580 



Monthly Review of Literature, 



[MAY, 



the peninsula, which before depended al- 

 most wholly upon inferences gathered from 

 descriptions of ancient historians and geogra- 

 phers, is now constructed with something 

 like trigonometrical precision. One thou- 

 sand five hundred measurements were made 

 with the sextant and theodolite, and these 

 corrected or confirmed by some good ob- 

 servations of latitude. 



Eleia proves, perhaps, the most barren of 

 interest : the relics are fewer, and every spot 

 more difficult to trace. Rivers and hills are 

 permanent, or nothing would have been ac- 

 complished. After Elis monopolised the 

 management of the Olympian festival, it at- 

 tracted the wealth and population of Eleia 

 and Trephylla, and other places fell into de- 

 cay. The soil of Eleia, too, is sandy, and the 

 scarcity of stone led to the plundering of 

 buildings and temples. It is moreover lia- 

 ble, beyond other parts of the Morea, to allu- 

 vial changes. The sanctity of the territory, 

 besides, superseded the necessity of castles 

 and fortresses. These are all conspiring 

 causes. Messeriia and Laconia are both of 

 them in a somewhat similar state, though 

 from different sources. The Spartans, after 

 their conquest of Messenia, themselves le- 

 velled the fortresses and enslaved the natives ; 

 and Laconia was kept in a state of vassalage 

 scarcely less rigid. Except at Andania and 

 there are found rather vestiges than ruins of 

 the massive works which once defended the 

 site no traces are discoverable of ancient 

 fortresses, such as Arcadia and Argeia still 

 present. 



The eastern parts of thepenihsulahave better 

 retained the old names ; but it is not always 

 safe to trust to this source of identification, 

 at least in the western parts. For instance, 

 the modern Koroni, on the eastern coast of 

 Messenia, is not the ancient Corone: the 

 descriptions of both Pausanias and Strabo 

 prove incontestably that Petatidhi, some ten 

 miles higher up the gulf, is the site of the 

 ancient town. From the few natives at all 

 cultivated and acquainted with the old writ- 

 ers of Greece, nothing seems to be attain- 

 able. At Dhimitzana is a school, the most 

 renowned in the Morea, and apparently older 

 than the Turkish invasion, the didasculus of 

 which Col. Leake describes as a '* sensible, 

 pleasant man, with a tolerable knowledge of 

 the ancient authors, and a good memory." 

 According to him, Dhimitzana is the ancient 

 Psoplils, the mountain of Stemnitza Lam- 

 peia, and the river Erymanthus. " In vain," 

 says Col. Leake, " I turn to Pausanias, and 

 endeavour to show him that those places 

 must have been some thirty miles distant. 

 He produces Meletius, though he acknow- 

 ledges him to be full of errors, in support of 

 the tradition which he received from his pre- 

 decessor in the school, and which the people 

 of Dhimitzana have been so long accustomed 

 to, that they will probably adhere to it as long 

 as Greece remains in its present state of dark. 



ness." At Solos, in Arcadia, he observes, "I 

 can find no person, not even the didasculus, 

 who is scholar enough to be sensible that he 

 is living on the banks of the Styx ; but what is 

 very curious, though ignorant in this respect, 

 they preserve the old notion that the water of 

 the river is unwholesome, and relate nearly the 

 same story concerning it as Pausanias, saying 

 that no vessel will hold the water, &c." 



While roaming among the hills of Arca- 

 dia, he took shelter in a shepherd's tent. 

 "The man," says he, "has his wife and chil- 

 dren, and his sons' wives and all their chil- 

 dren, to the number of twelve or fifteen, in 

 the tent. Milk and misithra is their only 

 food. 'We have milk in plenty,' they tell me, 

 ' but no bread.' Such is the life," he adds, 

 a of a modern Arcadian shepherd, who has al- 

 most reverted to the balanephagous state of 

 his primitive ancestors. The children, how- 

 ever, all look healthy, and are handsome, hav- 

 ing large black eyes and regular features, 

 with very dark complexions." 



Occasionally passages like the following 

 relieve the general dulness of the book : it is 

 making an agreeable use of his learning. 



These woody heights (still in Arcadia) , backed by 

 the higher summits, are admirably adapted to shel- 

 ter the wild animals which made Pholoe and its vi- 

 cinity so favourite a resort of Diana and her nymphs, 

 and Scillus so delightful a residence for a sportsman 

 like Xenophon. Of the wild animals which afforded 

 chase to Xenophon and his friends at Scillus, deer 

 are now rare in the lower parts of the mountain ; 

 but they are found in the higher regions, as well 

 of Pholoe, as of the other great summits of the 

 peninsula : the roebuck and the wild hog are fre- 

 quently seen as low as Scillus and the banks of the 

 Alpheius. The bear would seem, from the silence 

 of Xenophon regarding it, not to have been com- 

 mon in the Peloponnesus in his days ; though in 

 more ancient times we maybe assured that it ex- 

 isted, from its skin having furnished clothing to the 

 Arcadiatis, and from the story of Areas and Callisto. 

 It is very possible, that as the wild animals dimi- 

 nish with the increase of the human species, the 

 bear may have been driven out of the peninsula iu 

 the most populous and civilized ages of Greece, nor 

 have regained its footing in the Peloponnesian 

 mountains until the Roman wars and their conse- 

 quences had reduced the country to a state of deser- 

 tion from which it has never recovered. In the time 

 of Pausanias,} the bear was common in the woods 

 of Arcadia : it is now seldom seen in any part of 

 the Morea, though the occasional appearance of 

 a^xovbia in the mountains both of Arcadia and 

 Laconia is generally attested by the inhabitants. 



The women of Mistra (in Lacedaemon, not 

 far from the banks of the Eurotas) and the sur- 

 rounding plain, the gallant colonel observes, 

 were taller and more robust than other Greeks, 

 had more colour, and looked healthier ; and 

 learnedly reminds us this agrees also with 

 Homer's Xom^ai/juova, xyT^XiyvvKiKK, 



About an hour west of Monemvasia, not 

 far from Mistra, there are still vineyards 

 which produce a strong wine ; but that 

 which gave rise to the name of Malmsey has 



