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TEMBI (Valley) LARISSA
Tempe (ta Tempe, contr. of Tempea), a celebrated valley in the NE. of Thessaly,
is a gorge between Mounts Olympus and Ossa, through which the waters of the Peneius
force their way into the sea. The beauties of Tempe were a favourite subject with
the ancient poets, and have been described at great length in a well-known passage
of Aelian, and more briefly by Pliny: but none of these writers appear to have
drawn their pictures from actual observation; and the scenery is distinguished
rather by savage grandeur than by the sylvan beauty which Aelian and others attribute
to it. (Catull. lxiv. 285; Ov. Met. i. 568; Virg. Georg. ii. 469; Aelian, V. H.
iii. 1; Plin. iv. 8. s. 15.) The account of Livy, who copies from Polybius, an
eye-witness, is more in accordance with reality. This writer says, Tempe is a
defile, difficult of access, even though not guarded by an enemy; for besides
the narrowness of the pass for 5 miles, where there is scarcely room for a beast
of burden, the rocks on both sides are so perpendicular as to cause giddiness
both in the mind and eyes of those who look down from the precipice. Their terror
is also increased by the depth and roar of the Peneus rushing through the midst
of the valley. (Liv. xliv. 6.) He adds that this pass, so inaccessible by nature,
was defended by four fortresses, one at the western entrance at Gonnus, a second
at Condylon, a third at Charax, and a fourth in the road itself, in the middle
and narrowest part of the valley, which could be easily defended by ten men. The
pass is now called Lykostomo, or the Wolf's Mouth. Col. Leake gives about four
miles and a half as the distance of the road through the valley. In this space
the width of the gorge is in some parts less than 100 yards, comprehending in
fact no more than the breadth of the road in addition to that of the river. The
modern road follows in the track of the ancient military road made by the Romans,
which ran along the right bank of the river. Leake remarks that even Livy in his
description of Tempe seems to have added embellishments to the authority from
which he borrowed; for, instead of the Peneius flowing rapidly and with a loud
noise, nothing can be more tranquil and steady than its ordinary course. The remains
of the fourth castle mentioned by Livy are noticed by Leake as standing on one
side of an immense fissure in the precipices of Ossa, which afford an extremely
rocky, though not impracticable descent from the heights into the vale; while
between the castle and the river space only was left for the road. About half
a mile beyond this fort there still remains an inscription engraved upon the rock,
on the right-hand side of the road, where it ascends the hill: L. Cassius Longinus
Pro Cos. Tempe munivit. It is probable from the position of this inscription that
it relates to the making of the road, though some refer it to defensive works
erected by Longinus in Tempe. This Longinus appears to have been the L. Cassius
Longinus who was sent by Caesar from Illyria into Thessaly. (Caes. B.C. iii. 34.)
When Xerxes invaded Greece, B.C. 480, the Greeks sent a force of 10,000 men to
Tempe, with the intention of defending the pass against the Persians; but having
learnt from Alexander, the king of Macedonia, that there was another pass across
Mt. Olympus, which entered Thessaly near Gonnus, where the gorge of Tempe commenced,
the Greeks withdrew to Thermopylae. (Herod. vii. 173.)
It was believed by the ancient historians and geographers that the
gorge of Tempe had been produced by an earthquake, which rent asunder the mountains,
and afforded the waters of the Peneius an egress to the sea. (Herod. vii. 129;
Strab. ix. p. 430.) But the Thessalians maintained that it was the god Poseidon
who had split the mountains (Herod. l. c.); while others supposed that this had
been the work of Hercules. (Diod. iv. 58; Lucan, vi. 345.)
The pass of Tempe was connected with the worship of Apollo. This god
was believed to have gone thither to receive expiation after the slaughter of
the serpent Pytho, and afterwards to have returned to Delphi, bearing in his hand
a branch of laurel plucked in the valley. Every ninth year the Delphians sent
a procession to Tempe consisting of wellborn youths, of which the chief youth
plucked a branch of laurel and brought it back to Delphi. On this occasion a solemn
festival, in which the inhabitants of the neighbouring regions took part, was
celebrated at Tempe in honour of Apollo Tempeites. The procession was accompanied
by a flute-player. (Aelian, V. H. iii. 1; Plut. Quaest. Graec. c. 11. p. 292,
de Musica, c. 14. p. 1136; Bockh, Inscr. No. 17 67, quoted by Grote, Hist. of
Greece, vol. ii. p. 365.)
The name of Tempe was applied to other beautiful valleys. Thus the
valley, through which the Helorus flows in Sicily, is called Heloria Tempe (Ov.
Fast. iv. 477); and Cicero gives the name of Tempe to the valley of the Velinus,
near Reate (ad Att. iv. 15). In the same way Ovid speaks of the Heliconia Tempe
(Am. i. 1. 15).
This text is from: Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854) (ed. William Smith, LLD). Cited June 2004 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
A beautiful and romantic valley in the north of Thessaly, between Mounts Olympus and Ossa, through which the Peneus escapes into the sea. The scenery of this glen is frequently praised by poets; and it was also celebrated as one of the favourite haunts of Apollo, who had transplanted his laurel from this spot to Delphi. The whole valley is rather less than five miles in length, and opens gradually to the east into a wide plain. Tempe is also of great importance in history, as it is the only pass through which an army can invade Thessaly from the north. In some parts the rocks on each side of the Peneus approach so close to each other as only to leave room between them for the stream, and the road is cut out of the rock in the narrowest point. Tempe is the only channel through which the waters of the Thessalian plain descend into the sea; and it was the common opinion in antiquity that these waters had once covered the country with a vast lake, till an outlet was formed for them by some great convulsion in nature which rent the rocks of Tempe asunder. So celebrated was the scenery of Tempe that its name was given to any beautiful valley. Cicero so calls a valley in the land of the Sabines near Reate, through which the river Velinus flowed; and there was a Tempe in Sicily, through which the river Helorus flowed, hence called by Ovid Tempe Heloria.
This text is cited Oct 2002 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
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