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GEOGRAPHICAL VIEW OF GREECE. 15and on that account was early occupied by Philip on his second invasion of Greece. The desolate mountain of Parnassus,once associated with the fame of Phocis, presents to the traveller of our times nothing but recollections. Delphi layon the south side of it,overshadowed byits double peak ;and not far above the citywas the temple, the oracle ofApollo. Here the masterpiecesof art were displayed incountless abundance under the protection of the god ; together with the costly and consecrated offerings of nations,cities/ and kings. Here, in the Amphictyonic council, stillmore costly treasures, the first maxims of the laws of nations, were matured bythe Greeks. Hither on the festivaldays, when the great games of the Pythian deity recurred,(games surpassed only by those of Olympia,) pilgrims andspectators poured in throngs here at the Castalian fountain;the songs of the poets resounded in solemn rivalship j and,more excitingthan all, the acclamations of the multitude.Of all this not a vestige remains. Not even ruins havebeen spared to us by time. Only one monument of doubtfulcharacter seems to designate the spot,where (Edipus slewhis father Lai us ;and whilst every vestige of greatness andglory has vanished, nothing but the memory of a crime isperpetuated. 2Phocis and Mount Parnassus separate the two parts ofLocris. The eastern inhabited part, by the two tribes whichtook their names from the city Opus and Mount Cnemis, 3lies along the Euripus, or the long strait, which divides theisland Eubcea from Boeotia ;and would have almost nothingto show, that is worthy of commemoration, were it not thatthe inseparable names of Thermopylae and Leoniclas produce an emotion in every noble mind. " Here the longlaeroic file of three hundred Spartans takes precedence ofothers, as it moves through the gate of eternity," 4 "AtThermopylae/' says Herodotus, 5 u a steep and inacessible1Many of them had, as at Olympia, storehouses of their own. Pliny, xxxiv.17, estimates the number of statues at Delphi, as at Olympia and Athens, tohare been even in his time 3000..*''Bwftholdy, Bruchstucke, p. 251. Compare the view in Clarke, Platespuo, n.ocri, OpuiUii, and Bpicnemidii.grave is still shown. See the view of it and of the country, inpO3.Herod, vii. 1 76.