the moist west and southwest winds come in contact with the dry,
heated air of the Attic plain, they are at once volatilized and
dispersed, not condensed (as in northern lands); therefore the day
resolves itself into brilliant sunshine.

The climate saved the Athenians from being obliged to wage a stern
warfare with nature as did the northern peoples. Their life and
civilization could be one developed essentially "in the open air";
while, on the other hand, the bracing sea breeze saved them from
that enervating lethargy which has ruined so many southern folk.
The scanty soil forced them to struggle hard to win a living; unless
they yielded to the constant beckoning of the ocean, and sought
food, adventure, wealth, and a great empire across the seas.


7. The Topography of the City of Athens.--So much for the land of
Attica in general; but what of the setting of the city of Athens
itself? The city lay in a plain, somewhat in the south central
part of Attica, and about four miles back from the sea. A number
of mountains came together to form an irregular rectangle with the
Saronic Gulf upon the south. To the east of Athens stretched the
long gnarled ridge of Hymettus, the wildest and grayest mountain
in Attica, the home of bees and goatherds, and (if there be faith
in pious legend) of innumerable nymphs and satyrs. To the west
ran the lower, browner mountains, Aegaleos, across which a road (the
"Sacred Way") wound through an easy pass towards Eleusis, the only
sizable town in Attica, outside of Athens and its harbors. To the
rear of the plain rose a noble pyramid, less jagged than Hymettus,
more lordly than Aegaleos; its summits were fretted with a white which
turned to clear rose color under the sunset. This was Pentelicus,