ity of

lern

California

Regional

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r^

Digitized by the Internet Archive

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Corporation

http://www.archive.org/details/burtonholmestrav03holmiala

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COMPLETE

IN

TEN

^- VOLUME

M:>I

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The McClure Compai^

New York
MCMVIII

SUNSET ON THE ACROPOLIS

T)URim Holmes

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TEN VOLUMES
^- VOLUME THREE

COMPLETE

IN

The McClure Company

New York
MCMVIII

90 1,

by

E. Burton

Holmes

Copyright, 1908,

by

E. Burton

Holmes

Copyright,

All rights reserved

190

92.

THE OLYMPIAN GAMES

IN

ATHENS

y-yu ^

he
Olympian

Games
IS a mistaken belief that he

IT

Greece, as revealed in the

philosophy and

companionship

own

he

art,

of the

who

Greek

classics,
is

knew

he
not

The Olympian Games were

intrusion into the land of the scholar

travel,

too well that

not ancient

immortal works of poetry,

has not spent his

soul realize the Greece of old,

her shores.

who knows

life

who cannot
fitted to

in the
in

the excuse for

and the

his

approach

my

archaeologist.

would bring to Greece only a love of

an eye not wholly blind to beauty, and a deep respect

for the history, the letters,

and the

art of Greece.

THE OLYMPIAN GAMES

While to the student
reward than to any other

of antiquity

for every

Greece

offers a larger

one she has

accord-

gifts

ing to the worth of his mental capacities; and even

upon him

who, empty-handed, humbly bows before her, she bestows

an ample recompense

the power

her natural charm.

Let no one therefore hesitate to

Greece.

Pallas

Athene

is

to appreciate

no longer stern

and

to enjoy
visit

she asks of the

children of the present century, not that they sacrifice to her

upon the

altar of unceasing study, but only that they bring to

her hearts rightly tuned, eyes alive to form and color, souls
in

which dwells the love of

loveliness.

She asks no more

than that which almost every one of us

ON THE ADRIATIC

can

offer.

THE OLYMPIAN GAMES

AN ALBANMAN PORT

Let

us, then,

without a classical dictionary, without our

Homer or our Plato, set forth upon a strictly modern Odyssey.

The shortest way to Greece is from New York to Naples
by the Mediterranean route, thence across smiling
Brindisi,

and thence

steamers of the Austrian

in

Patras on the western coast of Greece.

reach Gibraltar, three days later

we

Italy to

Lloyd

to

In nine days

we

are in the busy streets of

whence we are
was with supreme satisfaction

Naples, next night upon the quay of Brindisi,

to cross the Adriatic.

that

And

it

found myself on the waters of that Adriatic Sea, on

which, six years before,

Venetian towers.

had looked so

wistiully

from the

THE OLYMPIAN GAMES

8
East of Italy
before

me

unknown.
still

had never been before

the land which lay

possessed that charm which ever hovers over the

In the early morning

we

sight the Albanian coast,

For hours we steam southward, a

barren mountains, grim and cold, upon our left. The

held by the Turk.

wall of

land looks desolate and uninhabited, but later our steamer

enters a

little

bay and anchors

at a

Turkish port, a desolate

new buildings and a

custom-house.
Albanian shepherds now embark.
They
introduce us to the Orient.
We now feel that our journey
has in reality begun. We now for the first time hear Turkish
pile of ruins,

dialects

near which rise a few

while the speech of modern Greece also

falls

on our

ears like a sweet though distorted echo from the past.

ALBANIANS

But

THE OLYMPIAN GAMES

we

still

hear the lan-

guages of the Occident

French,

ian,

and English.

Ital-

An

specimen

interesting

of Hellenized English

may

be found in the

cabin of the steamer.

The

rules

and regula-

are

printed in

tions

The

four languages.

following are extracts

from the column

in-

tended for the edification of English-speak-

"It

ing passengers:

Till-;

is

AKCniMANnKITK

prohibited to any

passenger to meddle with the

command and

direction of

the vessel, the Captain being the only responsible person."

This

is

not very reassuring, but the awful thought that

all

the

engineers, the sailors, and especially the cooks are irresponsible, is forgotten in

tion No.

our admiration of the elegance of regula-

It reads,

12.

"Passengers having a right to be

treated like persons of education will no doubt conform themselves to the rules of
travelers

good society by respecting

and by paying a due regard

their fellow-

by saying

"Thou

the persons of

to

shalt not

of

Vienna.

A
is

striking

offered

concludes

education above referred

go to bed with thy boots

Our fellow-passengers are not less

them is a prelate of the Greek Church
wrinkled age

And

to the fair sex."

then the compiler of this code of ocean ethics

contrast

of

by one charming

to,

on!"
Among

interesting.

the Archimandrite
smiling
little

or some other place and her grim-faced

and

youth

Maid

of

Athens

old nurse

the

THE OLYMPIAN GAMES

lO

two being a contrast analogous to

that presented by the bleak Albanian shores upon our left and
the smiling

Ionian

of

hillsides

Isles,

which,

the

like

necklace of emeralds, seem

on the

floating past us

right.

Of our brief stop at lovely

Corfu

charm

shall not speak,

of the Ionian

visited in leisure
later, I reserve for

Athens

We

with a chain of

way

steel.

two months

another time,

now our

destination.

land at Patras, fourteen days

after leaving
A CONTRAST

is

New

York.

links Patras to Corinth

A more

little rail-

and Athens

enchanting railway ride than

that along the Southern shores of the Corinthian Gulf

never enjoyed.

On one

the

Islands,

side the

have

mountains of the Pelopon-

nesus, on the other side vineyards stretching

A STATION

down

to a gulf

THE OLYMPIAN GAMES

whose waters are so blue that

artists hesitate to tell the truth

in color, fearing the ridicule of critics

And then beyond

the Grecian seas.

rises that

north,

immortal, for

its

splendid

II

mountain

who have never

sailed

the waters, far in the

wall

whose fame

is

watch-towers are named Parnassus and Hel-

icon.

Other names which have thundered down the cen-

turies

may

be spelled out upon prosaic sign-boards at the

Sicyon

railway stations.

passed,

is

and

in

a very short

PATRAS

time we hear the blatant shouting of the railway guards

'*
Cortwenty-five minutes for luncheon
Corinthos,
:

'

inthos.
site

'

Think

of

it

of ancient Corinth

Our

train,

however,

railway

sandwiches so near the

now

rolls

on toward Athens,

skirting

the shores of the Saronic Gulf and revealing to us glimpses of

" But does one

iEgina and Salamis.
"
is the question that may be
travel in Greece on flat cars
Although all the
suggested to the reader by the illustration.

the famous islands

.="

THE OLYMPIAN GAMES

12

members

of our party

right to sit

in

had

crowded,

first-class tickets,

stuffy,

giving us the

cars,

first-class

two

of us

resolved that we would not submit to close confinement, and

during a stop at a way-station

car,

and then went

morning across the

trailing

we climbed

into

an empty

flat

along through the glorious spring

territory of classic Megaris.

Our

friends

FIVE MINUTES FOR REFRESHMENTS

look envyingly on us from the tiny windows.

Greek passencompanions the two eccentric foreigners on the tail-end of the train.
Meantime we are
enjoying the exhilaration of this flight, and losing nothing of
the scenery which soon becomes imposing.
But as the train

gers smilingly point out to their

begins

its

dizzy careening around the Skironian

cliffs,

a sud-

CAFfeS IN

THE

I'LACE

VK LA CONSTITUTION

THE OLYMPIAN GAMES

den thunder-shower comes

15

rolling over the jagged

summits

of

those rocky heights, the clouds open, tons of water splash

down and wash

this

unprotected,
rain.

the landscape, and

we

But so

we have

For

unexpected shower-bath.

the

full

benefit of

fifteen minutes,

totally

are relentlessly hurled on against a blinding

brief are these

Greek showers and so bright

and warm the sunshine which chases them away, that before

we reach our

destination

we

are rough-dried, and content in

the souvenir of a diverting adventure.

An hour
through

its

we

later

modern

and disappointed

arrive in Athens.

streets,

we

surprised to find

IN

i:i.j;;i.K.\

.'aiiENS

And

as

we

drive

same time surprised

the handsome shops,

are at the

THE OLYMPIAN GAMES

i6

clean pavements, fresh fa9ades

no reminders of the past are

are dressed like those of

above the shops, at

fresh

and that the inhabitants

any European

least, are

Greek

city.

and

But the signs

my companions

from college read with the accent of the class-room the

names

of tailors, milliners,

and jewelers, while here and there

FROM THE HOTEL

we

disappointed to observe that

visible

D'

ANGLETERRE

see displayed in those almost sacred

praises of

somebody's

pills, of

Greek

letters the

American sewing-machines, or

the announcement of a bargain sale.

At a street corner
tells

us that this

is

is

a sign in Greek and French, which

the street of Hermes.

At the upper end

we

see the royal palace, overlooking a large public

square
our hotel faces the palace, and also overlooks
this center of
Athenian life, the Place de la Constitution.
Below our
;

THE OLYMPIAN GAMES

windows are the

17

tables of an open-air caf^,- at the corner

kiosk like those in which

Paris Boulevards.

we

is

buy our daily papers on the

Coquettish

little

tram-cars are drawn like

playthings across this square by tiny horses, big enough for

toys.

Beyond we

see the balconied facades of the Hotel de

HOTEL DE LA GRANDE BRETACNB

la

Grande Bretagne, while

Lycabettus,

in the distance

crowned by the

Great indeed

is

the distance

abode and the caf6 below us

hundred years apart.

little

Bicycles

and landaus are stationed

'*

of

spirit at least four

through the

at the hotel doors.

vehicles are called even to-day

hill

between yonder hermit's

they are in
flit

rises the

chapel of a hermit.

streets,

The

cabs

public

ama.xa, " the very word, you

THE OLYMPIAN GAMES

i8

BOOTBLACKS

will

remember,

Homer
of

used in speaking

Achilles' chariot.

The

Greek, before he hires one of

these,

makes with the charioteer what

Do not mistake my meaning.

"symphony.
it
The making of a symphony requires no musical talent
demands much firmness of character and a genius for diplomacy.
Unless you make a symphony before you start,
there will be a discord when you come to pay your fare.
is

called a

"

Imagine a

New York hackman

party to a "

symphony

'

;
'

as a

there no

doubt would be a " scherzo,"" and

a

'
'

con furore,

'
'

and

all

the move-

iments played "'fortissimo.''''

The

industry of caring for the

footgear of the Athenian populace

is

remarkably developed.

corner, in every square,

line

PAPADOPOILOS DRAGOMAN

of

bootblacks,

At every

we

find a

who, judging

THE OLYMPIAN GAMES

from the magnificence
a thriving business.

must do

of their outfits,

They keep on hand

kinds of blacking, polish,

and

oils,

all

dress-

ings,

and are prepared

isting

kind of leather from delicate patent-

to treat every ex-

Nor

leather to a piece of Attic beefsteak.

do

wonder

v^^e

their craft.

down

at the importance of|

For when

friend sits

to consult his Baedeker, after our

walk through the

first

my

streets of Athens,
alli;ring smiles

a young bootblack smiles in triumph at

Athenian

the condition of our recently well-polished shoes.

dust

the dustiest dust in

is

all

the world.

Though

it

may

be sprinkled into momentary immobility by the municipal

employees, the dust of Athens never gives up the

dries

and

rises in the

wake

ing the daily efforts to subdue

that

must be the dust

it

were subdued.
shoes,

and

we

tell

fight.

of the sprinkling brigade,

of

it.

Ere we ruin the

convinces us

Its vitality

those old

It

mock-

Greeks who never

luster

imparted to our

take our places at one of the numerous cafes,

the waiter to bring us whatever

drink of the Athenians.

" Mastica

is

may be

the favorite

what you want ;" and

he

presently

re-

turns with

two big

carafe

glasses,

of water,

and two

tiny glasses filled

with a clear thin

liquor.

Follow-

ing the example of

the citizens whose

order was like our

own, we empty
the
GRECIAN PRETZELS

mastica

into

THE OLYMPIAN GAMES

20

the big glass and then pour water slowly in upon

it.

This

produces a cloudy opalescent mixture, which to our unaccus-

tomed palates suggests weak paregoric. But a week later I

have learned to like mastica and drink of it as freely as
the Greeks
best

the

coffee

is

for

it is

also

in

great

in Oriental fashion,

than coffee as

deep

in the

thick, delicious,

it is

we prepare

it.

cup after we have

the exquisite savor,

left

way injurious, and is one of

known in Greece. Of course
demand at these cafes prepared

not in any

preventives of fever

undisturbed.

" cafenion "

is

and

The grounds
finished.

We

far less

lie

half

harmful

an inch

have sipped only

the nerve-destroying element has been

Another luxury to be enjoyed at a Greek

" Pistikia " are not
the pistachio-nut.

served by the establishment but peddled by itinerant dealers.

The

nuts have been roasted, the shells are slightly parted.

Opening pistachio-nuts
ting the leaves of a

is

as fascinating an occupation as cut-

new book, and we

sit

for hours prying

apart the tiny shells and devouring the contents

every

now

(JKFXIAN SOLDIERS

THE OLYMPIAN GAMES

23

and then hailing a passing vender

obtain a fresh supply.

about

six

think

to

ate

thousand nuts while

in

Greece, and in the purchase of

them learned how

with

ten lepta

He

and

tells

smiles,

price requires courage

and persistence.

Frequently the ex-

asperated Greek offers to gamble with

up a handful,

picks

you

"odd

guess,

to

them on the

lays

even."

or

If

table,

you win, he

congratulates you, and going to another table sells

pistachio-nuts
arrived,

is

to obtain twenty

same

for the

you.

bargain

about one cent

the usual rate

GREEK SOLDIERS

to

Fourteen for

Greek.

for

five

While sipping

apiece

cents

and thus recoups

coffee

his

to

a stranger newly

losses.

we
The men as a rule are
man in any land that

and cracking pistachio-nuts,

observe the passers-by with interest.

dressed
is,

like

the average civilized

badly dressed, in the most convenient and hideous erarb

The women ape

ever devised.

Paris fashions,

the officers are well-groomed, tightly laced,

typical continental militaires.
soldiers, at least the
light to the eye,

But the

Evzonoi, are a de-

with their bright red

fezes, long blue tassels, short

>

embroid-

ered jackets, fustanellas of innumerable pleats, and tsarukia of red leather

with tufts of red upon the tips of the

turned-up toes.
warriors

One

presumed

sight of the

of these

to

gorgeous

be amused

at

broad-brimmed hat with

me

a puggaree which sheltered

the ardent Athenian sun.

from

returned

MAN AND A

PIG

THE OLYMPIAN GAMES

24

swing of his starched

his smile finding the

My

provoking.

thereupon makes a

artist friend

to illustrate the incident, putting into

"Well,

lamp-shades

have any

Greek currency also

call to

sketch

little

my mouth

who

people

don't see that

skirt equally mirth-

the words,

dress themselves in

my

laugh at

hat

will afford the stranger

"
!

amuse-

little

The modern Greek

ment and considerable annoyance.
but in the
drachma is nominally a franc, twenty cents
unfortunate financial condition of the country the drachma
;

All

has depreciated.

the gold

and

coin of Greece

silver

has passed out of the

and

kingdom,

is

in

use upon the Conti-

The paper
currency alone re-

nent.

mains, a paper drach-

ma

being worth only

about twelve

Most
as

of this

will

bills

fall

Games, a new

issue

handled

of

come in the form

coupons.
The American

notes

office

'
.''

'

of

'
'

the ragged

In honor of the

a long ribbon

"

The new

of fresh, crisp

How much

to-day for a

the clerks, consulting the latest

measure

off

the Greek

'
'

green-

according to the value of the French or English

gold laid on the counter by the

by

carefully

athletes used to rush into Cook's

And

exchange-bulletins, would

fingers.

bank notes was made.

every morning and ask,

yard of drachmas

backs

your

in

is

in

value,

as in

and unless
to pieces

paper

depreciated

quality

A JOKE BY JACOMB-HOOD

cents.

this operation

pocket-money.

delighted

purchaser,

who

doubled instantaneously the value of his

But

at hotels, patronized

by foreigners the

THE OLYMPIAN GAMES

25

made out on a gold basis.

To pay a
hundred francs requires almost two hundred paper
Only in dealing with unsophisticated Greeks,
drachma.
bills
bill

if

are always

of a

such there are, could

ness of

pay

Greek money.

we gain anything through the cheapThe traveler is always made to

in francs (gold value)

even for such

articles or service

same number of paper

drachmas. It is affirmed that if the Greek cannot get more
from the stranger than would satisfy him if paid by a fellowcountryman he will refuse to sell.
Another curious point about Greek money is that there
are no bank notes of the denomination of five drachma.
as will be given to the native for the

BUYING DRACHMAS BV THE VARD

THE OLYMPIAN GAMES

26
Accordingly,
bill

in

when one day my

drachma
the Olympian Hermes, for

friend tendered a ten

exchange for a bust of

drachmas had been asked, the youthful art-dealer

calmly folded the proffered bill, tore it neatly into two equal
He
parts, pocketed the one and handed back the other.
which

five

met our protestations with the explanation that half of ten

five, and that we had therefore received the proper

was

change

nor

had we any

mutilated half-bill.
bills intact, for

In fact,

difficulty
I

Many

To which

objection

there are other hotels

will

the

travelers object because at

the big hotels the charges are not

money

disposing of

before they have been long in circulation they

are cut up into fives.

country.

in

never again saw ten drachma

made

the

in the

money

of the

reply

proprietors

that

and restaurants where any kind

of

be welcome, and where Greek accommodations

will

be given for Greek money.

the

native

establishments,

pretentious hotels

The competition between

called

Xenodochion,

managed on French and Swiss

lines

very keen.
reason
elers

of

why

visit

and the

is

not

think one

so few trav-

the interior

Greece

guide-books

is

that
tell

the

them

THE OLYMPIAN GAMES

Xenodochion

the

of

Athens

the type

is

27
of

those which

the pilgrims in the provinces will be compelled to put up

with

and we can pardon those whose enthusiasm

classic sites

does not conquer their aversion to a

like the

one offered by the native

describe

it

Don't ask

cuisine.

me

is

The modern

the most impersonal thing

Greeks, especially in

cities,

ever saw.

are abandoning

picturesque but ridiculously complicated costume

favor of that

cheap, ready-made attire which

to be the badge of civilization.

invariably

to

the mixture which the Greek chef ladles out to

hungry guests

their

to visit

bill-of-fare

ill-fitting,

robs them of

is

in

supposed

This shoddy modern dress,

all dignity,

and successfully

conceals whatever of grace and beauty they have inherited

from the Greeks of other days.

But

A PUBLIC KITCHEN

if

in the streets of

THE OLYMPIAN GAMES

28

Athens we see comparatively few contrasting costumes, the

most striking architectural contrasts are not wanting. We

by side with the commonplace shops and churches

to-day, remnants of medieval Athens in the form of Byzan-

find side

of

One

tine churches.
It

is

called

the

of these stands

Small Metropolis,

Panagia Gorgopiko.

Many

near the
or

the

new

cathedral.

church of the

fine archaic reliefs

and ancient

GREEK NATIONAL DRESS

inscriptions have
it is

in fact

been

composed

ing structure

is

built into the walls of the tiny

of the debris of antiquity.

most quaint and

which ought to be kept safely

interesting,

ugly

modern

structures.

It

is

gems of Byzantine
down to make way for

little

architecture have already been torn

result-

a sort of curio

a big glass case.

in

regrettable that seventy of these

church

The

CHUKCH OF THE PANAdIA (.ORGOPIKO

THE OLYMPIAN GAMES

doorway

Just outside the

On

block of gray marble.

an inscription which,
the stone from

Cana

Lord turned water

to

Photograph by

of this chapel there lies a large

it

carved in

is

Greek

of Galilee,

into wine. "

H. Rau.

'

This

'

where Jesus Christ our

The stone was brought

Athens long ago by pilgrims from the Holy

Wm.

letters

and many scholars admit

authentic,

authority, gives to that stone a priceless value

its
is

if

31

Land.

A BYZANTINE CHirRCH

This mingling of the souvenirs of far separated epochs

in

many

places strikingly apparent.

by Hadrian when

Rome was

is

Stately columns reared

mistress of the world stand like

a group of minarets beside an old dilapidated mosque built by

the

Turk when he was

striving after universal sway.

looking through the portico of the

modern house erected

of the

Greeks

of

in the reign of

to-day.

prosecute our search,

Moslem

builder,

George the

Then,

we

see a

First,

king

And, did we care further to

we could

find structures built

by the

THE OLYMPIAN GAMES

32

Franks and the Venetians who

land,

and on the slope

ings so like the

we may

find a little

whitewashed houses

we expect

were masters of the

of the Acropolis, almost within the

shadow of the Parthenon,

Algiers that

in turn

group of dwell-

in the native quarter of

to see at every corner the flowing

burnoose of an Arab Kaid.

This

is,

however, the abode of

poverty, the headquarters of the laundresses of Athens.

BYZANTINE AND ROMAN RUINS

The

THE OLYMPIAN GAMES

newly washed linen

of the

Athenians

the sacred slope of classic Athens.

is

hung out

Although

33
to dry

old

upon

Athens

lodged her gods in temples of immortal grandeur, and her

men in splendid palaces, her humble citizens and her

many slaves were miserably provided for. The public life
was everything, the home was but a place to sleep. Even
to-day the poor Athenians make of the public thoroughfare a
rich

workshop, sleeping-room,

or restaurant,

according to the

hour.

At lunch-time many a young Pericles and Alcibiades

may be

seen feasting

on

and

bread

jam

upon the public curb

and while discoursing

upon sweet things

must not

fail

to speak

a word in praise of
the celebrated honey
of

Hymettos

wfiich

is

served us every morn-

and

ing,

sic

The

clas-

Mt. Hy-

bees of

mettos,

indeed

is

it

delicious.

have,

it

is

now emigrated
another height,

said,

to

but, perhaps because

the honey

is

so sticky,

the old

name adheres

to

Another very

it.

curious feature of our

Athenian
is

the

which

breakfasts

fresh

butter,

at first

we do

not dare to taste, but

XUIi XtMl'LL ui

THE OLYMPIAN GAMES

34

upon acquaintance we soon

which

learn to relish.

white,

It is

consistency

its

almost pure
is

that of

whipped cream, and sometimes

we

are obliged, bidding defiance

to table etiquette, to dip

up and

spread the butter with a spoon.

Midnight and midday are

Athens alike
streets

in

one respect

the

and squares are deserted

be

at the stroke of twelve,

it

by

day or night, for at noon as well

as at midnight
is

Athens

sleeps.

and dogs no one ever ventures

said that save foreigners

out

when

lunched,

the sun

Athenian

high.

is

"appy

It

humanity,

having

apparently ceases to exist until the shadows have

grown long again,

has banished

all

until the

magic

evening

light of the early

that glaring ugliness which at high

descends upon the

For

city.

noon

must be said that modern

it

Athens illuminated by the crude vertical rays of the noonday sun

is

positively

ugly and

tically

repellent.

no shade

There

is

There

Athens proper.

in

prac-

however, behind the palace a lovely

royal garden

where shrubs and flowers

and grass and

green

things

all

are

kinds

of

fresh

shielded

from

Apollo 's burning arrows by masses

of rich foliage.

Nor

is

this gar-

den, doubly delicious because

it is

unique in Athens, reserved for

sel-

fish

enjoyment

family.

by the

royal

Three afternoons

in

every week the garden gates

are thrown open that

all

Athens

THE OLYMPIAN GAMES

may

for the

purple gloom

nonce forget

its

arid Attic surroundings in the

of the wistaria arbors.

expensive luxury in Greece, for

from the Attic desert.

35

it

This garden

is

the most

has been created, as

Water and vegetable

soil

it

were,

are scarcities

AN ATHENIAN HOME

in Athens,

and vast sums were spent here by the Bavarian

King, Otho, to please his queen Amalie,

who longed

and verdure which before her time did not

And
face of

for shade

exist in Athens.

we linger here there naturally rises before us the

him who rules the destinies of Greece to-day, George
as

THE OLYMPIAN GAMES

36

the

First,

Hellenes.
ish

Prince,

King

of

King

of

He

a Dan-

is

son of

the

the

Denmark, and

brother to

Queen Alex-

andra of England.
1863,
fill

In

he was called to

the throne

left

vacant

by King Otho, the unpopular

German Prince

who had been

selected

by an International Congress to rule the Greeks,

but who, after a reign of

about thirty years, was

I

invited to extend indefinitely the vacation

which

KING GEORGE

he had unwisely taken.

King George, although a

man

of

peace, has

en-

dowed Greece with more

many a famous conqueror. Some

territory

than

thirty-three years ago he

came from

home

his

in

the far north bringing to

the nation that had

itself

chosen him as king,

royal

gift

the

deeds

by which Great Britain

transferred

to

the

new

kingdom the seven beautiful

Ionian Islands which

C^.^i^i/tW

^
QUEEN OLGA

Athens

THE OLYMPIAN GAMES

37

the English had long before taken from the Turk.

Greece

being delivered from Moslem conquerors, Great Britain gracefully

returned the islands which by her occupation she had

Queen Olga, consort of King George,

was a Russian princess. Under the sway of this royal pair
who came to Greece, the southernmost of European
countries, from two lands which lie in the farthest north, the
preserved from ruin.

nation has, in spite of her misfortunes, steadily progressed.

King George

at his coronation said,

"

Greece the model kingdom of the Orient.

IN

THK ROYAL GARDEN

I
'

'

wish to

make

This he has

in

of

THE OLYMPIAN GAMES

38

accom-

certam measure

The

plished.
at

one time the scourge of

Greece,

trade

their

and

life

now

are

side of the

brigands,

plying

on the other

Turkish border,

and property are

to-day no safer in

Denmark

than they are in Greece.

Much credit for the progress made by Greece is

due to the Prime Minister,

Tricoupis,

of

whom

French writer has said

"He
V

^'l/m

ATHENS

has multiplied

railways

and

TRICOUPIS

created and improved the

ports of

commerce,

light-houses on

built

dan-

the

gerous coasts, dressed up

the

soldiers

in

new

uni-

forms with brightly polished

decreed

navy

He

buttons.

that

the

has

Greek

no longer ma-

shall

neuver on land, and that

the Greek cavalry shall not
"

march on

foot.

And these good works

were much approved of by
the people.

Shepherds

from Arcadia and

tillers of

the

highroads.

PRINCE CONSTANTINE

IN

THE ROYAL GARDEN

THE OLYMPIAN GAMES

41

the soil from Thessaly looked admiringly on their torpedo-

boats and men-of-war, on the brisk regiments of the spick-

and-span new army and cried, " Zito, Tricoupis

they were asked to pay for these

them
the

in

another

man whose

The

light.

The

"

But when

luxuries they viewed

tide of public favor turned against

life-endeavor

rank of nations.

little

was

to place

Greece

suffrages of a people

in the front

who expected

PALACE OF THE CROWN PRINCE

him

him

to produce revenues without imposing taxes, drove

and broke

into retirement

disappointment,

his heart.

He

died in France, of

they say, a few days after the Olympian

Games had been brought

But we have come to

to a triumphant termination.

Athens, not to discuss political

economy, but to attend the Olympian Festival

In

April,

revival of the

1896,

of

1896.

Athens invited the world to join

in

Olympian Games which had been the glory

THE OLYMPIAN GAMES

42

To understand the full

we should know something
The old Olympian
of the Olympian Games of antiquity.
The Attic city had her
Festival was never held in Athens.
and the pride

of Ancient Greece.

significance of this

modern

festival

Panathenaic

the

athletic

festivals,

national

games were held

at

Olympia, a sacred place near

The

the western coast of Greece.

Games, but the great

site of

Olympia had been

buried beneath the sands of time until archaeologists

Germany uncovered
theaters,
past.

the

of

its

temples,

and treasure-houses, eloquent reminders

To-day we may
its

mul-

from

stadia,

of a heroic

modern railway cars

temples and the shattered rem-

travel thither in

and look upon the ruins

nants of

wreck

of its

_^^^^^^^^^^^fc_

OLYMPIA

titude of statues.

THE HERMES OF OLVMPIA

THE OLYMPIAN GAMES

A modern
museum

45

hotel caters to the comfort of the traveler, a

offers

little

Supreme among the

feast of beauty.
museum of Olympia is the most perfect male
come to us from the artistic past, the Hermes
him a

treasures of the
figure that has

was not a

of Praxiteles.

Authorities agree that Olympia

of importance,

being rather an assemblage of shrines and

temples, a place to which

all

Greece repaired once

city

in four

JCffiffl!

m^^

mnim

Miiiiii
Photograph by

Wm.

H. Rau

HOTEL AND MUSEUM AT Ol.YMPJA

years to worship the Greek gods and to attend the

celebrated in honor ol Zeus, the deity better
Jupiter Olympus.

Zeus

games here

known

to us as

Olympia was not the dwelling-place

of

the father of the gods held his court on the crest of

Mt. Olympus far away in Thessaly.

that Zeus

which the

But it was at Olympia

was honored by the celebration of the games, of
festival of

1896

is

a revival.

games, those of 776 B. C., when

first

The
the

first

recorded

measurement

of

THE OLYMPIAN GAMES

46

time by Olympiads was begun, were but

a revival of

still

more ancient observwhich has been

ances, the origin of

ascribed to Hercules.

As we look upon the sculptured

gods and men who on the pedi-

ment

of

Olympia's great temple

were actually seen, admired, and

praised by almost every great Greek

who

ever lived, our thoughts go back

to those old games,

and we long to

see the athletes, the spectators,

the pilgrims on

whom

stone looked down.

and

these images of

Yet these stones

were new when the games were already

Homer
many of the contests which restoration of a
known to have figured in the Olympian Games.

a long established institution, for

describes
are

these are pictured

in

the

victory, olympia

Egyptian wall-paintings

FROM THE OLYMPIAN TEMPLES

Some

of

which

THE OLYMPIAN GAMES

are

47

two thousand years older than the earliest recorded

The ancient games were exclusively Hellenic in char-

games.

acter, to

The

be of pure Greek blood was essential in contestants.

season for the

festival, like

dependent upon the moon.

the
is,

new and
late in

full

moon

the Christian Easter,

is

The games were held between

summer solstice, that
in July.
The sacred month, or

nearest to the

June or early

FROM THE PEDIMENT OF AN OLYMPIAN TEMPLE

Hieromenia, began with the new moon.

proclaimed throughout the Hellenic world

withdrew their armies from the

meet, in friendly

field

trials of strength,

and sent

truce

was then

warring states
their athletes to

the youth of other states

with which they had just been at war, the warriors with

whom

they would again contend upon the

the sacred

month had

the territory of Elis.

closed.

field of

No armed men

blood after
could enter

Pilgrims to Olympia were protected

by the most stringent measures.

Those who assaulted them

THE OLYMPIAN GAMES

48

were

fined, and,

worst of punishments,

excluded from the

temples, and denied the right of witnessing the games.

When

the old astronomers had determined the precise date of the

festival,

proclamation

the

of

the

games was made, and

heralds of peace were sent to the remotest corners of the

Grecian

world to

invite all freeborn

important of

all,

announce that the

lists

were open, to

Greeks to enter for the contests, and, most

to bid those

who were

at

war

to desist from

the struggle until the great Pan-Hellenic festival in honor of

the Father of

Gods and Men had been duly celebrated.

THE MUSEUM OF OLYMPIA

iHt.

LIUKAKV

THE OLYMPIAN GAMES

One

herald traveled northward to the shores of the Black

Sea, another sailed

islands

the

and thence

West

away

to Asia

to Syria

Minor and the intervening

and Egypt

a third was sent into

to the people of the Greater Greece, of Sicily

Gaul and Spain.

heralds,

51

came

From

athletes,

all

and

these lands to which went the

pilgrims,

and spectators, to throng

ENTRANCE FOR THE PUBLIC

Olympia's courts and theaters, which for four long years had
been deserted save by that marvelous population of marble
statues of

which the ancient writers speak

admiration.

down

in

words

of

glowing

Even the mutilated marbles which have come

The treas-

to us attest the justice of that admiration.

ures of Greece are not of gold or silver

these she lacks

her

THE OLYMPIAN GAMES

52
treasure

is

The Olympian Hermes,

of marble.

piece of the great epoch of Greek sculpture,

travelers

the

come

Put

Hermes

all

to

Olympia merely

to look

the other discoveries at

in the other,

and

it

will

estimation of the cultivated world.

army
deeds,

of

Olympian

in statues

victors

the

in

in

of

outweigh them

And not

one scale,
all in

the

only were gods

in the

games

but of that vast sculptured

few traces now remain.

however, are recorded

most

upon that perfect

Olympia

honored with statues at Olympia, the victors

were likewise carved

is

Every year hundreds

precious statue in the world to-day.

form.

that master-

Their

undying verse, for Pindar

ENTRANCE FOR THE ATHLETES

XHE STADIUM

GOING TO TME GAMES

THE OLYMPIAN GAMES

wrote and sang of them.

The name

55

of the chief victor

was

given to the Olympiad or period of four years which ensued.

The

feats

performed by the Olympianik^s of old have

been recorded by the story-tellers of antiquity.

One, Milo, was so strong, especially

that no one could bend or even

held

it

rigid.

move

in wrist

and hands,

his little finger

when he

Another, Melamcomas, stood during two entire

days with arms outstretched.

Another,

Polydamas,

are to believe the evidence of tradition, could with one

arrest the

mad

career of a four-horse chariot.

THE STADICM

if

we

hand

THE OLYMPIAN GAMES

56

The

old boxing-gloves

pale with terror.

would make a modern

They were

of leather,

upon a sandy

"ran so

are told that the short-

fast as to

be invisible," and this

track.

Great honors were the reward

in

the

victory

lists
;

of

him who conquered

His native city became famous through

on

studded copiously

We

with knobs and plates of metal.

distance runners

prize-fighter

his return the enthusiastic inhabitants tore

his

down

a portion of the city wall that he might not be forced to enter

at

used by

the gate

common

Ay,

mortals.

those

were

glorious days for Greece, those twelve long centuries during

which two hundred and ninety-three Olympiads succeeded

one another

But these Pagan

festivals

were destined to be

engulfed by the rising tide of Christianity, for in the fourth

century after Christ, the

ing to crush

Roman Emperor

Paganism by abolishing Pagan

Theodosius, thinkrites,

decreed that

;\

,-^^,,,>^-^rj^rr^f^'^^'

ATHENIAN MULTITUDES

THE OLYMPIAN GAMES

57

# f
^^^^^^x
^^^^^H

THEIR MAJESTIES OF ENGLAND AND GREECE

no more games should be celebrated in honor

god.
And his mandate held good for fifteen

of the old

Greek

centuries.

Dur-

ing the long dark ages of slavery to Vandal, Venetian, Frank,

or Turk, the Greeks forgot their ancient gods and their ancient

games.
deities

day,

The temples and

and athletes

slept

stadia were destroyed, the marble

amid the ruins until a recent yester-

when they were brought

of foreign archaeologists.

to light through the enterprise

But to the Greeks themselves

is

due the credit of the revival of the Olympian Games.

Well may the Athenians exclaim, "Ay,

it is

living

Greece

once more!" as they throng into the restored Stadium,

where

in the presence of a Christian multitude a Christian

monarch annuls the Imperial decree of fifteen centuries ago

first Olympiad of modern times.
The
nations of the world have been invited to take part, and gladly

and inaugurates the

has the invitation been accepted.

formed miracles

of generosity

successful

of

issue

this

and

ambitious

The Greeks have

self-denial
fete.

to

per-

insure

The grand

old

THE OLYMPIAN GAMES

58

Stadium, non-existent for long

was restored at the

one man, a moda Greek of Alexern Croesus
andria, whose name, Giorgios
centuries,

expense of

been connected

has

Averoff,

with a thousand other works of

public use

and public

charity.

The Athenian Stadium was

three

out

laid

first

hundred and

thirty years before the birth of

The

Christ.
sat

./ra4^^-3^7Jp!.i

spectators of old

on the grassy slopes

two long

hill-like

embankments

which faced each other on both

sides of the race-course, and

A FINISH

were joined at one end by an imposing hemicycle.

hundred years

five

of the

later,

in

the days

of

the

About

Romans, a

wealthy citizen, Herodes Atticus, said to the people,

your next gathering here

And he kept

marble."

In 1896 a
fulfilled

ancient

millionaire

made

here
are

stones

structure

among the newer blocks, hav-

ing been found

and

set

up

of

according to the

from the origin a

all

a similar promise and

restored

plans.

there

darker

promise you a stadium

his word.

The Stadium was

it.

To be seen
and

modern

"At

in

"

GET SET "

!

THE OLYMPIAN GAMES

59

places which they occupied

fifteen

centuries before.

The

thirty-three aisles

and stairways of the

Stadium,

the 60,-

000 seats would be

familiar to

many

an Athenian

of the

second century
but the 60,000

who

people

to-

day occupy the

would

seats

puzzle him, in-

among

deed; for

them he would
see

many

* *

'

barians

'

bar-

from

lands undreamed of in

THE BOSTON TEAM

his day.

The old Athenian

spectators whitened or enriched with bright colors the marble

sides of the

Stadium

ous funereal garb.

thrills

is

in

all,

our modern

it

with our hide-

the sight

is

one which

never

which has

like of

age.

be-

The

glimpse of the crowded Stadium

to

be

among

numbered

great sensations of a

The

we moderns blacken

But, in spite of

one the

been witnessed

fore
first

us,

life

the

time.

impressiveness which at-

taches to every aggregation of

humanity

is

heightened by a

close massing of

and by the

the

classic

people

t^"\

outlines

of the Stadium.

THE PRINCETON TEAM

6o

THE OLYMPIAN GAMES

Past the entrance
to this

now modern

course runs the road

from Marathon the

;

Bay of Salamis may

be seen from the

higher

the

tiers,

AcropoHs

visible

is

from nearly every

seat.

It

was

immortal
ground

this

back-

gave

that

the

modern Olym-

pian

Games a deep-

er,

wider signifi-

cance than has ever

any other
athletic meeting

dignified

whatsoever.

For

it

must be

confessed that the

chief interest of the

Olympian
of

Games

1896 lay

splendid

in the

setting

given them, rather

than in the games

themselves.
the

standpoint

modern
the

From
of

athletics

contests

wit-

nessed by the imposing

ATHLETES IN ACTION

audience

were not remark-

THE OLYMPIAN GAMES

6i

able save in one respect, the invincibility of our American

No

champions.

upon even

not called

work

The
all

to

their respective

in

men were

records were broken, in fact our

equal

own

their

best

previous

lines.

spectators being assembled to the

number

waits on the.arrival of the Royal party.

of 60,000,

At the appointed

hour, with democratic punctuality. King George, escorted by

makes

the committees,

his entry.

With him

are the Queen,

the Crown-Prince Constantine, and Prince George, the sec-

ond

To

son.

the music of the Greek National

Hymn

the

procession traverses the Stadium, while the multitudes

little

And mingled with

stand with heads respectfully uncovered.

a sense of gratitude

the respect there

is

for the unselfish

and enthusiastic support

Princes, this splendid spectacle

for

had

it

of the

not been

King and

would never have been pos-

The Crown-Prince as President of the special Greek

Committee was no mere figurehead
he, aided by Prince
George, performed much of the work of organization, while
without the moral support and sympathy of the Royal Family

sible.

the successful issue of the festival would have been in doubt.

The opening ceremonies

up the program

The
meter

first

race.

now, as

over, let us take

for the first day's sports.

event

is

the one-hundred-

This event

is

considered

in ancient times, the

most

important of those occurring within

the limits of the Stadium.
heats are run.
victors'
ral

We

Three

listen for the

names, expecting

in the natu-

order of things to hear the heralds

ROBERT GARRKTJ
out such Greek appellations as
Belokas, " or " Lagouda-

call

' *

"

But no!
The winning
names announced have a familiar
kis

'

THE OLYMPIAN GAMES

62

1^

r^arf*

^H||

r*f4

sc

'

wiims

H^r

W^^

^^^BH

^^^^3L w^^S^ygl^H

at--

^s^'-^li

^^.H^

ij ^S^^H
^^ -7

,^S>.^-.:#^

^^K!^^F

'

4^"

-^^^y
J

-T

f W ./J J'

K^
i.

.*

a^^^K

mf
nS^J
k^%tM A
1

te**

.-*

BUYING TICKETS FOR THE GAMES

sound, for they are

Not a bad

Our
itself

start

little

in joy

for

*
'

Curtis, "

us,

" Lane,

'

'

'

and

'

Burke

'
!

indeed.

group of spectators from across the sea hugs

there are distant echoes of college yells, rising

little groups, and " B. A. A.," and

" Rah, rah, rah " and for the moment the word "" Amerikis " is on the lips of all.

here and there from

!

And

thus

times in ten

it is

it is

in nearly all the

subsequent events.

the Stars and Stripes that

Our country's

cate the winner's nationality.

are upheld by four

is

men from

Nine

run up to indiflag

and honor

Princeton, and by a team of

who come to the Athens of the Old World from the

Athens of the New, for they wear the colors of the Boston
athletes

Athletic

Association.

There were,

of

course,

contestants

from other nations, and many ambitious Greeks made brave

attempts to prove themselves deserving sons of an immortal
race.

But fortune did not favor them.

Athletic sports had

not been practiced here on classic soil for

and the modern Greeks found

many

generations,

then"iselves outclassed in

which were to them unfamiliar

if

not totally unknown.

games

THE OLYMPIAN GAMES

The

triple

we ask

jump

is

now

63

"What, again?"

contested.

ourselves, as Conolly, of Boston, with a victorious

hop, skip, and jump, covers forty-five good feet of classic

enough,

more than enough to prove that once more

and a moment later up goes the banner
announcing the first victory of the new Olympiad in the
"finals " and it is the familiar red, white, and blue of the
Star Spangled banner that lights up the Grecian sky.
soil,

we have triumphed

And then

the discus-throwing

the most truly Greek of

originally

been entered.

all

is

the contests,

The

discus

For this,
no American had

announced.

is

familiar to us only in

connection with statues of old, athletes in our art-museums.

THE ASSEMBLING MULTITUDE

THE OLYMPIAN GAMES

64

Our men can put the shot or throw the hammer, but not one
them has ever seen a discus, much less tried to hurl one.
The Greeks, upon the other hand, have long been practicing
their antique game, and one of their number has acquired
of

a remarkable proficiency, equaling the best recorded throws

of old

Nor was he less beautiful

gesture than the model who served as

Olympian

or graceful of

victors.

tion for the sculptor

who watched him

Myron, hundreds of years ago.

in practice affirmed that in the

of

form

inspira-

Those

grace of his

poses and gestures and in the accuracy of his delivery he

could not have been surpassed by the famous statue

had

itself

we are not surprised at

the hesitation of one of our boys, a member of the Princeton
team, when requested at the last moment to enter the lists
it

come

and,

to

all

life.

Remembering

unprepared,

unfamiliar game.
decline

meet

this

the

Greek

champion

in

an

But although he hesitated, he did not

With

the challenge.

daunted

spirit

the

same un-

which has ever char-

acterized the Anglo-Saxon

race,

Robert Garrett,
the

of

Princeton

team,

took
up a

A MOUNTAIN OF HUMANITY

THE OLYMPIAN GAMES

discus for the

first

time in his

life,

65

and stood before the

thronging thousands ready to do at least his best for the

Orange and Black and the Stars and Stripes.

we can
Our chance of victory seems ridiculously small
but hope that our defeat will not call down the laughter

honor

of the

of

the

Greeks.

The

efforts are

first

Then with

champion.

merely tentative on the part of our

that infinite capacity for

on," which seems to be the birthright

**

catching

every Yankee,

of

Garrett improves, and in his final throw wins more than he

or his friends dared to hope for
fully

tain of victory,

picks up

and with the grace

antique statue launches

marvelously

descends
has

it

the

artistic,

then

the

drops.

it

into

Stadium

is

space.

of

His

heavy discus soars

an animated
final

throw

away,

Scarcely

touched the ground ere

foot, shouting

the right to retire grace-

ridicule.

discus,

his

Then Gouskos, the Greek, cercomes forward. With classic gestures he

and without

all

on

and

waving hats and

flags.

De-

lirious

with

THIRTY THOUSAND PEOPLB

is

THE OLYMPIAN GAMES

66

Greek gentlemen embrace each other. For the first

time the victory seems theirs, and we may readily imagine
and then their bitter disappointment,
their great joy
delight,

almost despair,

when

and

again

Stripes

is

hoisted

to

mast

the victors'

Stars

In

admiration for the grace and beauty of

their enthusiastic

their

instead of the Greek flag the

champion 's delivery the Greeks had

failed to note the

very important fact that Garrett 's discus, although launched

by an unpracticed hand, had touched the earth

seven

just

and one-half inches beyond that which the Greek had so

artistically

All
their

thrown

The Greeks had been defeated at

exercise.
They were overwhelmed by the

were stupefied.

own

classic

superior skill and daring of the Americans,

ascribed

a supernatural

to

invincibility enabling

whom
them

they

to dis-

pense with training and to win at games which they had

never before seen.

To omit further dethe Americans

tails,

in

five

first

the

contests

day won the only

two decided, took

all

the heats in two of

the

others

and, in

spite of the fact that

not one of our boys

was entered
fifth

event,

believe

for
I

the

the

verily

Greeks

expected us to win

it.

The second day

our flag went up
three times.

boys are

IN

MODEKN MARATHON

now called

Our
the:

THE OLYMPIAN GAMES

67

THE MOUND OF MARATHON

"American

invincibles. "

Garrett at putting the shot sur-

passes the Greek contestant, whose physical perfection was

who still have an eye for

beauty, saluted him as "Hermes."
A Britisher and a Dane then prove their superiority in
such that his fellow-countrymen,

lifting

weights

but everything else

the fifteen-hundred-meter race

us,
is

for although

put

down

won by

Flack, the winner,

"Oh,

is

this

is

credited to
it

The Greeks are not

geography, and when we explain that

is

well,

victory.

an Australian, not an American, they

that

is

about the same thing

gratulate you."

And

ours save one event,

and even

a splendid fellow from Australia,

American

as an

strong in antipodal

answer,

we con-

the congratulations are sincere, for the Americans are

not begrudged their victories.

those people alluded to by

This

Homer

is

because we are like

as " the blameless Ethi-

'

who live so far away as to excite no jealousy.

The third day is devoted to shooting matches in the fine
new shooting-stand on the Phaleric plain. The fourth day

opians

'

witnesses the gymnastic exercises in the amphitheater, and

THE OLYMPIAN GAMES

68
is

on that day

chiefly notable because

blue and white flag

is

for the first time the

unfurled in token of a native victory.

not a heroic one, however, for the Greek, Metrapolous,

*i^^^ that he can twist
has proved only
the flying
and turn on
It is

^^^
.^^^

THE CREST OF "DEAD-HEAD

rings

more

the sturdy

^^^.

HILL."

gracefully than

Germans who

almost every one of

One Athenian

excel in

other contests.

the

daily

paper explained the superiority of

the Americans on the ground that they joined to the inherited

athletic training of the

Anglo-Saxon,

of the red-skinned Indians

use

of

the wild

impetuosity

Another, having observed the

chewing-gum, informed an eager public that the

Americans had great endurance because they chewed pitch

to

strengthen

the

lungs

Still

another expressed great

THE OLYMPIAN GAMES

69

admiration for the piety of the American contestants, for

noting but not understanding the custom of blowing on the

hands to moisten them before grasping a vaulting-pole or a

hammer, the reporter wrote that before each event the

in their hands and murmured

Americans bowed their heads

a brief prayer

The

On

thon,

"

day

fifth

we but win

If

is

the day of the great race from Mara-

this event the

Greeks founded

the prize for Marathon,

all

we

their hopes.

shall

forget

all

'

was the cry which went up from the vast

Hellenic majority of the audience which on Friday fills the

our defeats,

Stadium,

'

ing walls, on the

banks of the

hill

Ilyssos,

way

the surround-

which dominates the Stadium, on th2

in the

gardens of the Zappion, on the

boulevards, are massed the thousands

their

On

had almost said to suffocation.

into the amphitheater.

who

could not force

Never has such a

The

been witnessed since the days of antique Athens.

other quarters of the
entire population
in the

is

are

early

not

place, not even

"dead-head

on
'

hill

'

which

rises

high above the

marble
Still

seats.

the crowds

On

each

side rises a

huge

arrive.

mountain- range
of faces,

and

deserted,

the

massed around and

is

As

Stadium.

o'clock there

city

sight

all

these faces are

aglow with ex-

pectation and
I>AI>

UEAU UILL

as

two

vacant

'

THE OLYMPIAN GAMES

70
impatience,

all

save the four calm marble visages which

curve of the course near the royal platform.

the

should this scene impress them

They, at

least,

mark

Why

have wit-

nessed more imposing spectacles, for they stood here during

They have beheld

the long centuries of Athenian greatness.

the splendid Panatheniac gatherings of long ago, they have

seen face to face the immortal

never be forgotten.

will

men whose deeds and

songs

Could they give expression to their

thoughts, they would only smile derisively at this throng of

moderns, and ask that those

who dragged them from

hiding-places deep in the classic earth should bury

their

them again

that they might slumber on with the remains of that antiquity

of

which they formed a

they would say,

I

ment

'
'

let us

part.

"

We

are not of your world,

return a second time into our graves.

must begin the record

of the fifth

day with the

"
'

state-

that while the runners are preparing for the start from

Marathon,
five

twenty-

miles away, other

athletes are contend-

ing in the presence of

a hundred thousand
people.

In the Sta-

dium the Americans

again cover themwith glory.

Burke wins the finals

selves

hundred-meter

in the

Clarke

race.

the high jump.

tis flies

the

wins
Cur-

to victory over

hurdles.

Hoyt

and Tyler contest the

prize

for pole-vault-

ing with the bar one

READY TO START FROM MARATHOM

'

THE OLYMPIAN GAMES

71

PREMIER DELAYNNIS

and one-half

feet

above where

Greek opponents.

it

had been abandoned by

Invincibility

is still

their

with the Americans.

The Greeks begin to tremble at the thought that our Blake

is even now running against their champions on the road from
Marathon.

American

When
flag

M. Delyannis, the prime

minister,

saw the

go up for the fourth time, he turned to our

minister and asked despairingly,

"Why

discover your unconquerable country

did

Columbus ever

'

Meantime we must not forget the events transpiring far

away on the Marathon road. There Greeks and barbarians
They know that he
are running with grim determination.
who wins the race from Marathon will gain more than

THE OLYMPIAN GAMES

72

ephemeral honor

his

that the story of

victory will be recited to admiring generations long after the other contest-

At

ants have passed into oblivion.

Athens the high jump

when mounted

is

in progress

couriers

arrive an-

nouncing that at the sixth mile the

leads, that the Aus-

Frenchman
tralian

is

The

is

next and doing well.

spectators are

on tiptoe as

if

all

a-tremble

They remain

with excitement.

eager for the

first

who

are

glimpse of the runners

MARATHON VICTOR 1896

make

Pfinces

The

away.

eighteen miles

still

LouEs,

own

close behind, that our

gallant Blake

way

their

the

to

who must soon arrive. The

The suspense is almost painful. All
gazing westward, when at last a cannon-shot is

entrance to await the victor

excitement
eyes are
heard.

It

is

intense.

means

that the

boulevards, that in a

he

is

no one can

in a great roar,

And

tell

"A

runner has reached the outer

first

moment he
Greek

Who

be here.

will

or what

crowd outside thunders

until the

It is

a Greek

Zito,

its

Loues

joy

"
!

young Greek peasant, Spiridione Loues, all dust and

Stadium, where a hundred

perspiration, staggers into the

thousand people acclaim him as the hero of the hour.

Then, while from the sloping sides

lanches of applause

Greece so far forgets

his royal

citizens

shed

cap

in

of the

come crashing down

Stadium ava-

while the King of

his royal dignity as to rip the visor

waving

it

embrace each other

like

mad

frantically

from

while staid and proper

;

while tears of joy are

while doves, to which long white ribbons are attached,

are loosed and flutter in the air

triumphant shout, Loues,

while

all

Athens utters a

the simple peasant,

the farmer

MARATHON VICTORS

IN 1906

THE OLYMPIAN GAMES

from the

little

hamlet Amarousi,

and a Russian Grand Duke

him from the entrance

he

all

75

escorted by two Princes

is

three embracing, even kissing

to the far

end of the Stadium where

greeted by a royal hand in the midst of such a scene as

is

Athens has not witnessed

runners

who

a thousand years.

All the other

arrive in quick succession are, with one excep-

Greeks.

tion,

in

The

cup

native

of

happiness

is

full.

The

innate endurance of the Greek peasants prevailed in the great

test,

bles.

over the scientific training of the " American Invinci-

"

The winner's

was two hours and

kilometers, a

The

trifle

time, as

announced by the judges,

minutes, the distance

fifty-eight

over twenty-five miles.

following Tuesday was appointed for the ceremony

of the presentation of prizes

l-^i

but the ceremony was post-

0k

iik,.^
'"V^^;.*^^

!?-i^j^^E
/^^y^

"*\

sjSjiiK^

^jT^-^lJg-^^^v
r^"**"

^"^B^"""^. "^^.^^^^S^^k.*'

"

forty

'*w^^:al

.^^^^^^^^^^Mrv
^

^^lEa^^ta^^r^

^^H*'

^^^^^^^K/BSd^^ss

4^
IN

HONOR OF

Jl'PlTER Pl.rVlfS

j^

THE OLYMPIAN GAMES

7^

poned because, the games

in his

honor being ended, Jupiter

Olympus suddenly abdicated, and the

Yet

began.
arch,

forty

reign of Jupiter Pluvius

in spite of the accession of this

thousand

people assembled

unpopular mon-

in

the

Stadium.

Loues, of Marathon fame, arrives, dressed in the national

He

costume.
displayed

carries

one

of the forty

about the course, and a bouquet

admiring feminine spectators.

spoil him.

presented by

Like a true hero, he

ently unaffected by his victory, yet

done to

thousand umbrellas

is

appar-

enough has already been

Immediately after the race he was over-

whelmed with favors. A lady detached her watch and gave it

to him
a pretty girl placed a be-ribboned dove in his hands
;

a barber enthusiastically declared that Loues 's chin should

enjoy a daily scrape at his establishment as long as Loues

SPECTATORS FROM THE U.

S.

A.

THE OLYMPIAN GAMES

lived

and did not grow a beard

shoemaker swore

to shoe

him

77

a hatter vowed to hat him

all

his days

a haberdasher

took his oath that he should never lack for underwear and
hosiery

free

meals for

were assured him

life,

until his

free drinks, free theater-tickets,

dying day.

rich

man gave him

land in his native village, and a wealthy lady offered him the

choice of a large

sum

of

money

or a kiss.

CHEZ MMK. BAKMKTIKFK

And Loues,

with

THE OLYMPIAN GAMES

78

a spirit of an amateur, refused the lucre, and with the gallantry of an Olympianik^ accepted the other proposition.

All

these things he received in addition to the regular prizes, the

presentation of which

And

social diversions that

in

is

now postponed

while awaiting clearer skies

Athens.

of those

let

marked the stay

until a fairer day.

me

recall a

few of the

of the foreign athletes

Numberless entertainments were given

who contended

in the

games.

in

honor

The King gave

LOOKING UN

THE OLYMPIAN GAMES

luncheon

the

and wealthy

was caused

mayor followed with a

picnic

ambassadors

Much amusement

citizens all did their share.

at the King's

79

luncheon when his majesty sent his

chamberlain to the American table with a request that our

boys should kindly repeat their strange
war cries. " " The
"
"
king,
he said,
had listened at a distance to these incom'

'

them a

prehensible shouts, and was curious to give

critical

THE AMERICAN TEAM IN 1906

hearing at close quarters."

"Rah,
Greece

rah,
'

'

rah

and

his

Ellas,

All arose

Ellas,

Ellas,

and gave a rousing,

Zito

Hurrah

majesty expressed himself as

The papers

alluded to these war cries as

considering

them

' *

frenetic shouts difficult to

for

satisfied.

Onomatopeia,

comprehend.

Next to the royal banquet the most enjoyable social event

was a picnic given by the charming American wife

Russian Secretary of Legation,

who

of the

entertained the Royal

Princes and the athletes in the grove of Daphne.

THE OLYMPIAN GAMES

8o

Rather democratic,

is

not, to see Prince Constantine,

it

Prince George, and Prince Nicholas of Greece, grouped there

with the peasant Loues,

Princeton

men

and our young Bostonians and

Prince George, the big fellow seated in the

center of the last row, was a prime favorite with

athlete he could have taken

many

prizes

As an

all.

had he contended.

During the weight-lifting match he picked up and nonchalantly

handed

to a contestant a dumb-bell,

which the

latter

TAKING THE HURDLES

could barely lift.

At the picnic he assured one of our men,
good humoredly, " I could wrestle with you, and sit on you,

Nor was the Crown-Prince a stickler for ceremony.

During the games he was ever in the arena, and it was

too."

no unusual thing to see him carrying a glass

of

cognac to a

resting athlete, or holding the sweater of another

contest was in progress.

above a

little

dignified

proper occasions.

while a

Even the King himself was not

familiarity and amusement upon

KING GEORGE BESTOWS THE OLIVE BRANCH UPON TOM BLRKE

THE OLYMPIAN GAMES

"You may
will beat

you

win

this

in 1900,

if

83

time," he said to Burke, " but we

I

have to run myself

"

And

the

King's words were enshrined in the hearts of every young

Greek,

if

we

are to judge from the enthusiasm with which

The

nasia

gymwere thronged every day with school-boys and young

men,

all

the training for 1900 was undertaken.

striving to

emulate the deeds

But sometimes, during the games

than emulation was indulged
cially in the pistol-shooting

in.

of

open-air

the Americans.

of 1896, imitation rather

This was apparent, espe-

matches.

TOM BURKE OF BOSTON

The American marks-

THE OLYMPIAN GAMES

84
men, the

Payne brothers, arrived on the very day

of the

matches, and, to steady their travel-disturbed nerves, took

frequent sips of whisky from pocket-flasks.

On

the second

day not a Greek contestant sighted a gun, without

applying a black bottle to his

found

it

lips.

The

Messrs. Payne also

necessary to cover their pistol barrels by smoking

with burning matches

the

sunlight

glistening

from the

polished steel would have prevented accurate aim.

day, although the sun

weapons

first

lock,

stock,

Next

was overcast, the Greeks smoked their

and barrel, almost reducing them to

ARCUIE HAHN OF MILWAUKEE, WINNER OF THE HUNDRED METERS

HSf

906

THE OLYMPIAN GAMES

85

Thus the

ashes in their desire to do the proper thing.

was

tery of imitation

But

let

us

now

flat-

carried to ludicrous extremes.

return to the Stadium to witness the clos-

ing ceremonies of the games.

Below, grouped at the foot of

the royal platform, are the various committees, the victorious

athletes, the herald

whom we

victor of

Hadji Petros, the Royal Princes, and one

have not spoken, the winner of the prize

ARCHIE HAHN WINNING IHE HUNDRED METERS,

for the composition of the best

ode

in

906

Ancient Greek.

It

is

an Englishman from Oxford University who has proved that

he can write a better ode in ancient Greek than any of the

descendants of the poet Pindar

Olympianik^s

The

in

who sang

the fame of the

the days of old.

up the list of victors, cries in modern

" Amerikis, Burke. Dromos ekaton-metron, " and

herald, taking

Greek:

fifteen centuries

look

down on

the slight, graceful figure of

the youth who, mounting to the royal platform, receives from

the hand

of

the King of Greece the

first

Olympian

olive

THE OLYMPIAN GAMES

86

GYMNASTIC EXERCISES BY ATHENIAN SCHOOLBOYS

branch ever bestowed since that

Lord 394, when

far-off

day

in the

year of our

the last of the old Olympiads was solemnly

inaugurated in the land of-Elis.

The name

of the

winner

of

the one-hundred-meter race was always given to the quad-

Therefore the

rennial period following the games.

last four

known to history as
the "Olympiad of Thomas Burke, of Boston"!
It must have been a thrilling moment for him as he stood

years of the nineteenth century must be

Crown-Prince, and

there face to face with the King, the

a host
tier

on

of royal personages, while

tier of

eager faces, a cloud of witnesses which seemed

to touch the sky

looked

that same blue sky

down upon

so

many

'
'

and the prizes

of

Greece which has

heroes.

But again the herald 's voice

kosioi-metron,

on every side there arose

is

heard

'

'

Dromos

tetra-

for the four-hundred-meter race

are thrust into the already well-filled arms of Burke, who,

with his double set of trophies, bows himself from the royal

ATHE^fIAN MULTITUDES

ATHENIAN SCHOOLBOYS ENTERINC THE STADIUU

THE OLYMPIAN GAMES

89

I'KOCKSSION OF VICTORS

presence and reaching the arena receives congratulations of a

hundred

friends.

What

are the prizes

contained in large pasteboard

rolls,

on which

next, a silver medal,

is

First, the

diplomas

trimmed with gold paper

stamped a splendid head

of

Zeus, and the classic outlines of the Acropolis and of the Par-

thenon
olive

last

and most important, the

from the sacred groves

purposely valueless that

it

may

priceless

of far-away

branch of

Olympia, a prize

thereby be invaluable.

These

are the official prizes, but they are not the only ones, nor

even the

first,

for during the preceding days the people

LOL'ES

I.

HADING THH PROCESSION OF VICTORS

had

THE OLYMPIAN GAMES

90

One day a ragged banktheir spontaneous offerings.

into Burke 's hands
thrust
was
cents,
sixty
about
worth
note,
another day a set of postage-stamps was given him by a small
made

boy, and never could our athletes enter a public cab or carriage without creating

good-natured turmoil

who each and

passers-by,

among

the

every one claimed the right as

Greeks and hosts to pay the driver of the triumphal chariot.

The other athletes having received their prizes and diplomas,

OLD ATHENS

march

the victors, according to an ancient custom,

times around the vast arena.

The long parade

is

several

headed by

the hero of the run from Marathon, resplendent in his gor-

geous Greek

and waves

attire.

it

in

He

holds aloft the flag of

response to thunders of applause.

indeed should be the lives of

words be

who

bore

true, for Pindar,

off

modern Greece

all

these victors

if

Happy

the poet's

who wrote many odes honoring those

the highest prizes in olden games, informs us

THE OLYMPIAN GAMES

"That he who overcometh hath because
sweet

91

As they

file

past, bearing their prizes in the

the cheering multitude, you

may

thousands massed above us

come from

lands

foreign

ask

who

Games

of the

tranquillity throughout his life forevermore.

shadow

for

Are they Greeks, or do they

It

is

admitted that the vast

come,

for prices

Athens boasts only about

people) was present at the games.

to

of

unknown

are these

majority of these spectators were citizens of Athens

the entire population

"

The

almost
1 30,000

poorest could afford

ranged from 12 to 25 cents, according to

the proximity of the sections to the royal seats.

Strangers

there were, but in comparatively meager numbers.

The

festival itself

was purely

Hellenic, although so

many
were

of
'
'

the

victors

barbarians.

few days after

the close of that

successful celebration,

Athens

resumes
her

THEATKR OK DIONVSOS

THE OLYMPIAN GAMES

92

accustomed
follow

in

air of

and calm, and we who do not

dignity

the train of

the departing crowds

become more

keenly conscious of the attraction of that magnet which for

centuries has

drawn men

eternal glory of
set

Athens

upon that rock a crown

magnificent in

its

Greece was the

structures

which

to Athens, that rock

the

The

Acropolis.

of beauty.

It

is

old

is

the

Greeks

there to-day,

mutilation.
earliest

home

and her statues are

still

of the beautiful,

the most beautiful,

and her
nearer

to perfection than any that have been reared or carved since

WHERE THE AGES

SIT AS

SPECTATORS

THE OLYMPIAN GAMES

the Parthenon was new.
yet those

whose

arts tell us that

ruined

lives

at first to believe this,

have been devoted to the study of the

when

in the

mind's eye these

are reconstructed,

when

the fragments of

true

it is

monuments

It is difficult

93

that

Greek statues have been imagined into an unbroken whole,

they will rise before us in absolute perfection, defying modern
and architecture.

art

of the

wine god, Dionysos

Acropolis,

tell

ings

is

the theater

above looms the wall of the

first

the

a fortress then a sanctuary.

describe properly the various features of this height, to

of their significance,

must be the task

versed in history and art than

to the

of the rock

a wall suggestive of a fortress, for in fact

Acropolis was

To

At the base

summit

of the sacred

which helped

to

make

I.

hill,

of

shall but

one much better

speak of a

and say a word

the fame of Athens.

THE TEMPLE OF WINGED VICTORY

visit

of the build-

THE OLYMPIAN GAMES

Our cicerone endeavors
visit

to

make our

doubly interesting for us by

pointing out two things at once,

describing one in mongrel French,
the other in a sort of Volapuk,

posed of the elements of

wait for visitors.

an hour to one

It

is

for the

history
tinction

guide,

well

to

while

to

lanlie

listen

in

for

on the Acropolis, not for

be extracted from them, but

many new side-lights which their genius throws on

and art. What could be more original than the disdrawn between Ionic and Doric columns by one
" Now, see, old Athens people, all same
said

who

Ionic people, very luxury people

wear

worth

of these guides

the accurate information

many

In the Propylea guides

guages.

CICERONE

com-

fine hat, fine shoes.

Now,

when they go
see, Ionic

DORIC PILLARS OF THE PROPYLEA

fight. always

column

like

peo-

THE OLYMPIAN GAMES

who make him;"

pie

one of the Ionic

goes on

and, pointing to the graceful capital of

of the

pillars

"See on top the

"See the

fine

shoes!

shoes.

Now
all

plain

When

they go

Doric column no got a

like

succinct statement,

Doric people."

who

of Victory,

he

then pointing to the base,

Now, Spartan people

very plain people.

base,

Temple

little

fine hat!":

people,

see,

95

all

fight,

same Doric
no hat, no

capital,

no got a

After listening to

this

could ever mistake an Ionic for a Doric

column ?

Meantime we have observed with some surprise stains of

brown upon the classic columns. Why is it that so

reddish

many
and

travelers speak of the dazzling whiteness of these walls

pillars

of Pentelic

marble

quote a recognized authority

.-*

when

They
I

are not white.

say that they have been

toned by centuries of Attic dust to that

rich,

gold-brown which

has turned the Parthenon from marble almost to ruddy gold.

Yes, the Parthenon stands to-day as a ruin,

and gold

the

whiteness typical of

its

all in

white

extreme old age,

while the gilded pillars suggest that Nature, conscious of the

THE PROP Y LEA

THE OLYMPIAN GAMES

96

had resolved

priceless value of this architectural treasure,

preserve

it

by covering

its

columns with protecting lacquer

to
of

pure gold.

But ruin glares down upon us from every angle of the

Time and decay have done their little, and war
noble pile.
and man's thoughtlessness have done the
hundred and

Photograph by

Wm,

H. Rau

THE WRECK OF AGES

The Turks were masters then

intact.

occupied the

garrison
seraglio

fifty

Only two

rest.

years ago the Parthenon was practically

Acropolis

in

Greece

the

Erectheum was

the Parthenon, after having served as a mosque,

had been converted into a powder magazine.

1687, sent her armies to dislodge the infidels.

the Venetian batteries upon a neighboring

like

a Turkish

hill,

Venice,

shell

found

its

in

from
way,

a messenger of destruction into the former temple of

THE OLYMPIAN GAMES

Athena, and with a roar, which

who

all

is

echoes

in the hearts of

love the beautiful, the Parthenon, after delighting

the souls of
ruin

still

99

men

there

for

2300 years, became a

more

perfect, despite

ruin.

its

Yet what a

mutilations than

the proudest structures of the modern world.

The

Acropolis, however,

early disaster.

owed much

of its splendor to

an

During the second invasion of the Persians,

four hundred and eighty years before Christ, the Athenians

returning to their beloved city, which had at last been deliv-

ered from the Asiatic barbarians as a result of the battle of

them to indignation
Their proud old rock still loomed above the

Salamis, beheld a spectacle which stirred

and
city

to grief.
but, alas,

how changed

Its

splendid temples were

THK PARTHENO.N, WKST FRONT

THE OLYMPIAN GAMES

lOO

burned, their walls and columns were cracked and defaced,

the precious offerings

all

were gone, and, worst

marble population of the sacred

The

of the Asiatic host.

goddesses

who had

hill

of all, the

had not escaped the fury

statues of Athena, of the gods

and

so long been worshiped here, had been

tumbled from their pedestals, their members shattered by the

fall,

their faces

legs, the

marred by vandal hands.

had swept across the sacred height.

the Athenians wept at sight of

all

We

if

an avalanche

do not wonder that

that ruin.

But then with

indomitable energy the people of Attica resolved to

New

Athens which should surpass the old whose

mourned.

the

hands, the dainty fingers, the noses and the ears of

innumerable divinities were scattered here as

9.ri

The arms,

And

first

of

all,

make

loss they

that this determination to begin

from the beginning should be plainly understood, they buried

all

those

muti-

^^^^^''^^^^^^^

THE PARTHENON, EAST FRONT

lated deities in

THE OLYMPIAN GAMES

lOI

PILLARS OF THE PARTHENO.V

this

consecrated ground, just as the soldiers slain in battle

had been buried under the mound at Marathon. And then,

at the command of Pericles, two men, Ictinus and Callicratcs,
whose fame will be immortal, conceived and constructed the
most perfect buildings that the world has ever known and
Phidias adorned them with his immortal sculptures.

Meantime the entombed gods and goddesses

statues were reared, the Acropolis

slept on,

new

became the wonder and

The entombed gods

the admiration of the ancient world.

were worshiped, but

in

other bodies, for their resting-places

had been long forgotten.

of the

The

centuries roll on and the cult

Olympic Deities becomes a dead

religion

It

is

well

THE OLYMPIAN GAMES

I02

that the sleeping goddesses

totally forsaken
until the world,

them.

It

know
is

not that the Greeks have

well that their sleep shall last

which has

long scoffed

at

their

ruined

shrines, should have learned to worship that perfect art which

was but the expression

It

was not

until

of

Greek

religious thought.

1886 that the fates were satisfied that the

world was ready to render homage before the divinities which

the old Persians had cast down.
lenes

work.

was

strolling

The modern king

here, watching

Suddenly one of the

men

the

of Hel-

excavators at their

shouts from a trench

THE ACROPOLIS FROM THE THESEON

THE OLYMPIAN GAMES

'

'

Majesty,

we have found

the gods

'

I05

And King George

'

looked and beheld the awakening smiles of fourteen resuscitated

who,

goddesses,

after a sleep

2300 years, were

of

awakened like sleeping princesses from a magic spell, and

saw again the soft light of the Athenian sky.
It was a revelation of a new antiquity
of an unknown art
with a strange exotic charm.
Of the gorgeous tinting of
;

these statues, traces remain, but so delicate are these traces

that
off

of

it

appears as

if

with a feather.

the powdery pigments could be dusted

The thought

that these are the creatures

an epoch not only far removed from our own, but even

separated by a wide gulf of time from that of classic Greece

them a
have come to

gives

fascination difficult to define.

us,

They seem

to

not out of the past of this world, but from

another, a pre-existent sphere.

THE OLYMPIAN GAMES

io6

But other

fair

women

Beneath the Portico

of the Acropolis.

those tireless beauties, the

Caryatids,

two thousand years have borne

heavy burden.

Wm.

all

of the

who

Turk

H. Rau

Maidens stand
for

more than

uncomplainingly their

They have witnessed here

devastation of the

Photograph by

epoch grace the ruins

of a later

the sacrilege and

they saw with horror the pillars

A FALLEN

COLUMN

Parthenon cast down

but bravely have they stood
unshaken by any terrors, worthy daughters of a mighty race.

of the

An Athenian

journalist

to-day has compared the

Greek people to a Caryatid, upon whose head fate has
amused herself by piling up a weight of discouragements

and misfortunes.

If

we

of

look back into her history,

we

shall

THE OLYMPIAN GAMES

see that Greece has borne up beneath

Romans, Goths, and Ostrogoths,

Slavs,

and

of

the

for the

Franks,
list

is

the

the

109

burden of the

and the

the Vandals

of

Catalans,

not yet finished

and the Venetians,

of the Florentines,

the Genoese, and for nearly four hundred years she has

all

but succumbed beneath the barbarous oppression of the Turk.

But the traveler need not be deeply versed

nor in art to

feel

upon the sacred height

pillars

of

in

history

the charm that with the evening descends

of the Acropolis.

The

time-stained

the Parthenon are bathed in an atmosphere

rosy glory, the fluted

columns

again as they have done

not unnumbered

for

reflect the

sunset

unnumbered times

we know

the

ARCHAIC GODDESSES

fires

before.

of

once

No

date of their erection.

THE OLYMPIAN GAMES

lO

THE PORTICO OF THE MAIDENS

^M
"

''

'2^

'

'

"'WliHBi

TEMPLE OF THESEUS

THE OLYMPIAN GAMES

1 1

and by a simple reckoning we learn that they have stood

here for about nine hundred thousand days

that

million sunsets have gilded these immortal

marbles.

how

see

narrow

And

the glory seems to hover over Salamis and that

strait

antiquity

nearly a

where was fought the greatest naval battle

There the Athenians and

their allies,

of

under the gal-

lant leader Themistocles, routed the Persian

5L

fleets of

Xerxes, and saved not only the

civilization of the Greeks, but of the world.

AN ATHENIAN VISTA

But
pho.oBraphbywm.H.R.u

new

chants

US,

if

at sunset the Acropolis en-

moonlight amid the ruins brings a

and makes

who

mute
poets who feel within themselves a thousand cantos and
strive vainly to give forth in words the thoughts that crowd
inspiration

of those

linger there

upon them.

But since Byron sang, no poet has found voice

to

that

We

utter

all

these immortal marbles whisper to him.

are reduced, then, to

mute wonder and admiration for

those old Greeks, which after

the magnificent creations of

THE OLYMPIAN GAMES

12

more than two thousand years

still

of

the world's progress are

the nearest to perfection.

The

Greeks

greatest of our

of

classic

moderns

in

times soared higher than

philosophic thought, in poetry,

and

in

the drama,

in

us has been bequeathed to us by them.

ere

we

in

architecture,

in art.

infinite

indebtedness to

All that

Let

us,

is

best

then,

and gratefully acknowlGreece

bid farewell to Athens, freely

edge our

the

w^
a;gy-

''

a^aWi^^^^wiAO^^ .^ a

AN ARCADIAN SHEPHERD

GRECIAN JOURNEYS

recian

Journeys
GREECE

has long been considered as a

field for classical

research, as a subject for the historian

and scholar,

or as a mine of antique treasures to be opened only by the

picks of learned archaeologists.

But Greece

is

more than

this.

It is

a delightful field for

travel of the rambling sort, a fascinating subject for the

mere

chronicler of picturesque experiences, and a mine of interesting surprises which

may be worked

with profit and with

pleasure by any one possessed of an eye for beauty and a love

of travel

the capital required for the opening of this mine

being not learning but appreciation.

GRECIAN JOURNEYS

ii6

We

have been taught to think

of

Greece as a land of

dusty ruins, a land whose past completely overshadows

its

present, a land to be viewed only by the scholar steeped in

classic lore,

To
as

it

the

and from the heights

modern

traveler,

appears to those

who

of erudition.

however, Greece

will reveal itself

lay aside the telescope of his-

tory and scholarship, focused so accurately

upon antiquity,
and look instead through the broad window of travel.
While it is only too true that the " Glory that was
Greece
has passed away, the Beauty that ts Greece remains.
'

'

The
Athens.

usual starting-point for a tour of Greece naturally

Let us

find

ourselves

upon that

classic

is

height

GRECIAN JOURNEYS

the Acropolis,

whence

twenty-five centuries

and

more look

upon a

city

down

once the very heart of the ancient world, and

even to-day one so

soil of Attica

and beautiful that we can scarcely

fair

Athens seems to draw from the arid

credit her great age.

yellow

117

the sap of everlasting youth, which pre-

upon her cheek, so often rudely buffeted by the barbarians of many lands and many epochs, the bloom of eternal
freshness, and enables her to smile away the wrinkles of

serves

time, and to laugh back at the glaring sun, saying,

thyself,

Apollo, shalt

grow old and dim, yea, thou and thy

glowing chariot the sun, ere

Athens, however,

choose a

field

*'Thou

is

shall fade

not to be our theme

wider even than Attica

the port of Athens, to the thriving,

familiar to the tourist as the Piraeus.

but

first

we

let

are to

us go to

modern-looking town
It

has been called by a

/
GRECIAN JOURNEYS

Il8

'

deplorably American
but as it prides itsFrench author
perhaps
commerce,
this
is
a
compliment. Toself upon its
' *

'

day,

as in

ancient times,

the

harbor

is

alive with ships,

and the dust upon the four-mile road leading hence to Athens
has,

owing

At the

to the constant traffic, scarce a

Piraeus

we wish

we engage

little

boat and

tell

chance to

shakes his head.

to our rescue,

at us

friend

settle.

the skipper that

to sail across the gulf to the island of ^Egina.

Greek looks blandly

comes

The

and repeats, " ^gina, " and then

who knows

little

modern Greek

and with a smile the boatman answers,

" Oh, Eg-g'-ee-na " and we begin to realize that a certain

command of college Greek does not in all respects prepare

The modern Greeks speak of
a man to visit Greece.
Thermopylae as " Termopeelee, " and as we go onward, we
find that in a

thousand other cases they disregard the arbi-

trary pronunciation of the scholastic world.

GRECIAN JOURNEYS
^gina was

the

home

of the richest

merchants of the old Greek world

traded in far seas.

It

cost Athens

subjugate this hostile state,

away and within

miles

Strange,

small
sense

.''

is

it

sight

not, to find the

and most enterprising

merchants, whose

many

mere
of

121

years of warfare to

island but a score of

the Athenian Acropolis.

Greek world geographically so

But these small states were mighty,

for

remember
bravest of

when

presently

that the fleets

all in

we
of

fleets

pass the
little

isle

in

another

of Salamis,

we

-^gina bore themselves

that great naval battle of antiquity.

CANAL or (ORINTH

These

GRECIAN JOURNEYS

122

CORINTHIANS

waters,

over which graceful

now

peacefully, are red

read the story of that

ships are to-day

in the sunset

day when they were dyed

in

fight,

defeat at Thermopylae,

little

gliding

glow as on that awful

Persian blood.

and know how,

You have
after the

all

Greek

the Persians entered Athens, while

the Athenians took refuge in their ships here in the straits of

Salamis.

We

have read

down upon them

Asiatic

hordes,

sat

how

how

Xerxes,

the great Persian fleet bore

the haughty leader of the

throned upon a promontory to survey

at ease the annihilation of the blockaded

how,
allies

Greeks

and then

urged on by Themistocles, the Athenians and their

resolved to conquer or to die, and

how

they did not die

but conquered gloriously.

tragic poet has left us a word-picture of the scene

GRECIAN JOURNEYS

123

first the main line of the Persian fleet

Stood the harsh shock, but soon their multitude
Became their ruin in the narrow frith
They might not use their strength, and, jammed together,
Their ships with brazen beaks did bite each other

At

And

shattered their

own

Meanwhile the Greeks

oars.

Stroke after stroke dealt dext'rous

Till the ships

showed

their keels,

all

around,

and the blue sea

Was seen no more, with multitude of ships

And corpses covered. All the shores were strewn
And the rough rocks with dead till in the end
;

Each ship

Had

in

oars, in

the barbaric host, that yet

most disordered

Then black-eyed

flight

rowed

off.

night shot darkness o'er the fray.

Next day the Persian army on the land withdrew

retreat,

and the victorious Greeks returned

ruined Athens in

new

splendor.

PROFESSOR RICHARDSON AT CORIM H

in

hot

to rebuild their

GRECIAN JOURNEYS

124
has

But, as

journey

is

to be

been

The

sula of Greece.

said,

Athens

is

our

great island, rather let us say, for the

The Corinthian

Peloponnesus has become an island.

now

not our theme

around the Peloponnesus, the great penincanal

joins the waters of the ^Egean Sea and those of the Cor-

inthian

Gulf,

and severs the

land of the Athenians

Messenians and Spartans.

and

Work

Thebans from
on the canal was commenced by the ancients, and the modern workmen began their digging where the slaves of Nero,
that of the

centuries ago, laid

down

their tools.

As our train creeps slowly over a high bridge, almost two

above the waters,

may be noted

hundred

feet

canal

three and a half miles long, and at the water-level

is

one hundred feet

_ .^-rr-*""

'

""

it

^^giirtr-

in width.

that the

GRECIAN JOURNEYS
grave defect

is

that

its

127

walls are almost perpendicular, as

One day we walked through

frequent cavings-in attest.

canal along a narrow footpath there below

and

you that the promenade was not a pleasant one.

of

recent

landslides

were everywhere

yawning cracks gave promise

of the

Evidences

conspicuous,

impending

the

assure

fall

while

of other

sections of the unsubstantial walls.

mile or two beyond

we reach

the

modern Corinth,

aspect a large, straggling village in whose streets

in

we behold

descendants of the people to

in

whom

his

epistles.

ancient
told,

Paul wrote

lies

city,

we

The
are

upon higher

ground four miles away.

We

also learn that the

professors and students

ON THE ACRO-CORINTHOS

GRECIAN JOURNEYS

128
of the

American Archaeological school

ducting excavations there, the

taken on the classic

of

Athens are now con-

serious ones ever under-

first

site.

we make our way

to the

little

stands upon the grave of the buried city.

We

Accordingly

by Professor Richardson, the director

village

are

which

welcomed
Under

of our school.

and that of the American students, a hundred or

more laborers are working lustily as if preparing to defend the
his direction

We

place against a siege.

see here only a small part of the

!_

1-

^^K'

THE FISHERS HAUL THEIR NETS

scene of operations.

Almost every

been turned wrong-side-up.

street in the village has

Our learned men

in

Greece are

upon with as much horror as are the directors

a gas-company at home, being possessed with the same

there looked
of

mad

desire to dig

paid for

all

up everything

annoyance caused them

But here the

;

employment

five-score of villagers, and, moreover, the school

nately under contract to

fill

citizens are
is

given to

is

unfortu-

up the trenches when they have

satisfied

themselves as to the general topography of ancient

Corinth.

As he leads us toward other diggings, the Professor

tells

us that with only a few

meager thousands

of dollars they

STEPS OF

THE PALAMIDl

GRECIAN JOURNEYS

131

more than locate the public buildings.

will enable them to work to good
advantage, when, thanks to the rich man's generosity, they
shall find themselves prepared to buy out the inhabitants and
uncover the entire site. The French have just spent two
can hope to do

little

This knowledge, however,

francs

million

there have

ment
shall

at

made

Delphi,

their wonderful discoveries

the abode of the Oracle a glorious

to the intelligence

we not

and

and lavishness

monu-

of France.

likewise resurrect a city here in Greece,

thus repay the debt of gratitude which we, with every

ized nation,

Until this

Short,

fat,

fortable

and

civil-

owe to the learning and art of ancient Greece ?

work was begun, all that was visible of Corinth

was a group
height and
very com-

Why

of

stone monoliths twenty-one feet in

six

feet

in

diameter.

and

GRECIAN JOURNEYS

132
in

appearance, they typify the sleek and prosperous mer-

chants of that city of shopkeepers in the midst of which

they stood.
standing

now

Strange,
in

is

it

not,

that

the

only columns

Corinth are not Corinthian but Doric

From the rocky summit of the Acro-Corinthus, Athens

may on clear days be plainly seen. The ascent is long

itself

and

difficult,

and although fortune does not favor us by

granting us unclouded distant views,

THli 1>ALAM1UI

we

are repaid for

all

GRECIAN JOURNEYS

133

our labor by the sight of the ruin of a wonderful Venetian

stronghold which caps the summit and extends
great confusing zigzags
if

down

its

walls in

the slopes, on every side, as

they would embrace the whole of the stupendous rock as

Venice strove to embrace within her jeweled arms the medi-

Most impressive

eval world.

is it

to look

down from

these

battlemented walls, evidences of the power of Venice, upon

the shattered temple which
inth, likewise a great

tells of

commercial

glory of both has passed away.

Venice

tinted shell of

still

the supremacy of Cor-

city,

and to

floats

upon the placid lagoon

True, a collection of hovels around a stately temple

waters.
still

bears the

the

vital

name

sparks

extinguished

of Corinth.

have

But the souls have

been

these former

empresses of the world's com-

merce have abdicated

of

in favor

such upstarts as

London,
and

New
As,

hence,

realize that the

True, the lovely, delicately

Hamburg,
York.

descending
we skirt the

shores of the Corin-

" DEVKLOPING MAGNIFICENT LUNGS'

fled,

GRECIAN JOURNEYS

134

GREEK SOLDIERS

IN NAUPLIA

thian Gulf, the roll-

ing sun which has

beheld the glory of

the past and the abandonment of the sad present, sinks un-

concernedly to rest
songs

the fishers haul their nets and sing their

the waters lap the shore

comes the
which on

plaintive
this

wail of

while from the land there

shepherd's flute

shore and at this

hour

And my companion, an American

subdued tones four

Philhellene,

a
us

sound
deeply.

repeats

which give with exquisite

lines

plicity this picture of the land

A
A
A

thrills

in

sim-

shepherd's pipe,
sense of peace,

long sweet silence,

That

Next day we travel

is

Greece.

southward to the headwaters of

another great fiord of Greece, the

Gulf of Argolis.

It

is

GRECIAN JOURNEYS

135

not possible to journey far in southern Greece without touching suddenly one

of

many

those

long graceful arms with

which the blue sea holds the Peloponnesus

embrace.
five

Our journey

in

her fond

brings us in turn to the shores of

splendid gulfs, each of which bears an immortal

and the stamp

known

of

an eternal beauty.

city there

name
below

it was in ancient days the port

Hence Agamemnon sailed to conIn the distance loom the mountains of Arcadia,

as Nauplia,

us

is

of

Argos and Mycenae.

quer Troy.

The

which we are soon to

and

cross, while

on yonder tiny island

is

the solitary abode of the sole public-executioner of Greece,

who

there seeks shelter from the scorn oi

BPIDAl'RUS

his fellow-men.

GRECIAN JOURNEYS

136

The
Nauplia

elevation
is

from which we view the lovely

known

as the Palamidi,

site

of

a fortress built by the

Venetians and the Turks and reached by one of the most

Only a fraction

astonishing stairways in the world.

of its

interminable ascent can be included in the angle of the lens,

so steep

it

is

and so tortuous are

favorable point about sixty steps

stairway

is

composed

fourteen times as

eight hundred

of

many

we found

it

windings.

and

as are visible to us.

the walls and towers of the fortress,

but

its

may be counted

difficult

now

From

the entire

fifty-seven,

or

Far above are

used as a prison

to pity the prisoners, for they

had

naught to do but to look upon one of the loveliest panoramas

on

all

the Grecian coast.

soldiers

many

of

the garrison,

times up and

down

Rather more to be pitied are the

for every

day they are marched

these deadly stairs.

period of

duty on the Palamidi of Nauplia must either develop mag-

THEATER AT EPIDAURUS

GRECIAN JOURNEYS
lungs

nificent

or send

139

the

soldiers gasping to the hospital.

Nor must we

forget that

Nauplia has played

its

part

it
modern history
first
the
of
seat
the
was
government of free

in

Greece,

when

for

a brief period John

Capo d'lstrias was

president of the
ephemeral republic.
Moreover, when, as
a result of an international

ence,

confer-

Greece

RETURNIN-G FROM

was

made a kingdom, and

foreign

a Bavarian

that the young King Otho landed,

Here,

also,

thirty

by the

prince selected

powers was sent to become

its

ruler,

it

MARKET

was here

in 1833, to begin his reign.

years later, he ended

it

for,

returning

from a tour of the

continent,

the un-

popular king was advised

by his people

not to

come on

shore,

but to continue his

travels

room

and
for a

make
mon-

arch more congenial to them.

King Otho 's

successor,

King George

GRECIAN JOURNEYS

I40

was not the

elect

one of themselves as king

so democratic are they by

admit the right of another to

nature that no Greek will

But a king being

rule over him.

They would not

choice of the Greeks.

first

people by an

essential, the

almost unanimous vote chose the late Prince Alfred, brother

to the Prince of

by

Unfortunately, England was bound

Wales.

powers not to sanction the elec-

treaties with the other

tion of

any

of her royal line to the throne of Greece.

DR.

SCHLIEMANN

RESIDENCE IN ATHENS

Alfred therefore put aside the crown, and

Denmark's king, brother

1863, he was crowned king

the second son of

Wales.

In

Between the king and

his

Prince

it

was

offered to

to the Princess of
of

the

Hellenes.

people there are no orders of

nobility.

There

are

traveler should

at

Epidaurus.

two

excursions from Nauplia

make.

The

drive

of

first is

five

which every

to the sacred

Sanatorium

hours brings us to ruins

MYCENiE

GRECIAN JOURNEYS
which mark the

site of

miraculous cures.

the great temple

who performed

the god of heahng,

143

Pilgrims

came

lands, bringing their maladies

hither from

and ailments,

and prayers, and, those who were

bedclothes and provisions.

of

distant

their offerings

As we

rest

on the marble seats

of old used to sun themselves

their sufferings

and hopes

no

many

of a practical mind, their

where patients

were no doctors here,

iEsculapius,

here in ancient times

of cure,

and discuss

we remember

scientific

that there

The god

treatment.

THE MUSEUM, ATHENS

visited

the pilgrims in their

dreams,

and prescribed the

remedies, which were administered with the assistance of

the priests next day.

Inscriptions found here

men who

ran after those

arose and

crutches, of the

man who came

head but with plenty on

tell

who had

us of lame

stolen their

hither with no hair on his

his chin,

and who

after a prayerful

sojourn of a single night departed with a hirsute halo, rivaling

that of any

modern musical^henomenon.

GRECIAN JOURNEYS

144

While we view the splendid theater of Epidaurus, where

the patients were amused and instructed, we recall a most
astonishing treatment that was given to a bow-legged man.

The

was ordered

patient

the temple

fees

on the ground before

were straight

until his legs

The

to lie prostrate

then a four-horse chariot was driven over him,

were often

large.

blind

man on

refused to pay the exorbitant price demanded.

being cured

The

priests in

most businesslike fashion immediately deprived him of

And

as

we

sight.

return toward Nauplia in the coolness of the

evening, meeting

many

peasants coming from the weekly

market held in town to-day,

my

learned friend, discoursing

HALL OF THE MYCEN/EAN TREASURES

GRECIAN JOURNEYS
about Epidaurus and

me

cult, assures

its

145
that sometimes in

those old days, as at Lourdes to-day, the worshipers held

all-night vigils, standing before the

invocations

and that

temple with prayers and

at rare intervals, in the exhaltation of

the moment, the expected miracle was performed, and one

or two of the multitude apparently cured, departed, praising

And

the god.

as another group of peasants

march

past at

a swinging pace, pursuing their long shadows, driven before

them by the

retreating

CONTIiM

me

reads

things,

Epidaurus.

It

is

my

sun,

s Ol-

MM

friend,

l-.N.l

AN

turning to lighter

Ili.MH

the translation of a prescription found at

"Never

as follows:

way

give

to

anger;

submit to a diet of bread and cheese and lettuce, of lemon

it
run much and
warm bath with wine

boiled in water and milk with honey in

walk barefoot before bathing

in

it

with

and

take a

and give a drachma to the bathing-man rub yourself

gargle with cold water
finally
salt and mustard
;

this

is all

important make

sacrifices,
'

to

pay the fees before departing.

certainly deserved relief even

10

if

'

The

and do not forget

patient so advised

he received

it

not.

GRECIAN JOURNEYS

146

The second
first

it is

excursion

even more interesting than the

is

to the scene of the

made

ever

discoveries

in

Schliemann, the discoverer of

the year

most remarkable archaeological

Greece,

to Mycenae,

where Dr.

Troy, found and unearthed in

1876 a prehistoric treasure of vast intrinsic worth,

to us a civilization more than antique,
a civ-

and revealed
ilization

of

which

nothing until

it

the

modern

knew

world

practically

was disclosed by the spade.

But before we approach more closely the scene

of

excavations, let us recall a few facts concerning this

himself.

romance.

Dr. Schliemann

Born

world's goods,
objects of his
fully

's

to poverty,

life

was

in

accomplished.

sense a

he died not only rich

but rich in the thought

life

certain

had, despite

all

As we stand before

DR. SCHLIEMANX'S

that

difficulties,

MAUSOLEUM

the

his

man

in this

dearest

been success-

his palatial resi-

GRECIAN JOURNEYS

147

in Athens, let me ask you to imagine him when he

was a Httle boy beginning hfe in a grocer 's-shop, but animated by a resolve to make a fortune, in order to spend it

dence

poems
remarkable.
more
the grocer 's-boy not only made the
discovered and uncovered Troy.
And

in a search for the cities of

of

so

Homer.
the

is

This
fact

which he had read

that

fortune, but actually

in the

How much

in itself is

not content with this he sought and found Mycenae,

city of

Agamemnon and

of that legendary king

at

Athens

in

the

tomb and the golden

treasures

the National

the

treasures

which are now enshrined

Museum.

At

least

Schliemann

died firm in this belief, his faith in the accuracy of his

deductions

happily unshaken

by the

criticisms

GRECIAN JOURNEYS

148
of
It

more learned but much

was

in

1871

that

less

successful

Schliemann dug the

archaeologists.
first

trench at

Having laid bare the site of King Priam's capital,

came to Greece to seek the city of Agamemnon, the
conqueror of Troy
and, as before, success crowned his
Troy.

he

endeavor, and the fruits of his labors at Mycenae are

most precious possessions

the
I

of

now

Museum.
room
possess a power of
National

the

defy the most hardened traveler to traverse this

listlessly.

attraction

ornaments

The Schliemann
which
in

is

treasures

irresistible.

pure gold.

metal exceeds $20,000,

These cases are

The mere

filled

bullion value of

with
the

but the objects fashioned of that

prehistoric gold are also of priceless artistic value.

Exposed

our gaze are ornaments of gold which were

made not

to

later

than twelve hundred years before the birth of Christ.

INNER SIDE OK MYCEN/E GATE

GRECIAN JOURNEYS

SITE OF

149

THK FIVE TOMBS, MYCEN^

Some authorities affirm that these bits of handiwork were

new when the beginning of the Christian era was as far in
the future as it is now in the past thus giving them an age
of almost four thousand years.
And these things are not
mere scraps of metal. Here we may see gorgeous diadems
;

bristling with golden

designs

ear-rings

curipus design

may

still

leaves, richly decorated

bronze swords, upon the blades of which

discern hunting-scenes, figures of

inlaid in gold

with strange

and pins and pendants and gold rings

and, more numerous than

men and

all,

of

we

lions all

bright disks of

the yellow metal, each one about two inches in diameter

like

gigantic

spangles adorned

with a

more than archaic

GRECIAN JOURNEYS

I50
pattern

hammered out by

ing

a race of which

to

the hands of goldsmiths belong-

we have no

And what purpose did

That question

is

quickly

into the lower section

these

answered

knowledge.

definite

things

we

if

of the central

serve,

you

ask

stoop and look

case.

Here we see

extended on a bed of pebbles the mortal remains of two

of the

unknown but

princely beings,

period of our world were buried at

arrayed in regal magnificence,

who

some remote
Mycenae.
They were
in

appareled for the grave in

EN ROUTE TO SPARTA

splendid robes,

all

glittering with disks

surmounted by those delicate

hair retained in ringlets

by

artistic

spirals of

of gold,

diadems

the heads

of gold,

the

pure gold, the fingers

weighted with intaglio rings of gold, and, strangest thing of

all,

the faces, those old, old faces

before which a subject

nation trembled in the dim, dim past,

were covered each

with a sheet of beaten gold, very pure and thin, which had

been molded to the features and formed a mask of gold.

This mask

lies

to-day in an adjoining case, a grinning carica-

TIRYNS

GRECIAN JOURNEYS

153

unknown king, this king whom

Agamemnon. Here also are the

ture of this

it

to christen

jars

so pleases us

and vases,

containing food and drink and offerings for the dead.

all

these

things

are

placed

And

here just as they lay in

the

Mycenae tombs when these were opened.

And now
cation

to see the place

where

all

these things were

Schliemann was not without a most emphatic

found.

abandoned

the

that

Acropolis

of

indi-

Mycenae

well

TAVCmrS FROM THE SPARTAN HIGHWAY

Long before he began his operanow famous gate of the lions had been dis-

deserved investigation.
tions there, the

covered.

In fact,

it

had never been completely buried

who, looking upon so impressive a

divine that this

import must

lie

was not

all

ruin,

and

would not at once

that something

of

even vaster

concealed within the precinct guarded by

those headless, prehistoric lions, which in design and pose

speak of an unknown

unknown.

art.

Schliemann was seeking the

Here was a hint which, emphasized by the

allu-

GRECIAN JOURNEYS

154

IN

sions of ancient writers,

With

MODERN SPARTA

was too strong

to be disregarded.

a force of several score of men, Schliemann and his

wife began to dig, hopeful of much, but scarcely daring to

hope

for so impossible a

reward as that which awaited them.

Let us pass through the gate and enter the agora, or

meeting-place,

where

light that curious

in

1876 Dr. Schliemann brought to

double circle of upright slabs, upon which

horizontal slabs were placed, forming a circular bench as for

the sittings of an assembly

Then, digging deeper, he came

upon archaic tombstones with

warriors in chariots.

arrow-heads,

reliefs

of

huntmg scenes and

Deeper were found pieces

bone buttons, and then, deeper

one feet below,

some scattered

skeletons.

of pottery,

still,

twenty-

Then

at last,

GRECIAN JOURNEYS
hollowed

the rock

in

itself,

were

155

shallow tombs, con-

five

taining fifteen bodies, buried with all that unheard-of lavish-

ness and splendor, covered with ornaments, diadems, masks,

breastplates,

all

solid gold

of

merable precious vases, objects

inlaid daggers

Homer
tion

made
of

in

alabaster and in ivory,

and many golden cups

spoke of Mycenae as a city

it

the

blame Schliemann

tombs

and, surrounded with innu-

home

of the

House

'

'

rich in gold

conqueror of Troy.

for believing that

the Royal

of rare design.
'

of

;
'

tradi-

Can we

he had discovered the

Agamemnon

It

.'

has been,

unfortunately, the graceless task of scholars to destroy this

romantic hypothesis.
nameless.

The

masked as were the faces

the

names

royal dead have been proclaimed

In history the nation to which they belonged

of its princes in the

of Schliemann, Troy,

'

and Mycenae

AGOYATKS

tomb.

will

is

But

be insep-

GRECIAN JOURNEYS

156

Nay, one more name must

arable while history endures.

be added, that of Tiryns, a city which lay not far from here

and which has been brought back

Here we

ologist.
'

walls,

for

'

to us

by the same archae-

at last understood the

these walls were

built

term "Cyclopean

by the Cyclopes,

and

worthily do they sustain their reputation for massiveness and

grandeur.

We

are

now

the fortress of Tiryns,

duced the

where the prehistoric builders pro-

the arch long before the principle

had been discovered.

than twenty

ness.

of

one of the covered passages of

of

The walls were nowhere

some places fifty-seven feet in thickThe smallest blocks employed in the construction are

the arch
less

effect

in

feet, in

THE VALE OF SPARTA

^s
:-

0^\
.

-^s^'

V-

i
'^^^-*--fi/ft
:>-ii>.

^*^

THE APPROACH TO MISTRA

GRECIAN JOURNEYS
from

six

tons.

treasures of

we owe

and weigh from three to thirteen

to ten feet long,

And
to

the

159

knowledge

of

all

these things,

the dainty

Mycenae and the imposing masonry of Tiryns

the

efforts

of

the

man who,

while yet a

mere boy, declared that he would find the cities that had
in epic verse by Homer.
Bringing our minds down from the mythic and heroic to

been immortalized

the classic age, let us set out for the land of Lacedaemon,

and

find ourselves

We

have

now

left

en route for Sparta, the city of Leonidas.

railways behind us and are in an almost

GRECIAN JOURNEYS

i6o

Fortune has favored

untraveled region.

me

with two ideal

One is the young EngHsh

"Dodo," brought him immediate
An ardent archaeologist also, he spends much of
celebrity.
his time in Greece, studying old antiquities and seeking new
if the phrases may be permitted.
He is now traveling
ones
companions

for

author, whose

the

first

journey.

book,

far

around the Peloponnesus for the third time, his object

being to correct

upon the spot the manuscript

book, a story of the

war

War

The other companion of

who comes, commissioned by

of four score years ago.

wanderings

is

an

artist

of a

new

of Liberation, the Greco-Turkish

THE ABANDONED CHURCH AT MISTRA

our
the

GRECIAN JOURNEYS
publisher, to illustrate the author's

why

these two are for

me

ideal

work

163

and thus you see

in history; the other,

with the

One knows

companions.

the country and the language perfectly, and

well versed

is

artist's eye, is

always look-

ing for the picturesque.

Modern Sparta
of antique
street,

is

a town so

commonplace and so devoid

remains that we shall care to recall only the main

where one morning we made the acquaintance

ponies, mules,

and men destined to accompany

us

of the

upon our

long caravan expedition through the mountains to Arcadia.

The author and

is

the artist are already

mounted

at the left

Mr. Charles Papadopoulos, our dragoman-in-chief

StNSHINK AND OSSOLATIO.N

next to

GRECIAN JOURNEYS

64

him

is

our cook, a rather soiled and seedy personage, Gre-

gorio by

name (whose

unkempt

culinary skill atoned for his

appearance), and in addition to the dragoman and the cook

and eight sturdy mules and ponies, we have

five

Spartan guides called

owners

of the

animals,

**

Ag'oyates."

in

our train

They

the

are

and their services are included

the daily pittance paid for the use of mule or pony.

ON THE LANGADA TRAIL

in

For

GRECIAN JOURNEYS

165

THE LANGADA

many days

these agoyates are to follow and serve us, scram-

bling after us

on foot over rocky roads, from ten to twenty

miles a day.

Before

we

ern Spartans,

set out across the

let

us look

Vale of Sparta.

the

mountain rapge
eight

of

mountains with these mod-

upon the land

To

the

westward

old Taygetus,

its

thousand feet above the sea,

but what of the land

beauty dispel a historic

We

which they dwell

rises

the splendid

highest

peak almost

its

slopes

still

flecked

Taygetus forms indeed a picture of Spartan

with snow.

ruggedness

in

itself

.'

Its

fertility

and

illusion.

have been taught to think

of sturdy mountaineers, inhabiting

of the Spartans as a race

barren alpine region^

GRECIAN JOURNEYS

i66

where the

soil

was

amid the frowns

we

discover that

the

and most

productive,

But on the slope

we

dise

sterile,

of nature.

find

one

and where warriors were bred

With what

Vale of Sparta
beautiful
of the

of the

in

all

surprise,

is

the richest, most

the Peloponnesus

mountain that walls

most desolate scenes

in

the abandoned town of Mistra, the vague form of

bling

fortress

then, do

crowning a jagged spur of

Mt.

this para-

Greece
its

crum-

Taygetus.

Mistra was founded by the Franks six hundred years ago

many

but

at Mistra.
in

The Byzantines drove

1460 ousted the Byzantines.

IN

other conquerors of Greece have in time held sway

THE GORGE

out the Franks, the Turks

Then Venice

for

a time

GRECIAN JOURNEYS

167

was mistress
then again
SPARTAN RUCGEDNESS

until in

82

when

was raised

independence

came

to Mistra of the sack of Kalamata.

Turkish population

low

its

hence

fled

has been upon the town

laid

structures,

in terror.

natural

begins

Whereupon

doomed

all

it

is

merged

its

walls and

to everlasting

in

The

scarce can say where

man

a confusing mass of grayish desois

fading into the rocky wall to

has been clinging for six hundred years.

mountain range,

rates the territory of

senians.

we

the

Ever since a curse

rock ceases and where the masonry of

Mistra, apparently,

lation.

which

is

the cry of

Greece, news

an earthquake cracked

and Mistra

walls are crumbling away, so that

the

in

and ultimate annihilation by the elements.

neglect

it

was the Turks,

Not

far

of

which Taygetus forms a

part, sepa-

the Spartans from that of the Mes-

from Mistra the mountain range

asunder, as by the stroke of

some

is

prehistoric Roland,

cleft

and

GRECIAN JOURNEYS

68

THE INN AT LADHA

it is

to

through the mighty gorge created there that

make our

Langada,
equal to

it

in Greece.

and down a rocky

ress

is

The Greeks

toilsome way.

which means

trail,

''the
All

we

are

this

call

gorge," for there

now

defile

none

is

day our laden mules struggle up

so rough in

some places

that prog-

almost impossible, in other places so steep and

slip-

pery that even the sure-footed mules seem to lose their

innate contempt of danger, hesitate, try to turn back, and

almost shake with

The

fear.

limitations of photography prevent an adequate rep-

resentation of

the

rough and awful nature of

As compared with the reality, my pictures are

from some soft sylvan vale.
Beauty, indeed, is
in the

Langada, but beauty

prettiness

is

there to

mask

of a grim, stern sort

this gorge.
like

scenes

to be found
;

no gentle

the angry face of nature.

On-

GRECIAN JOURNEYS
ward and upward
cruel,

slowly,

winding path has

the sea,

we

begin a

the

half

day

lifted us four

169

then,

the

after

thousand feet above

downward journey more

and

difficult

dangerous than the ascent.

Here, indeed,

is

Sparta as

we have imagined

it

here

the Spartan youth were trained in hunting beasts, that later

And

they might better fight with men.

as

we

journey,

it is

not necessary to remind us that bravery was held the highest

virtue

by that sturdy race.

ors at the

When

Olympian games, the

own people was

a Spartan boy

prize

won hon-

awarded him by

his

the post of danger in the next battle to be

reward among a people whose

The Spartans also held matrimony

fought, an eagerly desired

chief glory lay in war.

THE

Ct'lSINK

GRECIAN JOURNEYS

I/O

We

great honor.
3

there

that

told

were

penalties

im-

men who

posed on

married for the

sake of money,

on

who

those

married late in
life,

on those

who

mis-mar-

and

ried,

finally

on those who did

not marry at

all.

Spartan

Again,

boys, although

treated

they

with respect most

would

aged men,

not rise or give place

at the

No young man,
to

they said, need

approach

of old

men

who had never married.

one who has no sons

THE LADIES OF LADHA

rise for

return the courtesy in after years.

The day

mountain region.
called

wane while we are

And accordingly we

begins to

Ladha, where the thoughts

turn toward tea, for

it is

at the stroke of five the

of

five o'clock.

my

still

halt

high in this
at

a village

English companions

Every day

author and the

artist

religiously

begin their

devotions, and the incense of the fragrant tea-leaf rises from

the shrines, or groves, or from the wayside inns of Greece.

Meantime the rooms we are

to

occupy are stripped

of all

doubtful furniture, the floors are washed, the cobwebs dusted

down.

Then our apartments

are refurnished with our

belongings, beds and bedding, rugs

and chairs and

own

tables.

THE MOUNTAINS OF MESSENIA

GRECIAN JOURNEYS
Thanks

to the care of

Papadopoulos we sleep

rare experience for the traveler in Greece

the culinary

skill

of Gregorio,

wise a rare experience.

173

The

we

in peace, a

and thanks

to

dine supremely well, like-

traveler

who does

not take a

cook with him into the Peloponnesus should leave also

his

appetite at home.

we resume our journey toward the

The scenery en route is marvelously

Early next morning

valleys of Messenia.

wild and beautiful.

of the Maniotes.

as
of

To

the

left lie

the unconquered regions

Herodotus speaks

of that long peninsula,

"the rugged nurse of liberty." Even while all the rest

Greece was under Turkish rule, the Maniotes were prac-

GRECIAN JOURNEYS

174

THE WOMEN OF ELEUSIS

tically free.

who never

They hurled perpetual

really

conquered them.

did occasionally consent to pay

it,

the Turk,

defiance at

As

for tribute

when they

a Maniote warrior thrust

at the trembling tax-collector a little purse of

suspended from the point of a naked sword.

golden coin

There also the

vendetta flourished and with a fiercer zeal than that of even

Corsicans the Maniotes avenged

the

Our

route,

their

family wrongs

however, leads us into more peaceful

terri-

and early in the afternoon our caravan enters the busy

modern streets of a thriving seaport town, the present capiFor all the
tal of old Messenia, the town of Kalamata.

tory

architecture tells us

we might be

in Italy or

Spain or southern

GRECIAN JOURNEYS
France.

It is

175

the fate of busy

towns to grow each year

a

little

more

like

every

other busy town, until

in

time commerce and

progress:will have ban-

ished

all

variety and set

common stamp upon

every country in the world.

We

note in

absence of

all

the towns the

women

in the streets,

DANCING CHILDREN

reminiscence of the times when the Turks ruled Greece.

festal days,

however, the peasant

women

On

of the surrounding

country appear in their brilliantly colored dresses, with yel-

low handkerchiefs upon their heads to indulge

pleasures of the dance.

does not
hands,

mean what

it

Mild indeed

means

to us.

in the mild

for dancing in

Greece

The women

all join

and one man leads the dance, one

beau for forty

belles.

He

GRECIAN JOURNEYS

176

may

not even touch the hand of the

fair

charmer nearest

him, for she modestly extends to him a corner of her kerchief.

Holding

the leader of

this gingerly,

the Adamless

cotillion begins to cut all sorts of capers, leaping, springing,

debutantes

turning, hopping, while the docile flock of

lows him as he moves slowly on in curves or

the children seem to find

much

circles.

pleasure in this demure

fol-

Even
mode

of tripping measures.

One day
sea,

as

sat resting

heard behind

turning, discovered a

me

on a

hilltop,

rhythmic

happy band

looking

off

upon the

footfalls in the grass,

and

of children dancing, as

appeared, upon the summit of the world.

it

As they danced,

GRECIAN JOURNEYS

177

they sang a song, the words of

which

could not understand.

They circled round me a

number of times, politely

me

eying

and then

after

the dance was ended, one

little

approached and

girl

"Xenon

said,

er)?" and
'

Yes

'

answered,

and then she

;
'

said

(a strang-

sweetly,

"

Oristi,

Kiri (please take this,

mister)," and handed

me

little

gathered on the
ANCIENT MASONRY

like

this

are

the traveler long after the cities and the

an interesting country have faded from

From Kalamata we
founded

Theban

leader,

das, as a

by

hill.

>

great

Epaminon-

check upon the

THK ARCADIAN GATE

Vi,

Incidents

landscapes of

^^h^

travel north-

the

of

remembered by

to the site of old Messene, the

city

bunch

which she had

riowers,

memory.

GRECIAN JOURNEYS

178

power

the

of

The work

Spartans.

of his builders

was indeed well done

even to-day the walls and
towers of dull gray stone
are in

many

nigh intact
the

places well-

and although

city itself

has long

since disappeared, these

and

gates

towers

stood round about

promise to

it

that

now

another

last

score of centuries.

We

are to enter, through this

gate called the Arcadian

a land which, by

Gate,
ARCADIANS

name,
all,

it

familiar to us

But,

not Arcadian,

nor

even called Arcadia, for the Greeks

now

alas,

nounce

is

"Arcadia."

Arcadia

Ar-ka-dee-a.

As

is

well-known

author

has

is

it

prore-

marked "There is* no name in Greece which raises in the

mind of the ordinary reader more pleasurable or more
definite ideas than the name Arcadia.
It
has become
:

indissolubly connected with

charms

and

of pastoral

ease c

of rural simplicity.

The sound

of

the shep

herd's pipe and maiden's

laughter, the rustling of

shady

trees, the

murmur-

ing of gentle fountains, the

bleating of

lambs,

lowing of oxen,

and the

these

are
OUR ARTIST

IN ARCADIA

'

GRECIAN JOURNEYS

179

AKCAUIANS

images of peace and plenty which the poets have gathered

about that ideal retreat.

There

are,

however, no images

more historically false, more unfounded in the real nature

and aspect of the country. Rugged mountains and gloomy
defiles, a harsh and wintry climate opposed to intelligence
and culture, a poor and barren soil, tilled with infinite
patience

home

that exiled

its

bread at

children to seek

the risk of their blood, a safe retreat for bears and wolves,
this

is

the Arcadia of old Greek history

How,

then,

we

ask ourselves,

as

'

we endeavor

to

make

friends with a group of scowling inhabitants, did this false

notion

of

and Arca-

Arcadia

dians gain such universal recognition

in

Mahaffy,

one

of his very

charming books on
Greece, sets forth
the origin of

A PEASANT FAUItV

this

poetical

concep-

tion

the

of

land.

GRECIAN JOURNEYS

i8o

He

assures us that he finds in literature no trace of

poetical Arcadia until the year

500,

when

almost instantaneously by an Italian writer.

nazaro,

consequence of

in

it

was created

The poet San-

an unrequited passion,

himself from Naples and wandered for a long time

wilds of southern France.

plaint,

and

instant popularity
it

was written

France, and by an Italian,

home

of

it

his grief

and ran through

sixty

book "Arcadia."

won

the

com-

called the

Although

and

exiled
in

idyllic

of prose description

This book
editions.

There he immortalized

medley

in a pastoral

this

in

the year

500,

in

really created the imaginary

innocence and grace which has ever since been

denoted bv the name Arcadia.

A TEMPTING NOON-DAY NOOK

GRECIAN JOURNEYS
Crossing this unhappy land,

183

cursed like

mortal, with a reputation too good for

it

poor

manj-

to live

up

we

to,

boldly assault the mountain wall upon the north end, and
after a long
all

scramble up one of the steepest mule-trails

Greece, after climbing skyward through cold and

and rain

for

many

hours,

we have climbed and

There
ruin
like

is

in

we

at last

suffered

in

mist

behold that to see which

the famous temple of Bassa.

Greece no scene more impressive than

amid the mountain solitudes,

a thing to which the earth

ANURn /KN

rising
itself

this

from the gray rocks

had given

birth,

GRECIAN JOURNEYS

84

natural product of this grim, sterile

are the ancient oak-trees,

its

soil.

travelers,

pilgrims to the shrine of art.

the frieze

which formerly adorned

carried off to

Greece.

London,

like so

Its

The

many

of Bassae well rewards its pilgrims.

Although we are now

ent directions blue sea

is

visible.

sculptures of

this temple, were, in 1812,

other precious stones of

But even ruined and despoiled as

in grandeur.

only guardians

only worshipers the infrequent

it is,

Its situation

To

Greece

is

like

map

unique

the west the Ionian

little

to the east the

Gulf of Argolis, to the north the Gulf of Corinth.

all

is

far inland, in four differ-

Sea, to the south the Messenian Gulf, a

days

the temple

On

clear

spread out for examination.

GRECIAN JOURNEYS

185

ALMOST LIKE TRAVELING

IN MOROCCO

But

at the time of

our

visit

in

the

around

us.

of industry.

mists

close

Even here
This rocky

are signs

soil all

round about

the temple has actually been plowed, grain has been planted,

and some sanguine farmer hopes to reap a harvest even

from the rocks. This, the last Arcadian scene, completes our
second
honey.

disillusion.

We

We

find Arcadia

found Sparta a land of milk and

an alpine wilderness.

tiresome downhill scramble brings

populated region, and before nightfall

we

us

are

again

into

comfortably

GRECIAN JOURNEYS

86

housed

row

in the picturesque village of

street,

the overhanging eaves

plumb, the tiny shops

on the heads

Andritzena.

of

The

nar-

houses sadly out of

like niches in the walls, the red fezzes

of skirted citizens,

all

these

things are evi-

dences of the recent presence of a Turkish population,

now, fortunately, gone forever.

Here

at Andritzena

we

and animals, engaging

in

bid farewell to our Spartan guides

their stead another

Agoyates and a caravan of

ponies for the

company

of

continuation of

our journey northward.

Greece probably has never been likened to Morocco

yet

every day during the course of our expedition through the

interior of

Greece,

souvenirs of

the land

AN AWKWARD LANDING

of

the

African

GRECIAN JOURNEYS
sultan were

day
a

evoked.

vividly

in the saddle,

the

long

187

'

cross

river, the Oriental trappings

of the beasts of bur-

den, the monoto-

nous songs of
Agoyat-

the
es,

ever

the

brilliant sun-

shine, the
sense of

infi-

nite freedom,

these

all

things

carry

our thoughts

back to the
Moorish
pire,

Em-

whose trackand crumbling

rivers,

"''

''"-

less plains,

cities possess so great

MAY-DAY CROWNS

""^^side

and bridgeless

a charm.

But the

GRECIAN JOURNEYS
Moslem atmosphere is wanting here, for a hundred reasons,
we cannot forget that we are in a Christian land.
On May day we are charmingly reminded that the month
In honor of the festival of the
of Mary has commenced.
;

Virgin Mary, the entire population decks

itself

with flowers.

Even common laborers wielding picks and shovels on the

new military road have not forgotten that the month of May

SUNDAY IN A VILLAGE

has come.

We

find

amid the dust and

diadem
dress

is

rustic

generation

inclined

tailors,

and the

is

not right in saying that modern

to

specimens of
is

on almost every head there

These
Greek dignity and beauty ?
splendid
would
appear
as
native costume

fatal alike

in

beneath a burning sun,

toiling

glare, but

Was

of roses.

same men seen

them

humanity.
to

fine old

Unfortunately,

the

rising

follow strange gods and strange

costume

is

worn only by the aged.

A "KHAN"

GRECIAN JOURNEYS

191

After the passing of these old fellows and their contemporaries,

in

the national Greek dress will be seen no

museums

dressed

like

or at

apes in

then congratulate

will

We

The

masquerades.
graceless
itself

made our ncpnday

more save
generation,

and baggy

coats

and prate

new

trousers,

of progress.

halt by invitation at a delightful

house where the innate courtesy of our hosts and their

unaffected pleasure in entertaining us added a relief to the

simple fare provided.

regime.

Such are the Greeks

of

the old

Less picturesque are the Greeks of the new regime,

those

who have been caught up by

that

has swept across the land.

the

wave

of

modernity

Their houses and their

A MODERN RESIDENCE

GRECIAN JOURNEYS

192
dress

did

reflect

the

we accept

commonplaceness

of

to-day.

The

hospitality for the night.

My

new, was essentially Greek.

tains the following war-report

Only once

house, though

diary for that date con-

"Pitched camp at lo

p.

m.,

assured by local authorities that the

enemy had been driven

from the neighborhood

no

Were

therefore

attacked at midnight;

powder was used.

enemy's

seven killed,

loss,

A GROUP OF PROMINENT CITIZENS

three wounded.

Our

injuries slight,

but very irritating.

Orders issued to Captain Papadopoulos not to credit assurances of optimistic friends in future,

enemy regardless
we eschewed the
in

of the

feelings of our

but to pepper the

hosts.

hospitality of local notabilities

wayside inns or

"khans,"

wrong-side out, dust

it

off,

they are called, where,

as

without hurting the host's feelings,

scrub

Thereafter

and lodged

we could
it

turn his house

down, refurnish

it

with

"

GRECIAN JOURNEYS
our

own household

goods, and then enjoy both cleanhness

and picturesqueness, two things most

We

Greece.

193

reconcile in

difficult to

dine in luxury, our chef preparing every night

a dinner better than those served in hotels at Athens.

drink the native wine.

with resin, giving

it

well,

and

it

It

is

it

At

wine abominable.

bishop, after swallowing his

It

lirst

WK ARRIVK
13

learned to like

whenever we halted

roadside inns or resting-places.

this resined

we

a peculiar flavor, but

called for

We

always strongly impregnated

first

is

at

said

that

glass of native

AT SfNSKT

one of the

the stranger thinks

an English
"rezinato,

GRECIAN JOURNEYS

194

assured his host that his

mouth was

so puckered out of shape

that he would not be able to speak the truth for a month.

Another traveler affirmed that drinking rezinato was

licking the side of

When

it

One good

a freshly sawed pine plank.

American imported a barrel

of his favorite

brand

reached the Customs Inspectors in

like

of rezinato.

New

York, the

A ROADSIDE REST

officials

were at a

They tapped

loss as

the barrel

to

to the

investigate,

American paid duty on a cask

ignorant scoffer spend a

become

to

him

month

of

and as a result the

But let the

turpentine.

in Greece,

and rezinato

as delicious as the nectar of

ordinary wines will appear

flat

and

the contents.

nature of

tasteless.

will

Olympus, and

Greek mastica,

WE

DEPART AT SUNRISE

GRECIAN JOURNEYS
too,

we

ful

in

But

who

197

find deliciously cooling

course of the long hot days.

the

all

wine,

all

travels as

and drink

and grate-

in the

meat

we

is

good to him

who

do,

sits

to eat

tempting noonday nooks

along the way.

Here

is

Arcadia indeed, Arcadia as

we have dreamed

of

We

it.

often rested in the shade of

plane-trees, but
i

have

splendid

nowhere have we

found a nobler one than that

which with

its

wide spreading

branches, one day roofed our

banquet

and
WE MEET

PRIESTS

EVERYWHERE

hall.

in its

It

was hollow,

trunk a sort of grotto

had been formed, a grotto with

walls of wood, and a floor of rocks, held firmly by the sturdy

GRECIAN JOURNEYS

198
roots.

cool, clear

little

streamlet issues thence, for a fine spring of

water has burst forth within this curious grotto,

forming a minute cascade and a tiny pool, in which the face

some fair nymph must surely have been daily

we moderns came to frighten her away. Then in
of

is

mirrored, ere

a recess there

a broad, low, natural couch covered with fine green moss,

soft

and luxurious

and because the English author owns an

Arcadian shepherd's cloak, he claimed the right to take his

wrapped in
that shaggy mass of coarse gray wool, harmonized far better
with the pastoral scene than we who wore the more ugly
midday sleep there

in the tree, holding that he,

garb of this convenient century.

HERE

IS

ARCADIA AS

WE

HAVE DREAMED OF

IT

And

for

two hours or

GRECIAN JOURNEYS
more we slumbered

there, lulled

music of the unique

little

199

by the

spring, nor

were we eager to depart when we

awoke.

Fortunately,

possible

to

Greece.

When we

selves

at

make

night

it

haste

we

eighteen

or

start-

feel that

we have done

a very

good day's

work.

Although Greece

one

in

find our-"

twenty miles from our

ing-point,

im-

is

is

of the smallest

countries in Europe,

it

as seemed
ancients a land
to us

of

extent.

Railways

annihilated distance

seems

to the

it

vast

have
;

^*^^^^

not

they have only taught us to forget

What they have annihilated is the romance of travel.

A few years more and Greece, compactly girded by
of steel, will lose her

it.

rails

charm then there will be no more

noonday naps in places such as
this, no more sunrise departures
from awakening villages, no caravaning away through orange and
;

lemon orchards, or along delicious

byways deep
will

in

shade

the traveler

hear no more the music of

those tiny bells upon the ponies'

necks,

those

sweet,

each

bells

clear

bar

of

which play a
little

melody,

which,

while

seeming but a repetition of

that already tinkled,

A HAPPV FAMILY

is

never

GRECIAN JOURNEYS

200

Thus we jog on for many happy days,

sometimes on foot, sometimes on pony back, where we sit
astride, aside, or facing backwards, as best suits our mood.
Thus for weeks we traveled, free from care and from
discomforts and as happy as mortal man can ever hope to
quite the same.

At

be.

last,

one regrettable day, we reach a railway on the

shore of the Corinthian Gulf.

Near by we

find a

modest

with a dear old priest,

wine

in

The
where

There we are to await a

inn,

who

where we lunch

falls

in

train.

company

asleep over the glass of

which he drank our health.

priests of the

in

Greece.

black hats,

Greek Church are encountered every-

Their long black robes,

are seen in every crowd

RAILROADING IN GREEK GORGES

no

their

street

curious

scene

is

GRECIAN JOURNEYS
complete without them

and

lages

cities,

always clad

in

even

in the

we meet them every

sometimes seated

ing,

in

black,

20

interior,

far

from

vil-

day, sometimes tramp-

majesty upon a burro or a mule, but

always long-haired and long-bearded,

always dignified, but ever ready to exchange a polite greetto ask us of our journey,

ing,

nationality.

comes

into

and ever eager

to

At the mention of America a look

their eyes,

where the great

know our

of interest

"Ah, yes," they say, "America;

athletes come from. "
Greek priests

that

live

nearer to their people than priests of other churches

they are usually poor, receiving no salary, but reaping in

the

way

of offerings

lars a year.

Many

from one hundred to two hundred dolrural priests are farmers

those in towns keep shops, for

many

of

and sometimes

them, as you know,

men of family and must support the wife and children.

Only the monks and bishops are debarred from matrimony.

are

EN ROUTE TO MEGASPELEON

GRECIAN JOURNEYS

202

But having seen these holy men

them a

most populous

historic

their

visit in

we must make

at large,

the

stronghold,

of all the monasteries in the land, the

astery of Megaspeleon,
structures in the world.

one

reach

up through the Diakofto gorge

this

railway-ride

ride

by

not to be a

we must

it

rail

is

Mon-

most remarkable monastic

of the

To

and

largest

and

common

travel first

by

assure you that

one.

We

are to

THE GORGE GROWS WIDER AND WILDER

rail

in places

where a mountain-goat would hesitate

to risk his shaggy skin.

It has been well said that modern

Greece lacks the necessary, but consoles herself with the

superfluous.
of Diakofto

And

.''

What need is
What profit

to both questions

This road, one of the

leads whither

To

there of a railway in this gorge

can there be

in

operating

we may answer, "There

costliest per mile of

is

any ever

a miserable mountain village.

it ?

none."
built,

It trans-

GRECIAN JOURNEYS

KUUM

ports

what

score

week perhaps a dozen

UNI.Y KOK

of

ROAD AND RIVBR

peasants every day,

tourists.

suffice for the daily traffic.

203

and every

locomotive and one car

The speed never exceeds

five

GRECIAN JOURNEYS

204
miles an

hour, while on the

where cog-machinery

is

steepest portion of

used, progress

Our car advances with a

one

side,

when we

windows are

is

barely perceptible.

each one of which

The

itself

car

is

crowded,

While looking out on

we miss some splendid vista on the other. Then
full of

heads.

enter tunnels, the puffing locomotive belching out

steam, hot air and gassy fumes

car

line

series of jerks,

lands us a few inches nearer heaven.

hot, the

the

fills

the rocky cavern and the

with a deadly atmosphere

and when the

train

emerges, we find ourselves half suffocated, gasping for breath.

The windows are then thrown quickly open, and all heads are
thrust far out at risk of being bumped against the rocks, while

our scorched lungs draw in

selfish

haste a cooling breath.

GRECIAN JOURNEYS

205

This ride soon became intolerable,

miles

and as our destination

is

only seven

away, we decide to follow the example of a

trio of

who resolved to finish the trip on foot.

So when, some moments later, the train stops to catch
its breath, we leave the car, which with its stifling victims

American

tourists

plunges into another of

those awful tunnels, and continue

our railway journey after the manner of the tramp, whose

mode

of travel

is

certainly the

most

tances are short and scenery imposing.

this railway runs
tainly,

it

when

delightful,

where goats would fear

As
to

have

travel.

dis-

said,

Cer-

would be a very enterprising goat that would select

his pasturage

upon the sheer walls

of this gorge,

where

it

GRECIAN JOURNEYS

2o6

narrows to a mere crack,

Yet the road

wide.

feet

one place not more than ten

of steel has

and we, taking advantage

spot

the

foolish

walk

in

expenditure

leisurely

across a
torrent

and

of

of

millions

dared to pass this

this

path,

of

Greek

created by

drachmas,

comfortably through the

rocky wall,

bridge of steel, beneath which the foaming

little

rushes,

whence we
the gorge, where it is

then through another tunnel,

emerge into the upper section

of

MEGASPELEON

wider but even wilder and more picturesque.

we behold only the

impress us we are now to
ever,

results

see

of

how man,

with the results achieved by Nature,

name
of

of religion,

the

imposing

in

picture

in

if

words, nor do

to

not satisfied

has created, in the

so remarkable

in

detail,

ensemble, so utterly unlike anything that

have ever seen before that

it

as

efforts

the extremity of this gorge a Picture

at

Impossible,

Here, how-

Nature's

feel that

do not know how

even pictures

so

we

to describe

will suggest the

THE MONASTERY AND THE CLIFF OF MEGASPELEON

GRECIAN JOURNEYS
atmosphere of mystery,

of medievalism,

209

and above

all,

the

atmosphere of impossibility which envelopes the Monastery

of

Megaspeleon.

The

commences prepares

ascent w^hich presently

the strange and unexpected.

and the

river

We

us for

leave the winding railway

and climb by a zigzag path up through a chaos,

where the frowning gray and yellow rocks are masked

A monk

part by fresh green vegetation.

monastery guides us upward.

path unwinding below

which

rolling

of loops

down

us,

Looking down, we see the

like

an immense

ball

of

yarn,

the slope has formed a confusing series

and curves and angles.

THK
II

in

returning to the

C'F.I.LAR

WALLS

GRECIAN JOURNEYS

2IO

AN UPWARD GLANCE

A moment

later

and a sudden turn reveals

to us

an unex-

We

see what seems to be a village surrounded

by gardens and tiny fields and vineyards but all this is not
as it should be, for it occupies a vertical and not a horizontal

pected sight.

plane.

Can

it

be possible that while we have been prison-

ers in the gorge, the center of gravity has

its

accustomed place, and that farms and houses no longer

remain peacefully on level ground, but

selves

we

been shifted from

upon the face

of upright

try to count the little terraces

cliffs
;

.-'

rise

and

We

stick

them-

grow dizzy

at every turn

we

as

discover

high up on yonder wall more and more buildings, miraculously clinging to the rock or

wedged

in crevices

and

fissures.

'

GRECIAN JOURNEYS
"So

that

Megaspeleon

is

'

we

211

"Not

exclaim.

yet,

"our

"a moment more." Another turn. "Yes

Were we not out of breath with exertion, wonder, and surprise we should undoubtedly inquire,
How came it there ?" " What holds it there " " Why
guide replies;
that

is

Megaspeleon. "

.?

doesn't
*
'

Why
I

those

it

lives there.'*

and, above

all,

has the world of travel never heard of this before

am

.'

'

among
who would not
you when you ask them, " Have you been to
We felt like discoverers as we approached

convinced that there are very few, even

who may be

look blankly at

Megaspeleon
this

"Who

fall off.''"

"

'
.''

imposing

monasticism.

'

pile,

called chronic travelers,

this

Behind

a thousand feet

it

relic

of

the greatness

of

Greek

a rocky wall reaches skyward for

from the foundations

of the structure there

descends a giant staircase, a series of narrow terraces, on

which are the farms and gardens

of the

monks.

The monks

apparently have less need of plows than

of parachutes

FISHERMEN FROM THE GfLF OF CORINTH

for should a pious

GRECIAN JOURNEYS

212

farmer ever step across the boundary

own

his

more before

forty feet or

line

must

plat of ground, he

fall

can be

it

charged that he has trespassed on

his neighbor's soil.

And

we draw

as

we

nearer,

still

count the stories of this medieval

Beginning at the top

skyscraper.

and counting
cover in

all

downward we

eleven stories.

windows pierced

of cheerful

fagade of the superstructure,

gloomy openings

)f

porting wall below.

its

of several

centuries,

is

Megaspeleon, the great cave

of holies,

is

and chapels.

The

soars above

cliff

innumerable

litely

peer
to

windows,

down upon
the

gestures bid

all

of

is
it

The

curious
us.

a huge

From

We

following the

the

faces

bow

po-

monks, they with kindly

us

welcome.

At

first
;

we
but

narrow path we

last a sort of

esplanade

or terrace, a level space

deep,

this,

overwhelmlike

is

the

Megaspe-

the holy

itself,

can discern no place of entrance

reach at

And
mask

As we glance upward

thunder-cloud of solid rock.

now

only the

dormitories, belfries,

cellars,

at the monastery, the effect

ing.

five stories

screened from view by this ag-

glomeration of
cells,

then,

Megaspeleon means the "Great Cave."

leon, for

rows

lowest story overlook-

ing mountains of no inconsiderable size.

growth

in the

five

the grim sup-

Here,

basement

ilding with a

the wludows of

MONKS OF MEGASPELEON

in

dis-

Six rows

much
A NOVICE

real

GRECIAN JOURNEYS

215

we

than

larger

thought

could

possibly exist in

such a place as

We

this.

are

very cordially re-

by three

ceived

or four old fathafter

ers,

which

consider-

they

ately leave us to

And
we have need of

ourselves.

rest, for

the ap-

proach

to

gaspeleon
THE BELL TOWER

IN

Mehas

resulted in great

physical fatigue and greater mental perturIt takes the traveler

bation.

an hour or two to collect

senses, to convince himself that he

is

and that he

startling things are real,

ninth or tenth, but in the nineteenth

in

to us,

and the freedom

Then

and cook.

welcome us
Fine

"old

in

later

the

not

living,

in

the

Meantime,

century.

of the kitchen granted to our guide

two or three old monks come out

name

fellows, every

the old Greek type,

is

house on the right have been assigned

rooms

the great

his

not dreaming, that these

men

of

one of
of

imposing dignity, with long gray

beards, long hair, long robes, and an air of superiority that

full

of kindness, simplicity,

to

Higoumenos or abbot.
them.
Here at last we find

the

is

and supreme contentment.

What is the world and all its modern marvels to these

men ? They are assured of shelter, food, good company,
and peace what more could a sane man desire
Life with
.*

us

is

a fever

with these old

monks

it is

a peaceful dream,

2l6

GRECIAN JOURNEYS

a dream, the veils of which are drawn close, a narrow selfish

dream perhaps, but

still

lecturer's profession

is

They seem

a pleasant one.

interested in the wealth

and station

beyond

their

intensely

The

their visitors.

of

ken

the artist's

they understand, because he draws their likenesses

work

but the

author they hold highest in esteem, because he writes books,

and books are precious things

seldom handled by the monks.
not trouble themselves

so

precious that they are

No, these old celibates do

with the acquirement of learning,

which would be useless to them

they are content to spend

their days in listless idleness,

showing, perhaps, a
terest

in

little in-

the arrival of the

traveler, or the visits of the

fishermen

who

daily

come

with sea-food from the Gulf

of Corinth,

Two
among
of

of

these

men

are

the oldest inhabitants

Megaspeleon; one of them

IN

DREAMY EASE

GRECIAN JOURNEYS

217

ON THE TERRACE
is

eighty-seven

and the other ninety-five years old

the

elder has lived over sixty years at Megaspeleon, the earlier

portion

of

institutions.

his

life

Like

tion as a very

having been passed in other monkish

all

the rest, he began his religious voca-

young boy

and

in

some other monastery,

long since fallen to decay, he, like the boys

at

we

find to-day

Megaspeleon, devoted his days to sweeping and clean-

ing the chapels and the

water, praying, fasting,

cells,

hewing wood and drawing

and preparing

for

girlish

their long tresses unconfined,

their fine black eyes in

still

shines

much hard

the
toil

joy of

living.

falls to their lot,

in

The

eternity.

boys are sometimes almost

their

with

beauty,

which

During their early years

and they labor industriously

indoors or out, in the refectory or kitchen, or on the terraces

Then, during middle life,

amid the farms and gardens.
they labor just enough to keep themselves in health and
finally, when old age comes upon them, it finds them ready
;

GRECIAN JOURNEYS

2l8

to fold their hands and join the coterie of aged monks,

sit

all

day

in

dreamy ease

in

who

a retired angle of the monas-

tery terrace.

Here every day a dozen or more superb old men

silently in the

shadow

of a

towering wall.

sit

Then, when the

sun sinks lower, they venture out upon the terrace, and

in

the twilight walk slowly up and down, each one a picture of

patriarchal dignity and supreme content.

round

of

research,

idleness

the

exceptions, the
life is

and prayer,

monks

of

allotted

Thus, with daily

without study and without

Megaspeleon
three-score

live

years

out,

with few

and ten

when

done, they rest in peace for a few years in consecrated

GRECIAN JOURNEYS

THE CHAPEL

IN

219

THE GREAT CAVK

when they have been almost forgotten,

another generation, to make room for future dead in the

ground, and then,

small cemetery, exhumes their bones, and ranges their grin-

ning skulls around the walls of a small chapel where

former inmates of the convent have found a

Here,

place.

all

identities are lost, the

monks being mingled with bones

We
down

at

very bottom

the
lie

Megaspeleon,

the bones of

who

eval structures

of

the

bones of medieval

of those of later centuries.

look into an unclosed grave of

doubtless

all

final resting-

this

unknown

depth.

Far

common trench there

men who founded

the two holy

dwelt in the great cave before these medi-

were erected.

The legend runs

that in the

GRECIAN JOURNEYS

220

fourth century after Christ,

a shepherdess discovered in a

cavern, hollowed by nature in this wall of rock, an image

of the Virgin

and the Holy Child.

nized as the handiwork

of St.

doros and Simeone, then

made

sacred thing was worshiped.

This she instantly recog-

Luke.

Two

holy men, Theo-

a chapel in the cave, and the

fame soon spread, pilgrims

Its

FROM THE TOWER

more holy men came here

room by room, house by house, the
monastery grew, and the brotherhood waxed powerful until
Megaspeleon became the largest and the richest of all the

flocked hither from distant lands

to dwell

and

thus,

monastic institutions
not seen the cave

of

itself,

medieval
for

it is

Greece.

As yet we have

hidden by this mask of

six-

CLIMBINt;

THE CLIFF

GRECIAN JOURNEYS
teen

centuries'

when

finally,

Nor does

constructions.

223

seem a cave,

it

with hesitant reverence, the brothers lead us

into this sacred heart of the rock,

this

where naught save the cool dampness

air suggests the

subterranean.

The

bejeweled cavern,

of the incense-laden

pale illumination of the

outer day touches with reverent fingers the silver lamps, the

FROM THE SIMMIT OF THE CLIFF

carven woods

but like a penitent worshiper

it

scarcely dares

dim corner where the faces of Mary and

and silver of the most sacred
Greece, are smiling, as they have done for si.xteen

approach the

The

far

Child, framed by the gold

icon in

all

centuries, the smile of pardon

Holy

of Holies of the old

and eternal

Greek

love.

faith they rest,

Here

in the

guarded by

GRECIAN JOURNEYS

224
venerable

men whose

lives

have been devoted to their

charge, whose simple thoughts for years have been of sacred

things.

May

and may they

peace be theirs on

when they
who seek the

find,

reward of those

their faith or creed,

can ask a greater

knowledge

is

this side of the eternal veil

shall pass

beyond, that the

truth on earth, whatever be

a reward than which no

human

revelation of the mystery of

of eternal truth.

A VILLAGE PRIEST

life

soul

THE WONDERS OF THESSAI.Y

23I^3T2AV[OM AHOHTHM

HUT HO

A /A)

ONE OF THE METEORA MONASTERIES

THE WONDERS OF THESSALY

he Wonders
Thessaly
IN

APRIL,
tacle than

years.

It

nor was

it

1896, Athens offered the world a grander spec-

had been witnessed

Levant

for

many

was not a military show, it was not an exposition,

It was rather a celebration of the com-

a jubilee.

ing of age of a young nation.

to see

in the

was invited
modern diplomacy,

In 1896 the world

young Greece, the petted

child of

born into independence only three quarters of a century

before,

assume the garb

of maturity,

and formally accept

the responsibilities of a nation that has arrived at

ity

nation that

its

major-

not only can stand alone, but also

capable of wisely directing

its

own

life-currents.

is

THE WONDERS OF THESSALY

228

In honor of this coming of age of the youthful

the immortal Olympian

Games were

kingdom

The

worthily revived.

congratulations and compliments of an admiring and sympathetic world

were lavished upon the Athens

of

were congratulations and compliments more

The Greeks had

sponsors

fulfilled

the promises

the European Powers.

made

1896.

justly

for

Never

bestowed.

them by

their

In the early twenties of the

nineteenth century they had waged a just and successful war

against the

had

Turk and had gained

for a time

them by

their independence.

They

obeyed King Otho, the Bavarian king chosen

Under

his successor,

George

the First, they had labored for thirty-three years to

remove

for

foreign diplomats.

from their land the marks of Turkish occupation and to

bring

it

forward out of dim

medievalism into the broad

modern civilization. Railways and roads and canals

had been planned and executed, a navy and an army had
been organized, Athens had been made once more the capilight of

tal

of Hellas,

beautiful

and prosperous.

And

these things

being done, the world was invited to come, see, and admire
the transformation so quickly and

'"^am

so

brilliantly

achieved.

THE WONDERS OF THESSALY

And

the world

came, saw, and

But thoughtful

admired.
ors did not

fail

229

visit-

to note that

beneath the veneer of a

forced civilization

there

were already traces

of

decay, and of these the

most apparent were the

black holes of the ever-

deepening national debt.

Young Greece
is

true,

had,

modern improve-

stock of

ments, but alas, the

not been paid.
speculation,

in

it

purchased a large

bill

had

She had indulged

discounting

early her promising future,

too

and giving no thought

to the laying

Hence, there resulted

of foundations for solid national credit.

heavy taxation and discontent for the government embarrassments and at last bankruptcy. "Something
must be done, " the nation cried and Greece proceeded to
do the very thing that she could least afford to do. She
for the people

picked a quarrel with her old enemy, the Turk, and, urged

on by the encouragements

of thoughtless friends, declared a

war

no way prepared.

is

for

which she was

known

refrain

we

in

need not dwell upon

it,

The sad result

we cannot

although

from sorrow at the thought that three quarters of a

century of progress and sturdy striving after better things

was swallowed up

The

in

five

weeks

of

national

misfortune.

land of Thessaly was the scene of that brief struggle

Thessaly proved the cemetery of the hopes of Greece.

When

in the spring of

1896

ince of King George's realm,

visited that

little

faraway prov-

thought that

it

would

ever occupy so prominent a place in the annals of a then-

THE WONDERS OF THESSALY

230

undreamed-of war
I

but

did feel that Thessaly

by virtue

of its strange-

ness and

its

tractions

deserved

unique at-

the

attention of the traveler,

and that

it

had only to

be known to become the

Mecca
the

who

of those

picturesque.

seek
It

^S^

tourists

1^1^^

is

mere

therefore rather as

than as

his-

torians or diplomats

^^HA

that

^^^Hl
^^^Hl
^^^"*

we

set

sail

from Athens and

find

ourselves

passing by violet-

shadowed Salamis,
en route for Volo,
the chief port of Thes-

True,

saly.

we have

of Salamis, but

of

territory

it is

defeat,

before looked upon the

well for us, before

to

glide

for

we

set foot

Bay

upon the

a few hours over these

triumphant waves, that for more than two thousand years

have been singing the

hymn

of

singing

victory

of

the

deeds of Themistocles and his gallant crews, and laughing

quietly the while at the discomfiture of Xerxes

barian

host

of

Persians.

little

where the old Greeks conquered,

kindly on the shortcomings of
failed to

The

renew the glorious

sailors of Prince

bay must have

their

felt

will help us to

their sons

who

in

his bar-

Salamis,

look more

Thessaly

traditions of their race.

George 's

fleet as

they traversed this

themselves uplifted by the

immortal forefathers

and

breath from

memory

of

the soldiers of Prince Constantine

THE PINNACLES OF THE METEORA

THE WONDERS OF THESSALY

must have

233

the in-

felt

spiration of the glori-

ous past,

when

their

transport-ships sailed

round the cape of

Sunium and they

could see outlined
against the At
tic

sky

temple

the
of

Athena, the
^

protectress
of the land.

The complete
voyage from the

A PANORAMA PEEP-SHOW

Piraeus, the port of

Athens, to Volo, the Thessalian port,

traveler

who

sails

is

through the JEgean

The

an inspiration.
Sea, the

of

Strait

Negropont,

the

and

the

Malic

Pegasean

gulfs,

must needs

re-

cite a large cata-

logue of glorious

names.

He sails

from Athens, he
sees the uncon-

quered Salamis,
looks on iEgina,

Sunium.

passes

Then
he

farther

on

see

the

will

immortal mountains
SHIPBUAKU DIVERSION

that

look

THE WONDERS OF THESSALY

234

on Marathon and immortal Marathon itself, that looks upon

By this time he is in the broad canal of Euripus
the sea.
;

the Island of Euboea, the Negropont,

mainland
together

Euboea

together as

and

barian,
pool,

upon

is

if

left,

slowly

at last the

years

two shores come

to

push their coasts

channel narrows to a seething whirl-

tides rush furiously

between Greece proper

largest island of her archipelago.

the latest successor to

first,

wooden

before

The town

his right, the

the

and Boeotia seem

bridge swings aside to let us pass

the

upon

to close the sea-path in the face of the bar-

where the

and the

his

is

the
of

that

and

splendid

this

modern

bridge

is

only

long line of bridges, of which

span, was built four hundred and eleven

birth

of

Christ.

Chalcis guards

the strait

beyond

it

the

channel once more widens, and the shores recede so far that

we

made famous by the

to the modern Greeks

cease to look for ports and places

ancient Greeks, and turn our attention

"

THE WONDERS OF THESSALY

on board our

Among

ship.

these classic waters

modern Greeks

235

sailing

upon

found a brother-lecturer, whose

illus-

the

trating paraphernalia were as remarkably simple as his

was

He was

vast.

politan

Panorama.

exploiting

'
'

what he

Three spectators

called the
at a time,

leptha, or about a penny, each, glue their eyes to

holes in the front.

graph,

They

theme

"Cosmo-

paying two
little

peep-

see within a crude, colored litho-

a representation of a street scene in Vienna,

The

modern Greek, describes the

Vienna vanishes in the flies, and

lecturer, in flowing periods of

view, then pulls a string.

there

is

revealed a bird's-eye view of

New

York, with the

Bartholdi Statue standing directly beneath and apparently

New York

supporting

Brooklyn Bridge.

and Paris

discovered, and so on until

is

is

jerked away,

we have completed a

chromolithographic pilgrimage through the great

the world.

Eager

cities

of

to encourage a brother professional we,

with the reckless generosity of traveling Americans, pay the

A "

STATHMOS

THE WONDERS OF THESSALY

236

admission fees for the entire ship's company, amounting to

a total of about eighty cents,

and, for an hour, sailors and

passengers succeed one another, three by three, delighted spec-

windows of the Cosmopolitan Panorama.

Toward evening we steam into the Malic Gulf where one
more undying name rises to our lips, for in the distance we
tators at the little

FIRST-CLASS IN THESSALY

behold the outline of Thermopylee.

But as we are following

the troops of Prince Constantine and not the heroic Spartans

of Leonidas,

we hasten on

Greek base

of supplies

seaport

Thessaly,

of

"But where

is

Ossa

Modern Volo, the

during the recent war and the chief
to

Volo.

lies at the base of ancient Pelion.

" exclaims the traveler as he looks on

THE WONDERS OF THESSALY

Ossa and Pelion have been so often piled on one

Pelion.

another
to

239

in the

pages of

all

literatures that

he almost expects

see those world-famous heights performing,

acrobats,

From

some
the

like

titanic

startling feat of equilibrium.

slopes

Pelion,

of

medieval

ruins of several ancient towns look

villages

and the

down contemptuously on

the upstart Volo, a city created since Thessaly was annexed

to the

Greek kingdom

Volo has the aspect

in

1881.

of a city that has

too large, too grand a scale.

expected to flock into the

new

been planned upon

Of the eighty thousand people

city,

occupy the pretty houses,

SCRAPING ACQUAINTANCK

THE WONDERS OF THESSALY

240

and do business

in the broad,

thousand put

streets, only eleven

ent population

shell,
little

of interest to visitors.

Volo

tell

the

In

existing lines

'

very new.

inhabitants

first

'

new

inevi-

everything that

is

category,

is

The

certainly

and the

were constructed, so

modern Greek the railway

dromos, " the station

is

the " Stathmos. "

departure and arrival

consult the " dromologio. "
Hav-

the hours of

ing bought an

'

'
'

isitirio,

'

we

wf

take our places in the

wagon i
Then, being comfortably
"

by our dragoman, Charolamos Papinstalled

adopoulos,

'

but for the benefit of promoters and

of freight,

contractors.

first-class

'

not for the convenience of travelers and the

us,

shipment

The

last.

new Thessalian

In describing Thes-

tably recurs

they

the southern ter-

the word

not very old

belong to the

is

of the

railway.
saly,

railways to the

very loosely

too spacious

its

minus

of

fits

modern
and the town offers

into

clothes

Volo's pres-

an appearance.

in

handsome

who

stands

sentry at the door of our

compartment, we begin
our journey northward,
crossing on our

way

the

plain of Thessaly.

SHOD WITH TUFTED

"

TSARUKIA "

is

To

the

'

'

learn

Sidiro-

"

THE WONDERS OF THESSALY

241

We

of course

are the objects of

considerable curi-

os ity, the news

that four "Ameri'

kis

'

are on board

having been given

from

mouth

to

mouth and from

compartment to

compartment.
Long stops

at un-

important

sta-

tions give us fine

opportunities

GREEK WARRIORS OF TO-DAY

for

studying the people

on the platforms and to become acquainted with our

fellow-passengers,

The

cordial.

some

list

of

whom

names

station

of

are no less picturesque than

in

now

the time-table

reads like the report of a war-correspondent " Volo, " " Velestino, " " Gherli, " " Pharsala, " recall panics, skirmishes,
;

and

battles

but

when

in

by the guards, they were

The

1896 we heard these names shouted

to us

mere sounds and meaningless.

always announced not by the

familiar command, "All aboard " nor by the French request,
departure of the train

is

''En voiturc,

s'

il

vous

utterance of a dignified,
kirii, is tas thesis

your places

'

'

Greek nothing

We

sas

and

Messieurs!'''' but by the

almost Homeric phrase, " Oriste,
"
"Pray, gentlemen, get you to
f>laii.

this is uttered

less

by the guard who

is

in

than an "epistatis.

note with interest the foot-gear of the natives.

Greek shoes, or "Tsarukia, " are either

The

of a bright yellow

or of a gory red with fringy tufts, or pompons, of red wool

upon the
16

tips

of

the pointed

turned-up toes.

Even

the

THE WONDERS OF THESSALY

242
soldiery

wear these gaudy, comfortable shoes.

The

soldiers

seen at various stations belong to the corps of the Greek

army

most

effective in the recent war, the

for the

most part sturdy peasants or

that proved itself

Evzonoi,

They

are

and therefore able

mountaineers,

to

endure fatigues and

hardships to which the volunteers recruited from the towns

and

cities

They wear

so unfortunately succumbed.

form modeled

after the old national costume, of

most striking feature

is

the

'

*
'

f ustanella,

starched,

accordion-plaited

ridiculous

garment ever worn by a race

ST.

a uni-

which the

linen

to

'

a skirt of

our eyes the

of

valiant

STEPHEN'S MONASTERY CROWNS THE TALLEST ROCK

stiff,

most

men.

THE WONDERS OF THESSALY

245

THE BRIDGK AT LARISSA

The immaculate Evzonoi

of Athens,

much
its

without their pale blue overcoats,

men

It

capital city, the uniform loses

would appear as

in Athens,

embroidered

vest,

if

the government retained

near the royal palace, as long as the

the jaunty fez, and the bright red shoes

were fresh and new

then,

when

the

begin to lose their spotlessness, and the

wilt,

city

kilts,

or fustanellas,

stiff

plaits begin to

the wearers are removed to the remoter quarters of the

thence

last,

looked very

however, that as one goes

note,

and farther from the

elegance.

the

We

like ballet-girls.

farther

of the capital, seen in the streets

to the suburbs, thence to the province, until at

with stained and torn coats, soiled linen, and unshaven

faces,

washed

we

find

them concealing the drooping

folds of

fustanellas beneath ragged shepherd's cloaks at

un-

some

forsaken post in far-off Thessaly.

As

have

said, these

Evzonoi are the men who bore the

brunt of the Turkish onslaughts

whenever genuine

fighting

THE WONDERS OF THESSALY

246

occurred, they were certain to figure valiantly in the front

army been composed of men like

would have made a better showing, and the Turk,

Had

rank.
these,

it

the Greek

in spite of his

overwhelming numbers, would not have found

that an invasion of Thessaly

tary

meant

little

more than a

mili-

promenade behind a retreating enemy.

One by one
gered

and

at,

the dreary railroad stations are reached, lin-

left

behind.

Thus

leisurely

we come

to Larissa,

our destination, distant from Volo only thirty-seven miles.

Our

stroll

first

through the streets of Larissa makes evident

the fact that foreigners are seldom seen in the chief city of
Thessaly.

When we
ceases

We

are followed everywhere by a gaping crowd.

pause before a shop or

sit

at a cafe, all traffic

everybody stops to take a look at

us,

to

comment

upon our appearance, and to discuss the probable reason

our having come to town.
brief sojourn in

of

verily believe that during our

Larissa, every one of the fourteen thousand

inhabitants enjoyed a prolonged stare at us.

THE LEADING HOSTELRY

The

ladies of

THE WONDERS OF THESSALY

247

THE PEOPLE

our party were especially objects of public curiosity, for in

Larissa the native
Until
residents

women

88 1 Larissa was a Turkish city

is still

influenced by

Although Larissa

provincial.
at

are seldom seen upon the streets.

is

the

life

of its

the capital of Thessaly,

Greek

traditions.

it is.

extremely

sea of stupid, staring faces greets the stranger

every turn.

The

ragged,

unwashable citizens are not

repulsively miserable,

unwashed and

nondescript,

even

ignorant,

and

picturesque

The

dirty.

they are
existence

is

not even suggested to the

Prosperity vanished

on the day that Thessaly

Larissa

of a better class in
traveler.

Moslem customs and

passed into the hands of the Greeks, in 1881, as a result of

the treaty of

The

Berlin.

and baggage from these

mosques,

all

well-to-do Turks

Of Larissa

streets.

except four are falling to decay.

deserted minarets

lift

departed bag

twenty-seven

Twenty-three

their slender, graceful forms

above the

twenty-three abandoned mosques.

The occupation

of Thessaly

by a Christian power was

the signal for a grand exodus of the

Mohammedans.

This

THE WONDERS OF THESSALY

248

almost depopulated the coun-

and

for a time all de-

velopment was arrested,

since the Greeks were

slow

in

coming

take the places

to
left

vacant by the Turks.

The government
made every effort to
induce the sober and

enduring Turkish peasants to remain.

Exemp-

tion from military service

and many more advantages were offered,

in vain.

A REMINDER OF THE TURK

their sultan

The Moslem would

not stay in a land of which

had been dispossessed.

They

sold large

tions of their goods, and, true to the spirit of their

ancestors,

por-

nomad

figuratively folding their tents, they silently stole

In a night and a day they were gone, leaving the

away.
villages
If

but

and

cities

nearly empty.

those Thessalian Turks of 1881 nourished resentment

against

the

Greeks,

to

whom

the powers of Europe had

made a present of their land, how completely that resentment must have been satisfied in 1897! We have all read
the story of the Greco-Turkish
daily press, but a brief

trous conflict

may

resume

war

in the

columns

of the

of the events of that disas-

help us more clearly to understand just

what happened during the five short weeks of hostilities.

We remember that in February, 1897, the Greek fleet, commanded by Prince George, and a Greek land-force of four
thousand

men under

Colonel Vassos, were sent to aid the

Cretans in their struggle with the Turks.

By March,

the

THE WONDERS OF THESSALY

251

Cretan question had ceased to be a local issue

become the concern

An

of the great military

it

had

powers of Europe.

international fleet then instituted a blockade of Crete,

while

the

cabinets

notes at one time

of

to

Europe busied themselves sending

the

sultan

and

another to King

at

George, meantime quarreling with one another as to the

policy to

be adopted to preserve peace.

Meantime the Greeks, remembering their glorious expulTurk from Greece in 1822, began to burn with a
desire to strike again at their old-time enemy, the power
that had held them three centuries in bondage, and that still
sion of the

held in chains numberless lands and

are Greek in race, Greek in
religion.

spirit,

Not only Crete, but the

shores of

Asia

Minor,

cities

whose inhabitants

and, above

all,

Greek

in

islands of the iEgean, the

and the provinces

of

Epirus and

Macedonia, are peopled by Greeks under the domination of

The spirit of Pan-Hellenism, dormant for a

was thoroughly awakened by the events in Crete.

the sultan.
time,

A C.RKCIAN

BYWAY

THE WONDERS OF THESSALY

252

The Greeks

of

Greece believed their brothers, the so-called

"Slave-Greeks" in all the lands just mentioned, ready for

It was thought that King George had only to apply
revolt.
the torch and a great conflagration would break out, con-

sume the flimsy structure of Turkish authority, and expand

modern Hellas to the limits already reached by the Hellenic
speech and the Hellenic faith. Accordingly King George's
government was forced by public clamor to mobilize the

army on the

plain of Thessaly.

But in June, 1896, the summer before the war, we found

on the future Thessalian battle-ground, only the Nomad
Vlachs, shepherds of the region.
the

encampment

speaking
to

all

of

his

race Vlach

clan.

An old chief bids

The Vlachs are a

us visit

Latin-

being a term applied in the old days

people inhabiting the

Roman
of

^5i5*^i^^^

Province at the time

the decline of the last

Even to-day they

Empire.
persist

in

calling

l^^^^^^^^^^^fc^

lF

OUR
DEPARTUR
UNDER ESCORT

themselves,

THE WONDERS OF THESSALY

A VU.OkOUS YOUNG
BLANCHISSEUSE

"Romani,
Romans.

253

1^^-ri^

^'

or
Al-

though these Vlachs

of Thessaly are Christians, they are

not enthusiastic supporters of the Greek regime because, as

they say, while Thessaly was under Turkish

lighter than to-day.

the greed of local functionaries and were

as

we

sit

rule, taxes

The peasantry then had only

left in

were

to satisfy

peace

but

beneath the tent of our kind host, partaking of

refreshing *'ouso, "

we

learn that

when

the Greeks assumed

control of Thessaly, the burden of taxation was increased

alarmingly.

The young kingdom

of

Greece had spent much

THE WONDERS OF THESSALY

254

and railways, for public buildings and improvements

of all kinds, and this in spite of the fact that she was very poor.
She was thus forced to levy extortionate assessments on the

for roads

inhabitants of

We

all

her provinces, the

new

as well as the old.

ambiguous position into which

Vlach or Hellenic descent, were

can readily conceive the

the Thessalians, whether of

forced by the change in their nationality and their estate.

THE CAMP OF THE VLACH SHEPHERDS

While proud

becoming

of

free

Greeks, they were irritated

because they were compelled to pay so dearly for the privilege.

Naturally, their Hellenic brothers across the line in

Macedonia, and

in other

Turkish provinces, began to count

the cost of liberty and hesitate to take any decisive steps

toward overthrowing Turkish domination and realizing that

dream

of

freedom which as a

expensive luxury.

reality

might prove a most

In proof of the fact that the Macedonian

THE "suburb" of A MONASTERY

THE WONDERS OF THESSALY

257

and other Christian subjects of the sultan did not desire to

exchange a comfortable bondage for a costly freedom, we
have only to remember that

Greeks they never

in spite of the reverses of the

stirred a finger to aid

Greece

in

the war

she was undertaking ostensibly on their account.

To resume

the story of hostilities

While Greece was

defying the powers in Crete and massing her troops in Thes-

PATRIARCHAL HOSPITALITY

saly,

the press of Europe and America was publishing col-

umns

of

sympathetic utterances and urging the king and his

ministers to maintain their heroic pose.

himself

King George found

powerless to combat the reckless desire for

vvar

manifested by his people.

Nor must we

agency that was at work

every corner of King George's

in

This was the National Society

realm.
17

forget

secret

a secret

society

THE WONDERS OF THESSALY

258

composed
ing

also

made every

the Ossa of Jingoism

its

to

society

foreign lands.

in

war.

effort to precipitate the

upon the Pelion

reckless endeavor to

make

themselves

distinguish

and many
The National

and merchants,

prominent diplomats

Greeks of note who lived

Society

Greek army, but includ-

largely of officers of the

for its

and

members an opportunity

pose as liberators.

had been established

clared object

was

piled

It

of misrepresentation in

for

years

two

to recover for

This
its

de-

Greece the two

provinces contiguous to Thessaly

Macedonia

and Epirus.

Meantime the Turks had

been

not

By

idle.

the

middle of March no fewer

than
ish

fifty

thousand Turk-

soldiers

were massed

around Ellassona, near the

frontier of Thessaly.

In

the

journey

course

we rode

of

for

our

many

miles in sight of the range

that

boundary.

marks

the

Turkish

We were under the escort of three Greek

deemed necessary even in time of peace for

protection against the Greek renegade brigands who plunder
troopers,

in

land and then retire to their dens across

their native

the Turkish border.

miles in length

it

This frontier

is

more than two hundred

follows the water-shed of a low range of

mountains, but the passes being on the north side of the line
they were held by the Turks.
small blockhouses

Turkish

The

fortifications

and Greek

were merely

blockhouses

fre-

quently standing face to face not more than a few hundred

yards apart.
It was in one of the passes of this frontier
range that the first hostilities occurred.

THE WONDERS OF THESSALY

But before we open the chapter
let

me

lead you for a few

259

of disasters that follows,

moments into
Temp^.

the reposeful soli-

tudes of the beautiful Vale of

It

was

to see this

famous gorge that we undertook the

long drive by carriage from Larissa,

little

dreaming that the

pictures taken during the excursion would ever serve as illus-

campaign

trations for the story of a

in

which the Turks should

be the victors, and our friends the Greeks the vanquished.

A VLACH MOTHER AND CHILD

The Vale

of

Temp^

lies

between Mount Olympus, where the

old gods lived, and Ossa, the mountain that

piled

on Pelion.

rolled in a

mighty

When
tide

the

was wont

to be

invading armies of antiquity

toward Athens, the Vale of

Temp^

was the natural channel through which the barbarian

advanced into Thessaly, which was

then

the

flood

granary of

THE WONDERS OF THESSAL\

26o

NO CONFIDENCE

Greece.

But

lovely

this

When
that

it

And

as

we

Tempe

of

by great battles fought upon

of the

reluctantly

ride

army on

Thessaly has long been

its

mountains that form a

like the sides of a great

it,

retreats.

Thrice, in days of old, were the

on the slopes

rim around about

but

his great

was through the Vale

destinies of nations decided

level

Pompey and

his legions fled.

famous as a battleground.
plain or

flows eastward to

not only invasions

has witnessed

Pompey and

through which the river

fertile plains,

Julius Caesar defeated

the field of Pharsalos,

STRANGERS

vale,

Peneus, after traversing the

the sea,

IN

amphitheater.

away from Tempe, still

we will take up again

escorted by our faithful cavalry-men,

As has been

the story of the war.

frontier

were the scene

Greeks and Turks.

The

of

irregulars,

said,

first

the

hills

encounters

on the

between

early skirmishes were informal

unauthoxized by either side.

hundred

the

First a

band

of

about

and

fifteen

organized by the secret society, crossed

the international line.

The Turkish

lieutenant, in

command

MONASTIC ABODES

THE WONDERS OF THESSALY

263

of the small garrison at the

Macedonian blockhouse, protested to the

officer that

no

Greek

armed men had

right to enter

that

Turkish

The Greek

ritory.
it

was not

interfere

frontier

his

ter-

replied

duty to

that the men were

not royal troops but an in-

composed

band

surgent

of

brigands, deserters, and foreigners.

which

It

is

not certain

side fired the

fight

first

shot.

began and lasted

until

morning

two Turkish block-

houses were burned, and the

small garrisons forced into a retreat.

The

next day the

raiders

were
)ulsed
/ith

TWO-THIRDS OP OUR TROOPS

THE WONDERS OF THESSALY

264
sixty

men, and driven back across the border.

Two days later

there was another raid at another point with similar

Athens
fessed

disclaimed

a desire to

too great.

Two

days later the

upon

The government

however, was not yet war.

This,

responsibility

hostile armies

at

both governments pro-

But the tension was

maintain peace.

fighting

the slope of

results.

were face to

recommenced.

This time

Mount Olympus, the abode

Five

face.

of the

it

was

Greek

MOUNT OSSA

gods.

From High Olympus

upon the hand-to-hand

the gods

strife of

have looked down

armored ancients and upon

the long-distance slaughter of cloth-clad sharpshooters

have heard the clash

of

antique steel on steel,

they

and they

have listened to the modern music of the Mauser. The

Greeks engaged in this skirmish were clad in the royal uni-

and commanded by officers for whose actions the

government could not refuse to be responsible. It was all
form,

over with diplomacy.

War was

declared by Turkey at

THE WONDERS OF THESSALY

5 p.

m. on the 17th of

surprises
for

it

was

April.

It

and disappointments,

265

was to be a 'war

of

full

and a war quickly fought,

to last only thirty-three days

less

intervened between the declaration on April

than
1

five

weeks

and the sign-

ing of the armistice on the 20th of May.

During the days

of April

17

and

18

battle raged in the

the Greek troops fought with valor, but were driven

passes

back,

and the Turkish forces were

passes and the crests.

left in

command

of the

Several battles followed, as a result

of

which the

for-

ces of the Greeks

were slowly

driv-

en from the

hills,

and forced to

fall

back to the town

of

Tyrnavos,

few miles north

of Larissa.
far the

the

soldiers

Prince
tine

THK

VAI.H

OF TEMPR

Thus

conduct of
of

Constan-

was worthy

THE WONDERS OF THESSALY

266

THE PENEUS
of all praise

the

men proved

spite of

youth and inexperience.

actions

it

themselves steady fighters in

And

judging their later

in

must be remembered that the Greeks were

at

no

Less than seventy

time as strong numerically as the Turks.

thousand untrained Greek troops were pitted against more than

one hundred and thirty thousand seasoned veterans or Turkish reserves, drilled

by German

Turks had not crossed the

still

officers.

line in force,

As

yet,

however, the

and the Greeks were

strongly intrenched at the entrance to the plain.

But a
pletely

fatal

mistake during the night of April 23 com-

changed the

situation.

Greeks were signaled to

were wrongly interpreted

The advance

retire to the
in

main

line.

The

signals

Tyrnavos, whence the rumor ran

that the advance posts have been taken by the Turks.

inhabitants

the

posts of

packed up goods and

chattels,

The

and began

to

THE WONDERS OF THESSALY

leave the town.

Panic seized the troops and spread from

Tyrnavos to Larissa and thence southward

of suppHes,

to

269

to the very bases

Volo and the other seaport

cities.

Larissa was abandoned by the Greek forces, and for three

days was at the mercy of the released convicts and drunken

insurgents,

who

pillaged the houses,

committed

kinds of

all

outrage, and then fought among themselves.

When

came in
welcomed by the four hundred Moslem inhabitants, the Jews, and the few Greek resiThe Turkish commander, when
dents remaining in the city.
" Mere
complimented on his capture of the city, replied
the Turkish cavalry at last arrived, they

the guise of deliverers, and were

THE WONDERS OF THESSALY

270

A FLIGHT INTO GREECE

We

luck.

town.
the

happened

to be

There was no

right

place,

coming along and walked

fighting

that

is

they ran away

into

we were

in

all."

The stampede of the Greeks was indeed inexplicable.

The Turks followed in stolid bewilderment and found themselves almost without

an

effort in possession of the city that

had been formerly the Turkish capital

of Thessaly.

The Greek army under the orders of the much-criticized

Crown Prince fell back to Pharsala in confusion. The new
line of defense was about thirty miles farther south.
The
principal strong points were near the towns of Pharsala

Velestino.

The Turks

and

after a delay of several days leisurely

THE WONDERS OF THESSALY

At Velestino they met with a sharp check, which

followed.

was,

however,

were

still

only an

proving that the Greeks

incident,

capable of showing courage and that

commander

the caution of the Turkish

tions

271

were committed by

in

spite of

occasional indiscre-

his inferior officers.

But the Turks

continued to advance southward, seeming to have as

little

thought of danger as the children we saw playing near the

villages

we

passed.

the Greeks,

been taken without

abandoned

Whenever

the Turks advanced in force,

although holding positions that could not have

terrible loss of

splendid lines of

life,

defense,

farther toward the south to take

melted away.

and

fell

back

They
still

up other positions which

in

time were to be relinquished after a feeble defense, or possibly,

without a struggle.

railway,

uncut.

and

did

not

invariably

At Larissa, Pharsala,

large supplies of rifles

them.

They

they almost

even cripple the

left

telegraph-wires

and Domokos they abandoned

and ammunition instead

of destroying

At Velestino they dragged big cannon to the

tops, kept

them there

VXACHS EN VOYAGt

silent

hill-

during a two-days' battle, and

THE WONDERS OF THESSALY

without

then

firing

they dragged them

sunk them

in

a single

down

the Gulf

They never stopped

bridges or to burn
spike their guns.

charge

again and
of

to

Volo.

blow up

them or to
Thus in dis-

order they retreated from the

\^

northern

across

frontier,

plain, to the southern

Thessaly, and

finally,

BABIES AND BAGGAGE

border of

the battle of

Domokos having been

for

disastrous

them, their forces embarked

hastily at

Volo and other ports or

retreated in disorder through the pass of Thermopylae.

Turks immediately seized

all

patrols, preventing pillage,

property.
tants of

The

the important towns, establishing

and pro-

The Greek inhabimany towns have

borne witness to the good

behavior of

the

the Turks.

In several cases Turkish

commanders were even

begged to send troops to

THESSALIAN TYPES

_^^hb^^^

tecting

THE WONDERS OF THESSALY

act as police

Greek

and to protect the

irregulars

The triumph

275

from the rapacity

villages

of

and deserters from the retreating army.

of

Turkey was complete.

One month from

the day on which the Greek regulars opened hostilities near

the Vale of

Tempe, on the north border, the

Furka Pass on the southern

soldier crossed the

left

Thessaly

of the

troops.

Greek
and

""

in the possession

Ottoman

last

frontier

That

night the battalions of the demoralized

Greek army

The

slept

in

the

narrow

defiles

of

Thermopylse.

next day the armistice was signed by the two govern-

ments,

ending the short,

inglorious

war.

THE WONDERS OF THESSALY

But the Greek navy, you may

what was

ask,

time

this

it

doing

all

What

of

Prince George and his

warships

of

fleet

He

could do noth-

The Greek

ing.
fleet

was paralyzed

by the fact that on

the Turkish coasts
it

no

would have found

attack

to

cities

that were not inhabited

Greeks

that

been forced
MIDDAY REPOSE

a vast

amount

it

to,

would

destroy

property

of

belonging to Greek merchants and Greek residents before

could

inflict

a telling blow upon

And what

of the

eager for the fray

and openly

thing

in

It

was content

to sit

conduct of the

the

They

enemy

the Turks.

Athenian populace which had been so

criticize the

What also of
lands

its

it

in its cafes

campaign.
in

at

foreign

did every-

power

their

to aid

'""V

A HAPPY FAMILY

the

THE WONDERS OF THESSALY

fatherland.

277

Averoff,

the Alexandrian mill-

who

ionaire,

restored

the Stadium in which

the Olympian

Games

had been celebrated,

secured

six

million

Greek

dollars for the

war-fund, and presented the army with

thousand

forty

Greeks from

forms.
all

uni-

lands

came

flock-

ing to Athens to en-

were

they

but

list,

unarmed,

untrained,

and unprepared
service

them
to
live

for

and many

of

arrived too late

The

be of use.

hundred

volunteers

Greek
THE GATE OF THESSALY

from the

in their native

United States arrived

country just twenty-four

hours after the armistice had been signed.

Such were the events that

land by the fame of

"Monasteries

They

in

1897 turned the attention of

We, however, were

the world to Thessaly.

its

wonders, the

'

'

attracted to the
'

Meteora

or

the

of Kalabaka,

the

'

in the Air."

from the

are accessible

village

northern terminus of the Thessalian Railway.

heights that rise above

the village

may be

The rocky

likened to the

extremity of a mighty glacier of gray conglomerate that has

its

source amid the snows of High Olympus,

flows westward

in

broadening flood until

in
it

the east,

breaks and

THE WONDERS OF THESSALY

2/8
melts

the

into

caress the cold gray

rock glacier

of

plain

cliffs,

Thessaly.

Green,

fertile

waves

or break against the walls of the

hamlets and villages, like

fleets of little fishing-

boats are lifted by the verdant tide and seem to pause a

moment near the ragged coast, before the reflux draws them
down again. Two or three daring little craft have ventured
even into the yawning

lowed by the beating

bile,

of

fissures or steep-walled

sea.

The wonder

for the evidences

wave-action are so

insistent that

we

expect

to see the flood hurled

back by the imposing

'tween tempe's walls

is

that

inlets,
all is

hol-

immo-

photograph by John Wright

THE ABBOT OF HAGIA TRIADA

THE WONDERS OF THESSALY

cliffs,

or else that the

cliffs will

281

yield to repeated attacks,

hke the gigantic icebergs to which Alaska glaciers give

waves

and

fall like

moments

later,

broken mountains into the laughing

Fantastic imaginings you

of green.

as

we draw

IN

we

may

say

a few

nearer, the possibility of a reali-

THE VALE

zation of this fantastic suggestion

convincing force that

birth,

wrench them-

separate themselves from the parent mass,

selves free,

and

is

revealed to us with such

involuntarily shrink back in startled

expectation that our dreams

may come

true.

The birth of the iceberg of solid rock seems imminent.

The pillar-like masses appear as if about to topple over and
crash down upon us.
The traveler who tells of the Meteora must ask for credulous ears, for his tale will test your confidence in his veracity.

Who,

gazing at these towering monoliths, would believe that

almost every one

is

crowned by an extensive monastery, a

THE WONDERS OF THESSALY

282

decaying stronghold of Orthodox monasticism

to sleep three nights in the odor of sanctity
of the tallest of the

Meteora rocks up there

in the right

corner of the sky as framed by limits of

We

choose

inhabited

St.

Yet we are

on the summit

hand

the illustration.

Stephens as the most accessible of the four

convents found on the skyward tips

titanic arrow-heads.

There are besides a score

structures perched on other peaks,

wedged

of

those

of deserted

in the fissures or

clinging to the walls.

'

you may

say,

and

pointing to the pictures of these impossible

sites.

' *

Seeing

more

ful of

is

believing,

'

fully conscious of the

debt

owe

to that

recording secretaries, the camera, than

to describe

what we saw

in the

reply by

Never
most

when

attempt

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

days of our sojourn in this

enchanted region.

BROKEN MOUNTAINS

am

faith-

three

THE WONDERS OF THESSALY

283

SCHOOLBOYS OF KALABAKA

St.

Stephens stands, as

but the island

lies

it

were, on an island in mid

air,

close to the extremity of a long peninsula,

and a narrow bridge, spanning a deep channel of space, links

Viewed from the
the island to the mountain mainland.
behind

heights

monastery,

the

spacious buildings, so

its

securely seated on broad foundations, no longer appear to us

an eagle's nest on the apex of a slender pinnacle of rock.

like

The

aspect of the monasteries depends

Most

point of view.

almost every step.

is

seen a

moment

startling

What seemed

to tower high

later at our feet

cliff

tle slopes

upon the
above

us,

a tapering minaret of

rock, viewed from another standpoint,

topped

entirely

changes of outline result at

becomes a wide

flat-

pinnacles change to palisades, sheer walls to gen-

as

if

of some scenic
some magical pantomime.
bridge, we shout lustily for entrance

this region

were the creation

trickster, the stage-setting for

Crossing the
the door

is

little

slowly opened, there

is

a brief parley, end a few

THE WONDERS OF THESSALY

284

moments later, we find ourselves within the monastery court.

two or three Greek
The buildings seem almost deserted
monks make us welcome in the name of the Higoumenos, or
Our dragoman, familiar with the place, thanks to
abbot.
;

earlier visits, then installs us in the best suite of

our cook assumes high-handed sway

THE MONASTERY OF

We

find that of the

corridors,

many

ST.

in the

rooms, while

smoky

STEPHEN

cells that line St.

only seven are occupied

kitchen.

Stephen's

the present occupants

when they shall have passed away,

there is no hope that others will come in to take their places.
The destiny of the Meteora monasteries is to become national
curiosities, monuments preserved by the government as a
being probably the

last, for

temptation for the tourist.

are

little

else,

In fact, the monasteries to-day

but so few have been the travelers

discovered these high-perched haunts,

atuiosphere has not yet been disturbed.

that

who have

their medieval

THE HOLY TRINITY MONASTERY

THE WONDERS OF THESSALY

The monks,
to afford

man

far

seems to

the

apparently, are very poor, too poor, at least,

luxury of cleanliness.

The Higoumenos, a

more intelligent than the simple-minded brothers,

realize that the

end

is

near, that this

the Middle Ages which, thanks to

the

287

its

remnant

Meteora peaks, has persisted through the end

WMBRB WB LODGED

of

inaccessible refuge on
of

the

THE WONDERS OF THESSALY

288

nineteenth century, must

crumble away as the

twen-

light of the

tieth century falls

upon

it,

just as

the corpses of
the

Mycensen

kings crumble

when

to dust

exposed to the
gaze of modern

men.

We felt indeed
that

we

were

far

away from the modern

world when,

dim corners

in the

of the little

during

midnight services,

A DEEP CHANNEL OF SPACE

we

the
sat

Byzantine chapel, about two

thousand feet above the plains of Thessaly, and listened to

the monotonous and meaningless chanting of the black-robed,

bearded

and watched them make repeatedly that

priests,

rapid gesture that outlines the cross, by touching the head,

the body, the right breast, then the

knees, rising and dropping

demanded.
silver

The

down

left

or

falling to their

again, as the

Greek

flickering candlelight, the faint

ritual

glimmer

of

lamps hanging before the golden icons, the uncompre-

hended chant, the long black shadows that swayed mysteriously

on roof or

frescoed saints,
to-day's world,

and

of a

walls,

all

where they were confounded with

these things conspire to remove us from

and produce an impression

remoteness that

Our home-life

in the

is

indispensable

medievalism

monastery was as delightful as our

surroundings were unique and strange.

the

of

both of time and of space.

Papadopoulos,

We

who by

were served by

his

ministrations

THE WONDERS OF THESSALY

289

smoothed out the roughness of the accommodations as skilfully as Gregorio our cook shielded us from the horrors of
the

Greek

Stephen's

cuisine.

now

garb of his
us in the

possesses,

class,

name

is

of the

little

the only one St.

neophyte,

a boy too poor even to buy the

appointed by the Abbot to minister to

church

but

fear that

we were more

impressed by the size of his red shoes than by the fact that

he stood in them as the representative of the Orthodox

faith.

On

window commanded a view

low

King and Queen

the wall hung pictures of the

is

formerly belonging to the

silver,

full of

variety

the village of Kalabaka, beyond

monks

it

and wonder.

fields

the

Be-

and vineyards,

then comes a band of

the river familiar to the readers of ancient history as

the Peneus

to-day the Salamvrias.

It

is

the

same stream

that after traversing the Thessalian

plains

thence

to

makes
the

its

sea

escape

through

the beautiful Vale of

Tempe.

Beyond

the river rise the

IN

19

THE COURTYARD

THE WONDERS OF THESSALY

290

Pindus Mountains, the highest peak almost eight thousand

feet

above the

Beyond

sea.

this

range of mountains

lies

the

province of Epirus, the inhabitants of which are Greeks but

which

is

ruled by the Turkish sultan.

Nearer on our right are grouped the Meteora columns,

crowned by the neighboring monasteries, in situations far

more startling than that of the one that has so hospitably

To

received us.
'

Triada,

'

reach the nearest of them, the

or Holy Trinity, seems at

first

a very simple matter.

path apparently leads from the bridge of

directly to the other holy habitat.

route

we

are to follow

in three or four

We

Stephens'

St.

can easily trace the

simple promenade will bring us

We

minutes to our destination.

forget the

The con-

scenic surprises and deceptions of the day before.

jurer

who

" Hagia

controls this wonderland

is

not asleep

he

is

pre-

paring a more marvelous feat of magic than any he has yet

performed
sion

and he intends to enhance the

by adding

cessful trick

to

it

effect of his illu-

that indispensable ingredient of the suc-

surprise.

He

waits until

we reach

where we think that the path turns sharply

to

then-

the point
the

right,

THE WONDERS OF THESSALY

Holy Trinity and about two acres

drifting off into space.

abyss

we gaze

From

speechless with

monastery, throned on

its

293

of its surrounding land

the brink of an unsuspected

amazement

pillar of

at the unattainable

rock, isolated, mysteri-

ous, impossible.

Then mounting our mules we wind down a

halting several

trail,

Hagia Triada, as they are one by one revealed.

explain to ourselves

how we

to believe that these rocks,

production,

are

being moved about at

At

last

we

find

Gazing up,

whence a rope

is

cannot

We

are almost ready

cliffs

in a spectacular

rollers

and capable

of

will.

base of a pyramid of

between the column

rises

the

cliff.

like the

mounted on

ourselves at the

rock that

We

could ever have mistaken yonder

sky-island for a part of the mainland.

stage

steep, rough

times to enjoy the striking views of

we

of

Hagia Triada and

discover a projecting platform

dangling,

rope that

we have come

THE WONDERS OF THESSALY

294

many

miles to see

visitors

are

for

by means of which

the rope

is

it

hoisted from

the

bottom

of

monastery "landing-stage " there on high.

the

cliff

the

to

A moment

later

the rope tautens, and a huge bundle of firewood goes swing-

ing aloft

Meteora

for this

well as passengers.
in

'

'

'

elevator

'

is

used for freight as

we wait our turn, but alas

monks above toss down in harsh

Impatiently

answer to our shouts, the

phrases the disappointing information that passenger

is

for the present interrupted

curity of the

famous rope.

risk of lifting

human weights,

because of the age and inse-

They

firmly refuse to take the

but cordially invite us to walk up-

stairs to their aerial sanctuary.

noticed them at

traffic

Stairs there are

^^^^^"^"^^^^^^^

ONE OF SEVEN MONKS

we had

first,

not

flight

THE WONDERS OF THESSALY

295

wooden

of rickety

steep as a

steps,

ladder, leading to

narrow

above.

feet

fifty

ledge

The ledge runs upward

to the right,

then ends abruptly

to

above

rises

it

meet the sky a

sheer smooth wall

rock.

of solid

We
before

hesitate

we

begin

this steep ascent,

when Papa-

but

COMFORTLESS QUARTERS

dopoulos
that

it

tells
is

the

us

only isolated

monastery to which

women

be admitted, the courageous ladies of our party resolve

will

any

to reach the top at

follow.

upon the narrow

cost,

we walk

Accordingly

ledge,

and we

of course

up-stairs

and

must needs

find ourselves

where the overhanging rocks force

us to advance sideways, bracing ourselves against a flimsy

promenade like this would

not be possible for those whose heads grow dizzy.
The
Pindus Mountains and the River Peneus form the back-

barrier without which, however, a

ground

of our

view

the plain

near the bases of the

cliffs

is

far below, the villages too

to be discernible

from here.

Advancing slowly, the barrier creaking with old age and

weakness every time we put our hands upon
the upper end of the steeply ascending ledge.

have
the

said,

the path vanishes.

left into

rest of

the

But a

little

it,

we reach

Here, as

a deep chimney-like fissure in the rock.

ascent

is

made

in

ladder leads to

The

almost utter darkness, and

THE WONDERS OF THESSALY

296

therefore the most difficult portion of the climb cannot be

Mounting that

illustrated.

little

one of the ladies

ladder,

disappears through an iron trap-door and finds herself at the

bottom

of

a natural fissure,

rock, while the third

is

triangular,

with two sides of

and

of boards, shutting out the light

concealing the vertiginous vistas, and thereby making the

ascent less terrifying to the timid.

Through another trap-door

hole, a

monk

peers

down upon

at the top

of

but a rough

well-like

the would-be visitor and bids

her climb to him, up a shaky, swaying ladder

ladder,

this

not a rope-

wooden ladder made up of numberless

manner obviously inse-

short sections, hinged together in a

cure.
is

So

close

is

the ladder to the walls that a firm foothold

impossible, and the creaking

and the swaying

of

as the

it

daring pilgrim climbs would disconcert a sailor accustomed

But the words,

to fighting storms in the rigging of a ship.

''Oh, I'm

all

right!"

are dropped reassuringly, until at last the

creaking ceases, and

we know

that she

is

and sound above.

safe

One by one we
low,

not

fol-

disdaining

the rope, which, low-

ered

to

us

by the

thoughtful monks,
tie

we

around the waist.

And
that the

thus

it

was

American

pilgrims arrived at the

Convent

of the

Trinity.

A final short

Holy

climb to the monas-

TOWERS OF REFUGE

THE WONDERS OF THESSALY

tery proper

now

ensues, and soon

we

299

are being entertained

by the Higoumenos, who regales us with preserved

pure native wine,

and the

Thessalian

substitute

fruits,

for

the

Athenian 's favorite mastica, a very similar white distillation

knov/n as " ouso. " We visit the chapel and make the cus-

tomary and expected

offerings.

hoisting-machinery in the
late ourselves that

descent.

we

Then we
'

'
'

elevator

'

inspect the crude

tower and congratu-

are not compelled to trust to

The Abbot then

it

takes us for a stroll in his two-

acre garden on the summit, where with a smile he

that the annual crop of rocks
in a

his

tone of resig-

convent

for the

is

the only certain one.

^^^^^^ami^i^^^^^

us

Then

nation he adds that

.^^^^^B^^^^^^B^S^^

WHERE MIDNIGHT PRAYERS ARE

tells

SAID

.^

has but five

THE WONDERS OF THESSALY

300

OUR REFECTORY

inmates

although

Greek monks,
to celibacy,

once

it

had ten times that number.

like those of the Catholic faith, are

but this

is

pledged

not true of the Orthodox priests.

who are not monks or bishops may lawfully

when one of them is raised to the rank of bishop,
he must put away his wife, who usually enters a convent and
becomes a nun. Our visit finished, the Higoumenos accompanies us down to the village, and as we pick our way
around the base of the huge rock-column on which his monastery stands, he details some of the tenets of the Greek
Greek

priests

marry, but

orthodox religion.
nize the

Pope

of

First, the

Rome

Greek church does not recog-

as the supreme head of the spiritual

THE WONDERS OF THESSALY

world.

It

Confession

not admit the power of

will

made only

is

to selected elders,

of confidential conversation.

gatory.

bread alone,

of

distinction,

and,
the

prohibits

it

It rejects

more

absolution.
in the

form

the doctrine of pur-

bread dipped in wine and water,

administers

It

instead

direct

301

religious symbols,

lest in

received as idols.

But

the

use

and most apparent

last

of

images or statues as

the minds of the ignorant they be

this distinction

does not prevent the

icons or sacred pictures from becoming the objects of

much

devotion, the people kissing them with eager reverence and

often with tearful passion.

we

Still

discussing Greek orthodoxy,

presently find ourselves in the village streets

whence our

party observes that the pinnacle of the Holy Trinity convent

appears

another and startlingly different aspect.

in still

Before parting from the holy

tions that

who

eler,

When

must inevitably

sees the Meteora.

these

were

found

monasteries
ed.-*

How did the

first

monks reach
summits ?

those

Why

did

elect

to dwell

in the

midst of

this

they

rocky deso-

lation

Vaguely

.''

runs the

story

that in the four-

teenth

century,

Greek hermits
seeking

came

in

solitude

hither

dwell in the

to

little

man we

arise in the

ask the three ques-

mind

of every trav-

THE WONDERS OF THESSALY

302

caves near the bases of the

tations

the holy men, in

cliffs.

Nature there provided habi-

some way, scrambled

cave entrances with wooden walls,

up, closed the

and constructed crude,

jointed ladders which gave access to their lofty retreats, or

at

will

could be drawn up,

to

insure

complete

isolation.

But in those days hermit-hunting was a fashionable pursuit

the poor saints found that they were as

much hated

THE PENEUS AND PINDUS RANGE

and maltreated by the warlike lords

of the province, as they

were respected and kindly treated by the superstitious peasantry.

Their caves were too well within the reach of their

among whom the Turks were to be numbered a

few generations later. The pressing need of greater security
persecutors,

drove them slowly skyward

from cave to cave they ascended,

ever spreading the network of swinging

wooden

ladders.

The

DESERTED DWELLINGS

THE WONDERS OF THESSALY

sense of a

common

305

danger created a feeling of brotherhood.

Gradually fraternities

The hermits ceased

were formed.

to

be hermits and became monks. Later the growing religious

enthusiasm of the age transformed these hunted beings into
proteges of the Byzantine princes.

emperors

Even

the

of Christian Constantinople loved

to pose as patrons of these Thessalian

monks.

The upward

progress of the

TRAVELING

brotherhoods

in

impor-

tance and power was coincident

with

that

physical

elevation of themselves and their romantic structures.

monks reached

the zenith of

their

The

wealth and influence

simultaneously with the arrival of their monasteries on the

very highest altitudes attainable on the Meteora summits.

The

primitive cliff-dwellings are

deserted

ao

now and

long have been

the ladders have decayed, sections of

them have

THE WONDERS OF THESSALY

fallen,

and the upper

caves

inacces-

are

Modest

sible.

cave -dwellings

innum-

were

and

erable,

one time

at

there were
as

many

as

twenty-

four monasteries,

one

each

lavishly

endowed

and

enthroned on

an isolated
cragc

The
geologforma-

ical
A PEASANT AND HIS PET

tion favored the plans

of those early seekers after solitude.

The

cliffs

are

com-

posed of gray and yellow conglomerate and of limestone.

The ages have been

silently at

work carving

into all sorts of fantastic forms

and

in

this soft material

hollowing recesses.

The waters of the great lake that once filled the basin
rivers constantly
that now is Thessaly, began the work
;

decreasing in volume

continued

it

the rains and torrents

then achieved the delicate detail, and the winds have added
to these sculptured

and as a
weather,

result
cliff

of

mountains the polish of their passing,

all

this

erosion

by water, wind, and

has been separated from

mountains have been opened,

nacles have been formed until

pillars

we

cliff,

gulfs

deep as

and columns and pin-

are tempted to believe the

LEANING TOWERS OF THESSALY

THE WONDERS OF THESSALY

monkish legend, which
created

this

tells

that

God

in his

mercy purposely

unique and forbidding solitude as a refuge in

the days of peril and persecution for the holy

only wish was to serve and worship

We

309

Him

in

men whose
peace.

halted in the course of our wandering through this

sacred, half-forgotten realm, below one monastery, strangely

Al

ll'.l.

i.'.Ji

lU.M

THE WONDERS OF THESSALY

3IO

unlike the rest.

abandoned.
lowered

It

No

was

half cave, half balcony,

and

utterly

voice replied to our salute; no ladder

in hospitable intent.

We

was

merely looked and mused

and recommenced our pilgrimage. Another hour's journeying on muleback and on foot, brings us beneath the shadow
of

an awful mass of rock, roofed by the rambling buildings

of

ON THE STAIRS

a larger monastery that takes

Hagios Barlaam.

High

its

name from its patron saint,

we see the tower from

to the left

which the hoisting ropes descend

right

is

little

those long ladders

flung

into

lower and more to the

from the door of which another of
composed of shaky sections has been
Although it is high-noon, the depths

building,

space.

THE WONDERS OF THESSALY

between the

cliffs

are

shadowy and dim

we approach

twilight

the base of the

in a sort of
cliff,

311

midday

and there our

guide, aided by the mule-boys, prepares to serve a picnic

luncheon.

We

have a

has been brought;

well-filled basket, but

no fresh water

accordingly Papadopoulos assembles the

Keratzes, and orders

them

to shout in chorus,

and thus make

ON THE LEDGE

known our wants

echoes to their thirsty

cause

if

we do

monks on high. The gorge

They shout the more lustily,
yells.

to the

re-

be-

not get water, they will have less wine to

and Thessalian mule-boys or Keratzes are very fond

Meantime we spread
of the strong resined wines of Greece.
Presently we are
ground.
the
on
our feast on a white cloth

drink,

THE WONDERS OF THESSALY

312

answered by some one

in the sky.

voice comes

us like the cry of a soaring bird, and a few

voice

is

moments

down

to

later the

followed by the descent of a primitive dumb-waiter,

more eloquent than words.

the contents of which are

addition to a pail of fresh cool water,

we

find

in

that

In
tin

ON THE LADDER

receptacle, so generously lowered, a bottle of old monastery

wine and some substantial bread.

Our vocal battery

high,
cliff,

is

ordered to project our thanks on

and a broadside of Greek gratitude thunders against the

rebounds from wall to wall,

by contact with the rocks,

above.

it

until,

more or

less shattered

strikes the ears of our kind hosts

While we discuss cold viands, our dragoman assures

THE START

THE WONDERS OF THESSALY

315

the

ascent to

us

that

Hagios Barlaam may be

made by
rope;

the traditional

that here at last

we may enjoy

the hair-

raising experience of be-

ing hoisted in a net up

to a

monkish

climb
skill

the

trapeze

by rope

A SHEPHERD

under the

strain

of

a load of

Barlaamite,

from Athens.

we
of

it

is

replaced by a

Reassured,

Papado-

poulos that

he

summon

the "lift,"

AT

UK loP

the

a
re-

ascent

simple, safe,

is

The rope
is

frequently

it

fattest

To
of

are

the

feasible.

new rope

request

artist

but

he assures us

fire-wood

weighing four times as much as the

ladders,

and courage

quired,

and

eyrie.

if

tested

breaks

THE WONDERS OF THESSALY

3i6

of our attendants wake the echoes

demand that the Meteora elevator be sent
A moment later what appears to be a gigantic

and again the lungs

this

time with a

down.
spider

slowly

lowers

empty net hooked

itself

to the

being paid out by the

within reach.

Our men,

by a single

filature

end of a two-inch rope that

monks above.

At

last

seizing the net, spread

ground, lay a small rug in the middle of

it,

watch

women, barred from the

us

the guides

with

trip,

^^^^^^i^i^^^^^

^^^^^^^

LIKE A CAMEL KNEELING

it
it

an
is

dangles

on the

and beg the two

passengers to seat themselves upon the rug.

pointed

is

it

Two

disap-

by a monastic

rule,

much envy

^^^^^^

as

gather up

THE WONDERS OF THESSALY

THE CAVES

IN

317

THE CLIFF

them above our heads, and

iron hook that dangles at the

the edges of the net, assemble

pass the loops over the big

rope's end, like an inverted interrogation point, marking the

all-absorbing question,

"What

Oh, the creepy feeling

First, the net

if

the rope should break?"

of that

moment

of departure

about us tightens, our knees are pressed

up, our elbows

firmly pinned

to

in

and

our sides, then our two

THE WONDERS OF THESSALY

3i8

heads are forced together with a crack, then our bodies begin

and mine sags more than the other

to sag,

pressure of the earth has ceased

there

fellow's.

The

comes a sense

of

we begin to turn, round

and round, slowly at first, then faster, then we sway to and
fro.
The earth drops gradually away the voices of our
lightness, of

cramped

airiness

then

HOMES OF HERMITS

friends

grow

When we

We

fainter

and

re-open them,

are stationary

at this point

we experience

we

close our eyes.

a peculiar illusion.

the rocky walls are sliding slowly down-

ward, like a background in a transformation scene.

the

cliffs

begin to sway.

advances threateningly,

Then
One mass of rock, fifty feet away,
until we can nearly touch its rough

LOOKING DOWN AT THE ASCENDING NET

THE WONDERS OF THESSALY

surface, then

we

back again.

We

the world instead

is

falls

it

are going up

and down, and the

cliffs

are

321

cannot believe that

going

down and down

dancing round about us

like

The only movement

of which we are conscious is a gentle elastic jerking, as we
go bobbing, turning, swinging skyward. The rope above is
storm-clouds in the arms of the wind.

THK AGKS HAVE BEEN AT WORK

undulating like a long yellow snake but looks no shorter than

it

did before

we

started.

The ascent

interminably slow

is

minutes that seem like hours pass before we reach the level

We

of the foundations of the tower.

strata of masonry, as jerk

like miserable fish,

by

jerk,

can almost count the

our net

and never have

fish

is lifted.

We

feel

been farther out of

THE WONDERS OF THESSALY

322

A YAWNING MOUNTAIN

an

water.

It

effort to

look up or

down, so

costs

we pinioned by
meshes
,

^f-

tightly are

the

of the encircling net.

Below, to the

right,

of ladders disappearing

we

see the upper end of the chain

through a

little

As we mount,

door.

the meshes oi the net are drawn tighter and tighter at every
revolution.

new

Now

strain, the

and then, as the net adjusts

itself

to

some

knots slip suddenly, and the slipping of every

knot gives us a tremor of horrified expectancy.

Finally

we

begin to hear the creaking of a windlass, and the unsteady

tread of the old monks,

who

in the

tower there above are

resignedly circling round and round, pushing long poles fixed

to a crude sort of winch, every revolution of

which brings us

THE WONDERS OF THESSALY

nearer to the landing-place.
poles, release the windlass

top

hundred

of

Verily

we

Let them but withdraw their

we

can see

it

spin like a big

we can
human con-

revolutions to the second, and

imagine the downward

tents.

323

flight of

the net with

shall not neglect the

its

admonition of our

guide to drop a generous contribution into the coffers of the

GLLKS UEEP AS MOUNTAINS ARE HIGH

church

The thought

that these

same monks are

to control

the machinery during our descent, predisposes us to

make

liberal donations.

Safely arrived, our

is

first

thought

to follow us as soon as the net

Let us advance to yonder

is

is

for our interpreter,

who

lowered for a second time.

railing,

lean over

it,

and look

324

THE WONDERS OF THESSALY

OUR VOCAL ANNUNCIATORS

THE WONDERS OF THESSALY

directly

down.

If

you may be able

you can imagine yourselves doing

the

rail,

in
is

and pointing

straight line

is

which our guide

seen as

white

if

some meaning in the apparently

made by holding the camera out over

it

toward the center of the earth.

directly

the rope
is

at

its

end we see the

being drawn up.

represented on a painted

rectangle

so,

to find

impossible illustration,

The

327

is

net,

Below, the ground

map

or plan.

The

our tablecloth, on which our luncheon

was spread.
A round
straw hat on the head

light spot

of

DESCKNI'

Ol-

above

it

is

the top of a

one of the ladies of our party.

HK

it

328

THE WONDERS OF THESSALY

THE HOISTING

"

MACHINERY

'

THE WONDERS OF THESSALY

329

Meantime the windlass creaks and the old monks pant

until the

form of Mr.

landing window.

meshes, haul in the

Papadopoulos

adventure and been

nibbled the bait of

^^

^^^^

taken a will-

PILLARS, PINNACLES,

To
To

arrive thus oneself

is

ping

off

corridors

AND PALISADES

the

of

resolve to

Meteora

moment

of drop-

We

find

it

diffi-

our minds of vague convictions that the hour

world, the flesh,
to a higher life

and the

we almost

pass the remainder of our days there on

cliff

avoiding

almost terrifying and the

Hagios Barlaam.

come for us to renounce the

devil
we feel imperatively called
is

is

inevitable

us throughout the brief hour spent in the

and chapels

cult to disabuse

mg prey.

sufficiently trying to the nerves.

witness the arrival of another

thought of the departure

haunts

silhouetted at the

is

Then bony hands reach out, grasp the

net, and liberate the human fish which has

top, thus escaping all future

the necessity of going

down

that

temptations and

again in that net!

THE WONDERS OF THESSALY

330

y,^'^^

A BARLAAMITE

But down we go
in the revolving

two dizzy pilgrims

then Papadopoulos

is

let

down

by the deliberate monks.

in similar fashion

Not content

lift

at last,

witli this experience,

the monastery called the

Meteoron

summons, the cracked voice

of

an old

the tower, in plaintive sentences which

we attempt

to reach

but in answer to our

man

tosses to us from

seem

to fall

from the

heavens, the astounding statement that there are only two

monks

left

there in the huge buildings of the Meteoron, and

that they have not strength

between them to haul us to the

high perched abode of desolation where they are

awaiting

eternity.

Greek monasticism,
thing of the past.

at least in Thessaly,

few more

visits

is

already a

from the Angel

of

THE WONDERS OF THESSALY

Death and these
Meteora
will

chapels

no more

re-

sound to chanted

The sa-

prayers.

cred

institutions

having served the

purpose for which
they

were

will pass
will

built

away

or

soon become

mute and

stately

WHERK MONKS

LIKE MONKEYS SCRAMBLE IP

333

THE WONDERS OF THESSALY

334

the Meteora,
tresses

of

medieval

Greek
its

its

titanic crags

crowned by the crumbling

a faith destined long to survive the ruin

strongholds,

the thought

came

that

just

can look with equanimity upon the

faith

lands and the slow disintegration of

its

for-

of

its

as the
loss

of

temples, so can

the Greek spirit, enduring as a mighty rock, look tranquilly

1
^H|^^i^

"^'^

'^

>^5WWi^5^^
WKKsW^'

;li^

W-

ff

:m

itiiJf

jfr

v'u;'''

'

i^M
/

^^^Kt-j-^jsi

:y^'''

10^

'

'''-

THE METEORON

upon the petty

is

Greek
by

disasters of the present.

The Greek

enshrined in the hearts of the Greek people

spirit survives

not in the hearts of those

birth, but in the hearts of all the

thought and action,

of mind.

The

real

men who
Greeks

religion

but the true

who

are Greek

world 's great

men

of

are Greek by the divine right

of to-day are the

men who

are

THE WONDERS OF THESSALY

UN THK ROOF OF THESSALY

335

THE WONDERS OF THESSALY

336

doing the world's great work, governing our nations, building

our

cities,

rearing

writing our greatest

our monuments, painting our pictures,

poems and our

greatest books.

These

are the true Greeks of the universe, animated by the true

Greek

spirit

the

spirit

that

teaches

thoughts and to create great things.

THE PENEUS

men

to think great

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