with the almost incredible blue of the water, for the ocean is nowhere
bluer than at Corfu. Across the straits not many miles away rises the
bluff and mountainous mainland of Albania and Epirus, stretching off
north and south into illimitable distances. Behind the town the country
rolls away into most fertile swales and meadows, bounded on the far
north by a high and apparently barren mountain. All the narrow southern
end of the island is a veritable garden, well watered, well wooded,
covered with grass and flowers, and rising here and there into low,
tree-clad hills. Trim villas dot the landscape, and on a distant hill
may be seen from afar the gleaming walls of the palace which belonged to
the ill-fated Empress of Austria.

From the fortress southward toward the bay where lies the “ship of
Ulysses,” there runs a beautiful esplanade along the water front, lined
with trees and flanked on the landward side by villas with most
luxuriant gardens. Even though the British occupation came to an end as
long ago as 1865, the roadways of the island bear the marks of the
British thoroughness, and make riding in Corfu a pleasure. The houses
along the way are largely of the summer-residence variety, the property
of wealthy foreigners rather than of native Corfiotes; and their
gardens, especially in the springtime, are a riot of roses, tumbling
over the high walls, or clambering all over the houses themselves, and
making the air heavy with their fragrance. The trees are no less
beautiful, and the roads are well shaded by them. After a month or so of
the comparatively treeless and often barren mainland of Greece, this
exuberant Eden is a source of keen enjoyment with its wanton profligacy
of bloom.

[Illustration: “SHIP OF ULYSSES.” CORFU]

It cannot be more than two miles, and perhaps it is rather less, over a
smooth road and through a continuous succession of gardens, from the
town of Corfu out to the little knoll which overlooks the bay and “ship
of Ulysses,” and the view down on that most picturesque islet and across
the placid waters of the narrow arm of the sea in which it lies,
furnishes one of the most beautiful prospects in the island. The “ship”
itself is a rather diminutive rock not far from shore, almost completely
enshrouded in sombre, slender cypresses, which give it its supposed
similarity to the Phæacian bark of the wily Ithacan. Nor is it a
similarity that is entirely imaginary. Seen from a distance, the pointed
trees grouped in a dark mass on this tiny isle do give the general
effect of a vessel. Those who know the picture called the “Island of
Death” will be struck at once with the similarity between the “ship” and
the painter’s ideal of the abode of shades; and with the best of
reasons, for it is said that this island was the model employed. Amidst
the dusk of the crowded trees one may distinguish a monastery, tenanted
we were told by a single monk, while on a neighboring island, closer to
the shore and connected therewith by a sort of rocky causeway, there is
another monastery occupied by some band of religious brothers. This
island also is not without its charms, but the eye always returns to
that mournful abandoned “ship,” which surpasses in its weird fascination
any other thing that Corfu has to show.

The Villa Achilleion, which lies off to the southward on a lofty hill,
shares with the ship of Ulysses the attention of the average visitor,
and worthily so, not only because of the great beauty of the villa
itself, with its mural paintings of classic subjects and its wonderful
gardens, but because of the exquisite view that is to be had over the
island from the spot. The lively verdure, the vivid blueness of the sea,
and the gloomy rocks of the Turkish shore, all combine to form a picture
not soon to be forgotten. As for the Achilleion itself, it was built for
the Empress of Austria, who was assassinated some years ago, and the
estate has now, I believe, passed into private hands. The road to it is
excellent, and occasional bits of the scenery along the way are highly
picturesque, with now and then an isolated and many-arched campanile,
adorned with its multiple bells in the Greek manner, obtruding itself
unexpectedly from the trees.

There are unquestionably many rides around the island that are quite as
enjoyable as this, but the ordinary visitor is doubtless the one who
stops over for a few hours only, during the stay of his steamer in the
port, and therefore has little time for more than the sights described.
Those who are able to make the island more than a brief way-station on
the way to or from Greece express themselves as enchanted with it, and
the number of attractive villas built by foreigners of means would seem
to emphasize the statement. Corfu as an island is altogether lovely.

The city itself has already been referred to as more Italian than Greek
in appearance. Nevertheless it is really Greek, and its shops are
certainly more like those of Athens than like those of Italy, while the
ordinary signboards of the street are in the Greek characters. It is the
height of the houses, the narrowness of the streets, the occasional
archways, and the fact that almost everybody can speak Italian, that
give the unmistakable Italian touch to Corfu after one has seen the
broader highways and lower structures of Athens. But Greco-Italian as it
is, one cannot get away from the fact that, after all, it reminds one
quite as much of Gibraltar as of anything. The town does this, quite as
much as the fortresses, with its narrow ways and its evident
cosmopolitanism. The shops, although devoted largely to Greek
merchandise, are a good deal like the Gibraltar bazaars, and make quite
as irresistible an appeal to the pocket, with their gorgeous embroidered
jackets, blue and gold vestments, and other barbaric but incredibly
magnificent fripperies, fresh from the tailor’s hand, and not, as at
Athens, generally the wares of second-hand dealers. To see peasant
jackets and vests of red and blue, and heavily ornamented with gold
tracery, go to Corfu. Nothing at Athens approaches the Corfiote display.

There are some archæological remains at Corfu, but not of commanding
prominence; and the average visitor, busied with the contemplation of
the loveliness of the country and the quaintness of the town for a few
brief hours, probably omits to hunt them up, as we ourselves did. The
most obvious monuments of the past are those of the medieval period, the
Venetian strongholds that served to protect Corfu when the island was an
important bulwark against the Saracens. Of the days when the rival
powers of classic Greece warred over the Corcyreans and their fertile
island, little trace has survived. There is a very old tomb in the
southerly suburb of Kastradès and the foundation of an ancient temple,
but neither is to be compared for interest with the host of monuments of
equal antiquity to be seen in Greece and even in Sicily. Corfu, like
Italy, has suffered a loss of the evidences of her antiquity by being so
constantly on the great highway to western Europe. She has never been
left to one side, as Greece so long was. Her fertility prevented her
degenerating into mere barren pasturage, as happened in Hellas proper,
and her situation made her important all through the Middle Ages, just
as it made her important during the expansion period of the Athenian
empire. And as Rome, through active and continuous existence, has
gradually eaten up her own ancient monuments before they achieved the
value of great age, so Corfu has lost almost entirely all trace of what
the ancient Corcyreans built; while Athens, through her long ages of
unimportance, preserved much of her classic monumental glories
unimpaired, and thanks to an awakened appreciation of them will cherish
them for all time.

The long years in which Greece lay fallow and deserted now appear not to
have been in vain. Through that period of neglect her ancient sites and
monuments lay buried and forgotten, but intact. Men were too busy
exploring and expanding elsewhere to waste a thought on the dead past.
Even the revival of learning, which exhumed the classic writings from
the oblivion of monkish cells and made the literature of Greece live
again, was insufficient to give back to the world the actual physical
monuments of that classic time. It has remained for the present day,
when the earth has been all but completely overrun and when men have
found a dearth of new worlds to conquer, that we have had the time and
the interest to turn back to Greece, sweep away the rubbish of ages, and
give back to the light of day the palaces of Agamemnon, the strongholds
of Tiryns, and the hoary old labyrinth of Minos. On the fringes of Magna
Græcia, where the empire was in touch with the unceasing tides of
western civilization, as in Sicily and at Corfu, the remnants of the
older days fared but ill. It was in the mountain fastnesses of the
Peloponnesus and in the gloomy glens of Delphi that so much of the
ancient, and even of the prehistoric and preheroic days, survived as to
give us moderns even a more definite knowledge of the times of the
Achæans and Trojans than perhaps even Homer himself had.

                                 INDEX

                                 INDEX

 Acrocorinth, 169.

 Acropolis, of Athens, first views of, 46;
   description of, 76;
   approach to, 79;
   gates of, 79;
   view from, 79, 80.

 Acropolis Museum, 86, 91, 92.

 Ægina, 39, 80, 137-139.

 Agamemnon, 28, 167, 175, 180, 181.

 Agora, at Athens, 76, 106.

 Alcmæonidæ, 165.

 Alpheios, 223, 256-258.

 Andhritsæna, 227, 229-246.

 Aphrodite, of Praxiteles, 315.

 Apollo, 154, 243, 277, 278, 299.

 Apoxyomenos, of Lysippus, 166.

 Aqueduct, at Samos, 291-294.

 Arcadia, 211-228.

 Arch, development of, 181, 192.

 Areopagus, 107.

 Argive Heræum, 186.

 Argos, 187, 172-192.

 Ariadne, 31.

 Artemis, 279, 300.

 Asklepios, 3, 4, 97, 98, 203, 207, 308-311.

 Athena, birth of, 83, 86;
   strife of, with Poseidon, 83, 90;
   sacred image of, 90;
   Archaic representations of, 92;
   Pronoia, 164,168.

 Athens, approaches to, 46;
   modern city, 50-75;
   ancient traditions of, 51;
   growth and history, 51, 52;
   street venders, 55;
   street names, 57;
   stadium, 58;
   street car system, 58;
   climate of, 59, 60;
   street scenes, 61-68;
   newspapers, 63;
   Shoe Lane, 63, 64;
   shopping, 64;
   street of the coppersmiths, 66;
   giaourti, 68;
   modern architecture, 69;
   churches, 69, 70;
   icons, 69;
   soldiery, 70, 71;
   funerals, 73;
   conversation beads, 74;
   Acropolis, 76;
   destruction of, by Persians, 88.

 Atreus, treasury of, 183, 184.

 “Balaustion,” 273, 330.

 Bassæ, 235-245.

 Bee-hive tombs, 183, 184.

 Bema, 109.

 Beulé gate, 79.

 Branchidæ, 297-303.

 Burial customs, 73, 246.

 Candia, 26-29.

 Canea, 18-26.

 Caryatid portico, 91.

 Castalian spring, 167.

 Cephissus, 50.

 Ceramicus, 112-118.

 Charioteer, statue of, at Delphi, 166.

 Choragic monument of Lysicrates, 76, 104.

 Churches, Greek, 69, 70.

 Cnidos, 314-317.

 Cnossos, 29-36.

 Coffee, 66, 67.

 Coffee-houses, 53, 54.

 Corcyra (Kerkyra) 370.

 Corfu, 368-380.

 Corinth, 169, 170.

 Corinthian canal, 148, 149.

 Corinthian capitals, 105.

 Corinthian Gulf, 149, 150.

 Cos, 304-313.

 Crete, 18-36.

 Cr[oe]sus, 156;
   trial of oracles by, 160, 161;
   gifts to oracle at Delphi, 161-163.

 Cyclopean masonry, 175, 189.

 Cyclopes, 191.

 Dances, of peasants, 139-145.

 Daphne, pass of, 124;
   convent of, 125.

 Delos, 272-285;
   legend of, 275;
   dual nature, 276;
   excavations at, 277;
   ancient houses, 279-281.

 Delphi, 146-168;
   excavations at, 153-158;
   legend of, 154, 155;
   oracle at, 155-157, 159-165;
   gifts of Cr[oe]sus to oracle, 161-163;
   great temple at, 165;
   corruption of oracle, 157-165;
   statue of charioteer, 166.

 Demeter, 128, 130.

 Dipylon, 112.

 Drachma, fluctuation of, 71-73.

 Dragoman, 212.

 Dress, of peasants, 142, 171, 201.

 Easter eggs, 360.

 Eleusinian mysteries, 128.

 Eleusis, 124-132.

 Elgin marbles, 83, 86.

 Embroideries, 311, 325.

 Ephebus, bronze statue at Athens, 118, 119.

 Epidaurus, 198-210.

 Erechtheum, 88;
   sacred precinct of, 90.

 Erechtheus, 89.

 Giaourti, 68.

 Greece, traveling in, 1-17;
   entrances to, 37-49;
   landing in, 44.

 Greek churches, 69, 70.

 Greek language, 9-13.

 Greek people, character of, 14, 15, 53, 54.

 Gremka, 255.

 Hadrian, arch of, 48, 104.

 Halicarnassus, 313.

 Hera, 275, 294.

 Heræum, Argive, 186;
   at Olympia, 260;
   at Samos, 291-294.

 Hermes, of Praxiteles, 268, 269.

 Herodotus, 90, 160-163, 290, 291.

 Hippocrates, tree of, at Cos, 307.

 Hippodameia, 266.

 Hymettus, 39, 47.

 Icons, 69.

 Ictinus, 81, 243.

 Ios (Nios) 352-360.

 Islands, of the Ægean, 272-367;
   geographical arrangement, 273;
   communication with, 274.

 Karytæna, 224.

 King George, 74, 75.

 Knights of Rhodes, 305, 319.

 Labyrinth, of Minos, 31, 32.

 Lindos, 318.

 Lion Gate, at Mycenæ, 178, 179.

 Long walls, at Athens, 42.

 Loukoumi, 25.

 Lycabettus, 38.

 Lysippus, 166.

 Malmsey wine, 367.

 Marathon, 133.

 Mars Hill, 76, 88, 107.

 Mausoleum, 313.

 Megalokastron, 27.

 Megalopolis, 218-223.

 Menidi, dances at, 139-145.

 Midnight mass, 353-361.

 Minoan age, 28.

 Minos, 27-31;
   throne of, 33.

 Minotaur, 31, 32, 89, 112.

 Monemvasía, 365-367.

 Mycenæ, 169-186;
   accommodation at, 173;
   excavations at, 175;
   acropolis of, 177;
   Lion Gate, 178, 179;
   Cyclopean masonry, 175, 178, 179;
   inverted columns, 178;
   tombs at, 180;
   reservoir, 182;
   treasury of Atreus, 183.

 Mycenæan age, 28;
   stone pillars of, 33, 178.

 Mycenæan relics at Athens, 120-122.

 Mykale, 288.

 National Museum, at Athens, 118.

 Nauplia, 193-198.

 Nausicaa, 371.

 Navigation, in ancient times, 273, 371.

 Newspapers, 10, 63.

 Niké Apteros, temple of, 80;
   binding sandal, 81;
   of Pæonius, 263, 270.

 Odeon of Herodes Atticus, 96.

 Odysseus, 16, 17, 370.

 [OE]nomaus, legend of, 266.

 Olympia, overland route to, 247-258;
   site of, 259-271;
   temple of Zeus at, 260, 263.

 Olympian Zeus, temple of, at Athens, 48, 76, 104.

 Olympic games, 264-266;
   modern, 271.

 Orientation of temples, 242.

 Paganism, traces of, in Greek church, 3, 4.

 Painting, of statues, 91.

 Panathenaic festival, 89.

 Parian marble, 362.

 Parnassus, 145, 151.

 Paros, 351, 361-365.

 Parthenon, 3, 4;
   destruction by Morosini, 77, 85;
   description of, 82-88;
   pedimental sculptures of, 83;
   curious architectural devices, 84-86;
   restorations of, 86;
   frieze of, 87.

 Patras, 368.

 Paul, sermon to the Athenians, 107.

 Peasant dances, 139-145.

 Peasant dress, 142, 171, 201.

 Pedestal of Agrippa, 81.

 Pedimental sculptures, of Parthenon, 83;
   at Olympia, 267, 268.

 Pelops, 266.

 Pentelic marble, 134.

 Pentelicus, 38, 134.

 Pericles, 42.

 Persians, invasion by, 87, 88;
   at Delphi, 164.

 Phalerum, 45.

 Philopappos, monument of, 47.

 Piraeus, 39-46.

 Pnyx, 108.

 Political customs, 61.

 Polychrome decoration of temples, 92.

 Polycrates, 290.

 Poseidon, strife with Athena, 83, 90.

 Praxiteles, 268, 315.

 Propylæa, 79, 80, 81.

 Ptolemy II., 311.

 Pythagoras, 291.

 Religious anniversaries, 62, 353-361.

 Reservoir, at Mycenæ, 182.

 Resinated wine, 137.

 Rhodes, 318-333;
   Colossus of, 332.

 Rhodian plates, 323, 324.

 Routes to Greece, 15, 16.

 St. Elias, successor of ancient Helios, 5.

 Salamis, 39, 43, 132.

 Samos, 286-297.

 Santorin, 334-350.

 “Ship of Ulysses,” 375.

 Shoe Lane, at Athens, 63-65.

 Shopping in Athens, 63-65.

 Soldiery, 70, 71.

 Sparta, 216.

 Stage, use of, in Greek theatre, 100, 101.

 Stoa, 106.

 Stoics, 106.

 Suda Bay, 19, 25, 26.

 Sunium, 37, 134-138.

 Taÿgetos, 216.

 Temples, survival of, as Christian churches, 4.

 Theatre of Dionysus, 98;
   of Epidaurus, 204.

 Theatres, 99-103.

 Themistoclean wall, 113.

 Themistocles, 42, 113.

 Theocritus, 312.

 Thera, 334-350.

 Theseum, 110.

 Theseus, 31, 89, 111.

 Tiryns, 188-192.

 Tomb-sculpture, 114-118.

 Tombs, at Mycenæ, 183, 184.

 Tower of the Winds, 105.

 Treasury of Atreus, 183.

 Troy, 28, 36.

 Villa Achilleion, 376.

 “Virgin of a Hundred Gates,” 361.

 Votive offerings, 126.

 Xerxes, 87, 88.

 Zeus, legends of, in Crete, 30;
   temple in Athens, 48, 76, 104;
   temple at Olympia, 260;
   statue at Olympia, 263;
   see also, 275 _et seq._

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                           Transcriber’s Note

The table at the end of this note summarizes any corrections to the text
that have been deemed to be printer’s errors.

The spelling of Greek place-names may occasionally use the terminal
‘-us’ interchangeably with the Greek ‘-os’, especially in the Index.
Both are retained.

The latinized Greek word ‘lepta’ is occasionally given with an accented
‘a’, either ‘à’ or ‘á’. All have been retained as printed.