SUP PLANE-TREES. VIEW OF MOUNT IDA. PLAIN OF KISAMOS. April 22. WE start at a quarter before nine o'clock, and, after passing Agribilianá, and traversing groves of olive-trees, which are almost entirely uncultivated, we leave the village of Spílaea on our left, and arrive at a fountain shaded by two plane-trees, one of them of most majestic dimensions. For some little distance further we continue to ascend, and, until we cease to do so, see behind us, not only the Akrotéri but the whole of the snow-capt 32 ANCIENT REMAINS NEAR NOPIA. [CHAP. eminence of Mount Ida, although at a distance of about sixty miles. After crossing this ridge, we pass the village of Nokia, which is a little on our right, and soon come in sight of the gulf of Kísamos. In about an hour from Nokia we pass a fountain, and, a few minutes afterwards, see the plain of Kísamo-Kastéli, which is about four miles long and a mile and a half broad. It is chiefly covered with standing corn: there are, however, also considerable patches of olive-trees. The Panopolitan poet has thought this plain worthy of being expressly mentioned'. The Kastéli is situated near its further extremity. After advancing a mile more, we are just above Nopía, which is on the extreme eastern edge of the plain. A river running to the west of this village separates it from the church of Hághios Gheorghios. We were now accompanied by a Greek called Antónios Kharadhákes of Nopía, who had been overtaken by us half an hour before, and had immediately volunteered his services to conduct me to certain remains of antiquity close to this church, which seems to have been built on the site of an ancient temple. Part of the foundations of the older edifice may still be traced. In the large masses of brick and mortar, which are lying about near the modern building, there are seen three earthen pipes, such as one ordinarily finds only in cisterns. This Greek chapel stands nearly due north and south, instead of east and west as is usual in all orthodox Greek as well as Roman Catholic and Protestant churches. This architectural peculiarity of the building puzzled my Nopían guide quite as much as myself. He asked me whether in those times, for he transferred the antiquity of the ancient edifice to the comparatively modern erection, the sun used to rise in the south: it must have been so, he thought, because the Christian, as he stands before the altar in a church, always looks towards the rising sun. 1 NONNUS, XIII. 237. Καὶ δάπεδον Κισάμοιο. XXIII.] CHANGE IN THE SUN'S PLACE OF RISING. 33 The Greek's idea calls to mind Herodotus's mention of what he heard in Egypt, about the change which had happened, in ancient times, in the sun's usual places of rising and setting". Ne is that same great glorious lamp of light, In better case, ne keeps his course more right, But is miscaried with the other spheres. And if to those Egyptian wizards old, Which in star-read were wont have best insight, Faith may be given, it is by them told That since the time they first tooke the Sunnes hight, Foure times his place he shifted hath in sight, And twice hath risen where he now doth west, I have never before noticed an instance, in any part of Greece or Turkey, of a church not standing due east and west. In England there is sometimes a deviation, determined by the place where the sun rises on the day of the saint to whom the church is dedicated. This peculiarity in our old ecclesiastical architecture has been celebrated by a living poet". A passage of Ezekiel shews how greatly the Jews abominated the oriental custom of turning the face to the east in prayer. The Jews themselves seem to have turned towards the sanctuary, even in the time of David"; 2 HERODOTUS, II. 142. Ἐν τοίνυν τούτῳ τῷ χρόνῳ τετράκις ἔλεγον ¿¿ ñdéwv tòv žλiov ȧvateîλai. See also BUTLER, Hudibras, Canto III. v. 865. foll. 3 SPENSER, Faerie Queene, Book v. Introd. Stan. 8. 4 No doubt such may be found. Colonel LEAKE, Travels in the Moréa, I. p. 297. speaks of the church of Asómatos, near Cape Matapán, which "instead of facing to the East, as Greek churches usually do, faces southeastward, towards the head of the port, which is likely to have been the aspect of the temple," (of the Taenarian Poseidon.) 5 WORDSWORTH. 6 EZEKIEL, VIII. 16-18. The ruins of a temple called Ghebri Bena, the temple of the Ghebers, were visited by Mr KEPPEL, Journey from India to England, Vol. 1. Ch. x. He observes, "The gradual slope of the plain to the west would indicate that on that side was the ascent to the temple." 7 PSALMS, V. 7. xxvIII. 2. 34 THE EARLY CHRISTIANS USED TO PRAY [CHAP. and, when Solomon's temple was built, it became their keblah". Hence, during the captivity, they used to turn towards Jerusalem, then to the west of them, in their prayers. Thus Daniel, when at the court of Darius, "went into his house, and his windows being open in his chamber, toward Jerusalem, he kneeled upon his knees three times a day, and prayed and gave thanks before his God as he did aforetime"." 1o. This Jewish observance does not appear to have been adopted by the early Christians, among whom the Persian custom of turning towards the rising sun every where prevailed 10. Directions are given to build all churches so as to stand towards the east in the Apostolical Constitutions". Origen, Clemens 13, Basil, and other ecclesiastical writers, attempt to assign reasons for the practice some of them, as Tertullian, consider the sun the figure of Christ: others say that, since Paradise was situated in the east, we mean our looks in that direction as a prayer that we may be restored to the place from which Adam was expelled: others, as if they meant to confine Christianity to the west of Jerusalem, tell us that we look to the scene of Christ's abode and 81 KINGS, C. VIII. See especially v. 48. 2 CHRONICLES, VI. 24. 38. and JONAH, II. 4. 7. The entrance of the temple was on its eastern side, in order that those who went into it to pray might have their backs towards the rising sun. ANASTASIUS, Quaest. XVIII. in Script. (quoted by Potter, on Clem. Alex. p. 857.) Ετέτραπτο δὲ πρὸς ἕω, ἵνα οἱ προςευχόμενοι μὴ τὸν ἥλιον ἀνίσχοντα προςκυνῶσιν, ἀλλὰ τὸν ἡλίου δεσπότην. 9 DANIEL, VI. 10. 10 ORIGEN, Opera, Vol. 11. p. 284. ed. Par. 1733. (Hom. v. on Numbers.) 66 Quod ex omnibus coeli plagis ad solam orientis partem conversi orationem fundimus, non facile cuiquam puto ratione compertum." TERTULLIAN says: "Ad Persas si deputabimur, licet solem in linteo depictum non adoremus --inde suspicio, quod innotuerit nos ad Orientis regionem precari." Bishop KAYE says, on Tertullian, p. 124. (compare p. 408.) in speaking of the enemies of the Gospel, "We cannot be surprized at their believing that the Sun and the Cross were objects of worship in the New Religion." 11 CONSTITUTIONES APOSTOLICAE, II. c. 57. Kai πρŵτov μèv ò οἶκος ἔστω ἐπιμήκης κατ ̓ ἀνατολὰς τετραμμένος. 12 ORIGEN, de Orat. Tom. I. p. 270. 13 CLEMENS ALEXANDRINUS, Strom. VII. p. 856. 14 BASIL, de Spiritu Sancto, c. XXVII. p. 56. a. ed. Paris, 1730. XXIII.] TOWARDS THE RISING SUN. 35 sufferings on earth: and this last notion, that we thus turn because Mindful of him, who in the orient born, There lived, and on the Cross his life resigned, destitute of all truth as it undoubtedly is, if the origin of the observance is considered, has become very generally prevalent. Christian authors are likewise found who venture to assert that the custom was an institution of the apostles 15. It appears from Philo-Judaeus, that the Therapeutae prayed in the same manner: and the observance being so strictly Christian, it forms one of the arguments by which it has been attempted to prove that the Therapeutae were Christians 16. The early practice still prevails, more or less, in all countries inhabited by Christians to the east of the Holy Land, as well as in those to the west of it. The Greeks and Romans seem also to have turned to the east in offering prayer and sacrifice, and thus the oriental observance was easily continued among the Christian converts from Paganism throughout the Roman empire". 15 AUCTOR Quaestion. et Respons. ad Orthodoxos, Resp. 118. Tỏ đề ἔθος, παρ ̓ ὧν εἴληφεν ἡ ἐκκλησία τὸ εὔχεσθαι, παρὰ τούτων εἰληφέναι καὶ τὸ ποῦ εὔχεσθαι, τοῦτο δὲ παρὰ τῶν ἁγίων ἀποστόλων. ATHANASIUS, Quaest. ad Antiochum, 16. (quoted by Potter, 1. c.) Oi μакáρioι ámóσtodoi κατὰ ἀνατολὰς τὰς τῶν Χριστιανῶν ἐκκλησίας προςέχειν πεποιήκασιν. 16 Le Livre de Philon de la vie contemplative traduit de l'original Grec, avec des observations, où l'on fait voir que les Therapeutes dont il parle étoient Chrétiens. Paris, 1709. pp. 200-202. The chief establishment of these Therapeutae was in lower Egypt: an account of them is given in NEANDER, Geschichte der C. R. u. K. Vol. 1. Part 1. p. 78. foll. They were undoubtedly a sect of Jews, and not Christians. 17 VITRUVIUS, IV. 5. "Signum quod erit in cella collocatum spectet ad vespertinam coeli regionem." See also Iv. 9. and VIRGIL, Aen. VIII. 68. Surgit, et aetherii spectans orientia Solis Lumina, rite cavis undam de flumine palmis And Aen. XII. 172. འ Ad surgentem conversi lumina solem, Dant fruges manibus salsas, et tempora ferro Summa notant pecudum, paterisque altaria libant. LUCIAN, Necyomant, §. 7. Tom. 1. p. 465. ed. Hemst. Other passages are indicated by LOMEIER, de Vet. Lustrat. p. 316. fol. ed. 1681. |