Mosaics of Grecian History | Page 8

pronounced the
prophetic responses, in extempore prose or verse; and here the Pythian
Games were celebrated in honor of Apollo.
Here, thought-entranced, we wander, where of old From Delphi's
chasm the mystic vapor rose, And trembling nations heard their doom
foretold By the dread spirit throned 'midst rocks and snows. Though its
rich fanes be blended with the dust, And silence now the hallowed

haunt possess, Still is the scene of ancient rites august, Magnificent in
mountain loneliness; Still Inspiration hovers o'er the ground, Where
Greece her councils held, her Pythian victors crowned. --MRS.
HEMANS.
8. Boeo'tia.--Boeotia, lying to the east of Phocis, bordering on the
Euri'pus, or "Euboe'an Sea," a narrow strait which separates it from the
Island of Euboe'a, and touching the Corinthian Gulf on the south-west,
is mostly one large basin enclosed by mountain ranges, and having a
soil exceedingly fertile. It was the most thickly settled part of Greece; it
abounded in cities of historic interest, of which Thebes, the capital, was
the chief--whose walls were built, according to the fable, to the sound
of the Muses:
With their ninefold symphonies There the chiming Muses throng;
Stone on stone the walls arise To the choral Music-song. --SCHILLER.
Boeotia was the scene of many of the legends celebrated by the poets,
and especially of those upon which were founded the plays of the
Greek tragedians. Near a fountain on Mount Cithæ'ron, on its southern
border, the hunter Actæ'on, having been changed into a stag by the
goddess Diana, was hunted down and killed by his own hounds.
Pen'theus, an early king of Thebes, having ascended Cithæron to
witness the orgies of the Bacchanals, was torn in pieces by his own
mother and aunts, to whom Bacchus made him appear as a wild beast.
On this same mountain range also occurred the exposure of OEd'ipus,
the hero of the most famous tragedy of Sophocles. Near the Corinthian
Gulf was Mount Hel'icon, sacred to Apollo and the Muses. Its slopes
and valleys were renowned for their fertility; it had its sacred grove,
and near it was the famous fountain of Aganip'pe, which was believed
to inspire with oracular powers those who drank of its waters. Nearer
the summit was the fountain Hippocre'ne, which is said to have burst
forth when the winged horse Peg'asus, the favorite of the Muses, struck
the ground with his hoofs, and which Venus, accompanied by her
constant attendants, the doves, delighted to visit. Here, we are told,
Her darling doves, light-hovering round their Queen, Dipped their red
beaks in rills from Hippocrene. [Footnote: Always Hip-po-cre'ne in
prose; but it is allowable to contract it into three syllables in poetry, as
in the example above.]
It was here, also--

near this fresh fount, On pleasant Helicon's umbrageous mount--
that occurred the celebrated contest between the nine daughters of
Pie'rus, king of E-ma'thi-a (the ancient name of Macedonia), and the
nine Muses. It is said that "at the song of the daughters of Pierus the
sky became dark, and all nature was put out of harmony; but at that of
the Muses the heavens themselves, the stars, the sea, and the rivers
stood motionless, and Helicon swelled up with delight, so that its
summit reached the sky." The Muses then, having turned the
presumptuous maidens into chattering magpies, first took the name of
Pi-er'i-des, from Pieria, their natal region.
9. Attica.--Bordering Boeotia on the south-east was the district of
Attica, nearly in the form of a triangle, having two of its sides washed
by the sea, and the other--the northern--shut off from the east of Central
Greece by the mountain range of Cithæron on the north-west, and
Par'nes on the east. Its other noted mountains were Pentel'icus
(sometimes called Mende'li), so celebrated for its quarries of beautiful
marble, and Hymet'tus, celebrated for its excellent honey, and the broad
belt of flowers at its base, which scented the air with their delicious
perfume. It could boast of its chief city, the favored seat of the goddess
Minerva--
Athens, the eye of Greece, mother of arts And eloquence--
as surpassing all other cities in beauty and magnificence, and in the
great number of its illustrious citizens. Yet the soil of Attica was, on
the whole, exceedingly barren, with the exception of a few very fertile
spots; but olive groves abounded, and the olive was the most valuable
product.
The general sterility of Attica was the great safety of her people in their
early history. "It drove them abroad; it filled them with a spirit of
activity, which loved to grapple with danger and difficulty; it told them
that, if they would maintain themselves in the dignity which became
them, they must regard the resources of their own land as nothing, and
those of other countries as their own." Added to