CONTENTS.

[The names of authors from whom illustrative prose selections are taken in SMALL CAPITALS; those from whom poetic selections are taken are in italics.]

[CHAPTER I.]
GENERAL VIEW OF THE GRECIAN STATES AND ISLANDS.

Introductory.—Olympus.—Hemans.—Pi'e-rus.—Pope.

1. Thessaly.—Tem'pe.—Hemans.

2. Epi'rus.—Cocy'tus, Ach'eron, Dodo'na.—Milton: Haygarth: Byron.

3. Acarna'nia.

4. Æto'lia.

5. Lo'cris.

6. Do'ris.

7. Pho'cis.—Parnassus.—Byron.—Delphi.—Hemans.

8. Bœo'tia.—Thebes.—Schiller.

9. Attica.—Byron.

10. Corinth.—Byron: Haygarth.

11. Acha'ia.

12. Arca'dia.

13. Ar'golis.—Myce'næ.—Hemans.

14. Laco'nia.

15. Messe'nia.

16. E'lis.

17. The Isles of Greece.—Byron.

Lemnos.—Euboe'a.—Cyc'la-des.—De'los.—Spor'a-des.—Crete.—Rhodes.—Sal'amis.—Ægi'na.—Cyth'-era.—"Venus Rising from the Sea."—Woolner.
Stroph'a-des.—Virgil.—Paxos.—Zacyn'thus.—Cephalo'nia.—Ith'aca.—Leu'cas or Leuca'dia.—Corcy'ra or Cor'fu.—"Gardens of Alcin'o-us."

[CHAPTER II.]
THE FABULOUS AND LEGENDARY PERIOD OF GRECIAN HISTORY.

  1. Grecian Mythology.
  2. Value of the Grecian Fables.— J. Stuart Blackie
    The Battle of the Giants.— He'siod
    Hymn to Jupiter.— Clean'thes
    The god Apollo.— Ov'id.
    Fancies of the Greek Mind.— Wordsworth: LIDDELL: Blackie.
    The Poet's Lament.— Schiller.
    The Creation.— Ovid.
    The Origin of Evil.— Hesiod.
    What Prome'theus Personified.— Blackie.
    The Punishment of Prometheus.— Æs'chylus: Shelley
    Deluge of Deuca'lion.— Ovid.
    Moral Characteristics of the Gods, etc.— MAHAFFY: GLADSTONE: Homer: Æschylus: Hesiod.
    Oaths.— Homer: Æschylus: Soph'ocles: Virgil.
    The Future State.— Homer.
    1. Story of Tan'talus.— Blackie
    2. The Descent of Or'pheus.— Ovid: Homer.
    3. The Elys'ium.— Homer: Pindar.
  3. Hindu and Greek Skepticism.— (Cornhill Magazine).
  4. The Earliest Inhabitants of Greece.
  5. The Founding of Athens.—Blackie.
  6. The Heroic Age.
    1. The Greek Armament.— Eurip'ides.
    2. The name Helen.— Æschylus.
    3. Ulysses and Thersi'tes.— Homer. (Pope).
    4. Combat of Menela'us and Paris.— Homer. (Pope).
    5. Parting of Hector and Androm'a-che.— Homer. (Pope).
    6. Hector's Exploits and Death of Patro'clus.— Homer. (Pope).
    7. The Shield of Achilles.— Homer. (Sotheby).
    8. Address of Achilles to his Horses.— Homer. (Pope).
    9. The Death of Hector.— Homer. (Bryant).
    10. Priam Begging for Hector's Body.— Homer. (Cowper).
    11. Lamentations of Andromache and Helen.— Homer. (Pope).
  7. Heroic Times foretold to Adam.— Milton
    Twelve Labors of Hercules.— Homer.
    Fable of Hercules and Antæ'us.— Collins.
    The Argonautic Expedition.— Pindar.
    Legend of Hy'las.— Bayard Taylor.
    The Trojan War.
  8. The Fate of Troy.— Virgil: Schiller.
    Beacon Fires from Troy to Argos.— Æschlus.
    Remarks on the Trojan War.— THIRLWALL: GROTE.
    Fate of the Actors in the Conflict.— Ennius: Landor: Lang.
  9. Arts and Civilization in the Heroic Age.
  10. Political Life of the Greeks.— MAHAFFY: HEEREN.
    Domestic Life and Character.— MAHAFFY: Homer.
    The Raft of Ulysses.— Homer.
  11. The Conquest of Peloponnesus, and Colonies in Asia Minor.
  12. Return of the Heracli'dæ.— Lucan.

[CHAPTER III.]

EARLY GREEK LITERATURE, AND GREEK COMMUNITY OF INTERESTS.

  1. Ionian Language and Culture.—FELTON.
  2. Homer and his Poems.— Antip'ater: FELTON: TALFOURD: Pope: COLERIDGE.
  3. Some Causes of Greek Unity.
  4. The Grecian Festivals.
    1. Chariot Race and Death of Ores'tes.— Sophocles.
    2. Apollo's Conflict with the Python.— Ovid.
    3. The Apollo Belvedere.— Thomson.
  5. National Councils.

[CHAPTER IV.]

SPARTA, AND THE LEGISLATION OF LYCURGUS.

  1. Description of Sparta.— Thomson.
  2. The Constitution of Lycurgus.
  3. Spartan Patriotic Virtue.— Tymnoe'us.
  4. Spartan Poetry and Music.
  5. Spartan March.— CAMPBELL.: Hemans.
    Songs of the Spartans.— PLUTARCH: Terpan'der: Pindar: Ion
  6. Sparta's Conquests.
  7. War-song.— Tyrtoe'us.

[CHAPTER V.]

FORMS OF GOVERNMENT, AND CHANGES IN GRECIAN POLITICS.

  1. Introductory.—THIRLWALL: LEG'ARÉ.
  2. Changes from Aristocracies to Oligarchies.—HEEREN.
  3. Changes from Oligarchies to Despotisms.—THIRLWALL: HEEREN: BULWER: Theog'nis.

[CHAPTER VI.]

THE EARLY HISTORY OF ATHENS.

  1. The Legislation of Dra'co.
  2. The Legislation of So'lon.—PLUTARCH: A'kenside: Solon: Thomson: Solon.
  3. The Usurpation of Pisis'tratus.
  4. The Usurper and his Stratagem.—Akenside.
    Solon's Appeal to the Athenians.—Akenside.
    Character of Pisistratus.—THIRLWALL.
    Conspiracy of Harmodius and Aristogi'ton.—Callis'tratus.
  5. Birth of Democracy.—THIRLWALL.

[CHAPTER VII.]

A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE GREEK COLONIES.

The Cave of the Cumæ'an Sibyl.—Virgil: GROTE.
The'ron of Agrigen'tum.—Pindat.
Increase among the Sicilian Greeks.—GROTE.

[CHAPTER VIII.]

PROGRESS OF LITERATURE AND THE ARTS.

  1. The Poems of Hesiod.—"Winter."—FELTON: MURE: THIRLWALL: MAHAFFY.
  2. Lyric Poetry.
  3. Calli'nus of Ephesus.—"War Elegy".
    Archil'ochus of Pa'ros—SYMONDS: MAHAFFY.
    Alc'man.—"Sleep, or Night."—MURE.
    Ari'on.—Stesich'orus.—MAHAFFY. —"Spoils of War."—Akenside. —"Defence of."—SYMONDS: Antip'ater.
    Anac'reon.—"The Grasshopper."—Akenside.
  4. Early Grecian Philosophy.
  5. The Seven Sages.—(Maxims).—GROTE.
    Tha'les, Anaxim'enes, Heracli'tus, Diog'enes, Anaximan'der, and Xenoph'anes.
    Pythag'oras and his Doctrines.—Blackie: Thomson: Coleridge: Lowell.
    The Eleusin'ian Mysteries.—Virgil.
  6. Architecture.
  7. The Cyclo'pean Walls.—Lord Houghton.
    Dor'ic, Ion'ic, and Corinthian Orders.—Thomson.
    Cher'siphron, and the Temple of Diana.—Story.
    Temples at Pæs'tum.—Cranch.
  8. Sculpture.
  9. Glaucus, Rhoe'cus, Theodo'rus, Dipæ'nus, Scyllis.
    Cause of the Progress of Sculpture.—THIRLWALL.

[CHAPTER IX.]

THE PERSIAN WARS.

  1. The Ionic Revolt.
  2. The First Persian War.
  3. The Battle of Marathon.
    Legends of the Battle.—Hemans: Blackie.
    The Death of Milti'ades: his Character.—GROTE: GILLIES.
    Aristi'des and Themis'tocles:—Thomson: PLUTARCH: THIRLWALL.
  4. The Second Persian Invasion.
  5. Xerxes at Aby'dos.—HEROD'OTUS.
    Bridging of the Hellespont.—Juvenal: Milton.
    The Battle of Thermop'ylæ.
    1. Invincibility of the Spartans.—Haygarth.
    2. Description of the Contest.—Haygarth.
    3. Epitaphs on those who fell.—Simon'ides.
    4. The Tomb of Leon'idas.—Anon.
    5. Eulogy on the Fallen.—Byron
    6. Xerxes Views the Conflict.—Byron.
    7. Flight of Xerxes.—Juvenal: Alamanni.
    8. Celebrated Description of the Battle.—MITFORD: Æschylus.
    9. Another Account.—Blackie.
    10. Description of the Battle.—BULWER.
    11. Importance of the Victory.—Southey: BULWER.
    12. Victory at Myc'a-le.—BULWER.
    13. "The Wasps."—Aristophanes.
  6. Naval Conflict at Artemis'ium.—PLUTARCH: Pindar.
    The Abandonment of Athens.
    The Battle of Salamis.
  7. The Battle of Platæ'a.

[CHAPTER X.]

THE RISE AND GROWTH OF THE ATHENIAN EMPIRE.

  1. The Disgrace and Death of Themistocles.
  2. Tributes to his Memory.—Plato: Geminus: THIRLWALL.
  3. The Rise and Fall of Cimon.
  4. Character of Cimon—Thomson.
    Battle of Eurym'edon.—Simonides.
    Earthquake at Sparta, and Revolt of the Helots.—BULWER: ALISON.
  5. The Accession of Pericles to Power.
  6. Changes in the Athenian Constitution.—BULWER.
    Tribute to Pericles.—Croly.
    Picture of Athens in Peace.—Haygarth.

[CHAPTER XI.]

THE PELOPONNESIAN WARS, AND THE FALL OF ATHENS.

  1. Speech of Pericles for War.—THUCYD'IDES.
  2. The First Peloponnesian War.
  3. Funeral Oration of Pericles.—THUCYDIDES.
    Comments on the Oration.—CURTIUS.
    The Plague at Athens.—Lucretius.
    Death of Pericles.—Croly: THIRLWALL: BULWER.
    Character of Pericles.—MITFORD.
  4. The Athenian Demagogues.
  5. Cleon, the Demagogue.—GILLIES: ARISTOPH'ANES.
    The Peace of Ni'cias.
  6. The Sicilian Expedition.
  7. Treatment of the Athenian Prisoners.—Byron.
  8. The Second Peloponnesian War.
  9. Humiliation of Athens.
    Barbarities of the Contest.—MAHAFFY.

[CHAPTER XII.]

GRECIAN LITERATURE AND ART, FROM THE BEGINNING OF THE PERSIAN TO THE CLOSE OF THE PELOPONNESIAN WARS (B.C. 500-403).

LITERATURE.

  1. Introductory.
  2. The Era of Athenian Greatness.—SYMONDS.
  3. Lyric Poetry.
  4. Simonides.—"Lamentation of Dan'a-ë."—MAHAFFY.
    Pindar.—"Threnos."—THIRLWALL: Prior: SYMONDS: Gray: Pope: Horace.
  5. The Drama.—BULWER.
    1. Tragedy.—Melpom'ene.—Akenside.
    2. Æschylus.—"Death of Agamemnon."—PLUMPTRE: LAWRENCE: VAN SCHLEGEL: Byron: MAHAFFY.
      Sophocles.—OEd'ipus Tyran'nus."—TALFOURD: Phryn'ichus: Sim'mias.
      Euripides.—"Alcestis Preparing for Death."—SYMONDS: Milton: MAHAFFY.
      The Transitions of Tragedy.—GROTE.
    3. Comedy.
    4. Characterization of.
      Aristophanes.—Extracts from "The Cloud." "Choral Song from The Birds."—Plato: GROTE: SEWELL: Milton: RUSKIN.
  6. History.
  7. Hecatæ'ns.—MAHAFFY: NIEBUHR.
    Herodotus.—"Introduction to History."—LAWRENCE.
    Herodotus and his Writings.—MACAULAY.
    Thucyd'i-des.—MAHAFFY.
    Thucydides and Herodotus.—BROWNE.
  8. Philosophy.
  9. Anaxag'oras: his Death.—William Canton.
    The Sophists.—MAHAFFY.
    Socrates.—"Defence of Socrates."—"Socrates' Views of a Future State."—MAHAFFY: Thomson: SMITH: TYLER: GROTE.

ART.

  1. Sculpture and Painting.
  2. Phid'ias.—LÜBKE: GILLIES: LÜBKE.
    Polygno'tus.—Apollodo'rus.—Zeux'is.—Parrha'sius. —Timan'thes.
    Parrhasius and his Captive.—SENECA: Willis.
  3. Architecture.
  4. Introductory.—Thomson.
    The Adornment of Athens.—BULWER.
    1. The Acrop'olis and its Splendors.
    2. The Parthenon.—Hemans.
    3. Other Architectural Monuments of Athens.
    4. The Temple of The'seus.—Haygarth.
      Athenian Enthusiasm for Art.—BULWER.
      The Glory of Athens.—Talfourd.

[CHAPTER XIII.]

THE SPARTAN AND THEBAN SUPREMACIES.

  1. The Expedition of Cyrus, and the Retreat of the Ten Thousand.—Thomson: CURTIUS.
  2. The Supremacy of Sparta.
  3. The Rise and Fall of Thebes.
  4. Pelop'idas and Epaminon'das.—Thomson: CURTIUS.

[CHAPTER XIV.]

THE SICILIAN GREEKS.

The Founding of Ætna.—Pindar.
Hi'ero's Victory at Cu'mæ.—Pindar.
Admonitions to Hiero.—Pindar.
Dionysius the Elder.—PLUTARCH.
Damon and Pythias.—The Hostage.—Schiller.
Archime'des.—Schiller
Visit of Cicero to the Grave of Archimedes.—WINTHROP.

[CHAPTER XV.]

THE MACEDONIAN SUPREMACY.

  1. The Sacred War.—THIRLWALL.
  2. Sketch of Macedonia.
  3. Interference of Philip of Macedon.
  4. Demosthenes.—"The First Philippic."—GROTE.
    Pho'cion.—His Influence at Athens.—GROTE.
  5. War with Macedon.
  6. Accession of Alexander the Great.
  7. Alexander Invades Asia.
  8. The Battle of Arbe'la.—Flight and Death of Dari'us.— GROTE: ÆS'CHINES.
  9. Alexander's Feast at Persep'olis.—Dryden.
  10. The Death of Alexander.
  11. His Career and his Character.—Lu'can.
    Reflections on his Life, etc.—Juvenal: Byron.

[CHAPTER XVI.]

FROM THE DEATH OF ALEXANDER TO THE CONQUEST OF GREECE BY THE ROMANS.

  1. A Retrospective Glance at Greece.
  2. Oration of Æschines against Ctes'iphon.
    Oration of Demosthenes on the Crown.
  3. The Wars that followed Alexander's Death.
  4. Character of Ptolemy Philadelphus—Theoc'ritus
  5. The Celtic Invasion, and the War with Pyrrhus.
  6. Queen Archidami'a.—Anon.

  8. The Achæ'an League.—Philip V. of Macedon.
  9. Epigrams on Philip and the Macedonians.—Alcoe'us.
  10. Greece Conquered by Rome.
  11. "The Liberty of Greece."—Wordsworth.
    Desolation of Corinth.—Antipater.
    Last Struggles of Greece.—THIRLWALL: Horace.

[CHAPTER XVII.]

LITERATURE AND ART AFTER THE CLOSE OF THE PELOPONNESIAN WAR.

LITERATURE

  1. The Drama.—MAHAFFY.
  2. Phile'mon.—"Faith in God."
    Menander.—"Human Existence."—SYMONDS: LAWRENCE.
  3. Oratory.—Milton: CICERO.
  4. Æs'chines and Demosthenes.—LEGARÉ: BROUGHAM: HUME.
  5. Philosophy.
  6. Plato.—Haygarth: BROUGHAM: KENDRICK: MITCHELL.
    Aristotle.—Pope: BROWNE: LAWRENCE: SMITH: MAHAFFY.
    Academe.—Arnold.
    Epicu'rus and Ze'no.—Lucretius.
  7. History.
  8. Xen'ophon.—MITCHELL.
    Polyb'ius.

ART.

  1. Architecture and Sculpture.
  2. Changes in Statuary.—WEYMAN.
    The Dying Gladiator.—LÜBKE: Thomson.
    The La-oc'o-on.—Thomson: Holland.
  3. Painting.
  4. Venus Rising from the Sea.—Antipater.
    Apel'les and Protog'enes.—ANTHON.
    Protogenes' Picture at Rhodes.—Thomson.
  5. Concluding Reflections.
  6. The Image of Athens.—Shelley.
    Immortal Influence of Athens.—MACAULAY: Haygarth.

[CHAPTER XVIII.]

GREECE SUBSEQUENT TO THE ROMAN CONQUEST.

  1. Greece under the Romans.
  2. The Revolt.—FINLAY.
    Christianity in Greece.—FELTON.
  3. Changes down to the Fourteenth Century.
  4. Courts of the Crusading Chieftains.—EDINBURGH REVIEW.
    The Duchy of Athens.—FELTON.
    The Turkish Invasion.—Hemans.
  5. Contests between the Turks and Venetians.
  6. Past and Present of the Acropolis of Athens.
    The Siege and Fall of Corinth.—Byron.
  7. Final Conquest of Greece by Turkey.
  8. Turkish Oppressions.—TENNENT.
    The Slavery of Greece.—Canning: Byron.
    First Steps to Secure Liberty.—The Klephts.—FELTON.
    Greek War-Songs.—Rhigas: Polyzois.
  9. The Greek Revolution.
  10. A Prophetic Vision of the Struggle.—Shelley's "Hellas".
    Song of the Greeks.—Campbell.
    American Sympathy with Greece.—TUCKERMAN: WEBSTER.
    The Sortie at Missolon'ghi.—WARBURTON.
    A Visit to Missolonghi.—STEPHENS.
    Marco Bozzar'is.—Halleck.
    Battle of Navari'no.—Campbell.
  11. Greece under a Constitutional Monarchy.
  12. Revolution against King Otho.—BENJAMIN.
    The Deposition of King Otho: Greece under his Rule. —TUCKERMAN: BRITISH QUARTERLY.
    Accession of King George.—His Government.—TUCKERMAN.
    Progress in Modern Greece.—COOK.

[INDEX]

CHAPTER I.

GENERAL VIEW OF THE GRECIAN STATES AND ISLANDS.

The country called HELLAS by the Helle'nes, its native inhabitants, and known to us by the name of Greece, forms the southern part of the most easterly of the three great peninsulas of Southern Europe, extending into the Mediterranean between the Æge'an Sea, or Grecian Archipelago, on the east, and the Ionian Sea on the west. The whole area of this country, so renowned in history, is only about twenty thousand square miles; which is considerably less than that of Portugal, and less than half that of the State of Pennsylvania.

The mainland of ancient Greece was naturally divided into Northern Greece, which embraced Thessaly and Epi'rus; Central Greece, comprising the divisions of Acarna'nia, Æto'lia, Lo'cris, Do'ris, Pho'cis, Breo'tia, and At'tica (the latter forming the eastern extremity of the whole peninsula); and Southern Greece, which the ancients called Pel-o-pon-ne'sus, or the Island of Pe'lops, which would be an island were it not for the narrow Isthmus of Corinth, which connects it on the north with Central Greece. Its modern name, the Mo-re'a, was bestowed upon it from its resemblance to the leaf of the mulberry. The chief political divisions of Peloponnesus were Corinth and Acha'ia on the north, Ar'golis on the east, Laco'nia and Messe'nia at the southern extremity of the peninsula, E'lis on the west, and the central region of Arca'dia.

Greece proper is separated from Macedonia on the north by the Ceraunian and Cambunian chain of mountains, extending in irregular outline from the Ionian Sea on the west to the Therma'ic Gulf on the east, terminating, on the eastern coast, in the lofty summit of Mount Olympus, the fabled residence of the gods, where, in the early dawn of history, Jupiter (called "the father of gods and men") was said to hold his court, and where he reigned supreme over heaven and earth. Olympus rises abruptly, in colossal magnificence, to a height of more than six thousand feet, lifting its snowy head far above the belt of clouds that nearly always hangs upon the sides of the mountain.

Wild and august in consecrated pride,
There through the deep-blue heaven Olympus towers,
Girdled with mists, light-floating as to hide
The rock-built palace of immortal powers.
—HEMANS.

In the Olympian range, also, was Mount Pie'rus, where was the Pierian fountain, one of the sacred resorts of the Muses, so often mentioned by the poets, and to which POPE, with gentle sarcasm, refers when he says,

A little learning is a dangerous thing:
Drink deep, or taste not the Pierian spring.

1. Thessaly.—From the northern chain of mountains, the central Pindus range, running south, separates Thessaly on the east from Epi'rus on the west. The former region, enclosed by mountain ranges broken only on the east, and watered by the Pene'us and its numerous tributaries, embraced the largest and most fertile plain in all Greece. On the Thessalian coast, south of Olympus, were the celebrated mounts Ossa and Pe'lion, which the giants, in their wars against the gods, as the poets fable, piled upon Olympus in their daring attempt to scale the heavens and dethrone the gods. Between those mounts lay the celebrated vale of Tem'pe, through which the Pene'us flowed to the sea.

Romantic Tempe! thou art yet the same—
Wild as when sung by bards of elder time:
Years, that have changed thy river's classic name,
[Footnote: The modern name of the Pene'us is Selembria or Salamvria.]
Have left thee still in savage pomp sublime.
—HEMANS.

Farther south, having the sea on one side and the lofty cliffs of Mount OE'ta on the other, was the celebrated narrow pass of Thermop'ylæ, leading from Thessaly into Central Greece.

2. Epi'rus.—The country of Epirus, on the west of Thessaly, was mostly a wild and mountainous region, but with fertile intervening valleys. Among the localities of Epirus celebrated in fable and in song was the river Cocy'tus, which the poets, on account of its nauseous waters, described as one of the rivers of the lower world—

Cocytus, named of lamentation loud
Heard on the rueful stream.

The Ach'eron was another of the rivers—

Sad Acheron of sorrow, black and deep—
—MILTON.

which was assigned by the poets to the lower world, and over which the souls of the dead were said to be first conveyed, before they were borne the Le'the, or "stream of oblivion," beyond. The true Acheron of Epirus has been thus described:

Yonder rolls Acheron his dismal stream,
Sunk in a narrow bed: cypress and fir
Wave their dim foliage on his rugged banks;
And underneath their boughs the parched ground,
Strewed o'er with juniper and withered leaves,
Seems blasted by no mortal tread.

As the Acheron falls into the lake Acheru'sia, and after rising from it flows underground for some distance, this lake also has been connected by the poets with the gloomy legend of its fountain stream.

This is the place
Sung by the ancient masters of the lyre,
Where disembodied spirits, ere they left
Their earthly mansions, lingered for a time
Upon the confines of eternal night,
Mourning their doom; and oft the astonished hind,
As home he journeyed at the fall of eve,
Viewed unknown forms flitting across his path,
And in the breeze that waved the sighing boughs
Heard shrieks of woe.
—HAYGARTH.

In Epirus was also situated the celebrated city of Dodo'na, with the temple of that name, where was the most ancient oracle in Greece, whose fame extended even to Asia. But in the wide waste of centuries even the site of this once famous oracle is forgotten.

Where, now, Dodona! is thine aged grove,
Prophetic fount, and oracle divine?
What valley echoes the response of Jove?
What trace remaineth of the Thunderer's shrine?
All, all forgotten!
—BYRON.

3. Acarna'nia.—Coming now to Central Greece, lying northward of the Corinthian Gulf, we find Acarnania on the far west, for the most part a productive country with good harbors: but the Acarnanians, a rude and warlike people, were little inclined to Commercial pursuits; they remained far behind the rest of the Greeks in culture, and scarcely one city of importance was embraced within their territory.

4. Æto'lia, generally a rough and mountainous country, separated, on the west, from Acarnania by the river Ach-e-lo'us, the largest of the rivers of Greece, was inhabited, like Acarnania, by a hardy and warlike race, who long preserved the wild and uncivilized habits of a barbarous age. The river Achelous was intimately connected with the religion and mythology of the Greeks. The hero Hercules contended with the river-god for the hand of De-i-a-ni'ra, the most beautiful woman of his time; and so famous was the stream itself that the Oracle of Dodona gave frequent directions "to sacrifice to the Achelous," whose very name was used, in the language of poetry, as an appellation for the element of water and for rivers.

5. Lo'cris, lying along the Corinthian Gulf east of Ætolia, was inhabited by a wild, uncivilized race, scarcely Hellen'ic in character, and said to have been addicted, from the earliest period, to theft and rapine. Their two principal towns were Amphis'sa and Naupac'tus, the latter now called Lepanto. There was another settlement of the Locri north of Pho'cis and Bœo'tia.

6. Do'ris, a small territory in the north-eastern angle of Ætolia proper—a rough but fertile country—was the early seat of the Dorians, the most enterprising and the most powerful of the Hellenic tribes, if we take into account their numerous migrations, colonies and conquests. Their colonies in Asia Minor founded six independent republics, which were confined within the bounds of as many cities. From this people the Doric order of architecture—a style typical of majesty and imposing grandeur, and the one the most employed by the Greeks in the construction of their temples—derived its origin.

7. Pho'cis.—On the east of Locris, Ætolia, and Doris was Phocis, a mountainous region, bordered on the south by the Corinthian Gulf. In the northern central part of its territory was the famed Mount Parnassus, covered the greater part of the year with snow, with its sacred cave, and its Castalian fount gushing forth between two of its lofty rocks. The waters were said to inspire those who drank of them with the gift of poetry. Hence both mountain and fount were sacred to the Muses, and their names have come down to our own times as synonymous with poetry and song. BYRON thus writes of Parnassus, in lines almost of veneration, as he first viewed it from Delphi, on the southern base of the mountain:

Oh, thou Parnassus! whom I now survey,
Not in the frenzy of a dreamer's eye,
Not in the fabled landscape of a lay,
But soaring snow-clad through thy native sky
In the wild pomp of mountain majesty!

Oft have I dreamed of thee! whose glorious name
Who knows not, knows not man's divinest lore:
And now I view thee, 'tis, alas! with shame
That I in feeblest accents must adore.
When I recount thy worshippers of yore
I tremble, and can only bend the knee;
Nor raise my voice, nor vainly dare to soar,
But gaze beneath thy cloudy canopy
In silent joy to think at last I look on thee!

The city of Delphi was the seat of the celebrated temple and oracle of that name. Here the Pythia, the priestess of Apollo, pronounced the prophetic responses, in extempore prose or verse; and here the Pythian Games were celebrated in honor of Apollo.

Here, thought-entranced, we wander, where of old
From Delphi's chasm the mystic vapor rose,
And trembling nations heard their doom foretold
By the dread spirit throned 'midst rocks and snows.
Though its rich fanes be blended with the dust,
And silence now the hallowed haunt possess,
Still is the scene of ancient rites august,
Magnificent in mountain loneliness;
Still Inspiration hovers o'er the ground,
Where Greece her councils held, her Pythian victors crowned.
—MRS. HEMANS.

8. Bœo'tia.—Bœotia, lying to the east of Phocis, bordering on the Euri'pus, or "Euboe'an Sea," a narrow strait which separates it from the Island of Euboe'a, and touching the Corinthian Gulf on the south-west, is mostly one large basin enclosed by mountain ranges, and having a soil exceedingly fertile. It was the most thickly settled part of Greece; it abounded in cities of historic interest, of which Thebes, the capital, was the chief—whose walls were built, according to the fable, to the sound of the Muses:

With their ninefold symphonies
There the chiming Muses throng;
Stone on stone the walls arise
To the choral Music-song.
—SCHILLER.

Bœotia was the scene of many of the legends celebrated by the poets, and especially of those upon which were founded the plays of the Greek tragedians. Near a fountain on Mount Cithæ'ron, on its southern border, the hunter Actæ'on, having been changed into a stag by the goddess Diana, was hunted down and killed by his own hounds. Pen'theus, an early king of Thebes, having ascended Cithæron to witness the orgies of the Bacchanals, was torn in pieces by his own mother and aunts, to whom Bacchus made him appear as a wild beast. On this same mountain range also occurred the exposure of OEd'ipus, the hero of the most famous tragedy of Sophocles. Near the Corinthian Gulf was Mount Hel'icon, sacred to Apollo and the Muses. Its slopes and valleys were renowned for their fertility; it had its sacred grove, and near it was the famous fountain of Aganip'pe, which was believed to inspire with oracular powers those who drank of its waters. Nearer the summit was the fountain Hippocre'ne, which is said to have burst forth when the winged horse Peg'asus, the favorite of the Muses, struck the ground with his hoofs, and which Venus, accompanied by her constant attendants, the doves, delighted to visit. Here, we are told,

Her darling doves, light-hovering round their Queen,
Dipped their red beaks in rills from Hippocrene.
[Footnote: Always Hip-po-cre'ne in prose; but it is allowable to contract it into three syllables in poetry, as in the example above.]

It was here, also—

near this fresh fount,
On pleasant Helicon's umbrageous mount—

that occurred the celebrated contest between the nine daughters of Pie'rus, king of E-ma'thi-a (the ancient name of Macedonia), and the nine Muses. It is said that "at the song of the daughters of Pierus the sky became dark, and all nature was put out of harmony; but at that of the Muses the heavens themselves, the stars, the sea, and the rivers stood motionless, and Helicon swelled up with delight, so that its summit reached the sky." The Muses then, having turned the presumptuous maidens into chattering magpies, first took the name of Pi-er'i-des, from Pieria, their natal region.

9. Attica.—Bordering Bœotia on the south-east was the district of Attica, nearly in the form of a triangle, having two of its sides washed by the sea, and the other—the northern—shut off from the east of Central Greece by the mountain range of Cithæron on the north-west, and Par'nes on the east. Its other noted mountains were Pentel'icus (sometimes called Mende'li), so celebrated for its quarries of beautiful marble, and Hymet'tus, celebrated for its excellent honey, and the broad belt of flowers at its base, which scented the air with their delicious perfume. It could boast of its chief city, the favored seat of the goddess Minerva—

Athens, the eye of Greece, mother of arts
And eloquence—

as surpassing all other cities in beauty and magnificence, and in the great number of its illustrious citizens. Yet the soil of Attica was, on the whole, exceedingly barren, with the exception of a few very fertile spots; but olive groves abounded, and the olive was the most valuable product.

The general sterility of Attica was the great safety of her people in their early history. "It drove them abroad; it filled them with a spirit of activity, which loved to grapple with danger and difficulty; it told them that, if they would maintain themselves in the dignity which became them, they must regard the resources of their own land as nothing, and those of other countries as their own." Added to this, the situation of Attica marked it out in an eminent manner for a commercial country; and it became distinguished beyond all the other states of Greece for its extensive commercial relations, while its climate was deemed the most favorable of all the regions of the civilized world for the physical and intellectual development of man. It was called "a sunny land," and, notwithstanding the infertility of its soil, it was full of picturesque beauty. The poet BYRON, in his apostrophe to Greece, makes many striking and beautiful allusions to the Attica of his own time:

Yet are thy skies as blue, thy crags as wild;
Sweet are thy groves, and verdant are thy fields,
Thine olive ripe as when Minerva smiled,
And still its honeyed wealth Hymettus yields.
There the blithe bee his fragrant fortress builds,
The freeborn wanderer of thy mountain air;
Apollo still thy long, long summer gilds,
Still in his beam Mendeli's marbles glare;
Art, Glory, Freedom fail, but Nature still is fair.

10. Entering now upon the isthmus which leads into Southern Greece, we find the little state of Corinth, with its famous city of the same name, keeping guard over the narrow pass, with one foot on the Corinthian Gulf and the other on the Saron'ic, thereby commanding both the Ionian and Æge'an seas, controlling the commerce that passed between them, and holding the keys of Peloponnesus. It was a mountainous and barren region, with the exception of a small plain north-west of the city. Thus situated, Corinth early became the seat of opulence and the arts, which rendered her the ornament of Greece. On a lofty eminence overhanging the city, forming a conspicuous object at a great distance, was her famous citadel—so important as to be styled by Philip of Macedon "the fetters of Greece." Rising abruptly nearly two thousand feet above the surrounding plain, the hill itself, in its natural defences, is the strongest mountain fortress in Europe.

The whirlwind's wrath, the earthquake's shock,
Have left untouched her hoary rock,
The key-stone of a land which still,
Though fallen, looks proudly on that hill,
The landmark to the double tide
That purpling rolls on either side,
As if their waters chafed to meet,
Yet pause and crouch beneath her feet.
—BYRON.

The ascent to the citadel, in the days of Corinthian glory, was lined on both sides with temples and altars; but temples and altars are gone, and citadel and city alike are now in ruins. Antip'ater of Sidon describes the city as a scene of desolation after it had been conquered, plundered, and its walls thrown down by the Romans, 146 B.C. Although the city was partially rebuilt, the description is fully applicable to its present condition. A modern traveller thus describes the site of the ancient city:

The hoarse wind sighs around the mouldering walls
Of the vast theatre, like the deep roar
Of distant waves, or the tumultuous rush
Of multitudes: the lichen creeps along
Each yawning crevice, and the wild-flower hangs
Its long festoons around each crumbling stone.
The window's arch and massive buttress glow
With time's deep tints, whilst cypress shadows wave
On high, and spread a melancholy gloom.
Silent forever is the voice
Of Tragedy and Eloquence. In climes
Far distant, and beneath a cloudy sky,
The echo of their harps is heard; but all
The soul-subduing energy is fled.
—HAYGARTH.

11. Adjoining the Corinthian territory on the west, and extending about sixty-five miles along the southern coast of the Corinthian Gulf, was Acha'ia, mountainous in the interior; but its coast region for the most part was level, exposed to inundations, and without a single harbor of any size. Hence the Achæ'ans were never famous for maritime enterprise. Of the eleven Achæan cities that formed the celebrated Achæan league, Pal'træ (now Patras') alone survives. Si'çy-on, on the eastern border of Achaia, was at times an independent state.

12. South of Achaia was the central region of Arcadia, surrounded by a ring of mountains, and completely encompassed by the other states of the Peloponnesus. Next to Laconia it was the largest of the ancient divisions of Greece, and the most picturesque and beautiful portion (not unlike Switzerland in its mountain character), and without either seaports or navigable rivers. It was inhabited by a people simple in their habits and manners, noted for their fondness for music and dancing, their hospitality, and pastoral customs. With the poets Arcadia was a land of peace, of simple pleasures, and untroubled quiet; and it was natural that the pipe-playing Pan should first appear here, where musical shepherds led their flocks along the woody vales of impetuous streams.

13. Ar'golis, east of Arcadia, was mostly a rocky peninsula lying between the Saron'ic and Argol'ic gulfs. It was in great part a barren region, with the exception of the plain adjoining its capital city, Argos, and in early times was divided into a number of small but independent kingdoms, that afterward became republics. The whole region is rich in historic associations of the Heroic Age. Here was Tir'yns, whose massive walls were built by the one-eyed Cy'clops, and whence Hercules departed at the commencement of his twelve labors. Here, also, was the Lernæ'an Lake, where the hero slew the many-headed hydra; Ne'mea, the haunt of the lion slain by Hercules, and the seat of the celebrated Ne'mean games; and Myce'næ, the royal city of Agamemnon, who commanded the Greeks in the Trojan War—now known, only by its ruins and its legends of by-gone ages.

And still have legends marked the lonely spot
Where low the dust of Agamemnon lies;
And shades of kings and leaders unforgot,
Hovering around, to fancy's vision rise.
—HEMANS.

14. At the south-eastern extremity of the Peloponnesus was Laconia, the fertile portions of which consisted mostly of a long, narrow valley, shut in on three sides by the mountain ranges of Ta-yg'etus on the west and Parnon on the north and east, and open only on the south to the sea. Through this valley flows the river Euro'tas, on whose banks, about twenty miles from the sea, stood the capital city, Lacedæ'mon, or Sparta, which was unwalled and unfortified during its most flourishing period, as the Spartans held that the real defence of a town consists solely in the valor of its citizens. The sea-coast of Laconia was lined with towns, and furnished with numerous ports and commodious harbors. While Sparta was equaled by few other Greek cities in the magnificence of its temples and statues, the private houses, and even the palace of the king, were always simple and unadorned.

15. West of Laconia was Messe'nia, the south-western division of Greece, a mountainous country, but with many fertile intervening valleys, the whole renowned for the mildness and salubrity of its climate. Its principal river, the Pami'sus, rising in the mountains of Arcadia, flows southward to the Messenian Gulf through a beautiful plain, the lower portion of which was so celebrated for its fertility that it was called Maca'ria, or "the blessed;" and even to this day it is covered with plantations of the vine, the fig, and the mulberry, and is "as rich in cultivation as can be well imagined."

16. One district more—that of E'lis, north of Messenia and west of Arcadia, and embracing the western slopes of the Achaian and Arcadian mountains—makes up the complement of the ancient Peloponnesian states. Though hilly and mountainous, like Messenia, it had many valleys and hill-sides of great fertility. The river Alphe'us, which the poets have made the most celebrated of the rivers of Greece, flows westward through Elis to the Ionian Sea, and on its banks was Olympia, the renowned seat of the Olympian games. Here, also, was the sacred grove of olive and plane trees, within which were temples, monuments, and statues, erected in honor of gods, heroes, and conquerors. In the very midst stood the great temple of Jupiter, which contained the colossal gold and ivory statue of the god, the masterpiece of the sculptor Phidias. Hence, by the common law of Greece Elis was deemed a sacred territory, and its cities were unwalled, as they were thought to be sufficiently protected by the sanctity of the country; and it was only when the ancient faith began to give way that the sacred character of Elis was disregarded.

17. The Isles of Greece.—

The Isles of Greece! the Isles of Greece!
Where burning Sappho loved and sung—
Where grew the arts of war and peace,
Where Delos rose and Phoebus sprung!
Eternal summer gilds them yet,
But all except their sun is set.
—BYRON.

The main-land of Greece was deeply indented by gulfs and almost land-locked bays, and the shores were lined with numerous islands, which were occupied by the Grecian race. Beginning our survey of these in the northern Æge'an, we find, off the coast of Thessaly, the Island of Lemnos, which is fabled as the spot on which the fire-god Vulcan—the Lucifer of heathen mythology—fell, after being hurled down from Olympus. Under a volcano of the island be established his workshop, and there forged the thunder-bolts of Jupiter and the arms of the gods and of godlike heroes.

Of the Grecian islands proper, the largest is Euboe'a, a long and narrow island lying east of Central Greece, from which it is separated by the narrow channel of the Euri'pus, or Euboe'an Sea. South-east of Euboea are the Cyc'la-des, [Footnote: From the Greek word kuklos, a circle.] a large group that kept guard around the sacred Island of Delos, which is said to have risen unexpectedly out of the sea. The Spor'a-des [Footnote: From the Greek word speiro, to sow; scattered, like seed, so numerous were they. Hence our word spores.] were another group, scattered over the sea farther east, toward the coast of Asia Minor. The large islands of Crete and Rhodes were south-east of these groups. In the Saron'ic Gulf, between Attica and Ar'golis, were the islands of Sal'amis and Ægi'na, the former the scene of the great naval conflict between the Greeks on the one side and the Persians, under Xerxes, on the other, and the latter long the maritime rival of Athens.

Cyth'era, now Cer'igo, an island of great importance to the Spartans, was separated by a narrow channel from the southern extremity of Laconia. It was on the coast of this island that the goddess Venus is fabled to have first appeared to mortals as she arose out of the foam of the sea, having a beautifully enameled shell for her chariot, drawn by dolphins, as some paintings represent; but others picture her as borne on a shining seahorse. She was first called Cyth-er-e'a, from the name of the island. The nymphs of ocean, of the land, and the streams, the fishes and monsters of the deep, and the birds of heaven, with rapturous delight greeted her coming, and did homage to the beauty of the Queen of Love. The following fine description of the scene, truly Grecian in spirit, is by a modern poet:

Uprisen from the sea when Cytherea,
Shining in primal beauty, paled the day,
The wondering waters hushed, They yearned in sighs
That shook the world—tumultuously heaved
To a great throne of azure laced with light
And canopied in foam to grace their queen.
Shrieking for joy came O-ce-an'i-des,
And swift Ner-e'i-des rushed from afar,
Or clove the waters by. Came eager-eyed
Even shy Na-i'a-des from inland streams,
With wild cries headlong darting through the waves;
And Dryads from the shore stretched their long arms,
While, hoarsely sounding, heard was Triton's shell;
Shoutings uncouth, bewildered sounds,
And innumerable splashing feet
Of monsters gambolling around their god,
Forth shining on a sea-horse, fierce and finned.
Some bestrode fishes glinting dusky gold,
Or angry crimson, or chill silver bright;
Others jerked fast on their own scanty tails;
And sea-birds, screaming upward either side,
Wove a vast arch above the Queen of Love,
Who, gazing on this multitudinous
Homaging to her beauty, laughed. She laughed
The soft, delicious laughter that makes mad;
Low warblings in the throat, that clinch man's life
Tighter than prison bars.
—THOMAS WOOLNER.

Off the coast of Elis were the two small islands called the Stroph'a-des, noted as the place of habitation of those fabled winged monsters, the Harpies. Here Æne'as landed in his flight from the ruins of Troy, but no pleasant greetings met him there.

"At length I land upon the Strophades,
Safe from the dangers of the stormy seas.
Those isles are compassed by th' Ionian main,
The dire abode where the foul Harpies reign:
Monsters more fierce offended Heaven ne'er sent
From hell's abyss for human punishment.
We spread the tables on the greensward ground;
We feed with hunger, and the bowls go round;
When from the mountain-tops, with hideous cry
And clattering wings, the hungry Harpies fly:
They snatch the meat, defiling all they find,
And, parting, leave a loathsome stench behind."
—VIRGIL'S Æneid, B. III.

North of the Strophades, along the western coast of Greece, were the six Ionian islands known in Grecian history as Paxos, Zacyn'thus, Cephalo'nia, Ith'aca (the native island of Ulysses), Leu'cas (or Leuca'dia), and Corcy'ra (now Corfu), which latter island Homer calls Phæa'cia, and where he places the fabled gardens of Alcin'o-us. It was King Alcinous who kindly entertained Ulysses in his island home when the latter was shipwrecked on his coast. He is highly praised in Grecian legends for his love of agriculture; and his gardens, so beautifully described by Homer, have afforded a favorite theme for poets of succeeding ages. HOMER'S description is as follows:

Close to the gates a spacious garden lies,
From storms defended and inclement skies;
Four acres was the allotted space of ground,
Fenced with a green enclosure all around;
Tall thriving trees confessed the fruitful mould,
And reddening apples ripen here to gold.
Here the blue fig with luscious juice o'erflows;
With deeper red the full pomegranate glows;
The branch here bends beneath the weighty pear,
And verdant olives flourish round the year.
The balmy spirit of the western gale
Eternal breathes on fruits untaught to fail;
Each dropping pear a following pear supplies;
On apples apples, figs on figs arise:
The same mild season gives the blooms to blow,
The buds to harden, and the fruits to grow.
Here ordered vines in equal ranks appear,
With all the united labors of the year;
Some to unload the fertile branches run,
Some dry the blackening clusters in the sun,
Others to tread the liquid harvest join,
The groaning presses foam with floods of wine.
Here are the vines in early flower descried,
Here grapes discolored on the sunny side,
And there in Autumn's richest purple dyed.
Beds of all various herbs, forever green,
In beauteous order terminate the scene.
Two plenteous fountains the whole prospect crowned:
This through the garden leads its streams around,
Visits each plant, and waters all the ground;
While that in pipes beneath the palace flows,
And thence its current on the town bestows.
To various use their various streams they bring;
The people one, and one supplies the king.
—Odyssey, B. VII. POPE'S Trans.

CHAPTER II.

THE FABULOUS AND LEGENDARY PERIOD OF GRECIAN HISTORY.