|
One great defect in the Spartan discipline was the want of a
natural
home-life for the growth of family affection and social culture.
Their
city was more like an armed camp in the midst of a hostile
population
than the capital of a civilised state. The military distinction to
which
they sacrificed everything else fostered a spirit of imperious
pride,
which became their ruling passion, as it was indeed their chief
reward
for their unsparing self-denial. For a long time they were regarded
as
practically invincible, so much so that when nearly 300 of
them
surrendered at Sphacteria to an immensely superior force of
Athenians,
it created quite a sensation throughout Greece. The description of
them
given by Demaratus to Xerxes, that Spartans must either conquer or
die,
expressed the character which they not only claimed for themselves
but
which was popularly attributed to them by the whole Hellenic race,
and
it procured for them an honourable reception wherever they appeared
in
time of peace. In war they had the support of the periœci, as they
were
called, the inhabitants of the country towns and more mountainous
parts of
Laconia, to whom they conceded
[Illustration: SPARTA AND MOUNT
TAŸGETUS
The lower ranges of Taygetus above Sparta, strangely suggesting
both in
form and colour the front view of a line of gigantic elephants,
afford a
fine contrast to the sharp angles of the snowy heights above. The
point
of view is immediately in front of the new museum; and the houses at
the
foot of the mountain belong to the east end of new Sparta. A
Græco-Roman
sarcophagus of marble and architectural fragments are lying in
the
foreground.]
freedom but no political rights. In general, their
relations with these
people were friendly enough. It was owing to the need of
providing an
outlet for the surplus rural population and meeting their
aspirations
that the colony of Tarentum was founded in 707 B.C. The
colonising of
Thera (Santorin--which became in turn the mother of the Greek
colony of
Cyrene in North Africa), and the Dorian settlements in the
south-west of
Asia Minor, took place much earlier.
The number of fully
qualified Spartan citizens was never very great,
some 8000 or 9000, with a
tendency to decrease owing to the subdivision
of family property rendering
them unable to contribute their quota to
the public mess, debarred as they
were from engaging in agriculture or
other industry. They had constantly to
guard against a revolt on the
part of the helots or slave population, who
were bound to the soil and
cultivated the lands of their Spartan masters.
They availed themselves
of their services as light-armed troops, but so
suspicious were they of
them that they never hung up their shields without
detaching their
holding-rings from them, for fear they might be snatched up
and used
against them. Their treatment of the helots was frequently cruel
and
oppressive. They had a system of secret police, under which
three
hundred of their strongest young men were charged with the duty
of
detecting any signs of disloyalty among the serfs, and putting
the
suspected to death without a trial. At the time of the Peloponnesian
war
they were believed to have been guilty of an atrocity of this kind of
a
peculiarly revolting character, when they were in great dread of
a
native insurrection. They announced that liberty was to be conferred
on
those who had distinguished themselves in the recent war, and
invited
all such to apply for their reward. A great many did so, and about
two
thousand of them were formally emancipated, and led in procession to
the
temples with wreaths upon their heads. But immediately afterwards
they
all disappeared, put to death in some mysterious way, which was
never
made public. This we have from Thucydides, a contemporary
historian.
Such things were little fitted to make Sparta a “Liberator of
the
Greeks,” as she professed to be when seeking to crush the imperial
power
of Athens; and, as soon as her military power began to decline,
she
gradually lost her influence. Yet it should not be forgotten that
after
the battle of Ægospotami (404 B.C.), when the Athenian empire
was
shattered and its capital lay at the mercy of the Peloponnesian
allies,
the Spartans refused to assent to the proposal of Corinth and
Thebes
that Athens should be destroyed and its inhabitants sold
into
slavery--declaring that they could never be a party to such treatment
of
a city which had laid all Greece under obligations by its conduct at
the
time of the Persian invasion. It is also to the credit of Sparta that
as
late as 338 B.C. she, alone of all the Greek states, refused to
submit
to Philip, who ravaged her territory, but failed to take the city,
as
Epaminondas had also failed to do, when he occupied the country
a
generation before. A hundred years later an earnest attempt was made
by
two Spartan kings, Agis IV. and Cleomenes III., to revive the
ancient
discipline and government; and some measure of immediate success
was
attained. But it was only the last flicker of the expiring flame.
The
battle of Sellasia in 221 B.C. put an end for ever to the
Heracleid
kingdom, and in the next generation Philopœmen abolished what
was
still left of the Lycurgean constitution. Thenceforth the greatness
of
Sparta was a thing of the past.
“These are the walls of Lacedæmon,”
said Agesilaus on one occasion, as
he pointed to the citizens in arms. The
truth of his words was proved
more than once, as we have just seen. But he
might also have pointed to
the mountain barriers by which the country was
hemmed in on every side
except towards the sea, where invaders were
confronted by a dangerous
and inhospitable coast. The city described by
Thucydides lay on the
western side of the river Eurotas, in a plain four or
five miles in
breadth and about eighteen miles in length. It presented the
appearance
of a number of adjoining villages, built on low hills; and in
this
respect it has been compared to ancient Rome. The situation
is
beautiful, especially as one looks west upon the grand range
of
Taygetus, its lower slopes and valleys clothed with the
richest
vegetation, while its serried peaks, extending for miles towards
Cape
Matapan on the south, rise into the region of perpetual snow. The
site
of the ancient city is for the most part covered over with
olive-groves
and corn-fields and other vegetation. Traces of a large theatre
have
been found, and there is a massive stone structure which goes by
the
name of Leonidas’ tomb. There are a few other remains, but none of
any
great interest.
A short distance to the south-east of Sparta,
where the river Magoula
joins the Eurotas, on the top of steep cliffs,
reaching in some places a
height of more than 700 feet, and approaching close
to the east bank of
the Eurotas, lies the site of the ancient Therapne, which
is now
generally identified with the Homeric Sparta. If the supposition
be
correct, these heights were once the scene of palatial state
and
splendour, with which the historic Sparta even in its best days
had
nothing to compare. The foundations of a temple sacred to Menelaus
and
Helen have been traced, and a great many little figures of lead
have
been discovered, which served no doubt as votive offerings,
while
fragments of unglazed Mycenæan pottery have also been found in
the
immediate neighbourhood. According to tradition, there was here also
a
temple to the Dioscuri--Castor and Pollux, half-brother and brother
of
Helen; and here they were said to lie buried every alternate day,
Pollux
having declined the offer of immortality from his father Zeus, unless
it
were shared by his brother.
Two or three miles south of Sparta, on
the west side of the river, in
the midst of a country abounding in fine fruit
trees and rich cereal
crops, lay the ancient city of Amyclæ, which remained
in the hands of
the Achæans for centuries after the Dorian invasion. On the
top of an
adjoining hill the foundations of the
[Illustration: MISTRA,
NEAR SPARTA
The eastern portico of the Pantanassa Church, with view over
the valley
of the Eurotas.]
famous precinct of Apollo have been
excavated, where the Hyacinthian
festival was celebrated from an early period
in memory of a beautiful
youth whom Apollo was said to have accidentally
killed in a game of
quoits. His tomb is under the altar of Apollo, a fact to
be explained
perhaps by the worship of the Dorian Apollo having superseded
the
earlier rites, though the name of Hyacinthus still survived.
This
festival (connected with the vegetation of spring) and the
Carnean
celebration of Apollo, as the horned cattle god, are often mentioned
in
history as the cause of delay in military expeditions, no people
being
more punctilious than the Spartans in attending to religious
ordinances,
and paying heed to natural omens, such as earthquakes. On one
occasion
the attendance at the Hyacinthia of a few soldiers on service at
Corinth
cost the Spartan army the loss of a battalion which had been sent
to
convoy them part of the way home, and in returning was cut to pieces
by
the Athenian Iphicrates and his famous peltasts or slingers.
The
importance of the sanctuary at Amyclæ is seen in the fact that
the
treaty between Athens and Sparta in 421 B.C. was to be inscribed on
a
column there, and also in the temple of Athena on the Acropolis
of
Athens.
A walk or ride of a few miles to the west, through an
exuberant country,
brings you to the foot of a mountain called Mistra, which
springs like
an offshoot from the roots of Taygetus. It looks small compared
with the
giant range behind, but it is 2000 feet high, and commands one of
the
most charming views in Greece, across the valley of the Eurotas
and
down towards the gorge opening on the sea. The mediæval
buildings
scattered over the mountain-side, and the well-cultivated fields
and
gardens and terraces all around and beneath it, present a
pleasing
contrast to the wild passes above, which include the famous
Langada
pass, leading into the plains of Messenia. On the top of the hill
there
is a citadel in a wonderfully good state of preservation, erected by
the
Frankish knight, William de Ville-hardouin, in the middle of
the
thirteenth century. Beneath it are the remains of a palace, once
the
residence of the Governor of the Morea (who ranked next to the
Byzantine
emperor), surrounded by a city which deprived Sparta of its
importance
until the present century. The city is now greatly decayed, and
the
buildings still in use are chiefly chapels and monasteries belonging
to
the Greek Church, which, here as elsewhere, has had to surrender to
the
Government much of its wealth to meet the educational needs of
the
country.
On the way between Sparta and Mistra you pass the mouth
of a cave
opening downwards into the side of the mountain, which is pointed
out as
the place called Cæadas into which the Spartans were in the habit
of
casting criminals and weak or deformed children. It was here
that
Aristomenes, the Messenian hero, was believed to have made a
miraculous
escape from death. Along with fifty other Messenians he had been
hurled
into the yawning recess, but by good luck, or the favour of the gods
as
his friends asserted,
[Illustration: MISTRA AND THE VALLEY OF THE
EUROTAS
This drawing was sketched at the residence of the Papa of the
ancient
metropolis church. On the higher slope of the mountain to the right
is
the Pantanassa Church; below, to the left, part of the mediæval
defences
of the town.]
he reached the bottom unhurt. Seeing no outlet
he had resigned himself
to his fate, when his attention was attracted by a
fox crawling among
the dead. He succeeded in getting hold of its tail, and,
defending
himself from its bites as he best could with his cloak, he found
himself
at the opening by which the fox had entered, and, by enlarging it
a
little, contrived to make an exit for himself, reappearing safe
and
sound, to the amazement both of friends and foes.
Modern Sparta,
which is now the recognised capital of Laconia under the
Greek monarchy, lies
a little to the south of the ancient site. It is a
well-built town, embosomed
in gardens and orchards, with wide and
regular streets. There is a museum in
it containing some venerable
relics, though, as yet, Laconia has not received
from the excavator the
attention it deserves. The scenery is so beautiful,
and there are so
many historic and prehistoric associations connected with
the district,
that a few days may be spent in Sparta with great satisfaction,
provided
comfortable quarters can be secured.
CHAPTER
VI
ARGOLIS AND ITS ANTIQUITIES
A peculiar interest attaches to
Argolis, whether we regard it from a
historical or an archæological point of
view. Its legendary history
carries us back to a period long anterior to the
Siege of
Troy--according to some chronologists to the year 1860 B.C.--while
the
excavations at Mycenæ and Tiryns have brought to light
innumerable
relics of the Homeric or, rather, of a pre-Homeric age, and
have
confirmed the tradition of a pre-historic connection between Argolis
and
Egypt.
In the Argolic peninsula, which was at one time the chief
seat of
civilisation in Greece, there were a number of cities of
great
antiquity. The oldest of these was Argos, which lay (like the
modern
town of 10,000 inhabitants) in the south-west of the plain, about
four
and a half miles from the coast. In its immediate neighbourhood is
the
Larissa, or acropolis, a conical hill nearly 1000 feet high, which
is
now crowned with a mediæval citadel.
The oldest name associated
with the place is Inachus. It is still borne
by the chief river, and its
application to a mythical personage is
probably due to the agency of the
river in the formation of the land by
its alluvial deposits. A later
tradition tells of the arrival of a
family of immigrants from Egypt, the
daughters of one Danaus, who
exerted such an influence on the life of the
community that their
descendants share with the Argives the honour of being
frequently
mentioned in the pages of Homer as the chief representatives of
Greece.
The story of the enforced marriage of the Danaids with their
fifty
cousins, the sons of Ægyptus, whose heads they cut off on the
bridal
night, seems to have had its origin in some new system of irrigation
at
the expense of the mountain springs and torrents which flow into
the
plain. For their crime the Danaids are said to have been condemned
to
pour water, in Hades, into leaky vessels--to which we may see
something
analogous at the present day in the labours of the women employed
to
water the fields of “thirsty Argos.” The next great name that meets
us
is that of Perseus, who gained immortal fame by bringing home the
head
of Medusa, which turned all who looked upon it into stone. With the
help
of the Lycian Cyclopes Perseus was believed to have built
the
fortifications of Tiryns and Mycenæ, and his son of the same name
was
credited by Herodotus with being the founder of the royal dynasty
of
Persia.
As we approach the historic age, the figure of Adrastus
comes
prominently into view. His fame was chiefly derived from the
famous
Siege of Thebes, which he undertook for the purpose of restoring
his
son-in-law Polyneices to the throne of his father Œdipus. After
his
death Adrastus became an object of worship in Argos and the cities
which
owned its suzerainty. We have an illustration of the close
connection
which then subsisted between religion and politics in the fact
that when
Cleisthenes, the “Tyrant” of Sicyon, wished to assert his
independence
of Argos, he applied to Thebes for an image of Melanippus, the
ancient
and powerful foe of Adrastus, so that, being introduced into the
citadel
of Sicyon, he might put the other hero-god to flight. The same
ruler
also paid a tribute to the influence of poetry when he forbade Homer
to
be recited in Sicyon, because the great bard said too much about
the
glory of Argos.
The most noted ruler of Argos in historic times
was Pheidon (_c._ 750
B.C.), whose dominion extended over Sicyon, Phlius,
Trœzen,
Epidaurus, and Ægina. He left his mark on the Peloponnesus
by
introducing coinage in electrum and silver, and a new system of
weights
and measures, apparently borrowed from the Phœnicians, which
received
the name of _Æginetan_ from its chief commercial centre, in the same
way
as the system in vogue among the Ionian Greeks received the name
of
_Eubœic_. According to Herodotus the Argolic territory at one
time
included all the eastern coast, down to Cape Malea. But the
Spartans
gradually encroached upon it, till their country became the
premier
state of Greece, of which we have one of the earliest indications in
the
fact that it was to Sparta Crœsus made his appeal for support in
547
B.C.
[Illustration: ARGOS AND LARISSA
To the left the
principal church of the modern town of Argos. Behind the
town rises the
splendid mass of Larissa, the Acropolis of the ancient
city, with mediæval
fortifications on its summit. Half-way up lies the
romantically situated
convent of the Panagia.]
Argos played an ignoble part at the time of the
Persian invasion. It
refused to make common cause with Sparta, unless a
thirty years’ truce
were concluded between the two states, and the honour of
commanding the
allied forces were shared equally between them--a demand to
which Sparta
could not accede, though willing to admit the king of Argos to
an
equality with her own two kings. In spite of the abstention of Argos
the
two neighbouring cities of Mycenæ and Tiryns each sent a contingent
to
Thermopylæ and Platæa, and it was partly in revenge for this that
Argos
in 468 B.C. took possession of these cities and deprived them of
their
liberties. The comparative insignificance of Mycenæ from this
time
forward accounts for Argos being so often substituted for it by
the
friendly dramatists of Athens, as the scene of the great tragedies
in
the family of Agamemnon. With all its pride in its mythical glory,
Argos
never produced any great man after Pheidon--unless we give it credit
for
its remote connection with Alexander the Great, who claimed to
be
descended from an Argive exile who settled in Macedonia. Argos had
the
opportunity more than once of becoming the head of a league
against
Sparta, and at one time it had a strong military force in
its
“Thousand,” a highly trained and well-equipped regiment composed
of
young men belonging to its best families; but it was weakened
by
internal dissensions between the oligarchic and democratic parties,
and
never enjoyed more than a very brief ascendency. At one time
its
citizens made an attempt, with the help of Alcibiades and
the
Athenians, to connect the city with the sea by means of long walls
like
those of Athens, but the Spartans interfered and soon put a stop to
the
work.
In its wars with Sparta Argos sought more than once to take
advantage of
the religious scruples of the enemy. This happened especially
in
connection with the festival of Carnean Apollo (a deity worshipped
by
them both), the date of which the Argives varied to suit their
own
convenience, alleging the celebration of it as a reason why
military
operations should be suspended. To guard against such
strategy,
Agesipolis, the Spartan king, on one occasion obtained authority
from
the oracles of Delphi and Olympia to disregard such a fictitious
claim.
Having crossed the border he was challenged by two heralds wearing
the
insignia of their office, on the ground that it was a time of
holy
truce; to which Agesipolis replied that he had the warrant of the
gods
to disobey their commands. The same evening there was a shock
of
earthquake, whereupon the Spartans sang the pæan to Apollo and
expected
an order to retreat; but the king declared that as the earthquake
had
not happened till after he had crossed the frontier he regarded it as
a
favourable omen. He proceeded to ravage the country, and had reached
the
gates of Argos when a flash of lightning killed several of his
men,
whereupon he at once beat a retreat.
In the previous century a
great outrage upon religion had been committed
by a Spartan king, Cleomenes,
who afterwards went mad and committed
suicide. Having driven 6000 Argive
troops into the sacred grove of
Apollo, close to the city, he set fire to the
grove and put the 6000 men
to death, inducing many of them to quit their
place of refuge on the
understanding that their lives would be spared. He
then went with a
thousand men to the temple of Hera, a few miles distant, and
insisted on
sacrificing to the goddess in spite of the rule of the sanctuary,
by
which it was forbidden to strangers; and when admission was refused
he
caused the priest to be dragged from the altar and scourged. To
the
great displeasure of his countrymen, however, he carried the war
against
Argos no farther, alleging as his reason that the light on the altar
had
flashed upon him from the bosom of the statue of the goddess, not
from
her head.
Although the chief Dorian temple in the district was
that on the summit
of Larissa in honour of Apollo, the Heræum, just referred
to, was a much
more ancient sanctuary, and was probably the original seat of
the
worship of Hera in Greece. Of this we have a token in the
discovery
among its ruins of an Egyptian scarab with cartouche, supposed to
be of
Thothmes III. (fifteenth century B.C.). Thucydides reckoned the date
of
the Peloponnesian war by the priestly registers in this temple,
which
seem to have been even older than the Olympian lists. The
earliest
priestess is said to have been Io, identified with the moon, whom
Zeus
transformed into a cow, and whose wanderings, imposed upon her by
the
jealous goddess, extended to the crossing of the Thracian
straits,
thence called Bosporus (Ox-ford or Cow-ford).
During the
priesthood of Chryso, about a thousand years later (423
B.C.), the temple was
destroyed by fire owing to the upsetting of a lamp
by the aged priestess
while she was asleep. A splendid new temple was
soon erected on an adjacent
site, but only the foundations of it can now
be traced, with some remains
also of the older building at a still lower
level. Another priestess was
Cydippe, whose two sons, Cleobis and
Beiton, in the absence of oxen, drew her
in a cart all the way from
Argos to the Heræum, a distance of seven miles. In
the joy and pride of
her heart the mother prayed the goddess to give her sons
the best gift
that could fall to the lot of man. The consequence was that the
young
men, having fallen asleep in the sanctuary after sacrificing
and
feasting, awoke no more, the goddess thus signifying that death
was
better than life. Pausanias tells us that the temple contained a
wooden
image of Hera, which had been removed from the conquered city of
Tiryns,
and also an image of the goddess in gold and ivory, the work
of
Polycleitus. A good many fragments of the ancient sculpture have
been
brought to light, and not a few of them are built into
Christian
churches and other edifices in the neighbourhood, especially a
church
dedicated to the Virgin, which is worth a visit on this
account.
The Heræum will always have a charm for the classical scholar as
the
spot where Agamemnon was solemnly acknowledged as their leader by
the
assembled Greeks before setting out for Troy. It is significant
that
Hera is represented as devoted to the Greeks all
[Illustration:
THE ACROPOLIS OF MYCENÆ FROM THE SOUTH-WEST, BACKED BY
THE IMPOSING FORM OF
MOUNT ELIAS
The gorge to the right is the valley which served as a
defence for the
Acropolis on the south side. The piece of road to the left is
within a
few paces of the famous bee-hive tomb known as the Treasury
of
Atreus.]
through the Trojan war, and even before it; and perhaps
the proximity of
her shrine to Mycenæ, which was only a few miles distant,
may help to
account for the prominence of that city and its prince in the
story of
the war.
After being depopulated by the Argives, Mycenæ seems
to have been for a
long time comparatively deserted, and even now it presents
very much the
same appearance as it did when seen by Pausanias nearly
eighteen hundred
years ago. Nowhere has the spade achieved greater triumphs
than in this
venerated spot. The story of Schliemann’s excavations, both here
and at
Troy, is one of the romances of the nineteenth century. From
his
childhood everything mysterious had a fascination for him, and he
was
possessed with a passionate admiration for the heroes of the
_Iliad_.
Though he was early thrown upon his own resources to earn a
livelihood,
and had a hard struggle for many years, he found time for the
study of
Greek and other languages, which he mastered chiefly by committing
whole
books to memory. Having succeeded in amassing wealth he devoted
the
remainder of his life to the interests of Greek archæology,
cherishing
his faith in the Homeric legends in spite of much ridicule, poured
upon
him sometimes by men of the greatest learning, until at length he
was
rewarded by discoveries which surpassed his fondest expectations.
His
conclusions may not all be sound. For example, it is the opinion
of
Zountas, the eminent Greek archæologist, in view of all the facts
which
have come to light, that the bodies found in the shaft-graves
within
the citadel were not, as Schliemann supposed, the remains of
Agamemnon
and other members of the house of Pelops, to whose graves
Pausanias
alludes, but those of an earlier Perseid dynasty, and that the
beehive
tombs found outside the citadel are those of Agamemnon and
other
Atreidan kings, being similar to a considerable number of other
tombs
found on the eastern side of Greece as far north as Thessaly. With
this
agrees the fact that the famous lion-gate and the adjoining part of
the
wall are not built in the same Cyclopean style as the rest of the
wall,
the latter being composed of rough blocks piled one upon another
without
order, and kept in position by means of small stones and clay
inserted
between them, while the portions above referred to are composed
of
carefully-hewn stones of a polygonal shape, fitting into one
another.
A prodigious quantity of pottery and other productions of art in
gold,
bronze, stone, and other materials, has been discovered in the
graves
and elsewhere at Mycenæ. Such variety do the treasures now stored in
the
Museum at Athens display that they are supposed to represent a period
of
artistic development extending from about 1600 to 1100 B.C. Among
other
things found were an ostrich egg, articles made of ivory, and a
great
number of amber beads, proving a connection both with Africa and
the
Baltic. Some of the artistic designs, too, such as those in which
the
papyrus and the lotus appear, show traces of intercourse with
Egypt,
which might also be inferred from the discovery of Mycenæan pottery
at
Thebes in that country. It is at Hissarlik (Troy), however, and
in
certain islands in the Ægean Sea, especially Crete, that the
chief
evidence of a civilisation like that of Mycenæ has been discovered.
It
is the opinion of experts that its origin may go as far back as
2500
B.C., and that its development in Crete may have been
contemporaneous
with the maritime empire which was associated with the name
of Minos,
whose influence extended as far as Sicily on the west, and which
could
hardly fail to be in touch with Asia Minor, Phœnicia, and
Egypt.
Whether the Mycenæan civilisation was due to the Achæan race of
warriors
described in Homer, or to Pelasgians, or to the Phœnicians, has
not
yet been fully determined. In some respects it does not tally with
the
conditions of the heroic age, of which Homer sings. For example,
very
few traces of iron have been found compared with what we might
have
expected from the number of allusions to it in Homer. The same is
the
case as regards the safety-pins for fastening the seamless
garments
which the Achæans wore. Moreover, Homer represents burning, not
burial,
as the usual mode of disposing of the dead. But it is possible
that
these differences may have belonged to different stages in the
history
of the Achæan civilisation, which was probably in a state of
decadence
when Homer wrote. In any case the places to which he gives
prominence
are generally found to have been centres of the civilisation
in
question. With regard to Mycenæ in particular, the epithets applied
to
it by the poet--“abounding in gold” and a “well-built
city”--are
singularly appropriate. Apart from its legendary dignity as the
capital
city of the “king of men,” there can be no doubt that Mycenæ was a
place
of great wealth and importance, partly owing to its trade in pottery
and
other works of art, but chiefly, perhaps, to its commanding position
on
the highway of commerce between Nauplia and Corinth--in other
words,
between the Argolic Gulf on the south and the Corinthian and
Saronic
Gulfs on the north. The latter point is emphasised by a recent writer
in
the _Edinburgh Review_, who says: “Mycenæ is on the flank of the
hills,
and possesses good springs, that great treasure in the thirsty plains
of
Argolis. Its fine military position is guarded by rocky defiles.
Its
watch-towers command every vale from which a land force could
attack,
and every space of sea-coast that might reveal a pirate’s raid. It
is
the very gate of the pass that leads from the plain of Argos to
the
beach of Corinth, and to this day the train takes travellers past
its
portals from Nauplia to the north-western gulf. Such land passages
as
this, from one sea to another, were of the highest importance
to
merchant-shipping in the old days of small light vessels, and
continued
to be so until comparatively recent times. The riches of the barons
of
Mycenæ were solely due to the fact that they could levy toll on
passing
caravans of merchandise without fear of an overlord. It was to guard
the
fortune thus amassed that the ramparts were constructed, which
the
astonished
[Illustration: MYCENÆ, SHOWING THE SITE OF THE FAMOUS
DISCOVERIES OF
SCHLIEMANN
The mass of so-called cyciopean masonry, on
the right, buttresses the
upper part of the Acropolis of Mycenæ. The wall at
right angles to it
contains the Lion Gate, and the large triangular stone
above the lintel
is the back of the well-known relief of lions or lionesses
_regardant_,
probably the most ancient piece of sculpture in Greece. In
the
foreground is shown the singular double wall and gateway of
the
enclosure, called by Schliemann the Agora, within which he found
the
treasures of Mycenæan art now in the Central Museum in
Athens.]
antiquarian (who could not see over them) describes as ‘built
for the
love of building.’”
The modern traveller can hardly fail to be
struck, as Thucydides was,
with the limited dimensions of a city which is
said to have sent a
hundred ships to Troy, besides providing sixty for the
Arcadians, while
Athens only sent fifty. But it is evident from the ruins
that the city
was not confined within the walls; and, after all, the size of
a city,
like that of a country, is not always a safe criterion of its wealth
and
influence. According to Pausanias, the only genuine work of
Hephæstus
that was to be seen in his day was the sceptre which that
divine
artificer presented to Zeus, and which Zeus gave to Hermes, and
Hermes
to Pelops, and Pelops to Atreus, and Atreus to his brother Thyestes,
and
Thyestes to Agamemnon, that he might “have dominion over many
islands
and over all Argos.”
A still older and better preserved
specimen of the Homeric citadel and
palace is to be seen at Tiryns, the
fabled residence of Heracles, which
lies about a mile from the sea, near the
marshy land in which the famous
steeds of Argos probably found pasture. It is
situated on a long rocky
hillock, less than 100 feet above the level of the
sea, which was no
doubt once an island, before the alluvial deposits from the
mountain
sides had encroached so far on the domain of Poseidon. Its walls,
to
which Homer alludes, form one of the most striking monuments of
the
heroic age. They are in some places considerably over fifty feet
thick,
and the stones of which they are composed are of great size, from
six
to ten feet long, and about three feet in height and in thickness.
But
though the stones are larger than those of Mycenæ they show more
signs
of hewing, and were originally held together by clay mortar. In
the
palace at the southern end, of which the ground plan can be
distinctly
traced, one can recognise a general similarity to the Homeric
palace. In
the chief entrance, which is evidently the archetype of the
propylæa at
Athens, one can see the hole in the door-post and the adjoining
wall,
into which the great wooden bar was shot when the door was open.
After
passing through a spacious circular court with an altar of Zeus in
the
centre, you enter through a portico into the chief apartment or
hall.
Round the hearth in the centre stood the four pillars which
supported
the roof. It was against one of these pillars that Odysseus was
told he
would find the queen Arete sitting in the palace of Alcinous,
spinning
purple wool in the light of the fire. You can also identify
the
bathroom, with its solid limestone floor, and can even see a
terra-cotta
fragment of the well-polished tubs referred to by the great
minstrel,
with receptacles in the wall, probably intended for the oil which
was
considered indispensable after the bath. Wall-paintings have also
been
discovered and specimens of a frieze of a bluish colour, supposed to
be
the _kuanos_ referred to in Homer as adorning the walls of the
Phæacian
palace. With the exception of the lower parts, a few feet high,
the
walls were evidently built of wood or clay, and appear to have
been
destroyed
[Illustration: TIRYNS. THE GATE OF THE UPPER
CASTLE
The gate post to the left (west) 10½ feet high, is complete, with
the
rebate and the hole for the insertion of the strong bar to secure
the
gate. Only half of the right (eastern) post remains. Over it we see
the
massive outer rampart between the main gate and the gate of the
Upper
Castle.]
by fire, of which the stone shows traces. At a lower
level the
foundations of a still older building can be seen. Among other
things
found among the ruins were many little figures of cows in
terra-cotta,
supposed to have been connected with the worship of Hera, who is
often
styled Cow-faced (_Bo-opis_) in Homer.
About two and a half
miles from Tiryns, on a small peninsula which juts
out into the sea, there is
now a thriving little town of 6000
inhabitants, called Nauplia. According to
Pausanias its original
inhabitants came from Egypt, and its name would lead
one to suppose that
they were known as seafaring people. In historic times
they were driven
out by the Argives and took refuge in Mothone, which was
granted to them
by the Spartans. Nauplia then became the general harbour for
the people
of Argolis. Its military importance was recognised in later times
by the
Byzantines, the Venetians, and the Turks, who have successively
left
their mark upon its fortifications. The capture of Nauplia from
the
Turks in 1822 was a great encouragement to the insurgent Greeks.
It
became the capital of the country under the first Greek government,
and
was also the scene of the assassination of its first
president,
Capodistrias. It was at Nauplia that Otho made his entry into
Greece in
1833 as the sovereign-elect, and it was among the soldiers of
its
garrison that the revolt began which compelled him to resign his
crown,
about thirty years later. The modern name of the city, Napoli de
Romania
(Naples of Greece), betokens the beauty of its situation. There are
few
more pleasing views in Greece than is seen in fine weather from the
top
of the rocky hill which rises in the neighbourhood to a height of
700
feet, and which is supposed to owe its name (Palamidi) to the
heroic
Palamedes, son of Nauplius, who is credited in the _Iliad_ with
being
the author of so many inventions.
To the north-east of Nauplia
lies one of the most attractive spots in
the Argolid, namely Epidaurus. The
town of that name was close to the
coast, opposite to Ægina, which was once
tributary to it. But the ruins
of the greatest interest are some five miles
inland, in the precinct
sacred to Asclepios, the god of healing, who was said
to have been born
in this neighbourhood as the child of Apollo and a nymph,
and to have
been suckled by a goat on Mount Titthion. Epidaurus thus became
the
headquarters of the healing art for all the votaries of Asclepios,
both
in Greece and Asia Minor. The sacred precinct or _Hieron_ was of
great
extent. Besides the temple, it contained almost everything that could
be
desired in a health resort, such as a music-hall, a theatre (which
is
still in a wonderful state of preservation and is the finest in
Greece),
a hospital and baths, a gymnasium and a race-course. Part of
the
sanctuary was set apart for the patients seeking the aid of the god,
who
was generally supposed to communicate with them in their sleep.
There
were many votive offerings and inscriptions telling of wonderful
cures,
and when we take into account the influence of religious faith in such
a
case, and the salutary air of a fine hill-country, we
can
[Illustration: NAUPLIA AND TIRYNS FROM THE ROAD TO ARGOS
The
great headland to the right, crowned by the fortress of Palamidi,
overlooks
the town of Nauplia. The golden-brown hill to the left is the
ancient
acropolis or fortress of Tiryns, the exploration of which by Dr.
Schliemann
was an event of hardly less importance than his famous
discoveries at
Mycenæ.]
hardly wonder at the great hygienic reputation of the place. The
dog and
the serpent are almost always associated with Asclepios in
pictorial
representations, the serpent entwined around his staff, and both
animals
figure prominently in the stories of miraculous cure, the dog
sometimes
licking the sores of the patient. How the serpent was so highly
esteemed
is not very clear. But it became the great emblem of the healing
art,
perhaps owing to the silence and subtlety of its movements and
its
connection with the underground world. The Epidaurians always took
it
with them when they went to found a colony; and on one occasion,
when
ambassadors, in obedience to an oracle, came from Rome in a time
of
pestilence, seeking the help of the god, the serpent was sent back
with
them as his representative.
One of the most interesting ruins of
the place is the _Tholos_, a kind
of rotunda, more than 100 feet in diameter,
of which only the ground
parts are standing. These consist of six concentric
walls, the three
innermost of which supported a circular floor or platform,
paved with
black and white marble, with a hole in the centre, the purpose of
which
is not very clear, whether for offering sacrifice, which is suggested
by
the name of _Thumela_ applied to the building, or for drawing water
from
beneath. The fourth of the circular walls just mentioned, counting
from
the centre, supported fourteen Corinthian pillars of marble, the fifth
a
wall above the ground, the sixth an exterior colonnade with
twenty-six
columns. The three underground walls nearest the centre, forming
a
vault, have doors in them by which you can pass from one to the
other,
but so arranged as to form a labyrinth. An inscription shows that
the
building was erected by contract and took twenty-one years to
finish.
The contract was in the hands of two sets of commissioners, the
one
having charge of giving it out, the other being entrusted with the
duty
of seeing that the work was properly done. The list of contractors
shows
that many different cities had an interest in the
undertaking.
[Illustration: THE THEATRE OF EPIDAURUS
Presumably
the work of the younger Polykleitos; the auditorium
(_koilon_) hollowed out
of the side of the hill, as is usual in Greek
theatres. In the _diazoma_, or
horizontal gangway, half-way up the side
of the auditorium, are thrones or
seats of honour. The orchestra, marked
by a circle of white marble, is
clearly shown, and also the foundations
of the stage buildings. By an act of
barbarism, which has sadly ruined
the artistic interest of this, the most
beautiful ancient Greek theatre,
the marble proscenium decorated with engaged
Ionic columns has been
removed, as not being part of the original design of
the building. One
of the great gateways opening into the passage (parados)
leading to the
orchestra occupies the lower middle part of the
drawing.]
CHAPTER VII
CORINTH AND ITS
CANAL
By its geographical position Corinth seems to have been
predestined to
commercial greatness. While it commanded the land route from
the
Peloponnesus to continental Greece, its two harbours on either side
of
the isthmus, opening, the one on the Corinthian, and the other on
the
Saronic Gulf, made it a natural emporium for East and West. There was
no
reason indeed why its military power should not have been
as
distinguished as its opulence. Its great acropolis (Acro-Corinthus,
as
it was called), a precipitous mountain nearly 1900 feet high,
rising
abruptly out of the plain and commanding a view of nearly the half
of
Greece, with a plateau on its summit large enough to
accommodate
thousands of men, was marked out by nature as an impregnable
fortress.
But, whether owing to the Phœnician element in the population or
to
the peace-making tendencies of its commercial pursuits, Corinth
was
never of very much account in war, though it was the first city
in
Greece to build a navy.
One of the most famous of its early kings
was Sisyphus, whose name is
supposed to have been a reduplication of the
Greek word _sophos_. His
wisdom, however, seems to have been of a mean and
sinister kind, better
described as cunning, if we may judge from some of the
illustrations of
it which have come down to us. According to a well-known
tradition he
was condemned by Zeus to the hopeless and never-ending task, in
Hades,
of pushing a stone up the side of a mountain, from which it
always
rolled back before he could place it securely on the
summit--an
appropriate enough punishment for a man who had been guilty of
murdering
travellers as they crossed the isthmus by rolling down great stones
upon
them from the mountains.
His beautiful grandson, Bellerophon, was
a man of a different type. His
incorruptible virtue, when tempted by the
queen of Argos, and the divine
protection granted to him in all the perils to
which, like Joseph in
Egypt, he was exposed--culminating in his marriage to
the King of
Lycia’s daughter with half the kingdom for a dowry--formed a
pleasing
theme for ancient poets and moralists. According to one tradition,
it
was the hoof of his winged horse Pegasus that struck the first
water
from the fountain Peirene, on the top of Acro-Corinthus. According
to
another account the spring was a gift to Sisyphus from the river
Asopus,
for having given information against Zeus in a matter affecting
his
family welfare.
Another famous name was that of Creon, King of
Corinth, whose daughter
Glauke came to such a tragic end. According to the
common version of
the story, Jason had come to Corinth with his wife Medea,
by whose aid
he had succeeded in bringing back the Golden Fleece from
Colchis.
Forgetful of his vows, he fell in love with Glauke and was about
to
marry her, when the enraged Medea, who was skilled in the magical
arts
of the East, sent the bride a beautiful undergarment, which, as soon
as
it was put on, set fire to the wearer. Pausanias mentions a
fountain
into which Glauke threw herself in her agony, and within the last
few
years the enclosed well referred to has been brought to
light.
After a long line of kings the Bacchiadæ are said to have come
into
power, ruling jointly, with one of their number as president, until
the
government was usurped by Cypselus, one of those “tyrants” who figure
so
prominently in Greek history during the seventh and sixth centuries
B.C.
Among the finest votive offerings at Olympia was an
elaborately-carved
chest dedicated by his descendants, the Cypselids, to
commemorate the
preservation of his life while he was an infant. His birth
had been
heralded by oracles which portended destruction to the ruling clan,
from
which his mother was sprung, and messengers were sent to Petra,
where
his parents lived, to take the child’s life. They had arranged that
the
first of them who should receive the child in his arms should dash it
to
the ground. But when the unsuspecting mother put it into the hands
of
one of them, he was so touched by a smile on the face of the infant
that
he passed it on to the second, and so on, till they had all failed
to
carry out their cruel design. On leaving the house they began
to
reproach one another for their weakness of purpose, and agreed to go
in
again and all take a share in the deed. But the mother had overheard
the
conversation, and succeeded in saving the child’s life by concealing
it
in a chest, for which reason it was called Cypselus.
Cypselus was
succeeded by his son Periander, who ruled with a rod of
iron, but brought the
country to a still higher degree of prosperity
than it had ever attained
before. According to Herodotus, his cruel
policy of destroying men of light
and leading among his subjects had
been learned from Thrasybulus of Miletus,
to whom he sent a deputy for
advice as to the best means of securing his
position. Thrasybulus said
nothing, but took his visitor into a corn-field,
and as they passed
along cut down all the high and heavy stalks which
attracted his
attention. According to Aristotle, however, Periander was the
teacher of
this lesson, not the learner. He was succeeded by a son, who was
soon
driven from the throne. A democratic government was then
established,
which continued, with the occasional rise of an oligarchy, for
several
centuries. So deep was the impression made on the Corinthians by
the
cruelty of their despots, that when a conference was held at Sparta
some
time afterwards for the purpose of considering a proposal to restore
the
Peisistratid dynasty to Athens, the Corinthian deputy made a strong
and
eloquent protest against it, and the design had to be
abandoned.
[Illustration: THE TEMPLE AT CORINTH
The five columns
to the right belong to the Western Peristyle, and the
two columns in front of
us to the Southern Peristyle. These columns are
all monolithic. The remains
of the Temple at Corinth are amongst the
most ancient existing monuments of
Doric architecture. Above the Temple
to the right is the lofty Acropolis of
Corinth (the Acro-Corinthus),
with the mediæval fortifications on its summit.
Careful observers will
notice that the capital of the near column has been
turned round on its
shaft, no doubt owing to the action of
earthquakes.]
The unhappy relations of Corinth to her colony Corcyra have
already been
alluded to (p. 9). On the other hand, there are few brighter
pages in
the annals of Greece than the story of the deliverance of
Syracuse,
another of her colonies, from the tyranny of Dionysius by Timoleon,
one
of the best and greatest of her sons. Timoleon had lived in
retirement
for twenty years, owing to a crushing sorrow which had befallen
him in
connection with the death of his brother Timophanes, who had sought
to
make himself master of the city. Timoleon went up to the citadel
with
one or two other patriotic men to remonstrate with the new despot,
who
was bringing in a reign of terror. Timophanes was obdurate, and
from
angry words the parties came to blows, with the result that the
usurper
was slain. Timoleon himself took no part in the affray, his heart
being
torn with conflicting emotions, owing to his love for his brother,
whose
life he had once heroically saved in battle. His position
excited
general sympathy, but in some quarters he was blamed for his
brother’s
death, and his mother was inexorable in her bitter grief, refusing
ever
to look upon his face again. After his long and sad seclusion he was
now
called by the voice of the assembled people to take command of
the
expedition to Sicily, the task having been declined by many of
the
leading men. He accepted the commission; and with such signal
success
did he execute it, with very limited means at his command, that
his
achievements were universally attributed to the favour of the gods.
He
was equally eminent for courage and sagacity. On one occasion, when
he
was about to encounter a Carthaginian army many times greater than
his
own, he met some mules carrying burdens of parsley, which was
generally
used for putting on tombstones. The evil omen struck the
imagination of
his soldiers and their hearts were beginning to sink, when
Timoleon,
seizing some of the parsley, made a wreath of it and put it on his
head,
exclaiming that it was their Corinthian emblem of victory which
fortune
was now putting in their way. His officers followed his example,
the
result being that the spirits of the army rose, and they went forward
to
a glorious victory. As soon as he had restored freedom and
order
throughout the island he invited the citizens of Syracuse to join
with
him in pulling down the tyrant’s stronghold, setting up courts
of
justice in its place. He then resigned his commission, refusing
to
accept any official position in the state, of which he had
been
virtually the restorer. But so deep was the impression made on
the
community by his great and disinterested services that whenever
there
was a serious difference of opinion on any public question he was
called
in as umpire. He lost his eyesight towards the end of his life,
and
Cornelius Nepos gives a touching picture of the acclamation with
which
he would be greeted by the assembly when he was led into the hall
seated
on his car, from which the mules had been unyoked, to hear some
question
referred to him, and of the profound respect with which his
judgment
would be received. One of the results of Timoleon’s mission to
Sicily
was that the dethroned Dionysius was brought over to Corinth, and
spent
the remainder of his life there in very humble circumstances. He made a
livelihood by teaching reading and singing, and for a while he was as great an
object of interest in the city as Napoleon the Great would have been if he had
been sent to London instead of St. Helena. |
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