DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.61301#0182
[52
STUDIES IN GREEK ART.
her way along the inhospitable south coast, approaching
dangerously near to Phoenician outposts, and at last
ventured to found the colony which claims our attention
to-day, westernmost Selinus.
Selinus is a colony sent out by a colony, an offshoot
from Megara Hyblsea, on the east coast of Sicily, a
city herself colonized from the mother city Megara on
the Saronic Gulf some twenty miles from Athens. Here
we have to note, that in this period of colonization it is
not Athens which comes to the fore; her glory is reserved
for later days; the best is kept till last. For the present
we hear of Corinth, of Chalkis, of Crete, of Rhodes, and
of this little city of Megara.
Selinus has, like so many of the Greek colonies, a
brief, beautiful history. The date of her birth is not quite
certain, but it must lie between 650-628 B.C. Megara
Hyblaea in Sicily, when she decided to plant an offshoot
in the west,sent for an oikist,or colony leader, from her old
home, Megara in Hellas proper. Such was the pleasant,
reverent custom of Greek colonists; eager for the new,
they never forgot to cherish the old. From old Megara
came Pammillus —his very name is preserved us—and
led the chosen band across the island, and fixed at last
upon a pleasant spot with two high hills and a clear
river, whose banks are still green with the parsley plant
There, on the eastern hill, he built his Acropolis, and
called the place Selinus, the parsley city. The Greek
STUDIES IN GREEK ART.
her way along the inhospitable south coast, approaching
dangerously near to Phoenician outposts, and at last
ventured to found the colony which claims our attention
to-day, westernmost Selinus.
Selinus is a colony sent out by a colony, an offshoot
from Megara Hyblsea, on the east coast of Sicily, a
city herself colonized from the mother city Megara on
the Saronic Gulf some twenty miles from Athens. Here
we have to note, that in this period of colonization it is
not Athens which comes to the fore; her glory is reserved
for later days; the best is kept till last. For the present
we hear of Corinth, of Chalkis, of Crete, of Rhodes, and
of this little city of Megara.
Selinus has, like so many of the Greek colonies, a
brief, beautiful history. The date of her birth is not quite
certain, but it must lie between 650-628 B.C. Megara
Hyblaea in Sicily, when she decided to plant an offshoot
in the west,sent for an oikist,or colony leader, from her old
home, Megara in Hellas proper. Such was the pleasant,
reverent custom of Greek colonists; eager for the new,
they never forgot to cherish the old. From old Megara
came Pammillus —his very name is preserved us—and
led the chosen band across the island, and fixed at last
upon a pleasant spot with two high hills and a clear
river, whose banks are still green with the parsley plant
There, on the eastern hill, he built his Acropolis, and
called the place Selinus, the parsley city. The Greek