On this Cape I fixed my eyes,
straining them until it seemed to me that I distinguished something,
a jutting speck against the sky, at its farthest point. Then I used
my field-glass, and at once the doubtful speck became a clearly
visible projection, much like a lighthouse. It is a Doric column,
some five-and-twenty feet high; the one pillar that remains of the
great temple of Hera, renowned through all the Hellenic world, and
sacred still when the goddess had for centuries borne a Latin name.
"Colonna" is the ordinary name of the Cape; but it is also known as
_Capo di Nau_, a name which preserves the Greek word _naos_
(temple).
I planned for the morrow a visit to this spot, which is best reached
by sea. To-day great breakers were rolling upon the strand, and all
the blue of the bay was dashed with white foam; another night would,
I hoped, bring calm, and then the voyage! _Dis aliter visum_.
A little fleet of sailing vessels and coasting steamers had taken
refuge within the harbour, which is protected by a great mole. A
good haven; the only one, indeed, between Taranto and Reggio, but it
grieves one to remember that the mighty blocks built into the
sea-barrier came from that fallen temple.
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