338 



REMARKS ON PARTS OF GREECE. 



is another road to Euboea, along the sea-side from Marathon ; from 

 this place to Athens is a distance of eight hours ; three of which are 

 through the plain north of the city, after this, the road leads over low 

 and rugged heights covered with pine-trees and shrubs, until Marathon 

 presents itself, in a narrow valley with a plain, about three miles 

 wide, between the village and the sea. From Athens to the Pelo- 

 ponnesus, the route is through Eleusis and Megara, for the most part 

 along the shore of the gulf ; after having traversed the plain in 

 an hour and a half between Corydallus and Parnes, in a small valley, 

 which leads immediately to the sea, is the convent Daphne, where 

 are two or three inscriptions, and blended with the modern building, 

 columns of the Ionic order, the remains of the temple of Venus. 

 Hence, in a quarter of an hour is the descent to the sea, called YLaavi 

 <nc«'*a*, the bad road; from this point to the streams Rhiti, is the 

 distance of a mile and a half. The road has been formed in the rock 

 close to the sea, and in many places are perceived the marks made 

 by the carriage wheels. After the Rhiti, which are insignificant 

 streams, commences the plain of Thria or Eleusis; from the Rhiti to 

 Eleusis, is the distance of an hour and a half. The plan of the great 

 Temple of Ceres *f , may in part be accurately traced. The plain of 

 Eleusis about eight miles long, and four in width, is almost entirely 



high level ground of considerable extent in this direction, over which the road still leads 

 from Athens to the village of Oropo. Now the nearest distance of Athens from the foot of 

 Parnes is 1 1 English miles, or about 110 stadia: we may therefore expect to discover the 

 remains of Decelea at the distance of 10 stadia farther; and on the spurs of that mountain. 

 Here in fact Stuart has noticed some ruins of ancient Greek walls, which both he and Sir 

 W. Gell believe to be the walls of Decelea. The spot bears the significative appellation 

 of ^wjjto-xAe'fSia." — Mr. Hawkins. 



* Les Grecs la nomment encore aujourd'hui Kakiscala. — Des Mouceaux. 

 f The temple was destroyed by Alaric in 396. Ac. Ins. t. 47. The remains have 

 been carefully examined by the mission sent into Greece in 1 SI 2, by the Dilettanti society. 

 The cellawas about 1 80 feet square, with a portico of 12 Doric columns, of more than 

 six feet in diameter. The fragment of the Eleusinian Goddess now at Cambridge, was 

 first noticed by Des Mouceaux. " L'Ouvrage," he says, speaking of the sculpture of part of 

 it, " ou est acheve la draperie, fait des plisd'un gout merveilleux." 



