Mosaics of Grecian History | Page 7

And underneath
their boughs the parched ground, Strewed o'er with juniper and
withered leaves, Seems blasted by no mortal tread.
As the Acheron falls into the lake Acheru'sia, and after rising from it
flows underground for some distance, this lake also has been connected
by the poets with the gloomy legend of its fountain stream.

This is the place Sung by the ancient masters of the lyre, Where
disembodied spirits, ere they left Their earthly mansions, lingered for a
time Upon the confines of eternal night, Mourning their doom; and oft
the astonished hind, As home he journeyed at the fall of eve, Viewed
unknown forms flitting across his path, And in the breeze that waved
the sighing boughs Heard shrieks of woe. --HAYGARTH.
In Epirus was also situated the celebrated city of Dodo'na, with the
temple of that name, where was the most ancient oracle in Greece,
whose fame extended even to Asia. But in the wide waste of centuries
even the site of this once famous oracle is forgotten.
Where, now, Dodona! is thine aged grove, Prophetic fount, and oracle
divine? What valley echoes the response of Jove? What trace remaineth
of the Thunderer's shrine? All, all forgotten! --BYRON.
3. Acarna'nia.--Coming now to Central Greece, lying northward of the
Corinthian Gulf, we find Acarnania on the far west, for the most part a
productive country with good harbors: but the Acarnanians, a rude and
warlike people, were little inclined to Commercial pursuits; they
remained far behind the rest of the Greeks in culture, and scarcely one
city of importance was embraced within their territory.
4. Æto'lia, generally a rough and mountainous country, separated, on
the west, from Acarnania by the river Ach-e-lo'us, the largest of the
rivers of Greece, was inhabited, like Acarnania, by a hardy and warlike
race, who long preserved the wild and uncivilized habits of a barbarous
age. The river Achelous was intimately connected with the religion and
mythology of the Greeks. The hero Hercules contended with the
river-god for the hand of De-i-a-ni'ra, the most beautiful woman of his
time; and so famous was the stream itself that the Oracle of Dodona
gave frequent directions "to sacrifice to the Achelous," whose very
name was used, in the language of poetry, as an appellation for the
element of water and for rivers.
5. Lo'cris, lying along the Corinthian Gulf east of Ætolia, was inhabited
by a wild, uncivilized race, scarcely Hellen'ic in character, and said to
have been addicted, from the earliest period, to theft and rapine. Their
two principal towns were Amphis'sa and Naupac'tus, the latter now
called Lepanto. There was another settlement of the Locri north of
Pho'cis and Boeo'tia.
6. Do'ris, a small territory in the north-eastern angle of Ætolia proper--a

rough but fertile country--was the early seat of the Dorians, the most
enterprising and the most powerful of the Hellenic tribes, if we take
into account their numerous migrations, colonies and conquests. Their
colonies in Asia Minor founded six independent republics, which were
confined within the bounds of as many cities. From this people the
Doric order of architecture--a style typical of majesty and imposing
grandeur, and the one the most employed by the Greeks in the
construction of their temples--derived its origin.
7. Pho'cis.--On the east of Locris, Ætolia, and Doris was Phocis, a
mountainous region, bordered on the south by the Corinthian Gulf. In
the northern central part of its territory was the famed Mount Parnassus,
covered the greater part of the year with snow, with its sacred cave, and
its Castalian fount gushing forth between two of its lofty rocks. The
waters were said to inspire those who drank of them with the gift of
poetry. Hence both mountain and fount were sacred to the Muses, and
their names have come down to our own times as synonymous with
poetry and song. BYRON thus writes of Parnassus, in lines almost of
veneration, as he first viewed it from Delphi, on the southern base of
the mountain:
Oh, thou Parnassus! whom I now survey, Not in the frenzy of a
dreamer's eye, Not in the fabled landscape of a lay, But soaring
snow-clad through thy native sky In the wild pomp of mountain
majesty!
Oft have I dreamed of thee! whose glorious name Who knows not,
knows not man's divinest lore: And now I view thee, 'tis, alas! with
shame That I in feeblest accents must adore. When I recount thy
worshippers of yore I tremble, and can only bend the knee; Nor raise
my voice, nor vainly dare to soar, But gaze beneath thy cloudy canopy
In silent joy to think at last I look on thee!
The city of Delphi was the seat of the celebrated temple and oracle of
that name. Here the Pythia, the priestess of Apollo,