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'sometimes placed on her sides, sometimes on her head, or waved about at 'random with much grace and elegance.' Journal.

Meursius has given us a catalogue of two hundred dances that were performed by the ancients."

M. Burette has written two elegant dissertations on the ancient dance, which will be read with pleasure.3

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Of interwoven vines.] The houses were anciently ornamented with

canopies of vines:

Ευκηλοι δ ̓ ὑπερ αδον επείτ' εβαν. αγχι δε τοιο

Ἡμερίδες χλοεροισι καταςεφεες πεταλοισιν

Ὑψε αεειρομεναι μετ' εθήλεον.

Softly they pass'd the threshold-near it vines

Spread their luxuriant foliage, and entwin'd

A lofty canopy.

1. 285. Mocha's berry.] They have another drink, not good at meat, called 'coffee,' made of a berry as big as a small bean, dried in a furnace, and beat 'to powder, of a soot colour, in taste a little bitterish, that they seeth and 'drink hot as may be endured; it is good all hours of the day, but especially 'morning and evening, when to that purpose they entertain themselves two or three hours in coffee-houses, which in all Turkey abound more than inns ' and ale-houses with us. It is thought to be the old black broth used so 'much by the Lacedæmonians, and drieth ill humours in the stomach, com'forteth the brain, never causeth drunkeness or any other surfeit, and is a 'harmless entertainment of good fellowship; for there upon scaffolds half a ' yard high, and covered with mats, they sit cross-legged, after the Turkish ' manner, many times two or three hundred together, talking, and likely with 6 some poor music passing up and down.'

The reader perhaps was not before aware that coffee was so classical a beverage.

2 Gronovii Thesaur. Antiq. Græo. Apoll. Rhod. iii. 1.219.

3 Mém. de l'Acad. des Inscript. t. i. p. 93.

• Henry Blount's Voyage into the Levant.

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1. 298. Theseus' fane.] The temple of Theseus stands to the N. W. of 'the Acropolis. It is now at the edge of the town, but was formerly in the ⚫ middle of it. It is the most complete temple in Athens. The pillars are of the Doric order, six in front and thirteen at the sides, reckoning the 'columns at the angles twice over: the shafts are fluted. The flight of steps by which was the ascent to the temple is destroyed, and on the south side 'the ground has accumulated to the level of the upper step. The lacunaria 'which covered the peripteros connecting the columns with the cell are ' almost entirely destroyed. What remain are of single blocks of marble, beautifully cut in square compartments. Over the pronaos and posticum are alto-relievos, the former representing a battle, perhaps of Marathon, 'the latter the wars of the Centaurs and Lapitha.

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συναῖκτην ώσει ζωοι περ εοντες,

Είχεσιν ηδ' ελάτης αυτοσχεδον ωριινωνία.

They to the conflict rush'd,

Like living warriors, and with spear and lance
Assail'd each other.

"Neither of the pediments have now any sculpture upon them, though the eastern one is supposed to have been formerly so adorned. On the metopes, ' at the eastern front, and on the N. and S. sides next adjoining, are remains ' of alto-relievos, much mutilated, representing the labours of Hercules and "the achievements of Theseus. The entrance now is on the S. side, through a small door. The interior walls are quite plain, except on the E. end, ' where they have been painted with the images of Greek saints: for it was ' used as a church for some time, and though service is no longer performed in it, it is still kept locked up by the Greeks. The roof, apparently modern, is 'arched, and at the E. end is a modern semicircular projection of stone, for 'the enlargement of the church. Pausanias thus describes the temple." "Near the Gymnasium is the Temple of Theseus. There are pictures in "it representing the war of the Athenians with the Amazons. The repre"sentation also of this battle is inscribed on the shield of Minerva, and the base of the statue of Jupiter. The wars of the Centaurs and Lapithæ are

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Plut. in Vit. Thesei.

7 Hesiod. Scut. Herc. 1. 189.

8 Paus. 1. i.

" also depicted in the temple of Theseus. Theseus is drawn in the act of

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killing a Centaur, whilst the others are engaged without any manifest supe

riority on either side. The subject of the painting on the third wall is not easy to be understood without an explanation, for time has obliterated part " of it, and Micon did not paint the whole story." Journal.

1. 310. Where, link'd in moving mazes, youths and maids.] On the third day of Easter the Greeks repair to the Temple of Theseus, and dance for some hours. The custom of dancing before the temples is of undoubted antiquity.'

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Their blood-stain'd lances.] In the grooves of the Doric columns the warriors are supposed to have placed their spears, whilst they entered the temple to perform their religious duties. The generals and commanders of the cavalry, we may here remark, were elected by the Thesmothetæ to their offices, in the Temple of Theseus.'

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1.330. His superstitious prayer.]

'

The present race of Greeks are as superstitious as their forefathers. The ancients drew omens from birds :

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'The moderns do so likewise, but reason differently; and say that when a crow rests on the roof of their house, it is a sign that a friend is coming. The crow was a favourite bird of augury with the ancients, as well as ' moderns.

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'If the eye gives an involuntary motion, they say that an acquaintance 'approaches. If the ear rings, they give three snaps with the finger close to 'it, and look upon it as a good omen. Both of these are, I think, ancient 'customs, though I cannot refer to the passages which confirm my supposi'tion. When a person sneezes, the heads of all the company move instan

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taneously towards the person, and all call out 'Tua, Health! Their dreams

they explain by contraries; if they see a Turk, they expect an angel, if a priest, the devil.

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9 Eurip. Ion. l. 497.

* See Æschin. in Ctesiph. s. 7.

2

Eurip. Herc. Fur. 1. 596.

3 Apoll. Rhod. iii. 1. 928.

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When the ancients suffered from pain or disease in any part of the body, they made a model or picture of the part affected, and suspended it to the

temples or statues of the Gods. Several of these models, of small size, I

' have seen in the collections of M. Fauvel at Athens, and of Lord Elgin in 'London. Tibullus mentions the custom :

O Dea nunc succurre mihi; nam posse mederi

Picta docet templis multa tabella tuis.*

'The modern Greeks retain this custom; and every one who has been in a 'Roman Catholic church, will recollect having observed a similar practice.

"Whilst I resided at Athens, a law-suit was brought by one Greek against ' another on the following serious occasion. The plaintiff complained, that ' whilst he was quietly digging in a hole, some depth below the surface of 'the ground, the defendant came near, and most unwarrantably allowed his 'shadow to fall upon his (the plantiff's) body when it was below the ground; by which inadvertence, or malice of the defendant, he (the plaintiff) was 'threatened with death, or some very serious calamity. What damages the complainant obtained I could not learn.

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'The children wear suspended round their necks a small bag, which con'tains a triangular piece of silk, or cloth. It is believed that if any one passing in the street looks attentively at a child, he will communicate some 'disease to it. This fascination by the eyes is what the shepherd in Virgil complains of as exerted against his lambs. To guard against the ill effects ' of it, they suspend these charms, which they call quλaxrgia, round the necks ' of their children.

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'The Greeks have a game which they call Clidoma (or rather, I should 'imagine, xλndovas, 'prophecy,') which resembles some of the ancient super<stitious ceremonies. The 24th of July is the day peculiarly appropriated to ' its celebration. A party of children place in an urn, or vessel filled with water, different articles; one, for instance, a knife, another a ring, &c. 'When all have deposited their tokens, one of them bends his head close 'to the mouth of the vessel, a cloth is thrown over, and he draws out one 'of the deposits. Whilst he is thus engaged, another repeats a verse, and 'gives the token which is drawn out to the child to whom it belongs. If the 'verse repeated happen to have a favourable meaning, the child is reckoned 5 Virgil. Ecl. iii. 1. 103.

Tibull. El. iii. 1, 1.

Ee

'fortunate, if the verse bears an ill construction, he is supposed to be threat'ened with some calamity.' Journal.

1. 349. Accomplish'd Tweddell.] The name of this accomplish'd scholar will long be remembered by every admirer of classical literature. Whilst an under graduate at Cambridge, he obtained unprecedented honours, and bore away almost every prize for which he contended. His different compositions, for which he obtained academical rewards, he afterwards published in an 8vo. volume, entitled Prolusiones Juveniles. He died at Athens of a fever, in the house of Logothete, and is buried in the temple of Theseus.

1. 366. Sacred ground.] The sacred ground to which I allude, is the Ceramicus without the city, which occupied a considerable space to the N. of the walls. Here were buried the illustrious dead, those great men, oi la μev, πενθεν]αι μεν, (in the sublime language of Lysias,) δια την φυσιν ὡς θνητοι, ὑμνείται δὲ ὡς αθανατοι dia Tny apɛтny. The tombs of Pericles and Chabrias are still pointed out to the traveller; though the removal of the λa, which marked the sepulchres, and the subsequent accumulation of the ground, must make all such conjectures very uncertain. Indeed, from Cicero, it would appear that the tomb of Pericles was in another direction, on the road to Phalerum.' 'Noli, inquit, ex me quærere qui in Phalerum etiam descenderim ; quo in loco ad fluctum aiunt 'declamare solitum Demosthenem, ut fremitum adsuesceret voce vincere : 'modo etiam paulum ad dextram de viâ declinavi ut ad Periclis sepulcrum 'accederem.' It is one of the accusations brought against Demosthenes by his rival, that when appointed to repair the walls of the city, after the battle of Cheronea, he used the stones of the tombs for that purpose. A public funeral in the Ceramicus was the reward of those who fell in battle: which is alluded to by Aristophanes :'

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Whom the weakness of human nature compels us to bewail as mortals, whom their valour calls us to celebrate with hymns as Gods.'

7 Cicero de Fin. 1. v. c. 2.

8 Eschin. in Ctesiphont. :

9 Aristoph. Aves, 1. 393.

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