'THE GLORY THAT WAS GREECE' 



82£ 



canal was by no means a new one ; it was 

 seriously entertained under Caesar, Nero, 

 and Hadrian (see illustration, page 590). 



WHERE UMIA PRACTICED HER WILES 



A short distance from the eastern end 

 of the canal is Cenchreae, which was in 

 classic times the Saronic port of Corinth. 

 On the road between the two cities one 

 of the earliest "vamps" in history, named 

 Lamia, met a youth of Corinth named 

 Lycius, to his undoing — vide Keats. The 

 Lamian method is recommended to our 

 modern motion-picture artists as being 

 equally effective and far more artistic 

 than the Saint Vitusian wriggle and crawl 

 that now characterizes their art. 



Not far from the bridge may be traced 

 the ruins of a tramway on which in 

 ancient times small craft and merchan- 

 dise were dragged across the Isthmus. 



The Isthmian games, held biennially, 

 took place here and were especially fre- 

 quented by the Athenians, their institu- 

 tion being commonly assigned to Theseus. 



Two notable historical events are con- 

 nected with this spot. Here Alexander 

 the Great, before starting on his expedi- 

 tion against Persia in B. C. 336, caused 

 himself to be hailed as the leader of all the 

 Greeks. More than a century later a 

 Roman consul announced to assembled 

 Greeks that Imperial . Rome had vouch- 

 safed to them the gift of independence. 

 " 'Tis Greece, but living Greece no more." 



Shortly after crossing the canal we 

 enter New Corinth, a modern town of 

 about 5,000 people, which was laid out 

 some seventy years ago, following the de- 

 struction of the old city by an earthquake. 



Dominating the landscape for miles 

 stands the symmetrically shaped moun- 

 tain known as Acrocorinth, crowned to- 

 day by medieval battlements, the work of 

 military engineers in the service of Venice 

 and Turkey and representing the last 

 word in the art of their time — glacis, 

 ravelin, curtain, revetment, scarp and 

 counterscarp, redan. 



From the earliest days this bold sum- 

 mit, which rises nearly 2,000 feet above 

 the plain, has been a sacred and important 

 spot. Here was a temple to Venus, of 

 which a few fragments still remain ; at 

 the top is the spring Pirene, which legend 

 tells us gushed forth at a stroke from the 

 hoof of Pegasus. 



Up to the time of Greek independence 

 the Turks admitted no one to the citadel 

 and but little is known of its history. 



The view from this height is one of the 

 finest in Greece. To the south our gaze 

 commands the valleys and hills of Argolis. 

 To the north we look across the town, 

 lying far below us, on to the glossy sur- 

 face of the Corinthian Gulf ; farther to 

 the north, and most imposing in its gran- 

 deur, is Parnassus, which raises its head, 

 snow-clad until far into the spring ; to the 

 east is the Attic plain, while to the west 

 tower the lofty Arcadian hills. 



In the spring and autumn -the outlook 

 over the fertile plain is a joy to behold. 

 One cannot but think that St. Paul had 

 in his mind's eye a view from this crest, 

 which he doubtless visited, when he wrote 

 to the Corinthians of his day and, drawing 

 a parallel from the fields of ripening grain 

 below him, argued the soul's immortality. 



To an American, Corinth is of special 

 interest, since it is here, on the site of old 

 Corinth, that the American School for 

 Classical Studies has carried on its labors, 

 which have been crowned with brilliant 

 success. 



The people of old Corinth have reason 

 to be grateful to the American school and 

 to the American Red Cross, for these two, 

 in conjunction with the municipal authori- 

 ties, have brought about extensive and 

 costly changes and improvements in the 

 water-supply of the town. 



A JOURNEY TO DElvPHI 



From Piraeus to Itea, the port of Del- 

 phi, small Greek steamers ply daily, mak- 

 ing the voyage in about eight hours. It 

 is only a few miles on horseback, car- 

 riage, or foot from the port to the site of 

 the temple, while from Delphi one may 

 ride or drive through the ranges of Par- 

 nassus to a point on the railway linking 

 Athens and the north, whence the return 

 journey to the capital is made in a few 

 hours. But of all this more anon. 



We left the Piraeus early on a May 

 morning. There was still a dash of fresh- 

 ness in the air which made one welcome 

 the warm sunshine. The course lay be- 

 tween Salamis and /Egina, straight to the 

 mouth of the Corinth Canal. 



On our left lay a group of islands, be- 

 ginning with Pente Nisia (the Pelops of 

 the ancients), while beyond were to be 



