ATHOS, a mountain of Macedonia, famous 'in ancient history and poetry. It is situated between the Strymonic and Singitic gulfs, on a mountainous _promontory, which is connected with the continent 3 by an isthmus of land about twelve leagues broad. The promontory stretches a great way out into the ' JEgeau Sea, and occasions a long and dangerous cir Of the of which this peninsula is composed, Athos proudly towers above all the rest : its conical summit, at times white with snow, is seen by the mariner at the distance of 100 .miles; and, though the cold is excessive, it is ..clorned with plants and trees, chiefly of the fir kind, which climb up its steep sides to a great elevation.
Marvellous stories have been told by the ancients of this celebrated mountain. Unfortunately that por tion of Strabo's excellent work is lost, in which he had occasion to describe Athos, and which is poorly supplied by a dry epitome. According to Mela, its height was such as to reach above the clouds. Others have affirmed that it was six miles high, that it soared beyond the regions of rain and tempest, and that ashes, left on its top, continued dry and undisturbed. But the most wonderful story of all is that of the projection of its shadow, which was reported to ex tend, at the summer solstice, as far as Lemnos, an island, according to Pliny, 87 miles off, or, according to modern calculation, about 30. It is said that brazen cow was erected at the termination of the shadow, in the market-place of Myrina, the princi pal town of Lemnos, with this inscription : Ahoy zcavz-rst Aafftta; /UK.
.• '" Athos covers the side of the Lemnian cow." Modern travellers are not agreed about the real height of this mountain. Some make it two miles in perpendicular height ; while others reduce its ex treme elevation to about 3300 feet. The truth is, that no accurate measurement has yet been made.
Athos, if we may believe the ancient historians, opposed considerable resistance to the power of Xerxes, on his march to Greece. A part of that monarch's fleet having suffered shipwreck off the Athose promontory, he resolved to prevent similar accidents for the future, by cutting a channel through the mountain, sufficient to admit two gallies abreast, each of three banks of oars. By this operation, se veral cities are said to have been separated from the continent, as Olophyxus, Dion, Thysus, Acrothoon, and Cleone • whence we may conclude that this rug ged peninsula was well peopled in ancient times. The Greek writers ascribe the most capricious conduct to the Persian king. Thus, according to these autho rities Xerxes, on making his bridge of boats across the Hellespont, ordered a quantity of fetters to be thrown into the sea,• as symbols of the subjection of that stormy element ; and on its rebelling against authority, by throwing his boats into confusion, he rebuked in an.angry speech, which began thus:
" Thou salt and bitter water." On the present oc casion, the same mad tyrant sent a letter to the moun tain, couched in the following language. " Athos, thou proud and aspiring mountain, that liftest up thy head to 'the skies, I advise thee not to be so au dacious as to put rocks and stones in the way of my workmen.: if thou opposest me thus, I will cut thee entirely down, and throw thee headlong into the sea." But these accounts can hardly be credited. If Xerxes really made a canal across the isthmus, it must have been much longer than the Greeks re ported it. But as no vestiges are now discoverable ' of so magnificent a work, the whole story has been called in question : Perforatus Athos, et quicquid Grcrcia 7nendar iftalet iu historia.
We must not here omit the daring proposal of Stasicrates, an engineer in the service of Alexander, who offered to convert the whole mountain into a statue of that prince. The enormous figure, which must have been 1.1 a sitting posture, was to hold a city in its left hand, containing 10,000 inhabitants, and in the right, an immense basin, whence the col lected torrents of the mountain should issue in a mighty river. But the project was thought to be too extravagant, even by Alexander.
Mount Athos is now peopled by a numerous horde of Greek monks, denominated Caloyers, who are of the order of -St Basil. These devotees, who amount to 6000, fare very hardly, abstaining entirely from flesh, and subsisting chiefly on pickled olives. They were at one time distinguished for their learning, at least for possessing several valuable manuscripts, and for their numerous copies of the Scriptures, to trans scribing which, they applied themselves with much laudable assiduity. Though now extremely illiterate, so much so that they can scarcely read or write, they have the merit of being sober, peaceable, and in dustripus : and these qualities have procured for them the good opinion of the Turks, who afford them protection and sustenance. They have twenty four monasteries situated on different parts of the mountain, raised in stories to a great height, and sur rounded with walls; and these buildings, interspersed with churches, hermitages, and some fortifications, on which are mounted some pieces of artillery, give an extraordinary appearance to this lofty eminence, and present, to the eye of the traveller, as he ap proaches the scene, a most picturesque object, and a pleasing specimen of manual industry. Mount Athos is now called Hagiosoros, or Monte Santo, from the reputed sanctity of its inhabitants. It is in 40° 10' N. Lat. 21•° 45' E. Long.
See Ilerodot.l. vi. c. 4t.; 1. vii. c. 21. &c. Plut.
Alexand. JElian. tle Anim. 1. xiii. c. 20. Lzt can. 1. ii. v. 672. Plin. 1. iv. c. 10. Strab. Epit. 1. vii. Mela de Sit. Cellarii Geog. Belon Observ. 1. I. c. 2.5. (E)