attached a rope to the feet and dragged it to a ravine, where dogs and
vultures disposed of the unhallowed remains.




A GLANCE AT THE SITE AND ANTIQUITIES OF ATHENS.


The day is a happy one to the student-traveler from the Western World
in which he first looks upon the lovely plain of Athens. Rounding the
point where Hymettus thrusts his huge length into the sea, the long,
featureless mountain-wall of Southern Attica suddenly breaks down, and
gives place to a broad expanse of fertile, and well-cultivated soil,
sloping gently back with ever-narrowing bounds until it reaches the
foot-hills of lofty Pentelicus. The wooded heights of Parnes enclose
it on the north, while bald Hymettus rears an impassable barrier along
the south. In front of the gently recurved shore stretch the smooth
waters of the Gulf of Salamis, while beyond rises range upon range of
lofty mountain-peaks with strikingly varied outline, terminating on
the one hand in the towering cone of Egina, and on the other in
the pyramidal, fir-clad summit of Cithaeron. Upon the plain, at the
distance of three or four miles from the sea, are several small rocky
hills of picturesque appearance, isolated and seemingly independent,
but really parts of a low range parallel to Hymettus. Upon one of the
most considerable of these, whose precipitous sides make it a natural
fortress, stood the Acropolis, and upon the group of lesser heights
around and in the valleys between clustered the dwellings of ancient
Athens.