DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.4099#0074
BEAUTY OF THE SCENERY NEAR THERMOPYLAE. 67
of Thermopylae, the scenery assumed at once an aspect of more
beauty and sublimity.
To our left were the lofty and shattered precipices of Oeta, co-
vered with forests, while silver lines of descending springs sparkled
in the shade. The luxuriant plain of Trachis, encircled by distant
mountains, was expanded in our front; while, on the right, the eye
expatiated over the marshes of Thermopylae, and the Maliac Gulf
reaching to the foot of the Thessalian heights. Our way led through
a forest-shade of various trees of stately growth, beneath which a
dispersion of odoriferous and flowery shrubs scented the air, while
the clustering vine hung its fantastic garlands from the wide-branch-
ing platanus. The scene was one of voluptuous blandishment. No
gratification was wanting which the enraptured lover of landscape
could desire. Nature here displayed all her multiform charms. The
exuberant soil teemed with a captivating wilderness of plants and
flowers. The olive, the laurel, the oleander, and the arbutus,1 the
terebinth, rosemary, agnos, yellow jasmine, and lentiscus, the christa-
kanthos,2 tamarisk,3 and gummy cistus, luxuriated on all sides, and
seemed to revel in the genial clime.
We now approached the spot where the best blood of Greece,
and of other nations, had so often been spilt. A few paces to the
left of the road is a green hillock, with a house upon its summit,
which was once a derbeni, or custom-house. Here the horizontal
surface of the rock is cut into channels, for the reception of the
water winch comes from the neighbouring springs. The marsh
begins immediately on the right, extending about a mile to the sea;
but the narrowest part of the pass is further on. The battle raged
with the greatest fury in the widest part of the pass, where Leoni-
das so gloriously fell. After his death,4 the surviving Spartans
1 I observed two kinds of arbuti, the L'nedo and the Andrachne.
• TheZiziphus paliurus; Spina Christi orRhamnus,being the UaXtovpo; of Theophrastus.
5 The Mvfixi; of Theophrastus. 4 Herodot. b. 1. c. 223.
K 2
of Thermopylae, the scenery assumed at once an aspect of more
beauty and sublimity.
To our left were the lofty and shattered precipices of Oeta, co-
vered with forests, while silver lines of descending springs sparkled
in the shade. The luxuriant plain of Trachis, encircled by distant
mountains, was expanded in our front; while, on the right, the eye
expatiated over the marshes of Thermopylae, and the Maliac Gulf
reaching to the foot of the Thessalian heights. Our way led through
a forest-shade of various trees of stately growth, beneath which a
dispersion of odoriferous and flowery shrubs scented the air, while
the clustering vine hung its fantastic garlands from the wide-branch-
ing platanus. The scene was one of voluptuous blandishment. No
gratification was wanting which the enraptured lover of landscape
could desire. Nature here displayed all her multiform charms. The
exuberant soil teemed with a captivating wilderness of plants and
flowers. The olive, the laurel, the oleander, and the arbutus,1 the
terebinth, rosemary, agnos, yellow jasmine, and lentiscus, the christa-
kanthos,2 tamarisk,3 and gummy cistus, luxuriated on all sides, and
seemed to revel in the genial clime.
We now approached the spot where the best blood of Greece,
and of other nations, had so often been spilt. A few paces to the
left of the road is a green hillock, with a house upon its summit,
which was once a derbeni, or custom-house. Here the horizontal
surface of the rock is cut into channels, for the reception of the
water winch comes from the neighbouring springs. The marsh
begins immediately on the right, extending about a mile to the sea;
but the narrowest part of the pass is further on. The battle raged
with the greatest fury in the widest part of the pass, where Leoni-
das so gloriously fell. After his death,4 the surviving Spartans
1 I observed two kinds of arbuti, the L'nedo and the Andrachne.
• TheZiziphus paliurus; Spina Christi orRhamnus,being the UaXtovpo; of Theophrastus.
5 The Mvfixi; of Theophrastus. 4 Herodot. b. 1. c. 223.
K 2