File:Travels in Italy, Greece, and the Ionian Islands. - In a series of letters, description of manners, scenery, and the fine arts. (1820) (14579980040).jpg

Identifier: travelsinitalygr00wi (find matches)
Title: Travels in Italy, Greece, and the Ionian Islands. : In a series of letters, description of manners, scenery, and the fine arts.
Year: 1820 (1820s)
Authors: Williams, Hugh William, 1773-1829
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Publisher: Edinburgh : Printed for Archibald Constable and Co. London : Hurst, Robinson, and Co.
Contributing Library: Boston Public Library
Digitizing Sponsor: Boston Public Library

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the plain of Thebes, and LakeCopais, burst upon our view. As we descended,we saw poneys, and small black cattle, like thosewhich we meet in the Highlands of Scotland.The hairy fleeces of the sheep gave them the ap-pearance of goats. We soon came to the spot where Laius is saidto have been murdered by (Edipus, and which theconjecture of the learned has assigned to the tombof Laius. We found here a rude stone, which alittle fancy might have identified with this tomb.That the fatal event occurred somewhere in thisneighbourhood, is very probable; but, exceptingthe difficulty of the pass, I am not aware of anysufficient reason for fixing on this particular spot.Authority seems greatly against it, for Pausaniasexpressly says, that the murder was committedwhere two roads divide, and, as in this ruggedand impracticable country, nature has pointed outthe necessary direction of the roads, which, it maybe presumed, have long remained unchanged, weare bound, by the authority of Pausanias, to fix
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MONASTERY. 261 upon the foot of the valley, about half a mile fur-ther on, where, at present, three roads branch offin different directions, as more likely to be thescene of that event, than the place to which it isgenerally ascribed. Yet, neither here nor else-where have we been able to find any stone or stonesso artificially placed, as to deserve the name of thetomb of Laius ; and, after all, it is highly probablethat the ancient, like the modern poets, have em-bellished the truth of history, by uniting their owninteresting fictions with scenes calculated in them-selves to exert a powerful influence over the ima-gination, and give a deeper interest to the story. As we proceeded from this disputed scene, wesaw ancient Daulis at some distance, the plain ofLivadia, and Chaeronea. Daulis, the modern nameof which is Thavlea, is now a miserable village, with-out one vestige of antiquity, save a grey tower on ahill. The closing day reminded us of the neces-sity of seeking lodgings, and a w

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