Norwich bulletin., 1916-11-09

order is that the Greeks are SUD- posedly a menace to the forces of the Entente Allies stationed at Saloniki. 'FWhile it is usually described as a
 peninsula, Morea is in reality large | island having an area almost exactly equal to that of the State of Massa- ehusetts. It is separated from the mainland of the Greek peninsula by l the Cuffs of Patras, Corinth, and
 Aegina, and by the Corinth canal, l same name.
 The name .Morea' supplanted the
 more ancient and more widely known name of the tPeloponnesus' during the 1 middle ages. It is supposed to be de- | rived from the fact that the peninsula l vaguely resembles a mulberry leaf in l shape. It has just under a million in- | habitants. The density of population, | therefore, is considerably less than a i third as great os that of Massachu- setts.
 'The canal which made Morea an | island was opened for navigation 23 years ago. It is an extremely nar- I row waterway-about 80 feet wide at
 the surface-and the current is very swift, so that it presents numerous ] tolls are excessively high to all ex- cept Greek ships. The canal was constructed at a cost of about $14,- 000,000 and eleven years were re- quired to complete it. The isthmus is | only three and a half miles wide.
 | "Morea has a succession of prongs
 or peninsulas which jut out on all l sides and which constitute the vari- | ous departments or homes into which 1 the province is divided politically. | The large central plateau, surround 1 ed by mountains, is known as Area | dia. Many of the valleys of the re- 1 zion are extremely fertile. The small | islands, which lie near the shore and
 which may be classed as a part of l the parent island, have an aera of 1 about 300 square miles. s-7 l The origin of the ancient name of | Morea awakens memories of many ] mythologlcal rOmances and tragedies. 1 Peloponnesus, or the island of Pelops' i is supposed to have been settled by l colOniStS at whose head was Pelops
 son of the Phrygian Tantalus, beloved l of the gods. Pelops was the innocent i cause of the terrible 'tantalizing' pun- i 1shment meted out to his father, for l legend tells us that on one occasion | Iantalus was entertaining the i'm | morta!s, and as the piece de resist
 ance of the feast he served up his 1 own son (Pelops). All the gods rec ognized the human food at once, that
 is, all except Demeter, who was so ] distressed at the loss of her daugh-
 ter Proserpina that she, in a moment or abstraction, bit a piece of the
 shoulder. Zeus commanded that all 1 the pieces be placed in a caIdron and the boy was drawn out by C1otho and restored to life. Demeter supplied a 1 bit of ivory for the missing shoulder thence the white spot on the should
 CTS of the Lacedamonians, which was l supposed to distinguish them
 "Poseidon gave Pelops winged | horses of natchless speed and with
 these he won the chariot race which entitled him to the hand of the beau
 tiful Hippodamia, daughter of the
 king of Ellis. Pelos did not trust
 alone to Poseidon's horses, however,
 but made assurance double sure by | bri5ing Myrtilus, the charioteer of his 1 opponent, to put the rival chariot out
 Of commission. When Myrti4us de-
 1nanded his reward the victor threw
 the traitor into the sea. As he sank he cursed the whole race of Pelops, 1 bringing about those misfortunes of | the PeloponncsianS which were i'm
 mortized in the great tragedies of the | Greek dramatists such as 'Elektra.' l Pelops was the progenitor of Men
 claus king of Sparta, whose wife | Helen, caused the Trojan War, and of Agamemnon, leader of the Greek hosts in that classic struggle"