Page:Travels & discoveries in the Levant (1865) Vol. 1.djvu/54

32 the temenos a fountain, which is probably the one mentioned by Pausanias. Close to this fountain is a statue in white marble lying across the bed of the stream. It represents a male figure draped to the feet in a tunic, over which is a mantle, which he is throwing over the left shoulder, with an action very usual in representations of Muses; on the feet are sandals. The statue is fairly executed, and its surface is well preserved; but the head and both arms are gone. Under the base is a square socket, in which an iron clamp has been inserted to fasten the statue to its pedestal. This may be the statue of Amphiaraos himself which Pausanias saw.

The name of this hero is one very celebrated in the mythic history of Bœotia. He was distinguished both as a warrior and a soothsayer, and was one of the seven chiefs who fought against Thebes. On the defeat of this expedition, he fled, pursued by Periklymenos, and before his enemy could overtake him, the earth opened and swallowed him up, together with his chariot; after which he was worshipped with divine honours.

Traditions differed as to the precise spot where he disappeared in the earth, and several places in Bœotia and Attica claimed this distinction. But of all these sites none was so celebrated as the Amphiaraïon near Oropos.

The picturesque ravine in which the temenos at Mavrodhilissi is situated, narrows as it approaches the sea, presenting the appearance of a chasm in the earth; and these strongly-marked physical features probably influenced the ancients in their