VALE OF TEMPE 37 



and certainly continued for many centuries to be one 

 of the most noted valleys of the Old World. The 

 contrast between the vast level plain through which 

 the River Peneius and its tributaries wander, and 

 the narrow gorge through which the accumulated 

 waters issue ; the apparently insurmountable barrier 

 interposed across the course of the stream ; the sin- 

 gular and unexpected ravine by which the drainage 

 is allowed to escape to the sea ; the naked, fissured 

 walls of white limestone on either side of the narrow 

 pass, even now powerfully impress the observant 

 traveller of to-day. 



These striking features could not fail to appeal 

 to the imagination of the old Greek. From early 

 times it was recognised that the plain of Thessaly 

 had once been covered with a sheet of water, of 

 which the remaining portions formed two consider- 

 able lakes. Had no passage been opened for the 

 outflow of the drainage across the barrier of moun- 

 tains the plain would have remained submerged. The 

 cleaving of a chasm whereby the pent-up waters were 

 allowed to flow down to the sea, and thus to lay 

 bare so wide an area of rich land for human occu- 

 pation, was looked on as the work of some bene- 

 volent power, and naturally came to be associated with 

 the name of Poseidon, the God of the Sea. 1 In later 

 times, when the deeds of gods and heroes began to 

 be confounded with each other, the supernatural char- 

 acter of the Vale of Tempe was still acknowledged ; 

 but the opening of the cleft was in course of time 

 transferred to Hercules, who, by cutting a hollow 



1 Herodotus, vii. 129. 



