CHAP. VIII. CORINTH (CONTINUED), B. C. 461-460. THE NAUTICAL TAVERN OF THE GOLDEN FLEECE AT CORINTH. - CHAMBERS SACRED TO BOREAS.- CONSULTATION WITH PHYLARCHUS. -EXPERIENCED SKIPPERS.-YARNS OF A PHOCEAN CAPTAIN. -ITALIAN PIRATES. -A CADMEAN VICTORY. EXPEDITION TO THE TIN ISLANDS. -FIERY MOUNTAINS AND RIVERS OF SILVER. — PILLARS ERECTED BY HERACLES. -A WINTER IN ANCIENT BRITAIN.- PLUNDER. LEGEND OF PHETON, AND TRADITIONARY ACCOUNT OF THE ORIGIN OF AMBER.- CARTHAGINIAN SACRIFICES TO MOLOCH. - AN OLD ADMIRAL. CAPTIVITY. THE Golden Fleece was the oldest tavern in Corinth. It had been the resort of seafaring men from the remotest period; but the history of its first establishment was lost in the gloom of ages. Its origin, however, formed a perpetual subject of discussion amongst its inmates. Greek skippers were antiquaries of the very first water. They cared not for ancient temples, antique statues, or wonderful footprints of departed heroes. Taverns were their study; and to impugn the antiquity of a seaman's tavern was to wound him on his tenderest point. The first thing a captain asked on arriving at a new port was, "Which is the oldest tavern?" and directly he had obtained a satisfactory reply, he both then and on every subsequent visit religiously kept his quarters at the hotel indicated. But the modern reader must not suppose that the Greek sailor was a mere antiquary who only cared for walls and stones. No! his pursuit was connected with a still higher and more important object, which was kept constantly in view, though not perhaps brought too prominently forward. He knew that at old inns he stood. a chance of getting old wines; and thus it was that every skipper who had ever run across the Ægean always-to use his own phrase cast anchor at the Golden Fleece. Youngsters of forty or fifty declared that the Fleece was as old as Jason and the Argonauts; but even this ancient date did not satisfy the regular salts. They sturdily maintained that the inn always had been, and always would be; and that no man had seen the beginning, nor would any man see the ending. The tavern itself was merely a very large and lowbuilt house, divided, like other Greek dwellings, into the andronitis and the gynæconitis; but as no woman was ever admitted, the passage between the two courts was always thrown open. Both courts were thus, as a general rule, set apart for the purposes of eating and drinking; and the surrounding rooms, with the exception of a large banqueting saloon, were merely regarded as so many bedchambers and small warehouses. Indeed, however much the house might have been adapted to the requirements of those gentlemen whose homes were on the salt seas, it was by no means well contrived for less amphibious travellers. Our hero himself slept soundly during the first night, but awoke with the impression that he had been slumbering in the open air, under the doubtful guardianship of Boreas; at the same time he was not a little surprised at hearing an opinionated skipper growl out that the cabins in the Fleece were almost as good as those on board ship; for the house was quite as safe as the best vessel in the harbour, and a man could tell just as soon if there were any changes in the wind. The reader will readily perceive that Herodotus had entered an entirely new world. Every man he met was nautical; every word that was uttered smacked of the salt water. Poetry and music, sculpture and painting, religion and philosophy, were no longer the subjects of conversation; but in their place he heard of piratical CONSULTATION WITH PHYLARCHUS. 103 Carthaginians, cowardly Phoenicians, lying Cretans, and cunning Egyptians; of wine, linen, frankincense, and every other article of export and import trade; of war galleys, corn ships, sails, oars, anchors, and a thousand other similar things which need not be named. The morning meal was taken by all the visitors promiscuously in the open courts; and after it was finished, Herodotus strolled out with Phylarchus, and asked the captain's advice upon his future proceedings. Upon reckoning up his expenses, Herodotus found that a quarter of a talent would cover all his Corinthian extravagances, and that therefore, as far as money was concerned, he had sufficient to carry him wherever he pleased. He had left Samos in September B. C. 461, and winter had nearly passed away; consequently the year B. C. 460 had commenced, the year of the eightieth Olympiad. The festival would be celebrated on the first full moon after the summer solstice, or about the end of July. Phylarchus accordingly advised Herodotus to purchase a good horse, and travel by land to Argos, and from thence to Sparta, and to stop at either city as many days as he pleased, but to be careful to reach the Olympian valley in time for the festival. After some consideration, Herodotus adopted the suggestion; and having drawn sufficient funds from Timoleon and purchased a horse, he prepared to take his departure the next morning at sunrise. But to return to the Golden Fleece, at which Herodotus put up for the remainder of the day. The dinner or supper, whichever the reader likes to call it was served up in a large oblong room called the banqueting saloon, about six o'clock, P. M. At that hour the captains and mates had all assembled, and were rapidly settling themselves on the stools which surrounded the several tables. The veterans sat at the head of the room, and the youngsters along the two sides; but Herodotus, being regarded as a guest under the especial protection of Captain Phylarchus, found himself in one of the seats of honour. A glance at the several faces would have impressed the most superficial observer with a tolerably correct notion of the character of the company. Many a struggle with the storm and winds, many a bold encounter with a bloodthirsty pirate, many a sharp bargain in distant marts, were written upon the dry, wrinkled countenances of the assembled skippers. There were men who had even passed the Pillars of Heracles, at Gibraltar, and traded at the Spanish port of Tartessus, at the mouth of the Guadalquiver; others who had explored the Black Sea and traded with the Scythians of Southern Russia, and narrowly escaped from the bloodthirsty Tauri of the Crimea; others who knew every stade of the Mediterranean coast, excepting the shores of Tunis, Algiers, and Morocco, which at that time were in the possession of the Carthaginians. Indeed there was one old captain who had been to Cassiterides, or the British Isles, and also to the city of Carthage itself, in the Gulf of Tunis; and another man, an Ionian, who had spent all his life navigating the Erythræan Sea, the name applied to the Red Sea and Indian Ocean. No yarns, however, were spun whilst the dishes were being brought in; general attention was too much occupied. In came the pigs' heads and shoulders, the huge joints of beef, the endless platters of lamb and kid, sausages, black puddings, tunny fish, sea-dog, and red mullet, together with enormous loaves of bread and jugs of wine. Every man took out his short dagger; and Herodotus, who had outshone every reveller at the banquet of Nicias, was fairly beaten by every sailor in the Golden Fleece. But all things must come to an end in time, and at last the meal was over, the table cleared, the libations to the gods religiously performed, the cups of wine in fair cir YARNS OF A PHOCEAN CAPTAIN. 105 culation, and the conversation in full play. Herodotus was seated, as we have seen, amongst the veterans, who soon began to hear and discuss each other's yarns. He listened with the utmost interest, and treasured up every word that was uttered. The captain, who had been to Cassiterides and Carthage, told the whole story of his adventures; and we present his narrative to our readers, as an illustration of the perils that were encountered by ancient voyagers. "You must know," began the old captain, "that my father was a citizen of Phocæa, in Ionia, on the western coast of Asia Minor, and that the Phocæans were the first of all the Greeks, not even excepting the Corinthians, who ever made long voyages. They did not sail in broad merchant ships, but in long galleys having fifty oars each, and a crew well armed and always ready for fighting. They were the first to enter the Adriatic Sea and trade with the Illyrians; and they even sailed to Spain and beyond the Pillars of Heracles as far as Tartessus, at the mouth of the Guadalquiver. A hundred years ago, the Tartessian trade was the best in all the world; and a fiftyoared galley, well manned, could compete with two Carthaginian or Phoenician vessels, and set all other pirates at defiance. 66 Eighty years ago, as you all know, Ionia was conquered by Cyrus, king of Persia. The Phocæans, and my father amongst the others, did not at all like being ruled by the Persians. Their city was well walled; but resistance was really useless, as the walls were invested by an overpowering army. At last they entreated the Persian general to withdraw the besieging force for one day, in order to give them time to decide whether they would submit or no. The general did so, but was outwitted. The Phocæans put all their wives and children, together with their moveables and their images of the gods, on board their fifty-oared galleys, and then set sail |