Page:HintsfromHesiod.pdf/68



APPENDIX D. (3.)

Helicon is the ancient name of a mountain in Bœotia, near the Gulf of Corinth, sacred to Apollo and the Muses, who thence received the name of Heliconides. Its modem name is, pronounced , an obvious corruption as Dr. Clarke has stated, of Ascra, a town upon Helicon, and the birthplace of Hesiod. Dr. Clarke, who visited this mountain, has favored the public with a very interesting description of it. Instead of proceeding to Lebadea, by the usual circuitous route along the level country, he ascended the mountain from Neocorio, passed by the monastery of St. Nicholo to Sagara, and afterwards descended by the monastery of St. George to Lebadea. He ascended in a northwest direction above the village of Neocorio and passed a chapel in ruins. On his right hand there was a rivulet flowing from Helicon towards the plains of Neocorio, or Thespiæ; and beyond this, on the opposite side of the dingle through which this rivulet fell, he saw from an eminence a village called Panaja. After traveling along the northeast side of the mountain, he reached, in about an hour, the little monastery of St. Nicholo, situated within a sheltered recess of Helicon. The mountain surrounded it on all sides, a ruined tower belonging to Panaja appearing in front through a small opening. The aromatic plants filled the air with their spicy odors. A perennial fountain threw its limpid waters into the rivulet below; and the monastery was almost concealed amid trees, no less remarkable for their variety than for their beauty and luxuriance. The fountain was covered with moss and with creeping plants, forming a pendent foliage over all the fabric constructed around it. In a church near the monastery. Dr. Clarke found along inscription on the shaft of one of the pillars, directly mentioning that the, or games sacred to the Muses, according to Pausanias, were celebrated near a grove upon Mt. Helicon. This inscription, and other evidence, convinced Dr. Clarke that he had now discovered the fountain Aganippe and the Grove of the Muses. Hence it followed, that the rivulet below was the Permessus, parent of Aganippe, called Termessus by Pausanias, and flowing, as he describes it, in a circuitous course from Mt. Helicon.

A path, winding through the grove, conducts from the monastery to the spot, where, upon the left hand, the water gushes forth