[11] It is said that Leonidas and his companions employed themselves, on
the eve of the battle, in music and the gymnastic exercises of their
country.
[12] "This morning we paid our visit to the Cave of Trophonius, and the
Fountains of Memory and Oblivion, just upon the water of Hercyna, which
flows through stupendous rocks."--_Williams's Travels in Greece_.
[13] This superstitious custom of the Thessalians exists also, as Pietro
dello Valle tells us, among the Persians.
[14] An ancient city of Zea, the walls of which were of marble. Its
remains (says Clarke) "extend from the shore, quite into a valley watered
by the streams of a fountain, whence Ioulis received its name."
[15] Zea was the birthplace of this poet, whose verses are by Catullus
called "tears."
[16] These "Songs of the Well," as they were called among the ancients,
still exist in Greece. _De Guys_ tells us that he has seen "the young
women in Prince's Island, assembled in the evening at a public well,
suddenly strike up a dance, while others sung in concert to them."
[17] "The inhabitants of Syra, both ancient and modern, may be considered
as the worshippers of water. The old fountain, at which the nymphs of the
island assembled in the earliest ages, exists in its original state; the
same rendezvous as it was formerly, whether of love and gallantry, or of
gossiping and tale-telling.
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