Execration. A curse. An expression of universal ill-will, or of desire, that the execrable or detested person may be deserted by Providence, and be abandoned to all evil. Execration among heathens, was the same religious abhorrence, which has been expressed, under the Christian dispensation by Excommunication from the Church.

THESSALY,

Lay north of Greece proper, and was sur rounded by mountains, except on its eastern and south-eastern sides, which formed gulfs for the Egean sea, and a coast open to its navigation. Macedonia was on the north of this country, Epirus on the west, and south lay Doris, Phocis, and Locris.

2. Thessaly was celebrated for its fables and its heroes. From Thessaly, Jason embarked on the Argonautic expedition; there Hercules died, and Achilles was born. Thessalian horses shared the glories of the Olympic games, and Thessalian witches, with their sorceries and incantations, are often mentioned in poetry. The Thessalians were, for the most part, wild and half civilized; some of their cities, however, contained rich men, who lived sumptuously, and whose dwellings were adorned by the arts of the more refined

states.

3. A range of mountains may be seen on the

maps, running irregularly in the direction of the coast through Pieria and Magnesia, which in the north is Mount Olympus, next Mount Ossa, and furthest south, Mount Pelion. The country of Thessaly was watered by the Peneus, and near where it enters the Thermaic gulf, this river ran through the vale of Tempe. Mount Olympus was fabled to have been the residence of the gods, and Tempe was often honoured by their presence. The beauty of this valley is so often mentioned, that to know its site is interesting.

4. Among the Greek fables, one was, that soon after the creation of the world, the Titans or Giants made war with Jupiter, and piled Pelion on Ossa, that they might scale the high Olympus, and invade the throne of God. This is not unlike the conduct of those who built the tower of Babel : perhaps the Greeks altered this circumstance into the fable of the Titans.

5. The Argonauts were the first Greeks who sailed to the coasts of the Euxine. Jason was their commander, and their ship, the Argo. The fable says, they went to obtain the golden fleece of a certain ram which was in the possession of a king of Colchis. This golden fleece was the gold or profit to be procured by traffic with a foreign.

nation.

6. Bull-fights were practised by the Thessalians. A bull-fight in Thessaly is described as follows: "The scene lay in the neighbourhood of Lerissa: several bulls were let loose and attacked by the same number of horsemen, who pursued and goaded them with a kind of darts. Each horseman alternately irritated and avoided the bull, till the strength of the animal was ex

hausted, and he fell by a mortal wound from the hand of the horseman. Bull fights are still praçtised among the Spanish.

7. Among the curious fables of Thessaly was that of the Centaurs; these were represented as half men and half beasts, under the figure of a horse, whose neck and head were changed to the upper part of the human figure. It is said that the Thessalians were the first who tamed the horse, and made him servicable to man. It is probable that ignorant people who first saw these horsemen, mistook the horse and his rider for one animal, and represented them as such; and thus, the fable of the Centaur might have originated: some of the Centaurs were mentioned as very wise. Chiron, the Centaur, was the preceptor of Achilles.

DORIS

South of Thessaly lay Doris and Locris. The latter has no historical fame, but the former is celebrated in poetry. The Doric dialect, the Doric music, Doric architecture, Doric simplicity, are often mentioned. The speech, the arts, and the manners of the little province of Doris have not been lost in oblivion. The scholar, the artist, and the poet, still find subjects for thought, and for imitation, amidst monuments and records of this small territory.

EPIRUS.

The range of Mount Pindus separates Thes saly from Epirus. Epirus was divided into Thes protia, Chaonia, and Molossis; in it were har bours on the Mediterranean, and along the coasts Greek colonies were established. The inhabit. ants of this country were chiefly barbarous, though Plutarch relates that a young prince of Molossis was once sent to Athens for education, where he was instructed in all the duties of a sovereign On his return to Molossis, he introduced letters among his subjects, confined himself to the arts of peace, and established laws and magistrates. The Molossi idolized their benefactor; they became more civilized than their neighbours, and were soon acknowledged to possess the superiority which knowledge confers over ignorance and barbarism.

2. In Epirus were Acheron and Cocytus, fabled to be rivers of Hell; and the lake Avernus, which was held to have some communication with the regions below. At Dodona was an oracle of Jupiter; the responses issued from a grove of oaks, and were interpreted by priestesses.

3. Achilles, in the Iliad, addresses a prayer to Jove of Dodona.

"Oh thou supreme! high-thron'd, all height

above!

Oh great Pelasgic, Dodonæan Jove!

Who, 'midst surrounding hills, and vapours chill Presid'st on bleak Dodona's vocal hill:

(Whose groves, the Selli, race austere ! surround, Their feet unwash'd, their slumbers on the ground;) Who hear, from rustling oaks, thy dark decrees; And catch the fates, low whispered, in the breeze :)

Hear as of old!".

4. Acarnania, Etolia, and Locrisozelæ lay south and south-east of Epirus; Acarnania lay upon the sea; the river Achelous separated it from Etolia; Etolia was bounded east by the country of the Locri and by Doris, and Locrisozelæ extended along the Corinthian gulf till it reached the confines of Phocis. These states severally had small participation in the arts or civilization of Greece: and the inhabitants of the coasts were addicted to piracies. The little island of Ithaca lay not far from Acarnania, and is an object of curiosity on account of its ancient king, Ulysses, who is well known to all the readers of Homer.