After Waterloo: Reminiscences Of European Travel 1815-1819, By Major W. E Frye













































































































 -  We embarked in a boat
at Puzzuoli to cross over to Baiae (i.e., the place where the villas
begin - Page 354
After Waterloo: Reminiscences Of European Travel 1815-1819, By Major W. E Frye - Page 354 of 558 - First - Home

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We Embarked In A Boat At Puzzuoli To Cross Over To Baiae (I.E., The Place Where The Villas Begin)

, But we stopped on our way thither at a landing place nearly in the centre of the bay in order

To visit the lake Avernus and the Cave of the Cumaean Sybil, described by Virgil, as the entrance into the realm of Pluto. The lake Avernus, in spite of its being invested by the poets with all that is terrible in the mythology as a river of Hell, looks very like any other lake, and tho' it is impregnated with sulphur, and emits a most unpleasant smell, birds do not drop down dead on flying over it as formerly. The ground about it is marshy and unwholesome. The silence and melancholy appearance of this lake and its environing groves of wood are not calculated to inspire exhilarating ideas. Full of classic souvenirs we went to descend into the Cave of the Sybil, and as we descended I could not refrain from repeating aloud Virgil's lines:

Di quibus imperium est animarum umbrasque silentes,[98] etc.

This descent really is fitted to give one an idea of the descent to the shades below, and what added to the illusion was that when we arrived at the bottom of the descent and just at the entrance of the cave where the Sybil held her oracles, we discovered four fierce looking fellows with lighted torches in their hands standing at the entrance. My friend cried out Voila les Furies, and these proved to be our boatmen who, while we were contemplating the bolge d'Averno, had run on before to provide torches to shew us the interior of the grotto of the Sybil.

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