XV
CORINTH TOWARDS THE GULF
HERE the builders had tried for a wonderful scheme, and worked it out wonderfully, light against light—the glittering temple against the gleaming sea—the rigid, solid lines of the building telling against the faint, far-away, half-revealed, half-concealed silhouettes in form and colour of the mountains; over whose sides the cloud-shadows slowly moved. On one side my countrymen have built a shanty where they lived while excavating; on the other is a bare barrack, in which they have stored the stuff they have found. From the village Square, this museum completely hides the temple; but Greece was so much finer before it was discovered by archaeologists—or by most of them—for most of them have no feeling at all for the art they have dug up.
XVI
ACRO-CORINTH FROM CORINTH
THE way the great mountains pile up behind the great temple is most impressive.
XVII
OLYMPIA FROM THE HILLSIDE
THE Olympian groves are a fraud; they are mere bushes and only hide the temples amid which they sprout; but by dodging around the hillside one can see how finely the temples were placed and how lovely were the lines of the meandering river backed by the beautiful, ever-changing coloured mountains.
XVIII
THE TEMPLE OF JUPITER. EVENING
NIGHT was falling as I was coming back from drawing by the river Ilissos. The subject was the most impressive I saw in the Land of Temples, and in the gathering darkness I drew it as well as I could.
XIX
THE ACROPOLIS FROM THE TEMPLE OF JUPITER, ATHENS
THERE is as much charm in the clearness of the day as in the mystery of the night, in the Land of Temples. And though I only moved from one side of the columns to the other, when I drew the Temple of Jupiter, Evening, the composition is as different as the effect.
XX
THE WAY UP TO THE ACROPOLIS
THE fragment of the steps that is left shows how imposing the whole must have been. In making this lithograph I could not help noting—though I did not put them in—the endless races that mounted; and although the costume of each group changed, and often the nationality and language, there was almost always someone amongst them who could read the ancient Greek of the tablets built into the wall; and always the whole party seemed to under-stand it. But the modern Greek is, I imagine, the greatest reader in the world—at any rate of newspapers.
XXI
DOWN FROM THE ACROPOLIS
BETWEEN Athens, the pavement of the Temple of Nike, and the roof of the Temple of Theseus, there is a great gulf fixed, and this gives an amazing idea of height and depth; and beyond, stretching to the mountains, with the feeling of the sea beyond that, is the sacred way. It is the way to Eleusis and the Sea. From the road, as it mounts the distant hills, the way leads straight to the Acropolis, which grows more and more impressive and imposing as you approach, till modern Athens hides it.
XXII
SUNRISE OVER THE ACROPOLIS
EVERY morning the sun, coming in at my bedroom window, woke me when it touched the topmost part of the Parthenon; and then the light spread down to the battlements, then to the cliffs, showing the horrid caves and strong ribs over and upon which the fortress temples stand; and by the time the sun had reached the forum, the forum woke up and all the beauty fled—till another day.
XXIII
STORM BEHIND THE ACROPOLIS
AND when the clouds of a spring afternoon gather behind the Acropolis, you realise why it was built on that barren rock: because the builders saw it would be the most impressive shrine on this earth.
XXIV
THE PROPYLAEA, ATHENS
THIS is pure architecture; it interested me. I tried to draw it, as it looked to me; but no draughtsman—no painter, either—will ever get that wondrous warm glow which seems to come from within the walls and suffuse them with light and colour.
XXV
THE PORTICO OF THE PARTHENON
THIS is the greatest architectural art in the world.
XXVI
THE PARTHENON FROM THE GATEWAY
DID these temples always grow out of the bare rock as now, or was the rock, too, overlaid with marble pavements? It must have been, for it is incredible that people with such a sense of beauty should have built such beautiful things on a stone pile.
XXVII
THE FAÇADE OF THE PARTHENON. SUNSET
JUST as the bell rings at sunset, from between a rift in the clouds of the spring evening the last ray of the setting sun strikes the pediment of the Parthenon. And against the black clouds over the mountains, it is transfigured, and then slowly one leaves—turning from the wonder of man’s work to the wonder of God’s sunset, and the wonder of the afterglow over Eleusis.
XXVIII
THE FALLEN COLUMN, ATHENS
ON either side of the Parthenon the columns thrown down by the explosion of a powder magazine within, are lying, not as they fell, but each section carefully rolled into its proper place. The disorder at Olympia, when earthquakes destroyed the temples, is far more convincing and impressive, for there the columns lie in confusion, here in archaeological order.
XXIX
THE LITTLE FÊTE, ATHENS
A LITTLE fête of some sort was being held at the little church by the little river, and the way to it was lined with them that sold things; beyond was the rocky river-bed; then the Temple of Jupiter; and away above all, the Acropolis—framed in by the black trees, the most romantic subject I ever saw.
XXX
THE GREAT FÊTE, ATHENS
ON the afternoon of St. George’s Day I wandered out of the city up to the Acropolis, and found the whole plain and the approaches crowded; while the stairs were black with people, and so were the lofty platforms. The fête that afternoon, as I saw it from Mars Hill, was more real than any restoration or imaginations.
XXXI
THE TEMPLE OF NIKE, ATHENS
ONE has but to cross to the other side of the Propylaea from the top of the steps—from the great platform and altar before the wall, to find an equally inspiring—or inspired—arrangement. For there is no accident in these compositions. The way the line of the sea cuts blue against the white temple walls and shows through the columns at either end, and the way the nearer hill of Lycabettus piles up dark against the shining base on which the temple stands and that is accented, too, by the one dark note of the theatre—though it is later that one sees these arrangements were not accidents. These things were all thought out by the builders of Temples.
XXXII
THE TEMPLE OF NIKE FROM MARS HILL, ATHENS
THIS is the grandest grouping of the Acropolis. The way in which the whole, in solemn square masses, piles up—the temple dominating all—is marvellous. It is finer, I am sure, in ruin, than ever it was in perfection.
XXXIII
THE ODEON, ATHENS
LOOKING down from the Acropolis, one sees the theatre—even the Greeks mostly placed the theatre before the temple. But what I saw that afternoon was a school of small Greek boys studying and reciting in the Odeon, because the school had been taken for barracks. But as a soldier said to me, Mars was more real to him than the Turks he had been fighting.
XXXIV
THE STREET OF THE TOMBS, ATHENS
TO be buried under the shadow, or in sight of the Acropolis must have been glorious. Nowhere else is there such a decorative arrangement of death.
XXXV
ELEUSIS: THE PAVEMENT OF THE TEMPLE
SWEPT away is everything, mysteries and all—all that remains is the great pavement on which stand the stumps of columns; yet I doubt if it was finer ever. And the long drive out over the sacred way, the long, quiet day; and the long drive back, with the Acropolis growing more and more majestic in the twilight, were perfect.
XXXVI
AEGINA
ONLY at Aegina, so far as I have seen, is there a real—yet it is so beautiful it seems unreal—forest in Greece. Nowhere in the world do the trees in dense, deep shade so cover the slopes that lead down, almost black, to the deep blue sea; and where have I ever seen such a contrast between the bosky woods and the barren cliffs that tower above them? And all this is but a background for one of the most beautiful temples in this beautiful land, placed perfectly, by the greatest artists of the past, in the most exquisite landscape. Yet the guardian told me I was the third person who had visited Aegina between January and April last year.
XXXVII
AEGINA ON ITS MOUNTAIN TOP
AS, after the long ride across the island, ever climbing, one comes from the dense wood, suddenly in front is the splendid pile, on either side the forest, beyond the sea; and in the airy distance, Athens and the Acropolis.
XXXVIII
THE SHINING ROCKS, DELPHI
AFTER I had made this drawing, after I had had it transferred to stone and printed, I showed it to the Director of the Greek School, and he said: “Why, you have drawn the Shining Rocks.” All I tried to do was to draw Delphi and the rocks behind the ruins. That in the light the rocks did shine was nothing to me, save that they showed the way the cliffs were built up. I have since learned, however, that I have shown one the great things of Greece.
XXXIX
THE TREASURY OE ATHENS, DELPHI
THE Treasury is a restoration; but, even so, it is charming, standing by the rough paved way, which is bordered by the semi-circular seats, placed always with the most wonderful views before them, and backed by the black mountains, up whose sides wind trails leading, in the spring, to the clouds. The loneliness of the land, and the hugeness of the temples and theatres built to hold the people who are no longer there, was intensified last year when all the able-bodied men had gone to the war, and the land was desolate,
XL
THE WINE-DARK SEA, SUNIUM
FROM without and from within, either bright against the dark waters, or dark against the bright sea, the Temple of Poseidon piles up. One could stay on that mud-swept, sun-beaten headland for months; but without a camp, one can only stay a day.