318 ESTIMATES OF MOUNTAINS IN ANTIQUITY. [CHAP,
Not vainly did the early Persian make
His altar the high places, and the peak
Of earth-o'ergazing mountains, and thus take
A fit and unwall'd temple, there to seek
The Spirit, in whose honour shrines are weak,
Uprear'd of human hands1.
Thus wrote Byron, and his words seem like an echo of those
of Herodotus, who says of the Persians, 'their custom is to
ascend to the highest mountain-tops, and there offer sacrifices
to Zeus, calling by that name the whole vault of heavenV
Among the Greeks there is ample evidence of the same form
of observance. Thus, to take three instances from different
parts of the land which they inhabited: on the summit of Mount
Atabyrion, the highest and most central mountain in Rhodes
(4070 feet), there remain the foundations of a temple of grey
limestone dedicated to Zeus, of whom Pindar speaks as 'holding
sway on the ridges of Atabyrion3.' Mela mentions altars as
existing on the peak of Athos4 (6350 feet); and for this reason,
it would seem, Aeschylus calls that summit 'the Athoan height
sacred to ZeusV On the highest point of Lycaeum in Arcadia,
also (4695 feet), there was an altar; and on a somewhat lower
peak of the same mountain, which was known as the Sacred
Summit, stood a grove and altar of Zeus Lycaeus, together
with a hippodrome and stadium, where games called Lycaea
were celebrated in honour of that God. The love of 'high
places/ as has often been remarked, has been perpetuated in a
striking manner in Greece during Christian times, and this is
true in particular of all three of the spots which have just been
mentioned. The site of the temple on Atabyrion was after-
wards occupied by a chapel of St John the Evangelist; the
summit of Athos is the scene of the festival of the Trans-
figuration, which is observed on the sixth of August; and a not
less remarkable celebration takes place on Mount Lycaeum on
1 Byron, Child* Harold, 3. 851—6. * Herod. 1.131.
8 Find. QL 7. 159—161: w ZeO v&rep, vfrrourtv 'Araflvptov netew.
4 Mela, 2. 2. 31: Atho mons adeo altus est, ut credatur altius etiam quam
unde imbres cadunt surgere. Capit opinio fidem, quia de aris quas in vertice
sustinet non abluitur cinis, sed quo relinquitur aggere manet*
6 Aesch.,4?. 385: "A&uov oZros