DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.4593#0354
THESSALY
325
south by rail clear to Velestino, and thence north-
west, over another leg of the triangle, instead of
journeying across its base from Larissa to Trikkala.
We passed Pharsalus, which Leake thinks must be
regarded as the home of Achilles, but firmer historic
fame is found here in the battlefield of Caesar and
Pompey. Sheep were feeding on the great plain
where the battle was held, not dreaming of being
startled soon by Greek and Turkish musketry. In
the clear atmosphere Olympus, fifty miles away, did
not seem half so far, and still maintained its impos-
ing pre-eminence.
Phanari is rocky enough for the Homeric Ithome
with which its site is identified. The village slopes
to the plain where horses, cows and sheep were peace-
fully grazing.
Trikkala is the second largest town in Thessaly.
More picturesque is Kalabaka, at the western end
of the road under the shadows of the great cliffs of
Meteora. These cliffs are unlike any other forma-
tion in Greece. In our own northwest they would
be called buttes. They are groups of pillared peaks,
rising perpendicularly in lofty isolation on the
plain. Seen from a distance, one of these groups
might be taken for a vast cathedral with towers and
turrets. Another group rises in detached pinnacles
on the slope of the foothills. Upon this curious
assemblage of peaks were built in the fourteenth
century the famous Meteora ("mid-air") monas-
teries, originally twenty-four in number. It seems
a curious adventure for religion to isolate itself on
these lofty and almost inaccessible solitudes. But
for the monks of those turbulent times a mid-air
325
south by rail clear to Velestino, and thence north-
west, over another leg of the triangle, instead of
journeying across its base from Larissa to Trikkala.
We passed Pharsalus, which Leake thinks must be
regarded as the home of Achilles, but firmer historic
fame is found here in the battlefield of Caesar and
Pompey. Sheep were feeding on the great plain
where the battle was held, not dreaming of being
startled soon by Greek and Turkish musketry. In
the clear atmosphere Olympus, fifty miles away, did
not seem half so far, and still maintained its impos-
ing pre-eminence.
Phanari is rocky enough for the Homeric Ithome
with which its site is identified. The village slopes
to the plain where horses, cows and sheep were peace-
fully grazing.
Trikkala is the second largest town in Thessaly.
More picturesque is Kalabaka, at the western end
of the road under the shadows of the great cliffs of
Meteora. These cliffs are unlike any other forma-
tion in Greece. In our own northwest they would
be called buttes. They are groups of pillared peaks,
rising perpendicularly in lofty isolation on the
plain. Seen from a distance, one of these groups
might be taken for a vast cathedral with towers and
turrets. Another group rises in detached pinnacles
on the slope of the foothills. Upon this curious
assemblage of peaks were built in the fourteenth
century the famous Meteora ("mid-air") monas-
teries, originally twenty-four in number. It seems
a curious adventure for religion to isolate itself on
these lofty and almost inaccessible solitudes. But
for the monks of those turbulent times a mid-air