38 LANDSCAPE AND IMAGINATION 



across the ridge, allowed the stagnant waters of the 

 interior to flow off into the sea. 1 



Prominent hills and crags in other parts of Greece 

 gave rise to legends, or became the localised scenes 

 of myths which had floated down from an older time, 

 and sometimes perhaps from another birthplace. Thus 

 the hill Lycabettus, that stands so picturesquely on 

 the north-east of Athens, suggested to the lively fancy 

 of the early Athenians a record of the prowess of 

 their patron-goddess. When Athene, so the legend 

 ran, was founding their state and wished to strengthen 

 the city, she went out to Pallene, a demos lying to 

 the north-eastward, and procured there a great hill 

 which she meant to place as a bulwark in front of 

 the Acropolis, but on her way back, hearing from a 

 crow of the birth of Erichthonius, she dropped the 

 hill, which has remained on the same spot ever since. 

 Legends of this kind, but varying in dress with local 

 topography and national temperament, may be found 

 all over the world. 



To the early Greeks the West was a region of 

 marvels. It lay on the outermost bounds of the 

 known world, where the sun descended beneath the 

 earth and where Atlas supported the vault of Heaven. 

 By degrees as the spirit of colonisation drew men 

 in that direction, the occidental marvels of the first 

 voyagers faded away before a more accurate know- 

 ledge of the Mediterranean shores. But the legends 

 to which they had given rise remained in the popular 

 mythology, and served as subjects for chroniclers and 

 poets. 



1 Diod. Sic., iv. 18. See also Lucan, Pharsalia, vi. 345. 



