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

THE GREEK MAINLAND 19the pomegranate. There is a profusion of wildflowers,among which narcissi and a delicate paleblue iris hold the chief place.One is apt to invest everything Spartan with astern atmosphere, but, on the contrary, the valleyhas a smiling, contented aspect. The town ismodern. It was planned and built by the Bavariansin 1834. The heavy stone houses and broadstreets are more suited to the climate of Germanythan to that of Greece. They have plenty ofspace, however, set in the midst of gardens. Afavourite resort of the townsfolk is Platanista, alevel plot of ground in the angle formed by theconfluence of the Eurotas and the Mangoula.Tradition has itthat it was here that the Spartanboys were brought to be whipped. It is the playgroundof the youth of modern Sparta, frolicsomeurchins, unmindful of the discipline to which theirpredecessors were subjected. And here theirelders sip coffee and talk politics beneath thestately poplars, from amid whose tremblingleaves comes the soft cooing of doves. Behindrises Taygetus, a mighty mountain-wall withpinnacles of snow clear-cut against the blue.front the lofty barrier of Parnon shuts in thevalley eastward. Parnon is far off, but Taygetusbroods over Sparta and sends her hisInsnows inthe foaming waters of the Mangoula. He alsosends his coldbreath, a doubtful benefit, for thevalley, exposed only to the south wind, has a veryhigh summer temperature, and the sharp contrast