DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.4099#0118
THE VALE OF TEMPE. 109
TO THE VALE OF TEMPE.
On the morning of the 5th, Ave mounted our horses* in order to
pass the whole day at the vale of Tempe, one of the principal objects
of our journey from Athens. "We descended to the plain, crossed
a small stream, and came to an open forest of platani, of great
size and venerable age, upon the eastern bank of the Peneios, whose
gentle current glides sequestered under the arching shade. It flows,
says iElian,1 as smooth as oil. Ovid1 affirms that it rolls with foam-
ing waves; but he alludes to that part of the stream which is between
its source and the Thessalian plain. It rises on Pindos,1 near Gomphi,
and before it enters Tempe receives several of the Thessalian rivers;
particularly the Apidanos, Onochonos, Enipeus, and the Parnisos;4
it also receives the tributary streams of the Kouralios, and Titaresios.
A short way from the forest of platani, we entered the vale of Tempe,
that is thrown between the approximating precipices of Ossa and
Olympos; the former on the south, the latter on the north. The
summits of these mountains are not visible from any part of the
valley; but the traveller beholds on each side a stupendous wall of
mighty precipices rising in prodigious grandeur, shattered into defor-
mities, and sprinkled with a wild profusion of trees and aromatic
shrubs. The road runs at the foot of Ossa, with the Peneios flow-
ing to the left, by which it is separated from Olympos. In some
places this river displays a broad channel, which in others is
so narrow that it has the appearance of being compressed by the
opposite rocks, the collision of which is prevented only by an inter-
vening glen of a few hundred paces in breadth.
1 Var. Hist. b. 3. c. 1.
------------—-----------Peneus ab imo,
Effusus Pindo spumosis volvitur undis.—Metam. b. 1. v. BIQv
* Strabo, b. 9. p. 438. Eustath. in Horn. 321. et seq. * Herodot. b. 1. c. 129.
TO THE VALE OF TEMPE.
On the morning of the 5th, Ave mounted our horses* in order to
pass the whole day at the vale of Tempe, one of the principal objects
of our journey from Athens. "We descended to the plain, crossed
a small stream, and came to an open forest of platani, of great
size and venerable age, upon the eastern bank of the Peneios, whose
gentle current glides sequestered under the arching shade. It flows,
says iElian,1 as smooth as oil. Ovid1 affirms that it rolls with foam-
ing waves; but he alludes to that part of the stream which is between
its source and the Thessalian plain. It rises on Pindos,1 near Gomphi,
and before it enters Tempe receives several of the Thessalian rivers;
particularly the Apidanos, Onochonos, Enipeus, and the Parnisos;4
it also receives the tributary streams of the Kouralios, and Titaresios.
A short way from the forest of platani, we entered the vale of Tempe,
that is thrown between the approximating precipices of Ossa and
Olympos; the former on the south, the latter on the north. The
summits of these mountains are not visible from any part of the
valley; but the traveller beholds on each side a stupendous wall of
mighty precipices rising in prodigious grandeur, shattered into defor-
mities, and sprinkled with a wild profusion of trees and aromatic
shrubs. The road runs at the foot of Ossa, with the Peneios flow-
ing to the left, by which it is separated from Olympos. In some
places this river displays a broad channel, which in others is
so narrow that it has the appearance of being compressed by the
opposite rocks, the collision of which is prevented only by an inter-
vening glen of a few hundred paces in breadth.
1 Var. Hist. b. 3. c. 1.
------------—-----------Peneus ab imo,
Effusus Pindo spumosis volvitur undis.—Metam. b. 1. v. BIQv
* Strabo, b. 9. p. 438. Eustath. in Horn. 321. et seq. * Herodot. b. 1. c. 129.