The journey to Bassæ from Andritsæna is very similar, though too short to be laborious. It conducts to a scene of the most impressive solitude, at an elevation of nearly 4000 feet, commanding a magnificent view both of land and sea, including Mt. Ithome and the great Messenian plain. In the Temple of Bassæ, dedicated to Apollo in this secluded spot by the people of Phigalia, which was six miles distant, the beauty of art seems to vie with the grandeur of nature. The ruin is acknowledged by general consent to be the finest in the Peloponnesus, though for centuries it was known only to the shepherds in the neighbourhood. Designed by Ictinus, one of the architects of the Parthenon, the structure has weathered the storms of more than twenty-three centuries. Of the thirty-eight Doric columns which surrounded the temple only three are now wanting, and their architraves are almost intact. The frieze of the cella or inner chamber was discovered in 1812, and was purchased two years afterwards by the British Government for £19,000—to be preserved in the British Museum. On it are represented the battle between the Greeks and the Amazons, and the fight between the Lapiths and the Centaurs. The design is admirable, but the execution is so poor as to suggest that the work was done by local sculptors. Though the frieze is of marble, the temple generally was built of grey limestone quarried in the neighbourhood. Unlike other Greek temples, which look to the east to greet the rising sun, that of Bassæ faces the north. This is accounted for by the fact that it was built over an older shrine, which, from the nature of the rocky ledge on which it stood, could not be extended any farther east and west. The old entrance, however, was still preserved, and the image of the god still faced to the east. Pausanias tells us of a bronze statue of Apollo, twelve feet high, which was removed from the temple to Megalopolis and set up in the market-place, but it has long since disappeared. The same writer conjectures that the temple was erected in honour of Apollo Epicourios for having averted from Phigalia the plague with which Athens was visited during the Peloponnesian War. But it is considered more likely to have been a general tribute to the god on account of the health-giving breezes which play over the spot, and which no doubt made it a favourite resort for the invalids of the district.
According to the ancient traveller just mentioned, the civilisation of Arcadia dates from the time of Arcas, who introduced cereal crops and taught his subjects to spin wool and weave cloth. Here, as elsewhere in Greece, it is no uncommon thing to see women spinning thread and herding sheep or goats at the same time, while indoors you may find them busy at the loom weaving cloth for family use, following the good example set of old both by Helen and Penelope. Unfortunately, women are also much in evidence in the fields and on the country roads, doing work which in this country would be left to men—even such heavy work as breaking stones. The men seem to be much fonder of taking their ease than the other sex, and show more vanity in their dress. The Albanian costume, which is the uniform worn by the eight battalions of Riflemen, called Evzoni, who guard the frontier, is much affected by those who can afford it in the country towns. Its most conspicuous features are the fustanella kilt, made of a white linen of incredible length when stretched out to its full extent, the embroidered vest, and the red shoes with turned-up toes. The shepherds wear a sheepskin cloak without any pretensions to elegance, but they trim their hair with great care, ringlets frequently hanging over their brow. They wear a broad leathern belt with innumerable receptacles, and one of the first things they will show to a stranger who is curious to know what they carry about with them is a small hand-mirror. They often amuse themselves and their flocks by playing on the pipe, which they can make in a few minutes from a bamboo cut in the field or plucked out of the roofing of their hut.
This is one of the most romantic scenes in the Peloponnesus, and is aptly quoted by Curtius as no less characteristic of mediæval Greece than Tiryns and Mycenæ are of the prehistoric age. The Castle covers the summit of a free-standing mass of rock, rising up into the air (almost like the central tower of a great English Cathedral) above a gorge with precipitous red cliffs. To the right of the Castle lies the modern town.
CHAPTER V
SPARTA AND ITS DISCIPLINE
FOR centuries Sparta was the first military power in Greece. This position it owed partly to the Dorian vigour of its inhabitants, and partly to the strict discipline introduced by Lycurgus at a time when the other Greek states had not yet awakened to the importance of that military drill which was to contribute so largely to their influence. Of these two sources of Spartan greatness we seem to have a recognition in the fact mentioned by Pausanias that at the two bridges, on either side of the place where the youths were in the habit of engaging in their athletic contests, there was an image of Heracles and a statue of Lycurgus, the one being the emblem of bodily strength, the other of authority and rule.