DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.800#0140
122
7IENT ATHENS.
Which may be thus translated :
Thy piled-up tomb well placed upon that strand
The merchants will salute on every hand ;
Outward and homeward bound alike 'twill face,
And view the ships contending in the race. .
Where the allusion seems to be to the regattas during the Panathena'ic
festival. If the lines of Plato really refer to Themistocles—and it
would be difficult to name another to whom they would be more appro-
priate—then the tomb must have been erected within some twenty
years after his death, for Plato was about that time his junior. At
all events, the tradition that Themistocles was interred here prevailed
at Athens down to the time of Pausanias, who mentions the tomb.
Peirseeus is still a fine harbour, and capable of receiving large vessels.
Dodwell remarks ' that there was sometimes not a single boat in it;
while Lord Broughton, who visited Athens only a few years later (1810),
saw in it only one Hydriote merchantman, chartered to carry off the
spoils of Lord Elgin.2 Its aspect is much changed since that time,
and men-of-war, as well as many merchant vessels, may now be seen
in it.
1 Tour, vol. i. p. 421.
2 Hobhouse's Journey, vol. i. p. 362.
7IENT ATHENS.
Which may be thus translated :
Thy piled-up tomb well placed upon that strand
The merchants will salute on every hand ;
Outward and homeward bound alike 'twill face,
And view the ships contending in the race. .
Where the allusion seems to be to the regattas during the Panathena'ic
festival. If the lines of Plato really refer to Themistocles—and it
would be difficult to name another to whom they would be more appro-
priate—then the tomb must have been erected within some twenty
years after his death, for Plato was about that time his junior. At
all events, the tradition that Themistocles was interred here prevailed
at Athens down to the time of Pausanias, who mentions the tomb.
Peirseeus is still a fine harbour, and capable of receiving large vessels.
Dodwell remarks ' that there was sometimes not a single boat in it;
while Lord Broughton, who visited Athens only a few years later (1810),
saw in it only one Hydriote merchantman, chartered to carry off the
spoils of Lord Elgin.2 Its aspect is much changed since that time,
and men-of-war, as well as many merchant vessels, may now be seen
in it.
1 Tour, vol. i. p. 421.
2 Hobhouse's Journey, vol. i. p. 362.