DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.1004#0044
16 LEONIDAS.
heaven, but by the hand of a woman;—the Greek looked with a feeling of awe
which made this mountain to him not merely an object of admiration, but a
moral teacher both of meekness and of courage.
This spot was therefore consecrated by the sanctions and solemnities of
his religion. By the Greeks of an early age it was visited with the zeal and
frequency of an ardent and regular devotion. It was the object of proces-
sions, and the scene of sacrifices; and in later days, even a Consul of Rome
turned aside from the line of a military march to offer his homage to
Hercules on the spot from which he was supposed to have passed from
earth to heaven.
Such being the reverence with which the summit of Mount G5ta was re-
garded by the inhabitants of this country, and even by those who came
there from a distant land, we may well suppose that it exerted a very strong
influence of the same kind upon those who could number the hero, who died
and was adored here, among their own progenitors; and at no other time
would this influence be more deeply felt by them, than when, like him, they
were called to undergo toils, meet dangers, and struggle with difficulties,
which would lead them, as they foresaw, like him, to death; and after it, as
they hoped, like him, to glory and repose.
The Spartan kings traced their origin to Hercules through the Heraclidae,
Eurys-thenes and Procles. Therefore we may well suppose that it seemed to
the greatest of them, Leonidas,—-when he stood with his three hundred
Spartans near this spot, and knew that where he stood, both he and they
must soon die,—to be a distinguished proof of the special favour of the gods
towards himself and them, that he and his chosen few were called upon to
fight and fall beneath the shade of Mount (Eta at Thermopylae. He felt,
we may well believe, no small satisfaction that this spot, above all others, was
to be the scene of their glorious struggle and heroic death. The Spartans,
on this site, in the last hours of their life, while they saw the countless
hosts of Persia in their front, while the Immortals of Xerxes were rushing to
the charge upon their rear, yet had above Ikem the summit of Mount (Eta;
and thence they drew courage and hope from the reminiscence which it sup-
plied of their great ancestor,—of the labours which Hercules had undergone,
of the death which he had there suffered, and the glory which he had won.
The name of Thermopylae itself is connected with the history of Hercules.
The warm springs, which flow across the pass from the foot of Mount G5ta
heaven, but by the hand of a woman;—the Greek looked with a feeling of awe
which made this mountain to him not merely an object of admiration, but a
moral teacher both of meekness and of courage.
This spot was therefore consecrated by the sanctions and solemnities of
his religion. By the Greeks of an early age it was visited with the zeal and
frequency of an ardent and regular devotion. It was the object of proces-
sions, and the scene of sacrifices; and in later days, even a Consul of Rome
turned aside from the line of a military march to offer his homage to
Hercules on the spot from which he was supposed to have passed from
earth to heaven.
Such being the reverence with which the summit of Mount G5ta was re-
garded by the inhabitants of this country, and even by those who came
there from a distant land, we may well suppose that it exerted a very strong
influence of the same kind upon those who could number the hero, who died
and was adored here, among their own progenitors; and at no other time
would this influence be more deeply felt by them, than when, like him, they
were called to undergo toils, meet dangers, and struggle with difficulties,
which would lead them, as they foresaw, like him, to death; and after it, as
they hoped, like him, to glory and repose.
The Spartan kings traced their origin to Hercules through the Heraclidae,
Eurys-thenes and Procles. Therefore we may well suppose that it seemed to
the greatest of them, Leonidas,—-when he stood with his three hundred
Spartans near this spot, and knew that where he stood, both he and they
must soon die,—to be a distinguished proof of the special favour of the gods
towards himself and them, that he and his chosen few were called upon to
fight and fall beneath the shade of Mount (Eta at Thermopylae. He felt,
we may well believe, no small satisfaction that this spot, above all others, was
to be the scene of their glorious struggle and heroic death. The Spartans,
on this site, in the last hours of their life, while they saw the countless
hosts of Persia in their front, while the Immortals of Xerxes were rushing to
the charge upon their rear, yet had above Ikem the summit of Mount (Eta;
and thence they drew courage and hope from the reminiscence which it sup-
plied of their great ancestor,—of the labours which Hercules had undergone,
of the death which he had there suffered, and the glory which he had won.
The name of Thermopylae itself is connected with the history of Hercules.
The warm springs, which flow across the pass from the foot of Mount G5ta