DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.793#0018
PARNASSUS.
MOUNT Parnassus is seen to great advantage from this point below tbc village of
Daulia. Its Weak and nigged sides are partially coveted with trees, while the more
lofty summits nre bristled with pines, and during the greater part of the year glitter with
snow, from which the mountain is never entirely clear. %
The outline of Parnassus is regular, resembling Olympos in Thessaly, and de-
serving more the epithet of *ti,u3iigaf, or many topped, than that, of &iK«guftG»s, or
double topped; which latter is applicable only to the Phaxlriades above Delphi. It is
in this sense that it is called Sixoeufm by Euripides, and iiXafat by Sophocles, although
its form has not been understood by the generality of poets. Herodotus, Catullus, and
Statius give it but one summit: Ovid, Persius, Lucan, Silius Italicus, and Lucian have
adopted the current error in giving it two; while Scrvius places Parnassus in Thessaly,
and divides it into Citlueron and Helicon !
The snow remains during the whole year in some of the hollows near the summits',
whence it was called n^eti; by Homer, and wfo&Xoc by Euripides.
A very ancient name of Parnassus was Lykorcia; and a town upon it so called, is
recorded to have been founded as early as the time of the deluge of Deucalion. The
modern name of the mountain is Lyakoura; and a village, bearing the same appellation,
and said to contain some vestiges of antiquity, still exists, three hours above Kastri. It
is, however, rendered, by its bleak situation, uninhabitable during the winter months.
The roots of Parnassus to the leil rise into Mount Kirphis, now Limeiio; upon
which is the natural cave said to have been once inhabited by the monster called
l.ainu. or Sybaris. Under the modem name of the Cave of Jerusalem, it is little worth
the fatigue necessary to reach its difficult situation.
The nearest village is called Malta; the farthest is Daulin. The towering majesty
of the back ground compensates bttle to the inhabitant.-; of the latter, for the coldness
it gives to the winter months. No olives grow in its neighbourhood; little corn is
reaped, or wine made, though some rice grounds exist at the foot of the mountain.
The town is placed upon the site of the ancient Daulis: many architectural fragments,
as well as inscriptions, remain to attest the fact: but it was, however, never well
inhabited. The Acropolis is more to the left, upon an oblong rock. It was defended
by a wall, and projecting square towers placed upon the edge of the precipitous rock,
and is noticed as a stronghold by the liistorian Livy, One entrance only existed, and
that towards Parnassus. As the fortress was taken and burnt by Xerxes, and again
destroyed in the third Sacred War, the masonry of its walls is necessarily of a late
style.
MOUNT Parnassus is seen to great advantage from this point below tbc village of
Daulia. Its Weak and nigged sides are partially coveted with trees, while the more
lofty summits nre bristled with pines, and during the greater part of the year glitter with
snow, from which the mountain is never entirely clear. %
The outline of Parnassus is regular, resembling Olympos in Thessaly, and de-
serving more the epithet of *ti,u3iigaf, or many topped, than that, of &iK«guftG»s, or
double topped; which latter is applicable only to the Phaxlriades above Delphi. It is
in this sense that it is called Sixoeufm by Euripides, and iiXafat by Sophocles, although
its form has not been understood by the generality of poets. Herodotus, Catullus, and
Statius give it but one summit: Ovid, Persius, Lucan, Silius Italicus, and Lucian have
adopted the current error in giving it two; while Scrvius places Parnassus in Thessaly,
and divides it into Citlueron and Helicon !
The snow remains during the whole year in some of the hollows near the summits',
whence it was called n^eti; by Homer, and wfo&Xoc by Euripides.
A very ancient name of Parnassus was Lykorcia; and a town upon it so called, is
recorded to have been founded as early as the time of the deluge of Deucalion. The
modern name of the mountain is Lyakoura; and a village, bearing the same appellation,
and said to contain some vestiges of antiquity, still exists, three hours above Kastri. It
is, however, rendered, by its bleak situation, uninhabitable during the winter months.
The roots of Parnassus to the leil rise into Mount Kirphis, now Limeiio; upon
which is the natural cave said to have been once inhabited by the monster called
l.ainu. or Sybaris. Under the modem name of the Cave of Jerusalem, it is little worth
the fatigue necessary to reach its difficult situation.
The nearest village is called Malta; the farthest is Daulin. The towering majesty
of the back ground compensates bttle to the inhabitant.-; of the latter, for the coldness
it gives to the winter months. No olives grow in its neighbourhood; little corn is
reaped, or wine made, though some rice grounds exist at the foot of the mountain.
The town is placed upon the site of the ancient Daulis: many architectural fragments,
as well as inscriptions, remain to attest the fact: but it was, however, never well
inhabited. The Acropolis is more to the left, upon an oblong rock. It was defended
by a wall, and projecting square towers placed upon the edge of the precipitous rock,
and is noticed as a stronghold by the liistorian Livy, One entrance only existed, and
that towards Parnassus. As the fortress was taken and burnt by Xerxes, and again
destroyed in the third Sacred War, the masonry of its walls is necessarily of a late
style.