iHBHBBHBSa 
 
 JOSEPH PENNELB 
 
 PICTURES 
 
 IN THE 
 
 LAND OF TEMPLES 
 
 PHILADELPHIA : J. B. LIPPINCOTT CO. 
 LONDON : WILLIAM KEINEMANN 
 
(Qatnell Mniucrsity ffitbraai 
 
 Strata. Neta fork 
 
 nh:.r.les..M,.Reni8y 
 
l«©l 
 
 Cornell University 
 Library 
 
 The original of this book is in 
 the Cornell University Library. 
 
 There are no known copyright restrictions in 
 the United States on the use of the text. 
 
 http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924020585976 
 
STUDENT'S EDITION, with an Introduction 
 by W. H. D. Rouse, M.A., L.L.D. 
 
JOSEPH PENNELL'S PICTURES 
 IN THE LAND OF TEMPLES 
 
JOSEPH PENNELL'S 
 
 PICTURES OF 
 THE PANAMA CANAL. 
 
 FIFTH EDITION. 
 
 Reproductions of a series of Lithographs made 
 
 by him on the Isthmus of Panama, together 
 
 with Impressions and Notes by the Artist. 
 
 Price 5s. net. 
 
 the life of james 
 McNeill whistler 
 
 By E. R. and J. PENNELL. 
 
 Fifth and Revised Edition, with 96 pp. 
 
 of Illustrations. Pott 4to. 
 
 Price 12s. 6d. net. 
 
 LONDON : WILLIAM HEINEMANN. 
 
 Copies of the lithographs reproduced in this 
 
 volume, limited to fifty Proofs each, size 16 by 22 in., 
 
 may be obtained through the Publisher, at 
 
 £3 3 net each. 
 
Joseph Pennelus Pictures 
 in the Land of Temples 
 
 REPRODUCTIONS OF A SERIES OF 
 LITHOGRAPHS MADE BY HIM IN THE LAND OF 
 TEMPLES, MARCH-JUNE 1913, TOGETHER WITH 
 IMPRESSIONS AND NOTES BY THE ARTIST 
 
 LONDON: WILLIAM HEINEMANN 
 PHILADELPHIA: J. B. LIPPINGOTT GO. 
 
COPYRIGHT 
 
 LONDON: WILLIAM HEINEMANN, 1915. 
 
TO 
 R. M. DAWKINS 
 
 LATE DIRECTOR 
 OF THE BRITISH 
 SCHOOL AT ATHENS 
 WHO SHOWED ME 
 WHERE I SHOULD 
 FIND THE TEMPLES 
 
PRINTED IN GREAT BRITAIN BY R. CLAT AND SONS, LTD., 
 BRUNSWICK STREET, STAMFORD STREET, S.E., AND BUNGAY, SUFFOLK. 
 
NOTES— ON MY LITHOGRAPHS IN THE LAND OF TEMPLES 
 
 I WENT to Greece for two reasons. First, because I wanted to 
 see Greece and what remained of her glory — to see if the 
 greatest work of the past impressed me as much as the greatest 
 work of the present — and to try to find out which was the 
 greater — the more inspiring. And second, I went because I was 
 told by a Boston authority that I was nothing but a ragtime 
 sketch er, couldn't see Greek art and couldn't draw it if I did. 
 
 I have been there — and did what I saw in my own way. To 
 me Greece was wonderful and was beautiful, but anyone can see 
 that — and can rave over it with appropriate quotations from 
 appropriate authors. I know no Greek and have scarce read a 
 translation. I say this regretfully — I wish I had — I should have 
 seen more. I know, however, if I had not before seen the greatest 
 art of the rest of Europe, 1 could not have been so moved as I 
 was by what I saw in the Land of Temples, the land whence we 
 have derived most of our ideas, ideals, and inspirations. 
 
 I drew the things that interested me — and it was, and is, a 
 great delight to me to be told by those who have, some of them, 
 spent their lives studying Greeks and Greece, that I have given the 
 character of the country. What impressed me most was the great 
 feeling of the Greeks for site in placing their temples and shrines 
 in the landscape — so that they not only became a part of it, but it 
 leads up to .them. And though the same architectural forms were 
 used, each temple was so placed that it told from afar by sea or 
 land, a goal for pilgrims — a shrine for worshippers to draw near 
 to — yet each had a character of its own — always the same, yet 
 ever differing. I know, I am sorry to say, little of proportion, of 
 scale, of heights, of lengths, but what I saw, with my own eyes, 
 was the way these monuments were part of the country — never 
 stuck about anyhow — always composed — always different — and they 
 were built with grand ideas of composition, impressiveness, and 
 arrangement. Has there been any change in the black forest before 
 Aegina — the "wine dark sea" at Sunium — the "shining rocks" at 
 
Delphi — the grim cliffs of the Acropolis ? — these prove in their 
 various ways that the Greeks were great artists. 
 
 These were the things I saw. Had I known more I might 
 have seen less — for it seems to me that most artists who have 
 gone to Greece have been so impressed with what they have 
 been told to see, that — there are, of course, great exceptions — 
 they have looked at the land with a foot-rule, a translation, and 
 a dictionary, and they have often been interfered with by these 
 aids. I went ignorant of where to go — or what to see. When 
 I got to Athens I fell among friends, who answered my only ques- 
 tion that " I wanted to see temples that stood up." They told me 
 where they were —and there they were. And for this information, 
 which resulted in my seeing these sites and making these litho- 
 graphs, I want to thank many people, but above all Mr. R. M. 
 Dawkins, late Director of the British School at Athens, who, now 
 that he has seen the work, agrees with others that it has something 
 of the character and romance of the country. If it. has those 
 qualities, they are what I went out to see — and having seen 
 them — and I have tried to express them — I know I can see more, 
 if I have the chance in the future in the Wonder of Work of 
 my time, for in our great works to-day we are only carrying on 
 the tradition of the great works of the past. I have seen both, 
 
 and it is so. 
 
 JOSEPH PENNELL. 
 
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 The Illustrations Start at Taormina, Proceed around 
 Sicily — Thence to Italy, and are Continued in Greece. 
 
 Aetna over Taormina - I 
 
 The Theatre, Segesta - - II 
 
 The Temple over the Canon, ' Segesta - - - III 
 
 From Temple to Temple, Girgenti - -IV 
 
 The Columns of Castor and Pollux, Girgenti - - V 
 
 Sunrise Behind the Temple of Concord, Girgenti - - VI 
 
 The Temple by the Sea ; Temple of Concord, Girgenti VII 
 The Temple of Concord on the Wall from Within, Girgenti VIII 
 The Temple of Concord on the Wall from Without, Girgenti. IX 
 
 Columns of the Temple of Juno, Girgenti - - X 
 
 The Temples on the Wall, Girgenti - XI 
 The Temple of Juno from Below, Girgenti ... XII 
 Paestum. Morning Mist - ... xill 
 
 Paestum. Evening - - XIV 
 
 Corinth towards the Gulf - - - XV 
 
 Acro-Corinth from Corinth - - XVI 
 
 Olympia from the Hillside - - - XVII 
 
 The Temple of Jupiter. Evening - XVIII 
 
 The Acropolis from the Temple of Jupiter, Athens - XIX 
 
 The Way up the Acropolis - XX 
 
 Down from the Acropolis - - XXI 
 
 Sunrise over the Acropolis ----- XXII 
 
 Storm Behind the Acropolis - ... XXIII 
 
 The Propylaea, Athens .... . XXIV 
 
 The Portico of the Parthenon - - - XXV 
 
 The Parthenon from the Gateway- - - - XXVI 
 
 The Facade of the Parthenon. Sunset ... XXVII 
 
 The Fallen Column, Athens .... XXVIII 
 
 The Little Fete, Athens - .... XXIX 
 
 The Great Fete, Athens - ... XXX 
 
 The Temple of Nike, Athens - - XXXI 
 
 The Temple of Nike from Mars Hill, Athens - - XXXII 
 
 The Odeon, Athens ------ XXXIII 
 
 The Street of the Tombs, Athens ... XXXIV 
 
 Eleusis. The Pavement of the Temple - - XXXV 
 
 Aegina - - - XXXVI 
 
 Aegina on its Mountain Top- ... XXXVII 
 
 The Shining Rocks, Delphi - - - XXXVIII 
 
 The Treasury of Athens, Delphi .... XXXIX 
 
 The Wine Dark Sea. Sunium - - - - XL 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 IT is a happy thing that the Greek race came into being - , 
 because they showed the world once at least what is meant by a 
 man. The ideal Greek virtue ™$pooivti means, that all parts and 
 faculties of the man are in proportion, each trained to perfection 
 and all under control of the will : body, mind, and spirit, each 
 has its due place. Elsewhere we see one of these in excess. Thus 
 the Indian philosopher soars in the highest regions of speculation, 
 and sees great truths, but they intoxicate him : he does not 
 bring them to the test of daily life, nor does he- check them 
 by reason*. The Hebrew prophet has his vision of one God, and 
 in rapt- devotion prostrates himself below the dignity of manhood* 
 The Roman : deals with practical politics and material civilisation ; 
 he has a genius for organizing, and for combining' the rule of 
 the best with the freedom and direct influence of all : he, how- 
 ever, despises the spirit and the imagination. In our own day, 
 what is called science arrogates almost divine honours to the 
 faculty for measuring and observing, and neglects both the 
 religious instinct and the philosopher's theoric ; nor is this ideal 
 less deadly than the Roman's to imagination and the sense of 
 beauty. In modern times also, each person strives to excel in 
 some one specialty, mental or bodily ; and if there is any feeling 
 at all for proportion it is the proportion of a group, while the 
 members of the group are nepmoi, excessive in one way and de- 
 fective in the others. But the Greek aimed at perfect proportion 
 "for the man ; and his ideal was, that the man's will should, use 
 ■all the faculties to some worthy end. His body is to be trained 
 by music and gymnastic : the aim of the first being grace and 
 beauty ; of the second, strength ; of the whole, health and joy in 
 -all bodily uses. His mind is to be trained by poetry, oratory, 
 and philosophy; his spirit by the Worship of the gods, in which 
 all that was best in his life is concentrated into a noble ritual. 
 Such would be the life of the ordinary Greek; the: greater in- 
 tellects would look beyond the ritual to the essence; and we have 
 ample evidence to show that their ideals were as high as any 
 that have been known to other, ;peoples. Aeschylus dealt with the 
 same problems that baffled the Hebrew • prophets, divine justice 
 
 b 
 
and mercy, and the immutable moral law ; Plato's speculation 
 took him into regions where logic and formal philosophy had 
 to be cast aside; Pheidias by his art added a new dignity to 
 godhead.* 
 
 Nowhere is the Greek a^poaivn, their sense of restraint and pro- 
 portion, shown better than in their architecture : and this both in 
 the method of growth and in the final results. The Doric style 
 has grown out of a wooden building. When and how the first 
 steps were taken, we do not know, nor whether the Doric be 
 directly descended from the Mycenaean style, as Perrot and Chipiez 
 will have it. There is this great difference: that the Mycenaean 
 and Cretan columns are like a Doric column reversed, the thick 
 end upmost, and they show none of the Greek refinements to which 
 we shall come later. A simpler origin is possible : for to - day 
 the traveller may see, in the verandah of some wayside cottage 
 (Homer's aWovaa ipiiovnog) a primitive Doric column, some bare tree-trunk 
 with a chunk of itself for capital, supporting a primitive archi- 
 trave of the same sort. In the Doric order, other traces of woodwork 
 are left in the stone, such as the triglyphs, or beam-ends, with round, 
 pegs beneath, or the gouged flutings of the column itself. And we 
 have direct evidence in the history of the Olympian Heraeum ; 
 where we are told that the columns were once of wood, and that 
 stone columns were put in place of these as they decayed, one 
 of the ancient oak columns being preserved down to the time of 
 Pausanias. The early architects would seem to have been nervous 
 as to how much weight stone would bear, so that their columns are 
 very thick and set close together ; in fact, less than one diameter 
 apart. By degrees they learnt from experience, but the changes 
 were slow and careful. The plan of the temple always remained 
 the same, and there is little variation in the number of pillars 
 at each end, or in any of the general features. As in statuary, 
 here also they kept to their tradition as much as they could, 
 and got their effects with the least possible change. But what 
 effects ! Compare the heavy masses of Corinth or Paestum with 
 the airy grace of the Parthenon, and measure the infinite delicacy 
 of the changes which produce this effect. The builders found out 
 
 * Quintilian, Inst. Orat. xii., 10, 9. Olympium in Elide Jovem . . . cuius pulchritudo adiecisse 
 aliquid etiam receptse relligioni videtur : adeo maiestas opens deum aequavit. , 
 
that straight lines do not look straight, and that if the lines of a 
 building do not look straight, the building looks as if it is going 
 to topple over and fall. A column which decreases upwards in 
 straight lines looks to the eye concave; and this illusion they 
 tried to correct by making the columns bulge from the top 
 about one third down, and then decreased this curve towards the 
 bottom. The first attempts gave too much convex curving, but 
 this again was corrected until the architect found perfection : 
 yet the differences measured in inches are small. Again, 
 each column was inclined slightly inwards, because a column 
 that stands quite straight looks as though it were •inclined out- 
 wards ; and the stylobate, upon which the columns stand, is 
 curved from each end upwards to the centre. Other adjustments 
 were necessary in the abacus and capital, to make all harmonious ; 
 and we may say that there was hardly a straight line in the build- 
 ing. Sculpture and ornament were adjusted to the eye in the 
 same way ; and it would seem that the effect of the whole building 
 also was judged not alone, but in connection with the lines of the 
 landscape — that background of hills, always noble but never over- 
 powering, which is found all over the Greek world. -For instance, 
 in the Parthenon certain minute corrections were made because 
 of the way in which, the sun's rays fell on it. These adjustments 
 have been measured and tabulated — or at least a great many of 
 them, for there are doubtless many we do not notice, and the 
 building is a ruin — but they show a delicacy of sense which is 
 nothing short of miraculous. These builders, however, were not 
 only artists with miraculous keenness of sense, but members of 
 a true trade - guild, with its accumulated wisdom handed down 
 from generation to generation, and themselves were men who 
 worked with their own hands. Neither could they have built the 
 Parthenon with books of logarithms in an office; nor can we ever 
 have noble buildings again so long as the architect and the builder 
 are not one. Every common workman must have had his share of 
 this traditional skill. Indeed, inscriptions lately discovered show that 
 the building of the Parthenon went on after Pheidias was banished ; so 
 that the sculptures which are the wonder of the world must have been 
 done in part at least without their designer. But even without 
 such evidence, the perfection of every detail of building, the fitting 
 
of the joints, the strength and finish of each part, is enough to 
 show what the Athenian workman was like. 
 
 But we must remember also that the stones that remain are 
 only ruins. Even in these we may trace many of the perfections 
 of the ancient artist; but if we could see them as they were* we 
 should see, not stones bleached and weathered, but buildings resplen- 
 dent with colour and gold. Columns, capitals, architraves, all were 
 a blaze of colour, decorated with graceful patterns and painted to 
 match the blue sea and the golden sunlight. And now for us 
 Sunium is a white ghost like the light of the moon, the Parthenon 
 a rose in decay. 
 
 We may not now feel the want of what is lost. The hills once 
 covered with forest trees are bare, the countryside is untilled and 
 empty, and these ruins are invested with a sentimental charm in 
 the thought of what has been lost. The traveller is in the mood 
 of Sulpicius as he consoles Cicero for his daughter's death. 
 " Returning from Asia, as my voyage took me from Aegina 
 towards Megara, I began to survey the regions round about : behind 
 me was Aegina, before me Megara, to the right Peiraeus, to the 
 left Corinth, all cities at one time prosperous and flourishing, but 
 now they lay prone and ruined before my eyes . And I began 
 thus to ponder within myself : ' Ah ! shall we frail creatures resent 
 the death of one of ourselves, seeing that our life must needs be 
 full short, when in one place so many dead cities lie before us? ' " 
 Indeed the Greek cities are most aptly compared to humanity. 
 There never was anything grandiose about them, nothing monstrous 
 like the empire of China, no desire to thrust Greek manners or 
 religions upon the rest of the world, no attempt to monopolize 
 trade even by honest methods. They wished to live and let live, 
 loved and hated fiercely, but like men ; and if they must die they 
 did not whine about it — indeed, for their country's sake they held 
 it glorious to die. And now they are gone, and their place knows 
 them no more, no one can feel that touch of triumph that Shelley 
 felt over his Ozymandias. They have left behind them everywhere a 
 poignant regret, such as one feels for a very dear friend gone 
 for ever. Most strong is this feeling when our steps wander oyer 
 some desolate spot, once a populous city, such as Paestum or 
 Myndos. I mention Myndos because there the contrast is most 
 
vividly brought out by the second idyll of Theocritus. There is 
 the old harbour, there is the ring of the city walls a mile across, 
 and the whole space between is brushwood and stones. Yet from 
 this city sailed to Cos opposite the hot-blooded youth whom Simaitha 
 loved, whose story is told in the poet's words of passion.. And 
 these cities, once so full of life and happiness, are a desert now. 
 Even the new Greece, which rose from the ashes of the old not 
 a hundred years ago, which has sprung into new life and honour 
 within the last few months, cannot console us for the Greece that is 
 gone. The quick intelligence is still here, the courage, the idealism ; 
 but Greece can hardly escape the corruption of the modern world, 
 with its grasping after wealth ; and the sincerity of the ancient 
 spirit exists chiefly amongst peasants and fishermen. A false and 
 pedantic way of thought is spreading from the schools and the 
 newspapers, which must spoil the people unless the efforts of a 
 few wise and longsighted men shall prevail. 
 
 The pictures in this volume follow roughly the history of the 
 Doric style. In Olympia lies the floor of the Herseum, most, 
 ancient of all existing Greek temples, built before iooo b.c. Un- 
 happily this view tells us nothing of what it looked like : earth- 
 quake and flood, and the hand of man, have done all they could 
 to destroy. The temples in Sicily and Magna Graecia, with, 
 Corinth, belong to the earliest stage known to. us. Corinth was 
 built about 650; the temples of Athena at Syracuse, now the 
 cathedral, and of Zeus at Selinus (which are not represented here) 
 are as old or older. Segesta comes next, in fhe early sixth 
 century ; and in the same century temples at Girgenti (Agrigentum), 
 Aegina, and Psestum. The temple of Zeus at Olympia. was built 
 between 469 and 457, the Parthenon 454-438, Sunium and Eleusis 
 about the same time, and two buildings at Psestum. The theatres 
 belong to a later date, and the Corinthian temple of Zeus 
 Olympian at Athens, begun by Peisistratus, was not finished until 
 the time of Hadrian. 
 
 Olympia is the epitome of the Greek race, as the forum is 
 of the Roman dominion : the Roman ideal being law, order, and 
 government ; the Greek, all the powers of man at their best, used 
 and enjoyed in the holy precinct of their great God. The 
 difference is shown at once, in that the Olympian assembly was 
 
enforced by no lawgiver, but the voluntary gathering of men of 
 one blood, who for a set time laid aside all their quarrels, and 
 remembered that they were marked off by a great gulf from all 
 other men. They came for no material gain : their prize was not 
 dominion and power, nor wealth and trade, but the crown of 
 wild olive and glory incorruptible. Elis, a state small and 
 insignificant politically, had the honour of presiding over these 
 games ; no man might compete save those of pure Hellenic blood, 
 and no woman might approach them. And here, every four 
 years, from a time before the beginning of history, the men of 
 Greece met, kings and potentates competing with private men, 
 high and low, rich and poor, all acknowledging the one tie 
 greater than all others. The celebrations lasted all through the 
 glorious days of Greece, and until the glory of Greece had long 
 departed, and they were abolished for ever in 394 a.d. by 
 Theodosius. Art and literature formed no part of the contests, 
 which were nearly all athletic ; but painters and other artists 
 exhibited their works there, and it was common for orators and 
 philosophers to recite : Herodotus is said to have read his history 
 at the festival. 
 
 The picture is taken from the small hill of Kronos : we look 
 over the site of Hera's temple to the great temple of Zeus. 
 To the left, out of sight, is the entrance to the racecourse. 
 Just beneath us, under the hill, is a row of small shrines called 
 Treasuries, which mighty states and monarchs had built to contain 
 their own chief offerings. In the distance is the river Alpheius. 
 We cannot imagine how this plain looked when it was the encamp- 
 ment of thousands, covered with booths, and full of goodly men 
 and horses ; the crowds, the processions, the feastings, litany and 
 sacrifice; but every man must feel the same thrill as when he 
 stands in Westminster Hall, or St. Sophia at Constantinople : for 
 here have passed all the great men of the Greek race. 
 
 If the games show the physical side of the Greeks, the 
 theatre above all shows the intellectual. While they invented, 
 and perfected, nearly all kinds of literary art, it is the theatre 
 that touched their life most closely, and most fully gave scope 
 for their genius. This also grew out of religion, and was always 
 a part of their religion. But the Greek gods were no puritans. 
 
They exacted awe and worship, and they punished' the impious , 
 but they were genial good fellows, who might be thought, without 
 blasphemy, to share in the happiness of their people— indeed, took 
 it in goad part when they were the subject of rollicking jests. In 
 the theatre, Aeschylus found room for his profound religious feeling, 
 Euripides for his scepticism, Sophocles for a mirror of the. mind 
 of. man, Aristophanes for his political and social satire and his 
 merry fun. Every town and even hamlet must have its theatre. 
 A suitable place could be found almost anywhere in the hill 
 country — that is, in almost . all parts of Greece proper. — before any 
 buildings needed to be put up. Then the hillsides were cut into 
 seats, as at Argos and Segesta, or seats ranged around in a semi- 
 circle, and carried on when it was necessary by means of retaining 
 walls. Below them was a round space for dancing, and beyond 
 this the stage. There is a controversy whether the Greeks ever 
 used a raised stage before the Roman conquest ; probably they 
 did, but at any rate all existing theatres had them. Vitruvius 
 (who wrote about 20 a.d.) says that the Greek stage was higher 
 and narrower than the Roman ; and the stage at Taormina has 
 been built, or rebuilt, in the Roman way. 
 
 It is proper to say this, but the onlooker will think little now 
 of the stage, or indeed of the actors and the play, in view of 
 one of those scenes which can never be forgotten. The sight of 
 Etna over the stage, with his rolling steam, absorbs the whole force 
 of imagination. Etna is tremendous. Beneath Etna Hephaistos 
 had one of his forges, as at Lipara, Imbros, and Lemnos; and 
 that smoke you see shows that his workmen are forging the thunder- 
 bolts of Zeus. The very name of Volcano is Hephaistos himself. 
 Or is it the giant Typhoeus, defeated by Zeus in the battle 
 of gods and giants, and buried beneath the mountain, who by his. 
 struggles causes the earth thus to heave, and these fiery streams 
 to pour forth? What wonder that the pious made offerings of 
 incense at the top ! Was it really true that Empedocles, that 
 great philospher and healer, whose .intellectual pride seems almost 
 to claim divine honours, cast himself into the crater, that he 
 might seem to have been swept away by the gods? Probably 
 it was not true : but the story shows how the mountain worked 
 on men's imaginations. 
 
If the theatre of Segesta has no Etna behind it, the sur- 
 roundings to the eye are in other ways grand. It is seated upon the 
 acropolis hill, whence a view can be taken at once of that corner 
 of Sicily which was held by the mysterious Elymians, with their 
 citadel and sanctuary of Eryx. Segesta was founded by a people 
 who wanted protection, and feared the sea. But, like the rest of 
 Sicily, it came under Greek influence; and its buildings, the two 
 temples and the theatre, are Greek. This small town has played 
 a part in history: it was the bone of contention which led Athens 
 to interfere with Syracuse, and so on .to her ruin. The columns 
 of the temple are unfinished, the fluting has never been done. 
 There is something that moves the sympathy in these unfinished 
 places. No doubt the city was overwhelmed in some catastrophe, 
 which perhaps left it quite desolate in the old cruel way. So the 
 blocks of the Pinacotheca on the Athenian acropolis still keep the 
 knobs which were used in mounting them ; they were never 
 cut off, for Athens fell. So, most striking of all, there lies in the 
 quarry near Baalbek an enormous block of stone, seventy- seven 
 feet long by fifteen and fourteen,, squared and ready, one end tilted 
 for moving; but it was never moved: there it has lain perhaps for 
 three thousand years, and there it will lie till the world ends. 
 
 Girgenti, Agrigentum, Akragas, called by Pindar koXXw™ p P 0Tmw 
 
 ■iroXuav, fairest of mortal cities; lofty Akragas, in Virgil's words, 
 
 spreading her walls so wide, mother of high-spirited horses — 
 
 "Arduus inde Acragas ostentat maxima longe 
 Moenia, magnanimum quondam generator equorum" — 
 
 although late founded in Greek history (b.c. 582), is set on a 
 hilltop like some primaeval acropolis. Two rocky hills, with a space 
 of level land between, were enclosed within a wall six miles round; 
 below this the land slopes gently to the sea; the whole lies 
 between two rivers. The existing' remains, and the modern town, 
 lie on one of the two hills. Akragas calls up only one name 
 from the memory, Phalaris the Tyrant and his brazen bull. But 
 Empedocles was born here. The great temple of Zeus Polieus, 
 which Phalaris was said to have built, has perished, and those 
 that remain cannot be certainly identified. One is called after 
 Concord, but the Latin name cannot have properly belonged to it. 
 The pictures here show some of the wonderful effects, which vary 
 
from hour to hour in this land of colour and sunlight. But the 
 glory of Girgenti is the grouping of its remains: wall,, temples, 
 and rocks. If we could see the city as. it was, it may well have 
 been K a\Xwra pponav jtoXjW. But in 406, the Carthaginians descended 
 upon it, and starved out the people. All who could go migrated 
 to Gela; the rest were massacred, and the city sacked. From, this 
 -blow it never recovered, although it was afterwards inhabited. 
 
 Passtum, the. Greek Poseidonia, is one of those cities that have 
 no history ; at least, this city played no great part in ancient 
 history and gave the world no great men. But Psestum was not 
 happy. It had its day, from: the foundation in the seventh century 
 for "some two hundred years ; but it fell early into the hands of the bar- 
 baric Lucanians. After this it existed, but it never became great. We 
 know Paestum for its roses, biferi rosaria Pcesti, which flower twice 
 a year in May and November; and until lately, for its loneliness and 
 desolation. Not a living soul was there in the circuit of the city walls, 
 nothing but a bare plain with , hundreds "of flowering grasses, and 
 the great temples in their grandeur. All its charm is gone now : 
 a factory stains the sky with its smoke, and the modern worldj 
 whose god is its belly, has put its foul mark upon the quietude 
 of Paestum. Those who saw Paestum when . it _ was one of the most 
 impressive sights in the world, will be careful not to go thither again: 
 
 Corinth, on the other hand, takes us back to the heart of the 
 ancient world. From time immemorial Corinth .was a great place. 
 It lay on the high-road of the seas, in the time when voyagers 
 hugged the coasts. Traders from Asia and Phoenicia would Jiot 
 ply to Italy and Spain along the open .sea when they could go 
 from island to island and along the sheltered waters . of. the two 
 gulfs; all these must ship their . goods across the Isthmus, . and 
 the Isthmus was dominated by the impregnable rock of Corinth..' 
 Thus the masters of Corinth could levy tolls on all commerce : 
 they grew rich, as in older days Troy did, and later Constantinople,": 
 because they lay across a trade route. Here was built the first 
 Greek navy of war-ships : here were the rich and powerful tyrants ; 
 here was worshipped Poseidon, with his famous Isthmian games, and 
 Phoenician Aphrodite. A few years ago, the precinct of Poseidon 
 was dug out, and there appeared a mass of votive tablets, on 
 which we may see the daily life, of Corinth in the seventh century 
 
before Christ. Pre-eminent amongst all the scenes are -those of 
 the potter's trade : the pottery is seen being made on the wheel, baked 
 in the furnace, and loaded into the ships for export to Italy and else- 
 where. Corinth reminds us of some of the best stories of Herodotus : 
 Cypselus and his chest, Arion and the dolphins, and that attractive 
 scatterbrain Hippocleides, who at Sicyon hard by danced away his 
 marriage, and did not care one jot. No great man of letters ever 
 came out of Corinth, no poet and no orator ; but Corinthian bronze 
 was famous, and the city was full of works of art. When Mummius 
 sacked Corinth and left it desolate, he made his famous bargain with 
 the contractors who removed the spoil : if they damaged any of the 
 works of art, they were to replace them with others as good. Corinth 
 was afterwards rebuilt ; all will remember St. Paul's connection with 
 the city, and the riot when Gallio was governor of Achaia. 
 
 The Acrocorinthus is one of the most magnificent sights in 
 the world : it has the common quality of the Greek mountains, 
 grandeur without excessive size ; but standing as it does isolated 
 from other hills, and visible everywhere, from Athens to Parnassus, 
 its effect on the imagination is never to be forgotten. Its height 
 is not far short of 2000 feet, and it is crowned with a fortress 
 as it has been all through history. From the summit we see the 
 whole centre of Greece ; even the Parthenon itself, the centre 
 of Greek artistic achievement. Here too is the sacred spring 
 Peirene, struck out by the hoof of Pegasus. 
 
 The view here given towards the gulf shows Parnassus in the 
 distance, like a ghost. 
 
 Athens is the heart of Greece, and Greece is the soul of 
 mankind. No man who loves what is beautiful, or who admires 
 what is noble, can fail to feel at home in Athens. Here in this 
 little plain, girt with purple mountains, lived those men who 
 discovered human reason, who showed how to express man's greatest 
 ideas, who pitted courage and intellect against brute force, who for 
 a few short years lived the fullest life possible for mankind : we 
 have lived on their thoughts ever since. 
 
 The beauties of the place have been often sung : they are 
 summed up in one immortal phrase, "city of the violet crown." 
 The continued changes of colour, especially towards evening, 
 in that clear air, with sea and cloud and mountain, make the 
 
scene a continual delight. In the midst of this fertile plain 
 rises the sharp peak of Lycabettus, and beside it the buttressed 
 Acropolis, from which the temples grow like flowers. And 
 from every side this is a landmark: whether from Aegina 
 opposite, or from some frontier fortress like Phyle, or even 
 from Acrocorinth, this rock, not high in itself, stands out to 
 the view, and makes us remember Athens. Here, more easily 
 than anywhere, can we see how the Greek architect saw each 
 building as part of a whole. I have already spoken of the 
 refinements of the Parthenon, and how it is set with regard to the 
 sunlight : but the Parthenon is only one of a group of temples. 
 There yet remain a great part of the Erechtheum, the oldest 
 shrine on the Acropolis, and site of the King's house before 
 history began : and a little shrine of Victory, built on a bastion 
 of the rock. But there were others ; and the whole precinct was 
 entered by the Propylsea, which also remains in part, to which 
 led a flight of steps. The idea of this gateway was a stroke of 
 genius. The visitor entering by it saw the whole mass of 
 buildings as it were framed by the marble pillars and architrave ; 
 and if he turned, he looked out through the same frame upon the 
 plain and the sea, the strait of Salamis, with the island beyond it. 
 The rock falls steep under the gate, so there is nothing to bar 
 this view, which must have reminded the Athenian of the great 
 past every time he looked forth from it. To the right, as one 
 looks out of this gateway, lies the spur of the Areopagus, seat 
 of that most ancient court and council, upon which place St. Paul 
 told the Athenians of the . Unknown God.. To the left, but not 
 visible, is the precinct of Dionysus, with the theatre. Straight 
 ahead, the ancient Athenian would see the long walls joining his 
 city to Peirseus and the sea, where in fortified harbours lay his 
 mighty fleets. Over the market-place westward he could see the 
 Dipylon Gate with its place of tombs, and the sacred way 
 leading to Eleusis and the Mysteries. Eastward lies Hymettus 
 with its honey-bees ; northwards Lycabettus, where the Persian 
 host was first sighted pouring over the hillside, and beyond it 
 Pentelicon, that looks down on Marathon plain ; north-westwards 
 are the hills of Acharnae, where the fires of the invading 
 Spartans were first seen in that war which ended the greatness of 
 
Athens. And all round about are caves and clefts and shrines 
 that belonged to the immemorial religion of the place, each linked 
 with memories, many with immortal works of literature. We can 
 no longer know the magnificence of the past; but we can name 
 many of the things that were seen there, from the description of 
 Pausanias which has come down to us. 
 
 Up this slope, once in every four years, after the games, came 
 the great procession of the Panathensa, which is portrayed for us 
 on the frieze of the Parthenon itself. Was there ever such a 
 picture of beauty and strength and life ? There went the victors, 
 crowned and rejoicing; the flower of the Athenian cavalry, such 
 men and such horses as the world can show no finer (see them 
 on the Parthenon frieze!), all the chief soldiers and statesmen, 
 elders bearing branches of olive, the fairest of Athenian women 
 with baskets upon their heads, and the sacred robe to be offered 
 to the most ancient and reverend image of Pallas, borne as the 
 sail of the Panathenaic ship. The whole scene is portrayed upon 
 the sculptured frieze of the Parthenon. One of the plates in this 
 book represents the modern idea of a religious festival, and the 
 hundreds of dotted figures give a far-away notion what this great 
 day must have looked like. But how faint ! These dark-clad forms 
 have not a hint of the gorgeous colour of the ancient world. 
 On the Acropolis, too, was held the feast of Brauronian Artemis, 
 when the little Athenian maidens dressed up in bearskins for some 
 mysterious ceremony. Here was the mark of Poseidon's trident, 
 under, the Erechtheum ; here was Athena's sacred olive-tree, and 
 her snakes. And the whole place crowded with statues and offer- 
 ings, and inscriptions carved on stone, treaties of peace, and 
 records of honour— the history of Athens open for all to read. 
 
 The story of the Athenian Acropolis is unique amongst its 
 fellows, while at the same time it sums up the history of the Greek 
 states. It is unique, because here alone, it seems, a state existed 
 from the beginning to the end without violent interference. Many 
 Greek sites were occupied in the Pelasgian age, when Crete was 
 mistress of the Aegean, and later when its place was taken by Mycenae 
 and the cities of the mainland : but the country was swept later by the 
 Achaeans, and after them by the Dorians, who naturally chose the 
 more fertile and wealthy places to stay in. So the Acropolis was 
 
the site of a royal palace and a Pelasgian settlement ; but the ancient 
 population was here never displaced, it was only added to and changed 
 -gradually. Attica did not tempt the invader as other plains did; 
 nor did her rulers grow too, rich and destroy each other for greed; 
 but her land was the refuge of strangers. Her ancient civilisation and 
 art remained untouched by the ravages of war, and her people always 
 prided - themselves on being air6xBove £ -^bom of the very soil. Perhaps 
 this unbroken tradition explains the prominence of Athens in the arts. 
 Here too, the worship of Athena joined the older worship of Poseidon, 
 without rooting it up, and both flourished side by side. Then came 
 the great dynasty of the tyrants,' Peisistratus and his family, who 
 made the city magnificent with buildings and engineering works.and 
 attracted to their court the finest intellects of their day. The huge 
 underground aqueduct which has lately been dug out belongs to this 
 time, the sixth century before Christ. Peisistratus is followed by 
 Solon and the reign of law: and when the barbarian- came,- it. was 
 Athens who barred his path and drove him back at Marathon and at 
 Salamis. Xerxes burnt the city, but he did not destroy Athens,- for 
 the people had left it for the time ; and when they . returned, they 
 built up their fortifications with the ruins of their temples and- monu- 
 ments, as they may still be seen piled slab on drum by the visitor of 
 to-day. Xerxes burnt all he found, but he only cleared the ground 
 for a finer art, which at once filled the empty spaces, with buildings 
 -and monuments of a nobler kind, the remains of which we now see. 
 Great names now stand out in plenty, : Miltiades, Themistocles and 
 Aristeides, Pericles and Pheidias and - Ictinus ; Plato over yonder in 
 the olive groves of Academeia, Aeschylus and Sophocles, Euripides 
 and Aristophanes in the theatre or the winepress.; Socrates walking 
 the streets, or conversing in agora or gymnasium;- Demosthenes 
 moving men's minds in the Pnyx. When Athens fell, her conqueror 
 spared her with a generosity not usual in those days; so it came 
 about that her buildings remained for many hundreds of years, 
 and the Parthenon even lasted through the devastating ruin of the 
 Turks, until a Venetian shell dropped upon it and blew it up 
 (1687). There is no use in trying to record what the Acropolis of 
 Athens calls to mind: it is the best of what educated men know. 
 
 Fair and goodly in - life, the Athenians were also fair in death, 
 Without the gate;; on the sacred- -road to.Eleusis, lies the place; of 
 
tombs. Not bare slabs are these, nor broken columns; here are 
 no wreaths of artificial flowers, no ugliness and gloom, for the 
 tombs are monuments of grace. Many, indeed, are quite simple, in 
 shape of vases or the like ; but others show delicate reliefs, with the 
 dead in their habit as they lived — the woman at her toilet, the 
 warrior on his horse, or one seated in a chair and clasping hands 
 with his friends as they say, Fare you well ! The inscriptions are 
 as simple as they can be : no sentiment and no preaching, but a 
 manly acceptance of fate, an honest regret for life, or the bare 
 name. The reader who wishes to learn how the Greek looked on 
 death, would do well to read the epitaphs in the Greek anthology. 
 Here in the place of tombs we cannot fail to remember that scene 
 which Thucydides describes : how in each year of the war the bodies 
 of those slain were buried with public honour, and Pericles or 
 some notable man pronounced their eulogy; and in that speech of 
 Pericles we may read in brief the ideal of the Athenian. 
 
 From this place led forth the Sacred Way, over the hills to 
 Eleusis, where perhaps more than anywhere else in the Greek world 
 those higher emotions were aroused which we associate with religion. 
 In the ritual these were lacking; and philosophy was sceptical 
 rather than religious, except with a rare soul now and then, a 
 Socrates or a Plato, with whom feeling and intellect seem to be 
 fused into one force. But the Eleusinian mysteries gave what both 
 philosophy and ritual lacked. They were mysteries in so far that 
 no one might reveal them unlawfully ; but not in the sense of a 
 riddle or a concealment, for all Greeks might qualify for admission. 
 The ancient mysteries recall more the Freemasons than anything 
 else we know. Their origin is lost in darkness, and they lasted 
 long after all else in Greece was dead, when Alaric the Goth in 
 396 did what Goths do in all ages — destroyed, but built not up. 
 There were rites of purification, and two stages of initiation ; first, 
 usually as a child, and later into the higher grades as a man or 
 woman. There were two Mysteries : the Lesser, celebrated by the 
 Ilissos bank and close under the Acropolis, being usually a pre- 
 liminary to the Greater at Eleusis. What the mysteries were, we 
 know not : the secret has been kept, although Clement of Alexandria 
 was initiated before he became a Christian, and he tells us whatever 
 he thinks will discredit them. Undoubtedly, they included dramatic 
 
representations, which struck awe and admiration into the observers ; 
 but the inner meaning of these was known only to the Hierophant, 
 who revealed it to those whom he thought fit to receive it. And 
 now the gorgeous ceremony is over, priests and worshippers have 
 for ever gone, and nothing remains but the pavement of the temple* 
 with a tiny church of the Virgin perched on a bluff above it. 
 
 Aegina, like all else in Greece, is small, only about forty 
 square miles; yet Aegina has left her mark on history. Here, 
 according to the tradition, Pheidon, tyrant of Argos, first struck 
 coins in Greece. Whether it was so or not, Aegina was a centre of 
 trade very early, and founded a famous city, Naucratis, in North 
 Africa, Cydonia in Crete, and another in Umbria : the Aeginetan tor- 
 toise, the Athenian owl, and the Corinthian horse were the three types 
 of coins best known to the Greek world, passing everywhere as good. 
 Aegina was also famous for the arts, especially sculpture. Before the 
 Persian wars Aegina came into conflict with Athens : Pericles called 
 it the eyesore of the Peiraeus, before it was conquered and colonised 
 by Athenian settlers. The temple which still remains, was not in 
 the chief town, but in a lonely spot amidst the wild woods. It was 
 sacred to Aphaia, not to Zeus — so Furtwangler infers from in- 
 scriptions found there — but we know nothing of its building. The. 
 pediments, which appear to represent scenes from the Trojan wars, 
 are remarkable in the history of sculpture ; they are now at Munich. 
 Close by the beach at which we land is a small rocky islet, upon 
 which lives a lonely hermit in a hut made with his own hands. 
 If at Eleusis we think of exalted religious emotion, Delphi 
 puts every man in awe. Well was the spot chosen for the most 
 famous oracle of antiquity : it needs no help of man to show the 
 power of God.- But here; as everywhere in Greece, the awe is not 
 too great for humanity to bear: it is not the crushing sense of 
 impotence in the face of natural forces that one feels in the 
 Alps or the Himalayas, it is the awe that may be felt for a being 
 both mighty and kindly. Human beings may live here and be 
 happy ; they may mount above the cleft and the shining rocks, 
 and still live and be happy — indeed, those uplands were the scene 
 of many a merry revel when the Greeks worshipped their gods. But 
 the great black rocks above Delphi, themselves only the foot of 
 the approach to Parnassus, are awful enough to make them a fit 
 
habitation for a god. I shall never forget my first visit to Delphi. 
 It was winter: I rode from Lebadeia to Arachova over the rocky 
 and precipitous paths, and past the Cloven Way where CEdipus slew 
 Laius, through a blinding storm of rain and snow. Next morning 
 the sky was clear as in springtime, and a bright sun shining, 
 and a short ride brought us to the top of the valley, whence 
 could be seen a plain covered with olive trees which seemed from 
 that height like a flood rolling up the valley from the plain. But 
 Delphi's rock was grim and gloomy as ever over this bright scene. 
 In Delphi was an oracle from time immemorial; the legends 
 told of it show that the Greeks found one already on the spot. 
 According to the Homeric Hymn, which we may rationalise if we 
 like, Apollo found the place possessed by a huge serpent, which 
 he slew, and as the body rotted (t^**) the place got the name of 
 Pytho. Here was the Omphalos, or navel-stone, marking the 
 centre of the earth ; and the sacred spring Castalian rose between 
 the cleft rocks. The Pythia, or priestess, would seat herself on a 
 tripod over a chasm within the temple, and her ravings contained 
 the god's answer; but it must be interpreted by the prophet, who 
 stood by her side. Since the oracle was consulted by great and 
 small, the priests were able to exercise a strong influence on 
 politics ; and their influence was generally for good, until the mind 
 of Greece outgrew oracles. Recorded answers do not explain the 
 repute of the oracle, or its influence; and the tablets that have 
 actually been found here and at Dodona are mostly questions on 
 personal or trivial subjects. Perhaps that was the most far-reaching 
 of its behests when Sparta was commanded to free Athens from her 
 tyrants; and its most noteworthy revelation, that Socrates was 
 the wisest of men. One of Herodotus' s best stories tells how 
 Croesus consulted the oracle, and what came of it. Twice Delphi 
 was miraculously saved from pillage : once when the army of 
 .Xerxes was driven back by falling rocks, and once when a storm 
 ; beat off the Gauls. Philip made it a pretext for interfering in the 
 affairs of Greece; but then he would have found a pretext some- 
 where in any case. The Pythian Games were celebrated here 
 every two years. Sulla plundered the treasures, and so did 
 Nero ; Constantine carried off what he could find to Constantinople, 
 where one -still stands : the base of the golden tripod dedicated 
 
after the defeat of the Persians, three bronze snakes intertwining, 
 and engraved with the names of Greek tribes who took part. The 
 oracle lost its high standing about the time of the Peloponnesian 
 War, but it continued to be consulted, until it was silenced by 
 Theodosius. 
 
 Pausanias gives a description of the chief things to be seen in 
 this holy place. Before the excavations, a Greek village covered the 
 site ; but now this has been removed, we can tread on the ancient 
 . pavement, and see the places where many of the objects once stood. 
 Here, as at Olympia, the great states had their treasuries, one of 
 which has been built up out of its fragments. 
 
 High above Delphi, on a mountain that rises out of the uplands, 
 not far from the peaks of Parnassus, is the Corycian cave, famous in 
 legend, sacred to Pan and the Nymphs ; here and hereabouts were 
 celebrated the revels of Dionysus, which readers of the Ion will 
 remember. 
 
 The temple of Olympian Zeus at Athens was begun by Peisistratus, 
 and partly built, but it was never finished in its original Doric style. 
 Antiochus Epiphanes planned it afresh, and a Roman architect, 
 Cossutius, partly built it in the Corinthian style. Probably the 
 columns that now stand were put up by him ; some of the 
 remains of this earlier, building are used as foundations for 
 these. When Antiochus died (b.c. 164), it was left again 
 unfinished, until Hadrian finished it. These columns are regarded 
 as the finest specimens of the Corinthian style. Rich as the 
 effect of this style is, it does not satisfy eye and mind as the 
 Doric does, or indeed the Ionic : of all things, leaves are least 
 suitable to the nature of stone. 
 
 Sunium, founded in the Peloponnesian War to protect the 
 corn-ships, was near the silver-mines ; it was an important fortress, 
 but its prosperity did not last long. The temple was dedicated 
 to Athena. Here the salt sea winds have made the columns white, 
 in contrast to the rose-pink of the Parthenon. 
 
I 
 
 AETNA OVER TAORMINA 
 
I AETNA OVER TAORMINA 
 
 FOR years I wanted to make this drawing — and for 
 days after I reached Taormina I had to wait before 
 I could make it : for a curtain of mist hung over the sea 
 and land. Then suddenly in all its glory the great white, 
 snowy cone, borne on clouds, came forth above, the sea and 
 shore. And Hiroshige and Claude and Turner never imagined 
 or dreamt of anything so glorious — and I had it all to 
 myself, for it was tea-time. 
 

II 
 
 THE THEATRE, SEGESTA 
 
II THE THEATRE, SEGESTA 
 
 NOTHING, not even Taormina, is more magnificent 
 than the set scene of the Theatre ; how poor and 
 mean must have been the forgotten mummers ! The scene 
 will exist till the end of time — even though scarce anyone 
 climbs the mountain-side and, fagged out, drops in one of 
 the thousands of empty seats hewn in the living rock, 
 which will never again be filled. 
 
Ill 
 
 THE TEMPLE OVER THE CANON, SEGESTA 
 
Ill THE TEMPLE OVER THE CANON, SEGESTA 
 
 EVERYONE advised me to go to Segesta, and I am 
 glad I went ; but I should never have known how 
 wonderfully the Greeks made architectural compositions if 
 I had not seen the Grand Canon. There I saw Nature's 
 compositions : here was one made by man — finer, though 
 not so big — for bigness has nothing to do with art. 
 
IV 
 FROM TEMPLE TO TEMPLE, GIRGENTI 
 
IV FROM TEMPLE TO TEMPLE, GIRGENTI 
 
 N' OT only are the lines of the hills, looking toward the 
 sea, perfect, but the builders of these, as of all the 
 temples, took advantage of the lines in the landscape, 
 making the temple the focus of a great composition ; an 
 art no longer practised ; but the temples of the gods of 
 Greece were more important than the notions of local 
 politicians and land-owners and architects. 
 
V 
 
 THE COLUMNS OF CASTOR AND POLLUX, 
 GIRGENTI 
 
V THE COLUMNS OF CASTOR AND POLLUX, 
 GIRGENTI 
 
 THIS is not a restoration, but a re-building. The re- 
 builders worked better than they knew, and made 
 a delightful — and popular — subject for every artist who 
 goes to Girgenti. 
 
VI 
 
 SUNRISE BEHIND THE TEMPLE OF CONCORD, 
 
 GIRGENTI 
 
VI SUNRISE BEHIND THE TEMPLE OF CONCORD, 
 GIRGENTI 
 
 THE Land of Temples is the land of effects — and they 
 must be seized when they are seen. I had no idea 
 of making this drawing ; but as I reached the temple, the 
 sun rose behind it, and I never saw it so huge, so mighty, 
 as that morning. So I drew it — or tried to — while the 
 effect lasted. 
 
VII 
 THE TEMPLE BY THE SEA-TEMPLE OF CONCORD, 
 
 GIRGENTI 
 
VII THE TEMPLE BY THE SEA— TEMPLE 
 OF CONCORD, GIRGENTI 
 
 I HAVE never seen long, level lines of temple, land, and 
 sea so harmonise and work into a great composition 
 as at Girgenti. 
 
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VIII 
 
 THE TEMPLE OF CONCORD ON THE WALL 
 FROM WITHIN, GIRGENTI 
 
VIII THE TEMPLE OF CONCORD ON THE WALL 
 FROM WITHIN, GIRGENTI 
 
 HOW it piles up ! What a perfect goal for the pil- 
 grim ; so noble is the sight, he must in awe have 
 mounted to it on his knees. 
 
IX 
 
 THE TEMPLE OF CONCORD ON THE WALL 
 FROM WITHOUT, GIRGENTI 
 
IX THE TEMPLE/ OF CONCORD ON THE WALL 
 FROM WITHOUT, GIRGEXTI 
 
 WHEN the glow of the sunset falls on it> and when 
 the shadows block out the great rifts in the walls — 
 walls which are like cliffs — and when the tourists and 
 archaeologists have gone to • dress for dinner and left one 
 alone, one learns in the silence that the Greeks were 
 divine artists. 
 
X 
 
 COLUMNS OF THE TEMPLE OF JUNO, GIRGENTI 
 
X COLUMNS OF THE, TEMPLE OF JUXO, 
 GIRGENTI 
 
 AS the sun sinks into the silent sea, these battered, 
 beaten columns take on a dignity which proves how 
 impressive this temple was when their art was a living 
 thing. Only from within comes a voice, in English or 
 American, which proves that art is dead — Greek art. 
 
XI 
 THE TEMPLES ON THE WALL, GIRGENTI 
 
XI THE TEMPLES OX THE WALL, GIRGENTI 
 
 THERE they stand on the' outer walls, the long line 
 of them — and there are more than I have drawn ; 
 but how magnificently they stand — these everlasting monu- 
 ments to great art. 
 
XII 
 THE TEMPLE OF JUNO FROM BELOW, GIRGENTI 
 
XII THE TEMPLE OF JUNO FROM BELOW, 
 GIRGEXTI 
 
 OUT of the dark river-bed and the huge" boulders ; 
 some real, some blocks that have fallen from the 
 wall above, slid down the high scarred hill and come to rest 
 in confusion at the bottom. Above the shattered wall 
 silently stand in the pale morning light the long line of 
 pillars of the temple. And all the while I drew, the Sicilian 
 glared at me from behind the great rocks, and I was glad 
 when I had finished and could come awav. 
 

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XIII 
 PAESTUM. MORNING MIST 
 
XIII PAESTUM. MORNING MIST 
 
 WHEN, after a night of horrors at the inn of Paestum, 
 I rose before day, the temples were veiled in mist ; 
 the fences were lost ; the factory chimney had vanished — 
 the guardians were asleep — the place seemed far away ; but 
 soon a motor hooted and an engine whistled, the mists 
 vanished, the guardians came out, the tourists flocked in ; 
 the sadness, the loneliness of Paestum are gone with the 
 malaria and the buffaloes — only the mosquitoes remain. 
 
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XIV 
 PAESTUM. EVENING 
 
XIV PAESTUM. EVENING 
 
 the mists of the morning and t 
 v_>^ evening is Paestum impressive any more, 
 dignified, but the mystery and melancholy have gone. 
 
 ONLY in the mists of the morning and the glow of the 
 evening is Paestum impressive any more. It is 
 

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XV 
 CORINTH TOWARDS THE GULF 
 
XV CORINTH TOWARDS THE GULF 
 
 HERE the builders had tried for a wonderful scheme, 
 and worked it out wonderfully, light against light — 
 the glittering temple against the gleaming sea — the rigid, 
 solid lines of the building telling against the faint, far-away, 
 half-revealed, half-concealed silhouettes in form and colour 
 of the mountains ; over whose sides the cloud-shadows 
 slowly moved. On one side my countrymen have built a 
 shanty where they lived while excavating ; on the other 
 is a bare barrack, in which they have stored the stuff they 
 have found. From the village Square, this museum com- 
 pletely hides the temple ; but Greece was so much finer 
 before it was discovered by archaeologists — or by most of 
 them — for most of them have no feeling at all for the art 
 they have dug up. 
 
XVI 
 ACRO- CORINTH FROM CORINTH 
 
T 
 
 XVI ACRO-CORINTH FROM CORINTH 
 
 HE way the great mountains pile up behind the 
 great temple is most impressive. 
 
XVII 
 OLYMPIA FROM THE HILLSIDE 
 
XVII OLYMPIA FROM THE HILLSIDE 
 
 THE Olympian groves are a fraud ; they are mere 
 bushes and only hide the temples amid which they 
 sprout ; but by dodging around the hillside one can see 
 how finely the temples were placed and how lovely were the 
 lines of the meandering river backed by the beautiful, ever- 
 changing coloured mountains. 
 

XVIII 
 THE TEMPLE OF JUPITER. EVENING 
 
XVIII THE TEMPLE OF JUPITER. EVENING 
 
 NIGHT was falling as I was coming back from drawing 
 by the river Ilissos. The subject was the most 
 impressive I saw in the Land of Temples, and in the gathering 
 darkness I drew it as well as I could. 
 
XIX 
 THE ACROPOLIS FROM THE TEMPLE OF JUPITER, 
 
 ATHENS 
 
XIX THE ACROPOLIS FROM THE TEMPLE OF 
 JUPITER, ATHENS 
 
 THERE is as much charm in the clearness of the day 
 as in the mystery of the night, in the Land of 
 Temples. And though I only moved from one side of the 
 columns to the other, when I drew the Temple of Jupiter, 
 Evening, the composition is as different as the effect. 
 
XX 
 
 THE WAY UP TO THE ACROPOLIS 
 
XX THE WAY UP TO THE ACROPOLIS 
 
 THE fragment of the steps that is left shows how 
 imposing the whole must have been. In making this 
 lithograph I could not help noting — though I did not put 
 them in — the endless races that mounted ; and although the 
 costume of each group changed, and often the nationality 
 and language, there was almost always someone amongst 
 them who could read the ancient Greek of the tablets built 
 into the wall ; and always the whole party seemed to under- 
 stand it. But the modern Greek is, I imagine, the greatest 
 reader in the world — at any rate of newspapers. 
 
. 
 
XXI 
 DOWN FROM THE ACROPOLIS 
 
XXI DOWN FROM THE ACROPOLIS 
 
 BETWEEN Athens, the pavement of the Temple of 
 Nike, and the roof of the Temple of Theseus, there 
 is a great gulf fixed, and this gives an amazing idea of height 
 and depth ; and beyond, stretching to the mountains, with 
 the feeling of the sea beyond that, is the sacred way. It 
 is the way to Eleusis and the Sea. From the road, as 
 it mounts the distant hills, the way leads straight to the 
 Acropolis, which grows more and more impressive and 
 imposing as you approach, till modern Athens hides it. 
 
XXII 
 SUNRISE OVER THE ACROPOLIS 
 
XXII SUNRISE OVER THE ACROPOLIS 
 
 EVERY morning the sun, coming in at my bedroom 
 window, woke me when it touched the topmost part 
 of the Parthenon ; and then the light spread down to the 
 battlements, then to the cliffs, showing the horrid caves 
 and strong ribs over and upon which the fortress temples 
 stand ; and by the time the sun had reached the forum, 
 the forum woke up and all the beauty fled — till another day. 
 
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XXIII 
 STORM BEHIND THE ACROPOLIS 
 
XXIII STORM BEHIND THE ACROP.OLIS 
 
 AND when the clouds of a spring afternoon gather 
 behind the Acropolis, you realise why it was built 
 on that barren rock : because the builders saw it would be 
 the most impressive shrine on this earth. 
 
XXIV 
 THE PROPYLAEA, ATHENS 
 
XXIV THE PROPYLAEA, ATHENS 
 
 THIS is pure architecture ; it interested me. I tried 
 to draw it, as it looked to me ; but no draughts- 
 man — no painter, either — will ever get that wondrous warm 
 glow which seems to come from within the walls and suffuse 
 them with light and colour. 
 
XXV 
 THE PORTICO OF THE PARTHENON 
 
XXV THE PORTICO OF THE PARTHENON 
 HIS is the greatest architectural art in the world. 
 
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XXVI 
 THE PARTHENON FROM THE GATEWAY 
 
XXVI THE PARTHENON FROM THE GATEWAY 
 
 DID these temples always grow out of the bare rock 
 as now, or was the rock, tod, overlaid with marble 
 pavements ? It must have been, for it is incredible that 
 people with such a sense of beauty should have built such 
 beautiful things on a stone pile. 
 
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XXVII 
 
 THE FA£ADE OF THE PARTHENON. 
 
 SUNSET 
 
XXVII THE FAQADE OF THE PARTHENON. 
 
 SUNSET 
 
 JUST as the bell rings at sunset, from between a rift in 
 the clouds of the spring evening the last ray of the 
 setting sun strikes the pediment of the Parthenon. 
 And against the black clouds over the mountains, it is trans- 
 figured, and then slowly one leaves — turning from the 
 wonder of man's work to the wonder of God's sunset, and the 
 wonder of the afterglow over Eleusis. 
 
XXVIII 
 THE FALLEN COLUMN, ATHENS 
 
XXYIII THE FALLEN COLUMN, ATHENS 
 
 ON either side of the Parthenon the columns thrown 
 down by the explosion of a powder magazine within, 
 are lying, not as they fell, but each section carefully rolled 
 into its proper place. The disorder at Olympia, when 
 earthquakes destroyed the temples, is far more convincing 
 and impressive, for there the columns he in confusion, here 
 in archaeological order. 
 
XXIX 
 THE LITTLE FETE, ATHENS 
 
XXIX THE LITTLE FETE, ATHENS 
 
 A LITTLE fete of some sort was being held at the little 
 church by the little river, and the way to it was 
 lined with them that sold things; beyond was the rocky 
 river-bed ; then the Temple of Jupiter ; and away above 
 all, the Acropolis — framed in by the black trees, the most 
 romantic subject I ever saw. 
 
XXX 
 
 THE GREAT FETE, ATHENS 
 
XXX THE GREAT FETE, ATHENS 
 
 ON the afternoon of St. George's Day I wandered out 
 of the city up to the Acropolis, and found the whole 
 plain and the approaches crowded ; while the stairs were 
 black with people, and so were the lofty platforms. The 
 fete that afternoon, as I saw it from Mars Hill, was more 
 real than any restoration or imaginations. 
 
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XXXI 
 
 THE TEMPLE OF NIKE, ATHENS 
 
XXXI THE TEMPLE OF NIKE, ATHENS 
 
 ONE has but to cross to the other side of the Propy- 
 laea from the top of the steps — from the great plat- 
 form and altar before the wall, to find an equally inspiring — - 
 or inspired — arrangement. For there is no accident in these 
 compositions. The way the line of the sea cuts blue against 
 the white temple walls and shows through the columns at 
 either end, and the way the nearer hill of Lycabettus piles 
 up dark against the shining base on which the temple stands 
 and that is accented, too, by the one dark note of the 
 theatre — though it is later that one sees these arrangements 
 were not accidents. These things were all thought out by 
 the builders of Temples. 
 
XXXII 
 
 THE TEMPLE OF NIKE FROM MARS 
 
 HILL, ATHENS 
 
XXXII THE TEMPLE OF NIKE FROM MARS HILL, 
 
 ATHENS 
 
 THIS is the grandest grouping of the Acropolis. The 
 way in which the whole, in solemn square masses, 
 piles up — the temple dominating all — is marvellous. It is 
 finer, I am sure, in ruin, than ever it was in perfection. 
 
XXXIII 
 THE ODEON, ATHENS 
 
XXXIII THE ODEON, ATHENS 
 
 LOOKING down from the Acropolis, one sees the 
 theatre — even the Greeks mostly placed the theatre 
 before the temple. But what I saw that afternoon was a 
 school of small Greek boys studying and reciting in the 
 Odeon, because the school had been taken for barracks. 
 But as a soldier said to me, Mars was more real to him than 
 the Turks he had been fighting. 
 
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XXXIV 
 THE STREET OF THE TOMBS, ATHENS 
 
XXXIV THE STREET OF THE TOMBS, ATHENS 
 
 TO be buried under the shadow, or in sight of the 
 Acropolis must have been glorious. Nowhere else 
 is there such a decorative arrangement of death. 
 
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 ELEUSIS: THE PAVEMENT OF THE TEMPLE 
 
XXXV ELEUSIS: THE PAVEMENT 
 OF THE TEMPLE 
 
 SWEPT away is everything, mysteries and all — all that 
 remains is the great pavement on which stand the 
 stumps of columns ; yet I doubt if it was finer ever. And the 
 long drive out over the sacred way, the long, quiet day ; 
 and the long drive back, with the Acropolis growing more 
 and more majestic in the twilight, were perfect. 
 
XXXVI 
 
 AEGINA 
 
XXXVI AEGINA 
 
 ONLY at Aegina, so far as I have seen, is there a real — 
 yet it is so beautiful it seems unreal — forest in 
 Greece. Nowhere in the world do the trees in dense, deep 
 shade so cover the slopes that lead down, almost black, to 
 the deep blue sea ; and where have I ever seen such a 
 contrast between the bosky woods and the barren cliffs 
 that tower above them ? And all this is but a background for 
 one of the most beautiful temples in this beautiful land, 
 placed perfectly, by the greatest artists of the past, in 
 the most exquisite landscape. Yet the guardian told me I 
 was the third person who had visited Aegina between 
 January and April last year. 
 
XXXVII 
 AEGINA ON ITS MOUNTAIN TOP 
 
XXXVII AEGINA ON ITS MOUNTAIN TOP 
 
 AS, after the long ride across the island, ever climbing, 
 one comes from the dense wood, suddenly in front is 
 the splendid pile, on either side the forest, beyond the sea ; 
 and in the airy distance, Athens and the Acropolis. 
 
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XXXVIII 
 THE SHINING ROCKS, DELPHI 
 
XXXVIII THE SHINING ROCKS, DELPHI 
 
 AFTER I had made this drawing, after I had had it 
 transferred to stone and printed, I showed it to the 
 Director of the Greek School, and he said : " Why, you have 
 drawn the Shining Rocks." All I tried to do was to draw 
 Delphi and the rocks behind the ruins. That in the light 
 the rocks did shine was nothing to me, save that they 
 showed the way the cliffs were built up. I have since 
 learned, however, that I have shown one the great things 
 of Greece. 
 
XXXIX 
 
 THE TREASURY OF ATHENS, DELPHI 
 
XXXIX THE TREASURY OF ATHENS, DELPHI 
 
 I^HE Treasury is a restoration ; but, even so, it is 
 charming, standing by the rough paved way, which 
 is bordered by the semi-circular seats, placed always with 
 the most wonderful views before them, and backed by the 
 black mountains, up whose sides wind trails leading, in the 
 spring, to the clouds. The loneliness of the land, and the 
 hugeness of the temples and theatres built to hold the people 
 who are no longer there, was intensified last year when all 
 the able-bodied men had gone to the war, and the land was 
 desolate, 
 
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XL 
 
 THE WINE-DARK SEA, SUNIUM 
 
XL THE WINE-DARK SEA, SUNIUM 
 
 FROM without and from within, either bright against 
 the dark waters, or dark against the bright sea, the 
 Temple of Poseidon piles up. One could stay on that 
 mud-swept, sun-beaten headland for months ; but without 
 a camp, one can only stay a day.