DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.4098#0193
166 SITUATION OF DELPHI.
are recommended to us by the English consul, and they are come
from Patra. That is all we have to say, and our benediction be
with you.
February.
Your Benedictor.
No situation can well surpass the approach to Delphi.1 Its grand
and theatrical appearance, combined with its ancient celebrity, its
mouldering ruins, and its fallen state, form such extreme contrasts,
that it is difficult to decide whether more regret is excited by its
departed splendour, or more satisfaction felt in still beholding some
remains of its former magnificence. " Prorsus ut incertum sit
utrum munimentum loci, an majestas Dei plus hie admirationis
habeat ?"2 The very locality breathed the presence of Apollo.
The first objects which attract the attention are the vast pre-
cipices of Parnassos, which rise nearly in perpendicular majesty,
behind the humble cottages of Kastri, and form the two noble
points celebrated in antiquity. The vale is circular and deep, and
surrounded by the rough and barren rocks of Parnassos and Kir-
phis, by which it seems excluded from the rest of the world.—
Part of the vale is planted with olives and mulberry trees, and the
corn grows on the terraces which were raised by the Delphians for
the security of their temples and their habitations, which could
not otherwise have been supported, against the rapidity of the
descent.
The inhabitants of this valley exhibit a people in a state of more
inartificial and simple existence than any I have before seen : in-
deed, they have little to do out of their own valley ; and their
poverty, while it keeps them at home, affords no inducement for the
1 Francklin and some others write it Delphos; I know not with what authority. See Dr,
Bentley's Preface, p. 90, Dissertation on the Epistles of Phalaris.
- Justin, b. 24. c. 6.
are recommended to us by the English consul, and they are come
from Patra. That is all we have to say, and our benediction be
with you.
February.
Your Benedictor.
No situation can well surpass the approach to Delphi.1 Its grand
and theatrical appearance, combined with its ancient celebrity, its
mouldering ruins, and its fallen state, form such extreme contrasts,
that it is difficult to decide whether more regret is excited by its
departed splendour, or more satisfaction felt in still beholding some
remains of its former magnificence. " Prorsus ut incertum sit
utrum munimentum loci, an majestas Dei plus hie admirationis
habeat ?"2 The very locality breathed the presence of Apollo.
The first objects which attract the attention are the vast pre-
cipices of Parnassos, which rise nearly in perpendicular majesty,
behind the humble cottages of Kastri, and form the two noble
points celebrated in antiquity. The vale is circular and deep, and
surrounded by the rough and barren rocks of Parnassos and Kir-
phis, by which it seems excluded from the rest of the world.—
Part of the vale is planted with olives and mulberry trees, and the
corn grows on the terraces which were raised by the Delphians for
the security of their temples and their habitations, which could
not otherwise have been supported, against the rapidity of the
descent.
The inhabitants of this valley exhibit a people in a state of more
inartificial and simple existence than any I have before seen : in-
deed, they have little to do out of their own valley ; and their
poverty, while it keeps them at home, affords no inducement for the
1 Francklin and some others write it Delphos; I know not with what authority. See Dr,
Bentley's Preface, p. 90, Dissertation on the Epistles of Phalaris.
- Justin, b. 24. c. 6.