1795] CORINTH 183 We went by land to Corinth; but not by the famous Scironian rocks, of which the road is now entirely destroyed. On the isthmus, after passing a tedious range of mountains, we rode along admiring the beauty of the two seas, and afterwards coasting the western one. The attempts to cut the isthmus are still traceable, and one or two canals have been formed, but stopped by the rocks. The Grecians, for want of powder to blast these, have not been so good canalists as His Grace of Bridgwater, who would, I think, have succeeded. Nothing surpasses the situation of Corinth, and the extent of the ancient buildings shows that it has been a favourite one of the ancients. It is certainly the most considerable ancient town we have seen, and its walls, altogether, cannot have been less than ten or twelve miles in circuit. At present it is a small place, backed by the high rock of the Acropolis, and sloping gently into a plain covered with corn. We stayed here three days at a Greek's house who is protected by the English, and met with great attention from the Aga, as usual. We saw the ruin Chandler mentions, and supposes the Sisypheum. It has eleven Doric columns, and is so exactly on the plan of a temple that I really think the opinion of the country much more probable, that it was the temple of Neptune. Near it are remains of some antique baths, and a fountain. Burgh will tell you how much this agrees with Pausanias. The castle we did not visit, as the Turks are shy of permitting you. It is Venetian, and we had less regret as we were assured there was not a trace of antiquity. Pirene now is almost dry above, but the spring by which the waters descend in the town remains, stripped, however, of its ancient ornaments. The water was formerly famous; it is even now the best I ever drank, and has the lightness of Bath water, but is cold, and as pure as possible. We visited Sicyon the second day of our stay. It is a poor village, called Basilico. The plain that leads to it is as fertile as can be, and the ground under the olive grove so covered with beautiful flowers that it accounts for the descriptions of ancient poets, and the enthusiasm with which they speak of spring. Ours sometimes copy them so exactly that when we feel March winds and April showers we are apt to think they rather wrote from their fireside (when poets have firesides) than from the pleasing plains of Yorkshire, or Teviotdale, where nature gives them flatly the lie till towards the beginning of May. Sicyon is on a large plain, raised like a platform, by a long breastwork of rock, above the plain, which runs along the sea-shore. We found in being some sepulchres in the rock, the destroyed foundations of two temples, the theatre stripped of its stonework, the stadium, and a large brick building, which, from the goodness of the masonry, I believe Roman, but of the use of which I am absolutely ignorant. It is built more like a house of one story than anything else, and runs round three sides of a court, the windows looking into it. It is possibly of a later date. We found in the peasants' houses a quantity of ancient coins of Sicyon and Corinth, and discovered a fountain distilling from a cave near the gate, mentioned by Pausanias. The day after we rode to Cenchreae, the port of Corinth on the eastern side; we found it entirely ruined, though still a port. A few foundations are scarce worth mentioning, but on the opposite side of the bay we had the pleasure of finding a salt spring mentioned by Pausanias, and called the bath of Helen. Nothing can exceed his exactness; and Paterson's book of post roads is not a better guide in England than he is in Greece. Under his guidance, the next day we left Corinth. I ought to add, however, upon the salt spring one remark, that it seems a great confirmation of the gulf of Lepanto being higher than that of Sarone, into which it runs, no doubt, by this channel. It is slightly warm in winter only, but this may proceed from the ground it springs from here. 1795] MYCENAE 185 We passed in our road from Corinth by the situation of Cleonae; here are two small barrows mentioned as tombs by Pausanias. He then passes to the cave of the Nemean lion, a mile and a half from Nemea. Chandler places this, I do not know why, beyond Nemea. I can assure you, however, that in this very place in the hills, at this distance from Nemea, we found a deep, large cave, remarkable as there was an artificial niche beside it in the rock that had contained a statue or tablet, and another a little above it. This leaves me, I own, no doubt but that this was the cave supposed the lion's, and that it had attracted since the veneration of the people. We then, on leaving the mountains, recollected Mycenae. A country labourer led us to the place. You remember Mycenae has not been in being since its destruction by the Argives two thousand years ago; and has hardly flourished since Agamemnon. Owing to this entire desertion, the place has changed very little since Pausanias. We found in the walls a gate he mentions. It is composed of enormous stones, as are the walls beyond, and over it we found with pleasure a basso-rilievo of two lions, supporting a plain column. They are rudely carved, which you will certainly not wonder at when you recollect that they were supposed the work of the Cyclopes, and that they and the walls were of the days of Proetus and Danaus. The pillar. is curious from the state of architecture in that time. Without a base, extremely short, a capital plainer than common Doric, and for entablature it supports an ornament; in this form perhaps you will call the bottom of this a base, but it is so disproportioned it is rather a pedestal. The breastwork of the hill on which the citadel has stood is of the same massive work, and of the same hands. A little beyond this is a very extraordinary ruin. We had observed twice in our way the foundations of buildings similar to that at Orchomenos, which I supposed the famous treasury.' They are little Now known as the "bee-hive" tombs. |