DOI chapter:
Chapter V: To the West of Naples
DOI Page / Citation link:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.59000#0192
Naples
park. But the dim grotto of Avernus leading from
the edge of the water into the heart of the mountain
is still sufficiently pregnant in spirit of the past, though
the sensation of following an ink-black and dust-charged
passage by the light of smoking torches blends a large
share of the purely disagreeable with the mysterious.
Sometimes we feel that in visiting these gloomy caverns
of other ages we may perhaps catch a faint echo from
the secrets of antiquity ; but I question whether we
ever succeed. The poetry of the powers of darkness
is lost to us of to-day. Darkness was ever the colour
that ignorance took in the past, and science and dis-
covery have now thrown such head-lights upon the
mysterious sides of Nature that we are less susceptible
than of old to the thraldom of them. For my part,
I rejoice that our age is one when the wisdom acquired
by the wise is no longer “ wisdom learnt with dread.”
The Grotto of the Cumean Sibyl, linked by mytho-
logical tradition to the nether world, is certainly one of
the most impressive of all the features of this region.
Following a little country road overgrown with grass
and common flowers beneath the ruined Acropolis of
Cumas, pushing one’s way through weeds and tangled
greenery up to the tiny entrance overhung with trailing
boughs, one is scarcely prepared for the weird grandeur
of the cavernous depths within. Surely no more striking
embodiment of the myth of the descent into Hades can
be found in Nature : the contrast from the gorgeous
sunshine to the monstrous damp shadows of this giant
vault may have something to do with the profound
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park. But the dim grotto of Avernus leading from
the edge of the water into the heart of the mountain
is still sufficiently pregnant in spirit of the past, though
the sensation of following an ink-black and dust-charged
passage by the light of smoking torches blends a large
share of the purely disagreeable with the mysterious.
Sometimes we feel that in visiting these gloomy caverns
of other ages we may perhaps catch a faint echo from
the secrets of antiquity ; but I question whether we
ever succeed. The poetry of the powers of darkness
is lost to us of to-day. Darkness was ever the colour
that ignorance took in the past, and science and dis-
covery have now thrown such head-lights upon the
mysterious sides of Nature that we are less susceptible
than of old to the thraldom of them. For my part,
I rejoice that our age is one when the wisdom acquired
by the wise is no longer “ wisdom learnt with dread.”
The Grotto of the Cumean Sibyl, linked by mytho-
logical tradition to the nether world, is certainly one of
the most impressive of all the features of this region.
Following a little country road overgrown with grass
and common flowers beneath the ruined Acropolis of
Cumas, pushing one’s way through weeds and tangled
greenery up to the tiny entrance overhung with trailing
boughs, one is scarcely prepared for the weird grandeur
of the cavernous depths within. Surely no more striking
embodiment of the myth of the descent into Hades can
be found in Nature : the contrast from the gorgeous
sunshine to the monstrous damp shadows of this giant
vault may have something to do with the profound
92