Travels and Discoveries in the Levant/Volume 1/Letter XVIII
XVIII.
Rhodes, August 24, 1803.
A shout time ago an Ionian at Cos having been maltreated by some sailors of a Turkish brig of war, applied to me for redress. The assault was an aggravated one; for one of the officers in command of the brig, on being appealed to, told the Ionian that he had better be quiet, or that on some future occasion the sailors might take his life. I sent a statement of the case to the Cairaacam of Cos, to which I got no answer. In the mean time H.M.S. "Sampson," commanded by Captain Lewis Jones, happened very conveniently to look in at Rhodes on her way up from Syria, and I was thus enabled to pay a visit to Cos unannounced. Great was the surprise and dismay of the Turkish officials at Cos at my sudden apparition in an English war steamer, for the Caimacam had purposely delayed answering my complaint till the Turkish brig whose sailors were accused had sailed for Samos; and she was actually getting under weigh at the very moment when we came in.
The case of the Ionian was examined before the Mejlis in the presence of Captain Jones and myself. My client's evidence was somewhat slender, and the Turkish officer would have probably been acquitted had it not been for the stupid manner in which he contradicted his own statements. The dexterity with which these contradictions were elicited by Blut, acting as a dragoman, greatly amused Captain Jones, who, up to a certain point in the trial, had had a professional sympathy for the Turkish officer, the more so as the case was tried by civilians.
We exacted ample satisfaction. Pistol ate his leek, though with many wry faces; and the Caimacam, after all was over, paid us a visit on board the "Sampson," gazing with a stupid terror and feigned admiration at the massive 68-pounders on the deck, one of which was quite enough to annihilate his tumbledown whitewashed fortress.
"Tell the captain," said he, when he took his leave, "that I have gained this day a real fin end. May our friendship be as firm a union as that of the nail with the flesh; "holding up a very ugly thumb as an illustration of this oriental metaphor.
After redressing the wrongs of the Ionian, to the great satisfaction of the Christian population, I took leave of my kind and hospitable host, Captain Jones, who left with the "Sampson" to rejoin the fleet at Besika Bay. We then made a little tour of four days in Cos, riding through the island from east to west along the north shore opposite Calymnos. Cos is traversed throughout its whole length by a chain of mountains, interrupted only in the part opposite Nisyros. This chain, the ancient Oromedon, called also by Pliny Prion, runs so near the southern shore as to leave on the northern coast a considerable space of plain in some places. Some of this land is devoted to the cultivation of the small vine from which raisins are made, which Cos exports in considerable quantities, but not of very fine quality. There is also a good deal of rich arable land not half cultivated, but capable of producing large crops of grain. The island is very much depopulated, and has only four villages besides the principal town. The first day we rode as far as Pyh, distant about three hours from the town of Cos. After passing through the gardens in the environs, we traversed a narrow strip of plain lying at the foot of the barren central range of mountains. This plain is planted with vineyards. At a ruined church, called Agios Pantalemos, distant about an hour and a half from the town, I copied two sepulchral inscriptions. On our left, we passed the village of Asphendu, which lies under the mountain-range, and on our right some salt-works on the sea-shore, which here, as elsewhere in Turkey, are a great cause of malaria. At Pyli is a very interesting Greek tomb, consisting at present of a chamber rather more than 18 feet long, and covered over with a horizontal vault. Its height is 9 feet 8 inches. In each side are six oblong recesses or theæ, each of which appears to have been closed by a door, as a piece of iron has been inserted in the architrave. The stone of which this tomb is built is a travertine. One of the blocks in the roof is nearly 8 feet long. Over the tomb is a little church called Stavro, in the walls of which a number of fragments of Ionic architecture of a good period are inserted. Among these are two pieces of cornice, each 6 feet long and about 6 inches deep. It is evident that these architectural remains originally belonged to the external facade of the tomb. In this church is an interesting inscription114 which tells us that this monument commemorates a certain Charmylos, and makes mention of a temenos round it, with gardens and small temples (οἰκία), dedicated to the hero Charmylos and the twelve gods.
According to Ross, this tomb is still called 'στὸ Χαρμύλι. I could not, however, learn whether this name had been handed down by tradition from the time of the ancients, or whether it had not been rather suggested at some recent period by the discovery of the inscription in the church. The name Charmylos occurs in another inscription at Cos. This monument is a very interesting example of the class of architectural tombs which were erected in the Macedonian period. It serves now as a sheep-pen. At Pyli is a castle placed on a nearly inaccessible rock. I tried to scale it, and met a hare in so very narrow and steep a place, that fearing he would trip me up, I drew up respectfully to let him pass. Below the castle is the village of Palaio Pyli, now utterly deserted, the walls of the houses still standing in roofless desolation. The modern village is scattered about. I found but few inscriptions here. From Pyli we went to Antimachia. The country between these two villages is rich, but only partially cultivated. Indian corn is principally grown here.
Antimachia is another small and scattered village. Here, in a church called Proskynema, I found an inscription behind the altar, which commemorated the erection of a statue to a gymnasiarch, Aurelius Aristaichnos; another inscription found here, published by Ross, records a decree of a religious fraternity, who celebrated the rites of Zeus Hyetios,—"the rain-bringing Jupiter,"115 a deity who must have been held in peculiar esteem in this district, from its extreme dryness. We learn from Plutarch that Herakles was worshipped with peculiar rites at Antimacliia, in accordance with a local myth, by which he was supposed to have landed here on his return from Troy; and in a curious inscription found in the town of Cos, mention is made of this worship, and of a piece of land (temenos) set apart by bequest for the endowment of his priests, whose dignity was hereditary in a particular family.116
In the vestibule of the church of Panagia, I found a sepulchral cippus scidptured in relief, with festoons hanging from bulls' heads. One of the bulls' heads is placed between a gryphon on the left and a lion on the right; each with his right forepaw raised. In this vestibule is also the capital of an Ionic column. In the village I purchased a small Greek vase Avith ornaments painted in crimson, of a cream- coloured ground, but without incised lines, in a very archaic style.117 This must have been found in a tomb, but I could not get the peasants to indicate the spot.
At about an hour's distance from Antimachia, is a place on the south-eastern shore, where Ross places Halasarna. Near this site is a village called Cardamyla, in the church of which, called Agia Anargyre, is an inscription dedicated by a priest of Apollo. I could not hear of any village called Apostrophe, as marked in Ross's map.
Near Antimachia is the church of Christos Mos- copianos, in a field close by which are a quantity of blocks of marble, and fragments of columns, evidently from some temple, and others in the in-all of the church itself.
From Antimachia we went to Kephalas. Between these two points the great mountain-ridge of Cos is interrupted, as if by some natural convulsion. Just opposite this isthmus lies Nisyros, which seems as if it had been plucked up by the roots, and flung out of the mountain-chain into the sea, its formation so completely corresponds with the general character of the mountain-ridge of Cos. Hence the ancients, who never lost an opportunity of turning a physical phenomenon into myth, said, or rather sang, that Nisyros was broken off from Cos by Neptune. Seeing the island itself, I was reminded of a Greek vase on which Poseidon is represented upheaving the whole island of Nisyros in his arms to throw at the giant Polybotes. In this design, on the mass of rock which represents the uplifted island, a goat, a serpent, a shell, and other marine emblems are delineated, as symbols respectively of the mountain, lowlands, and the coast.118
The isthmus between Antimachia and Kephalas is exceedingly barren, with hardly any vegetation except the aloe, which I found growing in rows of three or four, ilke young fir-trees, with immense flowering-stems. There is much conglomerate rock and drift sand on the surface. Kephalas is picturesquely placed on a rocky hill, with a ruined castle, in the walls of which I noticed escutcheons of the Knights of St. John. At a few minutes' distance from the village are the ruins of a Greek Acropolis, which, as we now know from inscriptions, was called Isthmos. Here is a most interesting ruin, a fragment of a Greek temple, which now forms part of the church of Panagia Palatiani. The south wall of the cella still remains, forming a kind of vestibule to the west of the actual church. This wall is 16 feet long and 6 feet high. At its W. extremity is a doorway 2 feet 5 inches wide: the largest of the blocks of which it is composed are 4 feet 5 inches long and 2 feet 7 inches deep: the material is trachyte. Within this vestibule is a kind of table formed of ancient blocks put together by the builders of the church, which is now called Τράπεζα. On this "table," at the annual feast of the saint, the people hold their panegris. Ross noticed a similar custom in the island of Pholegandros, and in both places it is no doubt a relic of Paganism. From a half-defaced inscription in the pavement of the church, he ascertained that the temple was dedicated to a Roman empress, perhaps Livia, in the character of Demeter. The sides of the rocky hill on which this church stands, are cultivated in terraces supported by walls, in and about which are many fragments of the temple, pieces of architrave, triglyphs, and drums of columns; from which it appears that it was of the Doric order. On the shore, near Palatia, was the ancient harbour.
A number of inscriptions have been copied at Kephalas, in which the ancient name of this city, Isthmos, occurs several times. This name has not been noticed, as far as I know, by any ancient author. On a base copied by Ross is a dedication on one side to the emperor Vespasian, and on the other to one Satyros, son of Themistocles, a physician, whom the Isthmiotes honoured with a bronze statue and a crown of the value of fifty gold pieces. The decrees are made out in the name of the senate and people.119
After crossing the dry bed of a torrent, we came to a vineyard, in which many pieces of marble had been dug up, but destroyed to make lime by the peasants. The country about Kephalas produces much corn, which is kept in magazines cut in the native rock, and entered by a hole from the top. Magazines of this kind were common in antiquity.120 The population here is entirely agricultural, poor, and dirty in their habits. We came home by Asphendu, a picturesque village situated high up on the side of Mount Prion. It is traversed by ravines, and sheltered by numbers of trees and shrubs. The inhabitants are a race with more courage than is generally found in the Greek islands. Lately, on building a new church, they hoisted a flag with a picture of the Resurrection, which the Governor of Cos ordered them to take down. They set his order at defiance.
The Turks have lately been endeavouring to clean out the ancient harbour of Cos by dredging, and have found a colossal hand, probably from the statue of some Roman emperor, whose body may still lie embedded in the mud. I obtained during this visit an unedited inscription, containing a mention of Halasarna, which is placed by Ross on the S.E. shore of the island. An embassy to some king, probably one of the Ptolemies, is also mentioned. This inscription was presented to me by the Ionian for whom we had obtained redress from the Turkish captain. I also copied an inscription in the possession of M. Demetri Phatanista, which contains the commencement of a letter from the Emperor Tiberius to the people of Cos, bearing date A.D. 15, the year of his accession.
Our departure from Cos was not attended with so much pomp and circumstance as marked our arrival there. We embarked in a little caique full of Turks. The wind blew fresh from the N.W., as it generally does here at night in this season, and we made the passage to Rhodes in one night.