Mosaics of Grecian History by Marcius Willson;Robert Pierpont Wilson
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page 31 of 667 (04%)
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sacrifice to the Achelous," whose very name was used, in the
language of poetry, as an appellation for the element of water and for rivers. 5. Lo'cris, lying along the Corinthian Gulf east of AEtolia, was inhabited by a wild, uncivilized race, scarcely Hellen'ic in character, and said to have been addicted, from the earliest period, to theft and rapine. Their two principal towns were Amphis'sa and Naupac'tus, the latter now called Lepanto. There was another settlement of the Locri north of Pho'cis and Boeo'tia. 6. Do'ris, a small territory in the north-eastern angle of AEtolia proper--a rough but fertile country--was the early seat of the Dorians, the most enterprising and the most powerful of the Hellenic tribes, if we take into account their numerous migrations, colonies and conquests. Their colonies in Asia Minor founded six independent republics, which were confined within the bounds of as many cities. From this people the Doric order of architecture--a style typical of majesty and imposing grandeur, and the one the most employed by the Greeks in the construction of their temples--derived its origin. 7. Pho'cis.--On the east of Locris, AEtolia, and Doris was Phocis, a mountainous region, bordered on the south by the Corinthian Gulf. In the northern central part of its territory was the famed Mount Parnassus, covered the greater part of the year with snow, with its sacred cave, and its Castalian fount gushing forth between two of its lofty rocks. The waters were said to inspire those who drank of them with the gift of poetry. Hence both mountain and fount were sacred to the Muses, and their names have come down |
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