ISLAND SAEGILIA, THE CERIGOTTO OF MODERN EUROPEANS AND THE AEGILIA OF THE ANCIENT GREEKS. ANCIENT AND MODERN CRETAN WINES. AKTE THE SITE OF KALE AKTE. THE PROBABLE SITUATION OF ACHAEA. THE STAGS OF CRETE EXISTED NOT IN THE TERRITORY OF ACHAEA, BUT IN THAT OF CYDONIA. ARRIVAL AT THE HAMLET OF KAVUSI.

April 23.

THE clouds looked very threatening this morning, and I had scarcely commenced my ascent to the ancient acropolis, before I was incommoded by a drizzling rain. In Crete rain usually falls on four or five days during the month of April, but never sufficiently for the people to speak, as our Chaucer does, of the time

"Whanne that April with his shoures sote

The droughte of Marche hath perced to the rote."

XXIV.] AND DESCRIPTION OF ITS REMAINS.

47

Besides, the drought of March is a thing sufficiently rare here, since I believe that month to be ordinarily one of the most rainy in the year. At all events the Cretans are anxious that it should be so, and shew, by a common proverb', their opinion, that the more rain they have in March the better, while with us in England dry weather is so much desired at the same season, that, according to our proverb, "A peck of March dust is worth a king's ransom." Not only in England, but even in Spain, April, and not March, is the month when the influence of genial and abundant showers is most felt2.

The

In spite of the showers I examined the remains. From the summit of the acropolis Kísamo-Kastéli is south-south-west, and is about two miles distant in a right line. The river of Palaeókastro, which is also the river of Kamára, passes close to the east of the acropolis. From the western corner of the citadel, the walls run in a westerly direction for about three hundred paces, and their height varies from ten to eighteen feet. stones, which are generally between two and three feet long, and from ten to twenty inches high, are disposed in horizontal layers. I should think there can be no doubt that these are remains of the walls built by the Achaeans and Laconians, when they came and settled with the Polyrrhenians and fortified this strong place: and I have thought it worth while to give a sketch of them. Somewhat to the south of this wall, and about half way between the acropolis and its western extremity, are remains of what I suppose to have been a temple. The modern Greek chapel which has been erected on its site is now also in ruins. On the acropolis itself but

1 The proverb, which I heard every rainy day through the Greek month of March, is Μάρτιος βρέχει, ποτὲ μυφιάζει, where the μυφιάζει must be a corruption of μvdiá【el, as 0, instead of d, is sometimes changed into 4, in the continent of Greece, and as conversely the Cretan village Viáno (Bravo) is sometimes called Dhiáno, (Διάνο.) Μυδιάζω I suppose to be derived from the ancient μvoiav, which is well explained by RUHNKEN, on Timaeus. See also PHOTIUS, Lex. p. 278. Μυδιᾷν, νοτιᾷν, διυγρὸν εἶναι, καὶ σήπεσθαι. 2 "April showers, May flowers:" " April, aguas mil."

48

WALLS, TOWER, AQUEDUCT, AND [CHAP.

few vestiges of ancient walls are discoverable: there are however sufficient remains of them to shew that the Saracens, Byzantine Emperors, or, more probably, the Genoese, in their superstructure, followed generally the ancient foundations. Within these walls are some cisterns3. The circumference of the acropolis is about half a mile but the city also was surrounded by walls, a portion of which we saw before arriving at the village. On the ancient site, at no great distance from the present village, the rock, a pebbly compound, is hewn in such a way as plainly to shew that its excavations once served as houses in the city of Polyrrhenia. To the westward of the village is the ruined tower before mentioned. It is about forty feet high, and is composed of stones of every size and of marble fragments, which indicate, as the period of its construction, an age when ancient monuments were regarded as useful only for building materials. Hard by this tower is a fountain, which is in fact the mouth of an aqueduct, about four feet in height and two wide, hewn out of the living rock, and said to go an hour underground, an assertion, however, which I did not think it worth while to verify by exploring its interior. At some little distance from

the tower are also seen several ancient sepulchres.

Polyrrhenia, or Polyrhenia, as Spanheim, following the epigraphs of coins', would write the word, was the

3 See PocoCKE, Vol. II. Part 1. p. 246. BELON, in the first book of his Singularitez, Ch. v. fol. 7. describes the site. "A demie lieue de Chysamo tirant uers Cauo spata, ou Capo spada, lon trouue les ruines d'une ancienne ville sur vne colline à demy mile de la mer, ou encor sont restées les vestiges des murailles, et si grande quantité de belles cisternes, qu'il n'y a celui qui les puisse contempler sinon par grand miracle: les habitats la nomment Paleo Helenico castro." In Ch. LVII, when describing the remains of Bucephalus at Cavallo, fol. 58. he again speaks of the cisterns of this Cretan Palaeokastron, "un peu au delà de Quissamus."

4 Most of the coins have ПIOAYPHNION. STEPHANUS of BYZANTIUM says: Πολύρην, πόλις Κρήτης, ἀπὸ τοῦ πολλὰ ῥήνεα, τουτέστι πρόβατα ἔχειν. ὁ πολίτης Πολυῤῥήνιος. PLINY, IV. 20. calls the place Polyrrhenium. PTOLEMY, Hoλupónvía; and SCYLAX, Hoλúpónva; which should probably be either the Пoλupónvía of Ptolemy, or the Пoλúpnu of Stephanus.

XXIV.] INSCRIPTIONS FOUND AT PALAEOKASTRON.

49

neighbouring state to Cydonia3, and we learn from Scylax that its territory extended from the northern to the southern sea. It was here that Agamemnon, when driven into Crete, came and offered sacrifice". The celebrated temple of Dictynna was in its district, and it appears to have been a place of peculiar sanctity in ancient times". Its colonization by Achaeans and Laconians has been already mentioned 1o. The Polyrrhenians took a part in the wars against Gortyna, which are related by Polybius". We have seen 12 that, ever since the revival of letters, this Palaeokastron, in the neighbourhood of the western Kisamos, has been supposed to be the site of Aptera. In addition to the authors already mentioned I might quote Andrea Cornaro, the Cretan historian of his native island, and Ferrarius 13.

13

Cnossos and

Among the extensive ruins of this city, and near one of its gates, Tournefort observed, inscribed on a long piece of stone, IMP. CAESAR.; and, on another fragment, IVII. COS. III. After mentioning this he adds, "Tout cela marque que la ville a été considérable dans son temps, et il n'y auroit aucun doute que Paleocastro ne fust le reste de l'ancienne ville d'Aptére, n'étoit que Strabon ne la place qu'à dix milles de la Canée." The naturalist's way of getting rid of this difficulty is amusing: "Mais il n'y a rien de bien certain touchant les mésures des anciens, ou

5 See the passage of Strabo, translated at full length in Vol. I. p. 48. 6 SCYLAX, p. 18. ed. Huds. or Tom. I. p. 264. of the Geograph. Graec. Min. ed. Gail.

7 ZENOBIUS, V. 50. SUIDAS, in Oi Kρñτes, and Professor HOECK, Kreta, Vol. 1. p. 27.

8 STRABO, Χ. p. 479. Πολυῤῥήνιοι· παρ ̓ οἷς ἐστὶ τὸ τῆς Δικτύννης

ἱερόν.

• SUIDAS, Πολύῤῥηνον, τόπος Κρήτης ἔνθα τοῖς θεοῖς ἔθυον.

10 See above, Vol. 1. p. 48.

12 See above, Vol. 1. p. 54.

11 POLYBIUS, IV. 55.

13 ANDREA CORNARO, ap. Cornel. Cret. Sacr. 1. p. 123. and FERRARIUS, Lexic. Geograph. v. Cisamus, p. 101. ed. Lond. 1657.

14 PocockE, (Inscript. Antiq. P. I. c. 4. p. 43.) copied a Greek inscription here see above, Vol. 1. p. 41.

:

50 SAEGHILIA THE CERIGOTTO OF EUROPEANS. [CHAP.

peut-être que cet endroit de Strabon est corrumpu 15." Pococke did try to extricate himself from the difficulty, which these ten miles between Cydonia and Aptera forced on him; and in order to do so supposed, as we have already seen, that Cydonia was an inland city, situated five miles to the south-south-west of the modern Khaniá. Probably it is to this difficulty of reconciling the distance of Strabo with a false hypothesis, that we are also indebted for the indication of the imaginary ruins of Cydonia as existing at Ierámi. It is worth while to remark, that as Tournefort's description of this site agrees well with Strabo's account of Polyrrhenia, so Pococke observes that "the town was very strong by nature.”

We left Palaeókastro at three; and, after a descent of about a mile and an ascent of another, passed the first of three or four hamlets, which are known under the common name of Lusákies. At half past four we arrived at the principal village of Mesóghia, where we are about two miles from the sea. Hence Tserígo and the islet called Cerigotto by the Italians, are both distinctly visible. The latter is called Saeghiliá by the Greeks, who have only prefixed an S to its ancient name 16 as has also been done in Sitanos, the name of

15 TOURNEFORT, Voyage de Levant, Tom. I. p. 81. D'ANVILLE, Oevres, (Géographie ancienne abrégée,) Tom. 11. p. 190. ed. Paris, 1834, like every body else, considers this Kísamo near Cape Spádha, as the port of Aptera.

16 This island Aegilia is called Aegila by DIONYSIUS PERIEGETES, ν. 499. Αἴγιλά τ' ἠδὲ Κύθηρα Καλαύριά τε τρηχεία on which passage Eustathius shews pretty plainly that he knew nothing about its situation. It is mentioned by POMPONIUS MELA, II. 7. 11. and by PLINY, IV. 19. Aegila autem xv. м. pass. a Cythera, eademque a Cretae Phalasarna oppido xxv. Μ. pass. STEPHANUS BΥΖΑΝΤ. Αἰγιλία—ἔστι καὶ νῆσος μεταξὺ Κρήτης καὶ Πελοποννήσου Αἰγιάλεια. ὁ οἰκήτωρ Αἰγίλιος ὡς Κυθήριος. Modern travellers as well as geographers (as D'ANVILLE, Geographie ancienne abrégé, Oeuvres, Tom. II. p. 191. MANNERT, Geographie der Griechen und Roemer, Vol. VIII. p. 690. CRAMER, Vol. III. p. 200. See also TZSCHUCKE, on Pomponius Mela, Vol. 111. Part. III. p. 740.) describe the island by its Italian name Cerigotto, which is still as totally unknown to all the Greeks here, as Zante is for Zákythos, or Zákynthos ( Zákuvůos) Gianitzares for Dionysiádhes (ai Alovvotades), Stalimene for Lemnos ( Anuvos), or Candia for Crete.