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TEMPE, VALE QF

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Originally appearing in Volume V26, Page 578 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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TEMPE, VALE QF ,, the See also:ancient name (i.e. " cleft," from Gr. r .u'eIY, to cut) of a narrow valley in N. See also:Thessaly, through which the See also:river Peneus (mod. Salanabria) reaches the See also:sea. The valley, which the Greeks were accustomed to See also:associate with rural delights, is a chasm, cloven in the rocks, the See also:fable tells us, by the See also:trident of See also:Poseidon, between See also:Olympus and See also:Ossa; but though it possesses every See also:element of the See also:sublime, yet its features are soft and beautiful, from the broad, winding river, the luxuriant vegetation, and the glades that at intervals open out at the See also:foot of the cliffs. It is about four See also:miles and a See also:half See also:long, and towards the See also:middle of the pass, where the rocks are highest, the precipices in the direction of Olympus fall so steeply as to See also:bar the passage on that See also:side; but those which descend from Ossa are the loftiest, for they rise in many places not less than 15oo ft. from the valley. Owing to the length and narrowness of the See also:ravine, it was a position easily defended, but still it offered a practicable entrance to an invading force; a number of castles (of which the ruins still exist) were built at different times at the strongest paints. Tempe was sacred to See also:Apollo, to whom a See also:temple was erected on the right See also:bank. Every ninth See also:year a sacred See also:mission proceeded to the valley to See also:pluck the See also:laurel for the chaplets for the Pythian See also:games. Owing to its wide-spread fame, the name Tempe was given also to the valley of the Velinusnear Rea,te(See also:Italy,) and that of the Helorus in See also:Sicily.

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