Travels in Crete

20 ZEUS, MINOS, GANYMEDES AND THE EAGLE. [CHAP.

the presence of Zeus ; and some describe that deity as having himself assumed the eagle's form on the occasion 113. There are also other traditions, which would equally account for the appearance of the king of birds in company with Zeus, both on Cretan coins, and on the lamp in question 114. According to Homer, "the Gods" carried off Ganymedes on account of his beauty, and that he might pour out nectar for Zeus 115. Echemenes, who wrote on Crete, mentions a tradition of this island, that it was Minos, and not Zeus, by whom the youth was carried off 116; and the Chalcidians of Euboea also gave the credit of the exploit to the same mythical personage111

112 See HEMSTERHUSIUS, on Lucian, Tom. 1. p. 210. HEYNE, on Apollodor. p. 741.

113 LUCIAN, 1. c.

114 See SERVIUS, on Virgil, Aen. 1. 398. SPANHEIM, on Callimachus Hymn to Zeus, 68.

115 HOMER, IL. XX. 234. SCHOLIAST, on Apollonius Rhodius, 111. 115. 116 ATHENAEUS, XIII. p. 601. e. Ἐχεμένης γοῦν, ἐν τοῖς Κρητικοῖς, οὐ τὸν Δία φησὶν ἁρπάσαι τὸν Γανυμήδην, ἀλλὰ Μίνωα. EUSTATHIUS, on IL. xx. p. 1205. HEYNE, on Apollodor. p. 532.

117 HEMSTERHUSIUS, 1. c. MEINEKE, on Euphorio, p. 10. SCHNEIDEWIN, on Ibycus, pp. 112-115.

[merged small][merged small][merged small][graphic][merged small]

DEPARTURE FROM KHANIA. PLATANIA PROBABLY THE SITE OF PERGAMOS. RIVER IARDANOS. SUPPOSED SITE OF CYDONIA AT IERAMI. ARRIVAL AT THE MONASTERY OF GONIA. MONASTIC INSTITUTIONS. RELIGIOUS PAINTINGS OF THE GREEKS. SITE OF DICTYNNAEON.

April 21.

I LEFT Khaniá a little before twelve o'clock, and had scarcely passed the gate of the city before I heard the noon salute fired by the guns of the fortress, in honour of the lesser Bairám', which commenced yester

1 I have called this the lesser Bairám in conformity with the common practice both of the people in the country and of European writers who have spoken of the Mohammedan feasts, although no doubt, as has been observed by RELAND, de religione Mohammedica, p. 109. ed. alt. Traj. ad Rhen. 1717. (where he corrects D'HERBELOT, Bibliothèque Orientale, Art. Beirám,) and SALE, (Preliminary Discourse, §. 7. p. 200.) the feast succeeding the Ramazán is properly the lesser Bairám, and this is the greater. No one who has witnessed the celebration of the Ramazán and its Bairám, the Lent and Easter of the Mohammedans, can wonder that the common people should have learnt to consider that Bairam as the more important of the two.

PLATANIA AND ITS VINE-TREES.

[CHAP.

day. This festival is called by the Turks Kurbánbairám, the feast of sacrifice, or Khadgilér-bairám, the feast of the khadgís, or pilgrims. The origin of both appellations is explained by the fact that, on the day of its commencement, those holy men slay victims, as the last religious act of their pilgrimage to Mecca. We had a beautiful cloudless sky: our course lay near the shore: we passed, soon after leaving Khaniá, the little flat and barren island where the Venetians had their lazaretto, and, about six miles further on, the village of Haghía Marína, on our left. We met several droves of mules and asses, laden with oil for Khaniá : and, on passing Haghía Marína, saw the village of Plataniá, on a rocky elevation, about half a mile from the shore and a mile before us. Soon after passing it, we crossed its rapid stream, which rises in the White Mountains, and, after flowing between the Rhizite villages of Thériso and Láki or Lákus, runs through a valley formed by low hills, and filled, especially near the stream, with lofty platanes; from which both the village and river obtain their names. Vines twine around most of these platanes, and are of a size unknown in France or Italy, the thickness of many of their stems being that of an ordinary man's waist. These vines are never pruned, and, in consequence of the shadiness of their situation, their fruit does not ripen till after the common vintage: they thus supply the bazár of Khaniá with grapes for the whole month of November, and, I believe, even till near Christmas. The varied scenery produced by these noble plane-trees, in the valley of Plataniá, is very beautiful, and is one of the objects best worth viewing by those who visit Khaniá, and can stay only a short time in the island. The river of Plataniá falls into the sea, nearly opposite the islet of Hághios Theodhoros, where there is good anchorage; and to which merchant vessels, drawing too much water to enter the port of Khaniá, sometimes repair, although the port of Súdha is ordinarily preferred by them. The

XXII.] THE RIVER IARDANOS. THE CITY PERGAMOS. 23

islet is entirely uninhabited: there was on it, in the time of the Venetians, a small castle, which was heroically defended by its commander Giuliani against the Turks. When summoned to surrender, he replied, that "he had promised to defend the fortress till his last breath; and, as soon as the Turks carried the place by assault, Giuliani, unable to make any further resistance, fired a mine, the explosion of which destroyed, along with himself and his own small band, all the Turks who had made good their entrance into the fort2.

As to the river Plataniá, there can be no reasonable doubt about its being the Iardanos of the Odyssey, near the banks of which the Cydonians dwelt3: and the elevation on which the village of Plataniá itself is built, may, not improbably, have been the site of the ancient Pergamos or Pergamum, which has been already mentioned incidentally, and the position of which it is not difficult to determine, with tolerable accuracy, from books alone. In the first place it appears, from Servius', that Pergamum was near Cydonia; and Pliny places it between Cydonia and the city of Kisamos. If Pergamum was situated here, it is clear that the whole plain running along the shore from this place to the Dictynnaean chain, would form part of the district belonging to it, and thus the Dictynnaean temple of Artemis, which was undoubtedly situated on the modern cape Spádha, might well be spoken of, as it is by Scylax, as being to the north of the Pergamian territory.

Various accounts are given of the foundation of the city Pergamum, or Pergamia as it seems to be called by Plutarch. In Virgil's story Eneas is represented

2 See EMMANUEL MORMORIO, in the MS. Classe vi. Cod. c1. of Saint Mark's Library, Libro 1. fol. 12.

3 ODYSSEY, III. 292.

Ηχι Κύδωνες ἔναιον Ιαρδάνου ἀμφὶ ῥέεθρα.

4 SERVIUS, on Virg. Aen. III. 133.

5 PLINY, IV. 20.

6 SCYLAX, in Geograph. Graec. Min. Tom. 1. p. 18. ed. Huds. p. 265. ed. Gail. Δικτυνναῖον Ἀρτέμιδος ἱερὸν πρὸς βορέαν ἄνεμον τῆς χώρας Περγαμίας.

PERGANUM, TEGEA AND MYCENAE.

[CHAP.

as its founder'; while Servius, in his commentary on the passage, mentions another account, according to which it was built by Agamemnon's Trojan prisoners. Diodorus Siculus, in one of the fragments published from the Vatican Palimpsest, mentions a curse of Agamemnon on the warriors who remained in Crete, and likewise an old proverb of the island, in which the Pergamians are spoken of as the authors of the calamity. I suppose the warriors in question to be those who deserted their Chieftain here, and that the word Pergamians denotes the founders of this Cretan city, rather than the inhabitants of Troy. Velleius Paterculus 10 says that Agamemnon himself, when driven into Crete by a storm, founded Pergamum as well as Tegea and Mycenae. Of the exact situation of these other towns no ancient authors afford any indications. Tegea alone is known by its coins, and the commonest type which they bear is the same as one of those of Cydonia". If the legend of the foundation of these cities by Agamemnon sprang out of the Dorian colonies of Althaemenes, there will be no doubt that those colonies were planted in the western parts of the island 12.

7 VIRGIL, Aen. 111. 133.

Et tandem antiquis Curetum allabimur oris.
Ergo avidus muros optatae molior urbis,
Pergameamque voco.

Books

Travels in Crete, Volume 2