Oliver Rackham, "Landscape," in Graham Speake, ed.,
Encyclopedia of Greece and the Hellenic Tradition, Vol. 2 (London: Fitzroy Dearborn Publishers, 2000), pp. 919-920 (at 919):
The best description of
what the ancient Greek landscape looked like is the vision of the 12
mountains of Arcadia in the early Christian prophecy of Hermas, an
Arcadian shepherd.
Shepherd of Hermas 78.4-10 (tr. Michael W. Holmes):
4 And he led me away to Arcadia, to a certain
rounded mountain, and seated me οn top of the mountain, and showed
me a great plain, and around the plain twelve mountains, and each
mountain had a different appearance. 5 The first was black as soot,
and the second was bare, without any vegetation, and the third was
full of thorns and briars. 6 The fourth had half-withered vegetation;
the tops of the plants were green, but the part by the roots was dry.
And some of the plants were withering when the sun scorched them.
7 The fifth mountain had green grass and was very rugged, and the
sixth mountain was all full of ravines, some small and some large, and
the raνines had vegetation, but the vegetation was not very flourishing,
but looked rather withered. 8 The seventh mountain had blooming
vegetation, and the whole mountain was thriving, and cattle and birds
of every kind were feeding οn the mountain; and the more the cattle
and the birds ate, the more and more the vegetation of that mountain
flourished. The eighth mountain was full of springs, and every species
of the Lord's creation drank from the springs οη that mountain. 9 The
ninth mountain had nο water at all, and was completely desolate; it
had wild beasts and deadly reptiles that destroyed people. The tenth
mountain had very large trees and was completely shaded, and beneath
the shade sheep lay resting and chewing their cud. 10 The eleventh
mountain was thickly wooded all over, and these trees were very productive, each adorned with various kinds of fruit, so that anyone who
saw them wanted to eat of their fruit. And the twelfth mountain was
completely white, and its appearance was very bright, and the mountain
in and of itself was extraordinarily beautiful.