THE CENTAURS AND LAPITHE.

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the carriages of the modern Scopada and Aleuadæ of the country are sometimes seen to roll, and by the appearance of those large wooden wains, supported by solid wheels, which are drawn by slow teams of oxen across the broad fields undivided by hedges that stretch from the southern side of the Peneus to the hills of Pharsalia.

The wilder character of the CENTAURS, who dwelt on the lofty regions of the mountains which surrounded the lowlands of Thessaly, was expressed in the very origin from which they were said to have been derived. In the mythological traditions of their birth, their ancestor, Centaurus, was reported to have sprung from a cloud which left him on the earth in its course over the summit of Mount Pelion. The semi-ferine form, under which the Centaurs were represented by the poets and sculptors of Greece, is comparatively of recent date. Nor, indeed, is it consistent with the hypothesis which regards them as the original inhabitants of the hills, in contradistinction to the Lapithæ, the dwellers in the plain. To Homer the Centaurs were nothing

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NUMISMATIC HISTORY OF THESSALY.

but Men of a rude and savage character. Of their equine form he knew nothing. It has been well observed that by Hesiod, or rather by the unknown Author of the "Shield of Hercules," they are distinguished from the Lapithe only by the greater rudeness of their warlike weapons. The measure of their relative civilization is supplied by the circumstance recorded by him, that while the latter attack their antagonists with javelins, the Centaurs repel them with pine-trees uprooted from their native mountains. In the lyric verses of Pindar, and on the marble walls of the Temple of Theseus, they first appear in the horse-like shape which was generally assigned to them by subsequent poets and sculptors; a fact which may be attributed partly to their extraction from Thessaly, the land, among all the countries of Greece, in which the horse seems to have been first used, and which was distinguished from the rest by the equestrian superiority of its inhabitants. But in the plastic representations of the Centaurs to which we refer, the same character of wild ferocity is preserved; they are exhibited as hurling on their foes huge fragments of rock torn from the hills on which they dwell, while the Lapithæ are equipped with the usual weapons of Greek warfare. The Hellenic Heroes, Theseus and Pirithous, appear also in the ranks of the latter. The conflict, therefore, may be regarded as a general representation of the struggle, which was of so common occurrence in the earlier ages of Greek history, of rude physical force against courage disciplined by intelligence.

So much for the evidence with respect to the natural properties of the soil of Thessaly and the character of its earliest inhabitants, which is supplied by the mythological traditions of the country. We turn to a cabinet of ancient medals, and in the compartment assigned to the numismatic productions of this region, we recognize similar expressions of the same thing. In some of the members of that collection we observe a figure of a horse reined; in others, of one ranging at will and grazing in his pasture; in those of Larissa the fertility of the arable land as well as the richness of its meadows is indicated by an ear of corn combined with the form of the same animal, while the ancient pre-eminence of Thessaly in the naval history of Greece is announced by the representation of the ship Argo bearing the figure of Apollo on its prow, and accompanied by the maritime emblems of a Dolphin and a Star, the harbingers of a prosperous voyage, which appear on the coins of the Magnesian Peninsula.

The circumstance to which the stamped symbols last specified refer, namely

the ancient distinction which this country obtained from its connexion with the SEA, and perhaps also the fact of its having once been, as is supposed with great show of probability, covered by that element, seems to receive some illustration from the denomination which it bears.

The name of THESSALY, as assigned to the region bounded on the north by the Cambunian hills, by Mount Pindus on the west, the Egean on the east,

and Mount Othrys on the south, is not of high antiquity. It does not occur in Homer. The Thessalians, as a confederate body, were unknown to him, while he speaks of the different individual tribes who occupied that district to which this title was subsequently applied.

The Thessalians themselves, indeed, did not hesitate to derive their origin from a king of the heroic age who bore the name of Thessalus: but the practice of creating from their own imagination not merely one, but a series of ancestors, in order to account for their own national designations by means of such flattering etymologies, was too prevalent among the Greeks to allow of our placing any reliance on such genealogical deductions, unless supported by authentic and independent evidence. With respect to the princely person mentioned above, those who claimed to be his descendants were not agreed

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among themselves concerning his origin. At one time Thessalus was the son of Jason at another he became the son of Hæmon, from whom this country had before been called Hæmonia; while another tradition made him a member of the family of Pelasgus. The historical account of the fact is this; that a party of Pelasgians from Thesprotia, in Epirus, crossed the Pindus and descended into the plain then called OLIA, to which they gave the name of Thessaly. The invaders are said to have derived their origin from the Pelasgians, who had been themselves expelled by the HELLENES from the same region, and had carried with them the worship of the DODONEAN Jupiter, and the sanctity of his Oracle, from the banks of the Peneus to the foot of Mount Tomarus on the Molossian and Thesprotian frontier. Their descent upon Thessaly was therefore rather a return to an old than an occupation of a new settlement. The appellation by. which they designated the country to which they came, was, we are inclined to conjecture from its early maritime character

and history, originally termed THALASSIA, or the land of the SEA: this name by a very common transposition of letters became Thassalia, and for the sake of greater harmony, to avoid the repetition of the same letter, THESSALIA.

We commence our survey of the topographical details of Thessaly from

PASS OF MOUNT PINDUS.

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that point which is a starting-place to most European travellers in their excursions thither.

Let us imagine ourselves as issuing forth from the gates of JANNINA, on the eastern frontier of Epirus. A good road conveys us along the western brink of the lake of that city, whence we wind round its southern extremity, and pursue our course to the north-east. At about twelve miles from the town we stand on the summit of the hill of DRISKO, where is a kiosk, a fountain shaded by a plane-tree, and a magnificent view. From one of its slopes, if we cast our eyes back, the city of Jannina is seen, shining with its domes and minarets and white castle rising out of the bosom of the placid lake: in front of us is a grand ridge of mountains, running parallel to the great Pindus chain.

At the eastern foot of the hill of Drisko is the valley of BALduma, where is a bridge over the stream which winds along it: it is the work of the renowned Ali Pasha, as indeed are most of the bridges and the khans upon this route to Thessaly; but now the grass grows over the paved road, the bridges are broken down, and the khans deserted. The most melancholy objects in this country are the improvements which were once made in it. They are effected, and then fall into decay, for there is no continuity of action in the governing power. The redeeming element of most other despotismshereditary succession-is here wanting. An Ali Pasha dies, and the roads made by him in his Pashalic become impassable.

It is well for the traveller who pursues his journey in the summer, when the pebbly bed of the Aracthus and the Peneus, which in the winter season are swollen into formidable streams, serves him as a road. In a few miles from

The scenery is wild.

the valley above mentioned the ascent becomes steep. Wood grows in abundance, but there are no marks of cultivation except a few starved vines, and some patches of Indian corn. Now the valley becomes a ravine, and the river a torrent. Soon we leave the latter, and ascend a steep to the left: this brings us on one of the crests of Mount ZYGO, which falls down to the right in an abrupt and deep chasm, parallel to the road. To one who walks along the edge of this chasm, in the gloom of a dark evening, the effect of the gulf beneath is very grand. Having passed onward, he is surprised by the sight of many lights far beneath him on the right, closely glittering together on the opposite side of this deep valley. There is the town of MEZZOVO.

Let not the traveller who enters at night the khan of this place,—and we