DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.1004#0125
90
PHYLE AND DECELEA.
Decelea was a Spartan camp in Attica; and a stationary one in the most
important part of that country. A year only before its erection, the comic
poet of Athens had exhibited to an audience of his fellow citizens a city
built in the air by two Athenian emigrant^, for the purpose of intercepting,
in its passage from earth to heaven, the sacrificial steam which arose from
the altars of men to the mansions of the Gods. When the inhabitants
of Athens enjoyed the spectacle of this aerial town, presented to their eyes
in that drama, they little thought that they were about to suffer in the
same way from the erection of a similar barrier in their own territory. The
Decelea of Agis and the Lacedaemonians proved to Athens itself in
reality, what the Nephelococeygia of Peistheta:rus and Euelpides was in
the fiction of the Aristophanie comedy to its Deities.
It is worthy of remark, that the two principal passes from Attica to
Boiotia over Mount Parnes were guarded by two forts, one at the north-
west and the other at the north-eastern angle of the Athenian plain, and
nearly equidistant from Athens and from each other. These are Phyle and
Decelea. The remains of both are still distinctly visible. They are both
distinguished by the very important figure which they make in Athenian
PHYLE AND DECELEA.
Decelea was a Spartan camp in Attica; and a stationary one in the most
important part of that country. A year only before its erection, the comic
poet of Athens had exhibited to an audience of his fellow citizens a city
built in the air by two Athenian emigrant^, for the purpose of intercepting,
in its passage from earth to heaven, the sacrificial steam which arose from
the altars of men to the mansions of the Gods. When the inhabitants
of Athens enjoyed the spectacle of this aerial town, presented to their eyes
in that drama, they little thought that they were about to suffer in the
same way from the erection of a similar barrier in their own territory. The
Decelea of Agis and the Lacedaemonians proved to Athens itself in
reality, what the Nephelococeygia of Peistheta:rus and Euelpides was in
the fiction of the Aristophanie comedy to its Deities.
It is worthy of remark, that the two principal passes from Attica to
Boiotia over Mount Parnes were guarded by two forts, one at the north-
west and the other at the north-eastern angle of the Athenian plain, and
nearly equidistant from Athens and from each other. These are Phyle and
Decelea. The remains of both are still distinctly visible. They are both
distinguished by the very important figure which they make in Athenian