198

DISCOVERY OF THE PHIGALIAN MARBLES.

That was pleasant enough, but not to be compared with this last. The party was very large, consisting of Gropius, Haller, Foster, Bronstedt, Lynckh, and Stakelberg, besides their servants superintendants, &c. amounting to above fifteen persons. On the top of Mount Cotylium, from whence there is a grand prospect over nearly all Arcadia, they established themselves for three months, building round the temple huts covered with the boughs of trees, amounting almost to a village (a city I should have said) which they denominated Francopolis. They had frequently fifty or eighty men at work in the temple, and a band of Arcadian music was constantly playing, to entertain this numerous assemblage: when evening put an end to work, dances and songs commenced, lambs were roasted whole on a long wooden spit, and the whole scene, in such a situation, at such an interesting time, when every day some new and beautiful work of the best age of sculpture the world has ever known was brought to light, is hardly to be imagined. Apollo must have wondered at the carousals which disturbed his long repose, and have thought that his glorious days of old were again returned!

"The success of the enterprise in getting permission from the pasha has astonished every one: since few would risk such an adventure, who are always surrounded with those that are glad to find any ground of complaint against them at the Porte: and this was a discovery of great extent and notoriety.

"In all the circumstances connected with this event good fortune attended us. Just at this time Vely Pasha was removed from his government of the Morea: we should have been much embarrassed by our agreement with him, which made him proprietor of half the marbles; but he was now very glad to sell us his share, and scarcely were the treasures put on board a vessel, ere the officers of the new pasha came down to the port with the intent of seizing the whole; but they were then safe. Perhaps at no other time could such a per

DEPARTURE FROM TRIPOLIZZA.

199

mission as we obtained have been procured, and Gropius certainly managed this part of the business with great dexterity."

These beautiful specimens of ancient sculpture were landed safely at Zante, and from thence transferred to England, where they may be now seen amongst the principal ornaments of our national Museum.

About noon on the 22d of September, we left our confinement in Tripolizza, determined to represent the conduct of this pasha in its proper light at Constantinople, and return to travel through the Morea in spite of his teeth. Crossing the great plain in an easterly direction, we passed the site of Tegea about one hour distant on the right hand : soon afterwards we entered a defile of Mount Parthenion, called Steno, where the Athenian ambassador Pheidippides is reported to have held a conference with Pan, when that cloven-footed deity severely taxed the Athenians with ingratitude for having erected no temple to a benefactor who had so often assisted them by striking a panic into their enemies*. From the summit of this hill we first caught a glance of the Ægean Sea: the beautiful fountain Amymone, or the Alcyonian Lake, was scarcely visible when we passed it, through the obscure shades of twilight: we were just able to observe a white mist of malaria emanating from the Lernæan marsh, the poisonous breath of that very hydrat which has again appeared to depopulate this unfortunate country: when, alas! will another Hercules arise to crush the monster? The darkness of night enveloped Argos when we approached that city: no light gleamed now from the deserted citadel of Larissa like that which

* The just representations of the Deity produced the desired effect: hence the origin of the Cave of Pan, that pooẞoppov ävтpov under the north-east end of the Athenian acropolis. Herod. 1. vi.

c. 106.

+"Veteri (spumat jam) Lerna veneno." Stat. Theb. i.

The wisdom which dictated the laborious drainage of this marsh was designated under the idea of Minerva assisting Hercules in the destruction of the Hydra. Pausan. Eliac. c. xvii. 4.

shone to cheer the fugitive Polynices*: but, like him, we should have been obliged to seek a residence for the night under the protecting shelter of a portico, had it not been for the authority of our Turkish tchocodar: nor could even he gain admittance into a house at this unseasonable hour until he not only threatened to break down the door, but actually commenced the execution of his threats.

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 Authors— Albanian Inhabitants of Argos-Custom of the Girls carrying Coins upon their Heads-Visit to Mycena-Acropolis-Gate of the LionsHomeric Age and Poems-Treasuries of Atreus-Defence of the Argive Character.

NEXT 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 Ινάχα λέγω, &c. Cl. Alex. Strom. 1. i. 138.

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.

Αιγυπτιςὶ μὲν τὄνομα Νηΐθ, Ἑλληνισὶ δὲ ὡς ὁ ἐκείνων λόγος, Αθηνᾶ. 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. 1. 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 Ινάχε κεκτημένοι

Πάλαι Πελασγὸι Δανᾶιδαι δὲ δευτέρον, says Orestes. Eurip. Οr. 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 'EMáda, 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. 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.

c. xx. 5.

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.