Troezen, however, had a rival in this underground traffic. Hermione, the home of the poets Lasus and Kydias, on the south coast of the peninsula, claimed the rather dubious advantage of the closest proximity to Hades. Strabo, the geographer, records the boast of the people of Hermione that on their short line Charon’s obol is not exacted of the passengers, “and therefore,” he adds, “they do not here put in a fare for the corpse.” The cost of travel to Hermione would have overbalanced for people at a distance the Ferryman’s very moderate fee, or perhaps the route may have been open for local traffic only. At all events this exception was not known in Greece generally. We find in Lucian’s dialogues that the Cynic Menippus, with never an obol to his mouth, takes his chance as a stowaway or offers to Charon to work his passage, while the corpse of the poor cobbler Micyllus, also unprovided with the necessary fee, heedless, since he is dead already, of the risk of drowning, starts in to swim. [Illustration: CALAURIA Temple of Poseidon. Scene of the death of Demosthenes ] Close to the Troezen shore is the island of Calauria, the modern Poros, where “outrageous Fortune” shot home one of her most virulent arrows. On a high plateau near the middle of the island are the remains of the ancient precinct and temple of Poseidon. Here, where he could look over to Sunium, the “headland of Athens,” Demosthenes, a fugitive from the wrath of Macedon, waited for his pursuers. Plutarch relates that, discrediting the promises of safety made to lure him from sanctuary, he withdrew within the temple and, after taking the poison which he had secreted, tottered forth to die outside in order to avoid defiling the sacred precinct. The Athenians later set up his statue in bronze, and on it was inscribed:— “Had but thy power, Demosthenes, Equalled thy will, Macedon ne’er had ruled Hellas, Free were she still.” The great orator whose powerful will had first, as it was said, won control over his unruly tongue and weak voice amidst the roar of the sea, and who by his words had controlled the still more turbulent populace, died here with unbroken will under the gray shadow of Poseidon’s sanctuary. This was one of the oldest stone temples in Greece, probably contemporary with the sixth century temple of the sea-god at Posidonia, the modern Pæstum. Already dignified by time its columns looked down on the fleet that put forth for Salamis from the neighbouring Troezen, relying now for the sea-fight on the help of Poseidon rather than upon the goddess of the Heræum who had presided over the start for Troy, at the time of the preliminary clash, still unforgotten, of Asia with Greece. CHAPTER XVII ARCADIA