Mosaics of Grecian History Part 5

V. The Greek Revolution.

A Prophetic Vision of the Struggle.--Sh.e.l.lEY'S "h.e.l.las".

Song of the Greeks.--CAMPBELL.

American Sympathy with Greece.--TUCKERMAN: WEBSTER.

The Sortie at Missolon'ghi.--WARBURTON.

A Visit to Missolonghi.--STEPHENS.

Marco Bozzar'is.--HALLECK.

Battle of Navari'no.--CAMPBELL.

VI. Greece under a Const.i.tutional 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 h.e.l.lAS by the h.e.l.le'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 aege'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, aeto'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 G.o.ds, where, in the early dawn of history, Jupiter (called "the father of G.o.ds 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 G.o.ds, as the poets fable, piled upon Olympus in their daring attempt to scale the heavens and dethrone the G.o.ds. 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 cla.s.sic 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 pa.s.s of Thermop'ylae, 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 a.s.signed 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; 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. aeto'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-G.o.d 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 aetolia, was inhabited by a wild, uncivilized race, scarcely h.e.l.len'ic in character, and said to have been addicted, from the earliest period, to theft and rapine. Their two princ.i.p.al 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 aetolia proper--a rough but fertile country--was the early seat of the Dorians, the most enterprising and the most powerful of the h.e.l.lenic 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, aetolia, 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 Parna.s.sus, 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 Parna.s.sus, in lines almost of veneration, as he first viewed it from Delphi, on the southern base of the mountain:

Oh, thou Parna.s.sus! 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, p.r.o.nounced 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 Cithae'ron, on its southern border, the hunter Actae'on, having been changed into a stag by the G.o.ddess Diana, was hunted down and killed by his own hounds. Pen'theus, an early king of Thebes, having ascended Cithaeron to witness the orgies of the Baccha.n.a.ls, 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,