In the Land of Temples Part 2

VIII

THE TEMPLE OF CONCORD ON THE WALL FROM WITHIN, GIRGENTI

VIII THE TEMPLE OF CONCORD ON THE WALL FROM WITHIN, GIRGENTI

HOW it piles up! What a perfect goal for the pilgrim; so n.o.ble is the sight, he must in awe have mounted to it on his knees.

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IX

THE TEMPLE OF CONCORD ON THE WALL FROM WITHOUT, GIRGENTI

IX

THE TEMPLE OF CONCORD ON THE WALL FROM WITHOUT, GIRGENTI

WHEN the glow of the sunset falls on it, and when the shadows block out the great rifts in the walls--walls which are like cliffs--and when the tourists and archaeologists have gone to dress for dinner and left one alone, one learns in the silence that the Greeks were divine artists.

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X

COLUMNS OF THE TEMPLE OF JUNO, GIRGENTI

X

COLUMNS OF THE TEMPLE OF JUNO, GIRGENTI

AS the sun sinks into the silent sea, these battered, beaten columns take on a dignity which proves how impressive this temple was when their art was a living thing. Only from within comes a voice, in English or American, which proves that art is dead--Greek art.

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XI

THE TEMPLES ON THE WALL, GIRGENTI

XI THE TEMPLES ON THE WALL, GIRGENTI

THERE they stand on the outer walls, the long line of them--and there are more than I have drawn; but how magnificently they stand--these everlasting monuments to great art.

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XII

THE TEMPLE OF JUNO FROM BELOW, GIRGENTI

XII THE TEMPLE OF JUNO FROM BELOW, GIRGENTI

OUT of the dark river-bed and the huge boulders: some real, some blocks that have fallen from the wall above, slid down the high scarred hill and come to rest in confusion at the bottom. Above the shattered wall silently stand in the pale morning light the long line of pillars of the temple. And all the while I drew, the Sicilian glared at me from behind the great rocks, and I was glad when I had finished and could come away.

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XIII

PAESTUM. MORNING MIST

XIII PAESTUM. MORNING MIST

WHEN, after a night of horrors at the inn of Paestum, I rose before day, the temples were veiled in mist; the fences were lost; the factory chimney had vanished--the guardians were asleep--the place seemed far away; but soon a motor hooted and an engine whistled, the mists vanished, the guardians came out, the tourists flocked in; the sadness, the loneliness of Paestum are gone with the malaria and the buffaloes--only the mosquitoes remain.

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XIV

PAESTUM. EVENING

XIV PAESTUM. EVENING

ONLY in the mists of the morning and the glow of the evening is Paestum impressive any more. It is dignified, but the mystery and melancholy have gone.

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XV