Greece and the Ægean Islands

by Philip Sanford Marden

Arcadia boasts two of these large, oval plains, the one dominated by Tripolis and the other by Megalopolis. Into the first-mentioned the train trundled early in the afternoon and came to a halt amid a shouting crowd of carriage drivers clamoring for passengers to alight and make the drive down to Sparta. The road is said to be an excellent one, and that we had not planned to lengthen our journey to that point, and thence westward by the Langada Pass to the country which we later saw, has always been one of the regrets which mark our Hellenic memories. Sparta has made little appeal to the modern visitor through any surviving remains of her ancient greatness, and has fallen into exactly the state that Thucydides predicted for her. For he sagely remarked, in comparing the city with Athens, that future ages were certain to underestimate Sparta’s size and power because of the paucity of enduring monuments, whereas the buildings at Athens would be likely to inspire the beholder with the idea that she was greater than she really was. That is exactly true to-day, although the enterprising British school has lately undertaken the task of exploring the site of the ancient Lacedæmonian city and has already uncovered remains that are interesting archæologically, whatever may be true of their comparison with Athenian monuments for beauty. In any event, Sparta, with her stern discipline, rude ideals, and martial rather than intellectual virtues, can never hope to appeal to modern civilization as Athens has done, although her ultimate overwhelming of the Athenian state entitles her to historical interest. Sparta lies hard by the mountain Taÿgetos, and to this day they show you a ravine on the mountain-side where it is claimed the deformed and weakly Spartan children were cast, to remove them from among a race which prized bodily vigor above every other consideration. It is a pity that Sparta, which played so vast a part in early history, should have left so little to recall her material existence. If she was not elegant or cultured, she was strong; and her ultimate triumph went to prove that the land where wealth accumulates and men decay has a less sure grip on life than the ruder, sterner nations.

So it was that we passed Sparta by on the other side and journeyed on from the smiling plain of Tripolis to the equally smiling one of Megalopolis, entering thoroughly into the spirit of Arcadia and vainly seeking the while to bring from those shepherd pipes melody fit to voice the joy of the occasion. It was apparent now that we had crossed the main watershed of Hellas, for the train was on a downward grade and the brakes shrieked and squealed shrilly as we ground into a tiny junction where stood the little branch-line train for Megalopolis. And in the cool of the afternoon we found ourselves in that misnamed town, in the very heart of Arcadia, the late afternoon light falling obliquely from the westering sun as it sank behind an imposing row of serrated mountains, far away.

To one even remotely acquainted with Greek roots, the name Megalopolis must signify a large city. As a matter of fact, it once was so. It was erected deliberately with the intention of making a large city, founded by three neighboring states, as a make-weight against the increasing power of the Lacedæmonians; but, like most places built on mere fiat, it dwindled away, until to-day it is a village that might more appropriately be called Mikropolis—if, indeed, it is entitled to be called a “polis” of any sort. The railway station, as usual, lay far outside the village, and in the station yard the one carriage of the town was awaiting us. Into it we were thrust; Spyros mounted beside the driver, a swarthy native; and with a rattle that recalled the famous Deadwood coach we whirled out of the inclosure and off to the town. The village itself proved to be but a sorry hole, to put it in the mildest form. It was made up of a fringe of buildings around a vacant common, level as a floor and sparsely carpeted with grass and weeds. As we passed house after house without turning in, hope grew, along with thankfulness, that we had at least escaped spending the night in any hovel hitherto seen. Nevertheless we did eventually stop before a dingy abode, and were directed to alight and enter there. Under a dark stone archway and over a muddy floor of stone pavement we picked our gingerly way, emerging in a sort of inner court, which Spyros pointed out was a "direct survival of the hypæthral megaron of the ancient Mycenæan house"—a glorified ancestry indeed for a dirty area around which were grouped the apartments of the family pig, cow, and sundry other household appurtenances and attachés. It was an unpromising prelude for a night’s lodging, but it made surprise all the greater when we emerged, by means of a flight of rickety stairs, on a little balcony above, and beheld adjoining it the apartments destined for our use. They had been swept and garnished, and the floors had been scrubbed until they shone. The collapsible iron beds had been erected and the bedding spread upon them, while near by stood the dinner table already laid for the evening meal; and presiding over it all stood the cook, to whose energy all these preparations were due, smiling genially through a forest of mustache, and duly presented to us as “Stathi.”

In the twilight we whetted our appetites for dinner by a brisk walk out of the village, perhaps half a mile away, to the site of the few and meagre ruins that Megalopolis has to show. Our progress thither was attended with pomp and pageantry furnished by the rabble of small boys and girls whose presence was at first undesirable enough, but who later proved useful as directing us to the lane that led to the ruins and as guards in stoning off sundry sheep dogs that disputed the way with us. The usual disbursement of leptá ensued, and we were left to inspect the remains of ancient greatness in peace. Those remains were few and grass-grown. They included little more than a theatre, once one of the greatest in Greece, with the structures behind the orchestra still largely visible, and a few foundations of buildings behind these, on the bank of a winding river. Aside from these the old Megalopolis is no more.

That night we sat down to a dinner such as few hotels in Athens could have bettered. The candlesticks on the table were of polished silver, which bore the monogram of the ancestors of Spyros. Our tablecloth and napkins were embroidered. Our dishes were all of a pattern, and we afterwards discovered that every piece of our household equipment, from soup plates to the humblest “crockery” of the family supply, bore the same tasteful decoration. Many a time we have laughed at the incongruity between our surroundings and the culinary panorama that Stathi conjured up from his primitive kitchen outside and served with such elegance. It was a masterpiece of the chef’s art, six courses following each other in rapid succession, all produced in the narrow oven where a charcoal fire blazed in answer to the energetic fanning of a corn broom. Soup gave place to macaroni; macaroni to lamb chops and green peas; chickens followed, flanked by beans and new potatoes from the gardens of the neighborhood; German pancakes wound up the repast; and coffee was served in an adjoining coffee-house afterward—the whole accompanied by copious draughts of the water of Andros, which cheers without inebriating, and beakers of the red wine of Solon, which I suspect is capable of doing both. A very modern-looking oil lamp helped furnish heat as well as light, for we were high above the sea and the night was chilly. Even to this remote district the product of the Rockefeller industry has penetrated, and no sight is more common than the characteristic square oil cans, with a wooden bar across the centre for carrying, which the peasants use for water buckets when the original oil is exhausted. They are useful, of course—more so than the old-fashioned earthen amphorae. But they are not as picturesque.

My companion, whom it will be convenient to call the Professor, and I adjourned to the coffee-house below for our after-dinner smoke, and demanded coffee in our best modern Greek, only to evoke the hearty response, “Sure,” from our host. It seemed he had lived in New York, where he maintained an oyster bar; and, like all who have ever tasted the joys of Bowery life, he could not be happy anywhere else, but yearned to hear the latest news from that land of his heart’s desire. We tarried long over our cups, and had to force payment on him. Thence we retired through the low-browed arch that led to our abode, barred and locked it with ponderous fastenings that might have graced the Lion Gate itself, and lay down to repose on our collapsible beds, which happily did not collapse until Spyros and Stathi prepared them for the next day’s ride. This they did while we breakfasted. The morning meal came into the bedrooms bodily on a table propelled by our faithful servitors, the food having been prepared outside; and as we ate, the chamber work progressed merrily at our table side, so that in short order we were ready for the road. The carriage for the journey stood without the main gate, manned by a dangerous-looking but actually affable native, and behind it lay a spring cart of two wheels, wherein were disposed our beds, cooking utensils, and other impedimenta. The word of command was given, and the caravan set out blithely for the western mountains, bowed out of town by the beaming face of the man who had kept an oyster bar.

The road had an easy time of it for many a level mile. It ran through a fertile plain, watered by the sources of the famous Alpheios River, which we skirted for hours, the hills steadily converging upon us until at last they formed a narrow gorge through which the river forced its way, brawling over rocks, to the Elian plains beyond. Beside the way was an old and dismantled winepress, which we alighted long enough to visit. Disused as it was, it was easy to imagine the barefooted maidens of the neighborhood treading out the juices of the grapes in the upper loft, the liquid flowing down through the loose flooring into the vats beneath. It is the poetic way of preparing wine; but having seen one night of peasant life already, we were forced to admit that modern methods of extracting the juice seem rather to be preferred.

Just ahead lay the gateway of Arcadia, guarded by a conspicuous conical hill set in the midst of the narrowing plain between two mountain chains and bearing aloft a red-roofed town named Karytæna. Time was too brief and the sun too hot to permit us to ascend thereto, but even from the highway below it proved an immensely attractive place, recalling the famous hill towns of Italy. Behind it lay the broadening plain of Megalopolis and before the narrow ravine of the Alpheios, walled in by two mighty hills. Karytæna seems like an inland Gibraltar, and must in the old days have been an almost impregnable defense of the Arcadian country on its western side, set as it is in the very centre of a constricted pass. But for some reason, possibly because the enemies of Greece came chiefly from the east, it seems not to have figured prominently as a fortress in history. Below the town the road wound down to the river’s edge and crossed the stream on a quaint six-arched bridge, against one pier of which some thankful persons had erected a shrine of Our Lady. And beyond the road began a steady ascent. We had left the plain for good, it appeared. Before us lay the deep and tortuous defile through which the river flows to the western seas, the roar of its rushing waters growing fainter and fainter below as the panting horses clambered upward with their burdens, until at last only a confused murmuring of the river was heard mingling with the rustle of the wind through the leaves of the wayside trees. The road was not provided with parapets save in a few unusually dangerous corners, and the thought of a plunge down that steep incline to the river so far below was not at all pleasant. Fortunately on only one occasion did we meet another wagon, and on that one occasion our party incontinently dismounted and watched the careful passage of the two with mingled feelings. It was accomplished safely and easily enough, but we felt much more comfortable to be on the ground and see the wheels graze the edge of the unprotected outside rim of the highway.

AN OUTPOST OF ARCADY