DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.793#0090
THE HYPERIAN FOUNT.
THIS spring was celebrated from the earliest times. Homer represents Hector
condoling with Andromache on the impending catastrophe of the Trojan contest; when
he expresses his dread of her being carried prisoner to Greece, where he foresees her
degraded state in the occupation of drawing water from the Messeid, or Hyperian
Fount
It was situated in the midst of the town of Phene, wluch boasted an origin of the
highest antiquity, and existed before the Argonautic expedition, being founded by a
progenitor of its leader Jason. It was subsequently important in its riches, drawn from
the fertility of the neighbouring plains; and the strength of its acropolis, which arose
immediately from the Fount, protected the tyrant Alexander from the wrath of those
enemies his many cruelties had naturally excited against his power. Scarcely a vestige
of the walls, however, now exist, and a few broken frusta of columns, with some scattered
stones, would hardly suffice to point out its site without the aid of a more unchangeable
feature, the Fount, which yet continues to hold together a modern village, called
Bclestina, resembling its ancient predecessor in its gardens and surrounding accom-
paniments of platani, poplars, cypresses, olives, and palms, beautifully contrasted with
the tall white minarets of its various mosques, and reflected from the clear surface of
the spring, which, bubbling from the earth, immediately forms itself into a small but
shallow lake of water, of crystalline purity, about a hundred yards in diameter. Stepping-
stones are placed, by which it may be paced, but the continual moisture renders their
surface but insecure footing to the heedless.
THIS spring was celebrated from the earliest times. Homer represents Hector
condoling with Andromache on the impending catastrophe of the Trojan contest; when
he expresses his dread of her being carried prisoner to Greece, where he foresees her
degraded state in the occupation of drawing water from the Messeid, or Hyperian
Fount
It was situated in the midst of the town of Phene, wluch boasted an origin of the
highest antiquity, and existed before the Argonautic expedition, being founded by a
progenitor of its leader Jason. It was subsequently important in its riches, drawn from
the fertility of the neighbouring plains; and the strength of its acropolis, which arose
immediately from the Fount, protected the tyrant Alexander from the wrath of those
enemies his many cruelties had naturally excited against his power. Scarcely a vestige
of the walls, however, now exist, and a few broken frusta of columns, with some scattered
stones, would hardly suffice to point out its site without the aid of a more unchangeable
feature, the Fount, which yet continues to hold together a modern village, called
Bclestina, resembling its ancient predecessor in its gardens and surrounding accom-
paniments of platani, poplars, cypresses, olives, and palms, beautifully contrasted with
the tall white minarets of its various mosques, and reflected from the clear surface of
the spring, which, bubbling from the earth, immediately forms itself into a small but
shallow lake of water, of crystalline purity, about a hundred yards in diameter. Stepping-
stones are placed, by which it may be paced, but the continual moisture renders their
surface but insecure footing to the heedless.