Travels and Discoveries in the Levant/Volume 1/Letter VIII
VIII.
I have just returned from a very interesting excursion in the western part of the island, the object of which was to visit Eresos, now Ereso, the birthplace of the celebrated Sappho, and which is on the S.W. coast of Mytilene. This route gave me an opportunity of studying the peculiar configuration of the island, which gives a great variety of scenery. On the S.W. side—that is, on the side most distant from the opposite Asiatic coast—are the two vast harbours, or rather gulfs, Olivieri and Kalloni, which I have already mentioned, and which run so far inland as to leave a very narrow isthmus in the middle of the island. At the head of each of these gulfs is a level plain formed by alluvial deposit, fertile, but marshy, and full of malaria. Between these two gulfs the hills rise very abruptly, forming a rocky isthmus, of which the part I have traversed contains forests of the pitch-pine, where are wild deer. In these pine forests the air, impregnated with the aroma of the pitch, is most refreshing.
The first day I proceeded from Mytilene to the village of Kalloni, and halting there for the night, started the next day by an inland road over the mountains for Ereso. I ascended from a picturesque and thickly-wooded country to a wild and barren mountain-tract, which runs all through the western half of the island as far as Cape Sigri. As we climbed the steep mountain-sides, vegetation gradually disappeared. At the summit of the pass I saw about twenty vultures wheeling round and round in the air almost within shot, waiting for an unhappy partridge, which took the opportunity of our arrival to escape. From this high ground is an extensive view over the western part of the island, with Cape Baba, the ancient Lectum Promontorium, in the distance on one side, and Tenedos on the other. The air here was deliciously bracing; in the valleys were strange antiquated villages, full of Turks, who gazed upon us with wondering eyes, as if they had never before seen a European traveller. At the distance of two hours and twenty minutes from Ereso is the village of Kythera, where I was told that at the distance of half an hour among the hills was a place called Tiranda, where inscriptions were to be found.
I arrived at Ereso full of hope, expecting, from the remote situation of this place, to find some remains of the ancient city. But I was told that about fifteen years ago there had been many sculptures, some of which had been carried away by a French traveller, and that the monks of a neighbouring monastery had taken the inscriptions and ground their colours with the inscribed surface till there was nothing left. Imagine the pages of ancient history ground away to make colours wherewith to daub a wretched image of the Panagia! However, I found a very intelligent Greek monk acting as schoolmaster, who had collected a number of fragments of inscriptions in his house. He was a fair scholar, and had studied at Athens. I was astonished to find such a man in so wild a place; a monk thus enlightened by education is a rare phenomenon in this part of the Levant. He took me to see the Acropolis of Ereso, of which the situation is most striking. It crowns the summit of a rock rising straight out of the sea. An old Genoese castle, called Pateo Castro, now occupies the site of the Hellenic citadel.
At the west end of the castle is part of an Hellenic wall built of squared blocks, the inside filled with well-compacted rubble.
In the same part of the castle is a tunnel-roofed cistern which seems mediæval.
At the foot of the Acropolis, on the E. side, is a piece of ancient wall, composed partly of polygonal, partly of isodomous blocks, built on the rock, which is cut in beds to receive it. One piece of this wall is 27 feet in length, its present height is 8 feet, but the upper courses have been removed. Another piece, a few feet distant, is 18 feet 8 inches in length, and a third, 7 feet 6 inches. On the W. side of the base of the Acropolis is the mouth of a square well, the sides of which are formed of good Hellenic masonry. The fields on the N. side are strewn with fragments of ancient pottery. Many columns have been taken away from this place on account of its vicinity to the sea.
After visiting the Acropohs, I explored a little roofless chapel, such as are to be met with all over the island, and which always contain relics of ancient buildings and sculptures. Here I found a very interesting inscription covering three sides of a large marble slab. Much of it was unfortunately obliterated, but on one side was a letter from King Antigonos (probably Gonatas) respecting the return of certain exiles to Eresos, who had been banished in the time of Alexander the Great.39 As I was staying in the house of the chief man of the village, a worthy Greek farmer, I asked him whether I might have this inscription. He assured me that I was free to take it, and as a preliminary step we decided on removing it, into the house of the Greek schoolmaster. I therefore proceeded, with a yoke of oxen, to the place where it was lying, in order to take possession of it, and in this attempt roused all manner of dormant opposition. First, the Turkish Aga of the district, who happened to be in the village, interfered. This enlightened functionary wished to know whether there was any treasure in or under the stone; but desisted from all opposition on my producing a letter from the Pasha, authorizing me to prosecute my researches for antiquities in the island wherever I liked. My next opponent was the proprietor of the field in which the church was situated. The inscription, according to the opinion of my friend the primate, was the property of the village, and might therefore be given to me; but the lady of the manor took a different view of the case, and denied the right of any one to remove it. On my arrival with the yoke of oxen, I found her already in possession of the field of battle, seated on the stone itself, in the apse of the roofless chapel. She was a lady about forty, with very regular features, modelled after the classical type. At the sight of our sacrilegious party she became animated with the fury of an ancient Pythoness. She bowed down to the ground before the stone at least twelve times, kissing it, and crossing herself each time; then she lit a fire and burnt incense, to purify the place from our presence, and witth great horror flung out of the sacred precinct some chicken-bones, the remains of our yesterday's luncheon. I saw from the first that she was utterly beyond the reach of per- suasion, and in my despair having exhausted my little stock of Greek, began to talk English to her, a sure way to aggravate an angry native in the Levant. They always imagine that the unknown words which the stranger utters are spells and curses which, from not knowing their import, they cannot meet with counter spells and counter curses.40 Finding it hopeless to prevail with the lady in possession, I next made an attempt to enlist in my favour the two cavasses by the mention of the magic word bakssish. But the opposition which I had to encounter was based on two motives which it was impossible to circumvent by stratagem, or set aside by force. The Turks having the idea that the stone contained treasure, wanted to smash it up; the woman imagined it to be the palladium of the little chapel; and between cupidity and fanaticism, I broke down in my attempt, and finding nothing to be done, beat an ignominious retreat, taking with me my yoke of oxen.
It may be not uninteresting to you to know what is the present aspect of the land which gave birth to Sappho. The country about Ereso is mountainous; in the valleys there is rich land abounding with corn and wine. No olives are grown here, and the inhabitants being forced to labour constantly for their bread, have more industrious habits than in the districts near Mytilene. The lowlands are not squeezed up into ravines as much as they are about Mytilene, but expand into small plains, so that there is more space and elbow-room in the landscape. In most parts of the island, I always feel pent up as it were in a rocky prison, from the want of level ground for exercise. The mountains are of considerable height, rising into most picturesque and abrupt forms. The rocky crags near the summits of these mountains are full of caverns and holes, the fastnesses of the eagle and the hawk, who are seen for ever wheeling in mid- air, watching for the partridge in the valleys below. The voice of Æolian minstrelsy is heard no more in the birthplace of Sappho, but the echoing hills resound with the cry of shepherds calling to each other, the bleating of new-born lambs, and the melodious tinkling of thousands of sheep-bells. The verdure at this season is as fresh and tender as that of the spring in England. This Theocritean landscape was all the more agreeable to our eyes from the promise it gave of abundance of milk and cream, such as Polyphemos offered and Galatea rejected. In this hope we were not disappointed. Our host, a jolly old Greek primate, gave us a delicious supper of homely but choice fare. Here we first tasted the protogala, or first milk aft-er the birth of the lamb. It is excessively thick, with a taste and consistency like that of Devonshire cream. The bread at Ereso is also excellent. It seems to have been highly esteemed in antiquity, for an old Greek poet, Archestratos, who wrote an epic poem on the art of cookery, says that, if the gods eat bread, it is to Breso that they would send Hermes to buy it.41
"We found in Ereso and the adjoining villages simpler manners and a more freehanded hospitality than anpvhere else in Mytilene. The women would be perfect studies for a painter. On festivals, they all go to church with white veils edged with a deep crimson border, which fall to the waist. They reminded me of the figures on Greek vases; and the veil is doubtless a relic of ancient costume.
We returned home from Ereso along the shore, over a road which can only be described as a rocky ladder, a goat-path, worn by dint of thoroughfare into a mule-path, along which the iron-shod hoofs of these persevering creatures have probably trod for 2,000 years.
In the middle of our journey, we came to a strange outlandish village called Mesotopo, or Half-way House. Here we halted for the night, and found a large party seated round a blazing hearth, over an excellent supper of fried fish. It was the first time I ever saw Greek women admitted to the banquet with the men, or saw a man have the civility to hand anything to a woman. It happened that we were here the guests of people less sophisticated than the bourgeois class in the Mytilene villages generally are.
The house consisted of one long, large apartment: at one end was the fireplace, at the other a raised platform, separated by a wooden railing from the rest, forming the sleeping-place of the family; the walls were solidly built of stone, and every article of household use hung on them: everything was scrupulously neat and clean. This kind of house seems to be preferred in the agricultural districts of Mytilene, as the pyrgo is in the olive districts.
The supper was put upon a tray, which was balanced on a small table turned upside down. We all sat on the floor. Each woman in succession, before either eating or drinking, said, Kalôs orisate,—"You are welcome," to the strangers, and then crossed herself instead of saying grace. These women, sitting on the floor with their children in their arms, formed very graceful compositions, reminding me of many groups in ancient art.
On the coast, in the direction of Ereso, at the distance of half an hour from Mesotopo, is a ruined church called Miltane. Here are foundations of an ancient wall, but no inscriptions. On the shore, in the same direction, at the distance of one hour and a half from Mesotopo, and near a place called Campos Krousos, has been a square tower called Palaio Pyrgo. The base, which still remains, measures 28 feet by 29 feet. The blocks are well squared, and in dimensions about 3 feet 8 inches by 1 foot 8 inches. From the character of the masonry, this basement would appear to be Hellenic, or may have been rebuilt with old materials. I was told by my guide that some years ago, a quantity of Mediaeval coins (Florea) was found in the Campos Krousos, near this Pyrgo.
On a hill near this spot is the church of St. George, in which I found part of a cylindrical column, with an inscription in Latin containing the names of the emperors Constantine the Great and his sons Constantine and Constans.
We returned from Mesotopo along the shore of the Gulf of Kalloni. The road by which we passed out of Mesotopo appears, from the great size of the blocks of which it is composed, to be an ancient paved way. Opposite to the small islands at the entrance of the gulf is a piece of wall on the lefthand side of the road, composed of large polygonal blocks. This wall is called Makra, and is at the distance of aliout ten minutes from the sea. It runs east and west for about 60 paces; its height is 14 feet. A second wall at right angles to it may be traced for 49 paces.42
We returned along the N.W. shore of the Gulf of Kalloni by a most picturesque and beautiful road. Here the wild fowl were as plentiful as the partridges at Ereso. The sea throws up on the beach a great variety of marine products, such as sponges and mollusca; the abundance of which in this gulf is noticed by Aristotle in his History of Animals.43
We returned home by Kalloni, at the head of the gulf. Everywhere we found very comfortable beds— mattresses on clean floors, and good wholesome food. The Greek host has no ideas of any hospitality, except that which satisfies the animal wants. Immediately after supper, the mattresses are brought in and his guest is expected to go to bed. The consequence is, that the night at this season of the year is of the most wearisome length.