DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.4593#0280
256 THE ISLES AND SHRINES OF GREECE
ground. Again I was struck with the sensitiveness
of the early Greeks to scenes of natural beauty. It
was certainly by no accident that sites made charm-
ing by commanding views, flowery fields, singing
brooks, and shady groves should be chosen for the
sacred ground on which their temples were reared.
This love of nature may be less reflected in early
Greek literature than it is in modern times, but one
who has seen the places where their temples stood
cannot doubt that it existed.
Much of the southern part of Attica is devoid
of trees; but at Oropus the tree-lover may delight
in wooded hills of fir and olive, among which the
nightingales sing as beautifully as they sang cen-
turies ago. How fresh the grass, how balmy the
spring air!
Pausanias, who, though occasionally sceptical, faith-
fully retailed the popular superstitions, tells us that,
when Amphiaraus fled from Thebes, the earth opened
and swallowed him up; and he mentions a number
of men who had honors paid to them as gods.
Amphiaraus had a temple here, a statue in white
stone, and an altar. There was a fountain near the
temple, and when any disease had been cured by
means of the oracle, it was customary to throw into
the water gold or silver coin. The beautiful brook,
and a clear spring which flowed into it, easily sug-
gest the site of the old fountain. The temple, exca-
vated by the Greek Archaeological Society, was a
small building; there are traces of the columns, and
in the middle we can see where the cult-statue stood.
Innumerable statues once crowded the holy precincts,
and rows of seats from which they could be seen;
ground. Again I was struck with the sensitiveness
of the early Greeks to scenes of natural beauty. It
was certainly by no accident that sites made charm-
ing by commanding views, flowery fields, singing
brooks, and shady groves should be chosen for the
sacred ground on which their temples were reared.
This love of nature may be less reflected in early
Greek literature than it is in modern times, but one
who has seen the places where their temples stood
cannot doubt that it existed.
Much of the southern part of Attica is devoid
of trees; but at Oropus the tree-lover may delight
in wooded hills of fir and olive, among which the
nightingales sing as beautifully as they sang cen-
turies ago. How fresh the grass, how balmy the
spring air!
Pausanias, who, though occasionally sceptical, faith-
fully retailed the popular superstitions, tells us that,
when Amphiaraus fled from Thebes, the earth opened
and swallowed him up; and he mentions a number
of men who had honors paid to them as gods.
Amphiaraus had a temple here, a statue in white
stone, and an altar. There was a fountain near the
temple, and when any disease had been cured by
means of the oracle, it was customary to throw into
the water gold or silver coin. The beautiful brook,
and a clear spring which flowed into it, easily sug-
gest the site of the old fountain. The temple, exca-
vated by the Greek Archaeological Society, was a
small building; there are traces of the columns, and
in the middle we can see where the cult-statue stood.
Innumerable statues once crowded the holy precincts,
and rows of seats from which they could be seen;