"THE GLORY THAT WAS GREECE' 



577 



than a hundred yards away, 

 came the voices of nightin- 

 gales. 



This was my introduction 

 to Athens. 



the first walk through 



TUT; CITY 



My friend and I had deter- 

 mined that we would scorn 

 the tribes of Baedeker and 

 Joanne and not be inveigled 

 into an ordered, exact trip to 

 the lovely sights and scenes to 

 which we looked forward; so 

 it was . perhaps 10 o'clock, 

 after a breakfast of delicious 

 fruit, with coffee and crisp 

 toast and Hymettus honey, in 

 which latter we each fancied 

 we could detect the vague 

 fragrance of favorite flowers, 

 that we set forth on our thrill- 

 ing voyage of discovery. 



Straight away from the 

 hotel runs a broad avenue 

 named after the wife of King 

 Otho — Amalia. Down this we 

 wandered slowly, leaving the 

 Royal Palace on the left and 

 skirting the King's Garden. 



Beyond a distant glimpse of 

 the Acropolis, the first classic 

 monument our eyes rested on 

 was the Arch of Hadrian. 

 This Emperor, it will be re- 

 called, was one of the princi- 

 pal benefactors of Athens in 

 the value and character of his 

 gifts. These embraced a wa- 

 ter-supply, a reservoir which 

 is in use to-day, a library, and 

 perhaps the Temple to Olym- 

 pian Zeus. He also built the 

 new city beyond the old one, and the 

 Arch at which we looked marked the 

 dividing line between the Greek and Ro- 

 man towns (see illustration, page 592). 



We passed through the Arch and, turn- 

 ing to the right, entered the precincts of 

 the Temple of Zeus. The temple, like the 

 buildings on the Acropolis, is of Pentelic 

 marble, to which time has given an ex- 

 quisite golden brown color, especially on 

 the side which faces the sea. Two of the 

 columns stand detached like sentinels and 

 by a happy accident close the three-mile 



Photograph from Alexander Wilbourne Weddell 



STELE OF HEGESO IN THE CEMETERY OE THE 

 CERAMEICUS 



This is, perhaps, the most beautiful of all the gravestones 

 in the ancient cemetery. It dates from the fourth century 

 B. C. and represents a noble lady at her toilet, attended by a 

 female slave. As in so many of the Greek sculptures, the 

 draperies are worthy of special study (see page 602) . 



tangent formed by the Syngros Avenue, 

 which links up modern Athens with its 

 little seaside resort, Phaleron. 



We took a seat on the base of one of 

 the columns and looked up to its top. 

 There, during a series of years, a long line 

 of hermits had passed their nights and 

 days until death brought them release 

 (see illustration, page 573). 



During my stay at Athens I was assured 

 by an old Athenian that he remembered as 

 a child visiting the precincts of the temple 

 and carrying gifts of bread and fruit to 



