DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.4593#0349
THESSALY 321
next day. The first hackman asked sixty drachmas,
but by exploring the back streets we finally got one
for thirty-five (about five dollars).
We started at half-past twelve. The roads were
heavy from the rain of the previous night, the air was
fresh, and the fields were green. Thessaly is still
famous for its horses; many were grazing in the
fields, and there were great flocks of sheep and goats.
The broad expanse of plain was dotted here and
there with oaks, elms and plane-trees. An indus-
trious peasant was ploughing the field; his one-
handled plough was old enough for a museum, but
his oxen were well fed and strong. Alas, that this
Thessalian grain should be trampled under foot of
armed men! Greece had long claimed and needed
these fertile fields, and they were long unjustly
withheld from her. She has plenty of water, but
she has needed more land to make a nation.
The mountains continually say to the traveller,
"Lift up thine eyes." There is Pelion to the right
with a touch of snow on its crest. Farther to the
north the sharp peak of Ossa rises above the moun-
tains and foothills that engird its base. Still farther
to the north and grandest of all is many-ridged,
snow-covered Olympus. The epithet 7ro\vSeipd<;,
"with many ridges," used in the Iliad, is of striking
fitness. It was not a literary conceit, for Nature
coined the adjective. Seen from the plain there
are five distinct ridges, as if five colossal, long-
backed, elephantine mountains had been harnessed
side by side and blanketed with snow. The great
snow mass was enough to soften but not to obscure
the wavy outline of the many ridges, and the clouds
21
next day. The first hackman asked sixty drachmas,
but by exploring the back streets we finally got one
for thirty-five (about five dollars).
We started at half-past twelve. The roads were
heavy from the rain of the previous night, the air was
fresh, and the fields were green. Thessaly is still
famous for its horses; many were grazing in the
fields, and there were great flocks of sheep and goats.
The broad expanse of plain was dotted here and
there with oaks, elms and plane-trees. An indus-
trious peasant was ploughing the field; his one-
handled plough was old enough for a museum, but
his oxen were well fed and strong. Alas, that this
Thessalian grain should be trampled under foot of
armed men! Greece had long claimed and needed
these fertile fields, and they were long unjustly
withheld from her. She has plenty of water, but
she has needed more land to make a nation.
The mountains continually say to the traveller,
"Lift up thine eyes." There is Pelion to the right
with a touch of snow on its crest. Farther to the
north the sharp peak of Ossa rises above the moun-
tains and foothills that engird its base. Still farther
to the north and grandest of all is many-ridged,
snow-covered Olympus. The epithet 7ro\vSeipd<;,
"with many ridges," used in the Iliad, is of striking
fitness. It was not a literary conceit, for Nature
coined the adjective. Seen from the plain there
are five distinct ridges, as if five colossal, long-
backed, elephantine mountains had been harnessed
side by side and blanketed with snow. The great
snow mass was enough to soften but not to obscure
the wavy outline of the many ridges, and the clouds
21