DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.4099#0311
PROMONTORY OF METHANA. 281
believe that our horses were the first, that, in modern times at least,
had been within the isthmus, where the roads are reckoned prac-
ticable only for asses and mules. The distance from Poros to the
village of Methana is probably twelve or fourteen miles, but it is
difficult to form a just calculation, as we more than once lost the
way; and the latter part of the road was so extremely bad, that we
probably did not proceed more than a mile and a half an hour.
We were kindly received in the house of the protopapas, who was
cooking some fine fish for his supper, which he concealed on our
approach, as he imagined that we were Turks; but when he dis-
covered his mistake, he offered us hospitality, which we gladly ac-
cepted after a most tiresome and fatiguing journey. He assured us
that we were the only people with hats he had ever seen within the
peninsula, and I readily believe it from the extreme surprise and
curiosity of the villagers, who seemed to look upon us as a new kind
of beings. But how much more agreeable to our feelings were the
modest curiosity and natural politeness of these good and simple cot-
tagers, than the impertinent flippancy and contemptible arrogance
of the dirty Poriotes !
Cultivation prevails only in a small part of the promontory, but
particularly in the plain where the ancient city stood, and at the
base of the hills; which, like Delphi, and many of the islands of
the Archipelago, consist of strips and patches of arable land, or
vineyards, supported by terrace walls, but of which none exhibited
any indications of antiquity. The rest of this mountainous promon-
tory consists of sterile desolation, or of volcanic rock of a dark colour,
which is occasionally variegated with shrubs and bushes. The out-
line is grand and picturesque, and the principal mountain which
was thrown up by the volcano is of a conical form. Its apparent
height is about equal to that of Vesuvius: according to Strabo,r it
was seven stadia. The hot baths mentioned by Pausanias are at
1 B. I. p. 59.
VOL. II. o o
believe that our horses were the first, that, in modern times at least,
had been within the isthmus, where the roads are reckoned prac-
ticable only for asses and mules. The distance from Poros to the
village of Methana is probably twelve or fourteen miles, but it is
difficult to form a just calculation, as we more than once lost the
way; and the latter part of the road was so extremely bad, that we
probably did not proceed more than a mile and a half an hour.
We were kindly received in the house of the protopapas, who was
cooking some fine fish for his supper, which he concealed on our
approach, as he imagined that we were Turks; but when he dis-
covered his mistake, he offered us hospitality, which we gladly ac-
cepted after a most tiresome and fatiguing journey. He assured us
that we were the only people with hats he had ever seen within the
peninsula, and I readily believe it from the extreme surprise and
curiosity of the villagers, who seemed to look upon us as a new kind
of beings. But how much more agreeable to our feelings were the
modest curiosity and natural politeness of these good and simple cot-
tagers, than the impertinent flippancy and contemptible arrogance
of the dirty Poriotes !
Cultivation prevails only in a small part of the promontory, but
particularly in the plain where the ancient city stood, and at the
base of the hills; which, like Delphi, and many of the islands of
the Archipelago, consist of strips and patches of arable land, or
vineyards, supported by terrace walls, but of which none exhibited
any indications of antiquity. The rest of this mountainous promon-
tory consists of sterile desolation, or of volcanic rock of a dark colour,
which is occasionally variegated with shrubs and bushes. The out-
line is grand and picturesque, and the principal mountain which
was thrown up by the volcano is of a conical form. Its apparent
height is about equal to that of Vesuvius: according to Strabo,r it
was seven stadia. The hot baths mentioned by Pausanias are at
1 B. I. p. 59.
VOL. II. o o