648 
Chateaubriand’s Travels in Greece, Palestine, Sic. 
Fropylsa were an immense undertaking, 
and marble sla\)s, with wijich they were 
covered, surpassed in dimensions any 
thing that was ever seen of the kind ; the 
height of the cokmins of the temple of 
Jupiter Olympins, perhaps exceeds sixty 
feet, and the whole temple was half a 
mile in circumference; the wails of 
Athens, including those of the three har¬ 
bours, extended over a space of near 
nine leagues; the walls which connected 
the city with the Pirsus, were so broad 
that-two chariots might run abreast upon 
tirem, and were flanked wdth square 
towers at intervals of fifty paces. The 
lioraans themselves never erected fortifi¬ 
cations of greater magnitude. 
We passed the whole morning in the 
examination of the citadel. The Turks 
?iad formerly stuck the minaret of a 
mosque to the portico of the Partl'iCnon. 
We ascended by the half-destroyed stair¬ 
case of this minaret; we seated ourselves 
on a broken part of the frieze of the 
temple, and looked around us. We had 
Blount Ilymettus on the east; the Pen- 
telicus on the north; the Parnes on the 
north-west; the Mounts Icarus, Cordy- 
alus, or rEgalaea, on the west, and beyond 
the former was perceived the summit-of 
the Ciihsron; and to the south-west and 
south appeared the sea, the Pirjeus, the 
coasts of Salarnis,-(Tgiiva, Epidaurus, and 
the citadel of Corinth, 
Below us, in the hollow, wliose cir¬ 
cumference I have just described-, were 
seen the hills and most of the monuments 
of Athens; to the south-west, the hill of 
the Museum, with the tomb of Philopap- 
pus; to the west, the rocks of the Are- 
opagus, the Pnyx, and the Lvcabettus; 
to the.north, the little Mount of Aches- 
mus, and to the east, the hills which 
ox^er'ook the Stachum. At the very foot 
of the citadel lay the ruins of the theatre 
of Bacchus and of Ilerodes Atticus. To 
the left of these- ruins stood tiie huge 
dstachf-cl columns of the temple of Ju¬ 
piter Olympins; and still farther off, 
looking toward rhe north-west, we per¬ 
ceived the site of the Lyceunv, the course 
of the llissus, tiie Stadiarn, and a temple 
of Diana or Ceres, In the west and 
north-west quarter, towards tlie large 
wood of olive-trees, M. Tauvel pointed 
out tVie site of tlie outer Ceramicus, the 
Academy, and its road bordered with 
tombs. Lastly, in the valley formed by 
tlie Anchesrnus and tiie citadel, was seen 
the modern town. 
Yon Tp.usC now figure to yourself all 
tltis space, partly waste and covered 
with a yellow heath; partly interspersed 
with olive groves, fields of barley, and 
vinevards. Your imagination must fe- 
present shafts of columns and heaps of 
ancient and modern ruins, scattered 
among these cultivated lands; and 
whitened walls, and the inclosures of 
gardens intersecting them. You must 
scatter over tliis space Albanian women 
fetching water, or washing tiie garments 
of the Turks at the wells; peasants going 
and coming, driving asses, or c;jrrying 
provisions on their backs, to llie city. 
You must conceive all these mountains 
which have such fine names, ail these 
celebrated ruins, all these islands, all 
these seas not less famous, illumined by 
a brilliant light. From the summit of the 
Acropolis, 1 beheld the sun rise betw'een 
the two peaks of Mount Hymettus; the 
crows which build their ne?ts around the 
Citadel, but never soar to its summit, 
hovered below us; their hh-.ck and po- 
iisiied wiiigs were tinged with roseate 
hues by the first radiant beams of Au¬ 
rora; columns of light, blue smoke as¬ 
cended in the shade, along the sides of 
the liyineLtus, and marked the gardens 
w'liere the bees are kept; Athens, the 
Acropolis, ‘and the ruins of tha Parthe¬ 
non, were colored with the most beau¬ 
tiful tints of peach-blossom ; tiie sculp¬ 
tures of Phidias struck horizontally by a 
ray of gold, started into life and seemed 
to move upon the marble from the mo¬ 
bility of the shadows of the relief: in the 
distance, the sea, and the P;i-£us, were 
perfectly white with the light; and the 
citadel of Corinth reilectiug the brilli¬ 
ancy of the rising day, glowed on tka 
southern horizon like a rock of purple 
and fire. 
From the spot where we w-ere placed, 
rve might, in the prosperous times of 
Athens, have seen her fleers stanflirrg 
out of the PirtEus to engage the enemy, 
or to repair to the feasts of Delos; we 
might have heard the griefs of (Edipe, 
Philoctetus, and Hecuba, burst from the 
theatre of Bacchus; we might have lis- 
tetied to the applauses of the citizens and 
the orations of Demosthenes. But, alas ! 
no sound nret om ears, save a few shouts 
from an enslaved populace, issiting at 
intervals from those walls which so long 
re-echoed the voice of a free people. To 
console myself, I said what we are obliged 
to be continually repeating: everything 
passes away, every thitig must liave an 
end in tliis world. W hither are fled 
those divine geniuses, who reared tiie 
teatple on whose ruins I was seated > 
This 
