the school of the Cynic philosophers, at the foot of Mount Anchesmus, a branch of Mount Pentelicus, so celebrated for its marble quarries; and below it was the Lyceum, the school of Aristotle and the Peripatetics, separated by the river Ilissus from Mount Hymettus. On the North West was the Ceramicus without the walls, through which a road led to the celebrated gardens of the Academia, watered by the Cephisus on the North West, and having the house of Plato to the East, and to the North the hill Colonos, the scene of the beautiful tragedy of Sophocles called the Edipus Coloneus. The road to Thebes passed over this hill. Eastwards from the Parthenon was Mount Hymettus, celebrated for its bees; and North East of it Mount Pentelicus, celebrated for its quarries of marble. North is Mount Parnes, North West and West, Mount Ægaleus and Corydalus. The extreme Southern promontory of Attica was called Sunium, where there was a temple of Minerva, some columns of which still remain, whence the cape is now called Cabo Colonni. A long island lies opposite to it called Helena, or Macris, which still preserves the name of Macronisi. Near Sunium was Laurium, celebrated for its silver mines. Proceeding upwards, along the North Eastern shore of Attica, we come to Brauron, near Mons Pentelicus. Here was a celebrated temple of Diana, hence called Brauronia: and the statue of Diana, brought by Orestes from Tauris, was preserved here till it was carried off by Xerxes. North of Brauron is the glorious Nisi Hymettia mella Falerno Ne biberis diluta Hor. Sat. II. 2. plain of Marathon, still preserving its immortal name, where the Athenians, under the conduct of Miltiades defeated the Persian army, Sep. 28, B. C. 490, Ol. 72, 3. Above it is Rhamnus, celebrated for a temple of the goddess Nemesis, thence called Rhamnusia. It was built of the marble brought into the field by the Persians, in order to erect the trophy of their anticipated victory. Quitting the coast, somewhat South West of Rhamnus, is Decelia, so celebrated for having been garrisoned by the Lacedæmonians in the Peloponnesian war, a full account of which is given in the seventh book of Thucydides. Below Decelia is Aphidnæ, and below it Acharnæ, both boroughs of Attica, the latter of which has given name to a play of Aristophanes. South West of these is Thria, a little above Eleusis, giving the name of Thriasius Campus to the great plain extending towards Boeotia, in the North of which was Phyle, the fort possessed by Thrasybulus and the Athenian exiles, who expelled the thirty tyrants from Athens after the Peloponnesian war, B. C. 401, Ol. 94, 4. Next to Attica is Boeotia; in which, above Megaris, and the Sinus Corinthiacus, we may observe Mount Citharon, about midway between Thebes and Corinth, the celebrated scene of the exposure of the infant Edipus. A little North of Mount Citharon is Platææ, the ever-memorable scene of the defeat of the Persians, under the command of Mardonius, by the Lacedæmonians, commanded by Pausanias, Sept. 22. B. C. 479, Ol. 75, 2, and of the siege and cruel destruction of its inhabitants by the Lacedæmonians, in the Peloponnesian war, B. C. 427, Ol. 88, 2, so interesting an account of which is given by Thucydides in his third book. A little West of Platææ is Leuctra, so memorable for the signal defeat of the Lacedæmonians by the Thebans, under the conduct of Epaminondas, July 8, B. C. 371, Ol. 102, 2. Proceeding Eastward, along the Athenian frontier, we find Eleutheræ, and following the course of the river Asopus, we come to Tanagra and Oropus, now Oropo, at its mouth. The Athenians and Thebans had many disputes for the possession of Oropus, till at last it was adjudged to the Athenians by Philip of Macedon. The plain along the Asopus was called Parasopias. Above Tanagra was Delium, where the Athenians were defeated by the Boeotians, in the Peloponnesian war, B. C. 421, Ol. 89, 4; an account of which may be seen in the fourth book of Thucydides. Above it, at the narrowest point of the Euripus, opposite to Chalchis, in Euboea, was Aulis, the memorable scene of the detention of the Grecian fleet in their expedition to Troy, till Agamemnon had appeased Diana by the sacrifice of his own daughter Iphigenia. Above Aulis is Anthedon; West of which is the lake Copais, now called Livadea Limne, into which flows the Boeotian Cephisus, a river celebrated by Pindar, and larger than the Athenian of the same name. At the Northern extremity of this lake stood the small town of Copæ, whence it derived its name. At its Western extremity was Orchomenus, antiently called Minyeia, a town celebrated for its wealth, and for a temple of the Graces, mentioned by Pindar. A little to the West was the town of Charonea, memorable for the defeat of the Athenians by the Boeotians, B. C. 447, Ol. 83, 2; and much more for their irretrievable defeat by Philip, Aug. 2, B. C. 338, Ol. 110, 3, which put an end to the liberties of Greece: it was also the birthplace of Plutarch. Below it is Coronea,,celebrated also for a defeat of the Athenians, and their allies, by Agesilaus, King of Sparta, B. C. 394, Ol. 96, 3; and below these, a litte East, is Haliartus, which was destroyed by the Romans in the first Macedonian war. South of this was Oncestus, sacred to Neptune, and South East of it, almost in the centre of Boeotia, on the little river Ismenus, was Thebes, founded by Cadmus, and hence called Cadmæan, the scene of the sufferings of Edipus, and the birth-place of Pindar. Below it was Potniæ, the residence of Glaucus, the son of Sisyphus, who was torn in pieces by his mares, which was the subject of one of the lost tragedies of Æschylus. * South West of Thebes, above the Sinus Corinthiacus, was Thespiæ, at the foot of Mount Helicon, the celebrated abode of Apollo and the Muses, where was the fountain Aganippe, and the river Permessus. This was the Southern extremity of the Parnassian ridge, which is a chain of considerable length, running North West through Phocis also, as we shall see hereafter. About twenty stadia higher, was the verse-inspiring fountain of Hippocrene, said to have been made by the hoof of Pegasus. A part of this mountain was called Libethrus, a little above Ascra, the birth-place of Hesiod, which is at the foot of Helicon. Hence the Muses are called Libethrides. + Glauci Potniades malis membra absumpsere quadriga. Virg. Georg. III. 267. + Nymphæ, noster amor, Libethrides. The last place that we shall notice in Bœotia is Lebedæa, now Livadia, where was the celebrated cave of Trophonius, into which they who entered were never seen to smile afterwards. From this city Boeotia has acquired the modern name of Livadia. West of Boeotia is Phocis, bounded by the Sinus Corinthiacus on the South. At the first bend of this gulph to the North was the peninsula of Anticyra, celebrated for its hellebore, the great remedy for madness among the antients. The second bend is called the Sinus Crissæus, from the city of Crissa at its top. A little North of which is the renowned city of Delphi, and above it Mons Parnassus, sacred to Apollo and the Muses, at the foot of which was Fons Castalius, whence the Muses are called Castalides. Delphi was also called Pytho, from the serpent of that name, which was killed by Apollo, in honour of whom the Pythian games were celebrated every fifth year. Parnassus had two summits, the one consecrated to Apollo, the other to Bacchus: whoever slept on Parnassus either became an inspired poet or mad.* Delphi is now called Castri, and the summit of Parnassus is called Lakura, from the antient name of Lycorea; it is so high as to be seen from the Acropolis of Corinth, eighty miles distant. North East of these was the Corycian cave, also sacred to the Muses, and, still North East, the city of Elatea, or Turco-corio, the largest in Phocis, the unexpected surprise of which by Philip produced a shock at Athens, so finely described by Demosthenes in his famous oration De Corona. Nearly * Hence Persius Nec in bicipiti somniasse Parnasso Memini, ut repente sic poeta prodirem. Pers. Prol. V. 2. |