Home life in Hellas, Greece and the Greeks - eBooks4Greeks.gr

292 HOME LIFE IN HELLASnever free from malaria and it is frequently shakenby earthquakes.In 1858 it was destroyed almostentirely. Athens, on the contrary, is one of thehealthiest spots in Greece, and in a land whichcounts, on an average, ninety-four earthquakedays in the year, it enjoys a remarkable immunityfrom disaster. The shocks with which it is visitedoccasionally are rarely violent enough to causedamage. Sentiment had the largest share inchoosing it as the capital, but in these respectsthe choice was happy. The arid character of theAttic plain was commented on by Pindar andThucydides, and no doubt by others before them.Certainly it has come in for animadversion eversince. The "chorus of hills" which bound it onevery side but that open to the sea are not highenough to hold the clouds, but, on the other hand,they are low enough to admit the northern breezes,which temper the summer heat. The thin, transparentatmosphere renders a high temperaturemuch more tolerable than in a damp climate.Between the hours of nine and five on a summerday, the pavements of Athens scorch and thereflection from the white walls blinds, but the heatis never what is termed stifling, and it is alwayspleasant in the shade. In the morning, when thesky is rosy behind Hymettus, before the sun haspumped up the dewy coolness of the night, and inthe evening, when he sinks in vaporous goldbehind the ranges of the Peloponnesus, one istempted to say there is no climate in the world