54
APPENDIX.
APPENDIX C.
From Smith's Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography,
Vol I., Article, "Ascra."
Ascra, a town of Bœotia on Mt. Helicon, and in the territory of Thespiæ, from which it was forty stadia (about five miles) distant. It is celebrated as the residence of Hesiod, whose father settled here after leaving Cuma in Æolis. Hesiod complains of it as a disagreeable residence, both in summer and winter; and Eudoxus found still more fault with it. But other writers speak of it as abounding in com and in wine. According to the poet Hegesinus, who is quoted by Pausanias, Ascra was founded by Ephialtes and Otus, the sons of Alœus. In the time of Pausanias a single tower was all that remained of the town. The remains of Ascra, says Leake, are "found on the summit of a high conical hill, or rather rock, which is connected to the N. W. with Mt. Zagara, and more to the westward, with the proper Helicon. The distance of these ruins from Lefka corresponds exactly to the forty stadia, which Strabo places between Thespiæ and Ascra; and it is further remarkable, that a single tower is the only portion of the ruins conspicuously preserved, just as Pausanias describes Ascra in his time, though there are also some vestiges of the walls surrounding the summit of the hill and enclosing a space of no great extent. The place is now called Pyrgaki from the tower, which is formed of equal and regular layers of masonry, and is uncommonly large." The Roman poets frequently use the adjective Ascræus in the sense of Hesiodic. Hence we find Ascræum carmen (Virgil, Georgics 2, 176) and similar phrases.
