DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.4098#0578
SOURCE OF THE CEPHISSOS. 527
this place and Athens is badly cultivated ; but some detached spots
are productive of olive groves, vineyards, and arable land.
The road is perfectly good, and a carriage might go the whole
way without difficulty.
As we entered the village a mad Black ran after us begging for
sequins: Ave gave him a few paras, with which he was satisfied.
A Turk obliged us by the use of his garden, in which we dined
by the side of a pool of water, formed by the Cephissos. The garden
which was large manifested no symptoms of horticultural diligence
or skill, but it contained abundance of fruit trees ; amongst which
were walnuts and quinces, that are not common in Greece.
The source of the Cephissos, which I have described in my ac-
count of the Attic rivers, is not far distant, in the direction of Pente-
likon. After having been, for so many months, accustomed to the
yellow and arid hue of the Athenian plain, we were agreeably
surprised by the beauty, verdure, and freshness, of the country
about Cephissia. It contains a rich variety of gardens, which are
luxuriantly supplied with figs, pomegranates, mulberries, service
trees, and vines. Its fertility is owing to the stream from which
Cephissia took its name. Beyond the source, towards Parnes, the
usual aridity predominates.
Herodes Atticus evinced his good taste in fixing his villa in this
delightful spot; and the description which Aulus Gellius1 has left
of it proves, that its natural beauty was equalled by its artificial
embellishments:—" Atque ibi, tunc quum essemus apud eum2 in
villa, cui nomen est Cephisia, et aestu anni, et sidere autumni fla-
grantissimo, propulsabamus caloris incommoda lucorum umbra in-
gentium, longis ambulacris, et mollibus asdium posticum refrigeran-
tibus lavacris nitidis et abundis et collucentibus, totiusque vilke
venustate ; aquis undique, canoris atque avibus, personante."
1 Noct. Att. b. 1. c. 2. and Philostratus in Vita Herodis. "- Herodes Atticus.
this place and Athens is badly cultivated ; but some detached spots
are productive of olive groves, vineyards, and arable land.
The road is perfectly good, and a carriage might go the whole
way without difficulty.
As we entered the village a mad Black ran after us begging for
sequins: Ave gave him a few paras, with which he was satisfied.
A Turk obliged us by the use of his garden, in which we dined
by the side of a pool of water, formed by the Cephissos. The garden
which was large manifested no symptoms of horticultural diligence
or skill, but it contained abundance of fruit trees ; amongst which
were walnuts and quinces, that are not common in Greece.
The source of the Cephissos, which I have described in my ac-
count of the Attic rivers, is not far distant, in the direction of Pente-
likon. After having been, for so many months, accustomed to the
yellow and arid hue of the Athenian plain, we were agreeably
surprised by the beauty, verdure, and freshness, of the country
about Cephissia. It contains a rich variety of gardens, which are
luxuriantly supplied with figs, pomegranates, mulberries, service
trees, and vines. Its fertility is owing to the stream from which
Cephissia took its name. Beyond the source, towards Parnes, the
usual aridity predominates.
Herodes Atticus evinced his good taste in fixing his villa in this
delightful spot; and the description which Aulus Gellius1 has left
of it proves, that its natural beauty was equalled by its artificial
embellishments:—" Atque ibi, tunc quum essemus apud eum2 in
villa, cui nomen est Cephisia, et aestu anni, et sidere autumni fla-
grantissimo, propulsabamus caloris incommoda lucorum umbra in-
gentium, longis ambulacris, et mollibus asdium posticum refrigeran-
tibus lavacris nitidis et abundis et collucentibus, totiusque vilke
venustate ; aquis undique, canoris atque avibus, personante."
1 Noct. Att. b. 1. c. 2. and Philostratus in Vita Herodis. "- Herodes Atticus.