HISTORY OF CORFÚ. CHAPTER I. FROM the heroic period of the history of Greece, the seven islands which, at present, constitute the Ionian Republic, have enjoyed a celebrity, which their small extent of surface, and the rugged features of the greater part of them, would scarce seem to justify. In an age, however, when the science of navigation, as it now exists, was altogether unknown-when the rudely-constructed barks, proceeding from Troy to the banks of the Tiber, crept along the coasts from port to port, till they reached the point of Epirus which projects nearest towards Italy a series of islands, skirting the western coast of Greece, and affording harbours of refuge to the unskilful seamen, became the object of early atten tion, and assumed a character of considerable importance. Amongst the seven, Corfú stood pre-eminent. Its double-crested height of Salvador, jutting out in a north-easterly direction, broke the violence of the fierce Borer, whilst the havens of Govino and Palæopolis afforded a ready shelter to vessels that were driven in by southerly gales. Non humilem Sasona vadis, non littora curvæ LUC. PHARS, lib. v. It is no wonder, therefore, that the superstitious mariner of a mythic age, struck by the pleasing contrast which its verdant hills presented to the rocky mountains of Albania, should have fancied its shady groves peopled with rustic divinities and sea nymphs. In his description of the voyage of Ulysses, when he makes the island, on his return from the western Ogygia, Calypso's retreat, the father of epic verse mentions the shady mountains of the Phæacian land, as constituting a feature which rendered it conspicuous as soon as it hove in sight, giving it the figure of a shield of rhinoceros-hide lying upon the line of the horizon. Οκτω και δεκάτῃ δ' εφάνη ἔρεα σκιόεντα Ulysses is represented, as sailing from the west, to have sighted the island on the north coast: and, then, the mountainous line of Salvador would certainly present such an appearance as would remind the ancient warrior of the swelling belly of a shield adorned with bosses, after the fashion of the rhinoceros-hide shields in use, at the present day, in the east. From the fertility of its soil, and the scythe-like curve of its range of hills, it was supposed to be the favourite abode of the goddess Ceres; and tales were told of her keeping concealed, there, the scythe with which she first taught the art of husbandry to the Titans. In commemoration of this circumstance, it was named Drepanê.* * It was called, also, Macria, after the fair Macris ; who took refuge there, when, having incurred the wrath of Juno, for nursing the infant Bacchus, she was compelled to flee from the island of Euboea.† According to Diodórus, the Sicilian, Kerkyra, a * Apoll. Rhod. Arg. iv. + Ibid. daughter of Oceanus and Tethys, was carried off into the island by Neptune; and she gave it the name of Korkyra.* She there bore him a son, Phæax; who ruled over the inhabitants, said to have sprung from the blood of Uranus, after he had been mutilated by his son Saturn. † It is worthy of attention, that, during the eventful times of the Trojan war, when every city and district inhabited by the Pelasgic or Hellenic tribes, from mount Olympus to the islands of Rhodes and Crete, obtained a celebrity in heroic verse, Corcyra should have been looked upon as almost a fabulous land, beyond the sphere of the ordinary world. Homer relates, in his immortal "Odyssey," that the Phæacians, a people inhabiting Hyperêa, having been driven out by the Cyclops, emigrated, with their King whom he calls Nausithoüs, to the island of Corfu, where they built and fortified the city of Scheria. From them, it took the name of Phæacia.‡ Nausithoüs was succeeded by his son Alcinoüs; § * Diod. Sic. B. iv, ch. iv. Apoll. Rhod. relates the same legend with respect to Corcyra Nigra, the present Curzola. ↑ Apoll. Rhod. Arg. iv. Hesiod. Theog. 160, 182. + Odyss. B. vi. § He is said to have had a brother, Locrus, who was the founder of the city of Locri, in Magna Grecia, and to hav been succeeded in Phæacia by Laodamas. |