Mosaics of Grecian History | Page 6

Battle of
Navari'no.--CAMPBELL.
VI. Greece under a Constitutional Monarchy. Revolution against King
Otho.--BENJAMIN. The Deposition of King Otho: Greece under his
Rule. --TUCKERMAN: BRITISH QUARTERLY. Accession of King
George.--His Government.--TUCKERMAN. Progress in Modern
Greece.--COOK.
INDEX

CHAPTER I
.
GENERAL VIEW OF THE GRECIAN STATES AND ISLANDS.
The country called HELLAS by the Helle'nes, its native inhabitants,
and known to us by the name of Greece, forms the southern part of the

most easterly of the three great peninsulas of Southern Europe,
extending into the Mediterranean between the Æge'an Sea, or Grecian
Archipelago, on the east, and the Ionian Sea on the west. The whole
area of this country, so renowned in history, is only about twenty
thousand square miles; which is considerably less than that of Portugal,
and less than half that of the State of Pennsylvania.
The mainland of ancient Greece was naturally divided into Northern
Greece, which embraced Thessaly and Epi'rus; Central Greece,
comprising the divisions of Acarna'nia, Æto'lia, Lo'cris, Do'ris, Pho'cis,
Breo'tia, and At'tica (the latter forming the eastern extremity of the
whole peninsula); and Southern Greece, which the ancients called
Pel-o-pon-ne'sus, or the Island of Pe'lops, which would be an island
were it not for the narrow Isthmus of Corinth, which connects it on the
north with Central Greece. Its modern name, the Mo-re'a, was
bestowed upon it from its resemblance to the leaf of the mulberry. The
chief political divisions of Peloponnesus were Corinth and Acha'ia on
the north, Ar'golis on the east, Laco'nia and Messe'nia at the southern
extremity of the peninsula, E'lis on the west, and the central region of
Arca'dia.
Greece proper is separated from Macedonia on the north by the
Ceraunian and Cambunian chain of mountains, extending in irregular
outline from the Ionian Sea on the west to the Therma'ic Gulf on the
east, terminating, on the eastern coast, in the lofty summit of Mount
Olympus, the fabled residence of the gods, where, in the early dawn of
history, Jupiter (called "the father of gods and men") was said to hold
his court, and where he reigned supreme over heaven and earth.
Olympus rises abruptly, in colossal magnificence, to a height of more
than six thousand feet, lifting its snowy head far above the belt of
clouds that nearly always hangs upon the sides of the mountain.
Wild and august in consecrated pride, There through the deep-blue
heaven Olympus towers, Girdled with mists, light-floating as to hide
The rock-built palace of immortal powers. --HEMANS.
In the Olympian range, also, was Mount Pie'rus, where was the Pierian
fountain, one of the sacred resorts of the Muses, so often mentioned by
the poets, and to which POPE, with gentle sarcasm, refers when he
says,
A little learning is a dangerous thing: Drink deep, or taste not the

Pierian spring.
1. Thessaly.--From the northern chain of mountains, the central Pindus
range, running south, separates Thessaly on the east from Epi'rus on the
west. The former region, enclosed by mountain ranges broken only on
the east, and watered by the Pene'us and its numerous tributaries,
embraced the largest and most fertile plain in all Greece. On the
Thessalian coast, south of Olympus, were the celebrated mounts Ossa
and Pe'lion, which the giants, in their wars against the gods, as the
poets fable, piled upon Olympus in their daring attempt to scale the
heavens and dethrone the gods. Between those mounts lay the
celebrated vale of Tem'pe, through which the Pene'us flowed to the sea.
Romantic Tempe! thou art yet the same-- Wild as when sung by bards
of elder time: Years, that have changed thy river's classic name,
[Footnote: The modern name of the Pene'us is Selembria or Salamvria.]
Have left thee still in savage pomp sublime. --HEMANS.
Farther south, having the sea on one side and the lofty cliffs of Mount
OE'ta on the other, was the celebrated narrow pass of Thermop'ylæ,
leading from Thessaly into Central Greece.
2. Epi'rus.--The country of Epirus, on the west of Thessaly, was mostly
a wild and mountainous region, but with fertile intervening valleys.
Among the localities of Epirus celebrated in fable and in song was the
river Cocy'tus, which the poets, on account of its nauseous waters,
described as one of the rivers of the lower world--
Cocytus, named of lamentation loud Heard on the rueful stream.
The Ach'eron was another of the rivers--
Sad Acheron of sorrow, black and deep-- --MILTON.
which was assigned by the poets to the lower world, and over which the
souls of the dead were said to be first conveyed, before they were borne
the Le'the, or "stream of oblivion," beyond. The true Acheron of Epirus
has been thus described:
Yonder rolls Acheron his dismal stream, Sunk in a narrow bed: cypress
and fir Wave their dim foliage on his rugged banks;