From Alesson, the ancient Perhæbus, situated about four hours' ride to the N. E. of Tournovo, I had a very complete prospect of it. The sides are bare < but not rocky, indented by channels. In its appearance, it is a heavy mass, separated into too many inconsiderable parts to produce much grandeur of effect; its summit is divided into several peaks, five or six of which are visible. A monk from a neighbouring monastery informed me, that there are 'sixty-two in number; thus confirming the propriety of Homer's epithet πολυδειρας.” Journal. It appears to most advantage from the vicinity of Tempe. It is there well clothed with wood as described by Euripides:" Θαλάμοις· εν τοις πολυδενδρεσσιν Ολυμπε Its neighbour Ossa, now Mount Kissavo, is considerably lower; its form, however, rising gradually from the plains, and terminating in a peak, presents a more picturesque outline. 1. 376. Like Beauty leaning on the arm of Age.] The young and luxuriant vine clustering round the withered branches of the tree which supports it, has suggested a very beautiful image to a Greek poet:" Αύην με πλαζανιςον, εφερπύζεσα καλύπτει αμπελος οθνείη δ' αμφιτεθηλα κομη, ἡ πριν εμοις θαλεθεσιν ενιθρεψασ' οροδαμνοις βορυας, ἡ ταύτης εκ απετηλότερη Τοιην μεντοι επεί]α τιθηνείσθω τις εξαιραν Mark how the branches of that vine A young and blooming foliage spread. Eurip. Bacchæ, 1. 560. ❝ Antipater Sidon. apud Anthol. 1. 409. So may my youth's soft moments share your vivid minds supply From Fancy's treasures an ideal race-] In the description of nature personification may be applied to the same poetical use by the moderns, as mythology was by the ancients, with the advantage, however, of a more extensive field and more general interest. It has been often said, that as poetry is employed on sensible objects, and the number of these objects is necessarily limited, the first describer must have the advantage over his successors in the novelty of his pictures and the force of his painting; and thence it is concluded that descriptive poetry soon arrived at an excellence which has never since been surpassed. Great, however, as is my admiration for classical poetry, I cannot subscribe to such an opinion. The ancients painted to the eye, the moderns to the mind. That intimate connection between the moral and material world, by the knowledge of which modern poetry has produced such sublime effects, was never adapted to poetical purposes by the authors of antiquity. Hence, it appears to me, not merely that modern poetry has excelled the ancient in description, but that its future improvement may be confidently anticipated, and that its progression is only bounded by the wide variety of mind and the different shades of passion. 1. 432. Thessalia's plain.] We enjoyed the full effect of contrast in passing from the rugged district of Epirus to the fertile plains of Thessaly. Cultivation took the place of barrenness, and the eye instead of being confined in its range by the close and overhanging masses of cliff and precipice, expatiated at large over a vast plain, bounded by gently swelling hills, and fading at a great distance in the horizon. The manners, too, of the inhabitants presented a change corresponding to the difference of the scenery. Instead of the hardy mountaineer, wrapped up in his rough cloak, and following his herd of goats down the craggy sides of the mountain, we beheld the husbandman in his white linen dress, leaning over his plough-share, or returning home at the fall of eve in his rustic car. In the general appearance of these peasants I recognised a trace of customs and habits described by the father of poetry. Their car is truly Homeric. It has two wheels, each of which is composed of one piece of wood; upon the axle-tree is laid a platform, into the four corners of which posts are fixed; round three sides of this platform a rude sort of wicker work about two feet high is carried. The car is open behind, and supported in front by a pole yoked to the necks of two oxen. There is considerable variety in the appearance of these plains. We had all the intermediate shades from absolute sterility to luxuriant vegetation. At one time the prospect was cheerful and animated, adorned with vineyards, corn-fields, and mulberry groves for the nourishment of the silk-worm; at another time the country lay stretched far before us like a vast desert of sand, and we were oppressed by the intolerable heat of a noon-day sun, reflected with increased force from the brown and parched surface over which we passed. Nothing broke the dreary uniformity, except perhaps a single tree drooping over a fountain; or the distant view of the mosques and minarets of the town to which we were slowly advancing. αχος δ' έλεν εισοροωνίας Ηερα και μεγαλης νωτα χθονος, περι ♪ ισα grief seized us when we view'd Of goatherd; to th' horizon's verge, the earth 1. 466. The earliest dawn of science and of art] In the progress of civilization the inhabitants of plains have almost invariably preceded the dwellers of mountains; and an adequate reason may be assigned for this pre-eminence, in the superior facility of intercourse which their situation affords, and the comparatively small labour with which they are enabled to procure the necessaries and comforts of life. The body being provided for, the mind has leisure to expand, and the blossoms which a bleak and unfavourable climate might 7 Apol. Rhodius. for ever blast, ripen into fruit under the influence of a genial sun. The inhabitants of Thessaly form no exception to this general remark. The Greeks, in their history as well as mythology, in their serious records as well as in their trifling fables, acknowledged them as the source of their earliest acquirements in art and science. The harp of Grecian poetry, touched by the hands of Thamyris, of Linus, and of Orpheus, was first heard in the plains of Thessaly. Cities arose, civil society was instituted, and religious ceremonies were enjoined in the same country, by Deucalion the son of Prometheus. There is a land with mountains ramparted, Propitious, where Prometheus bred his son, First trac'd, and to the immortal Deities. Rais'd solemn fanes, and rul'd o'er subject crowds; Men call the land Emonia From their knowledge in astronomy,' and prediction of eclipses, they were said figuratively to be able to arrest the sun in his course, and call down the moon from the Heavens; and their skill in medicine subjected them to the imputation of employing charms and magic. The story of the Centaurs strengthens the opinion that the Thessalians were the first to tame the horse and subject his powers to the use of man, and in this character they are frequently mentioned by the early poets.* 8 Apoll. Rhod. L. iii. 1. 1084. • Arist. Nubes, 1.749. Eur. Elect. 1. 815. Theoc. Eid. xiv. 1. 12. Virg. Geor. iii. 1. 115. When M. de Pauw talks of the barbarism of Thessaly, he either alludes to her state during the middle ages of Greece, or he is led away by the disposition (which is so generally apparent in his writings) to dissent entirely from opinions commonly received as true. See Récherches Philosophiques, T. i. p. 261. 1. 500. Turban, slav'ry's badge.] If the following account of Master Henry Blount is to be depended upon, it will appear that I have very unjustly accused the turban of being the badge of slavery. 'At last we came to a high and large mountain of a day's journey over; 'the Jew held it to be the Thermopyla, a place as stoutly contested for of old, as now the Valtoline with us; herewith he told me that Eastern custom of wearing turbans came from thence; and that how once the barbarous people having the Grecian army at a great advantage, there was no other remedy, 'but that some few should make good that narrow passage, while the main ' of the army might escape away; there were brave spirits who undertook it, ' and knowing they went to an inevitable death, they had care of nothing but 'sepulture, which of old was much regarded, wherefore each of them carried his winding sheet wrapped about his head, and then with loss of their own lives saved their fellows; whereupon, for an honourable memorial of that exploit, the Levantines used to wrap white linen about their heads, and the 'fashion so derived upon the Turk,2 1. 526. Thermopyla.] Sept. 19. About six o'clock in the morning we left Zetouni (the ancient Lamia) for Thermopyla. We rode for about an hour across a plain, extending between the sea and Mount Eta, when we came to the bed of a river. Its situation answers to that of the Spercheius, the stream to which Achilles dedicated his long hair,3 and which flowed into 'the Malian bay. About half an hour afterwards we arrived at a place where ' it expanded into a broad reedy marsh, which we crossed on a causeway of stone. In this particular it precisely corresponds with Pausanias's account. 5 έλος τε εποιεί, και λίμνην αιτι βιαια και σενα ρευματος. 'A little beyond the Spercheius we crossed several beds of rivers, narrow, ' and with little water in them. The Melas and Asopus are mentioned as flowing through this district.6 The Spercheius has poplars on its banks. It is called populifer by Ovid.7 "We breakfasted at a khan close to the river. This khan corresponds nearly ' with the position of Anticyra on the Spercheius; and in Herodotus we have the following distances laid down: |