DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.14697#0061
The Mountain-cults of Zeus
117. My statement that the published illustrations of the mountain are very inadequate
(i. tot n. 3) no longer holds good. A. J. Mann—W. T. Wood The Salonika Front
London 1920 pi. 7 give a coloured silhouette of Olympos as seen from Adikra, the repro-
duction of a fine original owned by Lieut.-Col. G. Windsor-Clive. And the noble view
of the summit here shown (pi. xl) is from a large heliogravure of exceptional merit pub-
lished by F. Boissonnas of Geneva.
D. Urquhart The Spirit of the East London 1838 i. 398 ft". describes with much
enthusiasm, but little precision, his ascent of Olympos in 1830 : ' I spent no more than an
hour at this giddy height, where the craving of my eyes would not have been satisfied
under a week. I seemed to stand perpendicularly over the sea, at the height of 10,000
feet. Salonica was quite distinguishable, lying north-east; Larissa appeared under my
very feet. The whole horizon, from north to south-west was occupied by mountains,
hanging on, as it were, to Olympus. This is the range that runs westward along the
north of Thessaly, ending in the Pindus. The line of bearing of these heaved-up strata
seems to correspond with that of the Pindus, that is, to run north and south, and they
presented their escarpment to Olympus. Ossa, which lay like a hillock beneath, stretched
away at right angles to the south; and, in the interval, spread far, far in the red distance,
the level lands of Thessaly, under that peculiar dusty mist which makes nature look like
a gigantic imitation of an unnatural effect produced on the scene of a theatre. When I
first reached the summit, and looked over the warm plains of Thessaly, this haze was of a
pale yellow hue. It deepened gradually, and became red, then brown, while similar
tints, far more vivid, were reproduced higher in the sky. But, when I turned round to
the east, up which the vast shadows of night were travelling, the cold ocean looked like a
plain of lead ; the shadow of the mighty mass of Olympus was projected twenty miles
along its surface ; and I stood on the very edge, and on my tiptoes ' (id. i. 429 f.). On
enquiry he found that the shepherds of Olympos ' had no recollection of the " Thunderer "
...but they told me,' he adds, 'that " the stars came down at night on Olympus ! " "that
heaven and earth had once met upon its summit, but that since men had grown wicked,
God had gone higher up " ' (id. i. 437, B. Schmidt Das Volksleben der Neicgriechen Leipzig
1871 i. 35, N. G. Polites ArifxuSeis ko<j[xoyoviKol fxvdoi Athens 1894 p. 7, cp. p. 41 ff., id.
Hapa86creis Athens 1904 i. 122 no. 217, ii. 805).
Later and more scientific ascents were made by L. Heuzey (1856), H. Barth (1862),
and H. F. Tozer (1864). Then followed an interval during which brigandage made
mountaineering extremely hazardous: for example, in 1911 E. Richter, an engineer of
Jena, had to be ransomed by the Porte at a cost of 500,000 francs. But by 1913 political
changes had improved the conditions, and the series of ascents was resumed—D. Baud-
Bovy and F. Boissonnas (1913), Profs. E. P. Farquhar and A. E. Phoutrides (1914),
Major-General Sir W. Rycroft (1918), D. Baud-Bovy, F. Boissonnas, and the son of the
latter (1920), M. Kurz and the chamois-hunter Ch. Kakkalos (1921). See further
L. Heuzey Le Mont Olympe et F' Acarnanie Paris i860, H. Barth Reise dttrch das Znnere
der Europdischen Tiirkei Berlin 1864, H. F. Tozer Researches in the Highlands of Turkey
London 1869, E. Richter Meine Erlebtiisse in der Gefangenschaft am Olymp Leipzig
1911, Profs. E. P. Farquhar and A. E. Phoutrides in Scribner's Magazine for November
1915 (good photographs), D. W. Freshfield 'The summits of Olympus' in The Geogra-
phical Journal 1916 xlvii. 293—297, C. F. Meade 'Mount Olympus' in The Alpine
Journal 1919 xxxii. 326—328 (with photographs taken by Lieutenant-Colonel Wood, R. E.,
from an aeroplane piloted by Lieutenant-Colonel Todd, R.A.F.), D. Baud-Bovy 'The
mountain-group of Olympus : an essay in nomenclature' in The Geographical Journal
1921 lvii. 204—213 (with a sketch-map of the massif 'of Olympos and four fine photographs
of the summits by F. Boissonnas).
D. Baud-Bovy loc. cit. concludes : 'Thus, to sum up, the High Olympus is constituted
by two ranges, which, though not parallel, run generally east and west. The northern
range is that of Kokkino-Vrako, the southern, that of Bichtes. A high rocky barrier
running north and south contains three "stones," three "pipes," or three "brothers,"
quite separated from each other, the Tarpeian Rock in the south, the Throne of Zeus in
117. My statement that the published illustrations of the mountain are very inadequate
(i. tot n. 3) no longer holds good. A. J. Mann—W. T. Wood The Salonika Front
London 1920 pi. 7 give a coloured silhouette of Olympos as seen from Adikra, the repro-
duction of a fine original owned by Lieut.-Col. G. Windsor-Clive. And the noble view
of the summit here shown (pi. xl) is from a large heliogravure of exceptional merit pub-
lished by F. Boissonnas of Geneva.
D. Urquhart The Spirit of the East London 1838 i. 398 ft". describes with much
enthusiasm, but little precision, his ascent of Olympos in 1830 : ' I spent no more than an
hour at this giddy height, where the craving of my eyes would not have been satisfied
under a week. I seemed to stand perpendicularly over the sea, at the height of 10,000
feet. Salonica was quite distinguishable, lying north-east; Larissa appeared under my
very feet. The whole horizon, from north to south-west was occupied by mountains,
hanging on, as it were, to Olympus. This is the range that runs westward along the
north of Thessaly, ending in the Pindus. The line of bearing of these heaved-up strata
seems to correspond with that of the Pindus, that is, to run north and south, and they
presented their escarpment to Olympus. Ossa, which lay like a hillock beneath, stretched
away at right angles to the south; and, in the interval, spread far, far in the red distance,
the level lands of Thessaly, under that peculiar dusty mist which makes nature look like
a gigantic imitation of an unnatural effect produced on the scene of a theatre. When I
first reached the summit, and looked over the warm plains of Thessaly, this haze was of a
pale yellow hue. It deepened gradually, and became red, then brown, while similar
tints, far more vivid, were reproduced higher in the sky. But, when I turned round to
the east, up which the vast shadows of night were travelling, the cold ocean looked like a
plain of lead ; the shadow of the mighty mass of Olympus was projected twenty miles
along its surface ; and I stood on the very edge, and on my tiptoes ' (id. i. 429 f.). On
enquiry he found that the shepherds of Olympos ' had no recollection of the " Thunderer "
...but they told me,' he adds, 'that " the stars came down at night on Olympus ! " "that
heaven and earth had once met upon its summit, but that since men had grown wicked,
God had gone higher up " ' (id. i. 437, B. Schmidt Das Volksleben der Neicgriechen Leipzig
1871 i. 35, N. G. Polites ArifxuSeis ko<j[xoyoviKol fxvdoi Athens 1894 p. 7, cp. p. 41 ff., id.
Hapa86creis Athens 1904 i. 122 no. 217, ii. 805).
Later and more scientific ascents were made by L. Heuzey (1856), H. Barth (1862),
and H. F. Tozer (1864). Then followed an interval during which brigandage made
mountaineering extremely hazardous: for example, in 1911 E. Richter, an engineer of
Jena, had to be ransomed by the Porte at a cost of 500,000 francs. But by 1913 political
changes had improved the conditions, and the series of ascents was resumed—D. Baud-
Bovy and F. Boissonnas (1913), Profs. E. P. Farquhar and A. E. Phoutrides (1914),
Major-General Sir W. Rycroft (1918), D. Baud-Bovy, F. Boissonnas, and the son of the
latter (1920), M. Kurz and the chamois-hunter Ch. Kakkalos (1921). See further
L. Heuzey Le Mont Olympe et F' Acarnanie Paris i860, H. Barth Reise dttrch das Znnere
der Europdischen Tiirkei Berlin 1864, H. F. Tozer Researches in the Highlands of Turkey
London 1869, E. Richter Meine Erlebtiisse in der Gefangenschaft am Olymp Leipzig
1911, Profs. E. P. Farquhar and A. E. Phoutrides in Scribner's Magazine for November
1915 (good photographs), D. W. Freshfield 'The summits of Olympus' in The Geogra-
phical Journal 1916 xlvii. 293—297, C. F. Meade 'Mount Olympus' in The Alpine
Journal 1919 xxxii. 326—328 (with photographs taken by Lieutenant-Colonel Wood, R. E.,
from an aeroplane piloted by Lieutenant-Colonel Todd, R.A.F.), D. Baud-Bovy 'The
mountain-group of Olympus : an essay in nomenclature' in The Geographical Journal
1921 lvii. 204—213 (with a sketch-map of the massif 'of Olympos and four fine photographs
of the summits by F. Boissonnas).
D. Baud-Bovy loc. cit. concludes : 'Thus, to sum up, the High Olympus is constituted
by two ranges, which, though not parallel, run generally east and west. The northern
range is that of Kokkino-Vrako, the southern, that of Bichtes. A high rocky barrier
running north and south contains three "stones," three "pipes," or three "brothers,"
quite separated from each other, the Tarpeian Rock in the south, the Throne of Zeus in