Vacation Days in Greece

^ [^ 6]io] 0- VACATION DAYS IN GREECE BRONZE CHARIOTEER FOUND AT DELPHI VACATION DAYS IN GREECE BY RUFUS B. RICHARDSON FORMERLY DIRECTOR OF THE AMERICAN SCHOOL OF ARCHiEOLOGY, ATHENS ILLUSTRATED NEW YORK CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS 1903 Copyright, 1903, by CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS Published, September, 1903 TROW OIRCCTORY raiNTfNa AND SOOKBINDINQ COMPANY new YORK MY SON THE COMPANION OF MY TRAVELS PREFACE a residence of eleven years in Greece DURINGI have formed the habit of writing to certain periodicals descriptions of my journeys. The occa- sion for making a book out of these articles was the suggestion on the part of many members of the American School of Classical Studies, at Athens, who had shared these journeys with me, that I should do so, and so make the descriptions accessi- ble to them. I yielded to this suggestion all the more readily from the consideration that my wan- derings have taken me into many nooks and corners not usually visited by those whose stay in the country is short. Having seen the sunrise from most of the mountain-tops of the country, having forded many of its rivers, and having caught the indescribable color at early dawn and at evening twilight, from the deck of coasting steamers, all along these fascinating shores, I felt it only right that I should try to con- vey to others, less fortunate than myself, some picture, however inadequate, of all this experience and enjoyment. All that is here set down is, however, vii PREFACE but a part of a larger picture that is ever present in my memory. For the most part I have avoided what has been most frequently described. Athens, Olympia, and the much-visited Argive plain, I have not touched upon, because I did not wish to swell the book by telling thrice-told tales. I tell of what I have most enjoyed, in the hope that readers may feel with me the charm of this poet's land, which has, more than any other, "infinite riches in a little room." The slight alterations that I have made in the original form of the descriptions was made with the design of bringing them, in a measure, up to the present time. I have also arranged them on a geographical thread, running from the Ionian Islands, through Northern Greece to the Pelopon- nesus. The two larger articles, on Sicily and Dal- matia, are not simply tacked on. They belong to the subject, inasmuch as Sicily was an important part of Hellas, as the Greeks called their country, and inasmuch as Greek colonies once skirted the greater part of the coast of Dalmatia. In regard to the spelling of proper names, I have tried to shun unusual appearances. But I have great objection to changing all the Greek endings in OS into us, just because the Romans did so. I also object to changing the Greek ^ into c where it will surely be pronounced as an s. In the case of names that have become a part of our English viii PREFACE speech, I have, however, admitted these changes. The result may not seem satisfactory, on account of the lack of a but I trust that it will rigid system ; be pardoned. IX CONTENTS PAGE Corfu . 3 A Day in Ithaca 13 Delphi, The Sanctuary of Greece 24 DODONA 34 The Bicycle in Greece 47 acarnania 54 ^TOLIA . ; 65 Thermopylae 79 Thessaly 90 An Ascent of the Highest Mountain in Greece . 104 A Journey from Athens to Eretria m Taygetos and Kith^ron 119 Styx and Stymphalus .128 An Unusual Approach to Epidauros 140 Messene and Sandy Pylos 151 A Tour in Sioly 173 Dalmatia 208 ILLUSTRATIONS Bronze Charioteer Found at Delphi .... Frontispiece FACING PAGB " Corfu. Mouth of the Old Harbor with Ship of Ulys- ses" lO Ithaca. Polis Bay from the North 20 Temple at Stratos 56 Thermon. Temple of Apollo in the Foreground ... 72 Thermopylae. From the West 86 Meteora Monasteries 100 Sparta, with Taygetos in the Background 120 The Stygian Pool 130 Theatre at Epidauros 146 Bay of Navarino, with Old Pylos to the Right and Sphakteria to the Left 158 Stone Quarry at Syracuse Called Latomia dei Cappucini 186 So-called Concordia Temple at Girgenti 194 Cattaro 214 Spalato. Palace of Diocletian. South Front . .222 Clissa 234 Map of Sicily and Dalmatia 173 Map of Greece at end of volume VACATION DAYS IN GREECE CORFU is great good fortune to spend a week in Corfu IT on the way to Greece. Seeing it from one end to the other, wandering through its olive forests and vineyards, brings on a mild, or, in some cases, a wild, intoxication without wine. What words fit the " surrounding beauty but Islands of the Blessed," " " " " Elysium," Garden of Eden," Paradise ? It is not Heaven, after all, for one sees here the poor, for small alms as as lame, blind, begging ; but, long earth holds such corners as Corfu, it is not all cursed. To the traveller who has felt the intoxication of such a region, and is impelled to report something of it, the impotence of words comes home with special force. Naught but the painter's art seems adequate to report Corfu. And, furthermore, painter as well as poet might here well feel the weak- ness of his art. It is a great boon to have had this realm of beauty brought upon the retina of the eye, and so communicated to the soul. One may, perhaps, be allowed to group the im- pressions that Corfu makes, and report them with a plainness that aspires only to the office of a photo- graph,.resigning the attempt at coloring. Before the eye lies one Corfu—the Corfu of to- 3 VACATION DAYS IN GREECE day; but before the mind are brought two others— the Kerkyra of Greek history and the Scheria of Homer. The two latter compete with the former, and refuse the present beautiful scene a monopoly of attention. But, first, to be just to the present Corfu. The traveller who has never been east of Italy, which was my case at the time of my first visit in 1 890, feels that he is here passing for the first time the bounds between Europe and the Orient. The streets and squares of the city, which contains a population of about 30,000—about one-third of the population of the whole island—swarm with figures clad in the most wonderful costumes, men and women vying with one another in display of colors. The Corfiotes themselves contribute largely to this display of costumes. From across the narrow strait come from Epirus many Albanians, with their big white skirts and their kingly air, some for trade and a quick return, and some for a longer stay. From the same quarter come the no less picturesque people, partly Greek and partly Wallachian—but who can give the component parts of the blood of these people of Epirus ?—who, having attempted to secure the consummation of what the Congress of Berlin decreed, incorporation with Greece, were treated as Turks usually treat insur- gents, and were then living as refugees in Corfu, awaiting the hour when Moslem rule shall recede 4 CORFU from the shores of Europe. Some of these men's costumes are ragged and dirty, but with what an air the men walk in them. It is not a swagger, but a king's gait. A well-dressed European gentleman can as little compete with these men for attention as the Berlin palace can compete with the picturesque ruins of Heidelberg. The clergy, who seem numerous enough here to preach the Gospel to every creature, with their long black gowns and high stiff caps, make quite a feature in the throng. The military officers are also numerous and brilliantly dressed, but are too much like ordinary Europeans to attract particular notice. The vegetation here is also Oriental — oranges, lemons, figs, forests of cactus and giant aloes abound. The four or five million olive-trees, many sixty feet high, are the characteristic features of the island. They form a beautiful background for the tall, dark-green cypresses. But the vine presses hard upon the olive. It is great good fortune to be here in the time of the grape harvest, even if one must miss the oranges and the olives. One day in Sep- tember I walked to Palaeokastritza, an old cloister on a rock looking out on the Ionian Sea, sixteen miles from the city. The way was through a con- tinuous vineyard full of laborers. At this season of the year there is hardly a drop of running water in the island. There are places where springs and brooks and even rivers have been and will be again, 5 VACATION DAYS IN GREECE but there are none there now. The water in the wells and cisterns looks suspicious. But one has a substitute for water that is just about as cheap. For copper coin of the value of two cents a woman gave me a pile of grape clusters, enough for four men. On my return I managed to signify with my poor Greek to a man riding on a load of grapes that I would like to change places with him. For three miles I rode stretched out on the top of crates full of grapes, resting my tired feet, eating, by the per- mission of the driver, from the top of the crates, while from the bottom the precious juice oozed out and trickled into the dusty road.

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