may be added prom. Rhium (south) and Antirrhium (north) which nearly block up the entrance of the Sinus Corinthiacus; Araxus, the north-west point of Peloponnesus, Chelonītes v. -natas, the farthest west; and Acritas in Messenia. The Bays and Gulfs connected with Peloponnesus were Sinus Corinthiacus, Messeniacus, Laconiacus, Argolicus, and Saronicus: in the last of these were the Islands of Calaurea, where Demosthenes died; Aegina, once the rival of Athens at sea; and in front of the harbour of Athens, Salamis, off the east end of which the fleet of Xerxes was defeated by the Athenians, 480 B.C. In continental Greece were the Sinus Maliăcus (Zeitoun) Pagasaeus (Volo), so called from the town Pagasae, where Jason was said to have built the ship Argo, and thence the supposed derivation of the name from vμ, pango; and along the coast of Macedonia, Sinus Thermaicus (Salonichi), Terinaeus, Singiticus, and Stymonicus; the last so named because it receives the Strymon, a river whose banks were much frequented by cranes. Flocks of these birds arranging themselves in the form of the Greek letter A were said to migrate alternately, according to the season, to the Strymon and to the Nile.33 33 Illud vero ab Aristotele animadversum quis potest non mirari? Grues, quum loca calidiora petentes maria transmittant, trianguli efficere formam, &c.-CIC. DE NAT. DEOR. II. Ch. 49. Ingenti clangore grues aestiva relinquunt Thracia, quum tepido permutant Strymona Nilo. Litera, pennarumque notis inscribitur Aer.-CLAUD. B. G. 475. THERE is no country attended by such a cortège of ISLANDS as Greece. Her seas are, literally, 'crebris freta consita terris.' It would be endless and unprofitable to enumerate them all; but there are not a few which ought to be familiar to every student and every reader of the classics. Some of these are in the Ionian Sea, off the western side of the Grecian triangle; but the great majority are on its eastern side and in the Aegean. I. Of the former class are, 1. Corcyra (Corfu), thought to be the Homeric Scheria, the island of the Phaeacians, where lived the suitors of Penelope In cute curanda plus aequo operata juventus :' 2. Ithaca, the home of Ulysses, which, though it was ' in asperrimis saxulis, tanquam nidulus, affixa,' he preferred to immortality in the brighter island of Calypso:34 3. Zacynthus (Zante) nemorosa, as Virgil calls it, a colony from which is said to have peopled and given name to Saguntum: 4. Off the west coast of Peloponnesus the rocks called Strophades (Strivali), the haunts of the harpies.35 To the south 34 CIC. DE OR. I. 44. Cicero here alludes to what Ulysses says (ODYSS. E. 219), Αλλὰ καὶ ὡς εθελω, και εελδομαι ηματα παντα coupled with the words of Telemachus, (ODYSS. A. 605), a verse which Horace also refers to when he says, Haud male Telemachus, proles patientis Ulyssei, 35 'Non est aptus equis Ithace locus, ut neque planis Insulae Ionio in magno, quas dira Celaeno of the Laconian Promontory Malea was Cythera, an island sacred to Venus; still farther south is CRETA, of old, Exaтoμлoλç; but of its hundred cities 36 the only three known to fame in classical times were Gnossus, the capital of King Minos, Gortyna, and Cydonia, all three famed for archery.37 Of its mountains, Ida was the loftiest, and on Dicte Jupiter was said to have been reared, and fed upon honey and the milk of the goat Amalthea. The sea round the island was called Creticum.38 II. Of the islands lying to the east of Greece and in the Aegean Sea, we shall name first those worthy of mention which are situated to the north of the 38th parallel of Latitude. They are, 1. Euboea, an island stretching 150 miles along the coast of Boeotia and Attica, and approaching so near the continent in the channel called Euripus, that a bridge is said to have been at one time thrown across. On this channel was the chief 36 Creta Jovis magna in medio jacet insula ponto, Dictaeo caeli regem pavêre sub antro.-GEORG. IV. 149. centum nobilem Cretam urbibus.-HOR. EPOD. 9. 29. 37 Horace speaks of the 'calami spicula Gnossii,' OD. I. 15. 17, and of 'tela Cydonio arcu,' OD. IV. 9. 17; and Lucan (111. 136), says, nec Eois pejor Gortyna sagittis. 38 Musis amicus, tristitiam et metus Tradam protervis in Mare Creticum Portare ventis !-HOR. Od. 1. 26. 1. city of the island, Chalcis, opposite to Aulis in Boeotia. In doubling Caphareus, a promontory at the south-east extremity of Euboea, the Grecian fleet on its return from Troy was overtaken by a storm, which partly destroyed and partly dispersed it. What the Greeks suffered in their way homeward, says Diomed one of the sufferers, 'scit triste Minervae Sidus, et Euboicae cautes, ultorque Caphāreus,'— Aen. XI. 260; and Ovid, in allusion to the same disaster, says, - quicunque Capharea fugit, Semper ab Euboicis vela retorquet aquis.' 2. Samothrace, where the Corybantes practised the rites and mysteries of Cyběle. 3. Lemnos, an island sacred to Vulcan, for the reason stated in the following lines of Milton, in Ausonian land Men call'd him Mulciber; and how he fell A summer's day; and with the setting sun On Lemnos th' Aegean isle.-MILT. PAR. L. 1. 739.39 4. Tenedos, an island in sight of Troy and, though small, not to be omitted, since Virgil pronounces it ' notissima famâ Insula;' and Homer makes Chryses, 39 In the above passage Milton imitates (may we not say improves upon?) the following lines of Homer : : (Ζευς) ῥίψε, ποδὸς τεταγὼν, ἀπὸ βηλοῦ θεσπεσίοιο· πᾶν δ ̓ ἦμαρ φερόμην, ἅμα δὲ ἠελίῳ καταδύντι κάππεσον ἐν Λήμνῳ.—IL. Α. 591. Milton's paraphrase of the words πᾶν δ ̓ ἦμαρ and κάππεσον is worthy of all praise. in his prayer to Apollo, compliment the god upon his reigning bravely over it: Τενεδοιο τε ιφι ανάσσεις. -Iliad, A. 38. 5. Directly south is Lesbos, b. pl. of Alcaeus and Sappho, the two great lyric poets of Greece.10 6. Chios (Scio), one of the seven places which contended for the honour of giving birth to Homer. Lord Byron calls him, "The blind old man of Scio's rocky isle;' but Milton's line is, 'Blind Melesigenes, thence Homer called,' which expresses the more general belief among the ancients that he was born at Smyrna on the river Meles. Chios was also noted for its wines.41 The numerous islets in the Aegean, in Latitudes lower than 38°, are generally classed under two denominations, Cyclades and Sporades. I. The CYCLADES, a group which cluster (ev xuxλ) round DELOS,2—that floating island which Neptune fixed with his trident as a resting place for Latona to give birth to Apollo and his twin sister Diana. 40 Utrumque sacro digna silentio Mirantur Umbrae dicere.-HOR. OD. II. 13. 29. 41 Sermo linguâ concinnus utrâque Suavior, ut Chio nota si commista Falerni est.— positis intus Chii veterisque Falerni Mille cadis.-HOR. SAT. II. 3. 115. HOR. SAT. I. 10. 24. |