal Agamemnon. In the plain itself appeared the ruins of Mycena and Tiryns, with Nauplia couched, as it were, under its towering citadel of Palamedi; beyond it lay the Argolic bay bearing clusters of islands on its resplendent bosom, and at the foot of the lofty rock on which I stood Argos was extended, amidst whose dark cypress groves the Turkish mosque shoots up its delicate and graceful minaret. It was upon this imagery, glowing under the same brilliant sun which now illuminated it, but set off and adorned with every beauty of cultivation and every grace of art, that the poor Argive turned his dying thoughts when stretched upon a foreign plain. "Sternitur et dulces moriens reminiscitur Argos." I was surprised that a noble poet, whose enchanting strains have conferred an additional interest even upon scenes sung by the Grecian muses, should think the epithet in this passage misapplied*: it appeared to me on the contrary a strong instance of that discriminating taste which characterizes the ancient poets: softness and repose are the peculiar features of this fine plain and the undulating outline of its surrounding mountains: nor can I persuade myself that Virgil used the epithet in a moral rather than a natural sense, which would deprive the passage of its greatest beauty†; that country must contain real charms of scenery which shall inspire its inhabitants with such vivid attachment: what *Notes to Childe Harold, p. 167. In confirmation of this opinion I might observe that Statius applies the same epithet to Argos when it must be used in the primary sense. Tydeus, in whose mouth he puts it, was not a native and had none of those mental associations which could make the secondary sense applicable. After all, the old adage will ever remain true, " de gustibus," &c. I could not help dissenting from the extravagant eulogy bestowed by the same author upon scenery which appeared to me and other foreigners as well as to the natives themselves, quite unworthy of more than common praise. I allude in particular to Zitza and Delvinachi in the country of Epirus: neither would I give my own opinion upon these points as infallible. Probably other travellers will differ in many instances from the descriptions which I have endeavoured to draw. These however are but matters of taste and of little moment: let me at least pay a debt of gratitude I owe to the noble author above alluded to for the exquisite enjoyment I received in perusing his enchanting poetry amidst the scenes which gave it birth: to say that it gives in general the most perfect ideas of the country, manners, and characters of the inhabitants, would be granting it scarcely half its meed of praise: its soul-inspiring flights are felt by all, the untravelled as well as the travelled reader, poet would risk a dying Dutchman breathing out his soul in effusions of tenderness for the dykes of Holland? No, it is the Swiss peasant with whom we sympathize when in the last agonies of death his mind dwells with melancholy regret upon the hills and vales of his romantic country. On my descent down the Larissaan steep I entered into a deep cavern at the S.E. end of the rock whose sides, of natural marble, retain the remnants of an extremely fine and highly polished stucco. Advancing towards its further extremity and ruminating upon the story of Danae in whose brazen chamber I began to fancy myself, I was startled by a tremendous howl, when a large animal of a bright dun colour rushed past me as fast as three legs could carry him; the fourth had been broken or severely hurt, and the poor beast had taken refuge in the solitude of this retreat, from whence I unwarily disturbed him whether it was a wolf or a large Albanian dog I was unable to discover; but the circumstance made me cautious in future of entering such places alone without any means of defence. On my arrival at our lodging I held a consultation with my friend upon the propriety of remaining a few days at Argos; and we resolved to satisfy our curiosity, in spite of the surly tyrant who ruled in Tripolizza: we have great reason to rejoice in this determination, for otherwise we should have enjoyed but a very transitory glimpse of this beautiful region. How rarely does a traveller ever recover the opportunity of visiting those interesting scenes which he may have passed either by accident or design! Having procured horses and a guide from the vaivode, we directed our course across the thirsty Argive plain towards the citadel of Tiryns, that we might inspect that ancient piece of fortification. The country exhibited a cheerful scene from the gatherers of the cotton harvest who were scattered over the plain which is very celebrated for this production. The shrub is about two feet high; its flower, which is of a pale yellow, is succeeded by a round capsule with four partitions |