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A MONG the authorities consulted by the writer of the Text (who has had the advantage of a recent visit to Greece) special acknowledgments are due to Grote’s monumental History of Greece , and to J. G. Frazer’s lucid and searching Commentary on Pausanias’s Description of Greece . Aberdeen , April 1906 ....

M ORE perhaps than any other country in Europe, Greece owes its charm to the traditions of a remote past. It has no lack of fine scenery, and there is much that is interesting in its modern life; but what chiefly distinguishes it from other countries is the rich and beautiful mythology which is reflected in its poetry, its art, and its philosophy, and was to a large extent the inspiration of its glorious history. It will not be expected that any attempt should be made in these pages to give an a

T HE first place in Greece on which a traveller from the West usually sets foot is Corfu, one of the Ionian Islands, which were given up by Great Britain in 1864 to gratify the patriotic aspirations of the Greeks. The sacrifice was not without its compensations, as it relieved Britain from an annual outlay of £100,000, which had been the cost of administration. The principal Ionian Islands are five in number, namely, Corfu (Corcyra), Santa Mauro (Leucas), Ithaca, Cephalonia (Cephallenia), and Za

A FTER entering the Gulf of Corinth the first port at which the steamers touch is Patras, the largest city in the Peloponnesus, with about 40,000 inhabitants,—looking across to Missolonghi on the northern shore, where Byron died and where his heart is buried. The only notable thing about Patras in pre-Christian times was its inclusion in the Achæan League, that last outburst of the Hellenic love of independence. In modern times it has had the distinction to be the first city to raise the nationa

O LYMPIA has been described by an ancient writer as the fairest spot in Greece. In so describing it, he must have had in view not only the natural scenery but also the beautiful buildings and statuary with which it was so richly adorned as the time-honoured seat of the Olympian games. The scenery is pleasing without being grand, presenting in this respect a striking contrast to the stern majesty of Delphi. It may be described as a peaceful and fertile plain, traversed by the river Alpheus, whose

A RCADIA held a unique place in the Peloponnesus, both as regards its physical features and the character of its inhabitants. It occupied the very centre of the peninsula, and was the only province that had no direct access to the sea. Its area was greater than that of any other, being about equal in extent to the county of Cumberland. The rural charms with which it was credited by the Latin poets, and by Sir Philip Sydney among ourselves, were largely the product of imagination, as the scenery

F OR centuries Sparta was the first military power in Greece. This position it owed partly to the Dorian vigour of its inhabitants, and partly to the strict discipline introduced by Lycurgus at a time when the other Greek states had not yet awakened to the importance of that military drill which was to contribute so largely to their influence. Of these two sources of Spartan greatness we seem to have a recognition in the fact mentioned by Pausanias that at the two bridges, on either side of the

A PECULIAR interest attaches to Argolis, whether we regard it from a historical or an archæological point of view. Its legendary history carries us back to a period long anterior to the Siege of Troy—according to some chronologists to the year 1860 B.C. —while the excavations at Mycenæ and Tiryns have brought to light innumerable relics of the Homeric or, rather, of a pre-Homeric age, and have confirmed the tradition of a pre-historic connection between Argolis and Egypt. In the Argolic peninsul

B Y its geographical position Corinth seems to have been predestined to commercial greatness. While it commanded the land route from the Peloponnesus to continental Greece, its two harbours on either side of the isthmus, opening, the one on the Corinthian, and the other on the Saronic Gulf, made it a natural emporium for East and West. There was no reason indeed why its military power should not have been as distinguished as its opulence. Its great acropolis (Acro-Corinthus, as it was called), a

N OWHERE in Greece, nowhere perhaps in the ancient world, were the geographical conditions more favourable to the growth of a genial, intelligent, and energetic community than in Athens. The sky was bright, the air pure, and the climate temperate. The soil, while not so rich as to demoralise the inhabitants or to offer much inducement to an invader, yielded its cultivators the means of subsistence in the form of figs, olives, corn, and wine. At the same time the city enjoyed the advantage of eas

A MONG the influences which contributed to the greatness and glory of Athens the worship of the goddess Athena must be assigned a principal place. In her fully developed character she represented the highest ideal of the Greek mind, and formed the noblest figure in the Greek pantheon. She may be described as the impersonation of wisdom, courage, and energy—equally powerful as the patron goddess of the arts of peace and of the exploits of war. The mythical account of her birth, which represented

F ROM Athens to Eleusis is a journey of about twelve miles by a road which follows very much the line of the Sacred Way, along which the great procession went for the celebration of the Mysteries. The starting-point was close to the Dipylon Gate, of which there are still sufficient remains to enable us to understand its structure. It was the most strongly fortified point in the city wall, being the part most exposed to attack; and it was there that the city was taken by the Roman general Sulla,

T HE history of Athens is scarcely less interesting from a political than from an artistic and architectural point of view. It affords the first example of a thoroughly organised democracy, and as such it has much to teach the nations of modern Europe, both in the way of encouragement and warning. Reference has already been made to what was done by Solon in the beginning of the sixth century B.C. to establish a constitutional form of government, in which all classes of the population, slaves onl

W ITHIN a few years after the death of Demosthenes a striking evidence was afforded of the sad change which had come over the city of Athens. The restoration of its political freedom for a brief period by Demetrius Poliorcetes (307 B.C. ) in the name of his father Antigonus, one of the successors ( diadochoi ) of Alexander the Great, was the occasion for an exhibition of servility and impiety which showed that the manly spirit of those who fought at Marathon and Salamis had utterly forsaken thei