DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.4692#0038
THE CITY OK MYUS,
29
THE CITY OF MYUS. (~Erom Ionian Antiquities, Tavt II.)
So early as the second century the buildings had been so destroyed that the only one remaining was
a Temple of Bacchus, of white marble. On the left hand is a theatre hewn in the mountain, with some
mossy remnants of the wall of the proscenium: the marble seats are removed. Between the huts and the lake
are several terraces, with steps cut as at Priene. One, by winch our tent stood, was a quadrangular area,
edged with marble fragments; and we conjectured it had been the agora. By another were stones ornamented
with shields of a circular form; but the principal and most conspicuous ruin is the small Temple of Bacchus,
which is seated on an abrupt rock, with the front only, which is towards the east, accessible. The roof is
destroyed. The cell is well built of smooth stone with a brown crust upon it; the portico was in antis.
We measured some fragments of it, and regretted that any of the members were missing. It has been used
as a church, and the entrance walled up. The marbles which lie scattered about, the broken columns,
and mutilated statues, all witness a remote antiquity. We met with some inscriptions, but not legible.
The city wall was constructed, like that at Ephesus, with square towers, and is still standing, except
towards the water. It runs up the mountain-slope so far as to be in some places hardly discernible. Without
the city are the cemeteries of its early inhabitants; graves cut in the rock, of all sizes, suited to the
human stature at different ages, with innumerable fiat stones, which serve as lids. Some are yet covered,
and many open, and by the lake, filled with water. The lids are overgrown with a short, dry brown moss,
their very aspect evincing old age.
An inscription, close by a small hut in a narrow pass of the mountain westward, on marble, in large
characters, records a son of Scleucus, who died young, and the affliction of his parents; concluding with a
tender expostulation with them on the inefficacy and impropriety of their immoderate sorrow. Nearer the
city, among some trees, is a well, with the base of a column perforated on the mouth.
It may be inferred from the vestiges of monasteries and churches, which are numerous, that Myus was
repeopled when monachism, spreading from Egypt, towards the end of the fourth century, extended itself
over the Greek and Latin empires. The lake abounding in fish, afforded an important article of diet under
a ritual which enjoined frequent abstinence from flesh. It probably contributed to render this place, which
appears to have been the grand resort of devotees and anchorites, a nursery of saints,—another Mount Athos.
At the head of the lake are the remains of several buildings. Here, probably, stood Thymbria, within
four stadia of Myus. Near it was a charonium, or sacred cavern, one of those supposed by the ancients to
communicate with the infernal regions, and to be filled with the deadly vapours of Lake Avernus.
29
THE CITY OF MYUS. (~Erom Ionian Antiquities, Tavt II.)
So early as the second century the buildings had been so destroyed that the only one remaining was
a Temple of Bacchus, of white marble. On the left hand is a theatre hewn in the mountain, with some
mossy remnants of the wall of the proscenium: the marble seats are removed. Between the huts and the lake
are several terraces, with steps cut as at Priene. One, by winch our tent stood, was a quadrangular area,
edged with marble fragments; and we conjectured it had been the agora. By another were stones ornamented
with shields of a circular form; but the principal and most conspicuous ruin is the small Temple of Bacchus,
which is seated on an abrupt rock, with the front only, which is towards the east, accessible. The roof is
destroyed. The cell is well built of smooth stone with a brown crust upon it; the portico was in antis.
We measured some fragments of it, and regretted that any of the members were missing. It has been used
as a church, and the entrance walled up. The marbles which lie scattered about, the broken columns,
and mutilated statues, all witness a remote antiquity. We met with some inscriptions, but not legible.
The city wall was constructed, like that at Ephesus, with square towers, and is still standing, except
towards the water. It runs up the mountain-slope so far as to be in some places hardly discernible. Without
the city are the cemeteries of its early inhabitants; graves cut in the rock, of all sizes, suited to the
human stature at different ages, with innumerable fiat stones, which serve as lids. Some are yet covered,
and many open, and by the lake, filled with water. The lids are overgrown with a short, dry brown moss,
their very aspect evincing old age.
An inscription, close by a small hut in a narrow pass of the mountain westward, on marble, in large
characters, records a son of Scleucus, who died young, and the affliction of his parents; concluding with a
tender expostulation with them on the inefficacy and impropriety of their immoderate sorrow. Nearer the
city, among some trees, is a well, with the base of a column perforated on the mouth.
It may be inferred from the vestiges of monasteries and churches, which are numerous, that Myus was
repeopled when monachism, spreading from Egypt, towards the end of the fourth century, extended itself
over the Greek and Latin empires. The lake abounding in fish, afforded an important article of diet under
a ritual which enjoined frequent abstinence from flesh. It probably contributed to render this place, which
appears to have been the grand resort of devotees and anchorites, a nursery of saints,—another Mount Athos.
At the head of the lake are the remains of several buildings. Here, probably, stood Thymbria, within
four stadia of Myus. Near it was a charonium, or sacred cavern, one of those supposed by the ancients to
communicate with the infernal regions, and to be filled with the deadly vapours of Lake Avernus.