ARCADIA, in ancient geography, one of the seven districts into which Peloponnesus was divided. It oc cupied the centre of that peninsula, being bounded on the north by Achaia ; on the cast by Corinthia, Argo lis, and Laconia ; by Messenia on the south, and by Eiis on the west.
This celebrated country consists of one continued cluster of mountains, sending down streams like the Alps, on all sides, to water the surrounding countries. So rugged is the surface, that, in time of heavy rains, whole towns and villages have been suddenly inundated, from the narrowness of the frightful chasms and sub terraneous passages, which, in many places, serve to drain it. By reason of the great elevation of this coun try, the air is comparatively cool ; and the ground, wa tered by innumerable rivulets, celebrated by the poets for their incomparable purity, is richly covered with pe rennial verdure. The soil, which is thin upon the mountains, but exceedingly deep in the wallies and plains, is distinguished by an amazing fertility. In ancient times, corn and other articles of food were reared in the lower grounds in great ablindance, and in some places, vines and olives grew spontaneously on the sides of the moun tains. Here were found all kinds of trees ; the oak, the beech, and a species of cedar, adorned the forests, which besides, were remarkaole for the uncommon size of their firs.
From the extreme inequality of surface, this romantic country was evidently better calculated for pasture than for agriculture. The wealth of the inhabitants, accord ingly, consisted from the earliest times, in their innu merable flocks and herds. The southern parts were fa mous for their breed of horses and asses ; and hence, the latter animal obtained from the wits of Greece, the title of the Arcadian Nightingale. The forests were be sides well stocked with animals of the chace. Deer, wild-boars, wolves, and even bears, exercised, in these celebrated wilds, the dexterity of the Arcadians, who, from the constant necessity of protecting their cattle, as well as from the natural pleasure of hunting, became famous for their intrepidity in these dangerous sports.
The chief rivers of Peloponnesus derive their origin from this mountainous district. Its southern parts unite their streams to form the largest of all the peninsular rivers, the Apheus, which, taking a westerly direction, enters the plains of Elis and Triphylia, and then passing through Olympia, the scat of the Olympic games, emp ties itself into the Ionian sea. Not far from the source of the Alpheus, the Eurotas commences, which, after it has passed through Sparta, falls, on the south, into the gulph of Laconia. The other rivers are the Gortynius, renowned for the pleasant and salubrious quality of its waters, not to be affected by the extremes of heat or cold ; the Ladon, whose crystal stream rivals in cool ness those eastern rivers, the Cydnus and the Melas ; the Erymanthus, descending front a mountain of the same name ; the Neda, to which the children of Phe galia, a town on the bank of that river, consecrated their hair, and the Helisson, which washed the capital, Me galopolis.
It would be endless to enumerate the wonders ascri bed by ancient authors to the rivers and fountains of this district. The Stymphalus and the Olbius, with several other streams, occasionally disappear amid the bowels of the mountains, and emerge far below in mighty springs. The Styx is another river of this country ; this stream, the terror of gods and men, has its origin among the mountains of the north, on the borders of Achaia, through which it takes its course. Its cold ness was such at the spring, as to chill men to death, and its water was of so deadly a nature, as, when tasted, to prove instantaneously fatal to all living creatures. Per fectly c,ear, and without odour, it dissolved iron and brass, and indeed every species of substance, except the hoof of a certain animal. To the awful valley through which it winds, the Arcadians, in extreme cases, used to resort, and on the banks of this terrific stream, to bind themselves by the most inviolable oaths. So tre mendous was the sanction of the Styx, that Jupiter him self was subject to its mystic terrors.