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

26 HOME LIFE IN HELLASmeridional luxuriance is intruded a northern note.Not far from Mavromati, the ancient Messene,where the River Leukasia joins the Mavrozumenos,there is a bridge that recalls the triplebridge near Crowland Abbey.From two piers inthe centre, arches lead in three different directionsto the three points of land formed by the confluence.Ruined castles, the strongholds of Frankishbarons, crown the heights, not only at Coron, atModon, and at Navarino, but on many an inlandcrest. Most imposing of these is Karytenia, on astupendous crag washed on three sides by theAlphaeus. Karytenia, which is in a tolerablestate of preservation, was built by Hugh deBrienne, one of that famous house which numberedamong its scions three Constables of France,a King of Jerusalem,an Emperor of Constantinople,and two Dukes of Athens, the last survivorof which fell at the battle of Poitiers.Karyteniahas memories of later times, for it was successfullyheld by Kolokotrones against Ibrahim Pasha duringthe War of Independence. It is a fittingeyrie both for the freebooting barons of the MiddleAges and the old Klepht chieftain who is one ofthe heroes of nineteenth-century Greece. Forhere we are in Arcadia, the region whose namehas become a symbol for rural innocence andpeace. These riven peaks, deep gorges, sombreforests, and beetling cliffshardly make a settingfor the sentimental shepherds and shepherdessesof Watteau philandering on smooth-shaven lawns,