The northern side of the city is bounded
by the harbour; and the southern is washed by the Propontis,
or Sea of Marmora. The basis of the triangle is opposed to
the west, and terminates the continent of Europe. But the
admirable form and division of the circumjacent land and
water cannot, without a more ample explanation, be clearly
or sufficiently understood.
"The winding channel through which the waters of the Euxine
flow with rapid and incessant course towards the
Mediterranean received the appellation of Bosphorus, a name
not less celebrated in the history than in the fables of
antiquity. A crowd of temples and of votive altars,
profusely scattered along its steep and woody banks,
attested the unskilfulness, the terrors, and the devotion of
the Grecian navigators, who, after the example of the
Argonauts, explored the dangers of the inhospitable Euxine.
On these banks tradition long preserved the memory of the
palace of Phineus, infested by the obscene Harpies, and of
the sylvan reign of Amycus, who defied the son of Leda to
the combat of the cestus.
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