SKETCH OF THE GEOGRAPHY OF GREECE. If we are to consider the sea as one of the mightiest agents in the civilization of mankind, we shall readily confess the supremacy of its influences over the land of Hellas. Situated between Italy and Maritime Asia, Greece extended her open palm to give and to receive the position of physical and intellectual wealth of nations; and her beneficent sway over the early fortunes of our race is attested by the noble colonies which left her fertile bosom. But it was not merely as a maritime country that she was distinguished: it resulted from her configuration that her people united the hardihood of the mountaineer with the activity of the seaman; and perhaps nowhere did a country of such varied physical qualities call forth such varied intellectual excellence. We look in vain for similar effects among the cumbrous monarchies of the East, and we are led to contrast, with astonishment, the smallness Hellas. of the country with the vastness of its achievements. With an area Dimensions about one-third less than the modern kingdom of Portugal, Greece of Greece. ranging from the parallel of Mount Olympus on the north, to Tænarus her southern headland, extended 250 miles; whilst two-thirds of that distance would conduct the traveller from Leucadia, her western extreme, to the temple of Minerva, on the eastern promontory of Sunium. Chief of Greece. But if the superficies of Hellas was insignificant, the extent of her coasts was great; its indentations supplied the paucity of her southern rivers. Greece was essentially a region of mountains, Thessaly formcharacteristic ing almost the only considerable champaign land; and this characteristic imparted that peculiar feature which Homer designated by the title of mountain torrent.' Nature has divided Hellas into two grand portions in separating the north from the south by the Corinthian Gulf. We shall take a rapid survey of the former, and we shall have occasion to observe, very generally, an attendant parallelism between in rivers and its rivers and mountains. The Cambunian range, the north-eastern barrier of Thessaly, is sedulously attended by the river Haliacmon, till it flows into the Thermaic Gulf on the east, while Mounts Asnaus and Eropus follow the sweep of the river Aous, till it falls into the sea on the western coast, near Apollonia. Parallelism mountains. Tomarus. Having thus observed the northern boundary of Greece, we now Pindus and remark two mountain ranges running from north to south; they are -Pindus, accompanied by the river Achelous, flowing into the entrance of the Corinthian Gulf; and the range of Tomarus, again running south, attended by the Arachthus, which finds an outlet in the Ambracian Gulf; the Peneus sweeps along harmoniously with the waving line of Mounts Phæstus and Cercetius, till it forces a passage for its waters through the vale of Tempe, between Mounts Ossa and Olympus, and here it reaches the Thermaic Gulf: thus on the northeast are four corresponding curves, two of rivers and two of mountains. Still more to the south the river Spercheius follows the line of Mount Spercheius. Othrys, and the Cephissus, Mount Eta and Chemis. We have, therefore, in Greece the same features which characterise the mountain system in Spain, the construction of gigantic walls by Nature for the guidance of her waters. Whilst Epirus, forming the north-west The river 1 Xtiμappos. The "Wadis" of Arabia, literally "channels," were of a similar nature. In the course of time the term was used to designate rivers in general, and hence, as a special term by the Moors of Spain, the "Guadalquivir,” i. e. Wad-al-qabir, the great channel. 2 Thessaly was divided into five districts; Histicotis, Pelasgiotis, Thessaliotis, Phthiotis, and Magnesia. The chief towns of the first province were, Gomphi, Tricca, Phæstus, Ithōmē, a rock castle belonging to Metropolis, and Pharycedon. The streams and tributaries of the Peneus were, Lethæus, Ion, Eurotas, Curalius. and Atrax. Pelasgiotis, once frequently inundated by the Peneus, had, as chief cities, Larissa (capital of Thessaly); Scotusa; Cynoscephalæ, famed for the defeat of Philip II. of Macedon by the Romans; Gonni, at the entrance of Tempë; Pheræ, celebrated by Jason; and Elatæa. Its chief streams were, the Onchestus and its tributary the Arausus: its lakes were Bæbeis and Nessonis. The chief towns of the Enianes, the inhabitants of Thessaliotis, were Hellas, the original seat of the Hellenes; Hypata, the key of Southern Thessaly; and Pharsalus, now Forsa, near the spot where Pompey was defeated by Cæsar. In Phthiotis, the country of Achilles, the promontories were, Posidium and Pyrrhæ. this fabulous land of the Centaurs and Lapithæ, the most remarkable towns were, Phthia, the capital; Larissa; Cremaste; Theba; Pteleum; Lamia, renowned for the Lamiac war; and Thaumaci, overlooking the Maliac Gulf. Magnesia contained Demetria, on the Pelasgic Gulf; Methone; and Melibea, on the eastern shore. In division of Greece, was scantily supplied, nature seems to have Fertility of Thessaly. lavished abundance upon the rich plains of Thessaly. A glance at her sweeping mountain barriers will at once convey the idea of an enormous basin favourable to spontaneous production. Not only does the Peneus, descending from Pindus, glide through this rich land, but a crowd of tributary streams helps to increase its fertilising powers. While Thessaly enjoyed the facilities for internal navigation, an advantage which attached to no other district of Greece, nature, by bursting the mountain barriers of Ossa and Olympus,' and fashioning the delightful vale of Tempe or the Cut, had reclaimed from the stagnant waters a vast tract of country, now enriched by the fertilising deposits of ages. Thus Thessaly became essentially a land of flocks and herds, and smiling corn-fields; it was the pasture-ground of warlike steeds, and witnessed the mythologic array of the wild Centaurs. port. Its coasts were rich in harbours; amongst them was Iolcos, whence Iolcos, the the Argonauts embarked on their romantic voyage. But the wealth Argonautic which nature showered down upon this delightful region was abused, and no people in Hellas so indulged in sensual enjoyments. Immediately to the south of Thessaly the traveller observes a succession of mountain ranges and isolated peaks. Mounts Eta and Tymphrestus are particularly prominent. Beneath the towering cliffs of the former stood Leonidas, with the illustrious three hundred. Parnassus, Helicon, and Citharon then take up the chain of mountain heights, till they terminate in Mount Brilessus, adjoining the glorious field of Marathon. As Thessaly exhibited on her southern frontier a gigantic natural Borotia. wall productive of fertility by retaining within its bounds the rich. alluvium, a similar process is displayed in Boeotia, though on a 'Herod. viii. 6. 2 The chief towns of Boeotia, whose poetical name is Eonia, are, Ascra, the native place of Hesiod; Elatæa, the mythological birth-place of Dionysus, Eleu smaller scale. Here Parnassus, Helicon, Citharon, and Ptous enclose a wide plain; while the Boeotian Cephissus, and numerous mountain Lake Copais. Streams, after enriching the soil, formed several lakes, of which Copais, celebrated for its eels, is the largest. A great part of the rich Delphi. Amphictyonic Council. Spring of Boeotian plain would be speedily covered by the waters of the Copais, did they not escape by subterraneous passages, or Katabothra, as they are styled by the modern Greeks. In the northwestern frontier of Boeotia was Phocis; its chief harbour, on the Corinthian Gulf, Crissea, made it a nursery for seamen. Eta, on the north, trained its hardy mountaineers; while Mount Parnassus, in the centre, fostered the devout pilgrimages of the inhabitants of all Greece. Here rose Delphi, overshadowed by the awful rock of Pytho, hard by the oracle of Apollo. despots, cities, tribes, and nations despatched, in countless abundance, their costly offerings, all placed under his especial protection; a treasury oftener plundered by the barbarians than defended by the guardian deity.' Here the majestic Council of Amphictyon, with a solemnity corresponding to the scenery, held its sittings. Here, pouring down from the double rift of Parnassus, and fed by the perpetual snow of the mountain, was the translucent spring of Castalia, where the poets of Greece poured forth their strains in all the rivalry of hallowed song. The fountain still murmurs on, though the voices of the pilgrims, and minstrels of Apollo, have long been mute. The Castalian spring is clear, and forms an excellent beverage; the fountain is ornamented with pendent ivy, and overshadowed by a large fig-tree: after a quick descent to the bottom of the valley, through a Hither theris, and Libethrius. Its rivers are, the Cephissus, Ismenus, and Asopus. The inferior streams are, the Lamius, Olmius, Permessus, Platanus, Lophis, and Triton. The cities of Boeotia were, Orchomenos, renowned for its wealth even in Homer's time; Chæronæa, remarkable for the defeat of the Athenians by the Thebans, B. C. 447, and subsequently by Philip, B. c. 338; Lebadæa; Coronea; Copæ, on the north of Lake Copais; Anthedon, a harbour famed for its trade in sponge; Crissa, a harbour on the Corinthian Gulf; Platæa, renowned for its long siege by Sparta; the harbour Oropus; and the capital, Theba, celebrated as the birthplace of Heracles, Pindar, Pelopidas, and Epameinondas. The chief river, the Cephissus, flows into lake Copais; the smaller streams are the Pleistus, the Cachales, and the Charadrus. The most remarkable cities of Phocis are, Cirrha, the sacred port of Delphi; Crissa, placed in the fertile vale of Crissa, but destroyed by the Amphictyons; Anticirrha, the head port; the sacred Delphi, on the declivity of Parnassus; Elatæa; Abæ; Panopeæ; Daulis; and Phocion, celebrated for the congress of the Phocian deputies. narrow and rocky glen, it joins the little river Pleistus.1 Of Delphi and its 3000 statues not a vestige remains. formation. The mountain range of Parnassus, Helicon, and Citharon, has now conducted our footsteps to ATTICA, the land of civilization and the Attica. arts. This renowned division of Greece, which still continues to exercise a living influence wherever mind exists, is a peninsula of irregular triangular form, fifty miles in length by about thirty in breadth, gradually tapering to the southern headland of Sunium, Form and which looked either to the innumerable gulfs and bays of Pelopon- position. nesus, to the islands of the Ægæan, or the fertile coasts of Asia. Attica was thus placed by nature in the vanguard of colonization, and nobly did she fulfil her mission. She was gifted too with the internal elements of self-education. While her air was light and pure, her Influence of physical soil was superficial: hence necessity urged her to habits of industrious properties. cultivation, and she thereby escaped the moral and physical perils engendered by the fertility of Thessaly. The barrenness of Attica resulted from her geological formation. Her northern frontier running east Geological and west, consists of a range of mountains of primitive limestone, whilst her western hills of a similar stratification form a boundary which is traversed by elevations of varying character from north to south, terminating in the celebrated silver mines of Laureium. On the sides of this hill there is a scanty growth of the mountain pine, though Scanty throughout the hills of Attica few timber trees are to be found. this barrenness of vegetation was nobly compensated by the richness of her marble quarries, which fostered not only the physical but the inmortal existence of her intellectual children, by rendering their works of art eternal. Though Attica never produced as much corn as would supply her own inhabitants, her commercial activity and the culture of the olive, tended to encourage habits of successful Laborious industry: how far these were pushed, may be seen by the traces of laborious cultivation carried up artificial mountain-terraces. Nor are the chief features of the country changed: no sooner do the plains alternate with the mountains, than forests of olive-trees, grove after Attic olive grove, rise in endless array, while each century sends forth new scions to succeed the parent stock. These olive-groves are described as extremely beautiful. The streamlets which flow from the Cephissus and Ilissus are clear as crystal, whilst the purity of the atmosphere has given to her marble relics the peculiar golden tint of ripened corn. Athens herself, the imperial mistress of the seas, lies in a Position of plain surrounded on three sides by mountains at a moderate distance 1 Dodwell's Travels, i. 172. But The promontories of Attica not mentioned in the text are, Zoster, Astypalæa, Amphiale, facing Salamis, and Cynosura, on the eastern shore. Besides Athens, the capital, the principal towns were, Decelea; Acharnæ; Phylæ, the stronghold of the patriotic Thrasybulus; Eleusis; Aphidna, the harbour of Panormus, on the eastern coast of Attica; and Harma, Parnes and Ægialeus, vol. i. pp. 505-509, by Dodwell. vegetation. cultivation. trees and streams. Attica. |