The Works of Lord Byron Volume II Part 32

Leucadia, now Santa Maura. From the promontory (the Lover's Leap) Sappho is said to have thrown herself.

[Strabo (lib. x. cap. 2, ed. Paris, 1853, p. 388) gives Menander as an authority for the legend that Sappho was the first to take the "Lover's Leap" from the promontory of Leucate. Writers, he adds, better versed in antiquities ???a????????te??? [a)rchaiologiko/teroi], prefer the claims of one Cephalus. Another legend, which he gives as a fact, perhaps gave birth to the later and more poetical fiction. The Leucadians, he says, once a year, on Apollo's day, were wont to hurl a criminal from the rock into the sea by way of expiation and propitiation. Birds of all kinds were attached to the victim to break his fall, and, if he reached the sea uninjured, there was a fleet of little boats ready to carry him to other sh.o.r.es. It is possible that dim memories of human sacrifice lingered in the islands, that in course of time victims were transformed into "lovers," and it is certain that poets and commentators, "p.r.o.ne to lie," are responsible for names and incidents.]

15.

Many a Roman chief and Asian King.

Stanza xlv. line 4.

It is said, that on the day previous to the battle of Actium, Antony had thirteen kings at his levee.

[Plutarch, in his _Antonius_, gives the names of "six auxiliary kings who fought under his banners," and mentions six other kings who did not attend in person but sent supplies. Shakespeare (_Anthony and Cleopatra_, act iii. sc. 6, lines 68-75), quoting Plutarch almost _verbatim_, enumerates ten kings who were "a.s.sembled" in Anthony's train--

"Bocchus, the king of Libya; Archelaus, Of Cappadocia; Philadelphos, king Of Paphlagonia; the Thracian king, Adallas; King Malchus of Arabia; king of Pont; Herod of Jewry; Mithridates, king Of Comagene; Polemon and Amintas, The kings of Mede and Lycaonia, With a more larger list of sceptres."

Other authorities for the events of the campaign and battle of Actium (Dion Ca.s.sius, Appian, and Orosius) are silent as to "kings;" but Florus (iv. 11) says that the wind-tossed waters "vomited back" to the sh.o.r.e gold and purple, the spoils of the Arabians and Sabaeans, and a thousand other peoples of Asia.]

16.

Look where the second Caesar's trophies rose.

Stanza xlv. line 6.

Nicopolis, whose ruins are most extensive, is at some distance from Actium, where the wall of the Hippodrome survives in a few fragments.

These ruins are large ma.s.ses of brickwork, the bricks of which are joined by interstices of mortar, as large as the bricks themselves, and equally durable.

17.

Acherusia's lake.

Stanza xlvii. line 1.

According to Pouqueville, the lake of Yanina; but Pouqueville is always out.

[The lake of Yanina (Janina or Joannina) was the ancient Pambotis. "At the mouth of the gorge [of Suli], where it suddenly comes to an end, was the marsh, the Palus Acherusia, in the neighbourhood of which was the Oracle."--_Geography of Greece_, by H. F. Tozer, 1873, p. 121.]

18.

To greet Albania's Chief.

Stanza xlvii. line 4.

The celebrated Ali Pacha. Of this extraordinary man there is an incorrect account in Pouqueville's _Travels_. [For note on Ali Pasha (1741-1822), see _Letters_, 1898, i. 246.]

19.

Yet here and there some daring mountain-band Disdain his power, and from their rocky hold Hurl their defiance far, nor yield, unless to gold.

Stanza xlvii. lines 7, 8, and 9.

Five thousand Suliotes, among the rocks and in the castle of Suli, withstood thirty thousand Albanians for eighteen years; the castle at last was taken by bribery. In this contest there were several acts performed not unworthy of the better days of Greece.

[Ali Pasha a.s.sumed the government of Janina in 1788, but it was not till December 12, 1803, that the Suliotes, who were betrayed by their leaders, Botzaris and Koutsonika and others, finally surrendered.--Finlay's _History of Greece_, 1877, vi. 45-50.]

20.

Monastic Zitza! etc.

Stanza xlviii. line 1.

The convent and village of Zitza are four hours' journey from Joannina, or Yanina, the capital of the Pachalick. In the valley the river Kalamas (once the Acheron) flows, and, not far from Zitza, forms a fine cataract. The situation is perhaps the finest in Greece, though the approach to Delvinachi and parts of Acarnania and aetolia may contest the palm. Delphi, Parna.s.sus, and, in Attica, even Cape Colonna and Port Raphti, are very inferior; as also every scene in Ionia, or the Troad: I am almost inclined to add the approach to Constantinople; but, from the different features of the last, a comparison can hardly be made.

21.

Here dwells the caloyer.

Stanza xlix. line 6.

The Greek monks are so called.

[_Caloyer_ is derived from the late Greek ?a???????[kalo/geros], "good in old age," through the Italian _caloieso_. Hence the accent on the last syllable.--_N. Eng. Dict._]

22.

Nature's volcanic Amphitheatre.

Stanza li. line 2.

The Chimariot mountains appear to have been volcanic.

[By "Chimaera's Alps" Byron probably meant the Ceraunian Mountains, which are "woody to the top, but disclose some wide chasms of red rock"

(_Travels in Albania_, i. 73) to the north of Jannina,--not the Acroceraunian (Chimariot) Mountains, which run from north to south-west along the coast of Mysia. "The walls of rock (which do not appear to be volcanic) rise in tiers on every side, like the seats and walls of an amphitheatre" (H. F. Tozer). The near distance may have suggested an amphitheatre; but he is speaking of the panorama which enlarged on his view, and uses the word not graphically, but metaphorically, of the entire "circle of the hills."]

23.

Behold black Acheron!

Stanza li. line 6.

Now called Kalamas.

24.

In his white capote.

Stanza lii. line 7.

Albanese cloak.

[The _capote_ (feminine of _capot_, masculine diminutive of _cope_, cape) was a long s.h.a.ggy cloak or overcoat, with a hood, worn by soldiers, etc.--_N. Eng. Dict_., art. "Capote."]

25.

The Sun had sunk behind vast Tomerit.

Stanza lv. line 1.

Anciently Mount Tomarus.