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There are many other lake basins of the same kind between the
mountains of Arcadia and the chain of the Gaurias. They all have
their swamps or temporary lakes, but the katavothras, in every
instance, are sufficiently numerous to prevent an inundation of the
entire valley. The most important of these lake basins is formed by
the famous plain of Mantinea, upon which many a battle was fought.
From an hydrological point of view this is one of the most curious
places in the world; for the waters which collect there are discharged
into two opposite seas—the Gulf of Nauplia on the east, and in the
direction of the Alpheus and the Ionian Sea towards the west. There
may exist even some subterranean rivulet which discharges itself,
towards the south, into the Eurotas and the Gulf of Laconia.
The disappearance of the waters underground has condemned to
sterility several parts of the Peloponnesus, which a little water would
convert into the most fertile regions of the globe. The surface waters
quickly suck up and form subterranean rivers, hidden from sight,
which only see the light again, in most instances, near the seashore,
when it is impossible to utilise them. The plain of Argos, though
surrounded by a majestic amphitheatre of well-watered hills, is more
sterile and arid even than are Megara and Attica. Its soil is always
dry, and soaks up water like a sieve, which may have given rise to
the fable of the Danaids. But to the south of that plain, where there
is but a narrow cultivable strip of land between the mountains and
the seashore, a great river bursts forth from the rocks. This is the
Erasinus.
Other springs burst forth at the southern extremity of the plain,
close to the defile {62} of Lerna, which, like that of the Erasinus, are
supposed to be fed from Lake Stymphalus. Close to them is a chasm
filled with water, said to be unfathomable. It abounds in tortoises,
and venomous serpents inhabit the adjoining marsh. These are the
kephalaria, or “heads,” of the ancient hydra of Lerna, which Hercules
found it so difficult to seize hold of. Still farther south there is
another spring which rises from the bottom of the sea, more than

three hundred yards from the shore. This spring—the Doinæ of the
ancients, and Anavula of modern Greek mariners—is, in reality, but
the mouth of one of the rivers swallowed up by the katavothras of
Mantinea. When the sea is still it throws up a jet rising to a height of
fifty feet.

Μ
Fig. 20.—THE PLATEAU OF MANTINEA.
From the French Staff Map. Scale 1 : 400,000.
Analogous phenomena may be witnessed in the two southern
valleys of the peninsula, those of Sparta and Messenia. The Iri, or
Eurotas, is, in reality, but a large rivulet, which discharges itself into

the Gulf of Marathonisi, at the end of a gorge, {63} through which the
waters of the Lake of Sparta forced themselves a passage during
some ancient deluge; but it is only on rare occasions that its volume
of water is sufficient to remove the bar which obstructs its mouth.
The Vasili-Potamo (“royal river”), on the other hand, which bursts
forth at the foot of a rock a short distance from the Eurotas, though
its whole course does not exceed five miles, discharges a
considerable volume of water throughout the year, and its mouth is
at all times open. As to the river of Messenia, the ancient Pamisus,
now called Pirnatza, it is the only river of Greece, besides the
Alpheus, which forms a harbour at its mouth, and it can be ascended
by small vessels for a distance of eight miles; but this advantage it
owes exclusively to the powerful springs of Hagios Floros, which are
fed by the mountains on the east. These springs, which form a large
swamp where they rise to the surface, are the real river, if volume of
water is to be decisive, and the country watered and fertilised by
them was called the “Happy” by the ancients, on account of its
fertility.

Μ
Fig. 21.—BIFURCATION OF THE GASTUNI.
The western regions of the Peloponnesus receive more rain, and
they are likewise in the possession of the most considerable river,
the Alpheus, now called Ruphia, from one of its tributaries. The
latter, the ancient Ladon, conveys a larger volume of water towards
the sea than the Alpheus. It was as celebrated amongst the Greeks
as was the Peneus of Thessaly, on account of the transparency of its
waters, and the smiling scenery along its banks. It is partly fed by
the snows of Mount Erymanthus, and, like most rivers of the Morea,
derives a portion of its waters from subterranean tributaries rising on

the central plateau. The Ladon thus receives the waters of Lake
Phenea, whilst the Alpheus proper {64} is fed in its upper course from
katavothras on the shores of the ancient lakes of Orchomenus and
Mantinea. Having traversed the basin of Megalopolis, anciently a
lake, it passes through a series of picturesque gorges, and reaches
its lower valley. A charming tradition, illustrative of the ties of amity
which existed between Elis and Syracuse, makes this river plunge
beneath the sea and reappear in Sicily, close to the fountain of his
beloved Arethusa. The ancient Greeks, who witnessed the
disappearance of so many rivers, would hardly have looked upon this
submarine course of the Alpheus as a thing to wonder at.
The Alpheus and all other rivers of Elis carry down towards the
sea immense masses of detritus, which they spread over the plains
extending from the foot of the mountains to the seashore. The ruins
of Olympia disappeared in this manner beneath alluvial deposits.
They have all frequently changed their beds, and not one amongst
them has done so more frequently than the Peneus, or river of
Gastuni. Anciently it discharged its waters to the north of the rocky
promontory of Chelonatas, whilst in the present day it turns abruptly
to the south, and enters the sea at a distance of fifteen miles from
its ancient mouth. Works of irrigation may partly account for this
change, but there can be no doubt that nature unaided has by
degrees much modified the aspect of this portion of Greece. Islands
originally far in the sea have been joined to the land; numerous
open bays have gradually been cut off from the sea by natural
embankments, and transformed into swamps or lagoons. One of the
latter extends for several leagues to the south of the Alpheus, and is
divided from the sea by a fine forest of pines. These majestic
forests, in which the Triphylians paid honour to their dead, the
surrounding hills dotted over with clumps of trees, and Mount
Lycæus, from whose flanks are precipitated the cascades dedicated
to Neda, the nurse of Jupiter, render this the most attractive district
of all the Morea to a lover of nature.

The Peloponnesus presents us with one of the most striking
instances of the influence exercised by the nature of the country
upon the historical development of its inhabitants. Held to Greece by
a mere thread, and defended at its entrance by a double bulwark of
mountains, this “isle of Pelops” naturally became the seat of
independent tribes at a time when armies still recoiled from natural
obstacles. The isthmus was open as a commercial high-road, but it
was closed against invaders.
The relief of the peninsula satisfactorily explains the distribution of
the tribes inhabiting it, and the part they played in history. The
whole of the interior basin, which has no visible outlets towards the
sea, naturally became the home of a tribe who, like the Arcadians,
held no intercourse with their neighbours, and hardly any amongst
themselves. Corinth, Sicyon, and Achaia occupied the seashore on
the northern slopes of the mountains, but were separated by high
transversal chains. The inhabitants of these isolated valleys long
remained strangers to each other, and when at length they
combined to resist the invader, it was too late. Elis, in the west, with
its wide valleys and its insalubrious plains extending along a coast
having no havens, naturally played but a secondary part {65} in the
history of the peninsula. Its inhabitants, exposed to invasions, owing
to their country being without natural defences, would soon have
been enslaved, had they not placed themselves under the protection
of all the rest of Greece by converting their plain of Olympia into a
place of meeting, where the Hellenes of Europe and of Asia, from
the continent and from the islands, met for a few days’ festival to
forget their rivalries and animosities. The basin of Argos and the
mountain peninsula of Argolis, on the eastern side of the
Peloponnesus, on the other hand, are districts having natural
boundaries, and are easily defended. Hence the Argolians were able
to maintain their autonomy for centuries, and even in the Homeric
age they exercised a sort of hegemony over the remainder of

Greece. The Spartans were their successors. The country in which
they established themselves possessed the double advantage of
being secure against every attack, and of furnishing all they stood in
need of. Having firmly established themselves in the beautiful valley
of the Eurotas, they found no difficulty in extending their power to
the seashore, and to the unfortunate Helos. At a later date they
crossed the heights of the Taygetus, and descended into the plains
of Messenia. That portion of Greece likewise formed a natural basin,
protected by elevated mountain ramparts; and the Messenians, who
were kinsmen of the Spartans and their equals in bravery, were thus
able to resist for a century. At length they fell, and all the Southern
Peloponnesus acknowledged the supremacy of Sparta, which was
now in a position to assert its authority over the whole of Greece.
Then it was that the mountain-girt plateau on the road from
Lacedæmonia to Corinth, upon which stood the cities of Tegea and
Mantinea, and which was made by nature for a field of Mars,
became the scene of strife.
The Peloponnesus, with its sinuous shores, forms a remarkable
contrast to Attica. Its characteristics are essentially those of a
continent, and anciently the Peloponnesians were mountaineers
rather than mariners. Except in Corinth, where the two seas nearly
join, and a few towns of Argolis, which is another Attica, there were
no inducements for the inhabitants to engage in maritime
commerce; and in their mountain valleys and upland plains they
were entirely dependent upon the rearing of cattle and husbandry.
Arcadia, in the centre of the peninsula, was inhabited only by
herdsmen and labourers; and its name, which originally meant
“country of bears,” has become the general designation for an
eminently pastoral country. The Laconians also, separated from the
sea by rocky mountains which hem in the valley of the Eurotas at its
point of issue, preserved for a long time the customs of warriors and
of cultivators of the soil, and took to the sea only with reluctance.
“When the Spartans placed Eurotas and Taygetus at the head of

their heroes,” says Edgar Quinet, “they distinctly connected the
features of the valley with the destinies of the people by whom it
was occupied.”
In the very earliest ages the Phœnicians already occupied
important factories on the coasts of the Peloponnesus. They had
established themselves at Nauplia, in the Gulf of Argos; and at
Cranaæ, the modern Marathonisi or Gythion, in Laconia, they
purchased the shells which they required to dye their purple {66}
cloths. The Greeks themselves were in possession of a few busy
ports, amongst which was “sandy Pylos,” the capital of Nestor,
whose position is now held by Navarino, on the other side of the
gulf. At a subsequent date, when Greece had become the centre of
Me
di
ter
ra
nean commerce, Corinth, so favourably situated between
the two seas, rose into importance, not because of its political
influence, its cultivation of the arts, or love of liberty, but through
the number and wealth of its inhabitants. It is said that it had a
population of three hundred thousand souls within its walls. Even
after it had been razed by the Romans it again recovered its ancient
pre-eminence. But the exposed position of the town has caused it to
be ravaged so many times that all commerce has fled from it. In
1858, when an earthquake destroyed Corinth, that once famous city
had dwindled down into a poor village. The city has been rebuilt
about five miles from its ancient site, on the shore of the gulf named
after it, but we doubt whether it will ever resume its ancient
importance unless a canal be dug to connect the two seas. The
high-roads from Marseilles and Trieste to Smyrna and Constantinople
would then lead across the Isthmus of Corinth, and this canal might
attract an amount of shipping equal to that which frequents other
ocean channels or canals similarly situated. But for the present the
isthmus is almost deserted, and only the passengers who are
conveyed by Greek steamers to the small ports on its opposite
shores cross it. The ancients, who had failed in the construction of a
canal, and who made no further effort after the time of Nero,

because they imagined one of the two seas to be at a higher level
than the other, had provided, at all events, a kind of tramway, by
means of which their small vessels could be conveyed from the Gulf
of Corinth to the Ægean Sea.17
After the Crusades, when the powerful Republic of Venice had
gained a footing upon the coasts of Morea, flourishing commercial
colonies arose along them, in Arcadia, on the island of Prodano
(Prote), at Navarino, Modon, Coron, Calamata, Malvoisie, and
Nauplia in Argolis. At the call of these Venetian merchants the
Peloponnesus again became a seat of trade, and resumed, to some
extent, that part in maritime enterprise which it had enjoyed in the
time of the Phœnicians. But the advent of the Turk, the
impoverishment of the soil, and the civil wars which resulted
therefrom, again forced the inhabitants to break off all intercourse
with the outer world, and to shut themselves up in their island as in
a prison. Tripolis, or Tripolitza, in the very centre of the peninsula,
and called thus, it is said, because it is the representative of three
ancient cities—Mantinea, Tegea, and Pallantium—then became the
most populous place. Since the Greeks have regained their
independence life again fluctuates towards the seashore as by a sort
of natural sequence. Patras, close to the entrance of the Gulf of
Corinth, and near the most fertile and best-cultivated plains on the
eastern shore, is by far the most important city at present, and, in
anticipation of its future extension, the streets of a new town have
been laid out, in the firm belief that it will some day rival Smyrna
and Trieste in extent. {67}

Μ
Fig. 22.—THE VALLEY OF THE EUROTAS.
The other towns of the peninsula, even those which exhibited the
greatest activity during the dominion of the Venetians, are but of
very secondary importance, if we compare them with this emporium
of the Peloponnesus. Ægium, or Vostitza, on the Gulf of Corinth, is a
poor port, less celebrated on account of its commerce than in
consequence of a magnificent plane-tree, more than fifty feet in
girth, the hollow trunk of which was formerly used as a prison.
Pyrgos, close to the Alpheus, has no port at all. The fine roadstead
of Navarino, defended against winds and waves by the rocky islet of
Sphacteria, is but little frequented, and the merchantmen riding at
anchor there never outnumber the Turkish men-of-war at the

bottom, where they have lain since the battle fought in 1828. Modon
and Coron have likewise fallen off. Calamata, at the mouth of the
fertile valleys of Messenia, has an open roadstead only, and vessels
cannot always ride in safety upon it. The celebrated Malvoisie, now
called Monemvasia, is hardly more than a heap of ruins, and the
vineyards in its neighbourhood, which furnished the exquisite wine
named after the town, have long ceased to exist. Nauplia, which was
the capital of the modern kingdom of Greece during the first few
years of its existence, possesses the advantage of a {68} well-
sheltered port; but its walls, its bastions, and its forts give it the
character of a military town rather than of a commercial one.
The towns in the interior of the country, whatever glories may
attach to them, are hardly more now than large villages. The most
celebrated of all, Sparta, thanks to the fertility of its environs,
promises to become one of the most prosperous cities of the interior
of the Peloponnesus. Sparta—that is, the “scattered city,”—was
named thus because its houses were scattered over the plain,
defended only by the valour of their inhabitants, and not by walls. In
the Middle Ages Sparta was supplanted by the neighbouring Mistra,
whose decayed Gothic buildings and castles occupy a steep hill on
the western side of the Eurotas; but it has now recovered its
supremacy amongst the towns of Laconia. Argos, which is more
ancient even than the city of Lacedæmon, has likewise risen anew
from its ruins; for the plain in which it lies, though occasionally dried
up, is of great natural fertility.
Strangers, however, who explore the countries of the
Peloponnesus, do not go in search of these newly risen cities, where
a few stones only remind them of the glories of the past, but are
attracted by the ancient monuments of art. In that respect Argolis is
one of the richest provinces of Greece. Near to Argos the seats of an
amphitheatre are cut into the steep flanks of the hill of Larissa.
Between Argos and Nauplia a small rock rises in the middle of the
plain, which is surmounted by the ancient Acropolis of Tiryns, the

Cyclopean walls of which are more than fifty feet in thickness. A few
miles to the north of Argos are the ruins of Mycenæ, the city of
Agamemnon, where the celebrated “Gate of Lions,” coarsely
sculptured when Greek art first dawned, and the vast vaults known
as the Treasury of the Atrides, mainly attract the attention of
visitors. These vaults are amongst the oldest and best-preserved
antiquities of Greece. They exhibit most solid workmanship, and one
of the stones, which does duty as a lintel over the entrance-gate,
weighs no less than one hundred and sixty-nine tons. At Epidaurus,
in Argolis, on the shores of the Gulf of Ægina, and close to the most
famous temple of Æsculapius, we still meet with a theatre which has
suffered less from time than any other throughout Greece. Shrubs,
interspersed with small trees, surround it; but we can still trace its
fifty-four rows of white marble seats, capable of affording
accommodation to twelve thousand spectators. Amongst other
famous ruins of Argolis are the beautiful remains of a temple of
Jupiter at Nemea, and the seven Doric columns of Corinth, said to
be the oldest in all Greece. But the most beautiful edifice of the
peninsula must be sought for near Arcadian Phigalia, in the charming
valley of the Neda. This is the temple of Bassæ, erected by Ictinus in
honour of Apollo Epicurius, and its beauty is enhanced by the oaks
and rocks which surround it.
Citadels, however, are the buildings we most frequently meet with;
and many a fortified place, with its walls and acropolis, yet exists as
in the days of ancient Greece. The walls of Phigalia and Messenia
still have their ancient towers, gates, and redoubts. Other
fortifications were utilised by the Crusaders, Venetians, or Turks, and
by them furnished with crenellated walls and keeps, which add
another picturesque feature to the landscape. One of these ancient
{69} fortresses, transformed during the Middle Ages, rises at the very
gates of the Peloponnesus—namely, the citadel of Corinth, the
strongest and most commanding of all.

Several of the islands of the Ægean Sea must be looked upon as
natural dependencies of the Peloponnesus, to which submarine
ledges or shoals attach them.
The islands along the coast of Argolis, which are inhabited by
Albanian seamen, who were amongst the foremost to fight the Turk
during the struggle for Hellenic independence, have lost much of
their former commercial importance. Poros, a small Albanian town
on a volcanic island of the same name, which the revolted people
chose for their capital, is, however, still a bustling place, for it has an
excellent harbour, and the Greek Government has made it the
principal naval station of the kingdom. Hydra, on the other hand,
and the small island of Spezzia, next to it, have lost their former
importance. They are both rocky islands, without arable soil, trees,
or water, and yet they formerly supported a population of fifty
thousand souls. About 1730 a colony of Albanians, weary of the
exactions of some Turkish pasha on the mainland, fled to the island
of Hydra. They were left in peace there, for they agreed to pay a
trifling tribute. Their commerce—leavened, to be sure, with a little
piracy—assumed large dimensions, and immediately before the war
of independence the Albanians of Hydra owned nearly 400 vessels of
100 to 200 tons each, and they were able to send over 200 vessels,
armed with 200 guns, against the Turks. By engaging so
enthusiastically in this struggle for liberty, the Hydriotes, without
suspecting it, wrought their own ruin. No sooner was the cause of
Greece triumphant than the commerce of Hydra was transferred to
Syra and the Piræus, which are more favourably situated.
Cythera of Laconia, a far larger island than either of those
mentioned, and better known by the Italian name of Cerigo, formed
a member of the Septinsular Republic, although not situated in the
Ionian Sea, and clearly a dependency of the Peloponnesus. Cythera
is no longer the island of Venus, and its voluptuous groves have
disappeared. Seen from the north, it resembles a pile of sterile
rocks. It nevertheless yields abundant harvests, possesses fine

plantations of olive-trees, and populous villages. Cerigo, in former
times, enjoyed considerable importance, owing to its position
between the Ionian Sea and the Archipelago; but Cape Malea has
lost its terrors now, and the harbour of refuge on the island is no
longer sought after. Heaps of shells, left there by Phœnician
manufacturers of purple, have been found on the island; and it was
the Phœnicians who introduced the worship of Venus Astarte.

IV.—THE ISLANDS OF THE ÆGEAN SEA.
Islands and islets are scattered in seeming disorder over the Ægean
Sea, the name of which may probably mean “sea of goats,” because
these islands appeared at a distance like goats. By a singular
misapplication the modern term {70} Archipelago, instead of sea, is
now used to designate these groups of islands. The Sporades, in the
north, form a long range of islands stretching in the direction of
Mount Athos. The island of Scyros, farther south, the birthplace of
Achilles and place of exile of King Theseus, occupies an isolated
position; the large island of Eubœa extends along the coast of the
continent; and in the distance rise the white mountains of the
Cyclades, likened by the ancient Greeks to a circle of Oceanides
dancing around a deity.

Μ
Fig. 23.—EURIPUS AND CHALCIS.
Scale 1 : 220,000.
All these islands are so many fragments of the mainland. This is
proved by their geological structure, or by shoals which attach them
to the nearest coast. The Northern Sporades are a branch of Mount
Pelion. Eubœa is traversed by limestone mountains of considerable
height, running parallel to the chains of Attica, Argolis, Mount

Olympus, and Mount Athos. Scyros is a rocky mountain mass, whose
axis runs in the same direction as that of the central chain of
Eubœa. The summits of the Cyclades continue the ranges of Eubœa
and Attica towards the south-east, and the same micaceous and
argillaceous schists, limestones, and crystalline marbles are found in
them. They are, indeed, “mountains of Greece {71} scattered over the
sea.” If Athens may boast of the quarries of Mount Pentelicus, the
Cyclades produce the glittering marbles of Naxos, and the still more
beautiful ones of Paros, from which were chiselled the statues of
heroes and of gods. Curious caverns are met with in the limestone of
the islands, especially that of Antiparos, the existence of which was
not known to the ancients, and the Cave of Sillaka, on the island of
Cythnos, or Thermia, celebrated for its hot springs. Granite is found
on some of the islands, and particularly in the small island of Delos,
dedicated to the worship of Apollo and Diana. In the south, finally,
the Cyclades are traversed by a chain of volcanic islands, extending
from the peninsula of Methana, in Argolis, to Cos and the shores of
Asia Minor.
Eubœa may be looked upon almost as a portion of the continent,
for the strait which separates it from the mainland resembles a
submerged longitudinal valley, and is nowhere of great depth or
width. At its narrowest part it is no more than two hundred and
fourteen feet across, and from the most remote times, Chalcis, the
capital of the island, has been joined to the mainland by a bridge.
The irregular tidal currents flowing through this strait were looked
upon as marvellous by the Greeks, and Aristotle is said to have flung
himself into it because he was unable to explain this phenomenon.
The Italian name of the island, Negroponte, is formed by a series of
corruptions from Euripus, by which name the ancients knew the
strait between the island and the mainland. Eubœa has at all times
shared in the vicissitudes of the neighbouring provinces of Attica and
Bœotia. When the cities of Greece were at the height of their glory,
those of Eubœa—Chalcis, Eretria, and Cerinthus—enjoyed likewise a

high degree of prosperity, and dispatched colonies to all parts of the
Me
di
ter
ra
nean. Later on, when invaders ravaged Attica, Eubœa
shared the same fate, and at present it participates in every political
and social movement of the neighbouring continent.
In Northern Eubœa there are forests of oaks, pines, elms, and
plane-trees; the villages are embedded in orchards; and the
surrounding country resembles what we have seen in Elis and
Arcadia. But in the Cyclades we look in vain for charming
landscapes. Foliage and running water abound only in a very few
spots. Arid rocks, more arid even than those on the coast of Greece,
predominate, and only in a few favoured spots do we meet with a
few olive-trees, valonia oaks, pines, and fig-trees. Everywhere else
the hills are naked. And yet these islands arouse feelings of devotion
in us, for their names are great in history. The highest summits of
most of them have been named after the prophet Elias, the biblical
successor of Apollo, the god of the sun; and justly so, for the sun
reigns supreme upon these austere rocks, and his scorching rays
destroy every vestige of vegetation.
Antimilos, one of the uninhabited islands of this group, still affords
an asylum to the wild goat (Capra Caucasica), which has
disappeared from the remainder of Europe, and is met with only in
Crete, and perhaps Rhodes. Wild pigs likewise haunt the rocks of
Antimilos. Rabbits were introduced from the West, and abound in
the caverns of some of the Cyclades, and especially on Myconus and
Delos. The ancient authors never mention these animals. It is a
curious fact that {72} hares and rabbits never inhabit the same island,
with the sole exception of Andros, where the hares occupy the
extreme north, whilst the rabbits have their burrows in the southern
portion of the island. As a curiosity, we may also mention that a
large species of lizard, called crocodile by the inhabitants, is found
on the islands, but not on the neighbouring continent, and we may
conclude from this that the Cyclades were separated from the Balkan
peninsula at a very remote period.

A chain of volcanic islands bounds the Cyclades towards the south,
where they are separated from Crete by an ocean trough of great
depth. Milos is the most important of these islands. It has an
irregularly shaped crater, which has been invaded by the sea, and
forms there one of the safest and most capacious harbours of refuge
in the Me
di
ter
ra
nean. Milos has had no eruption within historic
times, but the existence of solfataras and of hot springs proves that
its volcanic forces are not yet quite extinct.

Μ
Fig. 24.—NEA KAMMENI.
According to Danfalik.
The actual centre of volcanic activity has to be looked for in a
small group of islands known as Santorin, and lying midway between
Europe and Asia. These islands consist of marbles and schists,
similar to those of the other Cyclades, and they surround a vast
crater no less than twelve hundred and eighty feet in depth. The

crescent-shaped island of Thera, on the east, presents bold cliffs
towards the crater, while its gentle outer slopes are covered with
vineyards producing exquisite wine. Therasia, on the west, rises like
an immense wall; and the islet of {73} Aspronisi, between the two,
indicates the existence of a submarine partition wall which separates
the crater from the open sea. The submarine volcano occupies the
centre of this basin. It remains quiescent for long periods, and then
suddenly arousing itself, it ejects immense masses of scoriæ. Nearly
twenty-one centuries ago the first island rose to the surface in the
centre of this basin. This island is known now as Palæa Kammeni, or
the “old volcano.” Three years of eruptions in the sixteenth century
gave birth to the smallest of the three islands, Mikra Kammeni. A
third cone of lava, Nea Kammeni, rose in the eighteenth century;
and quite recently, between 1866 and 1870, this new island has
more than doubled its size, overwhelming the small village of
Volkario and its port, and extending to within a very short distance
of Mikra Kammeni. No less than half a million of partial eruptions
occurred during those five years, and the ashes were sometimes
thrown to a height of four thousand feet. Even from Crete clouds of
ashes could be seen suspended in the air, black during the day, and
lit up by night.
Thousands of spectators hastened to Santorin from all quarters of
the world to witness these eruptions, and amongst them were
several men of science—Fouqué, Gorceix, Reiss, Stübel, and Schmidt
—whose observations have proved of great service. The crater of
Santorin appears to have been produced by a violent explosion
which shattered the centre of the ancient island, and covered its
slopes with enormous masses of tufa.18
Southern Eubœa and the vicinity of Port Gavrion, on the island of
Andros, are inhabited by Albanians, but the population in the
remainder of the Archipelago is Greek. The families of Italian or
French descent on Scyros, Syra, Naxos, and Santorin are not
sufficiently numerous to constitute an element of importance. They

claim to be of French descent, and are known in the Archipelago as
Franks, and during the war of independence they claimed the
protection of the French Government. In former times nearly the
whole of the land was held by these Franks, who had taken
possession of it during the Middle Ages, and these large estates are
made to account for the sparse population of Naxos, which
supported a hundred thousand inhabitants formerly, but is now
hardly able to support one-seventh that number.
The Cyclades are farther removed from the coast of Greece than
Eubœa, and they have not always shared in the historical dramas
enacted upon the neighbouring continent. Their position in the
centre of the Archipelago naturally caused them to be visited by all
the nations navigating the Me
di
ter
ra
nean, and their inhabitants were
thus subjected to the most diverse influences. In ancient times the
mariners of Asia Minor and of Phœnicia called at the Cyclades on
their voyages to Greece; during the Middle Ages the Byzantines, the
Crusaders, the Venetians, the Genoese, the Knights of Rhodes, and
the Osmanli were masters {74} there in turn; and in our own days the
nations of Western Europe, with the Greeks themselves, hold the
preponderance in the Archipelago.
These historical vicissitudes have caused the centre of gravity of
the Cyclades to be shifted from island to island. In the time of the
ancient Greeks, Delos, the island of Apollo, was looked upon as the
“holy land,” where merchants congregated from all quarters, carried
on business in the shadow of sanctuaries, and held slave markets at
the side of the temples. The sale of human flesh became in the end
the main feature of the commerce of Delos, and in the time of the
Roman emperors as many as ten thousand slaves were bartered
away there in a single day. But the markets, the temples, and
monuments of Delos have vanished, and its stony soil supports now
only a few sheep. During the Middle Ages Naxos enjoyed the
predominance; and at present, Tinos, with its venerated church of
the Panagia and its thousands of pilgrims, is the “holy land” of the

Archipelago; whilst Hermopolis, on Syra, though without trees or
water, holds the position of commercial metropolis of the Cyclades.
The latter was a town of no importance before the war of
independence; but it remained neutral during that struggle, and thus
attracted numerous refugees from other islands, and, thanks to its
central position, it has since become the principal mart, dockyard,
and naval station of the Ægean Sea. Whether travellers proceed to
Saloniki, Smyrna, Constantinople, or the Black Sea, they must stop
at Hermopolis. The town formerly occupied the heights only, for fear
of pirates, but it has descended now to the foot of the hill, and its
quays and warehouses extend along the seashore.
Commerce has peopled the naked rocks of Syra, but it has not yet
succeeded in developing the resources of the Archipelago as in
ancient times. Eubœa is no longer “rich in cattle,” as its name
implies, and only exports corn, wine, fruit, and the lignite extracted
from the mines near Kumi. The gardens of Naxos yield oranges,
lemons, and citrons; Scopelos, Andros, and Tinos, the latter one of
the best cultivated amongst the islands, export wines, which are
excelled, however, by those of Santorin, the Calliste of the earliest
Greeks. The volcanic and other islands of the Cyclades export
millstones, china clay, lavas, and cimolite, this being used in
bleaching. Naxos exports emery, and that is all. The marbles of
Paros even remain untouched, and the excellent harbour of that
island only rarely sees a vessel. The inhabitants of the Cyclades
confine themselves to the cultivation of the soil, and to the breeding
of a few silkworms, the surplus population of Tinos, Siphnos, and
others emigrating annually to Constantinople, Smyrna, or Greece, to
work as labourers, cooks, potters, masons, or sculptors. But whilst
some of the islands can boast of a surplus population, there are
others which are the abode of a few herdsmen only. Most of the
islands between Naxos and Amorgos are hardly more than barren
rocks. Antimilos, like Delos, is merely a pasture-ground sown over
with rocks. Seriphos and Giura are still dreary solitudes, as in the

time of the Roman emperors, when they were set aside as places of
exile. Seriphos, however, possesses iron of excellent quality, and
may, in consequence, again become of some importance. On
Antiparos there are lead mines. {75}

V.—THE IONIAN ISLES.
The island of Corfu, on the coast of Epirus, and the whole of the
Archipelago to the west of continental and peninsular Greece, down
to the island of Cythera, which divides the waters of the Ionian Sea
from those of the Ægean, have passed through the most singular
political vicissitudes in the course of the last century. Corfu, thanks
to the protection extended to it by the Venetian Republic, is the only
dependency of the Balkan peninsula which successfully resisted the
assaults of the Turk. When Venice was handed over to the Austrians
by Bonaparte in 1797, Corfu and the Ionian Islands were occupied
by the French. A few years afterwards the Russians became the
virtual masters in these islands, which they formed into a sort of
aristocratic republic under the suzerainty of the Porte. In 1807 the
French once more took possession of them; but the English captured
one after the other until there remained to them only Corfu, and
this, too, had to be given up in 1814. The Ionian Islands were then
converted into a “Septinsular Republic,” governed by the landed
aristocracy, supported by British bayonets. Twice did England alter
the constitution of this republic in a democratic sense, but the
patriotism of the islanders refused to submit to British suzerainty;
and, when Great Britain parted with her conquest, the Ionian Islands
annexed themselves to Greece, and they now form the best
educated, the wealthiest, and the most industrious portion of that
kingdom. England, no doubt, consulted her own interests when she
set free her Ionian subjects; but her action is nevertheless deserving
of approbation. England exhibited her faith in the axiom that moral
influence is superior to brute force, and yielded with perfect good
grace, not only the commercial ports of the islands, but likewise the
citadel of Corfu, which gave her the command of the Adriatic. This
magnanimous policy has not hitherto met with imitators in other
countries, but England herself has still many opportunities of
applying it in other parts of the world.

Corfu, the ancient Corcyra, has always held the foremost place
amongst the Ionian Islands. It owes this position to the vicinity of
Italy, and to the commercial advantages derived from an excellent
port and a vast roadstead almost resembling an inland lake. The
inhabitants are fond of appealing to Thucydides in order to prove
that Corfu is the island of the Phæaces of Ulysses. They even
pretend to have discovered the rivulet in which beauteous Nausicaa
washed the linen of her father, and the shaded walks near the city
are known by them as the gardens of Alcinous. Corfu is the only one
of the islands which can boast of a small perennial stream, the
Messongi, which is navigable for a short distance in barges. The
hills, which are placed like a screen in front of the plains of the
Epirus, are exposed to the full force of the south-westerly winds,
which bring much rain; the vegetation, consequently, is rich: orange
and lemon trees form fragrant groves around the city, vines and
olive-trees hide the barren ground of the hills, and waving fields of
corn cover the plains. Corfu, unfortunately, is exposed to the hot
sirocco, blowing from the south-east, and this very much curtails its
advantages as a winter station for invalids. {76}
The city occupies a triangular peninsula opposite the coast of the
Epirus, and is the largest, and commercially the most important, of
the former republic. It is strongly fortified, and its successive
possessors—Venetians, French, Russians, and English—have sought
to render it impregnable. A beautiful prospect may be enjoyed from
its bastions; but far superior is that from Mount Pantokratoros, the
“commandant,” for it extends across the Strait of Otranto to Italy.
The commercial relations with the latter, as well as the traditions of
Venetian dominion, have converted Corfu into a city almost half
Italian, and numerous families residing in it belong to both nations,
the Greek and the Italian, by descent as well as language. Italian
remained the official language of the island until 1830. Maltese
porters and gardeners constitute a prominent element amongst the
cosmopolitan population of the city.

Fig. 25.—CORFU.
Corfu formerly owned the town of Butrinto and a few villages on
the mainland; but an English governor thought fit to surrender them
to the terrible Ali Pasha, {77} and the only dependencies of Corfu at
present are the small islets near it, viz. Othonus (Fano), Salmastraci,
and Ericusa, in the north; Paxos, with its caverns, and Antipaxos, the
rocks of which exude asphalt, on the south. Paxos is said to produce
the best oil in Western Greece.

Μ
Leucadia, Cephalonia, Ithaca, Zante, and a few smaller islands,
form a crescent-shaped archipelago off the entrance to the Gulf of
Patras. They are the summits of a half-submerged chain of
calcareous mountains, alternately flooded by the rains or scorched
by the sun. Their valleys, like those of Corfu, produce oranges,
lemons, currants (“Corinthians”), wine, and oil, which form the
objects of a brisk commerce. The inhabitants very much resemble
those of Corfu, the Italian element being strongly represented,
except on Ithaca.
Fig. 26.—THE CHANNEL OF SANTA MAURA.

Leucadia, or the “white island,” thus called because of its glittering
chalk cliffs, is evidently a dependency of the continent. The ancients
looked upon it as a peninsula converted into an island by Corinthian
colonists, who cut a canal through the isthmus which joined it to the
mainland; but this legend is not borne out by an examination of the
locality. These Corinthians probably merely dug a navigable channel
through the shallow lagoon which separates the island from the
coast, and does not exceed eighteen inches in depth. In fact, if there
were any tides in the Ionian Sea, the island of Leucadia would be
converted twice daily into a peninsula. A bridge, of which there still
exist considerable remains, formerly joined the island to the
mainland near the southern extremity of the lagoon, whilst an island
occupied by the citadel of Santa Maura—a name sometimes applied
to the whole of the island—defended its entrance to the north. {78}
Until recently this was the only spot in Western Greece where a
grove of date-trees might be seen. A magnificent aqueduct of two
hundred and sixty arches, which was also used as a viaduct, joined
the citadel to Amaxiki, the chief town and harbour of Leucadia. This
monument of Turkish enterprise—it was constructed in the reign of
Bajazet—has sustained much injury from earthquakes. Amaxiki
might be supposed to be haunted by fever, owing to the salt swamps
and lagoons which surround it; but such is not the case: on the
contrary, it is a comparatively healthy town, and its women are
noted for freshness of complexion and beauty. To the south of it rise
the wooded mountains which terminate in the promontory of
Leucate (Dukato), opposite to Cephalonia. On the summit of this
promontory stood a temple of Apollo, whence, at the annual festival
of the god, a condemned criminal was hurled as an expiatory victim.
It was celebrated, also, as the lover’s leap, whence lovers leaped
into the sea to drown their passion.
Cephalonia, or rather Cephallenia, is the largest of the Ionian
Islands, and its highest summit—Mount Ænus, or Elato—is the
culminating point of the entire Archipelago. Mariners from the centre

of the Ionian Sea can see at one and the same time Mount Ætna in
Sicily and this mountain of Cephalonia. The forests of conifers, to
which the latter is indebted for its Italian name of Montenero, have
for the greater part been destroyed by fire, but there still remain a
few clumps of magnificent firs. On its summit may be seen the
remains of a temple of Jupiter. The island is fertile and populous, but
suffers much from want of water. All its rivers dry up in summer, the
calcareous soil sucking up the rain, and most of the springs rise from
the bottom of the sea, far away from the fields thirsting after water.
On the other hand, two considerable streams of sea-water find their
way into the bowels of the island.
This curious phenomenon occurs a short distance to the north of
Argostoli, a bustling town, having a safe but shallow harbour. The
two oceanic rivers are sufficiently powerful to set in motion the huge
wheels of two mills, one of which has been regularly at work since
1835, and the other since 1859. Their combined discharge amounts
to 35,000,000 gallons daily, and naturalists have not yet decided
whether they form a vast subterranean lake, in which beds of salt
are constantly being deposited, or whether they find their way
through numerous threads, and, by hydrostatic aspiration, into the
subterranean rivers of the island, rendering their water brackish. The
latter is the opinion of Wiebel, the geologist, and thus much we may
assume for certain—that these subterranean waters and caverns are
one of the principal causes of the severe earthquakes which visit
Cephalonia so frequently. The island of Asteris, between Cephalonia
and Ithaca, upon which stood the city of Alalkomenæ, exists no
longer, and was probably destroyed by one of those earthquakes.
Ithaca of “divine Ulysses,” the modern Theaki, is separated from
Cephalonia by the narrow channel of Viscardo, thus named after
Robert Guiscard. The island is small, and all the sites referred to in
the Odyssey are still pointed out there, from the spring of Arethusa
to the acropolis of Ulysses; but the black forests which clothed the
slopes of Mount Neritus have disappeared. The inhabitants are {79}

excessively proud of their little island, rendered so famous by the
poetry of Homer, and in every family we meet with a Penelope, a
Ulysses, and a Telemachus. But the present inhabitants have no
claim whatever to be the descendants of the crafty son of Laertes,
for during the Middle Ages their ancestors were exterminated by
invaders, and in 1504 the deserted fields were given, by the Senate
of Venice, to colonists drawn from the mainland. Most of those
immigrants came from the Epirus, and the dialect spoken by the
islanders is much mixed with Albanian words. At the present time
the island is well cultivated, and Vathy, its chief port, carries on a
brisk commerce in raisins, currants, oil, and wine. Ithaca, as in the
days of Homer, is the “nurse of valiant men.” The inhabitants are tall
and strong, and Dr. Schliemann is enthusiastic about the high
standard of virtue and morality prevailing amongst them. There are
neither rich nor poor, but they are great travellers, and natives of
Ithaca are met with in every populous city of the East.

Μ
Fig. 27.—ARGOSTOLI.
According to Wiebel. Scale 1 : 78,000.
“Zante, fior del Levante,” say the Italians. And, indeed, this
ancient island, Zacynthus, is richer in orchards, fields, and villas than
any other of this Archipelago. An extensive plain, bounded by ranges
of hills, occupies the centre of this “golden isle”—a vast garden,
abounding in vines, yielding currants of superior quality. The
inhabitants are industrious, and not content with cultivating their
own fields, they assist also in the cultivation of those of Acarnania,
receiving wages or a share of the produce in return. The city of
Zante, on the eastern coast of the island, facing Elis, is the

wealthiest and cleanest town in the Archipelago. {80} Unfortunately it
suffers frequently from earthquakes, to which a volcanic origin is
ascribed. Nor is this improbable, for bituminous springs rise near the
south-eastern cape of the island, and though worked since the days
of Herodotus, they still yield about a hundred barrels of pitch
annually. Oil springs discharge themselves close to the shore, and
even at the bottom of the sea; and near Cape Skinari, in the north, a
kind of rank grease floats on the surface of the waters.
The only islets dependent upon Zante are the Strivali, or the
Strophades, to which flew the hideous harpies of ancient
mythology.
19

VI.—THE PRESENT AND THE FUTURE OF GREECE.
The Greeks, although they have not altogether fulfilled the
expectations of Philhellenes, have nevertheless made great strides in
advance since they have thrown off the yoke of the Turks. The
deeds of valour performed during the war of independence recalled
the days of Marathon and Platæa; but it was wrong to expect that a
short time would suffice to raise modern Greece to the intellectual
and artistic level of the generation which gave birth to an Aristotle
and a Phidias. Nor can we expect that a nation should throw off, in a
single generation, the evil habits engendered during an age of
servitude, and digest at once the scientific conquests made in the
course of twenty centuries. We should likewise bear in mind that the
population of Greece is small, and that it is thinly scattered over a
barren mountain region. The numerous ports, no doubt, offer great
facilities for commerce, nor have their inhabitants failed to avail
themselves of them; but there is hardly a country in Europe which
offers equal obstacles to a development of its agricultural and
industrial resources. The construction of roads, owing to the
mountains, meets with difficulties everywhere, whilst the blue sea
invites its beholders to distant climes and commercial expeditions.
No immigration from the neighbouring Turkish provinces has
consequently taken place, whilst many Hellenes, and more especially
natives of the Ionian Islands and the Cyclades, annually seek their
fortune in Constantinople, Cairo, and even distant India. Men of
enterprise leave the country, and there remains behind only a horde
of intriguers, who look upon politics as a lucrative business, and an
army of government officials, who depend upon the favour of a
minister for future promotion. This state of affairs explains the
singular fact that the most prosperous Greek communities exist
beyond the borders of the kingdom of Greece. These foreign
communities are better and more liberally governed than those at
home. In spite of the Pasha, who enjoys the right of supervision, the

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